Why I DO use the word ‘freelancer’
I still call myself a freelancer (a freelance technical copywriter, to be exact). It’s just a word, but one that I see getting trashed on a semi-regular basis online. Usually by someone else who does the same work as me: outsourced writing (copywriting or content writing) for companies, people, etc.
And I roll my eyes … hard.
Why do copywriters still run away from the word ‘freelancer’?
I really don’t understand the aversion to the word. Sure, a number of years ago, the word ‘freelancer’ might’ve conjured up negative connotations. You know the ones …
- Content mills where someone on the other side of the world was churning out content for fractions of a penny.
- People creating websites full of ‘stuffed’ pages and posts that caused genuine website owners to fear a Google backlash.
- People who live in parts of the world where the cost of living is so much lower that they don’t need to charge as much for their writing.
- Or even people who were simply covering up the fact that they were unemployed.
Professional copywriters who happened to work on an ad-hoc basis for real companies were scared to call themselves freelance copywriters. They didn’t want to be lumped in with these other pretenders. I get that.
Today’s copywriters are worth a lot more
I understand the fear that they’d only be able to find work with companies willing to pay $5 a post or $25 for a project that took them 12 hours to complete. Or that prospects would push back on their “higher” rates because they could hire a freelancer for a fraction of your rate. That was nearly 20 years ago.
Today, companies place a higher value on freelance copywriters. Why? Because they went through those wild days and the shitty content they got from these low-cost writers. It was a classic case of “they got what they paid for”. They realized that the low cost of production meant they got content they had to edit, proofread, re-write…