At the beginning of 2023, I started actively building my SEO freelance writing business.
Just a year and a half prior, I had left 15 years as a digital marketer in the corporate world. I wanted more flexibility to stay at home with my kids. And I was tired of believing that I had to follow this one path drilled into my head since receiving my MBA — work at a solid 9–5.
So six months later, here I am with two consistent clients I secured four months ago due to my active presence on LinkedIn.
So how did I do it?
How I Started On LinkedIn
First, I shifted my focus.
I knew I needed to concentrate on one single social platform. This meant leaving Medium and Instagram for a while and putting all my attention on LinkedIn. The thought of trying to actively post on all three platforms left me overwhelmed, so LinkedIn became my focus knowing it was the #1 networking site online. (Hey, I needed to find clients and make money.)
My first step was to spruce up my LinkedIn profile and turn on “creator mode.” My profile hadn’t been touched in years. And switching my profile to this new mode produced opportunities to create content as well as reach more people.
The following are key areas I spent time updating.
Introduction Section
This is the area at the top of your LinkedIn profile. It includes your name, profile picture, background photo, headline, current position, education, location, industry, and contact info.
Highlighted in yellow is what I initially changed in February of this year when I knew I wanted to focus on securing clients to get paid for my work.
First I readjusted the headline copy: SEO Freelance Digitial Content Writer / Introverted Digital Marketer & Strategist / Parent & Mentor at heart / I always create copy with the data in mind.
I knew I needed to clarify what type of writer I was — focused on SEO. It was also important to call out the importance of data and how it fits in with my research process and creating value-packed content based on consumer insights.
In this section, I knew I still needed to show my personality. I’m naturally more introverted, and with 15 years in the corporate setting, I have a strategic mindset that I bring to my work. But truly, my “why” is being a mother and mentor. At the root of what I enjoy it’s helping people, and that overflows in both my personal and professional life.
A second priority was creating my background photo (the larger banner behind my profile picture). I knew I needed to craft something very visual to stand out and represent me as a SEO writer.
There were four elements I considered.
- My color choice was red. I needed it to stand out. Red across different cultures means different things, but I chose it for it’s contrast against white and how it complimented the red I wore in my profile picture. (No other meaning than that.)
- I used the data-type icons to reinforce the importance of analytics with my writing. Analyzing and interpreting GSC, GA, and survey data plays into my recommendations for content that I create with my clients.
- I knew I wanted a value statement (SEO first. Storytelling second.) My whole positioning as a writer stems from knowing you first have to get found online before your audience can fall in love with your words. Storytelling has importance, but SEO gets you SEEN with your audience first.
- Then there was including my contact info . My email address is in the bottom right corner so there’s no searching for how to contact me for potential opportunities.
Using Canva and simply googling “LinkedIn banner images” helped me put this together pretty quickly. (And it was free.)
Then under my profile picture and headline, I added some hashtags around the type of content someone on LinkedIn could expect to read from me (#seo, #entrepreneurship, #contentmarketing, #digitalmarketing, and #freelancewriting). This is an opportunity to include keyword terms potential clients or other individuals interested in your niche may be searching for on LinkedIn so they can find your content.
Last but not least, you must include a clear link to your portfolio. The “View My Work” link in my profile takes you to my website page with SEO articles I’ve written.
It’s important to be creative with what you call this link. I’ve also seen others name it “Work With Me.” But it’s worth doing something different other than “My Website.”
About Section
Scrolling further down the page, I revamped my About section copy. As I said earlier, my LinkedIn profile hadn’t been touched in years. Transitioning from my corporate role to a SEO freelance writer & strategist, I wanted to show how my 15 years in digital marketing fed into my SEO writing business.
What you don’t want to do is make this section about you. (Counterintuitive, I know.) Honestly, it needs to be about your client.
In this section, you want to shed light on the type of problems clients are dealing with and how your services can help. For example, I provide highly searchable content that increases brand awareness and can generate sales for your business. Potential leads I hear from have a consistent theme of wanting to increase awareness and leads (which can lead to improved sales).
This is also an area to highlight the type of services you provide. Some of mine include content strategy, blog writing, website and landing page copy, SEO enhancements, as well as social media posts.
The point is to highlight potential problem/opportunity areas you know your client has and how your services help fix or alleviate those challenges.
Experience Section
Starting out in February, I had no clients. But I had been writing on Medium.com for a while.
Under this section, I added my position as “freelance writer” for Medium and indicated how many articles I was writing per month. I also added the niches I focused on at the time: self-improvement, parenting, and career advice. Then I made sure to include my skills (SEO copywriting, blogging, web content writing) and a link to my Medium profile page to view my writing.
In addition, I added another experience block as a self-employed position. I included a title I wanted to be referred as (SEO Digital Content Writer & Strategist) and a couple of sentences about what that meant for the client. Then I added a link, “Let’s chat about your content need!” that links to my personal website portfolio page.
My Results On LinkedIn
As well as making these profile updates, I started writing posts. I decided to commit and write 5 days/week Monday-Friday on LinkedIn.
The first hurdle with posting was having the confidence to publish and letting go of any doubt or fear of judgment from my peers.
In my first two weeks of being active on the platform, I focused on engagement and following other writers and businesses I was interested in. I also started applying for contract and part-time positions through the platform. I searched for “freelance writing roles” and filtered by contract and part-time positions. I knew full-time wasn’t what I was looking for.
It took a total of 8 weeks before I signed with one of those contract roles who are one of the two clients referred to in this article.
But more benefits have come from posting consistently on LinkedIn.
Week 3 I started to see more recruiters reaching out and clarifying my interests. Probably to help with the confidence, I also reconnected with past colleagues who saw my posts and DM’d me with encouragement. Surprisingly, a few reminded me of skills I brought to the table, and it was an exchange of gratitude for our paths crossing.
During week 4, however, I got the first inbound DM requesting writing assistance for a website redesign project. The message came from a previous co-worker who saw my posts about SEO freelance writing. She told me my posts were working (her words, not mine) in terms of noticing my change in career paths.
After which, it was just another few weeks after interviewing with the president of the non-profit I would be doing the website writing for that I got the opportunity. This is the second steady client I still have today, and I continue to work on new projects for them.
My LinkedIn Takeaways
For any writer considering LinkedIn — Do it!
Becoming active on that platform and sharing my knowledge about SEO has, without a doubt, jump-started my SEO writing business. If I hadn’t changed my focus and continued writing only on Medium, I really doubt I would have the opportunities I have today to make money from my writing. (Or it likely would have taken longer.)
Not only has it given me opportunities to work with clients, but it has given me connections with other writers. I’ve been able to network with other SEOs and writers on a weekly basis, and with engaging on other posts, I’m learning more about how to build my business and how SEO continues to evolve.
