Is a Career in Freelance Digital Marketing Legit? Here’s What to Look Out For

If you are looking for a work-from-home job that pays well and allows you to set your own hours, a career as a digital marketing freelancer might just be right for you. 

Unlike working as a staff writer for a business, working as a freelancer allows you the flexibility to work hard for one week and then take time off another.

Here’s everything you need to know about starting a career in freelance digital marketing.

What Does a Digital Marketing Freelancer Do?

You may be asking yourself, “is freelance digital marketing legit?” The answer is yes. Being a digital marketing freelancer is a legitimate career. 

As such, you’ll create content for digital marketers to post on their web pages, including websites, blogs, and social media pages. 

You might write anything from short blogs or product descriptions to e-books or white papers.

Does Freelance Digital Marketing Pay Well?

A career as a digital marketing freelancer can pay extremely well. It depends on how much effort you put into it. 

Since you only get paid for the words you write and the projects you complete, your pay is directly related to your output. 

Unlike salary jobs, there is no cap on how much you can make.

According to ZipRecruiter, the average freelance writer makes approximately $60,985 per year in the USA. 

However, that figure can vary dramatically depending on your experience, how much you work, and your niche. 

LinkedIn reports that it’s not uncommon for freelance writers to make a six-figure income.

It’s important to keep in mind that, as a freelancer, you are responsible for your own taxes (including the self-employment tax), health insurance, and other benefits. 

You also won’t be paid when you are sick or on vacation.

Three Tips For Avoiding Online Scams as a Freelance Digital Marketer

Unfortunately, there are a few opportunists who prey on freelancers, especially those who are just starting out in the industry. 

Below are just a few red flags that you’ll want to avoid to prevent yourself from getting “taken” by a scammer:

1. Ask for a deposit upfront. It’s easy to get excited about a new client when you’re freelancing. However, it’s just good business to get payment (or at least a deposit) before you start work. This not only helps prevent scammers, but it also eliminates clients who aren’t serious about your writing. Of course, it should go without saying that you should never pay for a writing opportunity. That’s a sure sign of a scam.

2. Don’t open attachments from potential writing clients. It should be obvious, but don’t open attachments from people you don’t know…and that includes potential clients. Scammers posing as writing clients may contact you via email with their “proposal” as an attachment. Don’t fall for it. If they are legitimate, they will be willing to paste the information in the body of an email.

3. Don’t write unpaid “test” projects. It’s fine for clients to want to see a sample of your work. You can send them samples, direct them to work you’ve published online, or they can pay you for a sample article. However, don’t give away your writing for free. Scammers may take the article, publish it as their own and disappear without ever hiring you for a paid article.

Which Freelancing Site Is Best for Digital Marketing?

Working with a digital marketing platform takes a lot of the headache and potential for scams out of the equation. 

It lets you concentrate on writing and not marketing, billing, and collections. 

For a percentage of your earnings, the platform does all of that for you, providing you with a steady flow of work and regular paydays. 

Some of the best platforms to work with include:

1. WriterAccess

2. Crowd Content

3. Scripted

4. Upwork

Boosting Your Freelance Digital Marketing Career With WriterAccess

WriterAccess makes it easy for writers and those seeking quality content to connect. 

WriterAccess’s talent pool of more than 15,000 writers includes writers with expertise in a huge array of topics, everything from e-commerce to real estate. 

For writers, WriterAccess takes much of the risk out of freelancing. 

For a set percentage of your earnings, we find work for you, handle billing and pay you on a regular schedule for completed and approved projects. 

That saves you valuable time as well as virtually eliminates the risk that you won’t get paid for your work.

For digital marketing professionals, WriterAccess makes it easy to select one or more writers for your projects. You can scroll through writers with expertise in your industry and select one or more to complete your project. 

Plus, it includes AI-powered tools to help you with idea generation and originality checking, for example.

All of our writers meet stringent quality standards. Our track record of 99.97% satisfaction in more than two million projects speaks for itself.

We invite writers and digital marketers to give the WriterAccess platform a try. 

Digital marketers can take advantage of our two-week trial period to sample our platform. Visit WriterAccess today to get started.