3 Steps to Take You from Stay-at-Home Mom to Stay-at-Home Copywriter By Rachel Schmoyer

My youngest child was almost ready for kindergarten. After being a stay at home mom for ten years, I was ready to think about what I could do to bring in some income for our family. The catch was that I wanted a job that allowed me to be home when my children were home.

I asked my mom friends what they did for income. One friend said she sold product for multi-level marketing company. That wasn’t for me because I didn’t want to be away from the family on evenings and weekends. Another friend suggested babysitting. I didn’t like the sound of that either. I didn’t want to be tied down by someone else’s schedule.

Then one of my friends said she was a copywriter. I had never heard of that job before, but it piqued my interest. I had always received good feedback from my writing in high school and college and I loved writing letters and keeping journals. I asked my friend to tell me more.

First, she loaned me some books so I could familiarize myself with the business of writing. Writer for Hire: 101 Secrets of Freelance Success by Kelly James-Enger defined the terminology that I would need to know. 102 Ways to Earn Money Writing 1,500 Words or Less: The Ultimate Freelancer’s Guide by I.J. Schecter opened my eyes to the writing opportunities all around me. Anywhere there are words, someone was paid to write: cereal boxes, fast-food tray liners, book blurbs, catalog descriptions, etc.

My friend also shared other tips from her own experience.

Here are her top 3 tips which got me started as a copywriter:

1. Start with who you know. Because it’s hard to get paid for writing without experience, you can gain experience by writing for friends, family, or businesses that you frequent. I started with a local farmer from whom I had been purchasing a weekly share of vegetables for several years. I noticed that he had been trying to write a weekly email letting his customers know what vegetables were in their box, but he was too busy to write consistently. So I approached him with an idea. I asked if I could write a weekly email describing the veggies and giving recipe suggestions to keep his customers engaged in exchange for bread and eggs. To my delight, he took up my offer. I was thankful for the low pressure experience that I could add to my resume later.
2. Create a website/blog with writing samples. After writing for the farmer for a while, I started to get random ideas for writing about parenting, crafts, or Scripture. So I started a very simple personal blog so I had a place to post these ideas. While creating my blog, I had the nagging thought that I was wasting my time since I wasn’t going to post regularly or put ads on my site, but the blog came in handy for the next step in my copywriting journey!
3. Don’t be afraid to try something new! One day I overheard another friend talking about how difficult it was to write blog posts about electronic components. I stopped to ask her more. It turned out my friend was working as a social media manager for a digital marketing company. I didn’t know that writing was a part of social media! I blurted out, “That sounds like a fun challenge. I could write about that!” Immediately, I felt my stomach lurch and a cold chill down my spine. What did I just do? Could I really write about electronic components? She told me to send in my resume since they were thinking of hiring a writer. Despite my apprehension, I sent in my resume and the web address to my blog. The boss of the company was attracted to my writing style because of the blog and I was given my first official freelance copywriting job!

It’s been three years since I first heard about copywriting. Now I have enough copywriting to keep me busy for all the time that my children are in school.

If you are interested in becoming a copywriter, think about who you know who could use some writing for their business or organization. It could even been someone’s side hustle. Start a simple, free blog or website with some samples of your writing. WordPress and Blogger are free and easy to use.  Don’t get paralyzed by the fear of the unknown. Pursue copywriting with a teachable spirit and a drive for excellence and, before you know it, you will have clients coming to you.

BIO:

Rachel Schmoyer is a pastor’s wife, mom of four, and a copywriter. She also helps Christians find the simple truths in the complex parts of the Bible at readthehardparts.com. Her other writings and publishing credits can be found on rachelschmoyerwrites.com.