[w00t]

ok guys I figured I would write a little guide on how realistically EVERYONE can build up a decent online income as a freelancer. Ive gotten so much good info out of this forum... I figured it was about time to give something back

this is a no-nonsense and no holds barred guide... its my personal blueprint that Ive come up with after 2 years of freelancing, reading pretty much anything I could get my hands on about the topic and getting coaching by some real pros in this field

I belive ANYONE can do this! if you can read this text and boot up a computer youre pretty much good to go. seriously even if you have no skills at all you can start out as a SEO writer and literally a trained monkey could do that

a little disclaimer first: its not passive income and youll not get rich. but youll be able to make a decent living pretty much anyhwere in the world... if youre not a big baller who needs to bathe in champagne and stay in fancy 5 star suites every day!

so how much are we talking? Last year I made about 1.500$ a month and in my best month 5.000$... and thats working part time as I was still studying for university!

on the lower end I work for 25$ - 30$ an hour. thats my bread and butter clients that let me put in the hours. On the higher end Ive gotten up to $130 for simple blog posts that I could bang out in 20 minutes. those gigs are out there but its hard to line up lots of billable hours at that rate (definitely doable though!)

full time you can realistically expect 2.500$ a month... and by fulltime I mean about 25-30 hours a week, because seriously who wants to work all the time?

thats more than enough to kick back and chill in South East Asia, Eastern Europe or wherevery you wanna stay

of course you can always push it to the limit by raising your rates (more about that later) and grinding more hours. I know there are freelancers who make six figure incomes totally location independent. so ya its really up to you and how far you wanna go. thats the beauty of freelancing youre the master of your own fate... you can either just coast along (hello there BB ) or really put in the hours

is it hard? not really. some work is involved but if you have two braincells to rub together you can do it.

lettuce be real here though its a grind and its like a job! this is not something I wanna do for the rest of my life but its a good start to become location independent!

so here goes... Im a SEO/content writer. but you can basically take this formula and tweak it for all kinds of skills that you have... that could be coding, graphic design, translation jobs... whatever you can do on a computer

lets assume you have nothing right now, no portfolio, no work experience, no clients (I assume you do have some skill in any of those fields I mentioned)

heres what you do in 5 simple steps:

1. use freelance websites to build up a portfolio and get your first clients and work experience

2. raise your rates

3. build a slick looking portfolio website

4. start warm-emailing potential clients

5. make that income tax-free

sounds easy enough, doesnt it?

so here goes...


1. build up portfolio and get first work experience.

simply sign up on the 4 major freelancing sites odesk.com, elance.com, guru.com, freelancer.com

send out at least 5 bids every day. EVERY DAY! even if you have jobs you keep sending out bids

I keep getting messages from ppl who tell me "hey I sent out 3 bids and didnt get a job, what now?". well jesus you dont talk to 3 girls and then give up, do you? just send out MORE!

do this and you will get paid to build up a respectable portfolio and a network of clients who will keep giving you more work

again a reality check: 99% of clients on these sites are shit. they are full with brokeass wannabe Internet marketers who will try to lowball you, waste your time and generally piss you off

but there are some diamons in the rough, I scored some big projects from major companies from elance. I did a social media campaign for Ford, some blogging for a major UK marketing firm... these will not only pay they will also look really good on your portfolio!

but again most clients there suck (well, most clients suck. period) so you want to get off those shitty sites as fast as possible (more about that in the nextsteps).



2. Raise your rates

chances are you will start out with cheaper rates (especially on the freelancer sites)

so what you wanna do is raise your rates!

work less and get paid more... no brainer IMO

two ways to do it: work faster or charge more

if you keep writing in one field for a long time, you will definitely get faster

for example I can easily bang out 2x500 word articles in an hour, if its in a field Ive written a lot in. at 15$ a pop thats 30$ per hour. not too bad if you live in a country where some ppl make as little as $10 a day!

the other way is to charge more. just take on as much work as you can. once youre booked you double your rates. you will lose clients but others will stay and you will end up making more money for less work

another thing... please, please, please dont sell yourself short!

Ive seen this over and over in aspiring freelancers. they work for ridiculous prices because they have no confidence and think thats what it takes to break into the market.

and thats a HUGE mistake!

not only will you burn yourself out working for spare change... you will also attract the wrong kind of clients... and actually REPEL the right kind of clients

think about it, if youre some big company and you want someone to build you a website. would you go for a guy who does it for $50 bucks or a pro who does it for $5000 or even $50.000 (I have no idea what a website costs, just trying to prove a point here)

the GOOD clients will never even take someone seriously who doesnt charge appropriate rates. they will consider you a hack and go for someone else who looks more professional

I just had a skype call the other day with my partner whos a SEO consultant and whos going after some real big dogs in his field. and we are literally brainstorming ways how we can charge those guys MORE MONEY. some of these individuals/organizations have so much money to blow... they literally dont give a fuck (they do wanna see results though)

so PLEASE dont sell yourself short. youre not only hurting yourself youre also fucking it up for all your fellow aspiring freelancers if you work for cutthroat rates.

you should be able to get at least 15-20$ an hour pretty much right off the bat!

yes your first couple of jobs might pay a bit less, so you can establish yourself. yes you might whore yourself out for 2-3 projects so you can build up a portfolio and some good feedback.

but ffs get out of that whore stage as fast as possible!

the key to becoming a successful freelancer and commanding decent rates is NOT competing by price. you compete by good marketing and by positioning yourself as an expert. the tips I mentioned should be plenty to achieve that goal.


3. build a slick looking portfolio website

hire an indian of elance/odesk or just get a premium theme from themeforest.com and tweak it

theres a bit of a science to making a good portfolio website and I dont really wanna get into it in detail here

but the short version is: have your contact information clearly visible at all times, show testimonials with pictures of your clients and show some examples of your work (it should be organized in various categories)

dont just write me me me. its all about the benefit of the reader. what can you do for your visitor? improve his search engine rankings? make him more money? provide him with kickass designs? thats what you focus on the benefits of your visitor (of course in the about me section you can and should write about yourself)=

you can even try to SEO optimize your site and build an inbound marketing funnel where clients come to you!

for instance Ive seen a guy who runs germancontentwriter.com and he has the #1 spot in google for this keyword

this guy has more work than he could handle and he has to turn down clients

ranking well in google is tough but you can rank for local keywords pretty easily (for example freelance writer YOURTOWN)


4. start warm-emailing potential clients

ok you got some work experience, you got a nice portfolio and a professional looking website

never mind that youre just a lazy cunt hanging around in a 4000 baht / month apartment and all you really care about is pussy... you look like a real pro now who takes this shit seriously

its time to step it up a bit and get away from the shitty freelancer sites

again Im a SEO/content writer so I can only really give advice for this niche... but I figure it would be pretty much the same for other jobs

just start warm-emailing some internet agencies and offer your services

keep it brief and whats very important... DONT SPAM them.

dont just copy/paste and use a mass emailer. a friend of mine did this and lots of his emails bounced and he almost got his account suspended.

the real way to do this is to write actual emails that are tailored to your potential client. check out their websites and do some research.

lets say I wanna get Internet marketing agency XY as a client and on their website it says they deal with blabla Food company

then I will email them and highlight my work experience in the food sector. I will show them relevant examples of my work. And of course Include a link to the pimped out website!

yes its more work but believe me its way more effective!

again send out at least 5 of these a day.

these kind of clients are a lot different from the usual assholes trolling elance/odesk. these are not broke ass internet marketers/bloggers who nickel and dime you to write content for their shitty websites

these are professionals that understand that quality comes at a price!

so right off the bat youll be better off dealing with these kinds of clients and you can command higher rates

same strategy for other fields. as a translator go after big clients who need translations in a field you have expertise in. as a coder go after big companies who need coders like you. as a graphic designer... I think you get it at this point




5. Make that income tax free

Ok lets assume youre still sitting at home and youre making some money. but now the state is taking a fat cut of your hard earned cash!

I dont know about you but I refuse to pay taxes. I dont want to support a broken system and it goes against anything I believe in.

Im also greedy and dont wanna split my earnings with a faceless organization that gives me nothing back in return.

So anyway the fastest way to make your income tax free is just to move abroad. Pretty much any country has a 180 day rule... meaning if you stay in the country for less than 180 days youre not considered a resident and thus dont have to pay taxes on your income

simple as that

now I realize some of you guys are from the US and that this crazy country taxes its citizens abroad (btw its the only country who does that apart from some shithole in africa!)

but thats really your problem Im not from the US and dont know about your specific situation

for everyone else its as simple as leaving the country and staying in other countries for less than 180 days

of course you can also incorporate in a tax haven. but Im not really an expert on that so Im not gonna say anything about that (I DO plan to incorporate offshore though but have to do my research first)

but ya for starters its really enough to get the fuck out of your countr and move around a bit every 6 months.



so there ya go guys, this is pretty much it, its the freelance blueprint. I could write tons more and in fact I have written over 20k words on a newsletter on the topic (not in english though!)... but this is pretty much the bare bones

time to hit the gym and troll the malls for poosay now I hope you find this useful

[travolta]

(10-26-2014 12:51 AM)w00t Wrote:  

So anyway the fastest way to make your income tax free is just to move abroad. Pretty much any country has a 180 day rule... meaning if you stay in the country for less than 180 days youre not considered a resident and thus dont have to pay taxes on your income

Not sure where you heard the 180 day rule, but it's definitely way more than 180 days if you're a US citizen. You might want to consult a tax attorney before you do something stupid.

[w00t]

(10-26-2014 02:44 AM)travolta Wrote:  

(10-26-2014 12:51 AM)w00t Wrote:  

So anyway the fastest way to make your income tax free is just to move abroad. Pretty much any country has a 180 day rule... meaning if you stay in the country for less than 180 days youre not considered a resident and thus dont have to pay taxes on your income

Not sure where you heard the 180 day rule, but it's definitely way more than 180 days if you're a US citizen. You might want to consult a tax attorney before you do something stupid.

lots and lots of countries have this rule and I specifically said in the US its different and that I cant provide information on the situation there

obviously always check your tax laws before you do anything based on what some random dude said on the interwebs

[worldwidetraveler]

(10-26-2014 02:44 AM)travolta Wrote:  

(10-26-2014 12:51 AM)w00t Wrote:  

So anyway the fastest way to make your income tax free is just to move abroad. Pretty much any country has a 180 day rule... meaning if you stay in the country for less than 180 days youre not considered a resident and thus dont have to pay taxes on your income

Not sure where you heard the 180 day rule, but it's definitely way more than 180 days if you're a US citizen. You might want to consult a tax attorney before you do something stupid.

Are you referring to the Foreign Income Exclusion for Americans?

w00t is talking about living in a foreign country for less than 180 days to avoid being considered a resident, in that foreign country, for tax purposes.

[Duke Castile]

(10-26-2014 04:16 AM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  

(10-26-2014 02:44 AM)travolta Wrote:  

(10-26-2014 12:51 AM)w00t Wrote:  

So anyway the fastest way to make your income tax free is just to move abroad. Pretty much any country has a 180 day rule... meaning if you stay in the country for less than 180 days youre not considered a resident and thus dont have to pay taxes on your income

Not sure where you heard the 180 day rule, but it's definitely way more than 180 days if you're a US citizen. You might want to consult a tax attorney before you do something stupid.

Are you referring to the Foreign Income Exclusion for Americans?

w00t is talking about living in a foreign country for less than 180 days to avoid being considered a resident, in that foreign country, for tax purposes.

Anybody know what the official time abroad is for US citizens?

[WestIndianArchie]

It's like 330 out of 365, and it only means your first 90k is tax free. Check with your tax professional, cause there are better rays to lower your tax burden than country hopping.

Great post. Where do I find a list of marketing agencies?

And when you bang out a 500 word article, are you must rewriting the best article about the keyword?





WIA

[worldwidetraveler]

(10-26-2014 05:53 AM)WestIndianArchie Wrote:  

It's like 330 out of 365, and it only means your first 90k is tax free. Check with your tax professional, cause there are better rays to lower your tax burden than country hopping.

Unless the income is sourced within the country, I never worried about local taxes (outside of the US).

Maybe w00t has different experiences with that.


@Fisto

What WIA said but I believe you can pro-rate the exclusion if you were out of the country part of one year and then stayed out for those 330 days going into the next year.

[w00t]

theres lots of interest in the topic of tax avoidance maybe we should create another thread about it?

its a very complex topic and Im not sure the ppl who are really knowledgeable would wanna give out all their info though

its definitely something I want to look into more as I cant incorporate in my homecountry any more (and wouldnt even if I could!) but some clients will require you to have company in order to do business with you

a really good resource is the Simon Black newsletter http://www.sovereignman.com

(10-26-2014 05:53 AM)WestIndianArchie Wrote:  

It's like 330 out of 365, and it only means your first 90k is tax free. Check with your tax professional, cause there are better rays to lower your tax burden than country hopping.

Great post. Where do I find a list of marketing agencies?

And when you bang out a 500 word article, are you must rewriting the best article about the keyword?





WIA

cheers man

if you google a bit Im sure you could find a list of agencies I easily found one for my homecountry that included literally hundreds of them

about rewriting articles you always have to watch out for duplicate contenet as lots of clients will check. when I started out writing articles I would take 3 different articles, take the major points of them and rewrite them but this takes too long. what I do now is I simply take an english article and translate/rewrite it into my target language on the fly. since its a translation there will never be a problem with duplicate content.

Quote:

Unless the income is sourced within the country, I never worried about local taxes (outside of the US).

Maybe w00t has different experiences with that.

no actually I dont worry about local taxes either as you can still fly under the radar with an online income

I just wanted to include this as its the simplest loophole I know of if you want to be 100% on the safe side

[w00t]

double post

[w00t]

jesus triple post, sorry

[magellan]

How much work do you currently do and how long do you estimate it takes to get to the point of working consistently?

I want to leave my job in a few months and work independently for a while. If I dedicated 10 hours a day to this for a few weeks, how far would that get me?

What are you thoughts on copywriting?

I registered on BlogMutt recently (a content mill) and was a bit overwhelmed by my lack of knowledge in the spaces that writers were needed in (as well as the shit pay, but that's expected). What is the learning curve like for gaining sufficient domain expertise in the areas you write?

[w00t]

Right now Im in kind of a transitional period since I spent about 3 months completely focussed on finishing my degree and preparing my move to SEA

In that time I lost all my clients and had zero income

However it only took me one skype call with a longterm client and now I have 1.200€ (ill just stick to euro for now so I dont have to convert the numbers all the time) in work lined up for the next month. At my current rate with that client, If I write 4 hours a day I can make 100€ a day, so I can take it easy, finish all of the work in 2 weeks and do whatever I want the rest of the month. Or I work 8 hours a day and knock it all out in one week.

I do want to ramp up my marketing again though that means completely redoing my website and warm-emailin a whole bunch of agencies like I outlined it here in the post. My goal is 2.000€ a month and I want to increase my rates too so I have to work less.

Its hard to say how long it would take you to work consistently. It depends on your skillset, the market youre in and the effort youre putting into this. If you dedicate 10 hours a day you could take it far and probably keep yourself a float (depending on your cost of living) very quickly. Ive seen ppl build up low 4-figure incomes from nothing within a month so its definitely possible.

About copywriting its a much, much more valuable skillset than SEO/contenet writing. Top copywriters get insane rates and often times a percentage of the revenue/profit their campaigns bring in. I actually studied copywriting a lot but more for my own direct marketing ventures. Breaking into copywriting would be a bit harder I guess since those clients want to see results. But basically you could do it with the same formula outlined. I actually know a guy whos into copywriting and he started out on elance too. What you could do is offer pro bono work for clients and if they see your copy bring in the dough they will not want to let you go anymore. From there on its a question of how far you want to take it and how much effort you want to put into it again.

Yes the content mills are all shit but can be a starting point to get a foot in the door. For me its not so much a question of expertise in a specific area, its more a skill of rewriting and writing content really fast that helps me get decent rates. It does help if you write in the same field over and over again. How long it would take to gain expertise is hard to say. I wrote over 1000 articles about wine and now I can bullshit with the best of them as I have heard all the important keywords before and can probably make a small connection. But again its more a skill of just being fast at your work, the expertise is not that important. You end up coming up with phrases, sentences and patterns that you use over and over and that really help you to crank out content fast.

It also doesnt hurt if you can type with 10 fingers I actually took a course about a hundred years ago on typewriters and it really helps!

[libertad1312]

Very good information.

Beyond Border made a very good thread about freelancing some time ago.

We should add that writing or doing SEO work can get old very quickly. Even if you like writing, once you do it for a job it is not that fun anymore... On the other hand it is very easy to get into. You can just book a flight to a region with low living costs, such as SEA, read the advices here and get started. You dont even need more savings than for a few weeks to make it happen, but obviously you need to work your ass off for the first few months.

The best thing is that you will learn a lot. Every job will give you new insights in the internet marketing and you will learn what actually works.

[RawGod]

This is good information. But let me just take it one step further.

If a business owner or internet marketer is able to profit after paying you $10 for an article, then he is getting more than $10 value for that article in the long run.

Therefore, it's better to put expend your writing energy on your own properties. After all, chances are that your client hasn't got any magical leverage (some companies do, not your average oDesk client though).

Content on your own .com belongs to you lock, stock and barrel and can still pay you in 5 years or be leveraged in other ways.

In other words, in the longer term you want to own your own shit rather than making others money.

[one-two]

Am I missing something here?

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/05/18...-overseas/

Quote:

The U.S. is the only country that taxes its citizens on their world-wide income, no matter where they live

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Internati...quirements

Quote:

If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien living or traveling outside the United States, you generally are required to file income tax returns, estate tax returns, and gift tax returns and pay estimated tax in the same way as those residing in the United States.

[w00t]

god dammit Im too stupid for this forum software

[w00t]

(10-26-2014 10:46 PM)RawGod Wrote:  

This is good information. But let me just take it one step further.

If a business owner or internet marketer is able to profit after paying you $10 for an article, then he is getting more than $10 value for that article in the long run.

Therefore, it's better to put expend your writing energy on your own properties. After all, chances are that your client hasn't got any magical leverage (some companies do, not your average oDesk client though).

Content on your own .com belongs to you lock, stock and barrel and can still pay you in 5 years or be leveraged in other ways.

In other words, in the longer term you want to own your own shit rather than making others money.

ya definitely man its still a J-O-B and youre getting exploited by default

still location independent though, higher pay than in a standard office job and you can set your own hours... and its the fastest way for location independence I know

but this is certainly not someting I wanna do for the rest of my life! Im actually trying to break into info marketing right now and use my freelance income to fund my other IM ventures

buddy of mine is freelancing and saving the money to invest in real estate also something I wanna look into

Quote:

Very good information.

Beyond Border made a very good thread about freelancing some time ago.

We should add that writing or doing SEO work can get old very quickly. Even if you like writing, once you do it for a job it is not that fun anymore... On the other hand it is very easy to get into. You can just book a flight to a region with low living costs, such as SEA, read the advices here and get started. You dont even need more savings than for a few weeks to make it happen, but obviously you need to work your ass off for the first few months.

The best thing is that you will learn a lot. Every job will give you new insights in the internet marketing and you will learn what actually works.

exactly man that shit gets old real quick but the fastest way for location independence. Id say get in, make your money and use it to fund other ventures... almost like the drug game haha

[worldwidetraveler]

(10-26-2014 10:46 PM)RawGod Wrote:  

This is good information. But let me just take it one step further.

If a business owner or internet marketer is able to profit after paying you $10 for an article, then he is getting more than $10 value for that article in the long run.

Therefore, it's better to put expend your writing energy on your own properties. After all, chances are that your client hasn't got any magical leverage (some companies do, not your average oDesk client though).

Content on your own .com belongs to you lock, stock and barrel and can still pay you in 5 years or be leveraged in other ways.

In other words, in the longer term you want to own your own shit rather than making others money.

Freelancing will give you an idea of what type of content other marketers are using.

The different niches.
The different subjects within the niches.
Problems in the niche.
Keywords people are targeting.

Learn while you earn and then you can start using the knowledge for your own hustles.

[RichieP]

(10-26-2014 10:46 PM)RawGod Wrote:  

This is good information. But let me just take it one step further.

If a business owner or internet marketer is able to profit after paying you $10 for an article, then he is getting more than $10 value for that article in the long run.

Therefore, it's better to put expend your writing energy on your own properties. After all, chances are that your client hasn't got any magical leverage (some companies do, not your average oDesk client though).

Content on your own .com belongs to you lock, stock and barrel and can still pay you in 5 years or be leveraged in other ways.

In other words, in the longer term you want to own your own shit rather than making others money.

Just wanna chime in on this: It's true, but only if you know how to monetize it as well or better than they do, and you have a clear vision for your business (website content being one element of it).

The person who buys content from freelancers might be using it to pull traffic into the top of a very lucrative sales funnel. Maybe they have a high-priced prod/service that they sell after they capture an email address and send out a sequence. Maybe their funnel converts really well after months of A/B testing. Maybe more upsell on the backend. etc.

If you just post up your content with, say, Adsense ads, there's no guarantee you'll do as well as the person who might have bought that content from you... you don't know how it plugs into their particular profit machine. It's all about lifetime customer value.

For people without the biz skills or vision yet, freelancing might be the wisest choice at first.

Of course, the more value your business captures, the better. Ownership definitely trumps freelancing from a 30,000 foot view. But throwing up content just for the sake of it without a strong business vision or monetisation strategy is no guarantee of success (how do I know? because I've done it and felt the pain heh).

[Dr. Howard]

Steps 1 to 4 are great. Step #5 on tax avoidance tends to get too specific depending on country of residence and country of citizenship. (ie we all know about the US, but there is also a way to fall into a situation where Canada will tax its citizens on worldwide income as well).

My general advice on tax avoidance strategy is to also consider the cost of administering all of it. Two of my clients got together with an attorney and CPA who put together this plan for them to offshore businesses and pay very low tax, but guess what they didn't tell them? The cost to administer all of this....now they are hooked with that attorney because they don't know how to navigate the laws, they have to pay for extensive multi jurisdiction tax filings and now instead of 1 simple set of books they have to run the books for 5 companies in multiple currencies.

Get a total cost picture before jumping into tax avoidance.

[peterthephoenix]

@DrHoward - Thanks for the insight. I never thought about that side of the coin before.

[STEEL_WARRIOR]

This sounds great, I'll seriously consider this.

[Afarang]

You need to know how to write content too. I hire writers all the time and around 90% even from the likes of the U.K, USA, Australia, Canada are shockingly bad.

The freelance writing market is totally saturated currently, but if you are an amazing writer you will find work. If you cannot write or are not that great, don't expect to make what the OP is making as I assume he writes pretty well. Many mediocre writers should only expect about $10/hr or so.


I think if some people spent 6-12 months learning code they can get some decent jobs using these sites. Freelancing writing has too many freelancers and too many shitty clients.

This is not to take nothing away from the OP, it's a very useful guide.

[w00t]

I have to disagree here

First of all I dont think the market is oversaturated. Yes there are tons of hacks there who will work for peanuts but they produce shit. quality clients wont ever want to hire guys like that (and I want quality clients) so they are not really competition. think about it no midlevel company with a sizable marketing budget will get on elance and hire some hack to write content for $10 a piece. chances are they wont evne be on elance at all (some are, but its a tiny fraction of the ppl who troll elance). its actually easy to stand out from the unwashed masses and I have already outlined some tips above (website, handcrafted emails, strong portfolio)

if you want to see what your "competition" is up to simply put a project on elance and see the kind of emails you will get. most will just spam you with copy paste stuff and dont even read your job description.

second I dont belive you have to be an amazing writer to make good money. there are tons of amazing writers who are broke and mediocre writers who make a lot of money. once you hit a certain baseline of quality it doesnt really matter how good your writing is. the marketing is much much more important. thats probably true in any field like music, movies and so on

I have written articles for $13 and I have written articles for $130 and there was virtually no difference in effort, time and research I put into those!

in this game its all about positioning yourself as an expert and finding the clients who are willing to pay higher rates. and they are out there.

like Dan Kennedy says (paraphrased) the secret to getting outrageous rates is keeping a straight face when you ask for them. and thats pretty easy over email

of course you cant be a total hack you have to deliver a certain level of quality and always be professional. never miss a deadline, keep appointments, reply to all emails within 24hours max and so on and so on... but to me thats the absolute minimum you should bring to the table in any field. I have tried outsourcing work myself and most freelancers cant even keep appointments, will miss deadlines, suddenly drop off the radar and do all other kinds of shit. again its easy to stand out.

lastly I would not get into coding if you want to make money. if you like it sure go ahead. but you will be competing against every indian and philippino out there! its still possible to stand out by effective marketing but then you still have to invest a lot of time to learn the skills.

if you want to learn a skill from scratch to make cash then its better to go for something with high leverage like copywriting or anything related to sales.

[CJ_W]

I'm looking into this and I have a question about it.

What do I need to learn to actually do this well? I'm talking more about the SEO/copywriting thing as I don't code/graphic design etc. . .I'm applying for the Elance jobs but I don't really know what I'm doing. Did you just do the same and learn it as you go? Or was there a resource that helped you learn about what you were applying for? i.e. learn how to write SEO/content writing/copywriting