Is Copywriting A Good Side Hustle? A Complete Guide For 2024

It’s rough out there. With the cost of living crisis sending people’s expenditure sky-high, everybody seems to be looking for a way to boost their income in the hope of keeping up.

Side hustles - a source of additional income alongside your main job or role - are growing enormously in popularity. Over 40% of Brits have a side hustle of some sort, and that number is even higher in younger generations - 65% of Millennials have a side hustle, and as many as 68% of Generation Z.

Source: Finder’s Side Hustle National Survey

If you’ve pondered starting your own side hustle, you’ve probably also thought about the kinds of extra work that might suit you. If you’re looking for inspiration, our list of the best side hustle ideas out there is a great place to start. For anybody who likes words, though, copywriting may already have crossed your mind.

But is it really worth your time? If you’ve got as far as searching for information online, you’ve probably come across a whole host of smiling people on YouTube or TikTok promising that you can make six figures within just a few months, and you’d be right to be sceptical.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth pursuing at all. Copywriting isn’t a magical get-rich-quick scheme, but if you’ve got a way with words and are willing to commit yourself to a good amount of hard work, it can become a lucrative side hustle, or even your main source of income.

In this article, we’ll take you through all you need to know about copywriting as a side hustle, how to get started as a copywriter, and how much you can realistically expect to make.

What Is Copywriting?

Copywriting refers to any kind of writing used to promote or market a product or service. Most copywriting nowadays involves materials used on websites or in email communications, but physical leaflets, posters and billboards are still needed, and it’s copywriters who create the text for them.

‘Copy’ has been used in technical fields to refer to writing for centuries - specifically, writing that would be reproduced in print, i.e. copied. The term ‘copywriter’ followed later, in the early 1900s, to mean the person who wrote the text of advertisements.

Copywriting often appeals to creative writers, who reason that it ought to be an effortless way to put their existing skills to good use and earn some extra cash. While it’s true that creative writers - or anyone with writing experience - are probably quite well suited to the role, copywriting is a very particular skill, and one that requires a lot of work to get the hang of.

Nonetheless, it’s a skill that’s in high demand, which is why it can be such a profitable side hustle. If you put the time and effort into learning your craft and gaining experience, you’re likely to find that you can make an excellent side income from your hard work.

Types Of Copywriting

There’s a surprisingly large number of types of copywriting. Most professional copywriters specialise in just a couple of them, so that their clients know they’re getting exactly the expertise they need.

As a beginner, you’ll probably want to try your hand at most, if not all, of these types of copywriting. This will allow you to discover what you enjoy most and where your talents lie, and therefore the type of copywriting that you should make your niche.

1. Direct Response Copywriting

Direct response copywriting is what we might think of as traditional advertising. Your copy aims to produce a ‘direct response’ in the reader to take some action - usually, to buy the product that’s being sold, but you might also be persuading people to sign up to a newsletter, or follow you on social media.

This is a broad category, spanning short, punchy ads with a hard sell to long-form ‘advertorials’ - adverts in the form of articles - and it’s particularly in-demand.

Writing persuasively without being off-putting is tricky to master but, because it’s a rare skill, competent direct response copywriters rarely struggle to find clients.

Many of the following types of copywriting can be considered a subset of direct response copywriting. So, no matter what kind of copywriting you plan to do, you’ll need a solid understanding of the fundamentals of direct response copywriting regardless.

2. Marketing Copywriting

Marketing copywriting can be considered the quintessential form of copywriting - text designed to promote. It has a lot of overlap with direct response copywriting, but isn’t limited to material intended to produce an immediate action - it may hope simply to build awareness of a product or service.

Marketing copywriting can involve producing copy in a wide variety of forms, both offline and online. For example:

• TV/radio commercials

• Flyers

• Social media ads

• Brochures and catalogues

• Online blogs

You’ll need to be able to adapt your writing style to the job in hand - depending on the product or service, you might be asked to produce elegant, dreamy prose to create a vibe or atmosphere, or precise, technical information to appeal to an informed customer who knows exactly what they’re looking for.

3. SEO Copywriting

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which involves writing copy specifically to improve a website’s results on search engines - Google, predominantly. It requires an understanding of how search engines work, and the best tactics to use to boost results for a particular brand or website.

In the past, simply flooding an article with relevant keywords was a common strategy, but as search engines have become more intelligent, you need a more sophisticated approach. Balancing the creation of engaging, readable content with optimization for search engines is a delicate matter, which is why SEO experts are frequently sought after.

4. Technical Copywriting

This is the art of turning technical, complex concepts into accessible, straightforward copy for the average reader. This might take the form of instruction manuals or articles regarding scientific research, but it can also be more traditional marketing material relating to technical concepts.

IT companies will often employ technical copywriters, for example, to help translate the complex principles of their software into simple language the consumer can understand, while simultaneously highlighting the benefits it has to offer.

Technical copywriters are in high demand, as their skills are both specialised and crucial to a variety of industries, including the tech industry, engineering and healthcare.

5. Brand Copywriting

Brand copywriting refers to the craft of capturing the essence of a brand in its marketing material. It’s exemplified in the short, pithy taglines you often see that sum up the voice and image of a brand, but encompasses longer form writing as well.

Brand copywriting aims to create an emotional connection between a company and its customers, helping a brand to come across as more human and relatable.

Consistent brand copywriting is crucial - every piece of copy you write for a brand needs to convey the brand’s message and values, all while maintaining the brand’s chosen voice.

6. Email Copywriting

A fairly self-explanatory category, email copywriting refers to the text of emails sent out by companies, whether newsletters, marketing communications, or updates for existing subscribers.

Email copywriting is often in the form of direct sales, but it can also be more informative, educational content, so you’ll need to be able to adapt your writing to the company’s requirements.

Email copy will either be B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to consumer), so you’ll need to take into account the audience. B2B writing is usually less emotive and more logical, as you’re encouraging a business customer to make a rational purchase that will serve their needs. It may also use more jargon, if the business customer is in the same industry as the company running the email campaign.

7. Social Media Copywriting

As you might expect, social media copywriting means writing for social media - whether that’s in the form of Facebook ads, Instagram captions, or even the scripts for TikTok videos.

Social media copy is usually snappy and to the point, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t creative. Humour is an important weapon in the arsenal of the social media copywriter, as well as striking imagery and engaging ideas.

The possibility of a particular post going viral is always in the back of the mind of the social media copywriter and, while this won’t happen often, they’ll need to ensure their copy is still effective if it ends up reaching a wider audience than anticipated.

8. Website Copywriting

Website copywriting is another one that’s pretty well explained by the name. Website copywriting involves writing the text of a website - all of it, from the landing page to the About Us section to the text accompanying individual links.

A website’s copy needs to be functional and informative, but it also needs to convey the brand’s voice and message, hopefully persuading the casual browser to explore further and find out more about the company.

9. PR Copywriting

PR Copywriting, short for Public Relations Copywriting, means the writing of press releases, designed to inform the press and the public about a new product or service.

As press releases are usually directly aimed at the media, rather than at consumers, they often have to work differently to capture their audience, who aren’t expected to want to purchase the item themselves, but to publicise it.

10. Product Description Copywriting

Again, you probably worked it out from the name, but product description copywriting is the writing of product descriptions. For each of the millions of products out there, a product description copywriter had to patiently come up with a compelling description to sell it.

The style you use to describe a product will depend on the brand and the product itself - a luxury homewares company will probably want to use a much more elegant, artistic voice, while a company selling power tools is likely to prefer efficiency and precision - but in all cases you need to describe the product succinctly yet persuasively.

How To Get Started

1. First of all, and most importantly, practise. Unless you’re already an experienced copywriter, you’ll need to put in a lot of time to hone your craft before you can start to offer your services professionally.

2. Perhaps take a course. However, it’s important to make sure you’ve checked objective reviews or opinions about that course. There are a lot of amateur copywriters out there offering courses, whose money is made more from selling their course than from actually doing any copywriting - not really a trusted source! Have a look at the resources section below for reputable copywriting courses in the UK.

3. Do your research. Not only should you read all you can about copywriting, especially about the types of copywriting you’d like to pursue, but you should also study existing copy.

See a particularly well-crafted Instagram post while doomscrolling? Save the copy to study later, so you can work out what makes it so good. You’ll start to build up what’s known as a ‘swipe file’ - a folder full of bits of copy you admire and can learn from.

4. Decide on your specialisation. Once you’ve tried your hand at most types of copywriting, it’s wise to decide on a couple you particularly enjoy, or you feel you have a flair for. You can then hone your skills still further, until you’re confident that you’ve got a quality service to offer your clients.

5. Establish regular writing habits. Even before you’ve landed your first client, you need to get into the habit of devoting a chunk of your free time to copywriting. It’s much harder to practise discipline before you have the prospect of getting paid to motivate you, but it’ll pay dividends to have an existing routine when you get to the point of juggling multiple projects with tight deadlines.

6. Build your portfolio. Any prospective client will want to see samples of your best work before hiring you - how else can they be sure you’ll do a good job? The problem, of course, is that before you get your first job, where do you get a sample to put in your portfolio?

The answer is to make up sample projects for yourself. When you’ve worked out the sort of copywriting you’d like to do, you can simply have a go at it, making up projects for either real or fictional companies. Just make clear in your portfolio that this is ‘speculative’ or ‘spec’ work, so as not to imply that you’ve actually been employed by a particular company.

Your portfolio will normally take the form of a dedicated website, but it doesn’t have to be a complicated one. You can put together a basic website yourself, using a service such as Squarespace or, to make things even easier, use a template offered by a dedicated portfolio company, such as Copyfolio.

7. Find your first client. Arguably the hardest part! Many people begin by offering their services cheaply on freelancing sites such as Upwork, or Fiverr. However, you run the risk of deterring clients who may assume that anyone working at low rates won’t do a good job, and attracting clients who don’t value quality work, only a low price.

If you already have connections to people or businesses, make use of them! Even if you don’t charge for your services, you’ll be able to use the work in your portfolio and build from there. By using your existing relationships to get yourself started, you’ll put yourself in a position to build your network and land paying clients in the future.

Send out cold emails. This may sound like an alarming prospect for a lot of people, but it can work. If you see ineffective copy for a particular brand and think you can do a better job, it’s worth your while seeing if they like your ideas.

It’s unwise to send them useable copy right away - there’s a risk of the company deciding to use it without hiring you. However, you could look up a competitor’s website and put together a professional-looking mockup for that competitor, demonstrating that you understand their market and audience without the risk of your ideas being poached.

How Much Can I Make?

You may have seen self-proclaimed copywriting gurus claiming that it’s possible for anyone to make six figures copywriting within their first couple of months, but the reality is that you’re unlikely to make much money when you first get started.

However, as you build your client base and your portfolio, you can expect to start commanding pretty decent rates. Quality copywriters will usually charge £50 - £75 an hour, and if you dedicate yourself to your work for long enough, you’re likely to join them.

Copywriters don’t always work on an hourly charge - sometimes they’ll work on a day rate, and some will charge by the project, to spare their client any concerns about them dragging the work out to fatten their invoice.

As a new copywriter, your rates should generally reflect the fact that you have less experience, but without being so low as to suggest that your work isn’t valuable.

Advantages Of Copywriting As A Side Hustle

• Once you’ve established yourself as a quality copywriter, you can make very good money.

• You get all the benefits of freelancing: you choose your own clients and projects, and work your preferred hours. So long as you meet your deadline, you can work at any time that suits you, whether it’s 6am on a Sunday or half past two on a Wednesday afternoon.

• Freelance copywriting is almost always entirely remote. It’s completely normal for a freelance copywriter never to meet their clients in person. Meetings can be conducted via video call, and all your communication can be via email.

• You need minimal equipment to get started. The only real essential is a computer of some sort - which you probably own anyway - without which you’ll probably struggle to organise your work and keep up with your clients.

Drawbacks Of Copywriting As A Side Hustle

• A high barrier of entry. This isn’t something you can leap straight into without skills or experience and expect to succeed. It’ll take many, many hours of hard work to gain the necessary expertise if you don’t already have it, so it’s something you should feel very sure about before you go for it.

• The need to build up your portfolio may mean you spend months working on your writing before you start to earn any money at all.

• Copywriters may be in demand, but there are also a lot of them. It’s a competitive landscape, and you might find it difficult to compete with your rivals as a less experienced copywriter.

• If you write creatively as a hobby, or even as your main job, copywriting as a side hustle might sound like it’s right up your street. But it’s important to remember that copywriting is a very different beast from fiction, and you may not enjoy it nearly as much as you expect.

• To succeed, you have to commit before you get any reward. Starting small and gradually increasing your writing hours as you get clients is unlikely to work, because you’ll almost certainly have to devote a lot of hours to your writing before you land a client at all. If you want to make a successful side hustle out of copywriting, you’ve got to treat it as a business, not a hobby.

What About Tax?

If you’re a freelance copywriter, that means you’re self-employed, and you’ll need to submit a tax return if you make over £1000 in a year from your copywriting.

This can be quite intimidating, but the process is fairly straightforward, especially as a copywriter, where your income and outgoings shouldn’t be too complicated.

One thing you definitely don’t want to do, though, is ignore your tax return and hope that HMRC don’t find out about your extra income. This would be illegal, even if you’re not making enough money to reach the personal tax threshold, and could land you in serious hot water.

Useful Resources

Books

There are an enormous number of books out there, so here are a few recommended titles to start with:

The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert W. Bly

The Adweek Copywriting Handbook by Joseph Sugarman

Hey Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan

As you learn more about copywriting, you’ll build your own list of recommended reading, but these are a great place for a beginner to start.

Courses

As mentioned above, some copywriting courses are barely more than scams, but there are also some very worthwhile courses available in the UK. Here are a few of the reputable ones:

The College of Media and Publishing’s Online Copywriting Course

Cost: £549.50, or four monthly payments of £137.37

In-person or online? Online, and at your own pace

The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s Principles of Great Copywriting

Cost: £599 in-person, or £499 virtual, for a one-day course

In-person or online? Either, but you have to book a particular day

The Institute of Data and Marketing’s Copywriting Masterclass

Cost: £450 for non-members, or £360 for members, for a one-day course

In-Person or online? Online, but you have to book a particular day

Summary

Copywriting certainly can be a good side hustle, but it’s not for anyone who isn’t 100% sure about it. It’ll require you to devote a large amount of your free time to your writing before you start to earn any money, but once you get going, it can be an excellent source of extra income.

If you’re not certain that you’re up for committing to copywriting, there are plenty of other side hustles out there. For some extra cash without quite so much hard work, you could try focus groups, dog-walking, or even Matched Betting, all of which are great alternatives to boost your income without losing all your spare time.