Yes, you can be both a freelancer and copywriter. In fact, the two roles can work extremely well together. Freelance writing describes how you work, while copywriting describes the type of writing you do. So, you can work independently as a freelance writer while also offering copywriting services to clients.
Most new writers don’t realise there is a lot of overlap between the two. Actually, this special combination can give you more ways to find work, build experience and develop your writing career. You might start by writing blog posts, articles or website content, for example, and then add landing pages, emails or sales copy as your copywriting skills grow.
Before you know it, you’ll be crafting pieces that meet the demands for freelance writing and copy, while pleasing clients and gaining a reputation in your niche.
Freelancer and Copywriter: What’s The Difference?
The differences between freelance writing work and copy can be hard to see, but they are there. The easiest way to understand the difference is to think about work arrangement versus writing purpose.
| Freelance writer | Copywriter |
|---|---|
| Describes how you work | Describes what you write |
| Usually works independently | Can work freelance or in-house |
| May write informative content | Usually writes persuasive content |
| Can work across many subjects | Often works closely with marketing |
| May produce articles, blogs and guides | May produce ads, emails and landing pages |
As you can see, these aren’t competing job titles. Instead, they can overlap.
A freelance writer might specialise in something like blog content. However, that same writer could also offer website copy, email marketing or product descriptions. Once you start doing that, you’re effectively combining freelance writing with copywriting.
The professional organisation ProCopywriters defines copywriting as writing that prompts a reader to take action, such as buying something, signing up for a service or changing an opinion. It also highlights persuasion, clarity, strategy and writing craft as core parts of copywriting.
The Venn diagram here shows how the two overlap as your career progresses:
Why Become a Freelancer and Copywriter?
Most writers freelance and write copy, and there are several reasons why combining the two can make sense. In fact, you will find that the two intersect naturally the more you write and the more clients you work with.
But why work towards both? First, you can give potential clients more reasons to hire you. A business might need a blog post one week and an email campaign the next. Therefore, being able to provide both services can make your offer more useful.
However, you can also develop complementary skills. Freelance writing can help you improve research, structure, interviewing and long-form writing. Copywriting, meanwhile, can sharpen your understanding of audiences, persuasion, benefits and calls to action. That combination can make you a more flexible writer.
This flexibility also fits with the wider growth of independent work. Upwork’s 2026 Future Workforce Index reported that 38% of skilled U.S. knowledge workers were freelancing in 2026, up from 28% in its 2025 research. However, this figure covers skilled knowledge workers generally, rather than writers specifically.
So, while this shouldn’t be treated as a statistic about freelance writers alone, it does show the wider freelance market in which many independent writers operate.
Freelancer and Copywriter: What Can You Offer?
Knowing your set of skills and what you can offer clients is key to understanding your career progression. Once you combine freelance writing and copywriting, your potential services can become much broader. For example, you could offer popular services such as:
- Blog posts and articles
- Website content
- SEO content
- Landing pages
- Email newsletters
- Sales emails
- Product descriptions
- Social media copy
- Case studies
- White papers
- Brochures
- Ad copy
Be aware, though, that you don’t need to offer everything. In fact, trying to sell yourself as someone who can write absolutely anything can make your marketing less clear. Instead, start with a small group of related services.
For example, you could position yourself as a freelancer and copywriter specialising in B2B technology content. Your services might then include blog posts, case studies, website copy and email campaigns.
That’s much easier for a potential client to understand, and it makes it easier to market yourself when cold pitching. However, you also need to make sure you can actually offer something, because there is a lot of potential competition out there.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 4% employment growth for writers and authors between 2024 and 2034, compared with 3% across all occupations and 2% for media and communication workers. It also projects around 13,400 openings for writers and authors each year over the decade.
These figures don’t mean every opening will be freelance or copywriting work. However, they do provide useful context for the broader writing profession.
How Freelance Writing Can Lead To Copywriting
If you are worried that you can’t meet the needs of clients, you don’t necessarily need to choose between the two from day one. Instead, you can develop your career gradually and work on a case-by-case basis. This naturally leads to freelance writing overlapping with copywriting, or vice versa, building a complete set of skills.
For example, imagine you start by writing SEO blog posts for small businesses. As you work with clients, you learn more about their audiences, products and marketing goals. Then a client asks you to rewrite their homepage.
This is a great project in more ways than one. That project gives you an opportunity to practise writing more persuasively. Later, you might add landing pages or email copy to your services.
Over time, your career could look something like this:
Writing Skills → Freelance Writing → Client Experience → Copywriting Skills → Multiple Writing Services
This is particularly useful because your existing writing experience doesn’t disappear when you move into copywriting. Instead, you build on it.
The image here shows how your career might progress as you gain more experience as a writer:
Freelancer and Copywriter: Build Your Portfolio First
Writing becomes easier with experience, but there are many challenges you will face on your journey to becoming a productive writer. One of the biggest challenges when starting is proving that you can do the work. Fortunately, you don’t necessarily need years of client experience before you can build a portfolio and find your first clients.
You can create sample projects based on the type of work you want to attract. For example, if you want to become a freelancer and copywriter for software companies, create something that fits that niche, such as:
- A sample software blog post
- A fictional SaaS landing page
- A product email
- A short case study
- A homepage rewrite
You don’t need a website full of generic work. The important thing is that your portfolio demonstrates the skills you’re selling. ProCopywriters’ 2026 guidance makes a similar point: a portfolio is more important than credentials when establishing yourself as a copywriter, and the profession doesn’t require a specific degree or formal certification.
If you are worried about building a portfolio with no clients, don’t. My video here shows you how to start showcasing your talents to land your first paying customers:
What Skills Do You Need?
It is a common myth that you need a ton of skills, loads of experience and even degrees to be a professional writer. In fact, you can start from nothing and learn as you go. However, being a freelancer and copywriter means combining two sets of skills.
As a writer, you’ll need to be comfortable with:
- Research
- Grammar and editing
- Structure
- Clear communication
- Adapting your tone
- Meeting deadlines
As a copywriter, you’ll also need to understand:
- Target audiences
- Benefits and features
- Customer problems
- Calls to action
- Marketing goals
- Persuasive writing
The good news is that these skills overlap and you will naturally learn them the more you write.
For instance, understanding your audience is useful when writing an informative article because you need to explain something in a way the reader understands. It’s equally useful when writing a landing page because you need to show why the reader should care.
So, rather than thinking of freelance writing and copywriting as two completely separate careers, you can think of them as two parts of the same writing toolkit. A toolkit that gets better over time.
Can You Make Money From Both?
Making money is important, and of course, you don’t want to be wasting your time. You can certainly build a freelance business around both services. However, your income will depend on factors such as your experience, niche, clients, services, rates and ability to find consistent work.
It’s also worth remembering that freelance income isn’t guaranteed. This is a hard truth that some writers ignore. Freelancing is typically a self-employed position, and you need to look for the work in most cases. This is why cold pitching and building a portfolio are critical.
However, you can get lucky and land agency work. Some agencies can provide you with steady freelance work, such as white-label content through services such as fatjoe.com. And freelancing, while challenging, does come with some benefits.
ProCopywriters highlights several benefits of freelance copywriting, including flexibility, client choice and variety. At the same time, it points out the challenges, including inconsistent income and the need to handle administration, marketing and other business tasks yourself.
Therefore, becoming a productive writer isn’t only about producing better words. You also need to become comfortable with the business side of writing. That means learning how to pitch, network, build a portfolio, communicate with clients and manage your workload.
Freelancer Copywriter: Do You Need To Choose?
So, do you need to choose between freelancing and writing copy? Not necessarily.
You might prefer to specialise eventually, and that’s perfectly fine. For example, you could discover that you love writing sales pages and decide to focus almost entirely on copywriting. Alternatively, you might enjoy producing detailed articles and guides while taking on occasional copywriting projects.
There’s also nothing wrong with changing direction as your experience grows.
Remember this:
“Anything you write is, at its core, selling something. Maybe that something is a product or service. Maybe it’s you.” — Kira Hug.
Her point is particularly relevant to anyone building a writing career because businesses continue to rely on words across websites, email, social media and other digital channels.
But maybe the more useful question, therefore, isn’t whether you’re allowed to be both. It’s which combination of writing services fits your skills, interests and the type of clients you want to work with. Something to ponder!
Summary
You can absolutely be a freelancer and copywriter. Freelancing describes your working arrangement, while copywriting describes a type of persuasive writing.
So, you can start with freelance writing, build your portfolio and client experience, and then add copywriting services as your skills develop. You don’t have to choose one path forever.
For many writers, that flexibility can be useful. You can test different services, discover what you enjoy and gradually build a writing business around the work you do best.