A Day in the Life of an SEO Writer
I’ve been a freelance writer since 1993. Last year, I started to do SEO writing, and my days have changed tremendously. Following is an account of a day in my life of an SEO content writer.
SEO Writing: The Daily Rundown
7:00 am -9:00 am: I set my alarm to get up at this time now because I’m not a morning person. “Before SEO,” as I’ve come to think of it, I would climb out of bed sometime between 7:30 and 9:30 am.
I never used to get up by an alarm clock unless I had a deadline to meet that I knew would require an extra-early morning. Now, I get up and get my marketing done because I usually work right through the day on client projects and have no time to do it later.
Oh yeah, the first thing I do is get my coffee; usually even before I brush my teeth. Maybe gross, but necessary to get the brain cells working 
9:00 am - 3:00 pm: This is when I get the bulk of my work done on client projects. Sometimes my marketing will run to 9:30 or even 10:00 if I’m on a roll, but I’m conscious that this is the hour dedicated to get down to existing client orders.
Client projects can range from writing articles to press releases to blog posting. The vast majority of my SEO writing work is 500-1,000 word articles. I’m starting to get more blog posting work, but the articles are usually what most clients want.
Usually, clients order in units of 5 or 10 articles at a time. So, I may write five articles on mortgages for an internet marketing firm in Canada, and five on small business for an online news site in South Carolina.
Ten articles is about the most I can write in one day — that is, if the client expects coherency (darn it, most do!). That’s about 5,000 words, and when you count in updates to my own blogs, my newsletter, email and responding to queries from readers and postings on other blogs, I probably write somewhere between 7-8,000 words/day, easily.
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm: I do my best to stop and have lunch. I schedule it like this because Judge Judy comes on at this time and she always cracks me up! Lately though, I haven’t been able to stop; I’ve been grabbing a piece of fruit and working straight through.
3:30 pm - 6:30 pm: After eating lunch, no matter how lite I eat, I’m usually sleepy for the next half hour to 45 minutes. Consequently, I’m dragging. So I surf for a little bit until I feel my second wind kicking in.
By 4:15 or so, I start to feel more energized, and will work right through until 6:30 or 7:00.
My fiancée works at night, so we try to squeeze in some couple time between 7:30 -9:30. Once he goes to work around 10:30, I may log back on and work until 12:30 or 1:00.
During the day, in addition to client projects, I also field calls from clients, work up proposals, handle billing, assign work to other freelancers, and do quality checks on projects that come back in from freelancers before passing them on to clients.
As you can see, it’s a full day.
Is SEO Writing for You?
If you’re considering becoming an SEO writer, you must be super-organized (years of freelancing had already gotten me into this habit), because unlike other types of writing, the projects have to be turned around quickly.
The Best Part of Being an SEO Writer
The pay, the pay, the pay! Clients tend to pay quickly and there are more repeat orders. If you like quick projects, decent pay and full, fast days, SEO writing is definitely for you.
What’s your day like?
Pain Management | January 23rd, 2008 at 3:26 pm #
I am not an seo writter in a sense of copy writing but I am an seo and designer. My working day is very similar to yours, but I am more of a night worker. I start my day at 11am and work right through to 2am in the morning.
Pay is not bad I agree.
Yuwanda Black (Post Author) | January 23rd, 2008 at 3:35 pm #
I wish I could start at ll am. I’m just always nervous that I won’t finish everything I need to do for clients during the day.
When I work in the evenings, it’s usually on my own stuff. I don’t like working on client stuff “after hours.” Strange, I know, as I work for myself. But working on client projects after 6 or 7pm seems too much like “work work,” as opposed to working on my stuff which is “fun work.”
The beauty of working from home though is that you can tailor your schedule to fit your unique quirks.
Thanks for the comment.
Yuwanda
Trisha Bartle | January 23rd, 2008 at 6:14 pm #
For this past year, I have been getting up whenever my body told me to. Now that business is really taken off, I may have to dust off my alarm clock and start using it again.
While that’s a shame (I like to sleep in!) it’s also evidence of my success. So I guess it isn’t all bad.
Jan | January 23rd, 2008 at 6:33 pm #
I’m part of SEO writer and this “job” is kind of hard sometimes.
Content Writer | January 26th, 2008 at 11:02 pm #
Hi,
Your post reminds me of my earlier days. I used to work for almost 10 hrs producing around 20-25 articles per day. that is around 10000 words of content. I agree the pay is nice also the amount of knowledge one gets every day and stay updated is a bonus.
Now I have got my own team of writers each writing on their master fields be it Health , Travel, SEO, REal Estate, Finance… I have got master writers for all. I invest my time in marketing my services and moderating the final output of the writers.
Infected By Bugs | January 31st, 2008 at 10:13 am #
Wow, busy day!
The Freelance Writer's Blog | January 31st, 2008 at 11:01 am #
Thanks everybody for the “comment love.” Yep, it’s a busy day. Many think that you have more free time when you work from home, especially as a writer.
This is so not the case. I’ve had other home businesses where I did have more down time. Writing is all-encompassing because you have to think — even when your brain doesn’t want to cooperate.
Like anything though, this career choice is a tradeoff. I love the feeling of being able to make money under my own steam. No worries about getting fired, being laid off, commuting, etc. I feel incredibly blessed most days (there are those days when I b*tch and moan about everything). Especially as we head into what seems like a recession.
I couldn’t imagine having to worry about depending on a job to make my mortgage payment. This stops my kvetching every time I get frustrated.
Freelancing rocks!
tina | May 27th, 2008 at 9:59 pm #
very hectic schedule i agree not to mention keeping the body figure without realizing it.
I just began with this job i am looking forward of having a full day ahead also because it’s nice to think that you have plenty instead of empty!