SEO Content Writing Advice: Should Freelancers Include a Phone Number on Their Site?

July 30, 2012 - PRLog -- One of the best things about writing SEO content as a freelancer is the freedom; you can work from any location, as long as you have an internet connection. I’ve been doing this kind of writing since 2007. However, because there are no hard and fast rules, how to go about setting up a freelance business can be confusing, especially if you’ve never done it before. This was underscored by an email I received from a new SEO writer, who asked:
Do you believe it is important to provide a phone number and email address right away when marketing for SEO content writing jobs, or is providing a contact email address enough in the beginning stages?
Before I get to my answer, let me give a little background on my beginnings as a freelance SEO content provider.

I’ve been a freelance writer since 1993, and as I stated above, I’ve been writing SEO content since 2007. I always had a phone number on my freelance writing sites. But, I took it off sometime around late 2008 or early 2009. The reasons is, I formed a full-fledged SEO writing company in 2008. I was no longer marketing my services as an independent contractor, but as a business entity.

I noticed that a lot of search engine marketing companies didn’t include phone numbers on their sites; they just had email addresses.

And, when I did have a phone number on my site, I didn’t receive that many phone calls. The vast majority of clients were happy to discuss jobs via email (well over 95%).

Now, does that mean that I wasn’t losing business by not listing a phone number on my firm’s SEO content writing site? I don’t know because it’s impossible to quantify what you can’t account for. I didn’t worry about it though, because my company was always busy enough without listing a phone number.

Also, if clients requested a phone consultation, I always accommodated them. But again, I can count the number of clients I’ve had to speak with via phone on both hands. It’s been very, very few.

The Most Important Thing to Consider When Trying to Decide Whether to List a Phone Number or Not on Your Content Writing Site

Know what your life goals are, ie, where you want to be in three, five, 10 years. Why? Because once you know what you want out of life, making decisions becomes much easier because then it’s just a matter of choosing the course that’s going to move you closer to your dreams, instead of further away from them.

For example, my goal as an SEO content provider was never to be the biggest company. I simply wanted to build a writing business that would allow me to earn a nice living, while freeing up time to work on other income streams, ie, writing and self-publishing my ebooks.

If I was trying to build, for example, a $10 million dollar a year SEO content writing company, then I would probably have made a different decision. But I don’t. Again, what this underscores is that once you know what you want out of life, making decisions becomes crystal clear.
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About the Author: Yuwanda Black heads New Media Words (NewMediaWords.biz), an SEO writing company. She’s the author of numerous ebooks on the subject, eg, "How to Write SEO Copy That Sells," as well as the creator of a leading SEO copywriter trainingc course, which teaches everything you need to know about not only how to write SEO copy, but how to earn $50,000 to $75,000 per year – your first year – as an SEO writer. Learn more at http://www.seowritingjobs.com/seo-copywriting-training.