Becoming a full-time blogger isn’t the only way blogging can impact your career. You can also use your blog as a writing portfolio, which is how Araminta Robertson got into fintech copywriting.
Financial Impulse’s “Freelance to Full-Time” interview series explores a variety of freelance work and side hustles pursued for extra income, including the gigs that eventually become full-time.
Roughly 25% of all websites on the internet are blogs. With such a low startup cost, perhaps it’s no surprise—after all, anyone can start a blog.
But while blogs were once primarily used to share personal thoughts and experiences, they’ve become even more in today’s world: full-blown careers. True, only some bloggers make a career from running their sites, but many more leverage their blogs into job opportunities.
For Araminta Robertson, that’s exactly what happened. Now a full-time fintech copywriter, Araminta credits her personal finance blog with getting her into her current line of work.
Fintech, short for financial technology, is a new industry, having only emerged in the 21st century. It describes new technological developments made to improve or rethink financial services; some popular fintech names include Credit Karma, Robinhood, and Wealthfront. Needless to say, it’s a fairly specialized and technical industry—so how can you get into it?
Find out how Araminta did in her interview below.
How long have you been doing fintech copywriting?
We could say I started fintech copywriting around September 2018, so just over a year ago. This was when a new fintech company in Barcelona hired me as an intern to take care of their blog. So yes, my first ever fintech article was in Spanish. ?
How did you first get into fintech copywriting?
It all started with my blog, Financially Mint.
I started the blog at age 18, when I realized I knew nothing about money or finances. I used the blog to educate myself; I started reading a lot of books and then writing articles about topics such as tax, property investing, stock market investing, etc. Slowly the blog grew, and I realized I could teach other young adults about the things I was learning, too. I tried to establish FM as a resource for young adults to learn about money. Not sure if I succeeded. ?♀️
In the two years I was blogging, I did many guest posts, posted a lot on social media, and got involved in the personal finance community. I also started a podcast with two friends, which eventually led to a successful four-day conference in April this year. I made some great online friends, and some of them asked if I could help them out with post formatting, show notes, and other virtual assistant tasks.
Bit by bit, I started helping out other bloggers and getting paid for it. I started at £15/hour (~$19 USD) and slowly increased the price when I had more to offer.
I eventually realized I could make money writing articles, but I wanted some hands-on experience working with people in a company. At a fintech networking event in Barcelona, I met some co founders of a company that hired me as an intern after checking out my blog—that’s when I realized my blog was more powerful as a portfolio than as a business.
I hired someone to design my website and make it look beautiful, and I started writing about more tech- and career-related topics. Eventually I realized I could make much more money going freelance than as an intern. I started the grueling process of cold emailing fintech startups in the UK to offer article writing services. It was two months before I landed some pretty big clients. Super exciting—but I still wanted to explore more of the world and work abroad.
I decided to head for Australia, but would stop in Malaysia for three months to skip the Australian winter. I ended up staying five months, and not going to Australia. ? All along, I was freelancing for UK clients, but not making enough to satisfy me. So I decided to do some client searching in Malaysia. Turns out there is a fintech and startup boom going on in Kuala Lumpur, and in less than a month, I got offered three jobs and landed a few clients. Immensely exciting, and the clients pay me more than I’ve ever been paid in my life.
I’m now back in Europe, and trying to grow my client base remotely. In any case, my plan is to head back there in January!
Is fintech copywriting your full-time work or part-time?
It’s my full-time work. I try to work a maximum of 30 hours per week.
It sounds like you’ve tried a variety of work. What were your least favorite and favorite gigs?
I’ve been gigging since I got my own laptop. At 16, I was teaching English and Spanish online, writing and selling creative stories, translating, copywriting—you name it. I wasn’t making much because I was using platforms like Upwork and Fiverr.
My least favorite gigs were tremendously monotonous, such as transcription and translation—I’ll never do them again.
My favorite gigs are those that involve me writing articles on something new, or thought leadership. I love writing articles about AI, big data, and anything about the future of tech. I recently wrote a report for a large client on how insurtech is disrupting the insurance market and what are the possibilities with new technology. It took me like two hours to finish all the research, but it was so fascinating I didn’t mind!
What advice would you give to anyone interested in getting into copywriting, either as a side hustle or full-time?
I must admit that it’s my personal blog, Financially Mint, that helped me land many of the clients I have today. It’s well-designed (important!), it has emojis (important for startup tone of voice), and it positions me as an influencer/thought leader.
When I started the blog, I thought I needed to get as many pageviews as possible and build a community/audience. I don’t get more than a couple thousand pageviews a month, but the blog still looks established. It goes to show that sometimes a well-designed and well-written blog is all you need. ?
For this reason, I would tell anyone who’s looking to get into copywriting to start a blog. Publish something every week. Not every article has to be fantastic, but publish something that’s in your niche every week. Your writing will get better; so will your confidence; and you’ll also be researching and learning about the topics you’ll need to know to sell copywriting services.
I didn’t know I would become a copywriter when I started FM, so the website is 100% a blog. I would recommend others to first set up a professional copywriting website along with a blog, and publish regular articles on your professional website.
Now that I call myself a copywriter, I set up my own professional website and I’m also publishing regular articles on that blog. I don’t write on FM anymore; it works purely as portfolio (and to drive traffic to my professional site, Mint Studios ?).
Another great tip is to talk to other copywriters. Connect with them on LinkedIn and meet them for coffee. Ask how they get clients, what advice they have for you and what was their process to become a copywriter. This has been immensely useful to me too. And LinkedIn is gold—share all your weekly articles there, comment on other people, be active.
My final tip: cold pitching does work. Because it takes a ton of work and energy, people think it’s a waste of time. But it totally works, and thanks to this method, I’ve gotten four or five clients. Now that I have a professional website, I think (and hope) it will be faster and easier. Use the Writersincharge method to cold pitch.
You can read more from Araminta on Financially Mint and Mint Studios.
