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When friends and family ask me what I do I usually give a pretty vague answer… Sometimes I say “I write for websites”… Sometimes I say I “help companies sell products online”… And those answers are true in a sense…
So this is about what I REALLY do for a living, the good, the bad and the ugly…
I Don’t Get Paid To Write.
If you want people to assume you’re broke tell them you’re a writer.
There isn’t a business owner on this planet that goes to work and thinks “Hey, I’m going to throw a few grand down on a writer today…”
Business owners want to make more money. Period.
They don’t care if I’ve got a Pulitzer Prize (for the record, I don’t)…
They pay me to do one thing and one thing only. Make money.
I Get Paid To Sell.
That means I help with branding products, positioning products, identifying markets, consulting with clients on driving traffic and increasing conversions…
Ultimately I do write the sales copy… But that’s only one of many hats that a copywriter has to wear if they want to be successful.
I personally don’t even like the term “copywriter”… Technically a “copywriter” is a writer who writes sales material…
But a lot of people group that in with writers who do blog posts (This is the only blog I write for), articles, reports, things like that…
And those are two completely different worlds.
A REALLY good “content” writer can make about $50 for a 500 word article…
A REALLY good “copywriter” can pull $3k-$30k+ for one sales letter.
A quote I like…
“I have always believed that writing advertisements is the second most profitable form of writing. The first, of course, is ransom notes . . . .”
Philip Dusenberry, quoted in Eric Clark, The Want Makers: Inside the World of Advertising, 1988, New York: Penguin Books, p. 56.
99% Of People Don’t Need My Services.
I doubt I would have ever fallen into doing what I do without the internet… And my specialty, writing advertisements for online businesses, didn’t even exist until about 12 years ago.
Most small businesses simply don’t have the cash to cover my fee… A lot of businesses have no idea how powerful a winning advertisement can be…
Most people reading this have no reason to ever hire me… I understand that.
But for the RIGHT type of client, my service is one of the best investments that they can make…
I’ve seen, on numerous occasions, my clients go live with my sales copy and cover my (admittedly relatively high) fee with a single email blast… And go on to make hundreds of thousands of dollars using the copy I wrote.
Is Being A Copywriter Right For You?
Only you can answer that, but I’ll give you some things to think about…
Being a copywriter is 95% understanding SALES and 5% writing. I’m lucky, both of my parents are amazing sales people and I was thrown into the world of sales at a young age…
The definition of copywriting is “salesmanship in print”.
That means understanding psychology, knowing how to press emotional “buy” buttons, market research, driving traffic…
Having a way with words helps too. If you’re paying attention there are grammar mistakes all over this post. I use short sentences. Short paragraphs. I use a lot of …. (which means “keep reading”)
That’s all by design… It makes things flow and easier to read.
There’s a rhythm you have to use to grab people’s attention, convince them to read your offer in the first place, and then ultimately buy whatever you’re selling.
I’ve been obsessed with this stuff for two years now, and I’m still constantly learning.
You Have To Be Able To Sell Yourself.
Before I freelanced for other people, I was selling my own stuff online.
I had proof that I could write a winning advertisement and sell a product. When I first started out, I thought $500 for a sales letter was good money. The thing is, it takes about 40 hours to research and write an effective sales letter.
When I started figuring out what works and getting some experience, I raised my fees considerably. When you watch a guy make $100k in 24 hours off of the sales pitch you wrote, it puts the value you’re providing into perspective.
Most of my clients now either come to me or are repeat clients. But that wasn’t always the case.
There’s a lot of competition. There are guys out there who will do my job for $200 (usually inexperienced copywriters, they’ll generally quit because they can’t sell or raise their fees when they figure out that they can.)
There are guys with years of experience who charge $10k to $100k+ for a single project… They can command fees like that because of their track record.
I fall into the middle. I’ve got a great track record, but I’m not as experienced as a lot of guys.
And you can’t just walk up to someone and say “Hey, I’ll write you a sales letter for $x,xxx…. Deal?” The sales process for copywriting is a very long and involved process.
It usually involves dozens of emails and hours on the phone… And it’s not uncommon to have a client waste hours of your time if you don’t prequalify them first.
You Write Your Own Paycheck.
That’s a double edged sword.
On the one hand, the people who do this job well, the best of the best, can become wealthy doing it.
On the other hand, it’s completely up to you to get clients… And if you can’t sell yourself you won’t make any money. Not having money is no fun.
On top of that you HAVE to put 110% into every single project you take on. When you get to the level where people are paying you 4 figures or more, they expect sales… And if you don’t deliver word will get out fast.
But if you DO produce results, all you need is a small hand full of clients to keep you busy. Once you make them money once, if they’re putting out another product, they’ll be calling you…
Sometimes It’s Not Much Fun.
I work by myself, 40 hours a week, in my apartment.
I do get to interact with quite a few interesting people… I’ve got marketers who are household names on speed dial.
As I’m writing this I’m chatting with a world famous real estate investor on Skype…
I’ve built relationships that will help me out for years to come, and I never would have had those without being a copywriter.
Sometimes you’ll get a project that seems like you’ll NEVER be able to finish it… A couple of my least favorites in recent memory include ads for a hair care product for women and organic dog food.
Sometimes writing just sucks.
I’m flying through this post because I love the subject matter… But there are plenty of days where the last thing I want to do is sit and stare at a computer screen all day.
There are days where I’ll sit and stare at a blank page for hours and only come up with a couple hundred words of copy.
I’m not complaining though…
I wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world. I plan on doing a lot of traveling over the next couple of years, and although it’s been a long process to get to where I am now, I’m starting to make a name for myself, gain a little bit of recognition, and make some decent money.
The Grass Is Always Greener…
If someone told me a few years ago that I’d be working for myself from home, I would have been ecstatic…
Now that I am, I still think about getting a part time job or maybe a job at an ad agency because I miss the social interaction.
I think I’d go back to freelancing eventually though. Working my own hours is pretty nice, and ultimately I got into this more for the freedom than making money.
So even though I spend my working hours by myself, I get plenty of free time to spend with friends and family.
This Is A Temp Job.
It’s kind of funny.
I quit my job to market online… I never intended to be a freelance copywriter.
Once I started talking to guys who do it, I realized that this is my favorite part of the business… Coming up with the offer, creating the “big idea” that motivates people to buy…
And when I realized I could leave the product creation and all of the other “boring” parts to the client, and I could make a nice living doing the part I enjoy, that’s when I went freelance.
There’s a great deal of satisfaction when you see a client succeed with something you wrote. There’s also a little bit of jealousy… “Wow, he’s getting rich, why didn’t I just hire myself?”
And that’s exactly what I plan on doing this year.
I’m going to cut back on client work and focus on my own publishing company.
If you’ve got the ability to make money for your clients, it only makes sense to hire yourself…
Also, unless you’re charging royalties for your work (which I rarely do), you’re still effectively trading your time for money as a freelancer… You could be setting up automated income streams during that time so you do the work once and get paid over and over again.
Do You Have Any Specific Questions?
Do you want to become a copywriter, or even a freelance writer? Need help getting started? Finding clients? Learning the craft?
Ask anything you want to know in the comments, I’ll do my best to help out.
And if you want to make your next product launch a home run, check out what my clients are saying over at ResultsCopywriting.com.
Peace,
-Scott Murdaugh
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post. But if you can “watch a guy make $100k in 24 hours off of the sales pitch you wrote,” why would you want to be a copywriter for others?
Yeah…
That comes from having massive email lists, JV’s, etc…
I don’t mean to take credit for ALL of the money… I don’t have the resources that these big marketers have yet…
Copy is part of the equation… The product, offer and traffic are all more important.
To be completely transparent here, if you throw enough traffic at almost ANY page it’ll make money…
The trick is making maximum money off of the traffic.
Also, if you missed the last part of the post, I’m switching the focus towards more of my own stuff and less client work.
Thanks,
-Scott
Hey Scott,
I’ve just started reading your blog and this post in particular is like a page ripped from my own diary describing the last two years of my life, even your attitude is a carbon copy of mine!
Although I now work full time as a copywriter, with good testimonials and slowly raising my prices, I still have a couple of problems which I’d love to hear your personal feedback on if possible?
They are:
1. Although some of my copy produces decent conversions (5% in some cases), other copy I write in niches like pet dog care, seem to suck at converting. When the client asks why it’s not converting, I look at the page and can only ever see a few possible reasons (usually lack of testimonials). I ask where the traffic comes from, and they always say “targeted keywords, reputable JV partners” etc etc.
This KILLS me man, as I start to doubt my abilities – yet, I must know how to sell, if I’m able to get results for others.
Have you ever experienced this, and if so, how do you handle it?
2. There’s always something missing from most copywriting books (even in work from Caples and Kennedy’s ranks), which is, the methods for researching your market. Perhaps this is where my niche copywriting could be struggling? You say you spend 40hrs just doing research, could you be kind enough to share where you spend your time researching? I use forums, amazon and competitor products as a starting base, but perhaps I’m missing something?
Thanks Scott, love your work so far…
Nick B
Hey Nick,
I’ll do my best to help out.
1. No one, not me, you or Kennedy hits a home run every time. Most marketers should know this.
That’s why I don’t write for clients who are up and coming… Because if they’re taking out a second mortgage to cover the copywriting fee that’s too much risk for them and too much stress for me.
Second, I’m really picky about what I’ll write for. I turn down a lot of work just because I’m not comfortable with it. FYI, the worst performing letter that I ever wrote (to my knowledge) was in the dog health niche. That’s just a tough market, the buyers aren’t desperately looking for a solution.
I know the feeling when a letter bombs, it sucks. But as you know a lot of factors come into play, traffic, the offer, the client editing our work, price points, a dead market, whatever… And no matter what the problem really is, they’re going to blame the copy.
I had a really high profile marketer contact me awhile back. He showed me his product, and I didn’t think it would sell. It was in the video game niche. He approached me, said he liked my work, and if I could knock it out of the park on this project he could keep me busy full time.
I told him “I don’t think this will sell very well”… He disagreed. And he’s a self made millionaire, I’m not, so I went ahead and did the copy.
I turned it in, he loved it. I contacted him a week later, and it wasn’t totally bombing, but it was only converting at about 1%… I think he expected better, because I’ve contacted him a few times and he’s never hired me again.
What I like to do now is work with clients who I’ve worked with in the past, in niches that I’ve always done well in. I tend to do well with SEO, SEM, financial, self help and a couple of other niches.
My best clients will approach me before they create a product. Right now I’m finishing up the copy for some software that’s still being developed. But I consulted with the developer on the concept before he started working on it… I’m confident that it’ll sell.
So really, as easy as it sounds, work with people you work well with and only sell stuff that people want to buy. That’s my trick to keeping everyone happy.
2. As for the research, I’ve got an awesome library in town. If I need to do a lot of research I’ll hit the library up for a couple of days… Gets me out of the house and it’s a great place to research stuff.
Amazon is great for figuring out why people buy or don’t buy. If you haven’t seen Jay Abraham talking about it Paul Hancox did a great write up about it on his blog…
http://copysnips.com/copywriting/how-to-transform-poor-great-copy/
For specific information like bullets and the USP I look at the product itself.
And to cut down on research, again, I usually try to stick to markets I already know well. I know PPC inside and out. Same with SEO.
I’m not afraid to branch out into new markets if it’s a product that interests me, but most of my work is in markets that I’m already familiar with and have had success with in the past.
Thanks for the comment Nick.
-Scott
One thing I struggle the most with is marketing my website. I don’t have a lot of money to spend on it so I try to get the best value for my money. I sell pet clothing (not so easy in today’s economy). I have a drop-shipper so I don’t carry any inventory (at least not until I make enough money to make it economical to have inventory), I found a great low cost storefront for my Wordpress blog called Market theme., I got help from a graphic artist relative to create a great (and free) logo and a set of pet “characters” to add personality to the site (and are available as a separate line of human clothing). All this for little money. Now I have to figure out how to get the best marketing with minimal expense.
Many have told me that marketing and advertising is one area you don’t want to skimp but I really have no choice. There must be low cost or free solutions that work at least a little bit. I’m convinced of it. So my adventure begins….
Great post, Scott!!!!
The copy is what stands between the product and the money. that’s why copy is the greatest skill of ‘em all.