How To
Become A
Copywriter
(with No
Experience)
The definitive guide to become a copywriting, even if you have no
experience.
So you wanna learn how to become a copywriter my young & dumb
friend? Well it’s very possible. In fact, there’s really no formal
education you need. Some of the top­paid copywriters in the world
never went to college or took a writing class!
No education!
No formal training!!
Make lots of money!!!
…..now before you start getting crazy, let me step you back into the
reality of becoming a copywriter.
In this post we’re going to be covering A LOT (I suggest you bookmark
or print this page for later). The post is broken up into different
sections. You can click to jump to each section if you’d like.
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The Basics of Copywriting:
What is copywriting?
Why do people hire copywriters?
The Different Types of Copywriter You Can Become:
How to become a Freelance Copywriter
How to become Corporate Copywriter
How to become an Agency Copywriter
Copywriting Tools of The Trade:
Copywriting Books to read.
Copywriting Courses to take.
Copywriting Exercises to do everyday.
Copywriting Newsletters to sign up for.
Download the becoming a copywriter PDF eBook.
Copywriting Career Stories:
How I became a highly paid copywriter.
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How Jason became a freelance copywriter.
How Anthony went from a job to becoming a copywriter.
The Next Steps To Becoming A Copywriter:
Making a simple portfolio.
Copywriting Exercises to do everyday.
Copywriting Newsletters to sign up for.
Download the becoming a copywriter PDF eBook.
What Is Copywriting?
Copywriting is essentially moving words around to sell better.
Let’s say I work for a company that has a webpage which gets ​
1 out of
500​
visitors to buy something.
If I was a copywriter, I would figure out how to make ​
1 out of 100​
of
those people buy. This means 5x more sales from the SAME
webpage!
A good copywriter will understand how to do this with their words, and
also how to re­arrange pictures and buttons to get more sales.
A good copywriter is not just a writer.
They are a keen studier of the human
psychology behind purchase decisions.
However if you’re not an expert sales person, fret not….there’s still
room for you in the copywriting industry. We’ll talk about the different
types of copywriters later in the post.
Why do people hire copywriters?
Think of the huge amount of content a lot of companies have to put out.
A single insurance company will have to put out all this stuff:
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Ads on TV
Ads on the internet
Ads on radio
Brochures for B2C sales
Brochures for B2B sales
Brochures for every different product
Forms to fill out
Forms to fill out for various different product lines
Google ads
Facebook ads
Update their Twitter
Update their Facebook page
Make content for their website
Make the content for their website about each different
product
Make sure their content is converting
Make sure customers understand how to signup
Send customers packets explaining their policy
Have scripts for their sales people to follow
● Have scripts for their customer support people to follow
● Write press releases
● The list goes on and on and on and on…
Allllll of these things need to get written by or looked over by a
copywriter. And that’s just a single example! Some companies will rely
heavily on copywriters. Some companies (like 37Signals) require ALL
members of the team to be great writers before they ever start.
A copywriter is generally part of the marketing or advertising team. The
copywriter will be in charge of taking a product with lots of complexities,
and sum it down to it’s easiest (and most sell­able) components.
However there are several different types of copywriters:
● Agency Copywriters
● Corporate Copywriters
● Freelance Copywriters
….we will go over each one inside this post.
Know Your Goals….The Different
Types of Copywriter You Can
Become:
Saying “I want to be a copywriter” is a super vague statement. It
reminds me of when people in college would say “I want to major in
Business.”
…..it simply doesn’t mean anything without being specific!​(For
example in the business school, you can break it down into three main
areas: Marketing, Finance, or Accounting).
Similarly with copywriting, there are a couple of different routes you can
follow.
So which type of copywriter do you want to become?
Agency Copywriter?
Corporate Copywriter?
Freelance Copywriter?
Each of them does different types of work, makes different salaries,
and has pros/cons. Let’s go through them all:
If you want to become an Agency
Copywriter, here’s what you can
expect:
You will have to get a job for a big advertising agency such as Ogilvy &
Mather, GSD&M, or WPP. If you want to be a full time Agency
Copywriter, you will most likely have to move to a large city where
these agencies are typically located. This would most likely be in New
York City, Chicago, San Francisco and other large cities.
The Salary for an Agency Copywriter would be low as $35,000 in a
smaller city, and between $50,000 and $71,000 in a large city. But this
assumes you’re GOOD. I’ve met a lot of copywriters, and I’ve actually
never met an agency copywriter I can safely say made over
$100,000/year.
However the work is stable, you generally get to work in a
super­creative environment, and you get exposure to large brands
you’d otherwise never get exposed to.
If you want to become a copywriter at an agency, be prepared to work
with clients you don’t like or that are hard to sell. For example, you
might be in charge of coming up with a campaign to sell laundry
detergent. But the problem is the laundry detergent you’re selling isn’t
ANY DIFFERENT than the other competing brands!
This means you’ll have to get creative when trying to market these
types of brands. This also generally means you’ll be moving away from
the super­detailed testing of the direct marketing world.
In Direct Marketing you sell directly to people, and can track things at
every step of the way. At large agencies who are helping brands (such
as laundry detergents), they’ll typically tend to focus on Brand
Advertising methods which just get people to remember one brand, and
therefore buy it off the grocery shelves.
GETTING AN AGENCY COPYWRITERS
JOB:
Generally these jobs will ​
not go to total newbies​
. If an agency is
going to hire you as a copywriter, they’re going to want to see some
experience. And unfortunately there’s a lot of people from the aging
print­publication industry who have lots of experience that tend to grab
all the agency copywriter jobs.
However there IS some hope for newbies and young people vying for
these Agency Copywriter jobs:
Social media!
Older and more experienced people generally have less experience
with social media as they grew up in a different era. And since big
agencies are rapidly starting to charge their clients to take over their
social media presence also, they now need people to run these
accounts.
So a lot of agency copywriters are now moving towards their
Digital departments. And most of these people are younger and
social­media­fluent people.
So if you wanna become an Agency Copywriter, I would suggest you
learn the basics of direct­response marketing to learn about sales, but
then ALSO make yourself familiar with social media marketing and how
it will look in the future. Read studies about how Twitter is used in
advertising, or how Pintrest is used in advertising, or how Instagram is
used in advertising, or how Facebook is used in advertising.
This will greatly enhance your skill base and chances of getting a job
as an Agency Copywriter at a big advertising agency.
If you’re applying to an agency, they’re going to want to see you have
some talent. Examples:
Applying for a copywriting job in the Digital Social Media
department?
Maybe show them you have a huge following on Twitter or Pintrest or
Instagram. Show them the methods you used to gain such a following.
They will see you as more of an asset since you have actual
experience growing a following.
Applying for the direct sales department?
Show them you’ve read all the classic books on advertising (Ogilvy on
Advertising, The Boron Letters, The AdWeek Guide to Copywriting).
Then show them some samples of campaigns you’ve put out online for
yourself or others.
Applying for the department in charge of putting out brochures?
Show them you’ve studied graphics design principles. Show them
you’ve studies typography. Show them you know how to use software
like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to make mockup layouts.
You get the point…..basically if you’re applying for a highly sought after
agency copywriter job, it’s best to show them you already have the
skills to be a kick ass hire.
THE “GOOD” OF AGENCY COPYWRITERS:
You’re going to get exposed to TONS of brands. And some of these
brands sell in excess of $100,000,000/year of just a single line of
products. Even if you’re dealing with something trivial as laundry
detergent, you’re still dealing with enormous sums of money! This is a
great thing. That’s because when you’re dealing with that much
money, people are VERY CAREFUL with making moves.
So any changes in your marketing are thoroughly tested. While testing
each and every change can be tedious and frustrating to fast­moving
people, you will be exposed to advanced testing methods and start
learning what makes people actually BUY.
You’ll also get to work closely with some of the worlds largest brands,
and get to see all sorts of juicy inside numbers. Simply by being
around all this information you’ll learn some pretty valuable things at an
agency.
I think that if you ever plan on opening your own agency in the future,
then working as an agency copywriter for a while would be a very good
experience. I’ve personally never had a job before, which is
great….but when it comes to selling to very large corporations, it’s
taken me longer to figure out the process since I was never exposed to
that environment.
THE “BAD” OF AGENCY COPYWRITERS:
A lot of the good stuff mentioned before is also bad. For example when
you’re dealing with a client whose making $100,000,000/year from a
product line, they’re going to want SOLID PROOF that your changes in
marketing will work. They don’t want you making changes all willy­nilly
since something like a small 5% drop in sale equates to a loss of over
$5,000,000!
For this reason you will have to thoroughly test and fight for your
changes. Your work will also be heavily scrutinized by several
teams…..(all who will have “something” to critique on so they look
important)….which can be very frustrating.
I personally think the worst part about being an Agency Copywriter is
the fact that there’s very little upside when it comes to money.
Since you’re a an employee on a salary at a big corporation, you don’t
get to share in the rewards of your marketing. So if you increase sales
by 30% and your client makes an extra $30,000,000 that year……you
don’t make any more money. After all, they were PAYING YOU to do
all that work, and you did all that work with a TEAM….so it’s impossible
to tell if the 30% increase was caused by a single person.
This means if things go well, you still make your same salary. I
personally don’t like that model. However other people may really like
the security.
How to become a Corporate
Copywriter:
A corporate copywriter has a relatively boring but stable job. You will
most likely work for a single company like a law firm or large
corporation.
Let’s say there’s a large company that sells tractor and farm equipment:
● Anytime they have web page that needs to go up, you will be
in charge of what text to put in it.
● Anytime they make some brochures for a product, you will be
asked what to write in it.
● Anytime they have a TV spot to write, you will be in charge of
writing sample scripts.
As you can see, you’ll be working solely on the products the company
makes. And if you happen to not give a rats ass about their products,
then this will be one helluva boring job for you.
Salary ranges for a corporate copywriter can be from $35,000 to
$57,000 in my experience.
I’m not going to go into great detail on becoming a Corporate
Copywriter here because these jobs are typically lower on the interest
level for most copywriters.
Generally people go for Agency Copywriting instead…..or if you feel
like venturing out on your own, then you can go the freelance route.
Which brings us to our next section:
How to Become a Freelance
Copywriter:
Now here’s where a copywriting career gets interesting! (and I don’t
always mean in a good way). The upsides and downsides of being a
freelance copywriter have HUGE differences. Someone might earn
$800 in a whole year….some others can earn $2,000,000+ in a year. It
depends:
What a Freelance Copywriter Does:
A freelance copywriter jumps in whenever someone needs some
copywriting done.
Let’s say there’s a growing startup that’s selling a cool eCommerce
software system like Shopify, and they wanna start doing some
“content marketing.” <~~ SUCH a buzzword.
Well that means they’ll be making a lot of content in the form of blog
posts, press releases, how­to guides etc.
If they have no one to do write these in­house, they will often bring in a
freelance copywriter for the gig.
Now let’s say there’s some guy who invented a new supplement, and
he heard that building an email list would be great for his business.
Well he might hire a freelance copywriter to write an​
autoresponder
sequence​
for him.
This way he’ll be able to capture email addresses of potential
customers, and send them cool stuff every few days which will make
them want to buy his supplement.
A good freelance copywriter can do this.
Essentially it is the job of a freelance copywriter to either CREATE high
converting content, or IMPROVE the conversion rate of content.
Working Conditions For A Freelance
Copywriter:
A freelance copywriter can set whatever the hell schedule they’d like.
Wanna not work for 6 months? Well you don’t have to. I mean, you
might not make any money either, but you at least have the option to
take off if you want to.
While there’s unlimited flexibility, it also means your stability is funky.
There might be months when you get paid $5,000 to do a simple job.
Then there might be months where you can literally not find ANY work
at all.
If you aren’t well known in the copywriting industry (or other industry
that needs good copywriters), then things will be hard for you.
However if you become well known and well respected and build a
small following within an industry, you can have virtually unlimited work
or upside.
Freelance Copywriter Salaries:
Oh man, the income ranges for a freelance copywriter can vary
WILDLY!
I know people who call themselves “freelance copywriters” who make
less than ​
$20,000/year by freelancing.​They may get a random gig
here or there…..but they don’t make enough to actually live well.
I also know some other freelance copywriters who are popular in the
copywriting world (Such as Dan Kennedy, Gary Bencivenga, John
Carlton) who can bring in ​
$2,000,000+/year in profit​
from their
copywriting works.
I personally charge $400+ for a single hour. Or slightly less if hours are
bought in bulk.
However I also sell classes and courses. So my focus isn’t just on
freelancing.
Low­end freelance copywriters I know make:​
$3,000 – $15,000 per
year
These people do it as kind of one­off freelance work or a side­gig.
Medium­end freelance copywriters I know make:​
$75,000 –
$150,000 per year
These are people who call themselves copywriters, and have a
reasonable network of people they work with.
High­end freelance copywriters I know make:​
$300,000+ per year
(and this numbers climbs).
These are well­known people who can will high hourly numbers, or high
per­gig fees. Generally they will only work with someone willing to pay
them $25,000+ for a gig. Generally these people are ALSO very
capable business people, and tend to either take equity in other
companies, or have their own companies.
If you think about my the 100 consults I did in 2014. I billed them at an
average of $300 per hour. I would book up to 3 per day (keep in mind I
also run a business, so I couldn’t do them full­time).
3 consults per day x $300 =​
$1,200/day
Let’s say I did this just 3 days per week =​
$3,600/week.
Let’s say I did these 4 weeks per month = ​
$14,400/month.
Let’s say I did these 11 months out of the year = ​
$158,400/year.
At the time I had a following of less than 10,000 people, and could still
sell out all the consulting spots. So if I made JUST FREELANCE
COPYWRITING as a full­time career….it could bring in a decent
amount!
I had a following already before I started doing “The 100 Consults for
100 diff companies” experiment, but this was essentially how I did
it…..with a SUPER SIMPLE page like this!
The “payment buttons” were simply PayPal buttons. People would buy
pre­scheduled times. This way I wouldn’t have to do the stupid
back­n­forth of scheduling consults.
Also by selling pre­scheduled times, I could still go about my OWN day
very predictably, and not have to plan it around everyone else.
Every week I would send my email list a notification that I put new
consults on the page. Sometime there would be just 3 consults
available, and sometimes there would be up to 10 consults available.
Now a lot of these one­off consults would really like the consults and
want to use me more. So they would pay more to have me help them
for more hours.
So as you can see, the pay scale for a freelance copywriter is much like
any freelancer:
[No Network] + [Not Much
Experience] = Gets paid
crap.
[Lots of Network] + [Lots
Of Experience] = Gets paid
a lot.
So let’s go onto some other sections about how to become a highly
paid freelance copywriter:
How to Get Clients As a Freelance
Copywriter:
This is by far the biggest question I get. And people seem to forget one
thing:
Establishing yourself as a freelance copywriter is the same as
building a business from the ground up.
You’ve got to put in LOTS of effort in the beginning, show talent, and
not expect immediate riches. There’s no free lunches here boys and
girls.
A lot of people get entranced by the prospect of working from their
laptop from anywhere in the world as copywriter. In fact people go nuts
when I post pictures like this from various locations!
Since all my copywriting business is conducted from a laptop, I can
take off and go work from the beach.
Or if I wanted to drum up an extra $10,000 really quick …..I can just
devote some of my hours to copywriting gigs.
But these luxuries are the result of ​
hard work, actual results, and
existing exposure​
.
This won’t happen overnight for most copywriters. And probably
NEVER will for a lot of them. However I’ll share some of the ways I’ve
personally seen people get amazing (and high paid) copywriting gigs:
Get Copywriting Gigs Method #1:
Becoming popular on the web (my story)
If you become known as a famous copywriting figure, you will build
instant credibility.
And if you have high credibility, you can ask for more money.
So how did I build credibility for my copywriting career?
Building Copywriting Credibility Step 1.) Practicing what you
preach:
I originally ran a couple of businesses starting from high school, and I
first applied some copywriting techniques to the email list I had.
One business was called HouseOfRave and sold light up and glow
stuff. The email list had 7,500 existing customers on it, and I figured
that blasting their faces with cool pictures and products would
immediately make them buy from me.
So I sent out emails with custom pictures and lots of formatting that
looked like this:
So here’s the results of the hundreds of hours I spent on making these
emails along with the product photo shoots and writing descriptions of
the products:
● List size:​
7,500 (good)
● Open Rate:​
35 – 40% (really good)
● Sales:​2 (HORRIBLE)
The amount of time I spent vs the amount of return I got from these
emails was pathetic!! In fact I would make around $40 in profit from
each email, meanwhile the email service cost me
$80/month….meaning I was making a ​
net LOSS of ­$40​
!
That was pretty pathetic, but I just assumed everyone’s email list sold
poorly, but was good for “exposure”.
Ughh….I was so dumb & naive.
So at some point a friend pointed me towards the Gary Halbert
Letters…specifically ​
The Boron Letters​
, and I started reading those.
Soon after I realized everything I was sending on my email list was
totally wrong. So I then got the help of a copywriting friend, and sent
out the next email in true copywriting form. Focusing more on the text
than flashy images.
The next HouseOfRave newsletter that went out looked like this:
Notice the complete lack of pretty pictures or giant buttons. In fact
there’s just one main link to click, that’s it.
The rest of the email used psychologically­geared copy. Hitting on
concepts such as story lines, beneficial misfortune, alternate use
cases, and scarcity.
Remember how my last emails would get a maximum of 2 orders.
This email generate over 120 orders in the first two hours.​It was
so successful I had to take the promotion down because I ran out of
inventory.
From there I realized the power of copywriting. I even ​
made a course
showing exactly what you need to know, templates, and formulas to do
this on your own​
.
But that was just the budding seedlings of my Kopywriting Kareer!
My good friend Noah Kagan was starting a company called AppSumo
around the same time, and needed some help writing daily tech deals
to his email list.
Well I tried my hand at writing these deals with my new copywriting
superpowers. The very first deal we sent out resulted in Appsumo’s
first $10,000+ profit day!
I tried writing another deal.
And another…
And another……
And another………
And another…………
….and it just kept working super well.
Soon enough people were asking how the AppSumo copy was so
damn great, and got them buying all the deals.
People would actually LOOK FORWARD to being pitched by us! All
because the words in the email were so awesome to read.
For about two years 750,000+ were reading the words I was writing.
This was obviously amazing exposure.
Then through AppSumo I started releasing my own digital products.
Lots of them. About 13 in total, and I helped create many more.
One of the best­selling courses ever was ​
The Copywriting Course​
.
This was a “Kourse” I made for people to quickly learn all the tactics I
use in copywriting. But instead of subjecting them to countless books
and exercises, I designed the course so that people would be writing
better in under two hours.
I then started adding on more sections, templates, and formulas they
could use to learn copywriting for themselves and apply it to their line of
work.
This course definitely rocketed me into a much more well­known
copywriter.
After selling $1,000,000+ worth of that course, I started taking on the
occasional copywriting gig.
I would charge about $200 for an hour.
Then in 2014 I started a dedicated blog called ​
KopywritingKourse.com
which puts out copywriting articles, teaches people to write copy,
copywriting tear downs​
, and makes tools for writers.
Also in 2014 I decided to try doing 100 consults for 100 different
companies. I just wanted to get really good at writing copy and
advising others. The price for these consults was $280 – $315 per
hour.
Then after demand for that was too high, I eventually raised the price to
about $550 for a one hour session.
I also tried a “Rent Me Out For The Day” session which would last 8+
hours……but that wasn’t very fun for either side. Everyone got too
exhausted by the end, and it left no time in between for implementation
and testing.
So I went back to the hourly model, and most gigs were between 4 and
12 hours. A LOT would be accomplished in that much time. And the
results were stellar.
So now after all that experience and results I can quickly drum up
business by sending an email out to the thousands of people on my
newsletter. But that didn’t happen overnight.
So before you start dreaming of working on a laptop on a beach and
raking in $1,000’s of dollars for a few hours of work, just remember that
you’ve gotta start small first. Get exposure. Get GOOD.
Ok……so that’s my story, and you can copy something similar, or
here’s some other ways to gain copywriting street cred:
Get Copywriting Gigs Method #2:
Becoming popular in a specific niche
So a lot of lower­end copywriters will insist “I can write everything!” But
in reality they should niche down when they start. For example, if you
worked for a big health company and did a lot of writing for them, you
should call yourself a copywriter that specializes in the health space.
This will make it easier to gain credibility in a specific area.
You probably wouldn’t super­trust the guy who mows your lawn for
financial advice…..however you REALLY might take his advice on how
to hedge bushes and get a clean line on the edge of a lawn.
He has very specific advice, and lots of experience practicing what he’s
talking about.
Instead of being “just a copywriter” ….it would be better if you were “A
female copywriter who specializes in talking to 1st time expecting
mothers.”
It would be best to hang out and network in places where people are
selling stuff to 1st time expectant mothers. If someone need a
copywriter, and you have experience in EXACTLY their niche…..guess
who has a high chance of getting the gig??
My personal niche started out with smaller companies and daily deals.
Then moved into medium sized businesses.
However if someone approached me to write for 1st time expectant
mothers, I could DO It……but I don’t have experience and can’t exactly
relate to the struggles of that demographic. So I try to stick to my area
of expertise so I can deliver the maximum results.
Get Copywriting Gigs Method #3:
Becoming popular for big companies
THIS method can apply to certain people, and be quite lucrative.
Let’s say you worked for a big company in the marketing department
and you were exposed to how a big marketing department tests &
releases products.
If you were to build a nice little network in the same industry, and then
become a consultant with a VERY SPECIFIC expertise, then you get
some other big companies to fork over A LOT of money.
Smaller freelance gigs can pay a few hundred dollars. But a huge
corporation who is a doing an 8+ month rollout of $100,000,000+
product will pay you some phat­ass cash to ensure they do it right.
Now I personally probably couldn’t get one of these gigs because I’ve
never worked inside a huge company. That means I lose major
credibility ​
because I’ve never walked the walk​
.
But if you do have some very niche experience within a big corporation
and had a few big wins, you might be able to become a very
highly­sought­after consultant.
The cool part is you only need a few good contacts for this.
I know someone who wrote an oil­management program in the 70’s
that’s still used today. Till this day they sweet­ass gigs from multiple
companies JUST to be around if anyone needs help implementing it.
Since the projects he consults for are $2billion+ …..the companies
don’t mind shelling out major cash just to keep him around.
Boring? Yes.
Sweet cash flow? Yes.
This is one of the benefits of working with a big company:
You know how to implement projects within a large company.
That is actually a rare skill.
Get Copywriting Gigs Method #4:
Small­time gigs
Now there are some other ways to get copywriting gigs, but I’ve never
seen anyone who consistently made big money doing these things
alone, so I’ll just list them quickly:
● Posting on ​
Fivver for copywriting gigs​
.
● You’ll definitely get some leads this way, but your clients will
usually be bargain­hunters and not HUGE jobs.
● Posting on Craigslist as a copywriter for hire.
● This will generally result in corporate copywriter jobs that are
relatively low­paying ($35,000 – $45,000).
How to Charge Clients As A Freelance
Copywriter:
There’s several methods to charge clients, and I will cover all of them:
● Per hour basis.
● Per project basis.
● Getting a percentage.
We’ll discuss each below:
Charging On A Per Hour Basis As A
Freelance Copywriter:
This is by far the most simple way to charge. If something takes you 2
hours, you bill for it. Maybe $200/hour….whatever.
For example, if a client has an email they want to revamp and make
work better, and you take 3 hours to write it….you can charge them
[Your hourly rate]​
x​
[Hours it took]​
=​
[Your fee]​
.
I personally like this method for the first couple of hours of working with
a client. I get a handsome chunk of change, the client gets a nice
amount of work done, and we can both see if we enjoy working with
each other. (Trust me, there’s some people that sap your energy that
you DON’T want to work with).
Charging On A Per Project Basis As A
Freelance Copywriter:
This can either be a lucrative way to charge, or a total time­zapper.
Lets say you talk to a client, and agree to write as autoresponder for
their business. You can say “I will write an awesome 8­email
autoresponder for $3,000 for you!”
Divided out, this sounds like $375 per email. Which if this is how the
project goes, would be decent money.
But often projects run time­heavy because of meetings, disagreements,
changes and such.
So I would make sure you are ok to spend at least 30% more time than
described doing the project for that amount.
Charging As A Percentage As A Freelance
Copywriter:
This generally only works if you work for cheap up front, and accept
payment later IF the product succeeds.
However only seasoned copywriters tend to get these gigs. Or if you
DO get this gig a a beginner, it’s usually for a company that (excuse my
country accent): ​
aint’ makin’ no dang money!
However if you are a medium­tier or top­tier copywriter with a proven
track record, you can arrange to do a bunch of copywriting work for a
smaller­than­normal­fee…..but ALSO get a percentage of the increase
in sales.
So let’s say ACME Concrete is making $10,000,000 in sales per year of
concrete. Well if you arrange a deal for a 10% payment for any
increase in business, then you can make some sweet cash.
If you optimize the hell out of their marketing, and the next year they
sell $14,000,000 of concrete…..then you come out of the deal with
$400,000.
Advanced ad­selling guys will often negotiate “a percentage of ad
spend” as their payment.
These deals are obviously harder to acquire and structure…..but can
be hella lucrative. They can also be a major disappointment if the
company doesn’t follow through on your advice. So it’s best to play
these by ear.
Of all the top copywriters I know, they’ll ATTEMPT to take a
percentage, but I only hear of 1­to­3 REALLY BIG WINS in everyone’s
careers. Most of the deals end up being lucrative, but not insane.
Make a Simple Copywriting Portfolio:
Ok, listen to me carefully young buck:
You DO NOT NEED a fancy website. In fact, I’ve ​
never never ever
seen someone get a copywriting gig directly from their portfolio.
EVER!!
The reason is: people are looking to hire you based on your skills at
copywriting. Not “how fancy your website looks.” This is a common
mistake. Look how crappy my ​
copywriting consults page​
is. That page
generates huge returns even though it sucks super bad. The desire to
buy is created from previous exposure to me, NOT the way the page
looks.
People will spend months and lots of money and time on a fancy
website, only to realize NO ONE IS COMING TO IT. The only people
going there are the people they meet directly and tell to go there.
The best type of copywriting portfolio is a simple page with the following
elements:
● Your name.
● Your expertise (Social Media? Landing Pages? A/B
Testing?).
● Three examples of your work.
● How they can book a session with you.
I know it sounds counterintuitive, but some of the best copywriting
pages I’ve EVER SEEN are super simple one’s like this:
See how simple that is?
It also only leaves them ONE option of what to do next, and that’s to
book a session with you.
These sessions should generally be a minimum of $100.
If a client is not willing to pay at least $100 for a consultation session
where you point out everything wrong with their page, they are NOT
going to buy anyways.
My minimum consultation session is $400 now. And I’ve learned the
hard way that if people are not willing to pay it, they are not going to be
willing to pay you more (or they just simply can’t afford it).
Oddly enough, the more I charge for each hour session, the more
respect and compliance I get from the client! They want to make SURE
they get their money out of that session , so they ensure they show up
on time and show up prepared.
And if we both decide that the hour­long session was enough, then at
least they got lots of value, and I got paid a nice little amount for an
hours work.
Now some people may object to this “paid hour” type of consult and
ask:
“But what if I want to do a free session for someone??”
I would personally avoid doing free sessions. Because what generally
happens is:
1.)​
Everyone gets excited about working together.
2.)​
You setup a meeting with this “prospective client”.
3.)​
You prepare for the meeting and draw up a proposal.
4.)​
You talk with the client and tell them what you’re going to do for
them.
5.)​
They tell you “let’s talk again soon after I run this by my boss.”
6.)​
You never talk again…..and all that time was wasted.
7.)​
You become sad and poor :­(
To get people taking you seriously, you need to charge them for your
time. If they decide to go for a full contract with you, then you can
comp them the hour long session. However if they don’t go with you, at
least you still get paid.
Charging people for your time is a sure­fire way to get them to value
your services.
Every single successful freelance copywriter I know ALWAYS
charges for their time.
Copywriting Tools of The Trade:
Well if you wanna be a copywriter of any type, you BEST be versed in
the art of copywriting!
Copywriting Books to read:
s
Here’s the reading material I strongly recommend:
Recommendation 1.)​
Read ​
The Gary Halbert Letters​
(Free) Start by
reading “The Boron Letters”. Make sure you print each chapter out for
maximum effect!
Ch ​
1​
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You can also buy ​
The Boron Letters​
directly from Amazon.
Or ​
download it as a PDF here​
.
Recommendation 2.)​
If you want a book that sits on your desk and
can re­cap this kourse quickly, then grab my book called ​
“This Book
Will Teach You How To Write Better”​
from Amazon.
Recommendation 3.)​
Read ​
Advertising Secrets of the Written Word​
by
Joseph Sugarman. This book usually costs in the $30 range, but is one
of my go­to books for ideas on how to position copy. Almost every
successful kopywriter will know this book.
Recommendation 4.) ​
Also, check out ​
Ogilvy on Advertising​
by David
Ogilvy (great for traditional advertising advice as well)
Recommendation 5.) ​
My #1 recommendation however for learning
how to write great copy by TONIGHT is the ​
Kopywriting Kourse​
. This is
not a book, but rather a video course. This copywriting course will take
you through the basic mindsets, methods, and formulas you need to
learn kick ass sales copy…..within less than 2 hours. You also get tons
of bonus content for more advanced copywriting in different areas (like
sales, eCommerce, digital products and way way more)….
The Next Steps To Becoming A
Copywriter:
I showed above in this post some good things to do first:
● Read the copywriting books I recommended above.
● Making a simple copywriting portfolio.
● Put yourself out there.