In his blog post today Michel Fortin answered an irate email
asking if you really could make money writing copy.

It occurred to me that when it comes to courses and advice
teaching you how to make money from your copywriting there
may be a few steps missing.

In particular I think most of the advice, while excellent, tends
to make the assumption that your copywriting is at a high
enough level that you can actually produce the quality of
copy expected at the higher pay levels.

But if you look at the samples of most copywriters it's kind
of obvious that this isn't really true.

And I would bet that many copywriters trying to make a living
will never have the skill, talent or dedication to be A level copywriters
like Clayton Makepeace.

The other thing I've noticed that seems to be missing from these
courses are real in depth stories of the early struggles to break
into the professional copywriting world (probably because the
experience will be different for everyone).

So in this thread I'm going to give you 2 things:

1. A breakdown of my first paying clients and how much they paid
me (I'm going back a few years so I've approximated pay levels).

2. My suggestion for simple ways to make money as a professional
copywriter that don't depend on you writing brilliant copy (in other
words the answer to "What can I do TODAY to start making good
money?")


1. If copywriting was my only source of income when I started
out actively seeking clients it would not have been pretty.

But I did get paying clients in my first year including:

Business networking group owner (online sales letter and report)free in exchange for referrals and credibility (referred me to the software consultant below)

Software consultant (online sales letter) $100-$500, (then a report) $100-$500
Total time spent on sales letter and report was less than 8 hours work. Software consultant referred me to the virtual assistant

Virtual assistant (online sales letter) $100-$500 Less than 3 hours work.

Software consultant also referred me to an insurance agent (online sales letter) $1,000-$2,000 Total time spent under 10 hours work.


Made some suggestions (free) to improve the sales letter of an online marketer selling
a golf information product.

This led to:
Sales letter $400-$800, Email copy ($100-$200), 2nd, 3rd and 4th sales letters (each $400-$800), more email copy ($100-$200). Each sales letter took less than 8 hours.


Wrote online sales letter for a client's yoga product plus a letter to help them
get referrals from businesses ($1,000-$3,000) Around 10 hours work.


Came up with an idea to create business for a prominent online marketer and
offered to write the sales copy for this idea in exchange for marketing products.

This led to being hired repeatedly in the $2,000-$6,000+ range by this marketer.

Also led to percentage of turnover deals with the same marketer.



This is compressed down and doesn't include all the ridiculous deals I was offered
(some of which I followed through on) etc etc.

There were quite a few deals that looked like they'd make great money but didn't
for one reason or another. You should probably expect this until you get better
at picking the clients and deals that are worthwhile.

It did take me a good 12 months to start really making money
although my activity level was very high

I think you need to be realistic when you're starting out.

If you're aiming to make an income similar to a doctor or surgeon you have to
keep in mind how long someone in a high paid profession takes to develop their
skill and how many hours they work to get there.

Most doctors will study and work a good 7-9 years before making a six figure
income.



2. In hindsight is there a quicker way to make money?

What would I have done to ensure a steady income right from the start?

First I would have mastered getting a professional looking website onto the internet
in the first few weeks instead of taking 12 months to really master the basics.


Then I would have gone straight to the most lucrative cashed up, easy to
access market...local business owners.

Notice how nearly all of my early clients were business owners.

They were also VERY easy to deal with.

They had no copywriting knowledge and almost no marketing knowledge.

When I suggested changing the home page of their website to sell a free
consultation or just to sell their services and they started getting clients as
a result they thought I was a living breathing genius.


Instead of trying to sell my services as a copywriter I would simply have
walked into the local businesses in my area and sold my services as
an online marketing consultant/direct response website designer.

It is not difficult to get the owner of a small to medium sized business
to write you a check for $1,000 to $2,500 to help them either get a
website up or improve their website so it brings in real sales.

The same owner will spend over $1,000 just on the production of a
TV ad before they even pay for the advertising spots.

You can also look at their client follow up methods etc etc and see
opportunities for writing copy there to make a business more sales
(and of course you get an extra fee).

Once you start making a business owner money you can go back to
that owner over and over with ideas and improvements and charge
him again and again.

And he'll give you referrals (notice how nearly all of my early business
came from referrals even if I was grossly undercharging to begin with).

This is simple, virtually cost free (you just talk to business owners in
your local area) and the quality of your copy is not an issue.

Best of all you'll be doing business owners in your local area a tremendous
service.

Most local business owners really struggle to make a good living and they
get ripped off by advertising agencies, TV stations, radio stations and
newspapers with advertising that will never make them a profit.

You can help business owners make real money with very little cost or
risk.

And you can make a very lucrative income even when you're starting out as a
copywriter.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh