I have someone interested in doing a contract with me.
They don't pay anything upfront but only pay on results.

20 pence for every extra £1 my sales letter generates for them.
But how do others do it:
would this be just for one mailing ?
a one off payment ?
for 12 months?
every time they use it?
Or what?

I wonder how you would word this in a contract?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like a BAD agreement

You have no idea how and to what extent they will exploit your work - and if you even get paid what you're owed.

IF you were to go ahead with something as problematic as this, you should make sure you get paid on all mailings done with your work. However, an offer where you get paid at least $1000-$5000 upfront and 5% of the gross or 10-25% of the increased earnings is much more fair (and should be the minimum good copywriters charge)

-Erik

P.s., Don't get me wrong: It's not bad to do pay-per-performance deals, just make sure that you get some kind of deposit and that you have a guarantee that you're going to get paid on success. I personally don't do pay-per-performance projects UNLESS they're already running and being exploited properly. That's where you maximize and SECURE your income potential.

You also need to specify that they don't screw with your copy.

In addition to what's already been sugguested...

Make sure this potential client has at least 100 unique customers who've purchased this specific product in the last 90 to 120 days, unless it's a high-ticket item (then 10 is okay.)

The numbers 100 and 10 are arbitrary, they could be 1,000 and 100 for you. The key is to make sure the product is already selling.

In my pay-for-performance work, I try to work against a proven control. If they don't have one, at least they have customers to interview and a selling process to model.

It's also nice for them to have at least 2 direct competitors.

If you're not 100% clear about this, why not do the job for a fixed price? Get your 50% deposit up front, 25% at the first draft, and 25% upon completion. (Again, could be 20%, 40%, 40%; or, 1/3rd, 1/3rd, and 1/3rd.)

And, get a lawyer familiar with intellectual property to write your agreement. Ask them to create a boilerplate you can use for other projects. Money well invested.

Best,

Justin

Even the greatest copywriters don't hit a homerun everytime they are up at bat. It just doesn't work that way.

Look, would your accountant accept you as a client only if he saved you $X dollars, and the accountant has to make that decision without knowing your finances or situation up front?

Would your doctor or surgeon accept you only if they were guaranteed to healed your ailment?

Would a venture capitalist fund your company only if he was guaranteed a certain return?

Even lawyers want to know about the case before they agree to take it on.

I'm not saying you should't accept the offer (well, yes, I am sort of saying that), but if you do, you should know every variable possible and only then make a decision.

Good luck!

John

That may be some of the best advice I've ever heard...

Here's a question:

Why do you feel the need to accept a job on this basis?

Is your sales pipeline completely empty and you're desperate for work? Or do you anticipate big earnings?

If big earnings are likely, then the client ought to be able to pay you something as a deposit, the rest on "commission". If they don't trust you enough to do a good job, then either you have to work on how you build credibility and trust with people, or you should find yourself a better quality of client.

If you want the work because your sales pipeline is empty, then I would suggest that you work at filling your pipeline, otherwise you'll be in the same position again once this job is over.

I wrote an article on charging models which you may find useful: http://www.attractioneers.com/genera...-get-paid.html

Hope this helps,
Jane

I agree with Jane. It's a draw against future commissions. You basically accept a guaranteed deposit (guaranteed means non-refundable) against future royalties, which are payable once the accumulated commissions exceed the deposit.

That's a great solution. I've been thinking about selling my services for results, and this is a good way to do it.