34 Insider Secrets To
Making Money As A
Copywriter
34 Proven Ways Of Increasing
Your Cash Income As A Copywriter
© Copyright 2007 Andrew Cavanagh all rights reserved
This report reveals principles and techniques you can start using to make more money as a
professional copywriter today.
Let’s get started with the first secret…
# 1 You’re in the business of marketing yourself as a copywriter
You might think of yourself as a copywriter but making real money takes a change of focus.
You’re not in the business of copywriting, you’re in the business of marketing yourself as a
copywriter.
You need to devote a substantial percentage of your business efforts in creating an ongoing
stream of copywriting business for yourself even when you’re already busy.
This will increase the demand for your copywriting services, allowing you to charge more
and create more ongoing long term income.
# 2 Consistently market yourself and your services
Do at least one thing every day to promote yourself as a copywriter.
If you want to make serious money you might want to set aside one full day every week to
promote yourself.
Don’t stop promoting just because you have plenty of copywriting work or you’re busy with
work.
If you do that the time will come when you run out of projects and you’ll be left twiddling
your thumbs.
# 3 Define who your best copywriting prospects are
You can waste a lot of time with tyrekickers and prospects who can never pay you a
reasonable copywriting fee.
You need to determine exactly who your best copywriting prospects are.
What kind of businesses are they running? Are they already hiring copywriters and paying
good fees?
Do they value good sales copy?
You can also position yourself as a “marketing consultant” in a niche that needs sales copy
but doesn’t really understand what sales copy is.
Finding a tight niche with prospects who have the money to pay for your copywriting
services is a huge key to your success.
# 4 Become active on forums frequented by your ideal prospects
Make a daily trip to at least 3 forums in the niche where you’re looking for copywriting
clients. Answer questions in threads, make your own posts, be active.
Also make sure that your profile leads back to your own web site selling your copywriting
services and has your full contact details.
In the online marketing niche you could visit…
www.ablake.net
www.warriorforum.com
www.conqueryourniche.com
Keep in mind though that as far as copywriting goes the online marketing niche is very
competitive.
If you niche yourself as a “marketing consultant” for businesses in other niches you’ll
probably find it far easier to create paying work.
# 5 Bid for copywriting projects on job sites
There are sites online where business people go to find freelancers.
These include (but are not limited to)…
www.guru.com
www.Elance.com
www.Scriptlance.com
www.craigslist.com (when you enter this site you’ll be directed to listings in the san
francisco bay area – note that Craigslist has other states and countries listed on the right side
of the page)
You can pick up new copywriting clients on these sites and they’re especially useful if you
just want some copywriting projects you can use for the portfolio you show to prospects.
I strongly recommend that you bid high.
Bidding high sets you apart from other bidders and some business people will contact you
just to find out why you bid so much higher than anyone else.
If this happens you can explain what good sales copy is really worth and how much money
they could be throwing away by hiring a “cheap” copywriter.
# 6 Contact businesses looking for copywriters as employees
Email, mail or phone businesses who advertise a copywriting position and tell them you’re a
freelance copywriter.
Why would you contact a business looking to hire a copywriter as an employee when you
want freelance work?
It’s quite simple – you have a hot prospect.
You know this business needs sales copy and you know they’re willing to pay for it.
Just by getting in contact and letting them know you’re available you have a good chance of
picking up some freelance copywriting work with them immediately or in the future.
# 7 Niche your copywriting services
Find a niche where you have some knowledge or expertise and write copy for that niche.
You can become an expert in a niche very quickly by reading books, going to seminars, and
joining mailing lists in that niche.
If you’re the only copywriter in a niche where your prospective clients have money to spend
then it’s very easy to get work – you’re the only game in town!
# 8 Attend internet marketing seminars
Internet marketing seminars are a fantastic source of copywriting clients and online business
owners you can joint venture with.
The higher the ticket price usually the higher the quality of the copywriting prospects.
People who’ve already invested money in attending an internet marketing seminar are often
great copywriting prospects.
They’ve been told they need good sales copy on their sites and they’re willing to spend
money on creating a money-making website.
Some of the BEST prospects at an online seminar are the speakers.
The best time to talk to a speaker is not just after they’ve been on stage. Chat with them
when they’re more relaxed – at lunch, breaks, at the bar or even outside when other speakers
are on.
# 9 Give your own copywiting seminars
If you niche yourself well you can often speak at industry functions about copywriting or
marketing a business in that niche.
Being a speaker at a seminar immediately positions you as the go-to expert.
# 10 Joint venture to do marketing or copywriting teleseminars in a niche
You can find website owners in your niche and do teleseminars in your niche explaining to
business owners in that niche how to market themselves or how to create better copy.
Again this positions you as a genuine expert and you can do it without leaving home.
For 99 callers or less you can set up your own teleseminar line commpletely free at
www.freeconferencecall.com
You can do the call free or you can ask for a percentage of the price people pay to be on the
call.
You can also sell or give away recordings after the teleseminar is over.
Part of your joint venture deal could be writing the copy to sell the teleseminar to their list.
# 11 Avoid appearing desperate for work
Good copywriters get booked quickly (as I hope you will).
This means many of your best prospective clients are used to dealing with copywriteres who
are always busy.
If you appear to have all the time in the world to write copy that can set off alarm bells.
Why is this guy not busy? Is he crap?
So the way you advertise your services is important.
Tell prospects you have space for one or two more carefully selected clients not that you
desperately need a new client.
Always give a good “reason why” you’re willing to take on a new client.
# 12 Use professional business cards
When you meet a potential client at a seminar or business event you want to give them your
business card and that will be the contact they take from you.
Don’t waste space on your business card – use it to market your services.
Describe your copywriting services in detail, give your contact details and put the web site
URL where prospects can take a look at your copywriting samples.
If you have some kind of audio, report or blog to promote your services you may want a
link to that on your business card too.
If you’re marketing to more than one niche you may want to have a different business card
to promote your services in each niche.
You may also want to have a customized web site page for your copywriting samples in
each niche.
# 13 Create a copywriting portfolio
Put together a portfolio of your best copywriting work.
If you don’t have a lot of copywriting experience write some copy for products you like,
your own products or www.clickbank.com products so you have something to show
prospective clients.
You’ll want at least 8-10 different pieces of copy.
If you’re promoting yourself as a copywriter in a specific niche it’s a huge advantage if you
have a portfolio just for that niche.
You can create more than one portfolio if you want to promote yourself in different niches.
In this digital age the most convenient way to share your copywriting portfolio with
potential clients is a website. That leads to the next secret…
# 14 Create your own website to sell your copywriting services
Make the website a sales letter or report that sells your services.
Include samples of your copy on the website.
You can get free website hosting without ads at www.50webs.com
You’ll want your own domain name which you can get for less than $10 a year at
www.godaddy.com
If you’re in a niche your website could sell or give away an information product on how to
market yourself in that niche or how to write powerful copy in that niche.
It’s very helpful if you capture email addresses so you can follow up your web site visitors
automatically with tips and offers.
The most reliable email autoresponder service is www.aweber.com and costs $20 a month.
# 15 Consider having your own copywriting blog
You can set up your own blog free at www.blogger.com or you can use free wordpress
software at www.wordpress.org
It’s better for search engine optimization reasons to have your blog on your own site.
Many web hosts have scripts pre loaded and it’s just a matter of logging into your account
and looking for something like “web tools” and “free scripts”.
You’ll usually find a word press script and following the simple step-by-step instructions to
set up your blog.
If you’re using 50webs.com as your web host you’ll need to upgrade to the paid service
(which costs as litte as $3 a month) if you want to host your blog on your site.
If you just want a blog up and running fast you can have a blog without even having your
own website at both www.blogger.com and www.wordpress.com
So what do you use for content on your site?
If you’re posting on 2 or 3 forums every day you can have your blog account open and
simply cut and past your forum posts turning them into blog posts.
Make a few minor adjustments so the information is targeted to anyone who comes to your
blog and you’ll have fantastic content that grows every day.
# 16 Consider having your own copywriting newsletter
If you have a blog and you’re creating your own optin email list with www.aweber.com you
simply email your list every 4-7 days telling giving them links to the blog and the best posts
they should read.
You could also have an offline newsletter you mail to your best prospects and clients each
month that contains a few of your best posts adapted slightly.
This can be a VERY effective way to stay at the top of mind as a go-to copywriter with
prospects and clients.
# 17 Submit articles about copywriting and/or marketing in your niche to article
directories
Submitting online articles that give valuable advice to your prospects.
Online articles on copywriting and marketing can establish your credibility and send
qualified prospects to your website.
How do you create content for your website?
You simply use the content in your blog posts or forum posts adapted into an article format.
Good article directories you can submit articles to include…
www.submityourarticle.com
www.ezinearticles.com
You can also do a Google search for “submit article”…
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=submit+articles&btnG=Google+Search
If you submit just one article a week over a year you’ll have 52 copywriting articles pointing
to your copywriting site and building your credibility.
# 18 Find businesses with large email or mailing lists of past clients
You want a list of at least 2,500-5,000 names – preferably past paying clients.
Write copy to sell a product or service related to something they’ve already bought from that
business.
You take a percentage of the sales.
Offline you can offer to pay for the physical mailing and start with mailing just 300-500
past clients.
Or you can put their names into an autoresponder and email them over and over with offers.
You put up a website sales page to sell their product and tell them you’ll pay for everything.
In many cases you can also mail to that list yourself with your own offers.
# 19 Buy a list (SRDS) and sell a highly targeted product to that list
If you already have specialized knowledge in a niche you can go the the Standard Rate and
Data Service (you can take a look at a copy in most US libraries or you can buy a copy or
subscription at www.srds.com).
The SRDS is a compilation of mailing lists for hire.
By searching through the data you can find lists where you might be able to create your own
information product or use someone else’s product that you can create a sales letter for.
You buy the list and mail your offer to it.
If the list is large you start with 500 names and build the size of your mailing with the
profits you make.
If you’re mailing someone else’s product offer you may be able to get them to cover the cost
of the mailing.
# 20 Build a list of highly targeted copywriting prospects (SRDS)
You can also use the SRDS to find prospects who are already know they need a copywriter,
value the service and are willing to pay for it and have consistent work for copywriters.
Avoid potential clients who want to nickle and dime you or want sales copy for free.
Good copywriting clients are always willing to pay for results.
Since most ongoing communication these days is by email you don’t have to be close to
your clients geographicaly.
Here’s how to look for copywriting prospects in the SRDS (you can find a copy in most
public libraries in the USA or go to www.srds.com).
Write down the list broker for each mailing list in your niche.
Call or email them and ask for the “data card” and the “usage report” for the list.
The usage report tells you which companies have mailed to that list in the last 6 months.
That gives you a targeted list of companies mailing to your niche who hire copywriters.
You can then search online or in the phone book for the contact details of each company.
Find out who is hiring the copywriters (it’s usually a marketing director in larger companies
or the owner of the business in smaller companies).
Send the marketing director or business owner a sales letter selling your services with
samples of your copywriting work related to their niche.
In your first letter you want to establish that you’re a highly skilled copywriter and get them
interested in talking to you to see if you might be a match.
Follow up with a friendly phone call.
# 21 Build a list of highly targeted copywriting prospects (direct marketing agencies)
Direct marketing agencies are easy to work for and will usually hire any copywriter who has
a passable portfolio.
Some direct marketing agencies will pay $2,000 to $3,000 for the copy for a one page letter.
Their main concerns are that you know how to write copy (they’ll usually want to see a
portfolio), you’ll do a good job and you’ll get the job done on time.
You can access a free online directory of direct marketing agencies here…
http://www.salesvantage.com/d/Direct_Marketing_Consultants/direct_marketing_consultant
s.php
# 22 Build a list of highly targeted copywriting prospects (other copywriters)
Many copywriters will either pass on the overflow of clients they can’t handle or “farm out”
copywriting work – charging their clients and hiring another copywriter to do most or all of
the work.
You can find copywriters in DM news (you can get a free subscription if you live in the
USA)…
www.dmnews.com
You can also do a search for “copywriter” online. Check the pay per click ads listed in the
search results too…
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=copywriter&btnG=Google+Search
If a copywriter has a really large online portfolio there’s a good chance they’re farming out
some of their work.
Some copywriters are happy just to have another good copywriter they can pass on work to
when they can’t handle it.
Approach them by email, letter and/or federal express.
Try to get them on the phone.
Keep in mind that if a copywriter hasn’t heard from you in a few months he’ll probably
assume that you’re already booked up.
Be polite but persistent. Most copywriters are busy but if you persist and you can write
copy there’s a very good chance you’ll pick up copy by calling at the right time.
# 23 Use your telephone to call prospects
The fastest way to convert a prospect into a paying client is to get them on the telephone.
I you try to use email and mail alone you’ll lose a lot of great copywriting clients.
The sooner you call after they contact you the better (within the hour if possible).
Your object talking to clients is not to sell.
You’re just uncovering information.
You want to give useful information to your prospects and find out if there’s a way you can
genuinely be of service to them.
It’s also well worth the effort calling copywriting prospects “cold” to see if there’s any way
you can help them.
For a full report and audio on creating the mindset and skills you need to make successful
telephone calls download this report and audio…
http://www.hardtofindseminars.com/Transcripts/HMAT_Cold_Calling_Secrets.pdf

# 24 Take at least half your copywriting fee up front
Charge enough so that if you never get paid the other half of your fee you can live with it.
It’s better still if you charge 100% of your copywriting fee up front.
Here’s one way of making new clients comfortable with paying you upfront…
“Take a look at the testimonials from my clients on the website. Feel free to contact them
too.
“When I work with you I’m looking for a testimonial and referrals. That’s why I’m going to
do everything I can to make you real profits just as I did for the clients you’ll find listed on
my site.”
# 25 Negotiate for a percentage of turnover on top of your copywriting fee
If you’re charging straight fees for your copy you’ll always be writing copy to make a living.
But if you get even a small percentage of turnover from some of your copywriting
assignments that adds up over time.
Many online business owners will pay you from 1% to 5% of gross turnover in addition to
your copywriting fee if you insist on it.
Also you can increase the copywriting fees your quote then let your prospects negotiate
your fee down in exchange in return for a percentage of gross sales.
# 26 Write online copy for 50% of the gross turnover
Some online copywriters make a very good living writing copy for established clients with
no upfront fees for 50% of gross turnover.
You supply the copy they supply the web traffic and the customer service.
The most important keys to these kinds of deals…
1. Only make deals with someone who is honest and you know will pay. Past clients
who’ve already paid you a copywriting fee in the past might be worth considering.
2. The deal is always based on a percentage of gross turnover. Don’t do deals for a
percentage of profits – profits have this amazing way of disappearing.
3. Make sure the client has the website traffic, pay per click or joint venture contacts and
expertise to create significant turnover. There’s no point getting 50% of gross turnover if
your client is only going to make a few hundred dollars in sales.
Keep in mind that many website owners have enormous traffic but can’t write effective
copy. This is the kind of match you’re looking for.
# 27 Your best clients are your best prospects for more work
Stay in touch with the clients who hire you even after your work is done.
If you do a good job and you stay in touch they’ll hire you again.
Also you should keep up to date with what they’re doing in their business and look for ways
they can increase their profits.
Some of these will lead to work for you and some won’t.
Either way staying in touch by giving your clients a steady stream of good profit making
ideas will keep you at the top of their mind when they need a copywriter again.
# 28 Ask for referrals
When you don’t have all the clients you need you should make giving you referrals a
condition of doing business with you.
When you’re negotiating with your client you can tell them that you expect referrals in
exchange for a slightly lower fee.
Often the best time to ask for referrals is when you’ve just produced excellent results for
your client.
The basic technique is fourfold…
1. Get them to tell you how much money you’ve made them and what your service has been
worth to them in past results and the results they expect in the future from the copy you’ve
already written.
2. Explain to them that just as you’ve helped them you’d like to help their friends in the
industry get similar results.
3. Tell them exactly the kind of prospect who is perfect for you. What kind of business they
run, the niche, the kind of traffic, products etc. Make it very easy for them to think of
people they know by narrowing the field down for them.
4. Keep your client in the loop. Let them know how things are going with the people they
refer. And send a written thank you letter if someone they refer becomes a paid client.
In some cases you might also send a percentage of your copywriting fee with a note along
the lines of “I don’t normally do this but I really do appreciate how you went out of your
way to send me such a wonderful client. Here’s a little thank you gift.”
It can be worthwhile to pay 10%-20% of your copywriting fee to anyone who sends you
referrals but you do have to be careful about how you do this.
Some clients can actually be offended with referral fees and some aren’t allowed to accept
them.
# 29 Make it easy for your clients to give you referrals
You should have a special report, audio or giveaway of some type that your clients can give
to their contacts.
High quality, highly valuable information that will help your potential prospects and
establish your expertise as a leading copywriter.
Something of high value that makes it very easy for your clients to recommend you.
# 30 Ask for testimonials
Make giving you a testimonial a condition of doing business with you if you do a good job.
You want a list of clients your prospects can call or email if they want confirmation that you
really can deliver the goods as a copywriter.
Also a long list of written, audio and/or video tesimonials from happy clients can be a
powerful selling aid on your website and samples page.
# 31 Create simple direct response web sites for small to medium sized businesses
This can create a good income for you especially if the business suits a single sales page
type website.
Most businesses know they need a website and if they hire a web designer they’ll be out
anywhere from $500-$5,000 and usually end up with a website that doesn’t sell anything.
You can create a website for them that actually sells or presells their product or service and
charge a fee that makes it worthwhile for you.
If you’ve gone through the process of creating your own copywriting website you already
have the skills you need to get a website online for your clients.
You’ll find it much easier to get clients if you create a niched service for a particular
industry.
That way you can be the expert at creating custom websites for say accountants.
# 32 Write online press releases for businesses who want high Google rankings for
geographical search terms
If you know how to write and submit an online press release this can be a good service. I’ve
charged $500-$2,000 for writing an online press release giving the guarantee that the release
will come up in one of the top 2 spots for a city name and a service (eg. Toowong Real
Estate).
If the town is small enough this is quite easy to do.
And every 12 months or so your client has to pay for another press release to reach the top
of the search engines again.
You can also charge for writing a lead generating free report that your client offers in the
press release.
# 33 Write offline press releases for businesses who want free publicity
If you know how to write and submit offline press releases you can charge your clients
$500-$2,000 for this service.
You could also ask for part of your fee to be based on a bonus – you get paid more based on
which media outlets ask for an interview with your client.
# 34 Write yellow pages ads for local businesses
Think about this. Anyone who is paying for a display yellow page ad has an advertising
budget.
You can mail, email or call these business people and offer to rewrite their ad.
When you start you can tell them you’re testing a new service and do it free or for a nominal
sum in exchange for a testimonial and the right to use the samples of the ad copy you create.
When you have some confidence and experience you can start charging $200-$700 for
rewriting each yellow pages ad.
This is also a way in ot offer other services like a free report your business clients can use as
a lead generator or follow up letters to sell products and services to their client database.
If you get to know a salesperson who sells yellow pages advertising you can ask them for
referrals to their clients.
Why would they refer clients to you?
If their clients make more money from their ads they can afford to pay for even more
advertising.
You could also offer a yellow pages ad salesperson a percentage of your fee.
Either way when they send you a client you should send them a thank you letter.