Can a Copywriter Make a Great Living?

So true. I was once asked about some of the books I've ghostwritten 'Doesn't it upset you that you don't get your name on the covers?" My answer is "Have you ever tried to take a book cover to the bank and cash it?" I'm not working to be famous or for any glory. I work because I pay out thousands upon thousands every year in medical bills for my child. That's my main drive behind copywriting. It's not the world's easiest job nor is it the toughest. The success directly equals the amount of hard work you put into it in my opinion.

jhmattern said, "Yes, you need to be good at what you do, but no you do not need to be famous. You've probably never heard of most copywriters who are earning a "great living."

 

I've worked with copywriters before that charge about $75/hour.

 

Yep, and many charge quite a bit more. There's very good money in copywriting for people who can do it successfully and who know how to market their services to the right clients.

 

my friend is a copywriter, he works for a software company and earns a decent living. It is very important for a professional company to have someone who can read and write with excellent grammar. Bad spelling and grammar makes a business look really unprofessional.

 

Copywriting isn't about spelling and grammar so much as understanding the market and how to appeal to and influence those people. In fact, a lot of copywriting blatantly ignores basic grammatical rules, because it's more about impact.

 

Companies will pay HUGE amounts of money for people that know how to sell.

That's it. End of story.

If your writing can make OTHER people money... YOU will make money too!

James

 

I agree with this. If your writing can produce the intended results, then it is possible to make a decent living from copywriting. Its just marketing to the right people (target audience) who are willing to pay the price for it...

 

kind-of. especially on DP, many people buy services for cheap and sell elsewhere for twice the price (and the profit is how much the original writer made also). so 2 people gain, but one person can be making twice as much if he was smarter.

 

taminder, most of what you're talking about here on DP has absolutely nothing to do with copywriting -- it's content writing. You can't buy and simply resell copy in the same way you might with content, because the actual writer would need to be in contact with the end buyer (if they know what they're doing). Without that, there's no way they could educate themselves properly about the company's goals, products, and target market to write effective copy.

 

I'd say.. you're missing out on a huge piece of satisfaction.

Forget the satisfaction.. you're leaving a lot of money on the table.

Reputation is everything in an online business. If you're not creating your market value, you won't ever be able to leverage the power of your own reputation in the marketplace.

Imagine if you're creating your reputation while you're writing copy / reports / ebooks for your clients.

It's true that you require to be great at doing what you do most but it's even more important to attain the maximum results possible from what you do best greatly. If you're leaving money on the table, I think you're doing a big mistake.

Reputation means everything. Just EVERYTHING. Best Of luck.

 

How would they be leaving money on the table? You generally get paid more for ghostwriting, not less. And many ghostwriters have fabulous reputations in the markets that matter... that doesn't mean they need public exposure. As long as they're able to get referrals and keep bringing in more of those higher paying ghostwriting projects, credit doesn't matter in the slightest. Copywriters make a lot of money. Most of what we write isn't credited. Our names often don't appear on Web copy, brochures, sales letters, press releases, white papers, etc. At the same time someone can have their name plastered on 5000 articles and it can mean absolutely nothing as far as reputation goes. Reputation and visibility can go hand in hand (depending on the market) but you don't need public credit and visibility to gain a solid reputation in your field. You do that by networking privately and keeping clients happy so they keep coming back and referring you to others. Big difference.

 

Copywriters are evergreen market just as the forex trading... same as the pain in generating money...
Experience can speak louder in both the cases...

 

You dont write anything yourself, lavina dias make other people do it for you and then run away with their money.

 

If you google a guy called Mal Emery he has some great info on copy writing.

 

It can pay very well. But you have to market yourself. Waiting for it to fall in your lap won't get you there.

 

If you can use stories to bring out emotions to sell you can make heaps of money, i have seen a guy make heaps with no experience in under 12 months.

 

You will earn money if your writing will make money for other people. thats it.

 

No, that's actually not it. Yes, that can be a part of it, but copy isn't always about making money for someone else. It's about influence, but that isn't always a matter of influencing someone to buy. It would be more accurate to say "you will earn money if your writing will provide value to the client."

 

Like every job, you can earn as much as you want, as long as you know how to market yourself properly.

Yugo,

 

It's been partially covered but it's worth repeating, as there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding here:

Copywriting is about selling with words. As such a good copywriter is a sales professional, who happens to work via writing. As such they can sell a lot more than a salesperson talking in person and their fees reflect that.

It would probably be easier if we (I'm a copywriter) were called "advertising writers" or something. If someone asks what I do I say I write adverts and they immediately understand. Say you're a copywriter and peeps either think it's something to do with copyright or blankly ask "So you're a writer...?"

My fees will be going up this year as all of last year I was offering my services cheap - for a copywriter - at around $700-$1000 per salesletter. Anything below $3000 is at the budget end. I could afford to be cheap last year, as I live on a tropical island. This year I have some expensive plans, so will be doubling or trebling my fees.

If you want to make a decent living online as a copywriter the first thing you'll need is seriously good talent and knowledge. The knowledge can be purchased, the talent not to much. For example I have over 50 books on writing copy, well over $1000 worth and I wouldn't call that a full education, though it's a great start.

You can also hire a successful copywriter as a mentor. That's not cheap (not in the slightest) but it's the quickest way to find out if you have $5000+ per letter talent - or not.

Don't even think about copywriting in a foreign language. If English isn't your first language you have no realistic chance of a copywriting career in English. As JH said, it's nothing to do with spelling or grammar but you need to know the rules inside out before you can break them. Most native speakers cannot write well enough.

Ultimately, if your written words can shift a lot more product than the business could hope to sell without them, you're worth thousands. If you can't, then no amount of info' on where to find work will help. Why? Because the 1st skill you need is the ability to sell yourself as being worth that much.

And no, you shouldn't start a sentence with "Because"... or "And".


AC