Common Questions About Copywriting/writing In General Answered

I've been pretty inactive from the forum for a while because of a duplicate thread ban or something, but now I'm back and I've had a lot more experience in the Freelancing market. I want to answer some common questions that people who want to get into Copywriting or Writing have in general.

Writing Versus Copywriting - It's The Same Thing Is It Not?
NO. This is a very common misunderstanding, but writing general content for SEO/Syndication or whatever is not the same thing as writing Copy. The most common type of Copy work you'll see is for an online product when you're an online freelancer.

Without giving you some over-used official definition of what Copy essentially is, it's just the art of selling using words. It's written content with the sole purpose of selling or advertising something.

What's The Going Rate For Copywriting/Article Writing?
This is a tricky questions because every different writer has different rates and every different client has a budget.

And now i'm going to introduce you to one of the many sure tell signs that you've run into someone who's cheap. If the client has a "going rate" that he prefers to pay rather than a "budget", then they're usually cheap people looking to drive some slaves into doing their work for them. Or they're outsourcing work to you that's being outsourced to them. Trust me, I've been there and I don't recommend it.

Again, there's always exceptions to this rule but from what I've found, the majority of high paying clients don't have a per/100 word rate, they have a flat budget for a project. Corporations and companies don't seek out people who charge per 100 words, because they have to know what a project is going to cost before you even begin working on it. It has to be approved by a different department and yada yada.

As far as an established going rate, I've seen people who charge $.40c per 100 words and I've seen people who charge $250 per article. No, that's not a joke, if you get in touch with the right people and you have proven results under your belt, there are people who will pay you $250 for every single piece of content you give them.

Copywriting however is a far different ballgame. Your obviously going to be charged a hell of a lot more for Copy content because the purpose is entirely different. Articles are usually used to be posted on a blog, on an informational site or just to get the information on a particular topic out there. However with Copy, you have to evaluate how much the Copy is going to be worth to you and your projected sales.

Do you honestly expect to make a client $100,000 if he's only paying you $50 to write Copy for him? Who can honestly sit there, go through the brainstorming process, write up drafts and write convincing content to convert customers at a cheap rate? You have to set a firm price and DON'T let them negotiate you down on your price. If they do, then just simply say, "well, I can't help you" and wish them the best of luck.

I Only Find Cheap Clients Though - How Do I Target High Paying Clients
This one doesn't have a simple answer either but the majority of the people willing to pay that price don't hang out in places like the Marketplace section of DP or at WF. Despite what the numerous "experts" (lol, I almost said it without laughing) at WF will tell you, the majority of them aren't making nearly as much as they say they are.

So what do you do when you find a cheap client? You wish them the best of luck and tell them you can't help them. Trust me, let them be a hassle for someone else who's more than willing to be negotiated down and you can spend that time finding true high quality clients. You'll make more money in the long run turning those people down.

If you truly want to target people like that, you're going to need a couple of different things:

A) Proven results. No client wants to spend $2,000 or $20,000 on someone who just says they're good at what they do. They're going to want proven results of previous sales letters you've sent out and other Copy work that you've done. If you can back up everything you're saying, then anyone with that kind of investment money will have no problem spending $2,000 or more on their Copy if it makes them 10x as much, or hell even 5x as much.

B) Referrals never hurt either. If you market yourself outside the forum such as on a website/a blog or even classifieds, then a lot of the time, clients will come to you for your services.

It's not that there's no high paying clients right here in the forum, it's that they've seen the majority of the quality and the vast amount of non-native English speakers that browse here, so they have their doubts. I would be cautious if I was having Copy written and I was browsing through here. High paying clients also aren't delusional about spending money to make money and they know hiring $50 worth of Copy work to be done more than likely won't bring in the desired results.

If you have any questions about Article Writing/Copywriting or Freelancing in general, just ask me and I'll be glad to respond. Hopefully, this can answer a few questions and motivate some of the talented Freelancers working for scraps to kick those cheap clients to the curb and start making the money they deserve.

 

It's all about knowing how to effectively interact with your target audience and deliver the content that will be most valuable to them.

Quality has always truly been the name of the game, but you can't change the ways of the simple minded. They're always going to be looking for the easiest ways to make a little bit of profit or they're going to be looking for slave labor hoping that the poorly paid labor makes them rich.

I've been one of those poorly paid writers and expecting anyone to write "quality" content at those rates is insane. Let's take a little look at some numbers from my general experience:

It takes the average person (from my personal experience when I was hiring writers) 1 hour to write a 500 word article. This includes the research and the time to revise if needed.
Now, let's say the client is only paying them $1.00 per 100 words or .50c per 100 words.

This means the writer is only making $2.50/Hourly or $5.00/Hourly. How can anyone expect a writer to produce content that the readers and Google will love for that kind of rate?

$2.00 Per 100 words will give the writer $10/Hourly at the standard rate which isn't too bad and is at least above minimum wage.

You're right though, it's all about the "quality" of the content which I wish I could get people to understand. Like I said, you can't change the opinions of the simple-minded or the lamp chasers.

 

I think that the copywriting needs more skills and experiences like commercial and psychological skills to write copies that sell rather than the normal writing that could be used in different topics and niches .
regards

 

Very good post, you have put into a nutshell what I believe is the fundamental difference vis a vis a copywriter and an author or article writer.

 

I totally agree.

 

I actually do both and find that this gives me a good balance for my skills, if I cant focus properly on one then I work on the other, this means that I am always busy.

 

coreygeer do you make a fulltime living from copywriting?