Should I go into Content Writing?

LOL

I was just about to order pizza. I bought a treadmill this month and it's right next to my desk. I love being able to jump on it any time day or night.

Watch that caffeine! I gave up coffee about 10 months back. I am now saving roughly $300-$400 a month since I don't hit Starbucks anymore.

Try green tea instead. It tastes great, has lower caffeine and is good for you.

 

My God, how much did you drink?

I don't drink coffee or tea (though I love to make it - very relaxing, I find). I'm a Diet Coke guy. I've been through a 2 litre bottle in the last 6 hours. Not healthy.

I've got a treadmill directly behind me. The Walker Pro-Action or something. I only use it to torment my cat

 

Beware! Cats always find a means of revenge.

 

That's true. Whenever she jumps onto my bed as I'm dozing off she always somehow manages to land on the old, well, y'know, the most painful part of the body on which a man can take a direct hit.

 

Early in the life of one of my websites, I needed some "on the ground" reviews for bars and restaurants in a city several hundred kilometers from where I live. Fortune smiled on me in the form of a retired professional journalist from the UK. We agreed on an hourly rate because I also wanted snapshots of each establishment.

After the first review, I knew I had struck gold. His writing had a casual flair because he was comfortable with the words he was using, and he understood what a reader wants to know.

So I immediately offered him a 50% bump.

Each review would focus on the personality, ambiance, decor, personnel, service, food and prices; as one might expect.

But the manner in which he introduced each establishment made you want to hear the rest. And yes, I mean "hear". Reading his words was so comfortable that it almost seemed like listening.

Then normally, he rewarded the reader for his patience with a humorous, somewhat dry closing comment.

He eventually got tired of doing the reviews. And I am continually looking for a replacement. I think it will be a frustrating search.

And, BTW, the princely sum for his casual voice, perfect grammar, correctly spelled submissions plus a photo or two? About US$ 8 per.

That's a Writer!

 

I would go 2-3 times daily. Each trip would cost me about $5. $300-$450 was the normal tab. I stopped drinking soda about 2 years ago. That's bad stuff.

My treadmill is a cross country skier too. It's great having it here. I jump on it for an hour to clear my mind and get pumped up. I have been doing this for about 13 years now and put on some pounds.

My worst point is when I was having pastries from New York Fed-exed to me. I am not sure what was worse. The fact that I was so in love with the food that I had to have it or that I was spending hundreds of dollars (sometimes more) per month.

Anyway, back to caffeine. I get small doses as I drink premium green tea daily. Let me tell you, that's an expensive habit. My Oolong runs $25 per ounce. I am not sure if I should drink it or snort it.

 

You know you have a problem when you start accepting tea bags as payment

I developed a pretty bad bagel habit after spending too much time in London. Cream cheese and chive. Brutal. Fortunately I've been forced to go cold turkey as they don't tolerate poncy 'foreign' food up here in the North of England. Bread comes in a sliced loaf, and that's that. None of this poncy unleavened stuff.

Right, I'm absolutely stuck for work. I've had to stop my current project until I get some input from the client, and I have no articles to write. Know of any content sites where a bored writer can pick up some quick work?

 

You can always write articles for the future or write and sell.

I have never been to England, but I am thinking of going over there in about a year maybe. I would like to take a month off and hit Europe. Problem is, I am a work-o-holic. It's rough for me to take time completely off from any type of business activity. I will probably end up shooting Europe and building blogs with my photography and writing for profit.

 

I'm the same. I'm supposed to be visiting New York later in the year to give my older brother moral support as he runs the marathon, and then a few months later I may be driving cross-country from New York to LA with a few friends. I can't imagine taking the time off, though.

That's the problem with having a job you love, I suppose. Holidays no longer feel like time off. They feel like a punishment, in a way, as if we've been made to go sit in a continent-sized corner and think about what we've done

 

Good Grief! No wonder they're growing that stuff all over Northern Thailand these days. Maybe I should build a site to start selling Oolong online at something like half price.

I do miss my Yuban (coffee). There is a pretty nice Arabica being grown by the hill tribes, but I'm too lazy to grind my own. So I have finally found an acceptable Thai instant.

 

LOL.

You can get it cheaper. I am a tea aficionado to some degree. I buy my loose tea only after checking it out first hand (from tea supplier). I despise tea bags, but will use them if in a pinch. The quality is disgustingly lower.

Whole Foods is selling loose Jasmine Pearls for $14 for like 3 ounces. That's a great price and the tea is pretty good. It's a great everyday tea.

Great. Now I have to go make tea. See what you made me do.

 

Is that a version of Oolong?

 

No. It's another kind of green tea. It's flowery.

 

A good copywriter will earn 6 figures.

 

Most freelance copywriters, though, will struggle to scratch a decent living - especially if they want to stick to their morals and only write for businesses they approve of. Or 'of which they approve'. Depends how anal you are

A copywriter who has a fair grasp of what sells can, if he has as much dumb luck as I've been blessed with, make a comfortable living doing interesting - and occasionally fun - work. Even so, I wouldn't advise anybody get into the business with the aim of making their first million within the year. Simple ain't gonna happen unless you're actually the second coming and you can get a nice contract with the Vatican to do an SEO optimised re-write of the Bible, along with a press release and a raft of commercials.

 

Well, I must be stellar then. BTW, I don't write copy for anything I oppose (like pharma).

I know many writers (friends and industry) that make what I do and more. The one common link is marketing ability. Sometimes I see writers making 10x what they should, given their talent. Being able to market is a key determining factor of success for a writer.

Take any copywriter that's starving. It's mostly because they can't market well and not (at least not always) due to their lack of ability. Even the worst copywriters (within reason) can do well, because of the volume of business out there.

 

How long have you been in the business? I only broke into copywriting fairly recently, so I'm still going about building up a basic portfolio.

I've always been able to sell everything apart from myself. It gets frustrating when you know you can do a particular job better than most but there's another guy who has a gift for selling his unremarkable skills to the client. Bah. It's my British reserve at work again

 

Here's the plan. You move to the USA and throw your British accent around. People in many circles will think you are smarter and you should do much better.

It's just a theory, but it could work.

I started creating content for the Internet in 1994. However, it was not until somewhat recently (in years) that I began to offer my services fully to others. My ability to market is really the difference. When I made the move to offering my services to others, things progressed quickly.

Also, if you are very good at marketing and all around business, you will won't work as hard to get the business.

I've been in the business world as an entrepreneur for about 15 years. Actually, I got in the stock market and planned my first business in Jr. High, but that's another story. Anyway, I have seen people with the great products and services fall flat while others, less deserving, were bathing in cash. The difference came down to two factors: (1) Marketing ability and (2) Business oriented skills. By #2, I mean the ability to plan, organize and work the plan.

If your marketing skills are not up to speed, no amount of time as a writer will matter. The point of all this is this: Spend time learning to sell yourself. I don't mean printing up thank you letters to former clients either. If you don't sell yourself well, you're just another writer in the pit. There's thousands of them out there.

 

I would like nothing more. A good friend of mine recently did a 6-month placement in Maryland for an engineering company. While he was there he called himself Harry and did a Hugh Grant impression 24/7. If his stories are to be believed he did rather well with the ladies. The same principle could be applied to business

That's definitely the weak point of my game. I put myself through university with telesales (Boo! Hiss!) and honed my sales technique. All I have to do is apply it to myself and I'm golden. Easier said than done, though

 

Americans give way too much credit for an English accent that is for sure.