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| | #1 |
| MsReed Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Memphis, TN
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I have been a freelance copywriter for over 5 years, but I was able to develop a relationship with a few clients and I stayed busy. I was lucky for several years because I didn't have to advertise or make new connections, etc. I just wrote for these clients and lived happily. Then the bottom fell out and my client's business went under due to bad management. Now I am a copywriter without any clients or business. Its my fault for not expanding my clients when I had a nice cushion... but that is a lesson learned. Now I am basically forced to start from square one. I am using Elance to attract some business... and I have just created a website for myself. But I am lost as to how to advertise my website and my services. Most of the traffic-building techniques and marketing advice is for people who are selling a PRODUCT not a SERVICE. I have thought about writing articles and creating content - but I just don't know if it would work to build traffic for a copywriting website. Any suggestions or advice will be very helpful! Thanks! |
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| | #2 |
| HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Aguascalientes, Mexico
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Well, my advise would be to keep cool, you will see in places like Elance very low bids that will make you hesitate, concentrate on quality not price or you'll end up offering articles at $5 a pop. You WILL get good leads as in anything, there are people who are new and purchase all those cheap articles, but there are also more experienced clients that know that they have to pay better for some real quality. The techniques for selling a product can be transfered to a service. Take Elance, they have made a fortune and they offer a service online. Do your market research and find out where people who purchase copywriting servies hang out, it could be a forum for editors or for magazines. The research will show you just how big your market is; you can then study your competition, see what is working for them and develop a strategy they are not using! |
| Desarrollo Negocios Web Cómo hacer un próspero negocio web, ¡en español! A bilungual site to grow and prosper online | |
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| | #3 |
| Who'm I kidding? War Room Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Easthampton, Massachusetts
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Get Peter Bowerman's book "The Well-Fed Writer". It may or may not be the best book on marketing and running a freelance writing business, but it's a good one at least and a new edition just came out. Bob Bly and Steve Slaunwhite published books on the topic too. John Carlton has a multi-hundred-dollar course on it. I think the emphasis of the Carlton course is "networking" - as in... go to seminars and meet clients. Elance is the land of the amazing shrinking writer's fee. You have to think wider than Elance and similar sites because it pretty much functions as a conduit for shoestring entrepreneurs to try to hire talent at shoestring prices. That's another way of saying most of the clients on Elance don't have any money. If you are going to market yourself as a web copywriter you'll need a better website than most, IMO. Most web copywriter's websites I see aren't very persuasive and are kind of generic. I advise you really flex your creative muscles in coming-up with your own marketing material - because committed people hire people who are themselves committed and show it in everything they do. |
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| | #4 | ||
| MsReed Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Memphis, TN
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| Quote:
I already understand how to RUN a freelance business, as I have done it for many years - its the advertising and collecting new clients that I need the help with. Quote:
The question is how do I get my target audience to my website and introduce them to my freelance services? | ||
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| | #5 |
| Who'm I kidding? War Room Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Easthampton, Massachusetts
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Arguably marketing is an integral part of running any business - it always is in my experience and it's usually the area of greatest pain among my clients. You might want to hire a marketing consultant to help you set up your marketing. It would probably be much faster than trying to go from where you are to being an effective marketer all on your own. |
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| | #6 |
| MsReed Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Memphis, TN
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I have to learn sometime... Does anyone have any suggestions or tips on how they generate new business? |
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| | #7 |
| The Wandering Businessman War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: The Globe
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Sales letter + PPC has been the formula for me. I've gotten multi-thousand dollar deals this way. |
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| | #8 |
| Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Lancashire, United Kingdom.
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I don't write for others any more but I've never advertised. I've never actually gone out and said, "Hey look, I'm a copywriter so hire me". I stuck around a few forums and social sites and basically wrote on my blogs, some of which I've gotten rid of now. I wrote whatever I wanted to write and, I guess, I've always been pretty controversial and tend to speak my mind. Maybe it's because of that, or the fact I wasn't actively trying to sell... or... I don't really know... I never thought to ask. I did get people calling me from all over the world -- I'd be sitting at my computer and suddenly someone would skype me asking me to work for them. I've had to turn down quite a lot. Now, please don't take this the wrong way as I'm not trying to be big-headed. Heck, the majority of writers out there are better than me. All I'm saying is maybe you can take something from what I've written here and make something of it. |
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| | #9 |
| MsReed Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Memphis, TN
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Thanks Rezbi! I agree with you... I think that you need to be a little controversial to grab attention. I think you need to speak your mind in order to stand out from the crowd. No one wants to go out with the guy who is begging for a date |
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| | #10 |
| HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2008
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OK. You're a copywriter and marketing expert. So why can't you get clients? What would you advise somebody else in your situation to do? You've got to try harder. For example, you've come on here saying you're looking for work. And yet you've got no signature directing people back to your website so they can contact you. There are more people who need copywriters than there are copywriters. Clients are everywhere if you make an effort. |
| Ever wondered how copywriters work with their clients? I've answered that very question in detail-> www.salescomefirst.com | |
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| | #11 |
| Copywarrior War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2009
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Steve Slaunwhite has a free guide you can download when you subscribe to his e-zine that has some useful information on how to get clients. It's worth a look: Become a copywriter or grow your existing copywriting business There's also Ryan Healy's guide, which I haven't read myself, but have heard good things about: Get Copywriting Clients | How to Get Your First Real Client |
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| | #12 |
| MsReed Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Memphis, TN
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Ro Reed I Don’t Just Write Copy... I Connect With YOUR Reader and SEDUCE Them into Buying YOUR Product! http://www.reedcopywriting.com/ | |
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| | #13 |
| Copywriter and Marketer War Room Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Philly Suburbs, USA
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Hi Ro, Traffic generation to a website is the same tactics regardless of what the product or service that is being sold on the website. You have keywords that are specific to that type of product or service. A number of traffic generation techniques like article writing, PPC, blogging, etc. use keywords to attract targeted traffic. For starters, you need to put some of those keywords as a meta tag in your website. That way, search engines can easily index your site. If you're not already a member of the Copywriting Board, you'll want to join. It's free and is a growing resource and sounding board for copywriters. The Copywriting Board - Index I have several products that I sell which focus on teaching marketing and salesmanship to copywriters. Rather than turn this post into a self-promotional sales pitch, let me give you a link to one resource I've made available elsewhere for free. There's no opt-in either. It's my interview with A-List copywriter Doug D'Anna where Doug shares a number of the tactics and techniques he used to build his $500K/year copywriting business. Market Your Copy and Doug D'Anna Exclusive Interview It took me about 2 months to go from zero clients to a full-time copywriting business and 3 years later, I'm still writing copy full-time. If I can do it, anyone else can do it. All it takes is creating a plan of attack and putting it into action. Hope that helps, Mike |
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| | #14 | |
| Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Lancashire, United Kingdom.
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| Quote:
How did I miss that? | |
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| | #15 |
| One Man Army War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: London, UK
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I am a small business owner. The most attractive thing for me about copywriting is that I can get more sales from my advertising without spending any extra. I think if you are going after business owners like me then this is a very strong selling point to use. |
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| | #16 | |
| MsReed Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Memphis, TN
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Ro Reed I Don’t Just Write Copy... I Connect With YOUR Reader and SEDUCE Them into Buying YOUR Product! http://www.reedcopywriting.com/ | ||
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| | #17 |
| Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: , , USA.
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Peter Bowerman's books are great. If you write to him, he'll personally answer your e-mail. I, too, stayed busy for a long time and neglected my own marketing. I stayed busy, busy, busy and then, wow, things came to a screeching halt. I was forced to take lower-paying gigs for awhile. I have several websites. I use AdWords to attract targeted traffic. I've gotten work from an e-mail campaign. Just look up businesses on the Internet and send a short e-mail offering your services. I also use postcard marketing. I've had success with that. The most important thing to remember is to market to businesses that have money. If they have sponsored ads on Google, target them. You know they're spending money. Tonight, I decided to target local businesses. I looked for businesses with full-page Yellow Pages ads. I hope this helps. |
| www.mentor-marketing.net www.debt-free-mom.com www.debholder.com Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/DebHolder | |
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| | #18 |
| Copywriter and Marketer War Room Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Philly Suburbs, USA
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| I've had the priviledge of interviewing a number of very successful copywriters besides Doug for my Market Your Copy site. Folks like Michel Fortin, Carline Anglade-Cole, Bob Hutchinson, Ray L. Edwards, John Ritz, and more. Everyone of them has been extremely nice and a pleasure to interview. Doug is a great guy and someone who really wants to see other copywriters succeed. The interview wasn't the first time we had talked on the phone, hence the more relaxed and "informal" the tone by Doug and myself. It was more of two friends chatting in the early morning instead of a stuffy, sterile professional interview. Enjoy, Mike |
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| | #19 |
| The New Kid On The Block War Room Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: Stockton, CA
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Offer your business through ppc and find clients. Such as clickbank for example. the vendors there come out with new products all the time. just contact them and try to get them on the phone. |
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| | #20 |
| MsReed Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Memphis, TN
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I want to thank you for all your help - I have gotten some good advice and several ideas that I am starting to use. Thanks! |
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Ro Reed I Don’t Just Write Copy... I Connect With YOUR Reader and SEDUCE Them into Buying YOUR Product! http://www.reedcopywriting.com/ | |
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| | #21 |
| HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: May 2009
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I'm the world's third wost copywriter (which is why I work with David, he evens it out), but do launches for people. The first few I did I terribly underpriced myself, and since I was charging such a cheap price, even though I was producing excellent results people just did not want to pay alot. I raised my price and told people, your going to pay me $10,000 plus my royalty, and when I held to it they paid. I've got personal access to Jeff Walker when I do my launches, and even if I did not they are still very good. I'm probably going to raise my price to $20,000 plus raise my royalty. The thing is you just have to be able to say the price. The first time I said $10,000 to somene I could barely spit it out. Just practice saying it in front of the mirror. Raise your standards, and refuse to lower them if your work is up to that standard. Brandon |
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| | #22 |
| HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: May 2009
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On a side note regarding fee's, I was talking to one of the top trading sites a few wekes ago and quoted them my fee. They turned me down because they said if I was so good I'd be charging more. So, you really have to think about what your price says about you and what you do. Brandon |
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| | #23 | |
| HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: May 2009
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I actually need to get some better copy on there, but I've been lazy and David's been busy so.... Quote:
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| | #24 |
| Top Gun Copywriter War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Old London Town, United Kingdom.
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| Millionaire-Creating Copywriter...http://www.DavidRaybould.com Site Not Converting? Want More Money? PM me or Email Me Here. I can help | |
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| | #25 |
| The other Mel Brooks War Room Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Just outside Denver, Colorado
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Ro, keep a close eye on posts here. If you read between the lines, you'll find clients. Just PM them and take it from there.
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| AWAI Copywriting Courses for Under $100! Get them now! I'll create amazing articles, brilliant blogs, profitable press releases, and wondrous web copy that will compel clients to buy. | |
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| | #26 |
| Active Warrior Join Date: Dec 2008
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Talk to real business owners and work on helping them out. There are a million ways to contact them but those are the real prospects who can afford to hire you and are willing to spend money if you can deliver
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| | #27 |
| HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Aguascalientes, Mexico
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| Desarrollo Negocios Web Cómo hacer un próspero negocio web, ¡en español! A bilungual site to grow and prosper online | |
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| | #28 |
| Active Warrior Join Date: Jul 2009
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Yes, it is making friends, but at the end of the day, you have to be a go-getter. people don't just come to you and ask you if they can spend their money with you unless you're well established and someone referred them to you. It's hard to be a copywriter and not a marketer at the same time. Business is a hustle. If you're not a hustler, which basically means having the drive to go after what you want, then you won't be very successful. Sit down, write out a plan on where to market and how you'll get it done. |
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| | #29 | |
| Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Lancashire, United Kingdom.
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| Quote:
Looks like I'll be frequenting your site a bit more now. | |
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| | #30 |
| HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Ireland
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I hope ReedCopywriting isn't your business name....because asking how to sell for a copywriter is like a scuba diving instructor asking for swimming lessons. If any potential clients see this thread, you're sunk.
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| | #31 |
| HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Sunny Florida
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So this is the infamous thread I have heard about so often |
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| | #32 |
| HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Ireland
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Did you search for his business name? ReedCopywriting - Google Search How long before its on there for anyone who does a quick snoop? From his twitter profile... I Don't Just Write Copy... I Connect With YOUR Reader and SEDUCE Them into Buying YOUR Product. Can't do it for himself though...hardly confidence inspiring. Pretty retarded move by OP IMO. |
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