Deciding how much to charge for copywriting services?

Hi Henry... thanks for your kind words. Let me answer your questions as you asked them.

If your discounted rate is not a limited time special, then it's not a special offer. It's your regular price.

I'm sure there will be some Warriors who will disagree with me here, but I don't recommend marketing both your ghostwriting and copywriting in the same place with the same user name.

If you brand yourself as a copywriter, then you can develop the reputation of being a highly skilled specialist... not a writing generalist.

Specialists can command higher fees, especially once they have developed the proof (testimonials, case studies, etc.) of their expertise.

You can make all of your efforts under that screen name to be focused on showing your expertise around copywriting.

That means a separate website for your copywriting services from your ghostwriting too. Prospects aren't going to hunt through your website to find what they are looking for. Most of them won't email you to ask what the difference is between ghostwriting and copywriting.

If you still want to promote ghostwriting here, then I suggest you create a second username which you use for promoting your ghostwriting only.

I've been self-employed and writing all of the marketing for my own businesses since 1993. I didn't look at my first book on copywriting until 2004. Before that, everything I studied was marketing and business-related... lots of trial and error to figure out what worked and what didn't.

That first copywriting book I ever read was "Tested Advertising Methods" by John Caples and it's one of my favorites.

Ironically, I discovered it from a marketing consultant I hired to "take over" my massage therapy center's marketing so I could stop working 110 hours per week. It was on the recommended reading list for the marketing franchise he belonged to... but the marketing consultant had never read it.

I didn't realize that I was good at writing copy then. But after 8 months of this marketing consultant (and then a 2nd partnered consultant) failing to beat any of my existing marketing pieces, I started to realize that maybe I did have some talents there.

That's when I started studying copywriting itself and continued refining my skills. I either read or write (sometimes both) copy every day and have done so for a number of years now.

My first copywriting client was the guy who introduced me to my wife. He bugged me to write a new home page for his website for 6 months and I didn't want to do it. He finally guilted me into doing it and his conversion rate shot through the roof. He immediately gave my contact info to 4 other people who needed copywriting help.

So I basically fell into the industry initially... treated like a part-time hobby for a few months because I was a busy full-time massage therapist and online info-product marketer.

In August 2006, I decided to start treating copywriting like a business. I had no clients then and within 2 months I was ready to go full-time as a copywriter. I've been writing copy full-time ever since.

So that's my story -- thanks for asking.

Take care,

Mike

Hi Paul,

Sure... I wasn't saying that headline would work in every situation.

Just that there's no need to restrict yourself to a certain word count as long as the headline holds attention through to the end.

Most of Carlton's headlines are pretty lengthy and most of them (though I'm not sure about the example I provided) grab onto your eyeballs throughout.

Of course his first headline for that product - which bombed - was...



How's that for pithy?