Leveraging Results for Future Business
Like many new copywriters, I spend a good portion of my time working on elance projects for low pay. I've been researching strategies on how to expand my business and I came across an awesome post by Brian McLeod.
Instead of PMing Brian and asking him some follow-up questions, I thought making a new thread would allow for more discussion and for other noobs like myself to learn.
For those who didn't read Brian's post, the basic idea is to find a market that has an offer than can be improved. Write a new letter/landing page/etc and contact the company explaining how you are trying to grow your freelance business. Include how you think your copy will help generate more profits and that they can use it if they test it and allow you to use them as a case study.
I should note that my ultimate goal is to get a full-time job at a financial publisher this winter. But for now, I am in the same pool of noobs who are fighting to get their first decent paying clients.
Choosing a Market
I've decided to split this strategy into two segments: online and offline.
For online, I've found ClickBank to be a useful tool to find marketers who may be struggling to optimize their copy.
For example, let's say I target the self help/dating market. That gives me 138 pages of potential clients. And as you can see with some closer examination, even some of the better landing pages definitely have room for improvement.
But here is where I would love Brian's and the rest of the community's 2 cents.
Let's say I rewrite the entire landing page for our friends at the Pick Up Artist Academy. I obviously would spend a decent amount of time writing and refining it.
I would attach it in an e-mail explaining my motivations and hit send. But there's a chance the Pick Up Artist Academy might not even read the initial e-mail which would be a huge waste of time.
There seems to be two alternatives:
1.) Writing a cookie-cutter sales letter and substituting specifics for each prospective client. This would save time but I might end up with 10 different companies running the same letter. And since it would be a vague sales letter, it would probably be really bad.
2.) Not including a sales letter at all and just e-mailing each company with my thoughts and motivations. They may think this is B.S. or a scam.
What do you guys think?
By the way, I'll post my results with this strategy once it's implemented if you guys are interested.
Instead of PMing Brian and asking him some follow-up questions, I thought making a new thread would allow for more discussion and for other noobs like myself to learn.
For those who didn't read Brian's post, the basic idea is to find a market that has an offer than can be improved. Write a new letter/landing page/etc and contact the company explaining how you are trying to grow your freelance business. Include how you think your copy will help generate more profits and that they can use it if they test it and allow you to use them as a case study.
I should note that my ultimate goal is to get a full-time job at a financial publisher this winter. But for now, I am in the same pool of noobs who are fighting to get their first decent paying clients.
Choosing a Market
I've decided to split this strategy into two segments: online and offline.
For online, I've found ClickBank to be a useful tool to find marketers who may be struggling to optimize their copy.
For example, let's say I target the self help/dating market. That gives me 138 pages of potential clients. And as you can see with some closer examination, even some of the better landing pages definitely have room for improvement.
But here is where I would love Brian's and the rest of the community's 2 cents.
Let's say I rewrite the entire landing page for our friends at the Pick Up Artist Academy. I obviously would spend a decent amount of time writing and refining it.
I would attach it in an e-mail explaining my motivations and hit send. But there's a chance the Pick Up Artist Academy might not even read the initial e-mail which would be a huge waste of time.
There seems to be two alternatives:
1.) Writing a cookie-cutter sales letter and substituting specifics for each prospective client. This would save time but I might end up with 10 different companies running the same letter. And since it would be a vague sales letter, it would probably be really bad.
2.) Not including a sales letter at all and just e-mailing each company with my thoughts and motivations. They may think this is B.S. or a scam.
What do you guys think?
By the way, I'll post my results with this strategy once it's implemented if you guys are interested.
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Alex Cohen -
Thanks
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