What kind of money are copywriters making?

Between $1 and a bloody lot, it all depends on skill, credibility and results. If you are credible and produce over whelming results, then you can charge 10,000s if you wanted to, all depends on your skill level and your relationship to them buyers.

Real good money. Top copywriters charge $15,000 up front plus royalties from all of the sales made from the product being sold. But getting booked is a toughy. You should sell a copywriting ebook (with good copy on the sales page), then offer your copywriting services as a backend product.

Articles and copy are two entirely different things. Copywriting is sales writing. An article is informative content, though for $5 a pop, that's probably debatable.

You seem to be forgetting that you are operating in a global marketplace. Go and have a look at the average monthly wage in countries like the Philippines and India. The reality is that in some of those countries, if they were able to sell a couple of fiverr gigs per day, they would be making the equivalent wage of an engineer.

There is definitely money in content writing. You won't find big businesses going to fiverr to have their content written. Although there are a lot of cheap services out there, you will find a lot of people are still happy to pay more for quality. I do all the time. Things such as graphics, coding, copywriting. I outsource a lot of these tasks and I could definitely find cheaper people but I am willing to pay a premium price for quality.

The same way business owners spend thousands of dollars having websites built for them when they could just as easily go and use some free online website builder. It's all about quality and perceived value.

I sell articles and I can tell you that the money comes when people spend money on extras such as extra fast delivery. You can easily double your profits if this happens with no additional work. But anyway, even $8 an hour is good for a person in high school like me, especially because you can set your hours.

It can go anywhere from $5 on fiverr to $30 on a craigslist ad.

Article writing is NOT copywriting. They are two different skillsets for two different results.

Don't waste your time on fiverr. Niche down on what you'll write about--and what you won't. As an article writer for testing & scientific equipment sellers, I made $100 per 600 word article. That became a job not worth my time...but it was pretty good for article writing. Took me about 2.5 - 3 hours to research & write; however, I have a good technical background to start with. Point is, the work is out there. All you need is 3 clients wanting 3 or 4 articles a month each, and you're at $1000. And for 3 x 12 = 36 hours of work in the entire month. Can you do that? Leaves you a lot of time to scare up new clients, doesn't it? (And expand your business, spread the risk, let your clients know you're full up for time, and raise your rates...)

I will only write about food & wine, scientific equipment, metal & metalwork, history, business, and maaaaybe a software solution--if I like it. Other stuff I will not touch. Consequently, my value in the niches I do write in goes up. My reputation is there.

You have to develop a reputation for something. Otherwise you'll never get out of the low pay market. Here's an article I wrote a couple years ago for an annual report/directory (again, it's just not worth my time now):

http://www.cfgba.org/Resources/Docum...%20Futures.pdf

I was asked to write it. The only candidate. I think I earned $200 for that. Other people chose the pics & layout, of course. Not bragging, just showing you to make the point: the work is out there. But don't expect it to come to you. Niche down. Find companies in your niche to approach. Talk to their marketing manager. My articles did awesome things for my clients' SEO results. Those unique articles draw tons of highly qualified leads. Experts read those articles and know I know what I'm talking about--and that gives the client company credibility. It makes them sales. That's why I made so much relative to other writers...who just write.

Copywriting is a different animal. You can make a lot more money, but the skill requirements and risk of failure are higher. I have rules now about the projects I'll take on, and they're pretty brutal. As a result, the clients I do get play nice and pay well. Serving fewer clients for more money who treat you better is a great position to be in.

Ok, its been explained.

Copywriters are not article writers.

Which I will assume you have now come to terms with.

As far as how much copywriters actually make, I'm sure there is an average, but I'm also sure that average doesn't mean a thing.

Some make a lot, some don't make anything. Because the term "copywriter" is extremely vague. Essentially anyone can call themselves one. Some people write 1 salespage/ad then go selling copywriting services. Some do 1000 and still don't consider themselves a copywriter.

Its the same problem with asking "how much does an online marketer make?"

90% of online marketers aren't really online marketers. They just hang out on forums and market sigs. So I would never in my life wish to derive data/perspective from a population like that.

I'd rather assume that all the "real" copywriters / marketers make a lot of money, the ones who don't... should probably call themselves something else.

Kinda like the plumbers selling services on CL who go into peoples homes and break pipes.
They should call themselves "wannabe plumbers", not "plumbers". =]

-Red

The money in copywrighting is limitless if you know how to write copy that really does convert. It's easy for most people to just write a generic sales letter or a basic squeeze page, but it's a whole different animal as far as conversion go when you've got an experienced copywrighter onboard. Real skill costs real money.

It all depends on how good you are at writing and how good you are at marketing your services. Some copywriters make $4 per hour, some make $1,000+. If you can get hired by a popular blog to write for them, or by a product creator to write a sales letter for them, you can make a lot.

I think you have the wrong definition of a copywriter. Those $5 tasks are for article writers...NOT copywriters.