Advice For Someone Starting Out

Hi There and congratulations on your quest! Indeed, you seem to have everything well planned.

I started working on SEO and overall online marketing just like you, in copywriting. . . though a few steps underneath your plan. I would strongly suggest that as you progress you start on querying and applying to highly ranked copywriting sites such as Constant Content and the like. While they will squeeze the most out of you, as experience it can be valuable.

Hey James,

I respect your ambitious goals but there is some advice about copywriting that has stood the test of time.

If you want to get better at copywriting, you should copy old, proven sales letters and other sales copy by hand - paper and pen - no computer. By writing out sales letters by hand you'll get develop an intimate relationship with good copy and it will make you a better writer. There's a great website that has a ton of free sales letters from the late, great, Gary Halbert. Check out The Gary Halbert Letter

Here's an article where he talks about how to get better at copywriting fast: How to Write Better Copy, Faster

Maybe ZAG, lest you become one of the 50,000 copywriters at Freelancer, Upwork, WF, Fiverr, et al, all who seem to be begging for work.

Those that ZAG, the non-sheeple, are ones who have a chance of reaching your goal.

But, you're off to the TYPICAL, follow the herd, be part of the crowd routine, so who knows, maybe you'll be one of the ones who reaches his goal, good luck with that.

GordonJ

James, I'm afraid I don't see much of a plan there. Points 1,3 and 5 come under the heading of research, which is something you should already have started in earnest if being a freelance copywriter is your intention. Indeed, it's a habit you should continue throughout your freelance career.

Your research will suggest a more clearly defined plan of action, which might well start with writing copy for your own site. Certainly you'll need some way to measure how well you've assimilated your learning and how effectively you can put those lessons into practice before launching your service to paying clients.

From what you've posted, my suspicion is that you first need to do a bit more reading and studying on the subject before deciding what direction to take.

Good luck!

Hey James,
That's what I would do too. But my list would start by reading books and swipes from the greatest copywriters. Try swiped.co

If I were starting out, here's what I would do....

Everyday, visit swiped.co... and spend 30 minutes browsing around. This will give you many copy examples and good analysis.

Read these two:

How To Find Your Big Marketing Idea by Todd Brown

Web Copy That Sells: The Revolutionary Formula for Creating Killer Copy That Grabs Their Attention and Compels Them to Buy by Maria Veloso

Don't just read.... actually answer the questions... and work through the exercises. You may want to go through Maria's book three or four times to get it to really "sink in."

Find people that you can write copy for in your "network" or here on Warrior Forum. When you think your copy is ready, post a review request in this forum (Copywriting). Keep in mind, you'll get a myriad of comments... Some vague... and useless. Some just rude.... and (still) useless. Others will be pure gold. Keep the gold... Toss the rest. :-)

Here's what I'd avoid.... Wasting time listening to podcasts... or YouTube videos initially. You need to acquire knowledge and put it to use...

The temptation will be to buy a million Copywriting books..... and courses. You'll want to try a dozen different Copywriting formulas.

The problem with this is you're stuck in learning mode... and not actually doing. You could spin your wheels for months or years without earning a red cent.

How did Benjamin Franklin, now noted as an excellent writer, improve his prose writing?

He would pick a writer whose style he admired, then take an essay of theirs, jot down the main ideas and then attempt to rewrite the piece from his notes. He would then compare what he had written with the original, observing the differences.

This can easily be adapted to copywriting. The key learning happens when you see all the little things that the master writer did that you did not do. Ask yourself why they did it that way. If you can then incorporate most of those differences into future exercises, you will be on the road to becoming a pro.

Marcia Yudkin

Hello and welcome to the world of copywriting!

It's great to see you've got a brief planned outline of how you are going to move forward, but don't forget that more often than not, writing is improved through practice. I would advise to complete your course and gain an idea of the structure of copywriting and its goals.

Also, check out other people's blogs on copywriting and try to connect with other freelancers on social media for a greater insight into the industry.

Hope this helps!

Felicity.

I also started writing texts for my sites on my own, just gaining experience.

If you want to attend online courses, maybe you should look up for copywriting courses on Coursera. They are much better quality than on Udemy, many of them created by prestigious universities. The downside is that they are more expensive than Udemy, but you can still watch the valuable lessons without getting the certificate. The second advice for you is to watch as many TV commercials daily; also, regularly check out what big players are doing on all online/offline marketing channels.

While I successful (and intentionally) steered clear of this forum for damn near a whole year... I can probably give you some great advice as to what not to do...

1.) Don't try to learn everything first...

Back in 2011 when I started dabbling in marketing to see if I could make some extra money online as a writer... I dove in 'head first' - rolled up my sleeves and withing a few weeks had my first sales commissions earned online!

I had absolutely no clue what the hell I was doing, but... someone here invited me to do a free review of their monthly membership site -teaching people how to do basic SEO, keywords, rank in the SERP's and start making money using affiliate products! It seemed legit, so I started there... completely green - zero computing skills - at all, none, nada, zero...zilch! (*I don't think I even had an email account until 2011, lol.

Anyways, I spent 3 days... barely any sleep, absorbing everything this guy was laying down in his videos and on day 4, I created a free blog (*I had no website, domain, nada... complete noob!) and I wrote one review consisting of about 1000 words for a Clickbank product.

That review had (1) main keyword... and about 5 variations, phrases, and on-page SEO keyword density of about 3% - 4% usage throughout the review article... with heading tags, bolded, italics, and underscores to boost my rankings...it was brilliant!

The article took me maybe an hour or so to actually write... I winged it, and wrote it on a whim.

But, in my defense; I did buy the product prior... so I believed in the product doing what it proposed and promised to do... So, I was (in my opinion) being ethical and 110% honest in what I wrote about the product!

Then... about 2 days after I wrote the article/review... I woke up to find I had gotten 2 new sales for a total of $94 in my Clickbank dashboard. Holy Mother of Christ himself I had made 2 sales whilst I was fast asleep; I was fixing to quit my job, write full-time, and unleash my creative genius upon the world! I was truly 'on-high'... as if; I'd received a front row seat in Heaven...right next to God, himself!

Oh yeah baby... the dream was going to be my reality!!!

I pm'd the guy who let me in his program to thank him... and he responded; "Cool bro, that's freaking awesome... I told you my shit works, brother. Keep cranking out good work...it gets even better!"

We chatted a bit... and he said; "hey... have you checked out the latest video in the member's area yet?"

I said; "no... let me go check it out now, I'll talk to you later man!"

Long story short, that video he posted freakin' crippled me... just as fast as I'd gotten my feet wet online... and made my first few sales!

You see, he was pushing some article spinning software and recommending his students "spin" existing articles and blast em' all over the internet to increase sales, get more exposure, etc.

Immediately, I went to the main forum to ask; "hey Warrior's - what's the best article spinning software on the market?"

The feedback from other members & especially, other writer's was nothing shy of a mob lynching as if; I'd pissed on their grandmother's Christmas tree in a drunken stupor... as multiple people ripped on the fact; "spinning articles is spamming the internet"... "whoever's teaching that shit - is clearly not a good marketer, blah! blah! blah!"

So... I stopped following the guy's threads, instructions, and actually questioned everything he'd taught me... unsure if I was just lucky to have made those initial sales commissions?

Over a period of time, about 12 months... that one review article stayed on page one... top slot, just under the actual product owner's website... and I'd made upwards of $1200 in commissions for writing that one review... in just under a year's time!

But... by then, my belief in marketing affiliate products had changed... because that product I bought and told others to try (*and buy) sucked and didn't do what it promised...oops! (*Woe is me, again!)

I'd sent over 2500+ people to the guy selling the products email list... being they had to optin to get the free trial... when they upgraded, I got my $47 commission!

But... I stopped writing. I thought; "I must be stupid... I gave this guy over 2500 people on his email list... (*everyone was preaching; 'build your list"... "The Money's in the list!!!)... Blah! Blah! Blah!

I didn't have a list... Hell, I really didn't have a clue how to capture a friggin lead...let alone build a freaking list with software, websites, optin form... Again, I must be stupid, right?

So... I went out and learned everything about AWeber, autoresponders, and building email lists!

Took me a good minute (*months and months, in reality)... as I refused to study under anyone again. I mean, the other guy was spamming the internet, I didn't wanna be that guy or learn from another scheming shysterer like him, right?

Then it was; "you need your own website, Wordpress was all the rave!" - "You need your own domain!"

I bought over 250 domains... before I'd ever even built a single website... hell, I was gonna be rich selling one word domains in ever hot niche I thought was badass... MesotheliomaSuits(.)com, you name it, I bought that f'ker!

I mean c'mon, Google AdWords was selling 'clicks' for over a $100 a click... Oh, yeah... there's money there for sure...

Then I almost got scammed again... Some douchebag contacted me wanted to pay huge sums of money for a bunch of my domains... luckily, the WF saved my ass, as it was a scammer wanting me to pay first to certify and valuate the domains...to appease his buyer. Other warriors... awakened me to that scam, saved what's left of my backside!


Then it was on to OptimizePress (*the original one...I liked that one), learning HTML, writing links, cloaking links, FTP client, setting DNS, hosting, EMD's, SEO, copywriting, Photoshop, Gimp, and after 7 years of bouncing all over the fu-king place...

I kept going to work offline... while studying my ass off online!

Well... I was freelancing, sub-contracting, and doing home improvement gigs... same dead end shit I've done for decades!

So what's my advice?

If you want to write copy... avoid 99.9% of the shit everyone's telling you to do... client acquistions, buy this course, study that course... No!!! F.ck NO!!!

2.) Pick a few books... written by the 'master's of copy'... such as; Olgivy, Halbert, Hopkins, Carlton, etc...


3.) Pick a product, service or software that's already selling... trusted... and proven! - preferrably one with a recurring lifetime commission of 30% to 50% commissions as an affiliate/jv/partner or webmaster

4.) Write compelling copy... and sell the living shit out of everyone else's stuff!

No boss... No clients... No Hype... No headaches!

You'll know if you can be a freelance copywriter for well under a couple hundred bucks... by the 'direct-responses' you get... It's simple really, if they buy... You're a pro!

If they don't... fix your copy!!!

Now... if I had just stuck to writing one highly compelling review per day... simply telling other people where they could find Heaven... I would've likely saved myself a ton of time, energy, money, and effort learning all that other shit!

I don't regret my decision... I learned a boatload of valuable information and skills...

But, when it all comes down to it... there's a million-and-one products, services, and people with great shit to offer the world who pay commissions to use their copy... (*well written copy at that in many cases)... and all you need to do is; "tell them where to go, how to get it, and why they should buy it!"

It's no accident 99% of the world's current population seeks permission, instruction, or approval is it?

No... it's not, because the 1% (or less) figured out long before we were ever born how to "influence people" to buy their shit... Shit they got for free or 'dirt cheap' back when...

It's no different today... only now, the 99% have access to some brilliant knowledge, tools, and resources on a global scale!!!

Give em' permission to be free, show em' where to buy that freedom... and viola' you're a copywriter long before March of 2020...

Hell, I might be dead by then... I hope you get there sooner than it took me to figure it out, lol.

FYI, while much of this post was written for therapeutic purposes... some of it holds some real world value... and if you are seeking clients to write for that's fine too, but I'd practice on a pig before hunting whales!

Peace out... I'm passing out...

Don't drink and write!

Goidnight!

-Art

Hi James,

As long as copy writing is a choice because you WANT to do it, then proceed.
You see, as a business consultant (offline) I determined that people achieve success only when they want and love what they are doing, and those choosing their business based on anticipated income usually seem to lose.

This is even more prevalent online. There are soooo many newbies that choose a niche solely because it is "hot" and "lucrative" only to keep struggling. One of the secrets to success, online or off, is to do something you love to do.

To proceed with your plan...

• Begin writing immediately, even without training. The best way to do this is to make a blog. You can do this for free on Tumblr or Blogger, and that way you get to practice your writing every day (or whatever) before you sell your services. Note that if you plan to use your blog as a portfolio, as you build your skills, it is better to start a self-hosted blog so you can retain your links when you inevitably switch to a more robust platform such as WordPress.
• Although there can be benefit learning from many sources, It may be best to choose one education source and go deep. That way you avoid becoming a "seminar junkie" (one who keeps training, but never takes action to get started).

By blogging regularly, you will continually implement what you learn, and you will come up with relevant questions that you can ask here or where ever you receive your education. You can become extremely proficient very quickly.


Kick some copy writing butt!

-Scott

I think the site should contain professional texts, especially if it is a home page. Especially since you have a business site. The text should be very competent, informative. I can only recommend check this website. Recently I ordered good texts from professional writers. I was pleased with the quality of the performed work.

Hi James!
I have to say that your plan is well organized. By you should remember that being a freelance copywriter means that you need to find blogs to post your articles by yourself. This is really necessary because you need not only to write a good article but also to find how you can sell it.
I had to find copywriters some time ago, and I used email finder, it really saved my time. Imagine that you can find a contact of a person from his website, or social network. It's really useful. You can try to use email finders like oxyleads, or anymailfinder zerobounce. Frankly speaking, I guess I used all of them because the free trial is too short. I advise you to use Snovio email finder because it has a renewable free plan. It was really helpful for me, I found emails than I verified if they are valid.
You also should remember that people usually ignore mails received from strangers, so you should be persistent, don't afraid to write several follow-ups.
I wish you to be a successful copywriter, and then a great influencer!

Hey James, I don't know your situation, but I admire your courage. Copy writing set me free. And that was 23 years ago. My advice to you would be to learn how to use copy writing to sell digital info products online. Freelance copy writing is very hard to crack.

One thing that I think is crucial is for your copy to be perfect with regards to grammar and spelling.

Proof read your copy at least twice.

Have a friend read it also.

At least for me, when I run across a mistake in grammar or spelling, it stops the flow, and detracts a lot from the credibility of what I'm reading.

z

Hi James,

Good on you for reaching out.

You've got a lot of advice here.

Mine is two-fold:

1. Be very careful who you learn from and model

2. With number 1 in mind, if I were just starting out again (knowing what I know now) I would immediately buy John Carlton's freelance course, go through it at least 10 times, relentlessly apply what I learnt, and ignore everything else

Hope that's helpful.