You raise a lot of good points Max.

One business strategy I have always used in my copywriting career is to never compete on price. There's always someone else out there willing and able to work cheaper.

The copywriters who write $2.97 salesletters (your quoted price tag) are serving a different section of the "need copywriting help" market than I chose to serve. Doesn't make them bad people... they're working with a different set of clients than I do.

I choose to work with the types of clients who have strong marketing skills and understand the value that top-quality copywriting can bring to their business.

Take care,

Mike

You've highlighted a few things here that I myself have been thinking about for ages. I've had believe it or not, a few article writers Skype me asking me to pass on superfluous copy work to them with the promise that 'I'll write it really cheap so you get to keep the rest of the money while I do all the work.'

I mean, say what?

No, I do NOT want to take your silly offer up and damage my reputation and my client's confidence in my ability to produce good copy. And no I DON'T do cheap articles.

And NO! You will NEVER make the transition from article writer to copywriter in 2 minutes flat with no formal training or some form of mastery of this deep discipline.

One article writer contacted me not once, but several times, and each time, the polite 'no' got more and more firm until I got really annoyed and asked (very politely) some simple questions...

'Are you a trained copywriter?'

'No - I have a team of writers standing by'

'Have you ever written a sales letter?' (shock, horror reply...)

'I can find someone in my team who has'

'Does your team have Direct Response copywriting experience?' (mortified at the answer....)

'What's that?'

At this point, I felt like I was losing the will to live!

Yeah sure, I'll give you business - NOT!

After that, every time I saw this person online, I made sure I wasn't.

The key here is positioning. As copywriters, we should know how to position ourselves in the marketplace so we stand head and shoulders above the cheaper content writers.

And the other thing is grabbing as much knowledge as possible. Every top copywriter I know of reads, learns, digests and applies knowledge all the time and they NEVER stop. Just this week, I've spent three hours going through material by Drayton Bird, AWAI and Jay Abraham.

And this education will never stop because I don't know everything, but everything I do learn is going to make me a better copywriter and will help sharpen my skills further.

Cheap content writers don't do any of that. They don't continually educate themselves and learn to get better, they have no idea how to position themselves and they will never be able to write even acceptable copy if they haven't studied copywriting in any detail. Period.

So, I guess that comes back to what you were saying about everyone who's anyone jumping on the copywriting bandwagon. We have no need to fear those that claim they can write copy when they clearly can't. Let's face it, they aren't even competition. As Mike points out in his post, those offering cheap services are better suited to other clients.

And a good client will see that and know that and should easily be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. If they don't, you've either failed to position yourself correctly, or they want everything for cheap, or they aren't worth being your client.

Just my 2 cents worth!

+1, All great stuff...

It's true that a real copywriter doesn't need a thing but the clothes on his back in order to create the resources he needs to succeed.

You know, I'm not sure I agree.

Admittedly, I don't "hang" in the low-priced space, so I can't say for sure what's going on...

But it's always been a cut-throat price war.

Having said that... the number of solid, persuasive copywriters available has pretty much stayed the same... maybe even diminished slightly (due to retirements etc).

Those of us who deal with serious marketers are pretty much in the same spot we've always been... getting more work than we can reasonably handle.

Just my thoughts.

-Daniel

Wait a minute...

A good copywriter a good marketer does not make...in all cases.

I've had good success with copy. Much more success as a copywriter than marketer.

I'll give you an example, I've published three books to date. The first two did horribly. The third is doing okay, but only because of marketing.

Let's give marketers their due respect. I've worked with some brilliant marketers. Many could and do write copy themselves - Good copy - Damn good copy. But, their focus is somewhere else.

Marketers are looking for sources of monetization. Sure, they can do creative but choose to focus on monetizing creative to fill a need in the marketplace.

Marketers are the people people. I met a woman who couldn't write copy to save her life, but she was a visionary. She knew what people wanted and had a wonderful vision she could craft-fully articulate in person or over the phone. She knew how to get to people.

Another side of this is numbers. A lot of creative types don't like analytics. Sure, we preach test, test, test, but when it comes to actually sitting down and analyzing a lot of us don't like to do that.

And...really, good marketers need analytics. We need to know that x number of people called an 800 number, responded to a coded ad, went to x landing page from x traffic source.

A good marketer is keenly aware of which channels are working and which aren't, scaling successful channels and tossing poor ones.

Of course there are people good at nearly all of these things, but this is probably the exception not the rule.

On a Michael Gerber E-Myth note, entrepreneurs have three personalities, the technician, the manager, and the entrepreneur fighting for space in our heads.

The technician (copywriter) views his work as all important. The manager (views the copywriter as a cog in the wheel. The Entrepreneur (always seeing the world through rose colored glasses).

I don't know about you but I constantly battle with all these. Here's another example. I had a great idea to start a line of organic skin care products with a business partner (Entrepreneur). I wrote all the copy, worked with chemists to develop my own formulas, got celebrity endorsements, etc...and spent a huge amount of time working on the product (the technician). But...after spending shed loads of money I ran out of money during the media buying phase and lost interest when I had to go out and secure more money from investors. Ya da ya da ya da...

Whatever, the point I'm making is you can be a good copywriter and not a good marketer.

Yes, there are a lot of people getting into the market. But...some of them are good and if you can hire them for cheap, lucky you.

Everyone started somewhere. For me it was agencies. I'll not lie, having a high falutin' graduate degree from a top university opens doors. But everyone's different. I also hawked vacuum cleaners and water purifiers door to door, did telemarketing, and sold used cars.

I don't worry about competition. In fact, I welcome it because it sharpens me.

I don't compete on price, and I only work with people I get along with. I sell a lot of cheesy **** and I'm okay with that. I guess it's who I am as a person and what I like.

People I work with mostly are people I consider friends. This stuff is my world, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

So go ahead and hang up your shingle. If you can sell it, sell it!

Cheers, D

P.S. In law they say possession is 9/10ths of the rule. In marketing I say perception is 9/10ths of the rule.

Thanks for that lesson...

I guess when you're playing around on the internet that's how it works.

Just as simple as: (Good Ad Copy + Correctly Targeted Keywords/Websites).

Of course copy is important, but there are a number of other factors involved such as channel selection, placement, timing, frequency, PR, branding, and really...connecting with people (ref: Marshall McCluhan "The Media is the Massage").

Copywriting is the biggest deal when you're a copywriter. Copywriting is also part of a larger marketing communications game when you have do deal with customer service, a call center, media buys, trade shows, presentations, business plans and financing, etc...

What about Oprah, Donald Trump, Sarah Palin? Just copy and audience eh. In a literal and theoretical sense your right...depending on your perception, but I think there's probably a little more involved. Media to Market Message (which in my perspective goes beyond copy).

I just received an email from a prospective client informing me that I am competing with people who can turn around 100 words for $1. Well excuse me while I blow my brains out all over my brand new business cards.

Hi, by the way. I'm new.

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