What Are Your Fears As A Copywriter?

by abugah
20 replies
Fear is a common human trait.


Some people are able to suppress it others are not.


Fear is good when it is channel to the right direction.
Fear of being a destitute makes people work hard to earn a living.
(You probably went into copywriting because you wanted to make
a decent living)


On the other hand, fear of rejection makes people avoid trying
anything than could bring them success. (In fact, it immobilizes
many people)


So what are your fears?


Do you fear making posts/comments on this forum because people may think you are dumb?
Do you fear writing copy that won't make any money?
Do you fear being unable to support your family or yourself?
Do you fear proposing a totally untested copywriting approach to
a client?

Let me hear from you.
#copywriter #fears
  • Profile picture of the author CopywritingKing
    I'll be completely honest, since this is a place us copywriters can come to learn. Although I am the top, most sought after copywriter, in my local market, I have nightmares about a project flopping and ruining my established reputation.

    Copywriters can't have an off day/client; well, without consequenses. What do you think? Rational? Normal?
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    • Profile picture of the author sethczerepak
      Originally Posted by CopywritingKing View Post

      I'll be completely honest, since this is a place us copywriters can come to learn. Although I am the top, most sought after copywriter, in my local market, I have nightmares about a project flopping and ruining my established reputation.

      Copywriters can't have an off day/client; well, without consequenses. What do you think? Rational? Normal?
      lol, I can relate with the nightmares. I get them about my marketing firm though. I have dreams my marketing manager gets put in a coma and projects get all backed up...word gets around to me about a week later and I'm dishing out refunds left and right.

      Then I wake up. Whew.

      As for the days off, I used to just tell people I was taking the weekends off. Set the expectation up front and people don't bother you. If they do anyway, time to get new clients.
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  • Profile picture of the author The Copy Nazi
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    What Are You Fears? That someone calling himself a copywriter posts here with such a glaring typo in the post heading. Followed by some Dude calling himself the "CopywritingKing" using lousy grammar and punctuation to proclaim he's "the top, most sought after copywriter, in my local market...without consequenses...fully booked until 2013".

    That scares the crap out of me. Time for me to take a sabbatical.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    My fear as a copywriter is Mal coming in the night to assassinate me.

    So I try to live up to the gold standard.


    Ogilvy said something like "Every time I sit down to write, I think: this time, I will fail."

    Not the greatest self-talk, is it?

    My real fear is that the client and I won't be on the same page after they see what I've written. To counter-act this, I write the concept and first bit, and send it to them. I ask: are we on the right track here?

    So far, nobody has ever said anything but yes. Whew!
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    • Profile picture of the author Marc Rodill
      I fear ad hominem attacks on my spelling, grammar and punctuation......LOL.

      I think the better question, abugah, is, what are YOUR fears as a copywriter?

      Or, are you actually SELLING to copywriters? And you ain't one?

      What's the real deal?

      Besides...

      A brand new copywriter vs. junior copywriter vs. established copywriter.....they're all gonna have different fears. And rightly so.

      Which is your target?

      Marc
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      • Yea, apart from Mal firing a double - barrel shotgun at me if I make a typo.

        My other fear - (because I see it all the time) -

        Is trying too hard.

        After dozens of hours - you just know when your copy is right.

        Or as good as it can be. Your research, experience and gut instinct tells you this.

        But you want to make it even better.

        So you review it once again and start throwing more techniques and tactics at it.

        Sometimes you do improve it.

        But usually it blows the whole thing into smithereens. It all starts to shout and scream.

        Desperately saying "buy this stuff!"

        Nobody wants to spend their money from a promo that's howling at them Or worse still, boring the hell out of them - with 17 excess pages - which are there just for the "copywriting" sake of it - but saying nothing of any real interest.

        So you end up editing it down - and thankfully it's back to the way you know it should be.

        And the way it'll work best.

        Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Moonrakers
    As a noob............

    Taking the wrong advice
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Tyler
    Fear of not writing a good enough copy which will end wasting my affiliates time... but looks like I' overcame my fear everytime

    Credz to Steve Copywriter.
    Is trying too hard.

    After dozens of hours - you just know when your copy is right.

    Or as good as it can be. Your research, experience and gut instinct tells you this.

    But you want to make it even better.

    So you review it once again and start throwing more techniques and tactics at it.

    Sometimes you do improve it.

    But usually it blows the whole thing into smithereens. It all starts to shout and scream.

    Desperately saying "buy this stuff!"

    Nobody wants to spend their money from a promo that's howling at them Or worse still, boring the hell out of them - with 17 excess pages - which are there just for the "copywriting" sake of it - but saying nothing of any real interest.
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  • Profile picture of the author RickDuris
    In sales, there's an old dictum "you can't sell on your heels."

    In other words, you must be confident to be able to close a sale.

    I believe the same advice applies to copywriting. When you're writing copy, put your fears aside for the moment. They do not support you.

    Sometimes fear shows up as writer's block. Sometimes figures shows up as procrastination. Sometimes fear shows up as weak, uninspired copy.

    However, sometimes fear is a good thing.

    But not when it comes to making money, for yourself or for someone else.

    - Rick Duris
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  • Profile picture of the author Sumdor
    I think the fear of rejection tops the list. After working so much...they often say... it is not good enough or try again... it's a big headache
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  • Profile picture of the author maximus242
    I have to agree with Steve on this one, one big fear is putting in 3 months working on a piece of copy, only to find you made an error in judgment and the thing needs to be revamped.

    Things like wrong appeal, wrong messenger, wrong message, wrong lead, etc. Can ruin your carefully crafted message.

    So the solution to this is to get very in touch with your prospects, get a million eyeballs on it. You know its so easy when you get close to your work to miss your own mistakes - the longer you spend writing a piece the easier it is to fall in love with the thing and be oblivious to errors in judgement. This is why a lot of copywriters will put their ad aside for a few days then re-read it.

    Its all too often the sixth draft im like okay this looks great. 2 days later pick it up again, oh god this is never going to sell, its needs this, this and this changed. Its so easy to be 20 or 30 drafts into a piece of copy and completely miss something if you dont have multiple perspectives on it.

    The most important person is the customer, if you can find ordinary, non-DM people and see what they think - they're reactions when reading is the most important because they are your average buyers. Of course if you can get opinions directly from customers or would be prospects thats best.

    Anyways my big fear is working on something over and over again for months then having it flop, thats scary because your time gets wasted.

    So to circumvent this sometimes I will just test drafts and see what kind of response I can get - or test 2 or 3 rough copy concepts and see if they get any response. Especially direct feedback from would be customers. Testing answers so many questions so quickly.
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  • Profile picture of the author adammaxum
    The only thing I fear in copywriting would be lack of work, or finding work that pays enough to justify my time. Other then that, I don't fear anything related to writing. If you're unfamiliar with something, simply find the answer, learn, and put it to work. It's really that easy.

    As far as rejection goes...I find as long as your putting out quality work, you won't run into this problem much. If you do, many clients will simply ask you to change minor bits and pieces to satisfy their own personal tastes.
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  • Profile picture of the author 23profit
    I really got a lot of knowledge out of this great post, especial about putting fears to the side. And Mikes comment about running out of coffee and kicking the fear right in the nuts! Great post
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  • Profile picture of the author Griffin Smith
    Hmmm. I guess fear of not being able to connect with your clients idea and have him ask for free revision after free revision after free etc....
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  • Profile picture of the author Jennie Heckel
    So who said "the BIGGEST FEAR IS... FEAR ITSELF?"

    I think you have to look behind the INITAL FEAR to find what you are really afraid of...

    Many times it is NOT the FEAR we feel, it is the problem with how we feel about failing...

    Or looking bad...

    Or wasting time...

    Or wasting money...

    Or getting a bad rep...

    Or looking silly...

    Or getting put down...

    Or some one thinking that IS a dumb idea...

    Or you wrote bad copy... (Anyone can be a critic...)

    WORST... is WASTING YOUR WRITING TALENT on people who don't appreciate it!

    Remember... THE REAL FEAR is not always what you THINK you are afraid of...

    A little deeper soul searching may be in order...

    My biggest fear is not having enough time to do all the things I want to do in my life...

    Maybe we should all stop a minute and think about all those things we thought we wanted to do with our lives before we are too old, lazy, poor or don't care anymore!

    "Bucket List" anyone?
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  • Profile picture of the author itsjordan
    Congruency.

    Sometimes I write a copy and because I've written it, it feels like 10,000 mini ideas being blasted to the viewer.
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  • Profile picture of the author sanakhan
    I have fear of losing my mind because I am trying to make money online and nothing seems to be working.
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  • Profile picture of the author ERPLeadsWriter
    Originally Posted by abugah View Post

    Do you fear making posts/comments on this forum because people may think you are dumb?
    Originally Posted by abugah View Post

    Do you fear being unable to support your family or yourself?
    These two plus the fear that I may not know enough to write about the product/service. It kinda relates to the first actually but you know.

    Oh and there's always the universal fear brought about by writer's block. Namely, the fear of having nothing in your head and the only thought coming is the thought of the deadline (self-imposed and not).

    Honestly, that last one plagues me no matter what I'm writing. Be it for business or for personal fiction, I always wanna hit myself whenever my thoughts go, "Err... what was I supposed to put here again?" >_<;;;
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  • Profile picture of the author queen bee
    Not being able to make enough money for myself would be my biggest fear.
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