Copywriters - How To Get Really Rich

Hi Harlan:

It sounds like you have the skills to see the bigger picture and make it work , and that is the key.

Those are two separate skills, sort of. Being the provider of the tools is one. Seeing how to use those tools to make a fortune is another.

It reminds me of the story of the gold rush. Everyone wanted to make millions striking gold, so there was a gold rush. The provider saw the demand and sold those people shovels, and made his fortune.

I'm sure you have the skills to make it as the provider or be the risk taker and invest in the bigger picture.

Good luck with your post New Year' venture!

Happy Holidays,
Charlie

Ted Nicholas and Joe Sugarman are important inspirations to me.

They used their own great copywriting skills to sell their own products and get rich.

Thanks for the encouragement as I finally move forward with my own information products.

Hi Harlan,

I have Sugarman's Success Forces book in my library. I will take another look at it.

Thanks again.

Thomas

You're exactly right and it's why it's so hard to outsource as a business owner. It's not usually long before good copywriters turn into entrepreneurs.

Very interesting. For a long time I had a question on my mind about copywriters that I never asked on here.

The question being: "If you can truely produce results for your clients.. and make them thousands/millions... then why not do that for yourself?" I always viewed selling your copy to others.. as an excuse to do poor work.

Because when you work for yourself, you're forced to produce results no matter what.

I'm not a copywriter, and I didn't start studying copy so I can work for myself... but its exactly what I'm doing now. For a while I was just doing website redesigns for clients, then sending them work.

Then I started making my own websites, learning from the businesses I worked for, and sending myself work. This past weekend I went on 2 estimates, and sold 1 of those jobs for 5 figures. Its the first job I got on my own, and also sold on my own. In the past I use to sell... then I moved to just marketing. Then I figured "why the hell not do both?" Thats where the real money is at. Plus I love face-to-face sales when theres a lot of money at stake (yes, 5 figures is a lot for me in 1 day!). Gives me something to wake up for. =]

Great stuff from Chris here:
ClickBank Insider Radio Episode 7: Copywriting & Sales Secrets with Chris Haddad | ClickBank Blog

My thinking exactly...

Why make a fraction of what you could make?

Don't you realize that YOUR COPY is the real reason why your client is making money?

Sure he understands a lot about marketing, but I find marketing to be easy to learn.

Copywriting is the skill that very few can actually pull off.

Now... If a major mailer approached me and gave me a big, fat check, then sure I'd do it. But that's never going to happen anyway. And besides...

The lists they're renting are available to me too, right?

The same online media is available to me too, right?

I could process the same amount of money they do but through ClickBank without ClickBank even flinching, right?

These days we have access to print on demand, right?

The playing field is level.

It's just a matter of putting your own skin in the game.

And it's not even as big of a risk as you might think.

You test small to see if your funnel, backend, etc has potential.

If the numbers are looking good, then you roll out a little bigger.

If the numbers are still looking good, then you roll out a little bigger.

You can dream as big as you want (or as small as you want).

Hey Harlan,

I love your work and greatly admire you... You're the best!

Your courses have helped me finally break the 10% conversion rate barrier for a sales letter.... That's one conversion goal I have been working on for quite a while now.

I wish I would have had YOU AS MY COACH IN John Carlton's Copywriting Online course. To be honest, I feel it would have been a heck of a lot more fun inside his forum if you would have been my mentor!

Anyway... Did you know, with my experience from your NLP Copywriting courses (and using what I learned in NLP...) I just landed me another big copy project from a high profile client for major money and a big bonus? I wrote a 10% conversion sales health related letter for him and it is selling like hotcakes!

I love repeat work!

But I have to totally agree with the comments above...

I have a project in the hopper for an email template series for launches... I know I need to finish the product.... Heck THAT'S the hardest part. Getting the darn product done and to get it to pass my final inspection!

You guys are right on target!

Harland is right.

Creating your own products IS where the money is.

The last product launch I did with a launch partner did an easy 6 figures.

But I am not a marketing person, so I partnered with a dude that knew marketing and I provided the copy and product.

So... Find a great marketer to partner with if you don't want the hassle of learning marketing... That's a way easier task to do and a heck of a lot less work!

That way, I stick to what I am good at and what I love to DO!

Good luck to all!

Jennie Heckel

I completely and utterly agree with you Harlan, in fact I said the same just recently in another forum post here in the CF.

Fact is, when you write sales copy for other businesses folks, you're not adding to your bottom line. All you're doing is adding to the bottom line of the individual and the business you're writing copy for.

Look at it like this...

If you can help another business to quickly generate 6 / 7 figures or more in a very short period of time then you've got the chops to do this for yourself. Put your own product together and write your own sales copy for it.

Which would you rather have? $1k, $2k, $3k, $4k, $5k+ going into your bank account or many tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars profit for the same amount of effort going into your bank account?

Creating your own products and writing the sales copy for them on your own terms, believe you me, is far less hassle than dealing with clients every day.

It's all very well and good wanting to start a business as a copywriter but sooner or later you need to start putting your own interests first. Being in business for yourself after all is about making the most profit to live and enjoy the lifestyle you want for yourself and your family.

Smoking hot,


Mark Andrews

Getting a fraction of the fortune working for someone is a wake up call that you can do it for yourself.

Yes Harlan, I've mentioned this before...it's the way to go.

There are also several tangible products that languish on the market having little success. A good marketer can license the product, recreate a new marketing strategy with a different "hook" (for lack of a better word) and take a slow moving product and turn it into a gold mine.

Several products are also sold wholesale because they were slow moving...you can find several sources on the internet.

There are also wholesale stores that sell products that were bought because of store closings, etc., that a good marketer/copywriter can buy in bulk and create a marketing campaign for.

The success or failure of everything sold comes down to the way it was marketed.

Lots of these items I mentioned can also be used as free bonuses.

Where a lot of copywriter/marketers go wrong, is they focus on a product, then find a problem for the product to solve.

As Joe Karbo said in his book, "The Lazy Man's Way To Riches", the correct way is to not focus on a product. First find a problem...then find a product to solve the problem -- a little change in focus that creates wealth.

Speaking of the Health niche...

I was driving down the highway the other day when an idea came to me...like most of us, we're always getting new ideas...

...there were lots of big trucks...they're all over the place.

Anyways...

I was thinking these drivers spend a lot of time on the road...many get little home time, and when they do it's not for long. Their lifestyle is very unhealthy and no doubt creates a lot of health issues.

How about a product that would be easy to use, and worked, that they could have in their trucks to exercise with...or a program they could use to get healthy?

There may already be a product out there...but that I know of there hasn't been any marketed to truckers exclusively. Lots of possibilities with marketing the idea.

...back to the point I made...I identified a problem...now the product just has to be found or created. Just an example of using the correct focus.

Would it work? I don't know, I haven't done any marketing surveys. Seems it could though.

Anyways, sorry for being long winded, thanks for the post...it's very interesting.

Hey Harlan,
What rank is Ogilvy on your list? He's my fave but wondering about your take on him.

Why be the coach when you can play and make more
money?

I think that everybody in the service industry would do
better by doing rather than providing. It all depends
upon where you get your kicks and personal satisfaction.

Like Rezbi, my primal motivation is not money either.
I love helping businesses do better even if they are
doing better than me.

This takes away nothing from the fact that we need
to sometimes look ourselves in the mirror and say,
"Physician, heal thyself!"

-Ray Edwards

Well friggin' put. When you're writing for someone else, you're not only making them rich but your brilliant work is often passed through the filter of their opinions and mediocre editing suggestions.

When you're a rainmaker, make it rain on your pastures first dammit.