How Much To Pay a Copywriter?

But if the copy doesn't work, then everything else was for nothing

No offense, but if you really believe that then you've never experienced what smoking hot copy can do for your business.

There is a reason why the $100+ million direct marketing companies pay their copywriters many many times more than what everyone else at the company makes.

The thing is, to write that well takes years of study... hours upon hours of practise... and more often than not a pretty serious financial investment.

Good copy is also INTEGRAL to your success... at least most of the time (certain massive hype launch processes can make things sell out regardless of the copy, I guess... but even then, good copy helps).

To write a piece of copy takes hours of work... like 20, 30, 40 hours. It's a process of continual refinement and tweaking until the copy is as taught as a bowstring.

If you want to pay copywriters less than what they can make working at Macca's, well... it ain't gonna happen.

Logic dictates that a professional that is in demand (copywriting definitely is), takes years and lots of practise to master, and makes you FAR more money than you shell out... well, that's always going to be a pricey service.

-Dan

1. You should never want to limit the number of pages for an online sales letter that you or a copywriter writes. It needs to be long enough to get the most desired action... if it's to get an opt-in, it might be as little as one page. If it's to sell a $2000 home study course, then it might take 80 pages of sales copy like the sales letter that Michel Fortin wrote for Traffic Secrets 1.0. That sales letter helped generated over 1.1 million in sales in 2004 alone. Do you think the owner of Traffic Secrets, John Reese, was upset that he was handed a 80 page sales letter. NO way.

If you are doing an offline direct mail campaign, then number of pages *could* be an issue because of postage costs. For example, you can send up to 5 pages of 8 1/2 X 11" paper for a single stamp. So a 6 page marketing package could need to be shaved down to get postage costs down.

2. You're hiring an independant contractor who is responsible for their own health insurance, taxes, and benefits. Big difference. That raises the price for any independent contractor, regardless of industry or profession.

3. Having owned more than one successful offline and online business over the last 15 years, I can say with much "in the trenches" experience that marketing that produces positive ROI is the most important thing for a business. You won't have money to pay employees, rent, webhosting, or any other business expenses if your marketing is not producing sales for your business. Without sales coming in, any business will eventually run out of money and be forced to close their doors.

Complaining about how much a copywriter charges is irrelevent. It's only going to alienate 90% or more of the copywriters who *could* help you.

It's a sellers market: There are A LOT more businesses that need great sales copy or great marketing than there are people with that skill who are available for hire. That's why you don't read posts from copywriters trying to cut each other throats to get a client. You'll even read threads where we help each other or offer advice on writing better copy too.

That's because there's a lot more potential clients than active copywriters.

Copywriters like Vin Montello, Ray Edwards, myself, and countless other highly skilled copywriters can be very picky about who they want to work with. One big reason why is our professional reputation is on the line with every project we accept. Write a bomb and our reputation takes a hit. Write a series of bombs and you quickly become known as someone that clients don't want to hire.

Write sales letters that make your clients money -- even a lot of money -- and people gladly pay your asking price. That's why proven copywriters can charge $4K and up... because they have proven their ability to make their clients money.

If your budget doesn't allow you to hire any outside help -- be it a copywriter, graphic designer, webmaster, etc. -- then you have to either go without that help or figure out how to do it yourself.

Complaining about the quoted prices isn't going to solve the problem. If it did, I'd complain about the price of everything because I'm fairly frugal with my money.

When I started my online info-product business in 2004, I made a promise to my wife: the business would pay for everything it needed by itself. No credit cards, no personal IOUs from the business to me or any other family member.

Back then, my online business couldn't afford to hire a copywriter or any other freelancer because it wasn't making any money yet.

So I had to learn how to do it myself.

As I was studying copywriting, I discovered I had a growing passion for it. After awhile, other people would see what I wrote and ask me to write copy for them too. Long story short, I've been a full-time copywriter since 2006 and have been consistently busy every step of the way.

My advice to you is instead of wasting your $100 on one copywriting project... praying every step of the way that you get sales copy that works well... invest that $100 into your own education.

Learn the basics of writing a sales letter first. There's another thread in this sub-forum on recommended copywriting books. Most of them can be had for less than $20.

You'll learn how to write a basic sales letter... something probably better than 70% of your competitors in your niche. Not great sales copy... that takes a lot of time and practice to learn how to write with that skill level.

But basic sales copy can still help you get started. Basic sales copy so if your future copywriter of choice can't start on a project when you need them to... or your budget doesn't permit you to hire a copywriter... you can still write a sales letter that can produce some sales anyway.

Good luck,

Mike