"How To Stay Out of Trouble While Developing a Great Reputation": A Guide for Newbie Copywriters

This is not going to be a “nice” post. It explains something I've been concerned about for a long time, and today I am taking the hour or so to write about it.

Experienced copywriters will recognize what I'm about to describe here.

Newbies will be frightened by it.

Yes, newbie copywriter, I'm telling you right now: this will scare you.

And it should.

You probably won't like what I have to say here, but it is true and will save you more heartache than you can imagine if you follow it.

Here's the problem:

Most prospective clients who come to you wanting a quote for copywriting work can't be helped.

Oh, you can craft, rethink or rewrite their copy. But it won't make any difference.

Why? The problem lies deeper.

The disaster-in-the-making is in the prospect's business model.

Over the past two decades I have been approached by many people wanting copywriting help. And because I know more than just how to write, I've had to turn many of them away.

The newbie will scream, “Why would you do that?! They're coming to you WITH MONEY IN THEIR HANDS, wanting you to take it!”

The answer is after asking a few questions, I discovered they are yet another person with dollar signs in their eyes, but no idea of how to make money. That their idea is stillborn. That they won't make money, and by touching the project I would own the results.

No Thank You.

Get that? “You Touch It, You Own It.”

I'm taking to you, newbie copywriter. Your copy is the last piece of the puzzle. It's the final thing the prospective customer sees before conversion or departure. Only one last item and step of many along the Yellow Brick Road of your client's funnel. And yet YOU will bear the brunt of the assault when things don't turn out well.

This should make you gasp:

You will end up being responsible for the whole funnel in the client's eyes.

Regardless of how you try to set the arrangement up, you are the “star” the client has bought and paid for. You are the focus, correct or not. And you are the live human being right there for your client to scream at when things go bad.

They're not going to yell at their web guy. They're not going to shout at their PPC guy. They're going to Ready, Aim, Fire directly at you.

This is precisely why I turn most copywriting work away, and have a high budget requirement for the work I do take on.

Copywriting is hard work. You have to be a little insane to want to read and enjoy “108 Proven Split Test Winners” as your Saturday night entertainment. So many hours are spent staring at the ceiling and moments frustratedly bolting out the door for a walk. The effort required to develop, sustain and increase copywriting power is unbelievable. I work far harder on keeping and building my copywriting skills, which I began learning in 1994, than my sales training skills. So to get my attention and effort, the opportunity is going to have to pay off. That means for me and the client.

But you, my newbie copywriter, are likely willing to work for a fistful of small bills waved under your nose.

Desperation is bad.

If you take on projects simply because a prospect is waving money your way, you will quickly encounter desperate times. Your client will become desperate as the offer fails to convert. They will demand you rewrite your work. They will make changes without telling you. They will speak ill of you behind your back.

And all because of key elements that are out of your control.

Traffic.

Traffic is out of your control. And it's the first step in the funnel.

No traffic = no conversions.

I see this all the time. A prospect comes to me wanting a rewrite, because they think that's the problem. I ask them a couple questions, revealing the fact that they aren't getting traffic and have no idea how to get any.

In these all-too-common cases, I have to go back to the prospect and tell them I can't help them. Rewriting will be a waste of money at this time. They have to put their energy elsewhere to get results. At this point, they have zero understanding of how good or bad their existing copy really is.

These conversations are big time-wasters. I want to help, and can spend a lot of time with people who will never qualify to be a client of mine, if I'm not careful. Can you use Thank You emails to pay the rent?

How is your client going to bring traffic to the offer? What budget do they have for doing so?

More often than not, this question will uncover the reality of your prospect's situation, and whether you should be working for them or not.

You are doing two things here:

ONE: You are protecting the client from making a bad investment in copy that doesn't have a hope of making a difference

TWO: You are protecting yourself from what could easily become a nasty confrontation down the road.

For as soon as the evidence comes in that your revised copy isn't doing a darn thing, the first throat the client is going for will be yours.

And here's what's worse: you can't protect yourself from it 100% of the time.

Prospects will lie straight to you even when you ask them the direct question.

Sweeping the question under the rug in order to get the client is bad enough. But when you ask about traffic sources and their true budget up front and they assure you everything's taken care of...and they later tell you they're running out of money they ought to have had—that's the pits.

Other factors affect the business model, such as the path(s) to market the client is making use of, and the delivery platform of the solution they're offering. Again, you are responsible for the results of these decisions, which you as the copywriter have no control over, if you take the client on.

When things go bad, you're the target.

Worried that the prospect will go somewhere else? Good for them! Let them become some other poor sod's problem! Let them create a disaster in someone else's life!

You don't need to take money just because it's proffered in your direction.

Do your due diligence. Ask about their estimate of the size of the opportunity. How will they be driving and/or attracting traffic? What are the qualities of that traffic (dead cold, warmed up and aware, screaming hot?) What's their traffic budget? How are they funding it? Are they putting it all on their credit cards (Warning! Lottery Player Alert!), or do they have the cash outright?

Ask, and ask again. Confirm. Play dumb. Try to catch them in a contradiction. Seek out wishy-washiness and call them on it. Don't be afraid to qualify them Out.

You don't need to be a business superhero and have a whole array of skills to do this.

In conversations with prospective clients, ask yourself:

“Would I run this offer, knowing what this prospect has told me?”

“Are their traffic and conversion estimates, and budget, realistic and conservative?”

“Are they spinning the roulette wheel here, or is this a legitimate, smart business opportunity?”

“Does the target market of this prospect have the interest, the money and the attention to take advantage of this offer?”

“Can I really help this person?”

“Am I opening myself up to real danger of a disaster: poor results, never-ending arguments, repeated rewrites, and a damaged reputation because of factors beyond my control here?”

Qualifying your prospects is an essential skill and event for your success as a copywriter.

Take any and all comers and you will fall flat on your face...earn a crappy reputation...and be depressed because all you see are undercapitalized, unknowledgeable clients.

I work with one or two copywriting clients a month, tops--sometimes zero because I qualify them all out, and am totally unafraid of doing so--and make more than newbies scraping and scratching along for ten poor ones. I choose clients who are educated about copywriting and IM, know what split testing is, understand and can afford traffic, and don't go around my back making changes. In the past two years, I have only had one sub-par experience...I took on an undercapitalized client because he repeatedly asked over several months for my help. The project fizzed...and I should never have been involved in the first place. Conversion cannot be meaningfully tested without sufficient traffic.

Here is a video I made for a popular copywriting group last year about qualifying...and it's interesting how the things I said then remain totally relevant today:


Be very careful in accepting money. It could be the worst decision you ever make. In sales, there's a saying: “The best client is the one you never took.”

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