How many vomit-inducing “6-figure copywriter” course titles have you seen?
Usually something like this:
How to become a 6 figure copywriter in 2 days even if you’ve not written anything since GCSE English
I’m not saying you need to be Shakespeare. Anyone can get decent at copywriting. But claiming someone can become a 6 figure copywriter — or even a confident one — after buying a course — that you can do in a day — is downright bonkers.
You can probably tell I’m skeptical about courses (precisely why I’m writing this post…). You’ll follow my journey from novice to occasionally confident copywriter in 9 months. The cringeworthy rookie mistakes, little wins, big wins, and failures. The thing’s that didn’t work, and the things that did work. I hope this post helps you get started with freelance copywriting…without buying an overpriced fucking course.
Now, be warned, It’s is bloody detailed so I’ve split it into 3 parts:
INTRO
But first, let me set the scene.
At School, (when my biggest worry was completing Metal Gear Solid before my best mate), English was my second favorite subject. I got a B at GCSE.
I didn’t write anything persuasive or creative for another 7 years.
However, what I’m about to tell you perhaps meant I had an advantage. And why I don’t believe anyone can become confident at copywriting in a few months.
I worked in sales for 6 years. And, well, copywriting is sales in the written word.
Not only that. 6 years in business gives you confidence.
- You are responsible for your own pipeline
- You are responsible for hitting your sales numbers
- You are responsible for your time
- And you learn how to build relationships with clients
“Salesprenueur” they call it.
Why am I telling you this? Because not everyone starts from the same place. And you should have all the facts.
Now let’s fast-forward to the story of this journey.
PART 1 – The basics of copywriting
In late 2019, I quit my job to move to Colombia. On the 4th of March 2020, I arrived in Medellín. I was excited and scared shitless. I’d left a secure, decent-paying job in London to follow my passion for all things Latin. 2 weeks later, I was in lockdown.
Anyway, the plan was to support myself by teaching English. But I soon realised I’d have to work myself into the ground to get anywhere near $2000 a month. The amount you need to live comfortably in Medellín.
Fortunately, lockdown bought me time to figure shit out i.e How am I going to support myself without going home a complete failure? This question led me to copywriting.
Learning the basics of copywriting
So on the 23rd of July, I bought a course. I know, the very thing I swore to destroy.
But this one only cost $13.99 on Udemy. The title: Copywriting Masterclass: Beginner To Confident Copywriter
At that price, I wasn’t expecting to become Don Draper. But did I get anywhere near the claim of “confident copywriter”? Fuck no.
Anyway, what did I learn?
- How to do basic customer research
- How to structure copy
- How to write headlines
And by the end, I’d written my first practice piece of copy. The first of many before getting paid.
Basics of copywriting – Gary Halbert
Gary Halbert: The OG of DR Copywriting
Over the next month, I consumed gallons of copywriting content from a handful of copywriters. I wanted to go deep on the best. It’s a fascinating world filled with geniuses, charlatans, and fake gurus of yesteryear. Even the most infamous DR (direct response) copywriter Gary Halbert got jailed for fraud. He was behind some of the most successful campaigns in history.
One such story is his famous Coat-of-Arms letters. He’d find people with less common surnames and send them letters that started like this:
Dear Mr. Mcdonald
Did you know that your family name was recorded with a coat-of-arms in ancient herladic archives more than several centuries ago?
You can read the rest of the nonsense here.
Ingenious? I suppose so if you like ripping off little old men and women with bullshit stories.
Fun fact: he sold that mail-order business to ancestory.com for a pretty penny.
Nevertheless, I studied his Boron Letters. Ironically, he writes them to his son from prison, but there are valuable lessons in there. Copywriting lessons and life lessons. It’s required reading for copywriters new to the game.
Basics of email copywriting – Ben Settle
Ben Settle: Email Copywriter
It was still July, and because of my background in sales – specifically the email side of things – I decided to specialize in email copywriting. Enter the Godfather of Email Marketing: Ben Settle.
Ben is well-known and respected for his email marketing. He has a daily email he sends out selling his email players’ products. The guy is good. Very good. Anyone talking about email marketing will mention him.
I’d get up at 6 am, fire up the Ben Settle podcast, and walk around the stadium in Medellin. Ben’s copywriting wisdom fuelling my stride. He’s intentionally controversial sometimes but he talks a lot of sense. He believes in principles rather than cheap tactics. Something evident in his emails. They follow a basic structure that he describes like this:
“Vision drives decision – paint the picture of the problem rather than focusing only on the solution – Make your prospect look for the solution.”
His email structure follows this formula:
- Headline (or subject line of an email)
- Opening sentence (A way to hook the reader in and keep them reading)
- Paint the picture of the problem with a story
- List benefits of the product
- CTA (Call to action)
Ben is also an advocate of reading books that have lasted the test of time. He recommends reading The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy. A book I’d come across time and time again. And a book I’ve read twice fully and I review before writing copy.
The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy.
Getting your first target
I’d been reading and practicing for over a month now.
Despite the practice, I didn’t feel ready. But I felt as if I should do something. At least get the first rejection out the way.
So I bought my first email domain through google for $5 a month. Not only does it give you more credibility but a professional email domain makes you feel like a business owner.
Now, you’ve probably heard people talk about niching on an industry. And, it totally makes sense. Get good at writing in an industry that interests you — I chose health and fitness. Besides, there are a fuck ton of companies to choose from.
The strategy for finding companies is simple:
- Go on google marketplace / Facebook marketplace
- Search for a product e.g. resistance bands
- Select a product that you like the look of
- Go to their website and check out their social media — do they have 100,00’s followers or less than 50k?
- If less than 50k-ish (use your judgment here) it makes sense to target them.
- Go to Hunter.io and search the company name — this site helps you find personal email addresses.
- Search the company name to find the CEO’s email address
- If it’s not there, go to google and search for the {company name} + CEO + LinkedIn – your guy or gal should appear in the search results.
- Now you can guess their email address. Normally the format is like this {FIRSTNAME}@company.com or firstname.lastname@company.com
- Verify the email address in hunter.io
- Add the email address to a “targets” spreadsheet in google docs to track your prospects.
Note: This is a massive ballache and often it’s impossible to find the smaller companies’ owners. Now I use a different method that I’ll come on to…
I found my first target, Shelter fitness.
The time had come.
Copywriting practice [part 1]
You need a daily writing practice. The problem is finding the motivation to write with no reward and no pressure. By having a prospect in mind you can put yourself in a semi-live writing scenario.
So I sat down at my desk, pulled up my principles of copywriting guide (basically everything I’d curated from what I’d learned so far), and started my copywriting process for the first time.
Here is how it went:
Step 1 – Research the fuck out of your customer
“Don’t preoccupy yourself with tactics. Understand your customer’s pain so well that you can talk “their” language.”
Dan Kennedy, The Ultimate Sales Letter.
The easiest way? Read the product your selling reviews on Amazon. Search the 4-star reviews for the precise language people are using to talk about it. You will have to dig deep and dive into similar products, but you will strike gold. Gold meaning consumers explaining why they bought the product i.e. what pain made them buy the product?
Pull this information into your customer language document. The idea is to sell the product to customers in their own language.
Here’s some examples of pain language I found on Amazon:
Seeing as weights were astronomically expensive during COVID
Pain = regular weights too expensive
I have a small baby, so getting out to the gym is near impossible
Pain = Lack of time to train
Advised by my physiotherapist to do some exercises at home to stretch my pecks / back
Pain = Lack of mobility
Pro tip: Scan Reddit forums on the product/service. The stories people tell are amazing and often hilarious — perfect inspiration for your copy.
Research, according to most advertisers, is the most important step in making great ads. There are some that disagree — mainly in ad agencies — they feel it kills creativity. Ogilvy, however, would overflow his mind with research on the consumer and product — sometimes for weeks on end — he’d then miraculously conjure up big ideas for campaigns.
Now, I’m not saying we’re the next Ogilvy here. But preparation seems to give birth to ideas. So, give your brain enough ammunition to create the most the deadliest ideas it can.
Step 2 – Get stuck into the product
“Curate a list of features & benefits. But, remember: “People do not buy things for what they are; they buy things for what they do.”
Dan Kennedy, The Ultimate Sales Letter.
There’s an old saying in sales: sell the sizzle, not the steak. In other words, sell the benefits rather than features.
Now, for me, landing the right benefit for the right customer is the most challenging. Well, apart from writing headlines…but we’ll come on to that.
In fact, there is a great article about this from my favorite copywriter Cole Schafer. He beautifully explains the psychology behind moving away from pain and toward pleasure. It’s simplified, but the concept is the basis of all advertising.
We don’t want to feel hungover, so we buy headache tablets. We don’t want to feel inadequate, so we look for unrealistic ways to make money. We don’t want to feel ugly, so we buy shitty fat loss pills… you get the idea.
Check out his article here.
Back to writing practice.
Here’s what I came up with for Shelter Fitness resistance bands:
Our 11 Piece Resistance Tube Set is the perfect way to spice up your training + kick-start FAT LOSS & BUILD MUSCLE in your home (or anywhere for that matter!).
This.
-100lbs of progressive force so you’ll feel the burn that you’ve been missing from the gym.
– Premium quality for extreme durability (you’ll be training for many more Christmas’ to come).
– Free 2-Day UPS Shipping to beat the holiday rush (I’m getting Turbo-man vibes for gym gear this year 🚀)
CRINGEEE. You see. Most first times are bad. Copywriting is no different.
Why is it bad?
- Too many words
- Sounds cheesy as fuck
- I’m defo trying too hard with the Christmas theme
If I were to write them again, I’d follow Harry Dry’s advice from marketing examples.com (a great website for step-by-step guides)
He suggests the following formula for writing features & benefits:
1/ Write down the feature
2/ Ask, “so what?” to find the benefit
3/ Contrast the *old way* with your *new way*
So:
100lbs of progressive force so you’ll feel the burn that you’ve been missing from the gym.
Becomes:
2/ Replicate gym intensity
3/ without leaving your home.
1/ Our bands arm you with up to 100lbs of progressive force.
That’s way better tbf.
Step 3 – Time to write
I didn’t know what I was doing but I hashed together Dan K’s, Gary Halbert, and Ben Settles advice. According to them (and Mr Ogilvy), I had to wait for my big idea. The big idea that makes your message stick in consumers’ minds. Increases sales. And makes you an advertising genius.
Unsurprisingly, that didn’t happen. But an idea did come. Now 9 months later, ideas come easier. Maybe I’ve even had one big one…
Anyway, It was August 2020. Surely they’d have Christmas on their radar. So, I plonked myself down to write a Christmas promo.
I started with 1 tab open. Google drive. I pulled up Shelter Fitness’ customer language doc. Stared at it. Then opened the most important doc of all. The rough ideas doc. I spewed any nonsense that came to mind. It’s how I start every copywriting project. It will probably be different for you. Find what works.
Step 4 – Time to write – getting the right formula
My rough idea doc had some potential. Now It was time to write first draft copy.
I used Gary Halberts preferred copywriting formula. The AIDA formula.
Gary is talking now…
ATTENTION, INTEREST, DESIRE, ACTION.
So, to make it clearer your letter should:
- First, get his attention
Attention-grabbing subject line + Intro text
- Second, get him interested
Arouse interest with facts in the area we’re selling
- Third, make him desire what you are selling
Build desire – What we do to create desire is we describe the benefits our prospect gets if he buys our product or service. Now, in the case of an investment-orientated offer what we have to offer is the prospect of making money. At least this is our main attraction. So, what’s let’s do is let’s help him to picture in his mind the benefits of having more money. Don’t think it’s not necessary. Remember, you must always do even the obvious. Here then, are some benefits of having more money:
New car – impress your friends and family, ride in comfort and luxury
Nice house – comfort, luxury, and status
Peace of mind – no worries about bills or financial emergencies
Vacations – money lets you travel the world, go where you want when you want
Attract the opposite sex – money, as any fool knows, makes you much more attractive to the opposite sex – it gives you more opportunities to meet them in nice places also
Leisure time – money buys time: perhaps the best reason of all for having fun goes
Compel him to take whatever action is needed to get whatever it is you are selling.
You must be very clear, very specific about what you want him to do. And have them ACT NOW!
***
So, naturally, I wrote a steaming, sloppy pile of cow dung. But, first draft copy normally is shit. That’s what editing is for…
Step 5 – Keeping the flow & readability easy
I’d done it. I’d written my first piece of “proper” email copy. Well, first draft copy anyway. Now it was time to cut out the waffle, improve the flow, and make the copy come alive.
The first step?
Take a rest.
You need fresh eyes for the job. Some copywriters let their copy stew a day. Others go back to it after a walk or gym session. Again, find what works for you.
How to check flow
The best advice I heard came from dear Gary Halbert. He said your copy should read like a waterfall. Your eyes should flow down the page without stopping. You’ll hear it called conversational copywriting. But, basically, it means… write as you talk.
The easiest test? Read your copy out loud. If you trip over a word, stutter, or have to re-read because something isn’t clear, it needs to be re-worked.
How to improve flow
The easiest fix? Use short sentences. They add tempo to your writing. You need to nudge people along. Keep people engaged. Make reading easy.
Pro tip: Write out successful advertisements by hand. And study them. I bought a journal and wrote out word-for-word letters from Gary Halbert, emails from Ben Settle, and classic print ads from Ogilvy. You will start to see patterns in the structure and language. In part 2 I’ll share more on what I saw and implement.
I wrote out reels of Gary Halberts copy. Gaz was the master of transitional words. Words like; and, so, in fact, naturally, blah blah…
Why did he use them?
Because your copy should sound like a chat with a mate.
But, trust me, that takes time…here’s my edited first attempt (for Attention / Interest):
Subject: How to bulletproof your training in 2021
EMAIL BODY
Been slacking recently, huh?
Barely set foot in a gym this year?
Didn’t fancy splashing out on a +$1000 dumbbell set during quarantine?
All valid excuses…erm, I mean reasons for not getting some exercise in these days.
I mean, everyone should be excused for carrying around some premature winter weight given the current sitch.
*Cough* unprecedented times *cough*
All I’m saying is…
Christmasss 🎄
All that succulent, moist turkey with roast potatoes & gravy 🤤
Typically a one-way ticket to gainsville.
And I’m not talking about sculpted glutes and arms my deer.
That leaves us with 2 options: 1) hope for a Christmas miracle, or 2) take action into our own now plumper hands.
Yep, this is your sign to get back into the routine at home (or anywhere for that matter!)
***
I mean, for a first attempt it’s not terrible. But let’s be honest here, it’s shit. It sounds more like a chat with a socially anxious Herbalife rep than a mate.
But, you can see what I try to do. I’ve got an idea, I’m using snappier sentences, I’m trying to be chatty, and attempting to create vividness.
I’ve just not practiced enough. And, more importantly, read enough.
In fact, you can stop reading now. Practicing a lot and reading a lot are the only “secrets” in becoming a “confident copywriter”. Everything else i.e. “How to Win Clients and How to Run a Freelance Business” you can find online… for free.
But, that’s easy for me to say after 9 months of trying.
In September 2020, I was still looking for the magic bullet.
My first ever cold email response
I still wasn’t confident, so I kept practicing. I wrote more semi-live copy for fitness brands and for hair loss companies. I wrote for the volume of words; “10 thousand hours of practice” played in my mind — Cheers Malcolm Gladwell. And above all, I was committed.
But, I couldn’t practice forever. I had to take big action.
So on the 8th of September, I decided to cold email the Shelter Fitness CEO. The company I wrote the practice email promo for.
The most effective yet inefficient cold email strategy known to man
I spent a day analyzing their Facebook and Instagram ad copy. Then I made a slide deck with my recommendations. It looked very professional. Like I knew what I was doing (I didn’t know what I was doing). But I sent it to the CEO on Friday 10th September. I got a response a few hours later.
Rookie copywriter mistakes
Now, I don’t have the email thread because I changed my Gmail, but I made some rookie copywriter mistakes. Here’s the general idea:
Shelter Fitness CEO:
“Thanks Nick,
What are your prices?”
Me:
“Hi Dave (his name wasn’t Dave)
$200 per email
$50 per headline”
Shelter Fitness CEO:
“Ah okay, we don’t have budget for that this year. Maybe after Christmas!”
Me:
“Totally understand…
I can do 2 emails for $300?”
I cringe thinking back on it.
What did I do wrong?
- I had no idea about pricing — I got that price from a teenager on YouTube.
- I negotiated on a price immediately without speaking to him — I sounded every inch the novice I was.
Safe to say I wasn’t the “confident copywriter” Udemy course guy promised…
I knew I wasn’t ready. Yet.
Find your own copywriting path
I decided to go back to the drawing board. To get stuck into copywriting and advertising as a craft. That quickly led me to Cole Schafer; now one of my favorite Copywriters. He runs a boutique copywriting agency called Honey Copy. I love the way he blends his love for classic writing with classic advertising. In fact, his strapline for his website is “Words that read like poetry and sell like Ogilvy” – – for inspiration and solid gold advice from a fucking confident copywriter, subscribe to his newsletter Stickynotes.
Finding Cole led me to read more Ogilvy. The OG of advertising. I began to find different styles of copywriting. Copywriting that wasn’t littered with cheap tactics used by cheap copywriters selling expensive courses. Copy that inspired me. Copy that I aspired to write.
(You see; being spoon-fed tactics, from people who only write copy to make money, leads you down their path.)
Find your own path first. And then buy the course from someone who’s on a similar one. And preferably a copywriting expert.
By the way, Cole sells copywriting guide. It costs $97 dollars. I said to myself I’d buy it when I made my first $100. But seeing as you’re finding your path, I recommend the below articles from him first:
PART 2 – Starting your freelance copywriting business
Fiver, really?
There are many things I love about Colombia. One of them is the natural beauty of the country; her epic landscapes inspire me. They motivated me to do whatever it takes to maintain my nomadic lifestyle. The lifestyle that makes me feel alive. The lifestyle I’d do anything to keep…even work on Fiverr.
Fiver gets trashed by most freelancers selling courses.
But back when I was TikTok famous, I watched a girl called Alex on the app share her experiences with Fiver. She earned bank. Like a million in sales to be exact. It’s because of her I went against most freelancers’ advice and made a profile.
The thing with Fiver is you need momentum. And that starts with a fucking good profile and fucking low prices.
How do you make a fucking good profile? Well, you’re advertising copywriting, so show your style. But check out Alex’s YouTube for the specifics. She’s the expert.
I made a profile advertising email copywriting services. Specifically cold email copywriting because I could highlight my tech sales experiences. Experience I could back up with my LinkedIn profile.
And it worked. I got my first order on the 28th of October. Three emails for a company selling SEO optimized websites to credit check companies.
Three emails at $5 dollars a pop for companies notorious for being shady AF.
I accepted the job. I followed my principles of copy. I got a 5-star review.
More gigs trickled in and I got more 5 star reviews. I bumped up my prices. At one point, I made $95 in a week (before Fiver took their 20% cut).
And that right there ladies and gentlemen is the problem with Fiver.
The sheer volume of work-to-pay ratio is abysmal for writers.
Anyway, I got what I wanted — live practice — and after 17 completed gigs I felt more confident. Confident enough to try again in the big leagues.
Fiver was good to cut my teeth but I’d seen Tiktokers PayPal with $1000+ in sales each month. I wanted some of that. Not $350 – 20% from Fiver.
So what did I do first?
Step 1 – Build a target list
Google docs is perfect. Something like this:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QBCa6lT8Ou3ErPKL4M0KqBcZpekngpeLQk2nsBcqSsU/edit?usp=sharing
Then scrape the internet using the technique outlined in Part 1. I committed to adding 10 companies to the list each day.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t have a specific niche at this point. I went for fitness brands and startups. The startups I’d find on Angellist.co, a tech job site. The search function made it a lot easier to find companies rather than google marketplace.
Warning: if you are targeting smaller companies, getting the correct email for the CEO is a ballache. Even with hunter.io I’d have to guess the email format 4 or 5 times. In some cases, I just gave up. If that kind of thing stresses you out (I let out the odd fuck you! And CUNTZZ more than a few times), move on to the next target quickly.
Here was my routine was:
Get up and do my normal shit; meditate, journal, read, and then:
- Find 10 new leads
- Read good copy
- Write out that good copy by hand
If you can’t commit to that, you ain’t going far. That’s the bare minimum in my opinion.
Step 2 – Craft a banger cold email
Imagine yourself as the CEO of a company you’re targeting…
Let’s say a mid-size fitness company: Bean sports
You’re busy. You’re actively looking for ways to grow your business. You know about the importance of good copywriting. But you’re a skeptical mofo, and rightly so — your inbox gets peppered with budding copywriters with little experience and no portfolios.
So the chances of your email getting opened are high. The chances of the CEO of Bean sports doing anything about it…Low.
That’s why your cold email content is doubly important. And if you are promising high-quality email copywriting, your email copy is your first interview.
YOUR first interview.
So don’t buy a cold email pack on the interwebs. You’re a copywriter ffs, be original. BE YOU.
Besides, the good thing about email marketing is you can test what works easily…
Pro tip: Install a software called Streak. Streak plugs into your Gmail and serves 2 purposes; 1) it shows you when and how many times someone has opened your email.
2) You can organize your targets once you’ve emailed them. You want to track who you’ve emailed, how many times you’ve followed up, and if they have shown interest, etc. Google docs can get messy very quickly. And it’s free.
Now it’s time to test your first cold email.
Where do you start?
Using all the copywriting knowledge you now have, obviously!
But if I’m honest, Jacob McMillen says it best in his epic free blog post about email copywriting…”cold email is like the dark arts, anything goes”
(I’d link you to his post but it fucks with my SEO)
Now, below is my first cold email of the new era. It’s definitely different…
Did it work?
Kind of.
Here’s the response:
Not bad, eh?
FYI: I was bricking it when I sent that cold email. I brick it when I send every cold email — Even after sending thousands of emails as a sales rep. The little streak push notification you get when the prospect opens your email doesn’t help. Every time it feels as if my old boss asked me to lead a meeting 5 minutes before it starts.
I was happy with a 1 out of 3 start. The other 2 prospects opened the mail but clearly had no interest. And that’s fine.
Why do I think that email worked?
Let’s look at it through the lens of AIDA:
Attention
Subject: Email that converts like Odd Jobs golden gun
First sentence: Penetrating your inbox
I’d say they grab your attention. You’d at least read on to find out why some random geezer is penetrating your inbox.
Interest
I make assumptions that probably appeal to his interests i.e. he doesn’t have time to write decent emails & they have a list that probably isn’t being sold to.
This may not be the case at all. But I don’t care about companies that are killing it because they don’t need me.
Desire
“I can unlock revenue from that list…”
That’s a clear benefit that sounds veryy desirable to me.
Act
I ask if he’s interested in talking.
Now, you could argue my CTA is weak. But I put myself in the shoes of the person getting my emails. He has no idea who I am. Why would he want to speak to me? The goal of your cold email is to get a response. Even a “no” is better than nothing.
Further thoughts:
I feel I overdid it with the wordplay. I wanted to create vivid images in his mind so he’d feel compelled to do something. It worked. But I imagine other people would think “who the fuck does this guy think he is. twat.”
Anyway, he seemed like a nice guy. But he hit me with “do you have any place I can go to and look at your work?”
F fucks sake, he’s right, I thought.
Step 3 (should be number 1…) – Set up your website & portfolio
I watched a fuck ton of YouTube videos about freelancer websites.
- What pages should I include?
- What should it look like?
- How the fuck do I do it?
Instead of explaining poorly, read this blog post about setting up a professional website by Jorden from writing revolt. I followed all her advice.
How to Setup a Freelance Writer Website
Eventually, you need to decide over a self-hosted or hosted website i.e. squarespace, wix, etc.
I chose self-hosted because I wanted to start Nick West Spanglish (this blog) at the same time. Basically, you have more flexibility with self-hosted websites. Maybe, just maybe I’ll need that flexibility in the future…
Most bloggers recommended a Blue Host / Word Press / Divi theme combination.
Divi theme is actually baller when you figure it out. You can build your website from scratch or use their templates. I used their copywriting template and set up a bobby basic website.
The keyword is website here. Yes, you need a portfolio page but you should think of yourself as a business. Potentially a brand. I guess it depends on your aspirations. Jordan has done that superbly well to her credit.
The total cost for getting set up was around $120 ( Blue Host hosting $107 + Div $90 – both charged yearly)
Tip: Setup your website domain WITH Blue Host. I had already bought mine through Gmail. It’s a ballache to transfer everything across.
On Christmas Day 2020 Nick West Copy 1.0 was born.
I was dead proud when I’d finished my site; choosing the new name, brand colors, logo, and writing the copy. I felt like a professional. A business owner.
Now all I needed was clients.
In fact, I recommend an interview between Jacob and Cole where they discuss how to get new clients. I liked that it’s nothing special. They started the same way I did. The same way you will. Just testing emails and grafting.
PART 3 – What it takes to succeed as a freelance copywriter
I spent the first week of January 2021 in Nuqui. A lesser-known town on the Colombian pacific coast. As you arrive by boat, it looks like you’re entering Jurassic Park.
It was there I set the goals and habits I needed to succeed. At this point, I had about £7,000 in my bank account. And I was spending around £1,200 each month. I didn’t have long to start plugging the holes in my ship. It was now or never.
When I got back to my apartment, my target list was ready. My cold email was ready. I was ready.
I committed to emailing at least 5 new targets a day. It doesn’t sound like a lot. And It’s not. That was the point. I always hated prospecting, so I needed to make it appear easy to my lazy brain. Besides, that’s 25 outreaches a week. 100 a month. Surely some bastard will get back to me?
Each morning, at 7 am sharp, I’d fire out 5 emails. Then I’d find 5 new companies to add to my list for tomorrow’s assault. I knew it was about momentum. Building pressure.
Three days passed without a response. I saw a few opens. The little push notification in the top right of the screen gave me anxiety.
And then my first sale…
On Friday 15th January I got a response. And what a fucking response. The CEO of Fast messaged me on WhatsApp.
Fast is a really big fucking deal. They’re a rocketship startup.
I shat myself.
Now I had to back up the claims in my cold email.
But, I knew I was on to something with my email copy.
In fact, the Fast CEO tweeted this.
The deal was only worth $100 but that first sale meant so much. And that Tweet was a needed confidence boost.
Freelancing sites lead to opportunities
A few days later, I got a message on LinkedIn. A guy had seen my profile on Fiver and wanted someone to write cold B2B emails for him. We chatted over Zoom and agreed on a fee. I’d write him a 3 email sequence for $200 — I used to charge $25 for 3 emails on Fiver. Things were looking up. I’d plugged another tiny hole in my ship.
It’s a numbers game
If you keep at it, you will get responses. Not all of them good, mind you. I got a zinger from one target on my list…
I wish I kept the evidence. All I have now is his name redded out with the note CuNt in my target list. Basically, he called me out for a typo. But not only that, he took the time to screenshot my email and highlight my mistake with a red arrow. He really kicked me when I was down.
Unfortunately, there are many cunts like him in this world. Don’t take it personally. Just keep going if you want to succeed. IF you want to.
This is when you’re fucked
If something is off with your website, portfolio, or your offer, you won’t close sales. Cheers capn’ obvious. But finding the cause is tricky.
Google analytics showed me I was getting visitors to my site. Sweet. But I wasn’t getting enough responses. Something needed to be fixed. So I started by updating my website copy. I figured that’s people’s first impression of me. Then I assumed it was my lack of portfolio holding me back. And then I questioned my cold email messaging… So just keep iterating your shit. Progress over perfection as they say. It’s all part of finding your own path.
Mine led me to Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. There I failed hard, got lucky, and learned a lot.
My first taste of objective failure
I woke up next to a cockroach. Admittedly It was on the floor, but my Airbnb in Puerto Vallarta was rank. The clean bright photos couldn’t have been further from the truth. It was muggy, dingy, and falling apart. The tiles cracked under my feet, and, mentally, I wasn’t far behind. The feeling of loneliness had been chipping away at me. And the fear of failure was holding me together like an elastic band not far from the inevitable. This month in Mexico was make or break.
Data-backed evidence and a testimonial would add serious firepower to my website. So I pestered the CEO of Fast for the results of my copy.
I was in the Uber home from my workstation in Starbuck when I got them. I lost. I felt gutted. My mind clouded over with self-doubt and grey thoughts. I felt like a failure, so I went for tacos. When I got back around 9 pm, I rewrote my attempt and sent it to them. I didn’t expect anything. I just wanted to show myself and them that’s the kind of person I am. You either quit or you fucking get back on it…after tacos.
It was a good lesson in email marketing. I had to write a cold email with zero data to help me. I was up against their in-house copywriters. They had access to A/B tests on subject lines and body copy. Of course, I lost!
This failure taught me Copywriting isn’t subjective. Sure, it can be pretty and sound clever, but did it get more opens, clicks, sales? That’s how you measure success. So you’re gonna need some thick skin as you learn what works and what doesn’t.
3 sales calls, 2 losses, 1 win
I was on one in Mexico. New targets added to my target list each morning, follow-ups in the afternoon, website tweaks, and I was re-reading Dan Kennedy in the evening. I didn’t even touch social media let alone alcohol. The result: 3 booked calls with potential clients.
Call 1 – L
It was with an online scheduling service company. They helped community centers (swimming pools mainly) and studios with their bookings. I was trying to sell them my b2b cold email service. The call bombed. He was the head of marketing but the CEO made him talk with me. Never a good start. I just wasn’t interested. Fair enough. I sent my rates anyway not expecting a reply. I got one. Not from him though. The cheeky fucker added me to their email list. I couldn’t help but laugh.
Call 2 – L
I was so buzzed for this one. It was with a sporting goods company. And the owner seemed really cool. I’d followed her promo emails for a while and thought she’d like my style. We had a good chat. And I thought we connected. Then she ghosted me. I’m still not sure why. I think she was under the impression I’d do a free trial for her. Instead, I offered a fair fee – $80. In hindsight, I probably should have done a free trial for the experience. Nevermind.
Call 3 – W
Call 3 came from the Fiver guy. He introduced me to his boss who was starting an online community. A community for self-employed CEO’s and consultants called revenue climbers. He needed a brand new landing page and welcome email sequence. I hadn’t written either but it felt like the right opportunity. In fact, It felt perfect. We got on well and he didn’t flinch when I gave him some ballpark costs. If it came in, It would be my first financial goal ticked off the list.
What did I learn from the calls?
- I hate first calls – Even after 5 years in sales and hundreds of sales calls, I still get nervous AF before a call.
Solution: I think the first thing is accepting it’s okay to be nervous. I found some deep breathing exercises before the call gets me in a better state of mind – if you need guidance, try downloading the app Breathwrk. When you’re on the call those worries fall away. If not the first time, the 5th, 18th…
As for the call itself, I recommend reading Jacob McMillen’s epic blog post on nailing sales calls. He covers just about everything; mindset, questions you should ask, how to close, etc.
- I needed to change my offer – I was mainly offering b2b email copywriting. Even though there’s a market for it, most businesses have SDR’s.
Solution: I changed my offer (again). I still offered b2b email copywriting but as a part of sales funnel copywriting i.e. getting traffic websites (mainly for b2b brands), converting those people into leads with landing page copy (b2b & b2c), and then nurturing them with email sequences. It made more sense to me. I could focus on getting good at skills that worked together. And that I could bundle them together. More cash in theory.
- I needed to figure out pricing – it’s a nightmare for all beginner copywriters. I was literally sticking my finger in the air and must have changed my cost per email from $100 to $150 and back again like a gazillion times.
Solution: I got lucky with this one. I was watching Jacob McMillen’s YouTube channel. He interviewed Michal Eisikowitz – she easily has the best copywriter website I’ve seen and is a copywriting boss. The first subject line of her free email course is “I’m gonna talk about pricing. A lot.” WINNER. She does have a pricing course upsell, but her free content is a great start. It breaks down what you should consider when setting your prices. What she calls the 4P’s.
Michal is typing now…
FRIENDS.
Will this work help me…
- find friends in high places?
- cultivate valuable professional relationships?
- create new possibilities for high-quality referrals or collaborations?
FUN.
Will I enjoy the work?
Will it give me a thrill?
Will I feel I’m contributing to a cause I’m passionate about?
FLAUNT.
Will I get great samples I can showcase going forward?
Will I (likely) get a killer case study I can shamelessly show off?
Will I get a well-recognized logo I can slap up on my site?
FINANCE.
Will the project pay me well?
Will it be worth my time? Will I feel well-compensated (even if it wasn’t the most enjoyable work)?
She goes on to say; ANY project you accept should have at LEAST 1 F. The more F’s, the more you want to make it work.
…I wish I’d found Michal sooner. Here is her website: www.michaleisikowitz.com
My first big freelance copywriting milestone
I was in the 6th hour of a 7-hour layover in Mexico City airport. My new Uniqlo facemask dug deep into the back of my ears since leaving Vallarta. But now I was one flight away from my beloved Colombia. My beloved Medellín.
When I logged into my Gmail, I saw the news. We were going ahead with the $1025 landing page and email sequence. I’d hit my first big mile-stone — 8 whole months after starting this journey. And you know what, I was actually feeling confident about this one.
When I was in Puerto Vallarta, I researched and practiced landing page copywriting. It seemed easier than email. Easier for a newbie anyway. I turned to Harry Dry’s Marketing Examples for his landing pages formula, practiced re-writing a few websites, bob’s your uncle. Okay, I still had (and have) a lot to learn but it was a start. And that’s the most important step.
When I was in Medellin, I got to work on the landing page. I felt in the zone. The guy I did the project for was great. I even told him it was my first landing page project. I think he respected my honesty. Before cracking on, I sent him a questionnaire with everything I needed to know. It was a slight variation on Dan Kennedy’s 10 Smart Market Diagnosis and Profiling Questions. They’re questions that help me get the head of the target customer.
Here is the landing page I wrote (the page design was out of my hands).
The Freelance Copywriting Rollercoaster
My client was happy. I heard him sing my praises on a recorded revenue climber group call. I felt good, I felt confident, I felt like a copywriter. Then my luck plummeted. I had a flurry of calls that came to nothing. I was on the freelancer roller coaster. The fear of going back home a failure was becoming a reality.
One night, I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned for hours. My mind was racing with worry and ideas. I kept jolting out of that weird almost sleep state to write the ideas down. The next morning, I checked the notes on my phone. Most of them were shit — one of them though — one of them had some legs. It read: worry about something else. I decided to run with it. Besides, It seemed fitting. I spent the whole day updating my website and cold email copy on this theme. My first “big idea” maybe?
You can check out my website (Nick West Copy) here.
I fired this new cold email out to one target on my list. A cool breath work app whose website I thought I could improve. As I got up to stare out the window I remember thinking this is all so pointless… One hour later, the CEO set up a call.
He told me he liked my style of writing; it was the voice he imagined for his brand. I was buzzing about the opportunity to work for such a cool company. But I was ridiculously underqualified. I told him so. It didn’t seem to matter. Later that week, I interviewed with their head of content. We got on well too. I thought This isn’t actually going to happen, is it? Well, it didn’t materialise. Not yet anyway. To be honest, it was a big confidence boost to get that far for such an important role with a rocket-ship start-up.
Freelancer uncertainty sucks
It was April 2021. I had £4k left in my bank account (that’s about 3 months living in Colombia). I’d been trying to make freelance copywriting a stable month-to-month income for almost 9 months. NINE MONTHS! A whole pregnancy! Instead of a baby, I made about $3,000 from copywriting.
Defeat was looming. But then, by chance, I read about a website called ProBlogger — a site with job postings from companies that have to pay to post them. So you know they’re legit and should pay better.
I saw a part-time job for an email marketer…oi oi…for a language app…oi oi saveloy that’s a bit of me I thought, so I applied. I didn’t think I’d get a response. A few days later they set me a copywriting task. So I did. Another few days later, I got the job.
The app in question is FluentU. If you’ve ever googled anything about a language in the last 10 years you’d have seen their blog. And, as I write this at 8.34 am on the 11th June 2021, I just exceeded my $2000 Q3 revenue target.
Sure, it’s not long long-term, but now I can do what I love (travel and live in Latin America) while mastering a new skill; a skill that’s in demand, a skill I hope serves me in my personal exploits. And maybe worth the months and months of uncertainty…
But fuck me, it’s been a journey.
En fin.
I wonder if I made everything harder than it should be. If I had just bought a $500+ course I’d have saved a lot of worry and stress. Maybe. But what I’ve learned is you cannot start copywriting purely to make money. Because you think it’s easier and less-risky than dropshipping, Amazon FBA, or day trading, etc.
You have to enjoy the process of copywriting, learning about marketing, and see the long-term benefit of learning the skill. Because it’s fucking hard. I didn’t start from zero — I’d written 1000’s of sales emails, made dozens of sales calls, faced rejection after rejection, and I struggled to make this work. But If you still fancy it, I wish you good luck. And hit me up in the comments or email if I can help. I’d love to hear from you.
Nick “Occasionally confident copywriter” West
Copywriting email: nick@nickwestcopy.com
