What are the realities of being a freelance copywriter?

 What are the realities of being a freelance copywriter?

1. You get to be your own boss.
   
   Feel like rolling out of bed and working in your pajamas? No problem. Need to dash out of your home office for a quick workout at the gym or a jog around the neighborhood. Again, no worries.
   
   You don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to do anything. And it’s downright liberating.
2. You can work from anywhere that has an internet connection.
   
   No more sitting in a cramped cubicle in a sea of cubicles. (Who can write in that kind of environment anyway?)
   
   You can rent a beach house on the sea. Or take a month-long trip to Paris. As long as you have access to the internet, you can work.
3. You are in control of how much money you make.
   
   Well, kind of. (I’ll talk more about this in #4.)
   
   The point is, you don’t have to be stuck in a pay scale that was determined by some corporate big wigs. You want to earn more money, you find more gigs. And you get your clients to pay you more.
4. Income isn’t always steady.
   
   You could book projects out for a few months ahead to help ensure a steady flow of income. But slumps will come. And you need to have some money in savings to get you through the lean times.
   
   One way to keep the income flowing is to land a retainer contract. I’m working one of those right now, and it does ease the money strain. My financial client pays me both a monthly payment and royalties on sales.
5. You are pretty much on your own.
   
   I’m an introvert. And I’m incredibly disciplined. So, I’m a good fit for the freelance copywriter life.
   
   However, if you need to be around people — and have trouble getting work done in an unstructured environment — you might be better suited to an in-house copywriting job.

To make the big bucks as a copywriter, you need to be good.

Darn good.

You need to be a master of persuasion with a deep understanding of how people are wired.

You need to be able to put words together in such a way that people keep reading your sales promotion — or watching the sales video you scripted — because they can’t wait to see what comes next.

You have to know what emotional hot buttons to hit… when… and how.

You need to work hard to find clients that understand the value you bring to the table — and pay you what you deserve.

You also need to find royalty-paying gigs — because it’s difficult to reach six-figures and beyond without receiving commissions on the sales your copy generates.

Add to all that a dash of luck…

That you land the right clients.

And get the right breaks.

That’s why only a small percentage of copywriters make the big bucks. But there’s no reason you can’t make a good living as a copywriter. It just takes talent, skill, hard work, persistence, and determination.

Based on my experience, formal writing ability doesn’t really have all that much to do with it. Some of the best marketing copy ever written wouldn’t pass the snuff of any English writing teacher, yet would make the sale time and time again.

IF you can get past “correct” writing patterns and can easily absorb more emotional ways of writing, you can be writing “good” (read: copy that produces sales results) within 3–6 months.

You’ll want to brush up on:

• How to SELL (in person, in print, etc)
• Buyer psychology, price anchoring, and value stacking
• Emotional language and powerful verbs
• The structure of good marketing copy, and different forms of marketing copy
• Marketing metrics, and how to gauge copy success
• Lead, headline, and bullet types (see: advice by Clayton Makepeace, “Great Leads”, AWAI, etc)
• Buyer awareness and sophistication (see: “Breakthrough Advertising”)

Here are the skills you need to be a copywriter and ways to gain experience.

Work On Your Writing Skills

Now first things first, if you want to be a copywriter you need to work on your writing skills.

• Improve your writing by writing daily
• Answer prompts in a notebook or word processor to help you keep track of your work. Seeing how you have improved will keep you motivated.
• Work on spelling, grammar, sentence structure, and flow.
• Utilize free tools like Grammarly and Hemingway Editor to help you with the above.
• Read grammar blogs to understand the “why” behind grammar rules. Knowing the “why” will help you to remember the rules.
• Read about writing to understand the styles and mechanics.
• Read on a wide variety of topics, genres, and mediums to see writing in action.

Work On Your Copywriting Skills

While you are working on your writing skills you can also start working on your copywriting skills.

You can do this by

• Practicing how to make headlines that grab peoples’ attention
• Writing bullets that focus on the benefits.
• Reading tons of copy and other copywriting blogs.

Though having a degree is helpful, in lieu of it you can take a copywriting course.

You can find them on Skillshare, Udemy, and Coursera.

There are even some low cost or free courses!

Gain Experience and Build Up Your Portfolio

Experience is what is going to help you become a copywriter.

• Start a blog!
• Pick a topic that interests you or that you're knowledgeable in and start writing.
• This will help you practice your writing and copywriting skills.
• You can also use your blog as part of your writing portfolio.
• You can also offer to guest blog on other companies’ websites and blogs.
• Join social media!
• Create a twitter account and start microblogging.
• Twitter’s 280 character limit will help you craft clear and concise messages.
• Join Quora!
• Create a profile and start answering questions!
• Practice by making up samples!
• Choose a business or product and make up copy for it.
• Showcase your work on your blog to show future clients and employers examples of what you can do.
• You can also practice by working on existing copy and making it better.
• Join a freelance writing agency or apply for an internship.
• Many freelance agencies have work that beginners can take on, which will give you the experience that you need.
• However, some agencies do have membership fees or take a small cut of your profits.
• You can also apply for an internship.
• Most internships are unpaid, but they do help you get the experience you need and looks great on resumes.
• Offer up your services!
• Although the goal is to turn this into a job that pays, you have to start somewhere.
• Approach local businesses or non-profit organizations and off to vamp up their copy for free in exchange for a review.
• Offer to work for a trial period and show your future employer or client how valuable you are.
• Be proactive by creating or improving a small bit of copy for a client or business as a sample of what you can do for them.

Now that you’ve learned what skills you need and how to gain the experience to be a copywriter, you need to start!

Do not wait. The time will never be "just right." Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along. - Napoleon Hill

So what does a copywriter, do, exactly?

Copywriters help create the message on a company’s email newsletters, digital or print advertisements, social media copy, and brand taglines. For example, copywriters are the ones who write a dating app’s tagline to get new users to sign up. If you’ve ever signed up for a dating site, it’s probably because of a copywriter’s great tagline. Copywriters do lots of other things, too. They write the sales messages on billboards and brochures. And they write scripts for TV commercials and radio ads. Copywriters even write those catchy TV commercial jingles lyrics. you have seen how important copywriting is check this video to how to get started.