One of the most common questions i get from people who are interested in getting into copywriting is, “Great, I’m interested—but when will I start to make money?”

It makes sense: we want to know what the earning potential is before we jump headfirst into a new career.

So, I’ll answer this question, but I’m going to presuppose that you’re on an actual copywriting study tract. One of the biggest mistakes that trips people up (and keeps them from making money) is trying to get copywriting work without actually knowing how to write copy.

Copywriting is a skill just like any other and requires training to learn it. No one’s going to hire you to be a cowboy if you don’t know how to rope a steer and ride the range.

That’s actually the reason that we created our own copywriting training: It’s been hard for people to find good copywriting training, much less a training that’s both affordable and thorough.

2 Must-Haves to Make Money as a Copywriter

Back to the answer. Well, in a nutshell, you can start making money as soon as you know what you’re doing. That sounds like a very vague answer, I know. But, really, anyone who tries to give you a specific answer is just BSing you.

Training

Just like with becoming a pilot or becoming an accountant, becoming a copywriter requires training (though, significantly less training—and less expensive training—than becoming a pilot).

You don’t need to pay thousands of dollars for portfolio school or get any b-s copywriting certification (more on that here). What you do need is a course that will teach you copywriting principles, including how to distinguish features versus benefits, how to write an effective call to action, and how to create strong ad concepts.

It also helps if the course teaches you how to find and land clients so that you can get the next must-have: experience.

Experience

As soon as you start to have a basic grip on copywriting, you can start finding yourself some small business clients. I always recommend starting out with small business clients because you will almost always know so much more than they do about copywriting and marketing.

And I don’t mean that in a superior way. I mean that you can start helping them very quickly. And, again, depending on how much you want to learn and how quickly and how well you assimilate the information, you could conceivably start trying to get your first clients within a couple of weeks.

Then, as you learn more and as you get more samples for your portfolio, you can start branching out to design studios and ad agencies and in-house agencies.

Your Timeline to Becoming a Copywriter Is Up to YOU

The time it takes you to start earning money is really all on you. There are some people whose schedules are packed and can’t dedicate a ton of time to learning or who want to take it at a slower pace and there are some people who will go at it, guns blazing.

And, again, I can’t make you any promises, but I can tell you how the timing worked out for one of my students.

Example Timeline: Christina’s Journey to Leo Burnett

Christina started working with me just a little over nine months ago. Like a lot of people, she wasn’t happy at her job and, on top of that, things at her company were a little shaky. So, she decided she needed a change. She was looking for a career she’d enjoy, a career she could grow in, and a career she could makes some money in.

Like many CCA students, she’d always enjoyed writing and she thought maybe copywriting might work for her, but she didn’t really know much about it. She’d never done it before.

Well, she found us and started training. (And wouldn’t you know it, just a few weeks after she started training, she lost her job. But she kept pushing on anyway.) Our training is all self-paced, so she could do it when she had time to do it. And then, of course, too, she started being able to find herself some copywriting work to bring in some cash.

So, skipping forward a bit, about a three months ago, I got an email from her. I hadn’t heard from her and she hadn’t joined in the student calls for a month or two. So, I was curious to see how she was doing. Well, it turns out she was doing pretty darn well. She had just landed a full-time, freelance position at Leo Burnett in Chicago. And if you’re not familiar with Leo Burnett, it’s a major global advertising firm.

She was thrilled and I was thrilled for her. So, timeline? She landed that about six months after she started training with us. That’s right: six months from knowing nothing about copywriting to working with one of the biggest and most powerful ad agencies in the world.

And there’s no magic to it either. She learned. She took the steps we gave her to build her portfolio and she took the steps we gave her to network. And she made it happen.

Could it take you longer? Of course; it depends on the time you dedicate to learning and to building your portfolio. Could you do it faster? Sure. It’s all up to you.

See More CCA Student Journeys & Timelines

There are as many timelines for making money as there are copywriters!

If you’re interested in hearing more about all the various ways Comprehensive Copywriting Academy students build their copywriting careers, check out our student journey playlist here >>

You can also see more student wins right here >>

And listen to one of our successful students discuss how he landed a senior copywriter role here >>

The post How Soon Can You Make Money as a Copywriter? appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

Freelancing has taken the world by storm. Bringing with it flexible work schedules and a healthier work-life balance, it’s no surprise that 73 million Americans are doing some form of freelance work. In fact, 64% of Gen Z want to work for themselves, explaining that they want to chart their own future and have plenty of entrepreneurial traits.

But entering the freelance market requires more than just skills in and determination. You also have to think about your own finances on top of meeting deadlines. This administrative work can be tough for freelancers, especially copywriters, as it can be confusing without the proper training and experience. So, if this sounds like something you’re having trouble with too, we’ve come up with a list of everything freelance copywriters need to know about accounting.

Establish Billing Policies

Your freelancing contract should state your terms for payment, such as when you’ll be paid, how you’ll be paid, and what penalties you have for late payments. While some people advocate for payments upfront, clients are usually much more comfortable with paying after a project has been delivered and they’re happy with it. As long as they’re clear on your charges and your timeline, getting paid shouldn’t be a problem.

Taxes and Regulation

Remember that even though you’re a freelancer, the government can still tax your income. If your net profit is $400 or more, then you need to start filing. The self-employment tax rate in the U.S. is currently 15.3% of your first $132,900, where 12.4% is allocated to Social Security, with the remaining 2.9% going to Medicare. An additional 2.9% applies to any income beyond that limit. (And that’s in addition to your regular tax rates.)

In line with this, it is important to consider the tax deductibles you can take advantage of. For instance, if you work from your home office, you can deduct expenses related to home office use. Look up tax laws in your state to see if any additional municipal tax deductibles apply. (And if you’ve taken advantage of a professional discount at some point, it’s likely the item you bought is work-related and tax-deductible.)

Keep Your Income and Expenses In Order

Keep your business income and expenses organized at all times. This helps you with your tax bills and ensures that you can stick to a monthly budget. A simple Excel spreadsheet can help you get your numbers in order. Or opt for a software program like Mint or FreshBooks to help. Some applications even allow you take a picture of your receipts and organize them online. Come tax season, you simply have to send those pictures off to the IRS.

Keep Separate Accounts

It may seem easier to keep all of your money in one account, but this is a mistake. Minimally, have a separate account to set aside money for your taxes to help ensure you’ve got enough money when tax time comes.

Hire an Accountant

Sometimes, all the financial work that comes with freelancing can get overwhelming, especially if you’re freelancing on the side, or just starting out. The best way to ensure that you’re complying with all the necessary tax laws and regulations is to hire an accountant — which makes it the best (and first!) investment you should make. They also aren’t just there to help you with your taxes, as accountants can teach you how to handle your budget, save more money, and save you time and effort in handling your finances.

Staying on top of your accounting may not be your top priority, but it is a responsible part of doing business. Let an accountant handle it, or make sure you’re on top of all your transactions to keep up with the mandatory taxes. Just stay organized and know how to make your resources work for you!

About the Author: Freelance blogger and yoga teacher Reese Jones wants both amateur and veteran copywriters to know that it’s possible to take charge of their financial future. When she’s not scouring the news for the latest financial apps and software, she spends her free time tending to their backyard herb garden with her husband Tom or running the trails with their golden Labrador Ashley.

Your Turn

Do you have any accounting tips you could share with new copywriters? Tell us about them in the comments!

The post Accounting Tips for New Copywriters appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

If you spend any time online among entrepreneurs and business owners, you’ll already be familiar with a very popular topic: the “money mindset.”

If you don’t, here’s what it refers to in nutshell: Your money mindset is how you think about your finances and about money in general.

People with a positive money mindset believe that they can make as much money as they want and that abundance is perfectly possible for them at any time.

People with a negative money mindset believe that money is hard to come by, that they’ll always have to work hard for money, that they’re not truly deserving of making money, or any of a host of other beliefs that put a cap on their earning potential.

If this all sounds a bit “woo woo” to you, it is…and it isn’t. If you’re a devotee of the Law of Attraction and the “think it, believe it, achieve it” philosophy, then this makes a lot of sense to you.

But even if you’re not, even if you’re deeply skeptical of anything that feels at all metaphysical or New Age-y, your money mindset is still something you need to investigate.

You may say, “Heck, sure I’ll give this copywriting thing a try! I’d love to make a great income as a writer!” but if your ingrained beliefs are things like, “Writers can’t make any money,” “I’m not cut out to make much money” or “You have to be a jerk or really salesy and conniving to make a lot of money,” you’re going to sabotage yourself at every opportunity.

I see this every time I run an ad on Facebook. Invariably, someone will comment something like, “It’s impossible to make good money as a copywriter!” or “Yeah right: Writer work their butts off for no money.”

But here’s the interesting thing: These beliefs absolutely dictate these peoples’ experiences. Copywriters who make six figures and more aren’t commenting, because they know it’s possible; they do it every day. What’s to comment on?

It’s only the underemployed ones, the ones who are working hard on the wrong things and in the wrong ways, who have developed this limiting belief. And by operating from the place of “it can’t be done, it’s impossible,” guess what? They’ll never do it! That’s not metaphysics or some kind of New Age-y stuff; that’s just a fact.

Limiting beliefs keep you closed off from possibility and keep you trapped in a small life. And the bad news is that pretty much all of us have limiting beliefs in one way or another.

You owe it to yourself to really think carefully about what you believe about money and what you believe you’re capable of.

There are plenty of great resources and books out there about changing limiting mindsets and limiting beliefs so I won’t go into exactly how to change them. (I’m also no expert! I have to work on my own limiting beliefs just as much as the next person.)

But I will tell you that the first step is the most important one: Just identifying what limiting beliefs you have. Once you start identifying them, you’ve taken the most significant step toward changing them.

Watch More

As a business owner, you have many opportunities to make investments in your business, which have the power to pay for themselves many times over. In this episode, Nicki and Kate explore the importance of adopting a business owner mindset rather than an employee mindset, so you can spend *strategically* in your business to drive growth.

Your turn! What limiting beliefs do you have? Are you willing to share? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Should a Money Mindset Matter to Copywriters? appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

Taxes aren’t anyone’s favorite task—and we could probably include accountants in that group! But as a copywriting professional who likely takes on some amount of freelance work, you need to take your taxes seriously. Here we look at what kinds of deductions your copywriting career can net you.

Before we dig in any further, let us be clear: We are not tax preparation or accounting professionals. Before you use any of the following deductions, please contact a licensed tax preparation professional. While this information is aimed at U.S. residents, international copywriters can use this to help focus further research and/or ask questions of their own tax preparation expert.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, there are deductions you’ll want to look into as a copywriter. Once you’ve figured out how much you’ve earned for the year, it’s time to think about how to offset some of the taxes you’ll pay on that. Deductions can reduce how much income you have to pay taxes on. For example, if you made $80,000 from copywriting but had $10,000 in business expenses, you’d be paying taxes on $70,000 versus $80,000.

And as business owners, that’s crucial to being able to reinvest in our businesses!

Here are a few tax deductions for copywriters you should look into.

Home Office Deductions

In 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated the home office deduction for employees. Meaning, if you were employed full-time by a company, you could no longer deduct your home office. However, self-employed individuals that use their home office as a primary place of business, the deduction still stands.

You can claim this deduction whether you own your home or rent. The key is you must have a space that is only used for business. Your child’s playroom that doubles as your office doesn’t count.

There are two ways to calculate the home office deduction. Most tax preparation software will walk you through it, but a tax professional can also guide you on the best option for you.

Simplified option: This is what it sounds like: simple. The square footage of your office space is multiplied by a prescribed rate.

Regular method: This requires a bit more math based on actual expenses (rent/mortgage, insurance, utilities, repairs, etc.). Generally, this is based on a percentage (the percentage of your home used for business compared to the rest of it).

Deductions for Office Supplies & Office Expenses

These two categories are very similar but treated ever-so-slightly differently. The good news is that there are plenty of items that fall under both.

Office supplies are typically things you use up. Think: paper, pens, paper clips, staples, stamps, notebooks, and tape.

Office expenses are things like:

• Software: Any programs you use to run or build your business (QuickBooks, SamCart for checkout pages, etc.) are deductible. (And don’t forget that if you’re used a professional discount for anything over the year, it’s likely for an item that is deductible.)
• Your portfolio site: The hosting costs, domain name costs, and any other costs associated with the maintenance of your online portfolio site (including the cost of hiring someone to build it should you choose to do so) are deductible.
• Computers and big-ticket equipment: Some higher-cost items are considered “business equipment.” For expensive items like these, you can choose to deduct them all at once or deduct the depreciation over a series of years. If it’s under $2,500, you can opt to deduct it all at once, which can help lower your taxable income in a really lucrative year!
• Home office furniture: When you buy a desk or chair or filing cabinet for your home office, you can deduct those, too. Like big-ticket technology, you may be able to opt for a deduction or depreciation if the furniture you purchased is pricey.
• Internet and cell phone: If you’re using Wi-Fi and/or your cellphone to conduct business (client calls, work, etc.), you may be able to deduct a percentage of your bills. (As with everything, talk with your account if you’re unsure of the best way to go about this.)

IRA or 401(K) Deductions

As a freelancer, you do have the ability to save for your own retirement. Your employer may not be offering a 401(K) match, but if you are a sole proprietor or an LLC with just one employee (which is taxed the same as a sole proprietor), then you can match your own 401(K) contributions. As a self-employed business owner, you are the employee AND the employer.

That means as the employee you can contribute up to $22,500 for 2023 tax year (filed in 2024). The amount is always a higher amount for those over age 50. When in doubt just google “401(K) contribution limit.” As the employer, you can contribute up to a percentage of your compensation. A tax pro or most tax software can help you work through the math.

For traditional IRAs, you may also be able to deduct your contribution. This depends whether or not you or your spouse (if you are married and filing jointly) have a retirement plan at work and your income exceeds certain levels. If you/your spouse do not have a retirement plan from an employer, then the full amount is deductible.

Listen to this podcast episode for more on building your own benefits >>

Deduct Your Advertising Costs

Did you dip your toe in Facebook or Google ads for your business this year? Or did you even take out an ad in the local town circular? The cost of advertising your business is deductible.

Professional Development Deductions

Did you take any courses to improve your business or copywriting skills? (Ahem, ahem.) You can deduct the cost of certain professional development training. (U.S. residents: Read more about educational tax deductions.)

Other professional development-related expenses include:

• Books: Purchased books that you read specifically to help you grow your business? They’re deductible. This includes books about copywriting (like Nicki’s own Copywriting Strategies) but other books that aren’t specifically about copywriting that are intended to help you grow as a business owner (and grow your business). Check out all our book recommendations right here >>
• Subscriptions: If you subscribe to Ad Age, Writer’s Digest, Entrepreneur, or other such periodicals to keep your writing and business skills sharp, you can deduct these subscriptions.

Deduct Legal and Professional Services

If you hired a lawyer to help you incorporate (generally not necessary for a copywriter, but still), an accountant to do your taxes, or another similar professional to help you with your business, you can deduct those costs.

Business Travel Deductions

If you’ve had to hop in your car to drive to meetings with clients, you can deduct the cost of that travel. Sure, you can figure out what you paid for gas for just those trips, but most people tend to just use standard mileage: You track the miles you drive for business and then multiply them by a certain amount to see how much you can deduct. Standard mileage for 2023 taxes (the taxes that you file in 2024) is 65.5 cents for every business mile driven. That may not seem like a lot, but if you’re driving a lot to get to client meetings (or driving daily to get to your contract gig), it can really add up!

You do need to keep track of all your expenses and hold on to receipts (physical or digital) in case of an audit. If you haven’t already started or developed a system for tracking your expenses, do so now!

Your Turn

Have you been tracking your deductions this year? Is there anything you’re surprised you can deduct? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Copywriter Taxes: Save With These Deductions in 2024 appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

Once you get money coming in from several clients, things can get a little chaotic—to say the least. With multiple clients, multiple projects, and multiple invoices in various states of payment, how do you keep track your freelance income and keep it all straight?

If you’re seeing ads for invoice tracking software for freelancers, you may feel like this type of software is essential. I’ve seen some of these ads, myself. They do a great job of making you feel like, if you were a real freelance professional, you’d use this software.

That’s not the case, though. You don’t need this software to keep your invoices straight.

However, you do need a system.

Freelance Income Tracker Template

Here’s what your system needs to track:

• What projects you’re currently working on
• What projects you’ve concluded and have invoiced for (bonus tip: the same day you get client approval, send them your invoice. Make this a habit, and you’ll save yourself a lot of headaches)
• How much the invoice is for
• The invoice number
• When you sent it
• When you received it
• Whether or not you’ve set aside money for taxes

Wow, kind of a lot, right? What kind of crazy, high-tech system is going to let you track all of this?

Open yourself up an Excel document or Google Sheet.

Really: an excel document is all you need to track your invoices effectively. (Well, with one caveat—more on that in a sec.

Across the top of your doc, create these column titles:

• Client
• Project (write a two- or three-word description)
• The date you sent the invoice
• The invoice number
• The amount it was for
• The date you receive the invoice
• Whether or not you’ve set aside tax funds (y/n)

How to Use Your Freelance Invoice Tracker

Using it is just a simple as creating it. As soon as you get a client, enter the client name and short project description in the sheet.

If you’ve agreed on a project price, you can put that in there, too—it will help keep the info handy.

This shows you your current, unbilled projects.

When you finish a project and bill for it, put in your invoice number and the date you sent it. This gives you an easy way to see your unpaid invoices.

When you receive a payment (and automatically deposit any checks you receive via your phone—you need to), record the date you receive it. This gives you a handy reference for how much income you’ve made.

And, of course, when you transfer funds to your for-taxes-only account, record that you’ve done so. This will help you remember to do it, as well as help you remember which payments you’ve planned for in your taxes.

And that’s it! Really, that’s all you need.

Make Tracking Income Part of Your Process

But time for that caveat: You have to actually use it. No tracking system, not this one and not some five-figure swanky tracking software, will work unless you actually use it.

Make it a habit to record your projects, bill as soon as you get approval, deposit your payment as soon as you get it, and transfer your tax savings as soon as the payment is deposited. And, of course, make it a habit to record all of this in your Excel or Google Sheet invoice tracker.

Your turn! Do you have any additional tips for tracking invoices? Or questions about this system? Let us know in the questions below!

The post The Easiest Way to Track Freelance Income [With Template] appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

If you’re moving from on-staff work to freelancing—or even just freelancing on nights and weekends—you’re in for a whole new world of taxation. Here’s what you need to know…

Today’s question comes from Meera V., who asks, “Are there any tax implications I should know about when I accept freelance work? Clients don’t withhold taxes, do they?”

This is a very astute question. Whenever you’re making money outside of the standard “working for a company on-staff” model, you have to pay taxes on that money.

When you’re working on-staff, your company takes out money from your taxes from your paycheck. But when you’re freelancing, and often when you’re contracting, your client is not taking out money for taxes. You get the full amount, meaning that setting aside money for taxes is up to you.

Now, first, let me preface all of this by saying that I am not a tax or financial professional. I can tell you what I do, but I strongly recommend you consult with a licensed tax preparation professional.

Okay, that said, let’s get down to it. The crux of all of this is that if you’re making any kind of freelance income, you need to be saving some of it for taxes.

When you make money outside of an on-staff job, you have to pay income tax (at least Federal and probably also State, depending on where you live) and you also have to pay self-employment tax. Neither of these is cheap.

For every payment that you get for a project, you should be setting aside 25%-40% in a separate savings account. Don’t put this money in your checking account or your regular savings account; you’ll spend it and then you’ll be in deep trouble come April 15th.

Personally, I like to set aside 50% of each check I get in because it helps me automatically set aside money. Once my taxes are paid, I can transfer the remainder into my personal savings account.

If you make a lot of freelance income, you may have to switch over to paying quarterly taxes. In total and complete honesty, I’m not at all sure what that threshold is; my accountant switches me over as needed. (Consult a tax professional!)

Another reason you should talk with a tax professional is that freelancers are eligible to claim all kinds of things as deductions, from commuting miles and your home office space, to advertising and professional development. Again, though, this gets complicated and trying to deduct things you shouldn’t is a great way to get in trouble with the IRS.

When you’re looking for an accountant, I’d strongly recommend finding one who has experience working with other freelancers and/or contractors. It’s even better if he/she has experience working with freelance/contract writers, since they might be able to suggest other deductions you haven’t even thought of.

Your turn! How do you remember to set aside tax money? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Copywriting Q&A: Planning for Taxes appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

It should go without saying, but let’s get this out of the way: expletives aren’t generally appropriate in the workplace. They are, however, sometimes appropriate to use in your head. Directed toward your workplace. Sometimes, you just gotta get out of there. But you need to make sure you can.

Now, to be entirely clear and avoid any liability lawsuits, we’re not financial advisors. If you have financial questions, please speak with a licensed professional. They can help you take a look at your own specific numbers and situation.

Here’s our take on how you can make sure your always 100% in control of your career.

You Need a Skill You Can Do as a Freelancer … Even if You Don’t Want to Freelance

Not everyone wants to become a full-time freelancer, and that’s OK! There are plenty of benefits to being an employee on staff at a company and working with them as a freelancer.

But as we found out in 2020, it’s possible for unforeseen events to wipe out entire industries (travel, restaurants, and childcare to name a few).

However, that’s always a possibility when a business has control over your career. They may merge with another company and downsize your department. They may dissolve the company. There are plenty of possibilities.

And while we don’t advocate spending a lot of time worrying about these “what ifs,” we do advocate having a set of skills that protect you should anything happen and you need or want to leave your job. This could be a skill you’re already doing, one you occasionally do, or one that you decide to start learning right now!

Read more about the importance of having a parachute skill >>

Save Enough Money So You Can Walk Away from Any Situation

Now that you have a skill that you know you could fall back on when and if you need to, it’s time to get your financial situation in order.

Our team members have worked on-staff as employees and as freelancers, and we value having control over our careers. So, it’s our firm opinion that you need to have enough money in your savings account so that you can walk away from any situation and not have to worry about how you’ll pay your bills.

This is called quit-your-job money or, for many, “Eff You” money. As in, the kind of money where you can say, “Thank you very much, but I’ll be moving on now,” while simultaneously thinking, “Take this job and shove it.”

Life is simply too short to spend 40+ hours being miserable. It’s too short to spend that time being miserable on-staff at a crappy job and it’s too short to spend that time being miserable with a crappy client.

How you save this, of course, will vary. It may mean you start doing some freelance work on nights and weekends, building up your income while simultaneously building up your client base. It may mean you cancel one TV subscription for a few months or order takeout every other Friday instead of every Friday. Or it may be a mix of things.

Take a look at your finances to come up with your specific action plan for what steps you’re going to take, when you’re going to take them, and how long it will take you to hit your goal.

Begin Taking Freelance Work While On Staff

I always encourage people who are working full-time, even working full-time at copywriting jobs, to take the occasional freelance copywriting gig. They help keep your skills and your portfolio fresh, but they also bring in extra cash and help you amass that financial cushion even faster.

Read more about how you can balance full-time and freelance work >>

I know that for some people, the idea of having a couple of months’ worth of expenses saved up seems impossible. But anything at all you can sock away helps you to get to that goal. And, again, the more freelance work you take on, the faster you can get there. (Also, the better you get at copywriting and the more you can raise your rates, the faster you can get there, too.)

One of the most dispiriting things in life is to feel trapped in a situation. And one of the most empowering things in life is knowing that you’re able to get yourself out of a situation if you need to.

You should never burn bridges (especially not in this industry), but you should also be able to politely walk away—and say “eff you” in your head—whenever you need to.

Your turn! Are you working on building a financial cushion? How’s it coming? Let us know in the comments below!

The post The Importance of “Eff You” Money: How to Financially Prepare to Leave a Job appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

There’s nothing that I necessarily regret. It was all valuable learning for me, and it lets me pass on that learning to you so you can avoid making the same mistakes.

But did I do stupid stuff? Absolutely! Did I miss out on lots of money? You bet! I made some real rookie business mistakes. And would you like to avoid doing the same? Here’s what to avoid.

Not Regularly Prospecting for New Clients

Inconsistency, thy name is Nicki. (Or, at least, it was.) I would be a good business person and prospect like crazy, but once I got work in, I’d drop prospecting like a bad habit.

And that, of course, led to dry spells and worrying about money. Not a great place to be, no matter where you are in your career.

Here’s the secret about dry spells: they only happen if you let them. Dry spells are not inevitable. In fact, learn from my mistake: you can have an entire career without any dry spells!

How Freelance Dry Spells Happen

Freelance dry spells don’t come out of no where. What often happens is you have a ton of work. You’re not thinking about new clients or projects because you don’t have time! Therein lies the mistake.

Let’s say you’re so busy in July. You know you’ve hit your income goals for the month and you’re feeling good! But you’re not prospecting. Come August you’re still buzzing along with work, but it starts to wind down toward the end of the month. You’re still OK with it. It’s a welcome break.

Then September comes. You look up from your desk and realize you have no work for the foreseeable future.

Dry spells don’t happen suddenly. They happen because a month or two ago we stopped pitching. And when we stop pitching, work dries up.

How to Prevent Freelance Dry Spells

The good news is that you have the power to prevent freelance dry spells. What it means is you need to set aside time to pitch new clients. (Reminder: these are value-based pitches; not mass templates.)

Our head copy coach, Kate, does client work Mondays through Thursdays and sets aside every Friday to focus on her copywriting business. This is time she uses for sending invoices, adding clients she wants to pitch to her pitch list, and, yes, writing and sending pitches.

Not every client will reply to every pitch. And even if they did, you do not have to start the project right away. Kate has a business rule that she starts new projects at least two weeks from when the project is discussed. And that’s a minimum.

When you’re first starting out and building a client base, you will send more pitches than when you have a steady client roster. But even when you have a steady client roster, you need to continue pitching, even if it’s just sending one or two emails a week.

Not only does this help you prevent dry spells, it ensures you have new clients in the queue should you want to move on from any of the clients you work with—for any reason!

Continuously pitching ensures you have control—and stay in control—of your career.

Being Unprepared to Pitch Ideas

I’d land a meeting with a potential client, dress myself up for the meeting like a professional, sit down to chat…and go mute when they asked, “So, what could you do for me?”

It’s not their job to come up with ways you can be of value to them; it’s ours. If you head into a meeting without any ideas for things you can do, be prepared to head back out without the job.

You need to send value-packed pitches. And you need to be prepared to come to any discovery calls you land with ideas for how you can help the business.

Read more about why businesses want your pitches >>

Being Lazy About Creating My Portfolio

Guess what? It’s not enough to just throw some images up on a page. (It’s also definitely not enough to just through them up on a blog. Guilty.)

You need to be judicious about what goes up there. You need to organize it. And you need to give context to your samples by explaining what problems you solved for the company and how you solved them. Being lazy about your portfolio is a career-killer.

Prospective clients want to see not just the final outcome, but understand your thought process. As you know, copywriting is about more than writing. By explaining your work, you can show your strategic thinking. You want to show that you’re a partner, not a producer.

Need a checklist to help you knock your portfolio out of the park? Here’s how to put together your copywriting portfolio >>

Not Having My Portfolio Ready to Show

When you get a call from a recruiter or potential client, you need to be available to come in and meet immediately. OK, maybe not right that second. But within the next day or two.

You know what doesn’t work? Saying, “Oh, um, yeah…I need to update my portfolio. Can I push that meeting back a few days?”

Almost as bad is taking the meeting, but having to spend all night updating your portfolio. You’re not going to give your best interview on no sleep. Believe me.

Even if you’re just starting out, you can put together your portfolio with spec pieces. Even better, you can build your portfolio by pitching work to nonprofits. You may not make a ton of money (nonprofits aren’t notorious for having giant budgets). But, if you’re looking for samples, and real-world experience, it’s a way to get started.

Failing to Identify Why People Should Hire Me

I used to think that once I got the meeting with the potential client, I was home free. I could show my portfolio, be personable, and they would just know that I was the right one for them.

Not so much.

We’re always going to be up against competition for any job, and if we can’t concisely and confidently explain what sets us apart from everyone else, we’re not going to get the work. It’s not enough to be nice, it’s not enough to have good samples, and it’s not enough to really want it. You need to be able to explain what you bring to the table that no one else does. What’s your benefit to consumer?

Just like you’d help your clients identify what makes their product or service better or different than their competitors’ offerings, you need to identify what makes you different than other copywriters.

What can you bring to the table that no other copywriter brings?

Your Turn

Have you made any rookie mistakes (that you’ve learned from since)? Let us know in the comments below!

The post How I Lost a Ton of Money (and You Can, Too!) appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

One of the most common questions i get from people who are interested in getting into copywriting is, “Great, I’m interested—but when will I start to make money?”

It makes sense: we want to know what the earning potential is before we jump headfirst into a new career.

So, I’ll answer this question, but, I’m going to presuppose that you’re on an actual copywriting study tract. One of the biggest mistakes that trips people up (and keeps them from making money) is trying to get copywriting work without actually knowing how to write copy.

Copywriting is a skill just like any other and requires training to learn it. No one’s going to hire you to be a cowboy if you don’t know how to rope a steer and ride the range.

That’s actually the reason that we created our own copywriting training: It’s been hard for people to find good copywriting training, much less a training that’s both affordable and thorough.

2 Must-Haves to Make Money as a Copywriter

Back to the answer. Well, in a nutshell, you can start making money as soon as you know what you’re doing. That sounds like a very vague answer, I know. But, really, anyone who tries to give you a specific answer is just BSing you.

Training

Just like with becoming a pilot or becoming an accountant, becoming a copywriter requires training (though, significantly less training—and less expensive training—than becoming a pilot).

You don’t need to pay thousands of dollars for portfolio school. You also don’t need to get any b-s copywriting certification (more on that here). What you do need is a course that will teach you copywriting principles, including how to distinguish features versus benefits, how to write an effective call to action, and how to create strong ad concepts.

It also helps if the course teaches you how to find and land clients so that you can get the next must-have: experience.

Experience

There’s a catch-22 when it comes to copywriting: you need experience to land clients, but you need clients to gain experience. It’s not entirely true.

When it comes to copywriting experience, you can demonstrate your ability to write copy by creating spec ads. These are essentially fake ads that you write to show off your skills. (It’s also a far more effective way to learn copywriting techniques and put them into practice versus hand copying ads. Anyone telling you to hand copy ads has no business teaching copywriting.)

As soon as you start to have a basic grip on copywriting, you can start finding yourself some small business clients. I always recommend starting out with small business clients because you will almost always know so much more than they do about copywriting and marketing.

And I don’t mean that in a superior way. I mean that you can start helping them very quickly. And, again, depending on how much you want to learn and how quickly and how well you assimilate the information, you could conceivably start trying to get your first clients within a couple of weeks.

Then, as you learn more and as you get more samples for your portfolio, you can start branching out to design studios and ad agencies and in-house agencies.

Your Timeline to Becoming a Copywriter is Up to YOU

The time it takes you to start earning money is really all on you. There are some people whose schedules are packed and can’t dedicate a ton of time to learning. There are also students who want to take it at a slower pace. And there are some people who will go at it, guns blazing.

And, again, I can’t make you any promises. But I can tell you how the timing worked out for one of my students.

Example Timeline: Christina’s 6-Month Journey to Leo Burnett

Christina started working with me just a little over nine months ago. Like a lot of people, she wasn’t happy at her job. And, on top of that, things at her company were a little shaky. So, she decided she needed a change. She was looking for a career she’d enjoy, a career she could grow in, and a career she could makes some money in.

Like many Comprehensive Copywriting Academy students, she’d always enjoyed writing and she thought maybe copywriting might work for her. But (also like many CCA students) she didn’t really know much about it. She’d never done it before.

Getting Copywriting Training

Well, she found us and started training. (And wouldn’t you know it, just a few weeks after she started training, she lost her job. But she kept pushing on anyway.) Our training is all self-paced, so she could do it when she had time to do it. And then, of course, too, she started being able to find herself some copywriting work to bring in some cash.

Landing a Full-Time Freelance Copywriting Job at a Top Ad Agency

So, skipping forward a bit, about a three months ago, I got an email from her. I hadn’t heard from her and she hadn’t joined in the student calls for a month or two. So, I was curious to see how she was doing. Well, it turns out she was doing pretty darn well. She had just landed a full-time, freelance position at Leo Burnett in Chicago. And if you’re not familiar with Leo Burnett, it’s a major global advertising firm.

She was thrilled and I was thrilled for her. So, timeline? She landed that about six months after she started training with us. That’s right: six months from knowing nothing about copywriting to working with one of the biggest and most powerful ad agencies in the world.

And there’s no magic to it either. She learned. She took the steps we gave her to build her portfolio. And she took the steps we gave her to network. And she made it happen.

Could it take you longer? Of course; it depends on the time you dedicate to learning and to building your portfolio. Could you do it faster? Sure. It’s all up to you.

Watch More

On Episode 14 of the Build Your Copywriting Business podcast, Nicki and Kate are digging into why there’s no hard and fast timeline for making money as a copywriter. But, they also share what you can do to expedite your earnings.

See More CCA Student Journeys & Timelines

There are as many timelines for making money as there are copywriters!

If you’re interested in hearing more about all the various ways Comprehensive Copywriting Academy students build their copywriting careers, check out our student journey playlist here >>

You can also see more student wins right here >>

The post How Soon Can You Make Money as a Copywriter? appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.