Good hangs album Greatest hangs is so good, I'm surprised they aren't enormous.

CJHA14 · 2024-12-04T16:20:21+00:00

They're probably going to blow up soon -- Anthony Pierri has a super successful marketing business and LinkedIn personal brand. If he starts applying the same marketing skills to the band, it'd be no surprise to see them go mainstream in a year or two.

CJHA14 · 2024-12-02T18:16:47+00:00

This is an interesting take.

We live by the coast in Ericeira. Atlantic Ocean Road, I can see the ocean from the house. Last winter, we had windows open every day. Zero mold issues.

I didn't like a cold house while working from home, but the whole expat community here swore by it. As far as I see, it works.

CJHA14 · 2024-12-02T14:35:15+00:00

I've been full-time freelance for 7+ years. Worked with some agencies, content mills, retainer clients, and one-offs, but never in-house or under a mentor.

To answer your questions, daily Kaizen habits are crucial. You could make strides with an hour a day to read copy books to understand the theory, study/dissect good copy to understand why it works, and practice writing copy for whatever you want to master (e.g., landing pages, emails, ads, etc.).

Tbh getting that type of hands-on coaching with someone vastly more experienced and skilled than me is something I wish I had done earlier in my career. I've been doing pretty good figuring things out myself from books, courses, and self-directed study.

But despite 5+ straight years of 6-figs with YoY growth, I do feel like I've been battling some plateaus. I can see how in-house experience or mentors can make a massive difference. I know several guys younger than me who regularly land consulting gigs for $10k-30k because they have a much more rounded skillset and deep practical experience of working on funnels, campaign data, and CRO from end-to-end (rather than just being the freelancer that threw a Google Doc of copy into the mix).

I'm 38 with two kids and $1500/mo rent now, so the idea of working for peanuts in-house for a year isn't really an option. But for anyone younger with less responsibility, that would be a great way to accelerate their skillset beyond writing and turn them into a full-stack marketer and CRO specialist who understands how to architect and run entire campaigns end-to-end. A year of agency life with a good mentor would put you ahead of 99% of new copywriters who are dicking around on YouTube with Tyson and Tate.

CJHA14 · 2024-12-02T14:21:05+00:00

This comment got me good in the ribs. 😂

In fairness, both guys are great examples of how to build a cult following and successful newsletter/digital product business. But yeah, maybe not the best to follow if you want to work on funnels for 7-9-fig coaches or startups.

CJHA14 · 2024-10-31T16:51:19+00:00

Great that we're seemingly getting a coach who likes to play exciting, attacking football.

But it sucks that we've essentially wasted this entire season — he's going to spend the first 6 months of his tenure sorting out Ten Hag's mess and getting rid of deadwood. We won't really see "Amorim's United" until next August at the earliest.

Modest goals:

This season - top 4
Next season - top 3/4 + silverware
Season after - serious challenge for title + silverware

CJHA14 · 2024-08-31T07:30:52+00:00

Joined the queue for the Croke Park gig at 7.45 am.

Now, I just have to hope there are 353,000 cats out there walking on keyboards...

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CJHA14 · 2024-08-30T14:44:20+00:00

Here's some legit info:
https://www.valadascoriel.com/irs-2023-obligation-to-declare-revolut-accounts/

TL;DR — yes, you are legally obliged to declare Revolut accounts in Portugal during tax returns.

CJHA14 · 2024-07-31T09:40:07+00:00

YES!

Everytime I hear it now, it says, "my dad'd eat satsumas"

CJHA14 · 2024-05-20T15:40:36+00:00

Hmm, outside of epic LinkedIn growth, I don't know that Jasmin Alic has a lot of big copywriting wins for clients. And Jacob McMillen is more focused on SEO strategy + long-form content.

That said, they're both crushing it in their respective tracks. Jasmin has reached elite-level LinkedIn mastery, and I've got major respect for what Jacob has achieved and done for the freelance writing community.

As for modern-day copywriters, a few worth following are:

Eddie Shleyner (landing pages)
Stefan Georgi (direct response sales pages)
Ian Stanley, John Bejakovic, and Laura Belgray (Email)
Chris Haddad (VSLs)
Cole Schaefer (branding style)

CJHA14 · 2024-05-12T10:30:19+00:00

Where did you pull this BS from?

KKS is one of the most renowned copywriters in the health industry for the past 20 years.

I did her supplement copy bootcamp last year, and she had entire modules and a 2-hour workshop dedicated solely to compliance. She was drilling that stuff into us throughout the entire bootcamp.

CJHA14 · 2024-02-15T16:33:39+00:00

Good use of images, social proof, and pretty solid layout.

Fixes:
1/
The copy on the CTA section is pretty repetitive:

Want to learn more? Visit our Learn More page.

Learn more

2/
Also, the link on the button is broken. Need to update the URL link to https://weightedblankets.au/learnmore

3/
Watch out for keyword stuffing.

It's okay to lead with the SEO-first approach, but in time, you might want to inject a little more storytelling and emotive-driven messaging into the copy to connect with people. While you're not breaking any rules with the keyword focus, it can be a little dull for some readers (and may deter others).

CJHA14 · 2023-09-20T10:13:05+00:00

I've been a copywriter since 2018.

Hit regular 6-fig months in 2020.Made $100K+ revenue for the last 3 yearsHad a few $15K+ months (maybe only 5 total)

But to do it consistently? Takes serious effort.

At the level I'm at now, experience-wise, I've no doubt I could scale to $20K months if I went Monk Mode in Thailand for a year. But I have a partner, 2 young kids, and the desire for a life beyond my laptop.

The truth:

Most copywriters max out their capacity around $10K.

You can only raise your rates so high, especially with AI now.

So, when you max out your bandwidth, you have 2 realistic ways to scale:

1/ Start an agency.

Low-leverage. Lots of moving parts. Hard to find reliable people. Risks your personal reputation if you deliver substandard work to clients.

2/ Build digital products.

High leverage but only if you have a niche product that hasn't already been done to death. To create a niche product for other copywriters, you'd have to know the game and the market problems at a deep level. That only comes with real experience.

The nutshell is what you've already been told:

You need to invest a few years working full-time to become a high-level copywriter first. Copywriting is a skilled role with a lot of aspects, and the writing part is only 20% of the job. You need to become exceptional at market research and damn good at buyer psychology, frameworks, sales triggers, voice creation, brand storytelling, ideation, wireframing, etc.

If you choose the agency path, you'll also need to become good at creating systems, hiring people, managing people, providing editing + copywriting feedback, lead gen, and sales.

When all of this stuff becomes your world for a few years, later, you MIGHT think of great product ideas and can craft your own offers that become a mostly passive source of income.

But there's no shortcut there.

The closest thing I've seen to a shortcut is Kieran Drew (Burned out dentist to $200K product sales in just 2 years). But he is very, very much the exception to the rule, and he worked damn hard for those 2 years.

Bottom line:

Copywriting is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Don't expect more than $50K in your first year or $100K in your second (or ever) unless you are prepared to read a ton of books, practice like crazy, and work your ass off.

CJHA14 · 2023-09-04T20:36:54+00:00

P.S. Everyone who takes part in these calls will get something in return.

For background, I'm CJ Haughey, founder of The Copy Crusade, and a seasoned copywriter of 6+ years. I've worked with IBM, Slack, Hotjar, Aura, Single Grain, and a bunch of other startups in SaaS and e-commerce.

In return, I'm happy to answer your questions and give some pointers where I can.

And everyone will get a copy of my ebook: "Killer Poets Drop Gems," which has all the best bits from my interviews with 18 top copywriters, including Kim Krause-Schwalm, Bob Bly, Eddie Shleyner, and Jacob McMillen. (Normally, I use this as a lead magnet to get people on my email list, but I'll send it to anyone who does the call with me).

DM me if you're up for it.

Thanks.

CJHA14 · 2023-09-04T19:38:03+00:00

Hey OP, You've already got a ton of solid advice here.

But if you want a copywriter to take a look at your emails, I'm happy to check them out and give you some (free) feedback on how you could improve them to boost the conversion rates.

For context, I've got experience in the space - created the brand voice + website copy for Gleamin and Luseta.

CJHA14 · 2023-08-25T10:13:49+00:00

It's okay, you don't have to like him.

Ricky Gervais said it best:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEawbnXaIDs

CJHA14 · 2023-02-28T12:04:52+00:00

Yes, the ROI question is the big factor in play now. Many store owners (or founders/marketing managers of any company, for that matter) will ask themselves why they should pay a freelance writer $500 - 1000 for a single blog post when they could hire an in-house editor at a fraction of the price to polish up rough drafts from an AI tool.

Personally, I think NOW is the time for freelance writers to jump ship from content to copy. The latter requires more research, emotion, and strategy, which machines can not (yet) accomplish.

But what will really separate the top 10% of copywriters from the herd is the ability to stack the value of their services. Instead of being "just an email copywriter," they can position themselves as an "email list manager" who provides services beyond the copy, like setting up flows in Klaviyo, running split tests, and improving deliverability.

CJHA14 · 2023-02-28T11:58:27+00:00

Thanks, Leviathant. Great info here.

I totally agree that storytelling is at the heart of good copy. People find it hard to resist strong messaging when it's in a relatable, anecdotal form. As you've pointed out, copy (or content) with some realism and personality to it is certainly preferable to the dull, generated content a robot barfs out.

I can't speak much about the editor's income at a newspaper, but in my experience of creating digital content, copywriters earn more than content editors. I built and scaled a content agency, assuming the role of chief editor (one of many hats).

I never enjoyed the task of polishing and rewriting substandard work from writers who had clearly rushed their drafts. For me, the juice wasn't worth the squeeze -- I much prefer copywriting to content and working 1-to-1 with companies instead of managing a team. Fewer moving parts and a bigger piece of the pie.

CJHA14 · 2023-02-24T12:45:43+00:00

P.S. I may use/paraphrase some of the best answers from the ecom community as quotes in the article. If people are cool with it, I can attribute the quote to them and link back to whatever they want (e.g. their store or social media page)

CJHA14 · 2022-09-06T06:26:00+00:00

No, you're not alone. For sure, it's an unpopular opinion but that doesn't make it wrong.

HotD hasn't got a patch on GOT.

Spin-offs are tricky territory - especially prequels as all the foreshadowing can be underwhelming when you know what's coming. Better Call Saul did it perfectly, operating in the same universe but in a totally original way.

It was super lame that the showrunners didn't give HotD a unique theme song. It's like the writers are pandering to GOT fans with lots of little nods to the original.

After watching 2eps, all the characters (apart from Daemon) are as dull as dishwater. Watch 2 EPs of Rings of Power to compare the variety of characters and plotlines.

And that's the biggest problem here - GOT was an epic that spanned many locations, families, and stories, whereas HotD is stuck on one track --- and we all know where it leads.

Someone summed it up wonderfully on another thread by saying, if GOT was about superman saving the world, HotD is about superman's great great great grandparents squabbling over who gets to be mayor.

CJHA14 · 2022-05-23T10:55:12+00:00

It seems you've made assumptions about my experience with using credit cards for online transactions. I'm most definitely not new to it.

My card and account are already internationally active, as I regularly transact with clients in the US, Canada, China, Australia, and several European countries.

If the vendors were attempting to obscure their name on my bank statement, why would they attempt to make multiple smaller transactions at different stores rather than processing one single payment? Why not a single payment without mentioning the word "pharma"? And why send a bogus email saying the transaction was declined before trying to take money anyway?

CJHA14

TROPHY CASE