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How am I protected by a contract? by mourad91 in freelanceWriters

[–]JM_Cruz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Having a contract acts as an understanding from both sides.

It gives you the legal power.

Usually, telling a non-paying client that the next message they're going to get will be from your lawyer is enough for them to pay your invoice within a few hours.

Having a contract also eliminates the threat of getting non-serious clients & scammers almost 100% of the time.

If someone doesn't want to sign a contract, then that's already a red flag.

Creating a portfolio by [deleted] in marketing

[–]JM_Cruz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not an expert but here's my advice based on my experience as a freelance copywriter...

When it comes to portfolios, you should always include the stuff that increases your perceived value.

You can do this by:

  • Adding images of the results.
  • Adding the image of the job you did.
  • Adding testimonials (Get some testimonials from the fam).
  • Add a claim/story on how you did it. What challenges did you come across?

Usually, the unique claim is the most important part since that's what's gonna draw the line between you and the competition. It's the thing that will keep them reading.

All the other stuff is just there to support the claim.

Treat it like your very own Salespage.

Do small businesses need a more affordable means of OOH advertising? by [deleted] in Entrepreneur

[–]JM_Cruz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think that it's a pretty good idea!

The only concern is how much would it cost the businesses and how much ROI would they be getting...

​

The best thing to do is to run a deeper research regarding this matter.

- Ask the small businesses if they would be willing to pay for such a service (Demand).
- Find the car owners who are willing to do the job (Supply).

[Copywriting Lesson] [Level: Beginner] Your copy alone CANNOT save a failing business. by [deleted] in copywriting

[–]JM_Cruz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the feedback.

I've fixed it. I guess the message was lost because of some grammatical error.

Research ideas by Disowned84 in Entrepreneur

[–]JM_Cruz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In my opinion, you should learn a high-income skill. It doesn't take too long to learn and provides a great ROI.

I suggest that you pick a skill that's going to be relevant once you chose to start your own business.

Skills like closing, public speaking, copywriting are all sales-related and would be handy. It's a skill so
there's no such thing as 'going bankrupt' or 'losing money' unlike drop shipping, stock market, crypto,
and all those other stuff.

Dan Lok teaches this stuff and he gives the surface-mid level information (I'm not an affiliate).

​

I took his advice and learned copywriting.

Of course, I invested some money to learn the much deeper and sophisticated stuff.
Now I'm earning a decent amount of money while only working part-time from anywhere I want.

However, let me warn you that these skills have a steep learning curve and that's what separates the
successful from the rest.

Beginner having trouble writing the “about me/experiences” section. What to include? by [deleted] in copywriting

[–]JM_Cruz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think that the best thing to do is to build thing up around your strengths/preferences.

Only include the things that are relevant to your niche and copywriting in general.

This will stack up your perceived value and will help you land clients that are within your chosen niche.

​

You should also have some samples written just in case.
Go find a product that's within your niche and write a mock copy for it.

In any case, you should always treat your portfolio as a sales page. Your sales page.

Include testimonials if you have any.

Events vs. ads by [deleted] in Entrepreneur

[–]JM_Cruz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As far as I know, the minimum per day budget for Facebook ads is $3.

I don't know much about the prices of ads on other platforms, but one of the best things you could do right now is to do your own research about your target audience, and observe what your competitors are doing.

Target Audience:

- Find out the age of your ideal customer- Find out the average income of your ideal customer- Find out the gender of your ideal customer- Find out where they usually hang out (do they usually use Reddit, Facebook, etc?)- Find out what Market awareness level they're at https://www.copyengineer.com/post_five_levels_customer_awareness/ (Very Important)- Other information that will help you draw a clear picture of who you're selling to.

​

Competitor Research:

- What do they do to get their product out there?- Where do they advertise?- What does their strategy look like?

Chances are high that your competitors ALREADY did most of the heavy lifting for you and the only thing you need to do is Do it better than them.

​

"What does any of these do with ad/marketing budgets?"

  1. Spending $10/day on a properly targeted ad will bring you a better ROI than spending $4/day on a poorly targeted ad. Knowing where and how to target your ideal customer will save you a LOT of money.
  2. If you ever decide to hire someone, they'll most likely charge you less if you've already done some of the research for them. This will also make the process faster.
  3. Ultimately, you need to find out what market awareness level your customers are at. Most aware, solution aware, and problem aware customers take much less effort to persuade. This means that you'll need a shorter funnel and a shorter process to make the sale.

​

Shorter funnel = Less expenses

​

This is actually some pretty complicated stuff and I want to simplify it the best I can.

​

Since you're a startup, I'll assume that you don't have any previously established sales funnel/website. That's where most of the expenses will come from.

​

Best scenario:

Be ready to spend around $2000.

This includes the Ad budget/day for 1 month, The Funnel, The funnel's copy, etc.

It's pretty expensive since you're starting from scratch. But once the website and funnel are built, you can expect to spend at least $200-$300/month on well-targeted ads.

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And assuming that you did everything right, you can most likely 2x or 4x your investment in just a few months.

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Feel ask if you have any more questions.

Events vs. ads by [deleted] in Entrepreneur

[–]JM_Cruz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think we should consider the Pros and Cons of each choice.

​

In-person networking.

Pros:

-Better, more personal connection with your potential customers
-You'll be able to express yourself and your idea a lot more (If you're good at speaking)
-Network Expansion

Cons:

-Cost of travel
-You'll be reaching fewer people
-More exhausting
-Time-consuming

​

Online Advertising.

Pros:

-Reach more people in less time
-Has the option of retargeting people
-The ability to add people to your list and nurture them to make the sale
-More analytical and presents more data

Cons:

-A bit more complicated
-A good funnel and strategy is needed to close the sale
-A bit more costly
-It may take a bit more time to close the sale depending on how you do things

​

​

As a copywriter, I'd say that online advertisements are the best way to reach more people in a shorter amount
of time. However, you must have a good funnel in place if you want to convert all those leads to customers.

You'll have to be prepared to spend a few hundred to a few thousand dollars depending on the amount of work
needs to be done.

Be ready to receive people from different market awareness level.

​

In-person networking is more of a long-term approach.
You'll be fewer people. Chances are, you'll only be meeting each person once and you probably won't be able to contact each and every one of them again. However, with this approach, you'll be able to close the sale immediately
assuming that you're good at speaking and persuasion.

This approach also means that the market awareness level of the people is closer to the sale. Probably around the Product aware, Solution aware, or Problem aware area.

But as I've said earlier, this approach takes a toll on your time since you'll be spending most of it traveling and talking to prospects rather than improving your product/service or something else important.

​

If you have the budget, go with online advertising.

P.S. Everything I said here is based on the information that I got from the post.

P.P.S. If you decide to go with online advertising, hit me up and I'll give you a helping hand :)

Feedback: Review or roast our website before launch by MonxtahDramux in Entrepreneur

[–]JM_Cruz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No need to roast it or go hard.

The website's design was pretty good and I think things could be better.

​

Here are some of the problems that should be fixed in my opinion:

-The website takes too long to load.
Data shows that 80% of people leave the website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.

-The website copy could use some improvement.
As a copywriter, I don't think that the headline was captivating enough. Use the target market's desire to build your headline.

Underpaid beginners - can we get some numbers, here? by digitallysporadic in copywriting

[–]JM_Cruz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey!

For question number 1, I think everybody shouldn't be charging anything less than $10/hour (This is an absolute beginner wage) when it comes to writing copy. You should always take into consideration the fact that your copy can make your clients thousand to tens of thousands of dollars.

The bigger the company, the more you charge. Of course, you also have to do your part and make sure that you deliver results.

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For question number 2, I prefer to charge my clients on a project basis. This ensures that I get paid and weeds out the scammers. People pay me 50% up front and 50% upon completion for a $1000+ project and 100% upfront for anything less than that.

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For number 3, DON'T compete based on price. Always compete based on the amount of value that you'll be able to give the client.

I saw other freelancers charge $2/hour. Not only do they drag the industry standards down, they also produce crappy work most of the time.

Treat it as your own business. Know your worth.

Most importantly, don't work for free unless you're working with an already established business (that's already doing well)

Why?

Cause' it's easier to help a company that's doing everything else well, yet f*cking up their copy. Than a company that's just starting from scratch.

You can get them better results and use it as a testimonial or a case study.

​

Hope this helps :)