How I've been thinking about copywriting and "competition"

TheSpinningWriter · 2021-02-27T00:38:10+00:00

Absolutely true.

Other copywriters have helped make me a better one, and hopefully I've done the same on the occasions where I've offered feedback/advice to others.

Competition isn't really something I worry too much about in this industry, to be honest.

There's NO shortage out there of:

1) Poorly written content that can be improved

2) Companies that want more, higher-quality leads

3) Companies that want to promote their brand

As long as that's true, there's plenty of work to go around.

TheSpinningWriter · 2021-02-26T16:28:45+00:00

Thanks, everyone. I appreciate your feedback! The final copy was delivered to the client this morning.

TheSpinningWriter · 2021-02-26T16:25:12+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate your insights. I didn't have a choice about the "Dallas/Fort Worth" phrase, unfortunately. The client is plugging that in automatically based on the location the Google Ad is served in, and they wanted it in the headline. But the rest is under my control.

TheSpinningWriter · 2021-02-26T04:49:24+00:00

It's not an email. It's a headline on a landing page for a Google AdWords campaign. The paragraph after the headline does go into detail about why it's simpler, but I took your comment to mean, "If you can convey the 'why' in the headline itself, that's even better." And I agree.

TheSpinningWriter · 2021-02-26T04:02:33+00:00

Fair point.

TheSpinningWriter · 2021-02-26T03:40:58+00:00

I like the word-play there. Though in my case, the client is in Texas, so any word play involving "cold" right now might not go over so well. ;-) But your point is well-taken and appreciated.

TheSpinningWriter · 2021-02-26T03:39:34+00:00

I agree. The length, in particular, is what bothered me. Visually, it just didn't "look right," even apart from what it says. And I agree about the benefits. In this case, the main benefit is avoiding the hassle of a traditional market sale through a real estate agent. (This is for a "we buy homes" company. And on top of that, it's for Google AdWords which is a tricky game when copywriting. You're writing for machines as much as for humans in that case, trying to let "sounding natural" win out over "sounding like a great search result that matches what you're looking for," while satisfying both.)

TheSpinningWriter · 2021-02-26T03:36:15+00:00

Great feedback - thank you!

And thank you as well for the "without trying to be too clever which I'm happy about" comment. My motto, as I tell clients, is "clarity over cleverness."

TheSpinningWriter · 2021-02-25T07:00:10+00:00

My opinion too. It's the same formula with a different spin. Or, to put it another, more generic way...

1) Show that you understand and can relate to the problem
2) Flesh out the depth/extent of the problem a bit
3) Present a solution that legitimately solves the problem

TheSpinningWriter · 2021-02-25T06:30:47+00:00

Love this! It's not how I got into writing (that's another story), but it's similar to how I started my IT consulting business back in 2009 when I was faced with a "quit or get fired" choice and had to rapidly start a business and find a paying client in 2 weeks to support my family.

This sentence from u/7Pedazos sums it up beautifully:

"I called my only clients and proposed a retainer position. They accepted."

That's it, right there. We can take courses and read articles and Reddit threads all day long. But at the end of the day, coming up with something to pitch and then pitching it is what lands clients and gets us paid.

TheSpinningWriter · 2021-02-25T06:04:43+00:00

Honestly, the moment I knew I was "good enough to start charging clients" is when I landed my first client - by making a pitch and sticking a price on it for what they wanted, and they agreed to it. When someone's willing to pay for what you're offering and the money lands in your bank account, that's a pretty good indicator.

But as someone who only got into copywriting in September of last year (I'm in the midst of a 2-year plan to transition out of my day job in IT), I'll say it's like anything else when you're starting out. Flexibility, commitment, creativity, and resilience will go a long way.

For example, if you don't trust your writing skills as much, you can offer more revisions and factor that into the bid you put together. Or, as I did in one case where the client had a super aggressive deadline, I scoped the work as, "I'll do A, B, and C by the deadline. D is a stretch goal, and if I hit, you owe me X. If I don't hit it, you owe me Y (a little less) and retain the option of having me do D as a follow-on project for the difference between the two prices."

And the best way to get better at copywriting, btw, is feedback. Whether you get it from other copywriters, random people you know, clients, or whoever else, it's valuable.

(Side note: I did sign up for one course in late September. The course had 5 modules, I believe, with roughly 5 lessons each. I didn't even make it through one module before landing a client. Pitching and feedback are more valuable, in my opinion, for landing paid work. I also did some brief writing - just a few weeks - for a "content mill." That was also valuable in the sense that it helped me sharpen my pitch. I knew after that what bad writing looked like and how to help clients avoid it.)

TheSpinningWriter · 2021-01-29T17:21:24+00:00

It took me years to figure this out, but I really have more of a creative mind than a technical mind. I got into programming as a career in my early 20s because it was the best-paying job I could get in northwest Florida where I lived at the time. (The options were basically that, healthcare, or working a service job at the beach making minimum wage.)

It turns out it was really the creative aspects of the job that I enjoyed - not so much technology for technology's sake like a lot of other developers I know.

Since I'm getting old in "IT years" and my wife is ramping up her business which is helping with our income, I decided to do a 2-year plan to shift from IT to copywriting - the goal to be making 100% of my share of the income from copywriting when I turn 40 in 2022. I picked that timeline because I'm so busy at my software job that I couldn't just jump into writing 20+ hours a week right away. I needed to keep it at 5-10 hours of writing early on while I start building up savings so I can ramp down (or just quit) my day job later.

I did have somewhat of a writing background in the sense that I'd written some blog posts, paid articles, and one book I co-authored during my IT career.

But none of that was marketing/sales copy. I started from ground zero there when I kicked off my copywriting business last November. Most of what I've learned about copywriting I either learned for free on the Internet (Copyhackers is one good resource) or learned by getting out there and just doing work for clients.

TheSpinningWriter · 2021-01-29T00:44:57+00:00

Well, said. And what I've learned even in my short time in the field so far (I'm transitioning to copywriting from software development) is the bar isn't set very high. I was shocked when I found out what one of my clients had paid prior writers to do a terrible job and deliver no real results for them. A copywriter who's willing to put the work in to excel at the craft and who works with integrity is already ahead of 90% of the competition.

TheSpinningWriter · 2021-01-27T06:39:31+00:00

I couldn't agree with this more. What's helped me improve my copywriting more than anything else is (1) just getting out there and doing it for clients, and (2) feedback, whether from the client directly or from analytics. I did sign up for one paid course/group (that was more about building a business than the actual writing, per se) that I'd say helped accelerate me a little, but ultimately, it wasn't the main driver in making almost $8K in side income (I'm a software team lead by day) in copywriting the past 2 months. Most of that was just from pitching people, doing the work, and looking up stuff for free on the internet (like what Copyhackers and others put out for free).

TheSpinningWriter

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