How To Become A Copywriter, Part 2: Getting Clients and Scaling
How To Become A Copywriter, Part 2: Getting Clients and Scaling
And how to get clients for other service businesses too
(This is a continuation of PART ONE here.)
Whenever you feel good enough about your writing to start making money, “where to get clients” isn’t always obvious. There are two main ways to get started: freelancing or cold emails.
FREELANCE WEBSITES
Most people probably start on freelancer-based sites like Upwork, Freelancer, or Fiverr. This isn't a good idea long-term, but without any clients yet, it's something.
Pros:
Existing popular platforms make it easy to get started
Review systems to build reputation (Fiverr also has mini-certifications to prove competence)
Trustless payments help both clients and freelancers
Warm clients can come to you directly with zero advertising
Little to no time investment compared to manual outreach
Lots of sellers do crap work, so an honest and competent freelancer can do well
No upfront costs for sellers, which is perfect for anyone on a budget
Cons:
Platforms are heavily saturated with sellers, so it’s tough to stand out
High numbers of sellers from third-world countries make it impossible to compete on pricing
Buyers typically have low budgets 🚩so you need to spend more time on volume
Some sellers are out to make a quick buck, and their low-quality work can give some platforms a poor reputation for freelancing
Platforms require a captive audience, and make it difficult for sellers to directly deal with repeat customers (Fiverr for example makes it a TOS violation to take your customers off Fiverr - there are loopholes, but you may risk being banned)
You lose a percentage of each sale (Fiverr for example takes a 20% cut)
There are better ways to make money (even a second WFH 9-5 is better short-term)
Because of the cons, freelance sites are poor for starting out. It’s not a bad idea to make an account on a couple of sites though. It’s fast and free, so there’s little to no downside. You don’t have to spend any time there. One option: Make an account, fill out your profile, and move on to other ideas for getting clients. Combine multiple methods to increase your chances of finding clients. Or focus on freelance sites just to get a few early reviews and testimonials, then leverage that for off-platform client outreach.
Other websites to look into, including content mills and job boards:
Reddit (for example, r/HireAWriter)
In all cases, you want to get off freelancing websites ASAP. Grab some reviews and go.
BowTiedOpossum says “If you're going to go down the service biz route, you're not selling your skills like a freelancer. That's a low value sale. You're a consulting company (or something similar) solving specific problems in the marketplace. Hopefully with some sort of digital add on.”
MEDIA OUTLETS AND MAGAZINES
Another idea is to contact websites you’ve used in the past (or currently read). Some have a “write for us” option. For example, something in my niche could be The Collector or Quillette. Pitch an article you’ve written and maybe they’ll pay for it (generally a small amount, although perhaps better than freelance rates). In some places, it may be possible to become a staff writer by doing this on a regular basis. As a new writer, this may help to build a reputation and establish your portfolio.
In general, journalism-related writing doesn’t make much money. It has its pros and cons, so feel free to consider it. (Side note: HARO for SEO can be more useful.)
If you want to try and flex, you can pay services to publish one of your articles with media affiliates. If you see a website with “As Seen On NBC, FOX, CBS, USA Today" etc, it’s just pay-to-publish. Only $150 to $300 for basic-tier distribution. You could be on Bloomberg for under $2k.
B2B COLD OUTREACH
Most people cite cold email as the “best” way to score clients. This can be more time-consuming, but has the highest potential ROI, and can be automated. Larger businesses usually have money to spend, and rarely (if ever) visit sites like Fiverr.
I’d start with this free joint article from BowTiedOpossum, BowTiedTetra, and HarambeMoney.
You can also buy the cold email course from Cold Email Wizard and/or follow him on Twitter. I haven’t used his course so I don’t know about its quality, but it’s highly recommended by a lot of people. I’ve seen enough testimonials that I’m sure it’s useful. CEW’s Twitter has great content too.
Don’t forget to follow BowTiedSalesGuy. His advice on sales is great, he also has a course, and he covers cold email/calls as well.
Example threads:
Thread highlights:
Lead with ONE idea; the email can be read and responded to in under ONE minute; the prospect only needs to take ONE action.
"You’re in the business of having the solution, and your prospect is in the business of wanting it."
Thread highlights:
Without social proof, you need to reduce risk for the client, such as working on a performance basis.
Do at least one job primarily for a testimonial (ideally video) and a detailed case study.
Thread highlights:
With a new service business, your first goal is to acquire social proof.
Clearly communicate your offer. Quantify what you’ll do and guarantee results.
Be honest, transparent, and competent.
Target businesses who have money to spend.
Thread highlights:
“When you start out, there will be only 2 things that matter: testimonials and your offer.”
Retainers > one-time sales
“Number one reason people fail in service biz is because they have a garbage ‘service’”
“Take sales call objection --> update offer --> repeat”
“You have to make sure your customers love you.“
Focus on high-ticket offers
Niche down
Following these accounts is probably 90% of what you need to start cold emailing or cold calling. When in doubt, send more emails.
Repeat until you’re making decent money.
WIFI MONEY LEVELS
$1,200/mo - US federal minimum wage
$2,855/mo - median full-time US wage
$4,326/mo - average full-time US wage
$8,334/mo - six figures pre-tax
$30,000/mo - “quit your 9-5” tier (no math, it’s just triple the common $10k/mo benchmark)
$83,334/mo - $1m pre-tax
SCALING YOUR BUSINESS
Once you have too much work to handle by yourself, you hire other writers. The hard part is finding competent writers.
One guy conducted a study by hiring writers from 17 platforms and purchasing over 300 articles to evaluate quality. He found that over half of writers did one or more of the following: didn’t follow instructions, plagiarized or spun stolen content, outsourced jobs, or tried to pass off poorly-written AI content as original work.
Hiring the right people can therefore be a minefield. Once you’ve found a few writers though, and maybe some designers too, you can create a content agency or similar company. With more writers and more collective expertise, you can expand your niche or niche down even harder. You’ll shift to a more marketing/outreach/managerial role and delegate the work to your team.
From there, the sky’s the limit. If your agency gets big enough, you’ll have a legitimate company which can be sold for a tidy profit.
Other ideas for scaling profits include:
Creating a product, book, app, and/or SaaS related to your niche
A community built around your field or niche (can lead to higher engagement, increased organic growth, and thus more money). A paid premium community may also work.
Affiliate links, merchandising, and partnerships - these work for every industry (you might’ve noticed that nearly every successful Youtube channel uses one or more)
The biggest app/SaaS examples for the design field are probably Adobe Creative Suite and Canva. Being a Canva affiliate earns up to $36 per new subscriber. Dave Chesson is a good example for creating writing-related content. His Publisher Rocket software has a 50% affiliate commission (currently $48.50 per sale). If you get 1 sale each day for both Canva and Publisher Rocket, congratulations, you’ll get around $30,000 for doing close to nothing. There are plenty more opportunities, of course; these are just quick examples.
Once you have success in your field, what you do is largely personal preference.
And almost anyone can do it with the right drive.
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