Freelance Copywriting – A Health And Wealth Warning

If anyone ever thought that achieving success as a freelance copywriter was an easy option, they should expect a rude awakening! This article sets out a few pointers along the road to establishing a sustainable and successful copywriting business.
We’ve all seen the online copywriting ‘gurus’ peddling their boxed sets of CDs. With the clever use of killer sales letters – including endless testimonials and tempting visions of an easy, wealthier future – they will extract several hundred dollars from hundreds of gullible buyers.
Look a little closer and you’ll discover that the gurus are either very clever online marketing experts, or smart copywriters who’ve decided to exploit their real-world experience to make some serious money.
No-one can blame them for that, but would-be freelance copywriters need to be aware that making it big – and making it easy – are pipe-dreams for all but the super-talented.
Copywriting can of course provide a good career, and for many people the financial and lifestyle rewards can be excellent. Before taking the plunge, however, it’s as well to be aware that a freelance copywriter needs certain personal traits, abilities and not a little creative flair!
You also need to keep in mind that freelance copywriting is a business. You can be the world’s best at the CRAFT of copywriting – and brilliant at getting under the skin of a complex commercial brief – but if you cannot negotiate rates or the ins and outs associated with terms and conditions, your career will be doomed to failure.
As a young wannabe copywriter, you’d do well to master your craft in an advertising, design or PR agency. You could of course work in the marketing department of a company, but this would generally provide fewer opportunities to develop the wide-ranging skills needed to survive commercially in the big wide world.
By working as an employed copywriter, you will also find out pretty quickly whether your skills are up to the mark, and also whether you’re temperamentally suited to what can often be intellectually demanding and mentally exhausting work.
Having taken the plunge, and having decided to ‘go freelance’, the next step is mastering key business skills such as negotiating the best rate for a job, winning regular business to provide a realistic income stream and generally keeping clients happy enough to ensure at least some repeat business.
There’s no doubt that copywriting is a young person’s business when it comes to creative flair, great ideas and enthusiasm. Unfortunately, when young freelance copywriters come up against battle-hardened clients who will dig in and demand more than their pound of flesh – that is when inexperience can be costly.
That’s assuming you’ve been able to attract enough clients in the first place to keep your business humming along! It’s a well-known fact that most consultants – in whatever field – spend up to half their time chasing new client business!
How to acquire new clients is outside the scope of this article, but tried and tested methods include personal networking, advertising (including Google AdWords), SEO work on your website – you WILL need a website! – e-mail shots, telesales, PR and so on.
Before anything, you will need to know what services you’re able to provide. That seems obvious, but it’s better to offer a few services where you’re confident of being able to provide a 5-star service than a whole raft of makeweights.
As time goes on, you will have to decide whether to specialise or not. This depends on a number of things such as whether there’s enough business to be had in a particular niche, how competitive it is, and whether you could stomach doing the same type of work every day.
To a large extent, as a freelance copywriter you’ll be master of your own destiny. In reality, however, market forces and your own abilities will shape the direction of the business.
Don’t be deterred by the current economic climate. It’s worth remembering that if you can succeed now, you can really thrive in better times! Also, if you’re still quite young and you don’t have massive financial outgoings, now’s the time to take the plunge before the big bills start crowding in.
Whatever your circumstances, to succeed in the freelance copywriting world, you will need determination, hard work and a tough business head. Armed with a natural writing flair, curiosity and creativity, your future should be bright indeed.