“Can I Make 6-Figure Income as a Copywriter?”
There are so many myths about getting rich through copywriting. I’d like to debunk some of them.
First of all, copywriting is not about good creative writing in the sense that poem or novel writing is. It is all about helping your client make money. It’s about selling goods and services.
To do that you need to write copy to seduce and convince the purchasing public to purchase something. You need to overcome their objections and motivate them to part with their hard-earned cash, today. That’s the bottom line. If the reader who is reading your copy does not reach for his or her wallet, then you will fail as a copywriter.
The second issue is, how much money can you make helping sell goods and services?
If you are writing ad copy for your local hardware store or yoga studio, you’ll make a few hundred dollars or even a few thousand dollars here and there but they won’t add up to six-figures a year.
The real copywriting money is in advertising agencies and direct-mail copy.
These are the campaigns that are broadcast to millions of addresses and households. Most of them are what we call “junk mail” (just check your mailbox). It’s a numbers game. When as little as two percent of the recipients purchase a product, that’s called a success.
The hard thing is to beat the “control.”
A “control” in direct-mail campaigns is the last successful copy that pulled in an X% of purchases. If your copy pulls in X+1%, you become the new control king and become the new top copywriter in the campaign.
Those who can beat the control get paid not only a fixed fee but also a percentage from the back end (depends on your track record and the deal you sign). That’s when you start to make a serious 6-figure income in copywriting, not only one year but every year. I know copywriters who make over $500,000 a year that way and heard even those who climbed to the 7-figure territory.
All of what I said above is true for online campaigns as well. Beating the control is the key.
But how do you then get those jobs? Not when you are busy in a small Midwestern town writing copy for landscaping companies or your local bakery. Those writing jobs are in big cities, controlled by a tight tribe of veteran copywriters. It’s not easy to break into the ring and gain access to such lucrative opportunities.
You would have a higher chance of landing such an ad agency job if you worked as a gofer at an NYC agency than working 40 years as a local copywriter in your home town.
A lowly mail clerk in such a big agency would have better access to the movers and shakers of the advertisement world then you’ll ever have.
It’s not only about writing well but also about networking, access to mentors, and jumping at the first opportunity to apprentice for one of the top earners to prove what you can do for the Master as a part-time contributor or junior ghostwriter. It takes a while.
So good luck if you are trying to make 6-figures as a copywriter but in the meanwhile keep your day job and try to see if you can somehow gain access to the copywriting agencies (in any role) in a big city and take it from there.
