A question came in all the way from the Philippines asking for advice to an aspiring copywriter. The guy is in dire straights financially – mom needs medical care, he’s hustling his arse off, etc but he wants some guidance.
Here’s some advice in no particular order:
* Hit up your network – and let them know you’re looking for clients, most copywriting gigs, like most corporate jobs, are not advertised
* Be useful – don’t beg, ask, or try to make creative offers as it comes off as desperate… instead try to find out what people want (you have to learn how to research anyway) and be useful.
* Ask for referrals – whenever you get a client who is happy with your work immediately ask if they know anyone else who can use good copy, try to get them to do an intro for you, you can build an entire book of clients just doing this
* Don’t take no for answer – pull a Jim Camp and force flakey or wishy-washy people to tell you no i.e., “will you do me a favor and just tell me no, that way I can stop wasting your time and focus on the other clients I’m working with”
* First hour always belongs to you – not your clients or anyone else, always be selling your own offers, building your own list, etc, the goal is to not “need” any one client, you be your own client first and foremost
* Leverage – start going to your peers and think of ways to help each other, form masterminds, get yourself on podcasts, create your own local event for online marketers, just as a mixer (nothing for sale), that you host if you’re really hardcore and extroverted (admittedly I’m not, personally, and would not do this – I struggle with even summoning the ambition to do a small local intensive of 5 or so people…)
* Finally – apply (when relevant, at least) what I talk about in the Email Players Newsletter each month.
Although, a caveat:
The newsletter is not intended for newbies.
Only those with for real businesses (freelance, info publishing, ecommerce, brick & mortar, services, anything that can be sold via email).
If you want in, hit the jump below:
Ben Settle
