{"id":35,"date":"2006-10-17T18:12:30","date_gmt":"2006-10-17T23:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/?p=36"},"modified":"2006-10-17T18:12:30","modified_gmt":"2006-10-17T23:12:30","slug":"how-to-know-which-copywriting-clients-are-worth-dealing-withand-which-ones-arent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/how-to-know-which-copywriting-clients-are-worth-dealing-withand-which-ones-arent\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Know Which Copywriting Clients Are Worth Dealing With…And Which Ones Aren’t"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are a freelance copywriter<\/a><\/strong> who gets paid on commission — instead of or in addition to taking an up-front fee — then please read the following very carefully.<\/p>\n

Doing so can save you a ton of time… and maybe even make you a bundle of money.<\/p>\n

Back when I was just starting out as a copywriter, to get some “real world” experience, I did copywriting jobs on just pure commission.<\/p>\n

The idea was to get some good experience and make some decent money… all while removing the risk from the client.<\/p>\n

And it worked great… on paper<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, in reality<\/em>, it didn’t work well at all (as far as making a lot of money).<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Because while the ads I wrote were pretty good, and did well when they ran, many of my clients were not motivated to do what was necessary to monetize the copy to the fullest extent.<\/p>\n

Why weren’t they motivated?<\/p>\n

I don’t know.<\/p>\n

But the fact they didn’t pay me any money up front probably had something to do with it. After all, people rarely give value to things they get free.<\/p>\n

Now, “flash forward” a couple years when I ran into a marketer who explained how to make absolutely sure you never waste time on a “do nothing” client:<\/p>\n

“Don’t work with anyone who is not as excited about the project making money as you are.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Boom.<\/p>\n

That one sentence hit me like a ton of bricks — and all that flakey client behavior actually made sense.<\/p>\n

You see, while it’s true a lot of people want good copy, few of them are willing to exploit that copy and nab every dollar they can from it. Even if it will make them a lot of money, and even if they think your copy is the next best thing since sliced bread.<\/p>\n

I know that sounds strange but it’s true.<\/p>\n

Some people are just like that.<\/p>\n

Now, if you’re writing on a straight fee — and no commission — then this is no big deal. I mean, if you already got paid, who cares?<\/p>\n

But if you are ever in a position where you’re offered a chance to write an ad where you get paid based on sales — then I highly suggest not working with that client unless they can prove they’re as motivated to make money as you are.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, just walk away from it.<\/p>\n

Seriously.<\/p>\n

Because all you’re going to do is bust your chops on an ad that will never be exploited properly…or may not even run at all.<\/p>\n

And unless you take an upfront fee, that means you’re out all that time, energy and effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are a freelance copywriter who gets paid on commission — instead of or in addition to taking an up-front fee — then please read the following very carefully. Doing so can save you a ton of time… and maybe even make you a bundle of money. Back when I was just starting out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-copywriting-and-sales-letters"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}