Copywriting

Freelancers: It’s not about what you know, it’s about the message you share.

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I coach a lot of freelancers, many of them just starting out.

More often than not they are concerned about their level of knowledge, or perceived lack thereof.

In other words, they don’t feel ready to approach prospective prospects, because they feel they need to learn more about their craft first.

“I need to learn more about SEO, and writing emails, and social media, and A/B split testing.”

No, you don’t.

Your value in the eyes of your prospects is not tied to the sum of your knowledge, it is tied to the power of the message you share and the story you tell.

Let me use myself as an example.

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To close more sales, flatter your readers.

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better golfer celebratingYou’re a good online copywriter. You do good work, and your skills are growing with each passing month.

Judging from other copywriters’ websites, you’re probably way above average when it comes to your craft. Ramp up your skills a little more, and you’ll rise up the ranks even further.

Yes, flattery will get me everywhere.

Actually, it really will.

In a classic psychology test, a group of drivers were asked if they believed their driving skills were above average.

90% said yes.

Something is not quite right there, because mathematically you can’t have more than 50% of drivers having better than average skills.

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14 Ways to Make Money as an Online Writer or Copywriter [SLIDESHOW]

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online copywriting opportunitiesThe great thing about writing for the web is the incredible variety it offers.

Back when I was writing direct mail, that’s all I did all day, every day, for about 15 years. And the other copywriters I knew did the same. We were one-trick ponies. Very good at what we did, but more than a little limited in our scope.

That’s probably why I finally burned out and jumped over to writing for the web full time in 1998.

Here I am, 14 years later, and a million miles away for any sense of burnout.

Why did I burn out after 15 years writing direct mail, but not after 14 years writing for the web? Because of the incredible variety.

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How the Easy Button is killing your freelance copywriting business.

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fast easy successImagine launching and building your freelance copywriting business back in the 1980s.

Perhaps you would have spent a few years working in an ad agency, and then made the decision to go freelance.

If you didn’t take the agency route, then you would seek out the small number of books that had been written about copywriting and freelancing.

Either way, you would continue to learn – about both your craft and freelancing – at a fairly slow pace. You would learn from a very small handful of authors. You would learn from your clients. You would learn by reading the occasional article in a trade magazine. And you would learn by studying the successful work of your peers.

As for taking in-depth courses to speed things along, no such luck. As far as I recall, there were no courses or programs devoted to copywriting or freelancing back then. Just books and an occasional magazine article.

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Copywriters: Understand people’s obsession with Cause, Effect and Simple Answers.

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seek simple answers signAs copywriters, part of our job is to understand our audience.

What makes them agree or disagree with what you write? What makes them form opinions about our products or services? What makes them buy?

We need to understand this, because the decisions people make, and the opinions they hold, are hardly ever based on careful, rational thinking.

We all like to think we form opinions and make decisions in a purely rational way, but we don’t.

As an example of how we avoid thinking too carefully, let’s take a look at…

Cause, Effect and Simple Answers.

Humans have a deep-seated desire for everything to make sense. If something happens, we immediately want to know why. What was the cause?

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Copywriters: Prime your readers with a few carefully chosen words, before you start selling.

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prime your readers with wordsLet me introduce you to the Florida Effect.

Conducting a study with students at New York University, psychologist John Bargh told the student the first part of the test would take place in one office, and then the students would be asked to walk down a corridor to another office for the second part.

Half of the group was asked to arrange brief sentences including at least one of the words: Florida, forgetful, bald, gray, or wrinkle. The other half were presented with a completely random list of words.

He didn’t include the words old or age in that first list. He simply used words associated with being old.

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