Clayton Makepeace’s Tips For Making It as a Freelance Copywriter
By Anna Johnson on April 24th, 2009Legendary direct response copywriter, Clayton Makepeace, recently re-posted an interview on his blog where he reveals his path to becoming a copywriter… and gives away some great tips for anyone who wants to become a successful freelance copywriter.
Clayton runs a direct response ad agency called ResponseInk and is fairly well known in Internet marketing circles for providing top-notch copywriting and marketing training, as well writing the Makepeace Total Package blog.
Copywriters are among the most highly paid writers around, and apart from getting gigs writing traditional print and broadcast ads, the Internet has presented copywriters with fantastic new opportunities to do all kinds of interesting work.
Online copywriting jobs can range from writing long-form sales letters, to writing keyword optimized copy for the search engines, to writing scripts for online videos.
What’s more, many copywriters have discovered how lucrative it can be to write for themselves – i.e. to use their skills to market their own products and services – as well as write copy for others.
Not that writing for others can’t be lucrative… especially when you have a royalty arrangement, as Clayton does with many, if not all, of his clients.
I recommend you read Clayton’s interview for some fun insights into how he broke into the business, his thoughts on when to go full-time, how to charge clients, and more.
For now, here are some take-aways I got from the interview.
Oh, I should note that copywriting is close to my heart too – my first real job was writing catalog copy for one of the big, international ad agencies and, apart from doing some other weird and wonderful things (like practising law – another highly paid form or writing!) I have continued doing copywriting jobs for both Kikabink’s niche sites and our Internet marketing clients.
Not that you need any particular background to be a copywriter. Which leads us to:
Take-Away #1: No Particular Background Required
Clayton is a high-school drop-out and went into copywriting after his career in film and video came to a standstill during the 1974 U.S. recession.
Clayton spent about 5 years working for a small direct mail agency before getting fired and starting his own small company called Copy Overload.
Copy Overload basically involved Clayton working for ad agencies when their copywriters went on vacation.
Take-Away #2: Go Full-Time When You Have Part-Time Winners
Clayton suggests you should only hang out your shingle and be a full-time copywriter when you’ve honed your craft and are able to produce winners i.e. ads that work.
Once you have a portfolio of winners i.e. ads that have pulled in good results in terms of response rate, average sale, and return on investment (ROI), you have a sales tool you can use to hook clients.
(Side note: this doesn’t really apply if you want to be a ‘creative’ at a traditional ad agency. Most traditional ad agencies want to see a portfolio full of ads that have won awards for their creativity, rather than ads that have generated financial results… And that, folks, is a whole other story…)
So although it often takes time to develop your skills and produce winners, it’s not so much a matter of how many months or years you spend writing before you go full-time It’s a question of how good you are, before you go full-time.
The other thing I would add is that, thanks to the Internet, you don’t need a ‘client’ to develop your craft and test ads. You don’t even need your own product.
You can start testing and improving for real by promoting affiliate products… and hopefully make some money too.
Take-Away #3: It Doesn’t Matter How Old You Are
Clayton says it doesn’t matter how old you are – you can be close to retirement age and have exactly what it takes to produce winning promotions.
You could also be in or just out of high school. It doesn’t matter. What matters are the results you’re able to produce.
Take-Away #4: Write For Niches With Unlimited Growth Potential
Clayton reckons aspiring copywriters should aim to write for companies that have ‘unlimited growth potential’ and are not in markets that are too crowded.
These are companies that are capable of creating more and more products, such as many newsletter and information product companies.
Take-Away #5: Get a Royalty Arrangement
Clayton aims to establish writing assignments where he gets paid an advance against future royalties.
Royalties – a percentage of sales – are the key to making big money as a copywriter. A royalty arrangement is also one of the most practical ways a copywriter can work for a client and still ‘make money while they sleep,’ as opposed to being paid for their time.
Take-Away #6: How To Quote Price
So how does Clayton bring up the subject of price? Stay tuned for tomorrow’s feature article, when we continue extracting Clayton’s top tips for becoming a successful freelance copywriter…
If you’re interested in Clayton’s copywriting training go here.
Source: Clayton Makepeace, “Career-Building Advice for Copywriters,” Makepeace Total Package, April 20, 2009
