“Gee, this looks interesting! I’m going to pursue it!”

But adult life limits us: Mortgages and car payments and kids and all of the other sundry expenses mean we need to have a pretty good sense of something before we jump into it.

(Side note: Don’t “jump in” anyway. Wade in. In my opinion, the worst piece of advice for an adult with responsibilities is “Leap and the net will appear.” No! Build a net!)

So, if you’re interested in getting into copywriting (marketing and advertising writing), but you’re wondering if it’s a good career fit for you, I have great news!

I’ve built you a free quiz:

Answer a couple of questions, get some insight at each step, and end up with a sense for whether or not it’s something you should look into further.

(And, no, you don’t have to enter your email address to get the results.)

(And, also no, every answer is not “you’ll make a great copywriter!” I’m not going to waste your time like that.

Sadly, Substack won’t let me just embed the quiz right here so you’ll have click over to take it. But once you do, come on back and let me know what result you got!

Having trouble with the image above? Try this button:

Click here to take the quiz

About the Author

Nicki Krawczyk has been a professional copywriter for 20+ years, writing for clients including Hasbro, adidas, Reebok, TripAdvisor, Barnes and Noble, and plenty more.

Since 2012, she’s also been teaching people to create professional copywriting careers of their own via the Comprehensive Copywriting Academy, the #1 all-in-one online professional copywriting training program.

To learn more about the CCA and about beginning your own copywriting career, check out our free, on-demand video workshop.

But for a career like copywriting, the path to success feels…murkier.

Why? It’s likely for one of two reasons:

1. You don’t know anyone who’s done it…so you don’t know how to do it, either

2. You know someone who’s tried it and struggled

The big secret is that the cause of #2 is actually, #1: The people who’ve struggled don’t know the path to success either.

So let’s fix all of that, shall we? Let’s lay out the entire career in one clear road map.

1. Learn to write copy

I mean, this should be a given, right? And yet, every single day people try to break into copywriting without actually learning (or honing) any of the skills.

Copywriting is a very different kind of writing from any other and there are both fundamental and advanced principles that you need to learn to wield before you’re ready to charge for it.

2. Practice AND get feedback

You need to practice to develop your skills, just like in literally any other industry.

But you also need to get feedback from people who are more skilled at it than you are.

When you’re learning, you don’t know what you don’t know—and you don’t yet have the expertise or experience to push yourself to improve.

Copywriting is a collaborative field and you need the perspective of a more skilled practitioner to improve your work.

BTW, AI can’t do that. It can offer you “advice” but because it’s based on generic copy that’s been pre-generated, it can’t offer you true expert advice because it’s not an actual, practicing expert.

AI is just an answer machine that’s read a lot of books. It’s not a copywriting expert.

3. Create your portfolio

Your website is what helps sell you to potential clients and bosses before they ever even meet you.

Clients don’t care about your age, gender, background, or even (largely) your experience: They just care that you can write great copy.

And your portfolio website is exactly how you demonstrate that.

But how do you do that before you’ve had clients? Great question! The answer is:

4. Create spec pieces

Spec pieces are, effectively, practice pieces that you use to demonstrate your skill before clients have paid you to write copy for them.

You’ll write the creative brief and, with a designer, develop pieces that show your depth and breadth of ability via a variety of different kinds of pieces in a variety of different kinds of brand voices.

(And you’ll clearly label each one as “SPEC” because you’re not trying to pull a fast one.)

Clients don’t care if your work is spec; they just care if it’s good.

And, as you get paid work, you’ll swap out your spec samples for your paid samples.

5. Update your LinkedIn profile

You don’t absolutely have to do this one if you’re working full-time in another field, but it can be a great way to get organically “found” for potential projects.

6. Learn how to price your services

First: Never, EVER charge by the word.

That’s for content work and there’s a reason people burn out quickly on content.

Plus, copywriting is often better when it’s concise and if you’re charging by the word, you’re penalizing yourself for doing it well. Charging by the word is a mark of someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing.

Most of your work will be by the project, though some will be by the hour.

The key is to factor in all of the elements of a project (the kickoff, concepting, outlining, writing, editing, the creative review, a round or two of revisions, any client calls, etc.) before coming up with your project price to ensure you’re making a solid income on the project.

If you skip any of this and just “pick a number” you will, invariably, end up working for peanuts and resenting your client.

When you’ve carefully considered all of the elements of a project before you price it out, you can be sure you’re being well-compensated.

7. Learn the right way to reach out to clients/for jobs

This one is for both would-be freelancers and would-be employees, so don’t either of you skip it.

Most freelancers (in any industry) struggle because they never learned a system for finding and landing clients. They rely on referrals or, worse, sites like Upwork to make work randomly fall in their laps.

Commit this to memory: Wishing and hoping is not how you build a career.

You need a system for outreach that breaks through all of the crud emails that people get and that clearly and immediately demonstrates your value.

(Our students regularly report would-be clients thanking them for reaching out.)

If you want an on-staff job, this goes for you, too. You cannot use the “one-click apply” or direct website application forms. You’ll get lost in a sea of other applicants.

You’ll also likely get tossed out by HR gatekeepers who are scanning resumes and cover letters looking for keywords.

You need to use the same value-providing outreach system to connect with the key decision people for an on-staff role.

8. Re-pitch previous clients, continue outreach

The easiest clients to land are the ones you’ve already landed.

A shocking number of freelancers work with a client for a project once and move on, figuring that if a client wants to work with them again, “they’ll just come to me.”

Wrong.

It’s not their job to fill your pipeline of work, it’s your job.

PLUS, when you suggest additional projects to clients, you’re providing additional value by helping them build and improve their businesses.

Clients don’t want people who just produce, they want partners. And you can be a partner by continually looking for ways to benefit your clients—both current and previous clients.

And, at the same time, continue your new outreach, as well.

Every outreach email is planting a seed for potential future work. If you stop planting the seeds…you can be 100% sure that you’re not going to see any future projects sprout.

9. Increase your rates as your experience increases

The more work you do and then more you learn, the more your skill will increase.

You should plan on raising your rates every few years, but you don’t have to raise them drastically; $5/hour increase will often be appropriate.

I know: $5/hour sounds absurdly small but let’s run through the math.

If you’re making $70/hour and working 35 hours a week for 50 weeks, you make $122,500.

When you increase your rate by just $5 to $75/hour…you jump to $131,250.

And don’t forget that you should keep increasing that rate every few years.

❌ What’s not on this list & why

Social media

Can you have a professional social media presence? Absolutely.

Do you need one? Absolutely not.

Social media might help support a potential client decide to reach out. It might help them find you.

It might.

But, at best, it’s a dotted line to clients, which means it’s not somewhere you should spend most of your time.

Direct outreach (the right way!) is a straight line to clients and it’s always going to be the easiest way to fill your client pipeline.

Mass pitches

If you want to land work (and I assume you do?!?), don’t send out mass generic pitches to a whole group of people.

All mass pitches demonstrate is laziness and no one wants to work with someone who’s lazy.

Your pitches need to be specific, personalized, and based in providing value.

Plus, the kinds of clients who reply to mass pitches are not and never the high-paying, high-quality ones.

Upwork

I know: It seems so easy. “People post jobs they want done and then I just apply for them!”

If only. Here’s what Upwork really is: It’s a place for people who want the highest possible skill level for the lowest possible fee.

Truly: The whole structure of the site is based on it.

People are bidding for work, which means that you need to drive down your rate to even be competitive.

And you’re bidding against people who don’t know any other way to find work (because they never learned systems), so they’re going to bid very low rates because they’re desperate.

You never (in any scenario) want to be competing with someone who’s desperate.

Best case scenario, you win the work and end up working at a rate that’s much lower than what you should be. (And when you could be just working at your standard rate instead.

Worst case (and far, far more common) scenario, you waste hours sending out tons of quality proposals, never get any work from it, and end up frustrated and disappointed.

There’s a path to follow:

There’s nothing mystical or luck-based about building a thriving copywriting career, whether you want to be freelance or on-staff, part-time or full-time.

You follow the steps of the people who’ve been successful before you.

If you’d like to dive in a bit more into what a copywriting career looks like, check out the free, on-demand video workshop I’ve put together right here.

About the Author

Nicki Krawczyk has been a professional copywriter for 20+ years, writing for clients including Hasbro, adidas, Reebok, TripAdvisor, Barnes and Noble, and plenty more.

Since 2012, she’s also been teaching people to create professional copywriting careers of their own via the Comprehensive Copywriting Academy, the #1 all-in-one online professional copywriting training program.

To learn more about the CCA and about beginning your own copywriting career, check out our free, on-demand video workshop.

A few days ago, I came across a post from a young man on this platform offering up his “real” advice about how to be a successful copywriter.

And let me tell you:

It was BAD.

As in, the kind of big claims and bad advice that might get you to buy from the guy he’s got an affiliate link for, but that are exceedingly likely to decimate your career potential.

(And, no, I’m not going to link to his post here. I refuse to give him more traffic.)

And look: I’m not the end-all, be-all.

BUT,

✅ I’ve been doing this for 25 years.

✅ I’ve written for (several) multi-billion-dollar companies, solopreneurs, and every size business in between.

✅ I’ve worked on staff and I’ve freelanced. I’ve written for agencies and in-house teams.

✅ And I’ve taught more than 12,000 people to build copywriting careers of their own.

So…I happen to know a thing or two.

What He Got Right

The kid wasn’t all wrong. After all, his big premise and promise was spot on:

Copywriting Can Be a 6-Figure/Year Career

And, no, not just for the lucky ones.

The math just maths:

A (trained) brand-new copywriter should be earning around $60/hour. And if they want to work 35 hours a week for 50 weeks a year, that’s $105,000.

Most freelance work will be priced by project, but it should work out the same. And not all of those hours are pure writing: there are client meetings, brainstorming time, editing time, all of that.

On-staff copywriters will make a little less since employers justify paying us (all of us) less by offering us benefits.

And, of course, as your experience increases, your rate/salary will, to

You Don’t Need a Copywriting Background

You need to get trained to write copy, of course—you can’t charge for something you don’t know how to do.

But you don’t need to have a background in marketing or advertising.

One of the great things about copywriting is that it’s an entirely merit-based career. Clients don’t care about your age, gender, background, experience, etc. as long as you can write great copy.

Which you can absolutely learn to do.

Plus, it’s your non-copywriting background that differentiates you. The experiences you’ve had outside of copywriting and the traits you’ve developed there are what make you unique and give you your unique perspective.

Don’t Work for Free

Offering to work for free conveys that you’re not confident in your work. If you were, you’d be charging for it.

And no business owner, creative director, or marketing director has the time to give a project to someone who’s effectively saying “I’m not sure I’m any good, so I won’t charge you and we’ll see how it turns out.”

I know: There are some people that say working for free conveys a confidence in your skills. “I’m so good, I’ll prove it to you for free!”

But professionals don’t work for free, newbies who are desperate for work do. And no one wants to hire a desperate newbie.

If they hire a desperate newbie and the work is subpar, they still have to find someone to write the copy for them and now they’re three weeks behind schedule.

Once you’re trained and your work has been honed through feedback from pros, charge for your work.

What He Got (Really) Wrong

❌ BAD Advice:
You Don’t Need a Portfolio/Website

Of flipping course you do!

A website with your portfolio pieces demonstrates that you’re a professional but, more importantly, it demonstrates your skills before you even meet a potential client.

If your first few clients are local mom-and-pop businesses, sure, you can get away with not having your site up (or finished) yet.

But as you grow your career to be working with larger companies, agencies, and in-house creative teams, you’d better believe they’re going to expect a portfolio.

If you don’t have a portfolio, you’re going to get laughed right out of a creative director or marketing director’s office.

“But, how can I have a portfolio if I haven’t had clients yet? I won’t have anything to post!"

Great question: Until you have paid projects, you’re going to create “spec” pieces; essentially, practice pieces that you create as if you’d been hired by that client.

You clearly label them as “SPEC” on your portfolio (you’re not trying to trick anybody) and they let you demonstrate your skills before you’ve been hired.

Then, as you get paid for work and get produced pieces, you can swap them out for your spec pieces.

❌BAD Advice: You Don’t Need Experience

I’m sorry, what? Of course you do!

YOU NEED TO KNOW HOW TO WRITE COPY
IF YOU’RE GOING TO CHARGE FOR COPYWRITING.

I can’t believe this needs to be said.

You need to hone your skills across a wide variety of different kinds of projects and in different kinds of client voices.

And you need to get feedback on that work from pros. If you’re just writing by yourself, you have no idea if you’re actually doing it well!

That said, that experience doesn’t have to be with clients. You can learn via a variety of practice projects and then get professional feedback on those.

Even better, as I mentioned earlier, you can use those practice projects (clearly labeled as “SPEC”) in your portfolio to demonstrate your skills.

❌ BAD Advice: Learn Only the Basics

What?!? You don’t get to charge expert, trained copywriting rates if you’ve “only learned the basics.”

Anyone can “learn” the basics with a quick Google search.

To command high rates and actually be sure you’re going to have a positive impact on your client’s business, you need to learn—and practice—everything you can.

No client wants to work with someone in any field that has only bothered to learn the basics.

Imagine you’re considering hiring a plumber and that plumber has only “learned the basics.” Do you hire them? Or do you go and find a pro?

You will learn a lot more with each client/job that you take, but you need to copy to the table already prepared to do the job like a professional.

❌ BAD Advice: Go All In on a Niche

No, no, nooooooo. Copywriting is a specialty; you don’t need to narrow it down from there.

First of all, when you’re first starting out as a copywriter, how could you possibly know which niche you’ll like best? And, just as importantly, if that niche has enough work to support you?

Choosing a niche artificially and unnecessarily limits your work opportunities.

If you go all-in on, say, the healthcare industry and a creative director from a sports marketing company gets to your website—your website that’s all about writing for healthcare—they’re going to assume you won’t (or can’t) write for them and they’ll never reach out.

—> You will lose work you don’t even know about. <—

And if you try to specialize in just a type of copywriting (say, sales emails), you’ve got a different kind of problem.

No copywriting project exists in a vacuum: A product launch doesn’t just need sales emails, it also needs a sales page, ads, opt-in pages, nurture emails, etc.

So for you to come in and say “I’ll write your sales emails for you,” it doesn’t matter how good you are at those emails. They’ll hire someone who can write all of their copy for them.

Instead of choosing a niche, aim to demonstrate a breadth and depth of skills on your portfolio. Post pieces in different mediums (emails, landing pages, banner ads, direct mail, etc.) with a variety of different brand voices. That way, a potential client can feel confident that you can adapt to their needs and hit the ground running.

❌ BAD Advice: Focus Only on Online Businesses/Coaches

Sure, definitely write for online coaches or online entrepreneurs. I’m one; I love us.

But don’t ONLY write for online coaches or online entrepreneurs.

I know this overlaps a bit with “don’t choose a niche” but I really need to call this one out since most copywriters don’t realize “online businesses” is a niche.

From about 2019-2024, this industry was doing gangbusters. People were printing money. Then, for a variety of different reasons, a lot of those businesses hit a wall and hit it hard.

And, unfortunately, all of the vendors who made those kinds of businesses their bread and butter suddenly weren’t getting hired.

To have a thriving career, you need to write for all kinds of different companies. Sure, yes, write for online businesses. But you should also reach out to and write for agencies and in-house teams and brick and mortars and nonprofits.

NEVER put all of your eggs in one kind of business basket.

Which means that your outreach method can’t work for just one kind of business. Sure, offering “copy audits” can be great. But the marketing director for a multi-million-dollar software company isn’t going to buy a copy audit.

Your outreach (a proven, repeatable, scalable system) needs to work for ALL kinds of clients.

❌ BAD Advice: Use AI to Write Your Copy

WHAAAAAAAAT?

DO.

NOT.

DO.

THIS.

In this kid’s post, he says that he uses AI because “you will need to be able to produce a certain volume of deliverables.”

Well…yes. THAT’S WHAT WE DO.

Okay, no more all-caps, I promise.

Yes, you can absolutely use AI to help you research your clients and manage your schedule and even help you brainstorm some potential additional angles for work.

But, by its very nature, AI is just a prediction machine. Sam Altman himself called AI a “calculator for words.”

It’s just giving you the most likely words, not the best ones. And certainly not the most creative.

The WHOLE POINT (sorry, last all-caps) of effective copy is that it differentiates your client from its competition and, as much as possible, does it in a way that is unique and that resonates with their clients.

Also, by the way, words that are generated by AI aren’t copyright-able (legal). Meaning that if deliver AI-generated words to your client, anyone else could rip them off and your client wouldn’t have any legal recourse.

My Favorite Piece of Advice Anywhere:

This guidance comes in handy all the time and it’s so easy to forget.

You should only take advice from someone who’s been successful at what it is that you want to do.

If you want to be in a solid relationship, don’t take relationship advice from your perpetually single friend.

If you want to start a business, don’t take advice from your Uncle Steve, who’s never owned a business in his life.

And if you want to become a copywriter, don’t take advice from a dude on the internet who discovered copywriting in July of 2024.

You can absolutely have a very successful copywriting career. But it’s going to be a whole heck of a lot harder if you try to do it by following bad advice.

If you’re interested in some advice that’s been time-tested for 25 years and by 12,000 students, check out the free, on-demand masterclass I’ve put together right here.

About the Author

Nicki Krawczyk has been a professional copywriter for 20+ years, writing for clients including Hasbro, adidas, Reebok, TripAdvisor, Barnes and Noble, and plenty more.

Since 2012, she’s also been teaching people to create professional copywriting careers of their own via the Comprehensive Copywriting Academy, the #1 all-in-one online professional copywriting training program.

To learn more about the CCA and about beginning your own copywriting career, check out our free, on-demand video workshop.

That was a new one. As Kate and I interviewed Steffan for the “Build Your Copywriting Business” podcast (episode 152) I eagerly added it to my mental list:

I’ve seen again and again that there is no one “right” background for being successful as a copywriter.

In fact, it’s often the skills you’ve developed in other industries and experiences that help make you a uniquely valuable and effective copywriter.

But I get that, when you’re considering making a career move or taking on part-time/side-hustle work…

You want to be sure you have the best chance of success.

So let’s approach this a different way. Clearly, all kinds of different backgrounds can make for amazing copywriter.

But what are the specific traits that they all share? That’s where we’ll find the gold, and that’s the list you should compare yourself against.

Traits that Actually Foretell Success

Affinity for Writing

Probably sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people hear about the income potential of a copywriting career and reach out to find out if they “have to” like writing.

Yup.

But you don’t need to love it every moment of every day. And you don’t need to wake up desperate to do it.

You just need to like it. You’re the person who’s always being told “You’re such a good writer” and who gets their friends’ cover letters and emails to bosses foisted upon you for help.

Open to Feedback

Copywriting is a collaborative industry.

Yes, you’ll write on your own but, because you’re neither psychic nor perfect, your client will have some feedback. It’s a natural part of the process.

And, by the way, most feedback will be along the lines of “Overall, I love this! But can we just focus this section more on [fill in the blank]?”

We work with our clients and, when we can, designers to make our work better. Feedback is how that happens.

Willingness to Learn

Copywriting is very different from every other type of writing.

And, since absolutely no one is born knowing how to write copy…

It’s something you’ll have to learn.

The problem is, most adults understand this intellectually, but then are shocked when they don’t immediately master every element of something new.

(I’ve caught myself in this more than once, too.)

Be open to not knowing what you’re doing; it’s the fastest way you’ll actually master it.

Critical & Strategic Thinking

Oh man, this is a big part of what I love about copywriting:

It’s like a word puzzle.

You’re trying to solve a puzzle/meet an objective in accordance with a set of rules/guidelines (the creative brief and brand guidelines), but you get to use words to do it.

You’ll need to think strategically to meet those goals and guidelines and you’ll need to think critically to make sure what you’re crafting is worthy of being in the project.

(You’ll also have to think critically as you kickoff the project with your clients/bosses; sometimes those projects will need re-thinking before they’re even started.)

Yes, you get to be creative, but you also get to use the strategic side of your brain, too.

Creative Empathy

Everything you write as a copywriter is for a specific audience: A specific group that you’re trying to connect with.

And part of how you figure out the best and most effective way to connect with them is by imagining yourself in their shoes.

Sure, your client will give you market research, but you’ll also get very far by taking the time to really understand that audience and what they fear and find frustrating, what they want and what they really need.

Traits Copywriters Don’t Need

No, You Don’t Need to Be Funny

Or, for that matter, clever. Sure, there are some clients that want “funny” or that want “clever,” but a far more—

Read: the vast majority—

Just want effective copy. They want copy that resonates with their target audience, conveys the message they’re trying to get across, and does it in their unique brand voice.

No, You Don’t Need to Be an Extrovert (Or an Introvert)

Yes, you’ll interact with your clients and contacts periodically…but you’ll also get plenty of time on your own to write. (Even if you’re working on staff in an office.)

And, yes, you’ll get plenty of time alone to write, but you’ll also get to collaborate with interesting, dynamic people.

My point is, this career isn’t made for one or the other. No matter which personality you have, you’ll get time to recharge your batteries in the right way.

No, You Don’t Need to Be a “Hustler”

Hustling for work is exhausting: For both you and the person you’re trying to hustle.

No one wants to be sold to.

So, instead of trying to push yourself into roles (whether freelance or on-staff), you’re going to demonstrate your value in a strategic way that makes potential clients/bosses want to engage with you.

Don’t be pushy, be helpful.

If you’re ready to dip your toes into copywriting a little bit more, check out the free, on-demand workshop I’ve put together for you right here.

About the Author

Nicki Krawczyk has been a professional copywriter for 20+ years, writing for clients including Hasbro, adidas, Reebok, TripAdvisor, Barnes and Noble, and plenty more.

Since 2012, she’s also been teaching people to create professional copywriting careers of their own via the Comprehensive Copywriting Academy, the #1 all-in-one online professional copywriting training program.

To learn more about the CCA and about beginning your own copywriting career, check out our free, on-demand video workshop.

And, why, yes, that does make us the #1 all-in-one online professional copywriting training program. Thank you for noticing.

In those 14+ years, we’ve amassed countless testimonials and student success stories, including 100+ in-depth student stories that we’ve featured on our podcast, Build Your Copywriting Business.

And in working with all of these wonderful, hard-working, talented people, there are some trends I’ve found that I know you can benefit from, too.

Here goes:

Luck is great, but systems build a career

At some point or another, serendipity will hit and work will just fall into your lap. I can pretty much guarantee it.

But you can’t bank on serendipity and luck won’t pay your rent/mortgage.

And the good news it that they don’t need to:

There are proven, repeatable, scalable systems for finding and landing high-paying clients and/or landing jobs.

(And, no, these systems don’t involve posting on social media or competing for work on sites like UpWork.)

Your biggest roadblock is always yourself

Our students get everything they need to build a copywriting career—all the steps, all the strategy, all of the feedback and support—but they still, periodically find themselves dragging their feet.

Why? Because what’s between their ears gets in the way of what they want to do in the world.

There will always be plenty of opportunity for copywriters in this world. Way more opportunity, in fact, than there are copywriters to fill it.

And, sure, there’ll be some “no”s, but there will also be plenty of “yes”es.

The outside world won’t stop you…but you just might let yourself stop you. Or, at least, get in your way.

Which is why it’s so important to understand this next point:

Everyone doubts themselves. Everyone.

It’s not a matter of if you doubt yourself or doubt whether you can do this, it’s when.

Why? Because your brain is built to do that.

Your brain has a very old (as in, literally ancient) system built into it that throws up alarm bells every time you step outside your comfort zone.

And sometimes those alarm bells come in the form of self-doubt, sometimes they come in the form of procrastination, sometimes they come in the form of a very sneaky voice that says things like “You know what? You’ve already worked so hard this week. Why don’t you just leave this until next week? You deserve it.”

So when those self-doubts pop up (which they absolutely will), it doesn’t mean that it’s a sign you should give up or that you’re not meant to do this.

It just means that you’re getting outside of your comfort zone. And, as a reminder all of the best things in life are outside of your comfort zone.

That’s the time to lean on your community, remember why it matters to you do to this in the first place, and recommit to taking daily actions to move forward.

Speaking of which,

Absurdly small actions beat no actions at all

When that self-doubt kicks in, it can be tempting to close your computer and just give up for the day. (Or, worse, for longer.)

But the only thing that reliably beats self-doubt is action. Yes, the action that you absolutely don’t feel like taking.

The very best way I’ve found to get around your “just give up” brain, is to take Absurdly Tiny Actions.

Break your task into steps that are so incredibly, laughably tiny that it’s almost easier to take them than not take them.

Instead of “build a website,” your first ATAs might be “open a new tab in Chrome” and “Go to Squarespace.com.”

Steps that small don’t kick up resistance, can give you a little momentum to keep going, or, even if not, are better than nothing.

In fact,

You don’t need to go the “extra mile,” just the “extra inch”

It doesn’t actually take that much to be successful, because most people won’t even bother to do the basics.

Most people would rather wait (in vain) for work to drop into their laps than to send a simple email.

Most people click that “one click apply” in Indeed and get lost in a sea of resumes instead of just finding out the hiring manager’s email.

Most people figure their portfolios are “good enough” instead of spending a half hour writing up a sample for a job/client they’re especially interested in

I once hit the brakes on hiring one copywriter in favor of meeting with another (whom I eventually did hire) simply because that second copywriter sent a follow-up.

It does not take a lot to stand out; just a touch more effort than most people are willing to make.

You’re not that special (in a good way)

At some point or another, everyone worries that they’ll be the exception to the rule. That, even though they’ll put in the work and follow the steps and get the feedback, that they’ll be the person this career won’t work for.

(Which is funny, isn’t it? Nobody worries that becoming a veterinarian or a plumber or an accountant won’t work for them. Ah, writers: We have a lot of heart.)

So let me put it plainly and with love:

You’re not that special.

We have 12,000 students, thousands and thousands of student wins, more than 100 in-depth student success stories (we only have so much time to interview!)...

Following our system works for them. When you follow the steps, and you get the feedback, and you ask your questions…it just works.

I can’t tell you the timeline (I’m not psychic and I don’t know what your schedule looks like), but the only way to “fail” is to quit.

You’re not that special that it won’t work for you.

And isn’t that wonderful?

If you want to explore whether copywriting might be right for you, check out our free, on-demand workshop right here:

Get the Free Workshop

About the Author

Nicki Krawczyk has been a professional copywriter for 20+ years, writing for clients including Hasbro, adidas, Reebok, TripAdvisor, Barnes and Noble, and plenty more.

Since 2012, she’s also been teaching people to create professional copywriting careers of their own via the Comprehensive Copywriting Academy, the #1 all-in-one online professional copywriting training program.

To learn more about the CCA and about beginning your own copywriting career, check out our free, on-demand video workshop.

After all, I’ve been a professional copywriter for 25 years and I’ve taught more than 12,000 people to build successful copywriting careers of my own.

I’ve got a little skin in the game.

But that’s the point: I’m not about to stick around if my career’s going to disappear (no matter how much I love it) and I’m certainly not going to teach other people to do it either.

Copywriting and content writing are not the same.

First, let’s get clear on some concepts. Copywriting is marketing and ad writing, designed to sell or persuade.

Content writing is writing that’s designed to educate, entertain, and/or inspire. Think blog posts and most of social media.

Content is a churn and burn industry. Because it’s easy to get into, the pay is low, it’s hard to earn much, and it’s easy to burn out.

Content is also very easy to create with AI because it doesn’t require much creativity or originality.

Copywriting, on the other hand, requires strategy, creativity, and originality. A basic tenet of copywriting is to differentiate from competition, which AI is basically designed not to do, but more on that in a bit.

There was a Washington Post article that made the rounds a year or two ago about copywriters who had lost their jobs to AI. Except…read between the lines and they weren’t copywriters, they were content writers.

It still sucks for them for sure, but let’s all make sure we’re getting our jobs titles and job descriptions right when we’re talking about this.

Speaking of getting things right…

AI Washing: Why some people are really being laid off

Not every layoff “because of AI” is actually “because of AI.”

Laying people off and ascribing it to “AI efficiencies” is lot more palatable to investors than layoffs because “we overspent and over-hired and now we have to fix that.”

The former makes a company sound forward-thinking and they later makes it sound mismanaged. So, if you were a company and you needed to lay people off, which reason would you give?

(I’m not making this up and nor did I coin the term; the LA Times, the New York Times, Newsweek, the Guardian, and CNBC have all written stories about it.)

Will there be legitimate layoffs because of AI? Absolutely.

But will there be plenty of other reasons for layoffs blamed on AI. Also absolutely.

And that certainly doesn’t make the layoffs any less painful for those who are affected, but it certainly changes the narrative and the fear factor for the rest of us when we have a different perspective.

Especially regarding writers’ jobs because, the truth is…

Companies—including AI companies—are actively investing in writers

I’m going to throw a few stats at you rapid-fire:

• Earlier this year, Business Insider ran a piece called “The hottest job in tech: writing words.” Why? Because job listings for writers are surging.

• Job postings for copywriters and communication managers haven’t slowed down, but here are a few that should interest you in particular:

• This year, OpenAI has filled multiple writing-focused roles with $400,000 salaries. Anthropic has tripled the size of its communications team, with salaries around $200,000. Andreeson Horowitz, a venture capital firm known for investing heavily in AI launched an entire new media team.

  If the people that run AI companies know that they need people to write for them instead of just using AI, don’t you think the rest of the companies do, too?

• Scott Galloway, NYU professor and revered business commentator said that being able to “write well” is one of the biggest advantages someone can have in the age of AI.

• The copywriting industry is expect to nearly double by 2032, from $25.29B in 2023 to $48.89B in 2032.

AI—>Email—>Internet—>TV—>Radio—>Printing Press—>Wheel

Okay, I’m skipping a few steps here, but you get the point:

AI is a tool that’s not going away.

When I was starting my career (25ish years ago), there were still some creatives and execs that resisted using email. Can you imagine?

Guess how that went for them.

My point is that you can refuse to use AI or you can educate yourself about it, learn how to use it responsibly, and maybe even discover ways it can make things easier in your business and your career.

But could you use AI to help you manage your schedule? Sure. Help it to begin your audience research? Yep. Give you a leg up researching your client’s competitors? For sure. Balance it out with your own research because AI still makes stuff up, but you should take the help because it’s there.

And will a potential client or hiring manager value a copywriter who is proficient with AI over a similar copywriter who isn’t? It’s sure looking that way, folks.

Overuse of AI is making human writers even more valued

Look, it’s only responsible for a business to see if they can get the same results for a job they need done faster and easier. So it makes sense that some of them would test out AI for their copywriting.

The verdict? AI writes copy for crap.

The fundamental problem is that LLMs aren’t a creative engine, they’re a prediction engine. AI’s entire job in this context is to predict the most likely next words and generate them.

And AI can’t do that. “Got milk?” could have never come from AI because it’s completely original. Which, of course, is what makes it memorable…and effective.

Companies have tested AI to write their copy and ended up hiring human writers to fix it.

Small businesses may still be believing the Instagram ads promising that “AI can write your copy for you”…but small businesses have always been notorious for putting their messaging (arguably the most important part of their business) last or trying to outsource it on the cheap.

Copywriting isn’t going anywhere…but don’t tell your competition

The copywriting industry is booming but AI fears and AI washing are likely to keep some people who would have explored a career in copywriting out.

On top of that, investing in education is seeing a sharp decline as the current (2026) economic crisis has more people focused on practical needs instead of education and career growth.

And, of course, older copywriters are still aging out and even choosing to leave the industry early rather than learn AI skills.

Which means that, if you’re interested in getting into the industry, now is an a better time than ever because you’ll be dealing with even fewer competitors than ever.

It’s a pretty great time to be a writer, don’t you think?

If you’re interested in exploring copywriting as a career (whether full time or part time, on staff or freelance), you can dig in for now via this free video workshop.

About the Author

Nicki Krawczyk has been a professional copywriter for 20+ years, writing for clients including Hasbro, adidas, Reebok, TripAdvisor, Barnes and Noble, and plenty more.

Since 2012, she’s also been teaching people to create professional copywriting careers of their own via the Comprehensive Copywriting Academy, the #1 all-in-one online professional copywriting training program.

To learn more about the CCA and about beginning your own copywriting career, check out our free, on-demand video workshop.

First things first, though: The caveat I have to start with is that these are numbers based on people who are trained in copywriting.

As in, they’ve learned and practiced the principles, they’ve honed their skills via feedback from more advanced copywriters, and they’ve built out their professional portfolios.

Copywriting is a career, just like any other; one can’t just “decide” to be a copywriter and start charging for it. Similarly, I can’t decided to be an accountant or a veterinarian and expect to start landing clients. Hamsters would die and people would get angry notices from the IRS.

So, to be a skilled copywriter, you need training, agreed?

That said, we’ll also start off by talking about the numbers for brand new copywriters: Copywriters who’ve completed that training and honed their skills but don’t have many (if any) clients under their belts yet.

The numbers for new copywriters:

Most freelance copywriting projects will be structured via project rates. As in, you’ll charge one lump sum for the projects, instead of by the hour.

That said, your project rates will, at least at the beginning of your career, be based on your hourly rate.

A brand-new, trained copywriter can expect to command between $50-$65 per hour for their work.

But that’s not just for the writing: That rate encompasses a whole project and the brainstorming/concepting, outlining, writing, editing, client calls, and revisions.

So don’t read that $50-65 per hour as “just the money I’ll make writing”—it’s the income you’ll earn for all of the elements of a copywriting project.

Which means if, say, you want to work 30 hours a week for 50 weeks of the year and charge $60 an hour, you’re looking at making around $90,000.

Bump that up to 34 hours a week and you’ve hit six figures.

What about if you’d like to work on-staff (aka, as an employee)?

Well, on-staff copywriters do tend to be paid less than freelance copywriters, which employers justify because of all of the “benefits” they give you.

I’m not knocking on-staff work (I’ve had plenty of great on-staff copywriting roles), but don’t forget that benefits were literally designed to save companies money and allow them to pay you less. And you can absolutely create a “benefits package” for yourself as a freelancer.

Brand new, trained copywriters tend to start at around $70,000 per year.

How rates increase as your experience does

As you might expect, you’re going to be paid more once you’ve gotten more experience and honed your skills even more than you were when you were brand new.

Assuming a copywriter is working regularly and, thus, not just refining their copywriting skills but also learning additional marketing techniques and improving the way that they work with clients, they should be gradually raising their rates every 1-2 years.

At first blush, a $5/hour rate increase doesn’t seem like much, but at 30 hours a week and 50 weeks a year, that’s a $7,500 raise each time you raise your rates.

That’s certainly a bigger raise than most people have ever been given by employers.

But employed copywriters will see a similar gain in salary as they increase experience; they’ll have the ability to move from Junior to Mid-Level to Senior Copywriter (if they even started at Junior to begin with), eventually moving into Copy Manager or Director if they’d prefer. Some may even move into creative direction, leading both copy and design teams.

As with pretty much any other career, employed copywriters will also have the easiest time giving themselves a salary bump by moving to a new company every few years unless they’re at a company that aggressively promotes from within and pay commensurately.

In a nutshell, it’s perfectly possible for an on-staff copywriter to ascend to a six-figure salary and beyond, as well.

How many clients does it take to hit six figures?

Great question; I’m glad I asked for you.

Even a fun career is, admittedly, not much fun if you have to juggle 15 clients at a time or, on the other time, if you’re always scrambling to find new clients.

A copywriter can reasonably hit six-figures with 4-6 clients per month and several of these clients will stay with you month after month.

Now, understand that this is based on average sized project; if a copywriter is chronically undercharging it’s obviously going to throw off all of these numbers.

But a copywriter regularly working with clients and charging reasonable rates for their expertise should be making a very nice income with 4-6 clients a month.

How much can it bring in as a side hustle?

Okay, this number is much fuzzier than I’m comfortable quantifying since it depends on the number of hours you’d personally choose to work.

How many hours can you set aside in your schedule each week to take clients? Two? Eight? 12? Your copywriting business can accommodate whatever works for you.

If it’s helpful, I’ve actually created a free, quick calculator to make it easy to play with numbers for yourself:

Try the Copywriting Income Calculator

Here’s one final point before I wrap up: None of these numbers are a guarantee.

Yes, they’re very much indicative of what’s going on in the market and what our students are seeing, but it’s up to each copywriter to do the work, price their work appropriately, and work with a variety of different kinds of clients.

If you’re curious about exactly how to set up your own copywriting career (whether on-staff or freelance), check out the free masterclass I’ve put together right here.

About the Author

Nicki Krawczyk has been a professional copywriter for 20+ years, writing for clients including Hasbro, adidas, Reebok, TripAdvisor, Barnes and Noble, and plenty more.

Since 2012, she’s also been teaching people to create professional copywriting careers of their own via the Comprehensive Copywriting Academy, the #1 all-in-one online professional copywriting training program.

To learn more about the CCA and about beginning your own copywriting career, check out our free, on-demand video workshop.

—> Would you be going into a funky office because you love working with people in person?

—> Would you be working at your kitchen table in the evenings because your afternoons are spend at your kids’ soccer matches?

—> Or would you be working from a cafe in Barcelona? (Try the Federal Cafè Gòtic; the ambiance is just right.

We’ve talked already about what copywriting actually is and the kinds of things that copywriters write. Check out this post for a refresher:

So now, let’s talk about how you can actually structure your copywriting career.

Writing Copy On Staff

Copywriters can work on staff (as employees) in two different capacities.

First, they can work on staff for a marketing or advertising agency. (Think Peggy Olsen in “Mad Men.”)

Agencies are the external companies that produce certain types of creative projects for other companies.

At smaller agencies, you’ll often end up working on several different client projects. At larger agencies, you’ll often be focused on one large client.

The stereotype of agencies is that they’re fast-paced and high-pressure and, while that certainly can be true, it’s not necessarily true across the board. Some smaller agencies can have a much more reasonable work/life balance.

That said, it can also be very exciting to work for a fast-paced agency! Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

Copywriters can also work on staff for an in-house team: the team of creative professionals that produces creative projects for a company from within that company.

In-house teams are generally assumed to be a bit slower paced, but I’ve certainly worked with a few that defied the stereotype.

At an in-house company, you’ll get to know your brand extremely well and often help craft any new evolutions of the brand voice and brand style.

(Moral of the story: Every company is different.)

In both scenarios, you’ll most often be reporting to either a Copy Manager/Director or, if there isn’t one, directly to a Creative Director.

At some newer companies that haven’t yet grown to the size that warrants a Creative Director, you might report to a Marketing Director.

Copywriting as a Freelancer

You can also work for companies and organizations (including in-house teams and agencies) as a freelancer.

As a freelancer, you’re not directly employed by the company so you don’t get benefits like health insurance or 401k.

That said, companies are willing to pay a premium for your flexibility (and the fact that they don’t have to pay for these benefits), so you’ll make more than your on-staff counterparts.

(It’s also pretty simple to craft “benefits packages” of your own that, in the US at least, offer tax advantages.)

Most often, freelancers will work project-to-project and can choose where they work from, perhaps with an occasional office pop-in if necessary.

Freelancers get the flexibility to work with multiple companies on their own schedule, and companies get the flexibility of working with an expert without having to hire one on-staff.

Working as a Contractor

A sort of hybrid between on-staff and freelance work, working as a contractor means that you’re still not directly employed by a company, but that you’re under a contract to work with them for a certain duration of time and hours per week.

A contract could be for 20 hours a week for three months, for example. A contract can also involve coming into the office and working from a company’s workspace with its employees.

A contractor gets the stability of a certain amount of work for a certain period of time, plus the flexibility of finishing with a company when the contract is up (ideal for commitment-phobes like myself).

They also get the benefit of working in-person with various members of the company, and the networking upside of that is tremendous. When each of these people move on to another company, often you’ll be the copywriter they think of and recommend when their company needs copy work done.

Full-Time or Part-Time?

On top of how and where you work, you also can decide how much work you want to do.

For someone who’s ready for a complete career change, they may want to work as a copywriter full-time, again, whether that be on-staff or freelance.

But for someone who’s not yet ready to jump in with both feet…

OR for someone who’s main concern is bringing in some additional cash on the side…

A copywriter can absolutely work part-time, taking on client work either alongside a full-time job or simply when they have the time to do so.

Since client calls and meetings are pretty limited and most of your work (brainstorming/concepting, outlining, writing, editing and polishing) is done on your own, you can make your part-time freelance work adapt to your schedule however you need to.

So here’s a question for you:

What would you like your copywriting career to look like?

Personally, I’ve worked on-staff for both agencies and in-house teams, I’ve freelanced full-time and I’ve freelanced part-time (while working on-staff as a copywriter during the day).

One of the (many) great things about this industry is that you can adapt your career as your lifestyle changes.

If you need the flexibility to be home during the day for kids or, conversely, if you want the flexibility to travel the world, you can do that.

Or, if you want the predictability of a regular paycheck, you can do that.

And, of course, if you want to bring in some extra income for the side to pad a safety net account or set aside funds for a vacation or upcoming expense, you can do that, too.

But, best of all, you can switch between any of these as your lifestyle dictates.

If you’re curious to learn more about copywriting and what your copywriting career could look like, check out the free video workshop I’ve put together right here.

And let me know in the comments how your ideal worklife would look!

About the Author

Nicki Krawczyk has been a professional copywriter for 20+ years, writing for clients including Hasbro, adidas, Reebok, TripAdvisor, Barnes and Noble, and plenty more.

Since 2012, she’s also been teaching people to create professional copywriting careers of their own via the Comprehensive Copywriting Academy, the #1 all-in-one online professional copywriting training program.

To learn more about the CCA and about beginning your own copywriting career, check out our free, on-demand video workshop.

In fact, copywriting has existed in one form or another for thousands of years, and really took shape as an industry in the 19th century.

Copywriting is advertising and marketing writing.

It’s emails, websites, banner ads, billboards, magazine and newspaper ads, direct mail, product packaging, videos, back covers of books, landing pages, sales pages…

All of that is copy.

Copywriting is about making connections.

Fundamentally, copywriting is about making connections between people who have a want or a need and the best company or organization to meet that want or need.

And we make those connections by using words (copy) that resonate with the people (audience) reading them.

Companies need what we do.

There’s a similarity among all of those things copywriters write I listed just above; did you catch it?

Copy affects organizations’ bottom lines. Great copy drives people to take action and, even sometimes, to think differently about things.

And because companies and non-profits can directly track some of their results back to their messaging, they are willing to pay skilled copywriters very well to craft that messaging.

Every organization needs effective messaging.

At the same, time, great copy, in just black type on a white background can sell a product or service like crazy. (And, in fact, has many times!)

Copywriting conveys what is different and valuable about something.

Copywriters don’t have to be clever; they have to convey the most important messages that the target audience needs to hear.

At the same time, the words that you use and the messages that you convey have to be different. If the copy among competitors sounds the same, consumers will be confused and, most likely, won’t even bother to make a purchase.

So, while the messaging has to convey key differentiators, it also has to be written in a company’s unique brand voice. (One thing at which AI is exceptionally bad at, but more on that in a later post.)

I think of copywriting as being like a word puzzle:

You get to combine creativity and strategy to come to the best possible solution.

And you get to use words to do it.

Copywriting is NOT blog writing.

Copywriting is writing that’s designed to sell or to persuade, sometimes to change someone’s mind about something or create an impression in someone’s mind.

Content writing, on the other hand—projects like blog writing or article writing—are very different.

Content is designed to educated, entertain, or inspire.

And while content writing can support an organization’s goals, it’s not going to be a direct line to increased revenues, increased subscriber count, or any other of a company’s goals.

So, unfortunately, content writing isn’t paid nearly as well as content writing.

In fact, content has been a bit of a “churn and burn” industry: Very easy to get into, very low paying, and very easy to burn out on.

(5 cents per word is very difficult to make a living on.)

Copywriting requires learning and honing a different, specialized set of skills.

And while copywriters may sometimes write blog posts for their clients (if they want to!), they do so at their much higher copywriting rates.

The need for skilled copywriters is only growing.

Yes, even in spite of AI. (While some small businesses still fall for the “you can use AI to write your copy!” companies have tried it out, noted the crummy results, and doubled-down on their human writers.)

Every single business or organization needs effective messaging.

Now, will every single one be smart enough to hire a copywriter? Of course not. But you don’t need them to.

There are, literally, millions of businesses in operation in the US and hundreds of millions around the world.

On top of that, there are between 430,000 and 580,000 new businesses started every month in the US alone.

(And you can absolutely write copy in any country; we have students from all around the world. It’s just easiest to find US numbers.)

Copywriting is currently a $30B industry that’s expected to climb to $45B by 2031.

And there just aren’t enough skilled copywriters to fill the need.

So, if you’re someone who grew up thinking that “Writers don’t make any money,” I’m happy to report that some writers really, really do.

If you’d like to learn more about copywriting and what the career entails, check out the free video workshop I’ve put together right here.

About the Author

Nicki Krawczyk has been a professional copywriter for 20+ years, writing for clients including Hasbro, adidas, Reebok, TripAdvisor, Barnes and Noble, and plenty more.

Since 2012, she’s also been teaching people to create professional copywriting careers of their own via the Comprehensive Copywriting Academy, the #1 all-in-one online professional copywriting training program.

To learn more about the CCA and about beginning your own copywriting career, check out our free, on-demand video workshop.

You’re probably the person your friends or family members come to when they need help writing a cover letter, drafting a difficult text, or getting thoughts on a email they need to send to their boss.

But for as long as you’ve heard “You’re such a good writer,” you’ve probably also heard something else:

”Writers don’t make any money.”

Ouch. And, sadly, true.

Or, at least, partially true.

Because while, yes, novelists and bloggers and essayists and journalists don’t get paid nearly as well as they should…

There IS one writing industry that does get paid well: Very well.

Copywriting is marketing and advertising and, because companies and organizations rely so heavily on the words we create to reach their business goals…

They’re happy to pay us extremely well for it.

(How well? Well, let’s just say that I first hit 6 figures per year in 2008, smack dab in the middle of The Great Recession, and I’ve never looked back. And, of course, plenty of my students in the CCA are doing the same. But more on that in a bit.)

Copywriting is the best-kept secret for people who are naturally gifted at writing.

Why is it such a secret? Honestly, I have no idea. I’ve puzzled over it for a lot of my 20+ year career.

And yet, there is so much more need for skilled copywriters than there are skilled copywriters to fill it.

Yes, even in the age of AI. Actually, maybe even more so in the age of AI. Cruddy AI output isn’t helping any business differentiate itself and connect with its ideal audience.

Because that’s what great copywriting is fundamentally about:

Creating a connection between someone who has a want or a need and the best company or organization to meet that need.

I have a ton to share with you about copywriting (I’ve picked up, oh, just a little bit in the quarter-century I’ve been doing it and the 15 years I’ve been teaching it)…

And that’s what I’m going to share with you on this Substack.

So, if you’ve always been a good writer, and you find yourself wishing for a career—or even a side job—where you could use that skill…

A career that allows for fulfillment, flexibility, fun, and, yes, financial success…

Then I strongly encourage you to subscribe.

Subscribe now

We’re going to talk about what copywriters do all day, how they craft the words that get people to take action (hint: it’s different than any other kind of writing), how copywriters find clients or jobs, how we build a career, and, maybe most importantly, how you can do all of this, too.

(And if you’re inspired and want to learn more right away, you can check out the free, on-demand workshop I’ve put together for you right here.)

I can’t wait to dig into this with you. Hit subscribe, and let’s get started.

About the Author

Nicki Krawczyk has been a professional copywriter for 20+ years, writing for clients including Hasbro, adidas, Reebok, TripAdvisor, Barnes and Noble, and plenty more.

Since 2012, she’s also been teaching people to create professional copywriting careers of their own via the Comprehensive Copywriting Academy, the #1 all-in-one online professional copywriting training program.

To learn more about the CCA and about beginning your own copywriting career, check out our free, on-demand video workshop.