It’s one thing to say that we’re paid well, and another thing to actually quantify it. So let’s do that today, shall we?
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.
BIG Point of Clarity:
These rates are what you command when you find and land your own work, NOT for what you’ll find on job bidding sites like UpWork.
On those sites, clients are looking for the highest skill at the lowest price, and people have to drive down their rates to compete. It’s a win for the clients and a BIG lose for skilled copywriters. That said, you can absolutely find and land work on your own working with a proven and repeatable system.
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:
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.