Here’s one of the worst things about a great thing:
Anybody can publish their ideas online and get a platform…which means anybody can shout their advice, whether they have any real knowledge or not.
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.