Is copywriting a high income skill?
The short answer is yes. In fact, it’s one of the most lucrative skills that a large percentage of people can reasonably aspire to learn.
Most high income skills require extensive training or unique talents to ever achieve.
Copywriting, on the other hand, is both incredibly lucrative AND incredibly accessible.
I dive into why and how in this episode.
Audio Recording: Why Copywriting Is THE Most Accessible High Income Skill
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Written Transcript: Why Copywriting Is THE Most Accessible High Income Skill
Hey guys. Welcome to Write Bites, an audio series where we discuss writing, marketing, and freelancing during one of my daily walks around the neighborhood. It is a light 97 degrees here at 4 o’clock in the afternoon in Redding, California. So that’s fun.
And the question I want to answer today is, “How lucrative is copywriting…really?” And the way I’m going to phrase this for SEO purposes is probably, “Is copywriting a high-income skill?”
But the series of questions related to it:
- Is it high income?
- Is it lucrative? How lucrative?
- Is it reliable?
- What’s the floor?
- What’s the ceiling?
And I want to preface this by saying, nothing that’s going to be said here is based on hard data; this is just based on my experience over eight years working with hundreds to thousands of other freelance writers.
Depending on how you want to gauge that metric, I have probably had about 10,000 subscribers come through my list, most of those in the last year. Every three months, we get about 100 applications to Write Minds and I get to see from a 100 different freelancers what they’re experiencing, how much money they’re making, how long they’ve been doing it—so I have a lot of first-hand experience in gauging what’s happening in the market across a broad spectrum of freelancers. That said, this is still my arbitrary take based on my own limited experience.
The first thing I want to address is, when we talk about copywriting, let’s start at the floor of copywriting, because a lot of people come into it and they question whether they can replace their current full-time income with freelance copywriting income.
Understandably, that’s usually the first thing they’re thinking about. And a lot of them think that just to accomplish that goal, they need to be some sort of unique special talent, or they think they need to stand out in the sea of thousands of copywriters. In their mind, it’s a very uphill battle. They’re contextualizing it against their own frame of reference, their own background, where you’re in a small environment within a limited pool and you can experience fairly fierce competition against a very small group of people.
So you come into the freelancing world, and you look out and you see thousands and thousands of other freelancers and you think, “Well, shit. If I was struggling to compete against a handful of people, how am I ever gonna get noticed in all this?”
What I want to explain to you here is that the freelance landscape is nothing like anything you’ve ever experienced before. If you have not been in freelancing in the past, there is virtually zero comparison between this world—this career path—and what you’ve known in the past. And in almost every case, that’s to your advantage.
To get to the specifics of that, in freelance copywriting, what makes it such a reliable career choice is that every single business on the planet needs copywriting. Every. Single. One. You want to make money online, you need copywriting; there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. You may produce the copywriting yourself, someone on your team may do it—it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to have to choose a freelancer—but you need it.
Every business needs a website. There was a brief moment in time where some misguided souls were saying, “Oh hey. Just do it all through social.” But even that trend crashed and burned pretty quickly as a lot of these social channels started making major changes to their algorithms that completely screwed over anyone who was trying to build some sort of an organic presence. So if you want to succeed, you need a website. Every. Single. Business.
Beyond that, if you really want to succeed and if you’re actually destined to succeed, you’re very likely investing in email copywriting and blog content. With every year that passes, that just increases.
So when we’re looking across the spectrum of millions and millions of businesses, they all need copywriters. It doesn’t matter how many thousands of copywriters there are out there, the demand is bottomless.
That concept does not exist in virtually any other career path. It’s a new paradigm for a career.
That’s the first thing you have to understand: the demand is literally bottomless.
So when we talk about the floor to this career, it’s not really going come down to, “Can you compete with the person next to you?” It’s going to come down to, “Can you get in front of a tiny little segment as these millions of businesses that need copywriting?”
So, what it really comes down to is:
- Are you willing to hustle and pitch?
- Are you willing to put yourself in front of a high enough volume of businesses that a percentage of them are guaranteed to need what you’re selling?
Really, pitching is the dictator of how much money you’ll make—of how lucrative copywriting will be for you.
Again, my eight years is limited experience, but I’ve worked with numerous copywriters who make several thousand dollars a month within their first six months, because when I say, “Go pitch,” they go fucking pitch.
Right now, after a bunch of filtering of my list, I have around 8,000 subscribers. When I send an email out to my subscribers and say, “Hey, pitch 20 times a week,” probably less than 100 actually go run with that. And maybe that’s you. Maybe you’re listening to this and you saw one of the many times I’ve sent it on an email and said, “Hey, send out your 20 pitches a week,” and you thought, “Okay, that sounds good,” but then you didn’t do it. And if that’s you, you can start doing that any time.
I’m going to tell you, the people who actually go do that, they’re making full-time income very, very quickly.
I work with people—and love these people—who have been doing copywriting for years and are still struggling to maintain a few grand a month. It’s not because they’re bad writers. Almost all of them are fantastic writers; that’s why they’re still sticking it out even after struggling. But the issue is they’ve never fully embraced getting out and pitching, even just 20 pitches a week.
So when we talk about the floor, for someone who is willing to go out and pitch and get in front of that volume of businesses, the floor is incredibly high. Full-time income—let’s say, $4,000 a month—is incredibly attainable. You could be a terrible writer—maybe that’s a slight exaggeration—you could be a weak writer and still make $4k a month if you’re pitching.
The pitching and the writing quality are two entirely separate things. A lot of people, when they hire you, it’s not based on your writing quality. I see writers all the time who can send me a fantastic portfolio because everything they’ve written has gone through an extremely solid editing process. And then when I work with them directly, they’re actually not nearly as good as their portfolio would suggest, but that’s okay. They can still make money, because even if I don’t rehire them, I hired them once, and there are a hundred other people willing to hire them once again. There’s a limitless number of businesses out there willing to hire you. So just by virtue of pitching and hustling, you can make a full-time income very reliably—very predictably—in this field.
Once you want to move beyond $4k a month, you need to start actually being good and taking advantage of repeat business. Then we hit $8k—if you’re actually good and you’re hustling on the pitching—we’re hitting $8k per month, pretty consistently…pretty reliably. I think that’s a completely attainable goal for most writers.
Again, moving past that, we get up to about the $15k per month mark. If you’re the type of person who is just pretty good at most things you do, is a highly competent person, you’re willing to take a little bit of risk, you’re willing to push yourself, get out of your comfort zone fairly consistently… I know a lot of great writers operating at around the $15k per month level. Now we’re getting into that top 10%—maybe even a little past that range—of writers.
At that kind of price point, you can hang out there without really being overworked. I stopped freelancing for nine months to put together my course, and then when COVID hit, I got a little bit spooked with how that was going affect my training sales, so I started saying yes to freelancing again. I was back to $15k per month, almost overnight.
Once you’re at that price point, it’s a very reliable price point to be at.
Past that is when we start to get beyond the scope of freelancing. You’re needing to start doing more consulting, more affiliate sales, more this, that or the other, evolving your business in various ways.
But for 99% of careers, if you can hit $8k per month, you’re doing great.
If you can hit $15k per month, last time I checked, that was at least top 5% income—it might even have been higher than that. But when we talk about pure yearly income, we’re talking about a very high percentile there.
So to me, when I look at those price points—and that’s measured across a lot of different people that I’ve seen with various skillsets…these aren’t all identical people—then I think it’s pretty conclusive that copywriting is a high income skill; it’s a lucrative skill; it’s a reliable skill.
If you’re willing to do the pitching, there’s a fairly high floor, and the ceiling is—it’s not an infinitely scalable business model—but it’s very easy to pivot into more scalable business models, and you’ve got a ton of great cash flow.
One student of mine—already become a good friend—is a real estate investor. He’s using copywriting to create cash flow to invest in his much more high-wealth, highly scalable business of real estate investing. So the ceiling is virtually endless in that capacity, but again, that takes it beyond the scope of freelancing.
Anyway, I hope that sheds some light on things with regard to the question, “How lucrative is copywriting?” I’ll catch ya later.
Share Your Thoughts
I hope this was helpful, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic in the comments below.
Plus, if you have a question you want answered on a future Write Bites episode, ask in the comments, and I’ll add it to the schedule.
Interesting insights. I wonder whether some copywriters hate sending cold emails and get leads, but instead count with someone focused on lead generation for specific niches and regions. Is there such a business of lead generation for copywriters
There are a ton of businesses that advertise themselves as lead gen businesses, including some that target freelancers. Some of our Write Minds members have tried several of these and none have delivered results.
I’m loving these Write Bites and I think they’re the main reason why I took the plunge and joined Write Minds (and bought your copywriting course).
Keep it up!
Awesome! I’ve been enjoying making them, and I’m really glad you’re finding them helpful. Thanks for picking up the course, and super pumped to help you grow your business in Write Minds! It’s gonna be a fun backhalf of the year!
Hi Jacob. I’m inspired by your words – thank you.
I’m gearing up to launch my copywriting business and believe I can earn at least $8K because I’m not afraid of prospecting or the hustle.
Also, I can write.
Question: do you recommend an industry niche AND a service niche? Do you have a podcast that addresses whether to niche or not to niche?
Thanks again for your content!
Hi Sarah, glad you found this helpful! That is a great question for a Write Bites episode! I’ll add it to the schedule.
Thank you for this insight, Jacob. I had decided to learn copywriting last summer and started investing in courses over the winter. But, I’ve been really overwhelmed and discouraged by the influx of new, wannabe freelancers with Covid-19. I felt like a goldfish who had just slipped into a new pond and then a tsunami came. But, this is putting some wind in my sails.
Sure thing Sarah! Don’t ever be discouraged by new freelancers. There is more than enough work to go around, and you can outpace 75% of freelancers just by being consistent. It’s a big pie!
Thank you Jacob! I love writing copy and really want to find a way to put it to use. My dream is to write copy, while sitting on the beach somewhere. A fully “remote” type of lifestyle that is supported by my own skillset that will never go out of style.
I appreciate the content, and the motivation!
Take care!
Sure thing Nick! One day they are going to invent laptop screens you can actually see in the beach sun glare, and then we can all start actually living that fantasy lol.
Hi Jacob! Thanks for the informative episode.
My question is along the same line as Sarah’s but a little more specific regarding the niches.
I’ve been a tour director and meeting planner for 10 years – it’s what I know and feel I could write intelligently about when I eventually get my ducks in a row to start my copywriting business. I’d pitch to businesses in the tourism, hospitality & event sectors.
So my question is:
Given the absolute devastation of the travel & tourism industry because of COVID, would this be a ridiculous niche to enter right now?
Bonus question: is this too general of a niche or too over saturated?
Thanks so much for any direction you can provide or future episodes addressing these questions!
Hi Jo, niche potential for writers has a lot to do with niche revenue for businesses, so yes, now would be a pretty tricky time to enter the tourism and travel niche. That said, you have the connections and the experience, so it’s totally possible you could find a few players who are laying the groundwork to explode to the front once things re-open. Whenever things are going poorly, there is someone, somewhere investing heavily to be at the front of the comeback.
The answer to both “is this niche too general” and “is this niche over-saturated” is nearly always going to be NO!
People nearly always think things are more saturated than they actually are, and even in the most saturated markets, there are always new players solving new problems and taking market share.
Hi, Jacob,
You’ve been a source of inspiration to my Copywriting bid since I met you at Jacob Ian No. B.S. Course. I am working on my portfolio now so that I can start with email copywriting. While my passion resonates with your 3 types of Copywriting. That’s Email Copywriting, Website Copywriting and Content Copywriting.
If I may ask this question, are there different areas of copywriting? If so can one concentrate in some of the areas like Information Technology Copywriting, Health and Wellness Copywriting, etc. or once you’re a copywriter, you can write for any company?
Hey Ben! You can absolutely do every type of copywriting, and you can write across multiple industries. I’m going to do an episode talking about niche (and why it’s a bit overblown for early stage copywriters) next week!
Hi Jacob! I’m new to this space but I’m learning a lot from your course and content. If the majority of one’s business revenue comes from pitching, especially in the beginning, can you talk about how you personally manage the pitching-rejection burnout cycle, and how you stay optimistic in the face of numerous rejections? I’m a writer and I’m down to try sales but it’s not my wheelhouse and my confidence in that arena is low. You’re an industry expert and while I love your “y’all can do this” battle cry, it feels like there is a large gap (read: number of rejections) to stomach on the climb to the ceiling.
Hey Megan, great question! To be honest, you really have to re-frame how you look at it in order to not get discouraged.
From a burnout perspective, you can do 20 pitches in 2-5 hours, so 5 hours a week is something anyone can manage. But from there, it’s just about perspective. If you can make it a competition with yourself or someone else based on how many pitches you send, not on the results of those pitches, you’ll do really well. If you can get yourself to realize that 5-10% success rate is a MASSIVE win for you, then you’ll do really well.
The only reason people struggle with pitching is because they aren’t used to 5% being a successful rate for something, and even if they tell themselves mentally that it is, emotionally, they don’t believe it. It’s all in the mind, so your only option for overcoming it is in the mind.
Hi Jacob!
Loved the podcast (is it officially a podcast?).
Re: pitching
Don’t you find there’s an imbalance of power in the relationship between you and the business you pitch? Like you can’t set your rules down properly because ‘I ASKED them for a job!’
And what happens when you discover a business is not what you thought it was when you pitched and they’re actually horrible clients to work with?
How do you filter bad clients before ever getting in touch?
Would love to hear your thoughts on this!
Hi Chani, great questions!
1) When you are pitching, you definitely have less leverage, and you will probably feel like you need to be a bit more flexible. You are also likely going to be in the first few years of your freelancing career during this phase, which means I’m pretty okay with you being more flexible.
Later in your career, you will start having people come to you via referrals or branding. If you build your recurring leads channel, ALL your clients will come to you this way, and YOU have the leverage when they are coming to you, rather than you going to them.
2) “Not what you thought” is pretty vague. I would recommend viewing it more as “not delivering their required deliverables” Make sure that you specify the client’s deliverables in addition to your own in either the contract or the comprehensive email you use as a makeshift contract. It’s in your best interest to frontload client deliverables as much as possible. Anything that can be delivered prior to project start should be required in order to officially start the project.
Hi Jacob,
thank you for your thorough explanation of possibilities in the realms of copy. Do you have experience for other languages for example Germany? I try to get my hands on good material to learn german copywriting but I was not able to yet. I even heard some german companies are hiring in US to translate it to German just because in Germany are not enough high quality copywriters.
Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you and best regards
Kai
Hi Kai, I don’t have experience in other languages, but I would imagine that if you can write copy in both English and German and target companies needing both, you are going to do very well for yourself.
I hope you’re not going to take what follows as a personal attack. If you’re indeed as honest as you seem to be, I’m sure you’ll understand where I’m coming from.
The problem with the assertions in this episode for me, and many like me, is that everyone seems to jump at the opportunity to tout how great it is to be a copywriter and how attainable these figures are, yet all of these people sell courses and thus make money from people who believe in the original assumption. Now, I’m not saying that making money off your course is bad. It just creates an unpleasant little paradox for people like me.
I admit, I like you Jacob. You have a very straightforward/no bullshit approach and I appreciate that. This is probably the only reason why I’m writing this here. Yet even though I want to trust you enough to throw some $$$ your way, I find it about as hard as I would find trusting a car salesman arguing that “new model X” is bullet-proof and more reliable than anything seen before. Could be. Could not be. I have to splurge if I want to find out. And this brings some early-2000-internet-marketing-snake-oil memories to mind. Considering the “you can be a copywriter too” craze started around that time too, it’s difficult to look past the red flags.
I’m not saying all this just because I fancy myself a Debbie Downer. I’d never go through the trouble to comment any of this on the blogs of other copywriters who I *know* are doing shady stuff under the table. I’m writing this here because you seem to know what it’s like to be in our shoes, and I’m hoping that, maybe, somehow, you can conjure some magic and address this in one of your future write bites.
I hope you understand that I don’t mean to offend, but only to raise some concerns, founded or unfounded as they may be.
All the best.
Hi G, first of all, don’t ever hesitate to question or disagree with anything I say. Forcing me to defend a point is either going to allow me to strengthen that point or expose a blind spot I might not have previously been aware of, both of which are great outcomes as far as I’m concerned.
To respond to your comment, you should absolutely take everything I say with a grain of salt BECAUSE I am selling copywriting training, and I am incentivized, both consciously and subconsciously, to tell you things that encourage you to choose copywriting and choose my training.
There is no way around that.
If you’ve been following my brand, you know that I fight the conscious incentives quite a bit. It would be very easy for me to tell my subscribers that they need my premium products in order to succeed. It would be very easy for me to withhold critical information frequently and say something like, “You are just one step away from finally succeeding, and when you buy my course, I give you the final piece in the puzzle that’s been holding you back.”
My sales would probably be 2-3x what they currently are if I played this game, but I don’t. I’ve published over 100,000 words of free training on this blog, and I repeatedly tell people they don’t need my products to succeed.
But that’s just conscious bias. I’m never going to intentionally mislead you, but subconsious bias is still fully in play. I meet thousands of new writers every year, and while I can point to tons of writers making tons of money in this field, it’s absolutely possible that I’m overestimating the earning potential via confirmation bias.
What I’d recommend doing is looking past my conclusions and weighing the information I’m presenting to reach those conclusions. For example, when I talk about every business needing copywriting and that creating endless demand – that’s an objective reality. Analyze facts like that and then come to your own conclusions.
In college, I was pitched on doing a door-to-door sales job over the summer. They said the average student made $8k per summer. I was broke as hell and needed to find money to pay for school and living expenses. No other options I could find had that type of upside, and while I was skeptical of some of the pitch, the concept of pitching 20 people a day and it adding up to a bunch of sales over 10 weeks made sense to me, so I went for it. There were 40 students from my college who did the job. Only 5 made $8k or more, and in hindsight, I think that average was probably exaggerated. But it didn’t matter to met. I made $16k.
So in conclusion, yes, people like me are very likely exaggerating the upside a bit, whether via malicious intent or subconscious bias, so focus on the information we provide and come to your own conclusions, knowing that at the end of the day, it’s not going to be averages, estimated floors or projected ceilings that determine your success. YOU are the biggest single variable in your own career.
Hope that helps!
Hi Jacob,
Great content. I’m trying to get into the financial copywriting niche and have wrote several emails as a portfolio piece. I’m thinking about sending these to different financial publishers but was wondering would you recommend writing unique portfolio pieces for each publisher?
This would be more targeted but would be far more time consuming which would be the problem.
Hey Alan, you usually want to start with the simplest, quickest option, and then if it doesn’t work, upgrade to the more targeted, time consuming option.
Where are episodes 1 and 2? Haha! I only got the email for this ep. Thanks Jacob! Awesome content as always!
You can find all episodes here: https://jacobmcmillen.com/category/write-bites/
Hi Jacob,
Thanks for your continued support.
I am greatly inspired.
Thank you.
Hi Jacob, thanks for these episodes, they’re very special!
WHen you say “go pitch” — excuse me for sounding so elementary, but how do I find “who” to pitch to?
Secondly, when you pitch do you just pitch general copywriting skills? Or do you pitch your dream copywriting skills; in my case this would be email copywriting?
Thank you