There are many careers that involve writing, but none that offers as clear a path to good income as copywriting Six-figure annual incomes are not uncommon in this profession.
But note: It is a profession, not a job. You learn a set of skills, and are forever improving them. You (generally) must find your own work, keeping your own “pipeline” full. And many gigs are one-time affairs.
So learning copywriting is not only a matter of learning the special kinds of wordsmithing used in the profession. You must also learn where to find engagements, how to price your services, what your contracts should contain and exclude, and how to run an independent business.
The “copy” referred to is advertising copy, writing to support sales. Now, before you curl your lip and sneer, let me point out a few facts about ad copy:
- Many famous writers, including Mark Twain and Joseph Heller, wrote ad copy.
- Almost nothing is sold today without the use of ad copy.
- The Web has opened up vast new markets, all needing good copy.
- You can learn to write ad copy through relatively brief courses from organizations that have substantial track records.
- The best copy is respectful of readers, authentic, and honest.
- People commonly pay tens to hundreds of dollars for brief ads, and hundreds to thousands for longer copy. Copy writing masters often receive thousands of dollars plus a percentage of sales for their work.
- Many copywriters expand their business by promoting their own products or those of others, using their skills to benefit their own sales.
Happily, there’s a lot of excellent free information about learning to write good copy on the Web. Some of my favorites are Copywriting-101 and its CopyBlogger.com site; AWAIonline (Michael Masterson’s company site, with excellent articles by leading copywriters); and Michel Fortin‘s blog. Through these, you’ll find many more links of interest.
Brian from CopyBlogger lists both his own course and a couple from competitors here. (Michael Masterson’s course, noted there, seems to be the most popular one around–and has the graduate testimonials to back it
