Beginner Copywriting Questions And How To Use The Answers
We’ve all been there… we’ve decided the idea of writing for a living is a great idea (It is) but we don’t know where to start. There are a lot of questions, it seems overwhelming and the pursuit of money and lack of confidence in our skills seem to be at odds with each other. Luckily, I’ve answered all your beginner copywriting questions, and in this article I’m going to take it a step further and tell you what to do with the information I’ve given you.
Why Are You Doing This?
Occasionally I’ll be stuck for a topic to write about, or I won’t have the time of effort to flesh out some more complex ideas. At the moment, I have a couple of high-level articles planned for the next couple of weeks that need a bit more justice given to them than the regular forty minute session.
When this happens, I’ll trawl forums and other places to get ideas. Today I looked through a few, and there were a ton of questions.
Unfortunately, they were 90% beginner questions that I’ve already answered. That’s not why I’m writing this though; I’m writing this article because a lot of the advice being given was terrible, and it’s put me into “grumpy old man” mode.
Still, there’s no harm in re-treading old ground every now and then if it helps people.
Most Beginner Copywriting Information Falls Under A Few Basic Questions
Copywriting is a complex subject. If you consider that copywriting is simply a skill in the wider context of marketing, then it’s even more of a bottomless pit.
The beginner copywriter struggles with all this information and gets analysis paralysis – they’ve got too much information and they don’t know where to start or what to do with any of it.
However, it’s not the millions of different interesting questions that keep the beginner copywriter up at night. Instead, it tends to be a few basic questions:
- How do I learn copywriting?
- Now How do I get clients?
- How much should a beginner copywriter charge?
- What do you do when a client wants something you haven’t done before?
Other than that, a strangely common topic is, “Is my website copy ok?”
Almost universally, the answer is “no” to that question, just as an anecdotal observation. If the answer were “yes,” you probably wouldn’t ask. That said… if you can’t write a website selling yourself, you’re probably not ready to try and sell other people’s work with your copy. I’d be worried if I caught my accountant on a forum saying, “Do these accounts look right to you?”
(More on that subject another time.)
Anyway, hopefully if you had any of the questions listed above, you’ve followed the links and read the articles and come back here to find out what I’m going to talk about next.
Bonus points if you use the newly installed floating share bar to spread the word to your fellow copywriting friends.
Why I Never Asked A Beginner Copywriting Question
When I started freelance writing earning pennies on Fiverr and oDesk. I didn’t ask any “big” questions because I was looking for quick income without having to worry about what I was doing.
I didn’t think about how much I was charging; Instead I set a penny per word rate and got on with it. I didn’t create a website. Nor did I worry about branding, networking or anything else. I’d recommend doing the same if you’re a freelancer in any capacity. Just go on some sites or ask some companies around you if they want some work done for cheap. (Never work for free.)
If you do this then the beginner copywriting questions will mostly answer themselves. You’ll find out the best way to do things, what to do and what not to.
You’ll learn more from experimenting than you will from having someone tell you what to do.
Also, if you learn by doing, you’re going to get a superpower that most people who want to be business owners develop if they stop reading forums and start experimenting with real businesses.
Here’s a Business SUPERPOWER That You’ll Only Get From Experimenting
If there’s one thing that you’ll gain from experimenting that you won’t gain from reading, it’s the ability to detect – in polite terms – absolute nonsense.
Most entrepreneurial materials are geared for the absolute beginner. The guy who thinks the Facebook Ad promising a $99 business-in-a-box is all there is to it. The people who are looking for the email template that’ll make every potential customer fall into their lap.
Those entrepreneurial offers are tempting. After all, we all want a business system that’ll guarantee new clients. We all want a turnkey system that means we don’t have to do anything other than roll out of bed and push a button to make money.
If you sit and read online forums, you’d think that those sorts of unicorns were out there.
In reality, if you read the articles I’ve linked to and actually do them it’ll take you about two hours before you cast open the curtains and see the business red pill.
For instance, it’s really easy to spend hours agonising over an email about pitching your services. You could spend weeks trying to craft that perfect email. If you read, Google and talk to the average forum guru, they’ll tell you – or sell you – an email that’ll work every time. Or, they’ll “critique” your ideas with all kinds of maybes.
In reality, you should write the email in fifteen minutes. Send it out. It’ll either work or it won’t. Most likely, it’ll work sometimes and won’t work others.
Most information you read online is rubbish, and if you experiment yourself, you’ll be able to see through the nonsense within a very short period of time, and you’ll rarely be duped again.
By doing the above, you’ll learn that there aren’t any one-size-fits-all solutions, and you’ll also learn that you can just do things and see what happens.
Final Thoughts
I wasn’t going to finish the article there… but sometimes you hit a sentence which you just know you’re not going to improve upon.
If you have beginner copywriting questions, that’s fine. (In fact, I’m not as grumpy as this article reads; feel free to ask away.) However, you are going to learn more by following this rule:
Just do things and see what happens.
In the five-or-so articles I linked to, there’s more information than I had when I started. Read those and then start experimenting. Nobody is going to kill you for sending a terrible pitch. Nothing will happen.
See what happens, and learn from there. It’s the best investment you can make in becoming a freelancer of any type, and the best answer to any beginner copywriting question.