August 2, 2016

What Are The Most Lucrative Copywriting Niches?

Daily Writing Blog, General Thoughts

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What Are The Most Lucrative Copywriting Niches?

Once again, I was browsing various internet sites to get a topic for the day.

Reddit’s r/copywriting section had a great topic called “What types (niches) of freelance copywriting are most lucrative?”

I happen to think that there’s an assumption in there that makes the question the wrong question to ask.

Copywriting Isn’t A Business

Can you have a copywriting business? Sure. But copywriting isn’t a business. It’s a service you provide, or a product you sell (if you’re selling PLR or other template products) but it isn’t a business in itself.

I’m trying to find a great way to come around to the point, but I can’t make the bridge, so I’ll say it outright instead:

Copywriting Is A Skill, Not A Business.

When you think of yourself as “copywriter” and limit yourself to “selling your services as a copywriter,” you’re already missing out on millions of opportunities.

It’s like a blacksmith who decides to make horseshoes. Sure, he can be in the horseshoe business. Ultimately though, his skill – metalwork – has much wider implications than just selling horseshoes, or even just selling his blacksmithing services.

He could build a whole range of things, or perform a wide range of duties. That’s how you have to think about your copywriting.

Copywriting Is A Skill, Not A Business

Every product in the world needs selling. We’re in a global internet age here. Everything that is sold online needs copy, and that doesn’t include offline markets which are also text-based.

I’ve written on this site before that writers shouldn’t specialise: If you’re a writer, then your craft and skill is in arranging words. There’s really no point in specialising further for the sake of “cornering lucrative copywriting niches.”

You don’t even need to sell products.

You don’t even need to call it copywriting.

You don’t need to specialise in one thing.

What About Building Experience In The Most Lucrative Copywriting Niches?

There are jobs that you can specialise in: medical copywriting, legal copywriting. If you want to earn hundreds an hour in those fields, you might want to specialise.

For instance, I couldn’t right now jump into the medical field and sell a brand-new cutting edge diabetes treatment. I’m less competitive, therefore, than somebody who does specialise who would need less research time and less writing time.

But specialisation does come with a cost – the more you specialise, the less that added experience counts in any other field. We could all learn the basics of medical copywriting by reading through a reading list of a medical undergrad degree syllabus, but for the most part those top, top jobs are out of reach.

That said, the PhD’s who can write those highly specialised materials cannot apply those years of specialised knowledge to any other industry.

I guess my argument for this section is that it’s better to gain the easy 80% of knowledge that will get you work in most industries than it is to get that 20% specialist knowledge that gains you complete working knowledge of a single field.

Back To The Point

The previous section is only a detour to my main point.

The top copywriters aren’t what you’d call copywriters at all. They aren’t even affiliate marketers really.

Take Eben Pagan for instance. He’s a copywriter in the sense that his products are basically long form copy and info-marketing. That’s the copywriting skill. He’s an affiliate marketer in that the format he chooses to structure his business around is the online marketing environment, with its long form sales pages, video sales letters and downloadable products.

But his business is selling pretty simple information to a hungry market.

Closing Thoughts

To bring this topic together, here is my conclusion:

The most lucrative copywriting niches aren’t found in a particular niche market or particular form of copywriting.

The way to make copywriting as lucrative as possible is to think of it not as a business, but as a skill.

The great news is that copywriting is a skill can literally be used for any purpose. You can sell anything or build any business you like, and the principles of copywriting can be used to increase that business’ chance of success.

For instance, I know copywriters who have used their skills to do the following:

  • Sell gardening services
  • Start a publishing company
  • Start a full-scale marketing company
  • Build a clothing business
  • Sell products in the big three niches (health, Wealth, Relationships)
  • Become full-time “bloggers.”
  • Write books about copywriting.

You could do any of those, or more. The real key is to firstly think between the lines with any copywriting material you read. Think about how you could apply every sales letter you read to something in your own life.

The second step is to think of copywriting as a skill that’ll help you do other things – not an end in itself.

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