3 Ways You Can Profit from Better Copywriting Skills

Copywriting has been good to me.

I’ve been writing copy full time since 2002, and I’ve been freelancing full time since 2005.

With the exception of one particularly bad stretch that lasted about 18 months, copywriting has provided me and my family with a good living and an above-average lifestyle.

(Not that you’d know it from looking at the outside… I drive a bare-bones Honda Fit with plastic hubcaps.)

And this year looks like it will be my best year ever — even better than my previous best year, which was 2011.

Copywriting has also been good to the people I’ve personally helped to launch copywriting careers.

I can think of three people off the top of my head who were able to quit their jobs and became full-time freelance copywriters due, in part, to my help.

One of them went from waiting tables to making more than six-figures a year.

Anyway, I share this because copywriting is an extremely valuable skill to have, especially if you want to be a “mobile professional” who makes a living on his laptop and can live anywhere he wants.

With that in mind, here are 3 ways to profit from copywriting skills:

1. Collect fees.

This is the traditional freelance model. You write copy for clients and collect a fee for your work. This is the simplest way you can make money from your copywriting skills.

2. Collect royalties.

One way to amp up your earnings as a freelancer is to collect a royalty, commission, or bonus on your copywriting work. This is usually in addition to an upfront fee — so you get paid what you’d normally get, and the royalty is all upside. The most successful copywriters make a fortune on royalties.

3. Sell your own products.

You don’t have to sell clients’ products — you can sell your own instead. This usually involves creating your own information product and marketing it yourself. While this type of business model takes more time to build, the financial rewards can be much greater than freelancing alone.

All of this begs the question: How can YOU get BETTER at copywriting?

You can, of course, dig into the old copywriting classics by Hopkins, Ogilvy, Caples, etc. And I strongly recommend you do that.

-Ryan M. Healy