A brief essay on risk and opportunity. — Monday brought an unfortunate first in my freelance business. Two of my five retainer clients, within hours of one another, both decided to adjust our contracts. The good news is that neither client fired me. However, one reduced my workload (and by extension, my pay). The other requested a one-month…

Do this before you write a single work of copy. — I wrote this advice in response to an aspiring copywriter on Reddit. I thought other people may benefit from this idea as well. Here’s the simple advice I wish someone had told me at the beginning of my copywriting career: Before you write anything, just find out what good copywriting…

If you want to earn a good living on your terms, first master a rare and valuable skill. — The entrepreneurs you see in Forbes and The Wall Street Journal are not representative of most top-earning business owners. A recent study called Capitalists in the Twenty-First Century used IRS data to break down exactly how entrepreneurs in the top 1% to .1% earn their living. …

“You can’t take the same actions as everyone else and expect to outperform.” — Howard Marks — The conversation took place on a warm evening in March 2016. I’d just resigned from my minimum wage front desk job a few weeks earlier. I was living on my last paycheck, plus some extra cash from a tax return. I didn’t know what to do next. …

The framework: Your CTA should shorten the distance to value for the customer. — I’m a freelance website copywriter working in B2B tech. That means I spend an absurd amount of time every week deciding which one to four words to include on the main button on a landing page. You don’t have to work in B2B marketing to recognize the two most common…

What I would have paid for a sweater. — It was 103 degrees the day our friend Larry told us to pack warm sweaters and long pants. “You’ll need them,” he said. Joey and I nodded politely, but we had no intention of bringing warm clothes. We were in Chiquimula, Guatemala. Larry had lived in Central America for decades…

The most meaningful hobbies always start with friction. — Most worthwhile writing advice can be distilled down to two simple points: Write often Read often The first point has never been a problem for me. I’ve written consistently from a very young age. As a child, I penned many short stories and filled dozens of notebooks with fiction and…

#2 had the greatest impact on my business. — March 2022 represents my six-year anniversary as a full-time freelance copywriter and ghostwriter. I still have a lot to learn, but I thought it would be fun (and hopefully helpful) to share a few ideas that have made the greatest positive impact on my business so far: Charge for value…

You should be charging more for your services. Here’s how to generate an instant raise. — I’ll be the first to admit that it’s scary to raise your rates with a long-standing client. Things are going well. You like the client. They like you and appreciate your work. Everything has gone smoothly so far. So, why rock the boat? Freelancers will find any excuse not to…