Last Updated June 6, 2024 by Davina Kelly
Do you want to learn how to make money copywriting? Whether you want to make some extra cash on the side or start a side hustle copywriting is a great option.
Copywriting is a versatile and rewarding profession that can be a lucrative career path for those who enjoy persuasive writing.
Most copywriters have complete autonomy over their lifestyle making it a great option if you want to work from home and set your own schedule.
In this post, you are going to learn how to make money copywriting along with the best copywriting jobs.
After reading this post, you’ll know how to become a copywriter with no experience and make money copywriting online.
This post is all about how to make money copywriting.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means we will receive a commission if you purchase through our links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.
What Is Copywriting?
You may be wondering what exactly copywriting is. I know when I first heard people talking about it I had no idea what it was lol So before we get into how to make money copywriting let’s define what it is.
Copywriting is content (copy) written for advertising and marketing purposes. It is written with the art of persuasion and the goal is to get the reader to take action.
This action could be signing up for a newsletter, clicking a link or making a purchase. The content is written to capture the consumer’s attention so if you performed an action from one of those emails the copywriter has done a great job.
You probably read copywritten content every day without realising it. All those emails you get from your favourite brands telling you about their sales are examples of copywriting.
Copywriters work across various mediums including print, digital and broadcast media. The most important skill you need to make money copywriting is crafting compelling messages that resonate with your target audience.
Now that you understand what copywriting is, let’s get into how to make money copywriting.
How To Make Money Copywriting:
1. Blog Post Writing
Blog post writing is a lucrative way to make money as a copywriter. Most businesses would love to appear at the top of Google when someone searches a keyword related to their business because it’s a great way to drive readers and potential customers to their website.
But this can only be done if the content answers the searcher’s questions. For example, if your client sells hiking boots they would want to rank first for the keyword “best hiking boots.”
As a blog post copywriter, your job is to write blog posts that are valuable, engaging and SEO-optimised. This means you need to have a basic understanding of SEO and know how to do keyword research.
If you have no idea what SEO or keywords are you can learn by taking classes on Skillshare.
Average Earning Potential: $200 – $500 per blog post
2. Sales Pages
Sales pages are a critical component of online marketing. Businesses and entrepreneurs who sell online courses, digital products, services and even physical products all need sales pages.
The sales page is designed to convince the potential customer to buy a product or service. These pages are usually between 500 – 1,000 words long. The ones that have the highest conversion rate follow this format.
- Pain Point: Talk about the audience’s problem to get their attention.
- Problem: Mention the issues associated with the pain points to show the reader you understand.
- Solution: Recommend the product or service as a solution and talk about how it solves the pain points.
- Benefits: Describe how much better things would be if the reader used the product or service.
- Proof: Show proof of the results. This can be through messages or testimonials
- CTA (call to action): Encourage the reader to take the next step such as making a purchase or signing up.
This is just an example of the format a sales page will follow. However, the success of the sales page depends on how well the copywriter understands the target audience and their ability to write persuasive language that motivates action.
To increase your chances of success you’ll have to get as much information about the clients and their customers as possible. Or you could use the product or services yourself. This will make it a lot easier because you’ll be writing based on your personal experience.
Average Earning Potential: $100 – $500+ per page
3. Website Copy
Website copy includes all the written content on a website including the homepage, about page, and products/services pages. These pages are super important in driving conversions so business owners will pay a lot of money for skilled copywriters to write copy for these pages.
Although website copy is shorter than most copywriting you still need to have a thorough understanding of the customer’s pain points. This is important because it will enable you to sprinkle messages throughout the website to encourage the reader that this product or service is best for them.
You’ll also need to understand SEO (search engine optimisation) to ensure the pages rank on Google and get traffic for the relevant keywords. For example, if the website is about beauty products you would need to include keywords relating to beauty products on each page.
Average Earning Potential: $250 – $1,000+ per page
4. Social Media Ghostwriting
Businesses understand the power of social media and are willing to pay ghostwriters thousands of dollars to create content for them.
These are usually businesses that want to maintain an active presence on social media but don’t have the time to write the content themselves. As a social media ghostwriter, you can create posts on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
To be a good social media ghostwriter you’ll need to study your client’s brand and understand their tone and style. Once you have gauged this you’ll need to use your skills to write in their tone of voice.
You’ll also need to craft posts that encourage likes, shares and comments. Creating engagement on social media can increase sales for your clients and this will enhance your value and allow you to command higher fees.
Social media ghostwriting can be a steady source of income because businesses and creators often need ongoing content to stay relevant and connected to their audience. This will mean you have a high volume of content output, so if that isn’t the way you like to work this may not be the best option for you.
Average Earning Potential: $200 – $2,500+ per month
5. Newsletter Writing
Newsletters have increased in popularity over the past few years. They are a powerful tool for maintaining contact with customers and driving repeat business. As a result, businesses are willing to pay top dollar for a good newsletter copywriter.
This job entails writing valuable content to offer information, tips or insights to the audience. And highlight any tools, products, services or upcoming events that are helpful to the reader.
The content should have the ability to increase engagement and it should be personalised. For example, it needs to include the recipient’s name. You want the newsletter to have a personal feel so you can include some storytelling and humour.
The goal is to keep readers interested and eager to open each email fostering a loyal audience for your client.
If the content is valuable the recipient will stay and eventually take action. I am subscribed to a handful of newsletters that I look forward to reading every week because they are helpful.
If you want to learn more about the power of newsletters, read here to learn how the Morning Brew went from being a newsletter to a $75 million media company.
Average Earning Potential: $250 – $750 + per newsletter
6. Email Copywriting
Email copywriting involves creating emails designed to convert recipients into customers. Those emails you received from your favourite brands like “Check out our summer sale.” or Try our new product.” are all examples of email copywriting.
Most email copywriting jobs include writing email sequences. Sequences are essentially multiple emails sent over a week or in some cases a few weeks. These sequences can range from welcome emails to sales and re-engagement emails.
The overall goal of the sequence is to build a relationship with the prospect by providing free valuable content that leads to a sale.
To be a good email copywriter you need to have the ability to build a relationship with the reader and provide value. You also need to write compelling subject lines and copy that drives action.
Average Earning Potential: The pay will vary depending on the sequence. If your client is just starting to build their email list and only requires welcome emails you can make about $200 – $400. But if they already have an email list and a proven product and want to boost sales you can make $2,500 – $5,000 for a high-quality email sequence.
7. Direct Response Copywriting
Direct response copywriting involves writing copy to communicate a product’s unique selling point. The copy is written to grab the reader’s attention and get an immediate response such as making a purchase or signing up for a service.
You may be required to write direct response copy in the form of sales letters, landing pages or adverts. This type of copywriting may sound similar to sales pages but it is different. The key difference is that direct response copywriting is focused on getting the reader to respond fast.
To have success with direct copywriting you need to be good at creating urgency and tapping into the reader’s emotions to drive quick responses. This involves understanding the prospect’s pain points and presenting a compelling offer to solve their problem.
Average Earning potential: $2,000 – $6,000 + per month
How To Become a Copywriter (With No Experience):
Now that you know how to make money copywriting, I will share the steps you need to take to become a copywriter with no experience.
Learn The Fundamentals
The first step in how to make money as a copywriter is to learn the fundamental skills. Once you learn these skills you can apply them to any type of copywriting.
To succeed as a copywriter you need to have a good level of writing skills and an understanding of marketing. This includes good grammar and the ability to write clearly and persuasively.
Also, understanding consumer behaviour, how to speak to their pain points and advertising techniques.
The best way to learn these skills is by learning from others. You can do this by taking classes on Skillshare.
Skillshare is an online learning platform that provides educational videos to help you learn new skills. The best thing is these classes are taught by people who have success in their fields so you learn from the best.
You can try it out FREE for 30 days by signing up here.
Choose a Speciality
If you want to increase your chances of making money copywriting I recommend choosing a speciality. Specialising in a specific type of copywriting can make you more attractive to clients and allow you to charge higher rates.
Take some time to consider your strengths and interests and choose an area to specialise in. Here is a recap of the best ways to make money copywriting.
- Blog post copywriting
- Sales pages
- Website copy
- Social media ghostwriting
- Newsletter copywriting
- Email copywriting
- Direct response copywriting
Being a jack of all trades is fine, but if you choose one type of copywriting and do it well you will become known as an expert in your field. This can lead to more opportunities and better pay.
Create a Portfolio
Once you have decided which type of copywriting you want to specialise in it’s time to create your portfolio. Your portfolio will showcase your best pieces of work and show off your writing style and capabilities to clients.
You may be thinking “I don’t have any clients so how can I build a portfolio?” If you haven’t done any copywriting before you create content in a few different ways.
One option is to craft hypothetical pieces of content. For example, if you want to be a sales page copywriter you can create a sales page for a product you love. This way you will know what pain points to touch on because you are the target audience.
Another option is to offer to write copy for friends, family or local businesses for free or at a discounted rate. Or you can write on platforms like Medium and make money through their partner program.
If you choose one option and do it consistently over time your writing will improve. You can create a portfolio using Canva for free and include all the pieces you have worked on along with some information about yourself.
This proactive approach will help you build a strong foundation and attract your first paying clients.
Market Your Services
Now that you have created your amazing portfolio with compelling pieces of copy it’s time to start marketing your services.
Copywriters are in high demand so if you want to make money you need to market yourself and stand out.
You can do this by creating a website this is a great place to feature your portfolio along with any testimonials you have gathered. Leverage social media platforms to advertise your services, share your insights and demonstrate your knowledge.
Another option is to network with other copywriters online. You can do this by joining online forums and Facebook groups. This can also lead to opportunities so don’t overlook it.
Choose Your Rates
When you are just getting started it can be hard to decide which rates you should go with. I have given you the average earning potential of each copywriting job in this post to give you an idea of how much you can make. But ultimately it’s up to you to choose.
You can start with the lower end and once you have worked with a few clients and built your portfolio you can increase your rates.
Land Your First Client
Landing your first client is a huge milestone and it will directly lead to you making money as a copywriter.
You can do this by signing up to freelance platforms like Upwork and Fiverr. Or you can check job boards like Problogger, Indeed and LinkedIn for opportunities
Another option is to pitch to clients directly. Do some research to identify clients you want to work with and email them.
Ensure you tailor your pitch to each client. Mention something about their business to show you have done your research, explain how your services can help them and include a copy of your portfolio. Be persistent and follow up on your pitches but don’t be too pushy.
Once you secure your first client deliver exceptional work to build a positive reputation and encourage repeat business.
There you have it. I have shown you how to make money copywriting and give you the steps you need to take to get started.
If you are ready to take the leap and get started you can sign up to Skillshare FREE for 30 days and start taking online classes.
Frequently Asked Questions About How To Make Money Copywriting
Below are answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about how to make money copywriting.
Can You Make $10000 a Month With Copywriting?
In short, yes you can make $10000 a month copywriting but it won’t happen overnight. It will take a lot of hard work, practice and consistency but it is entirely possible.
If you choose a specific type of copywriting to focus on and perfect your craft over time you will improve. Once your writing improves and you are helping your clients increase their sales your value will increase and you can charge more.
A lot of the copywriting jobs I have given in this post will pay $10,000 on the higher end. So focus on improving your skills and you can make $10000 a month copywriting.
Final Thoughts
Making money as a copywriter is a journey that requires dedication, continuous learning and strategic networking.
By understanding the various types of copywriting, honing your skills and building a strong portfolio you can position yourself for success in this dynamic field.
Start by choosing a speciality, networking with industry professionals and consistently marketing your services. With persistence and effort, you will land your first client and build a thriving copywriting career.
I hope you have found this post helpful and now know how to make money copywriting. Which type of copywriting will you try? Let me know in the comments below.
This post was all about how to make money copywriting.
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Davina Kelly
Hey! I'm Davina, the owner of Davinas Finance Corner. I'm passionate about finding ways to budget, save, earn more money and improve your life. After breaking free from payday loan debt and living paycheck to paycheck I want to share my experience to help other women improve their finances.