Freelance Copywriter Quick Start Guide

Are you interested in making some ​side income​ as a Copywriter?

Are you dying to ​break away from your soul-sucking 9-5​ and ​dreadful
daily commute ​to become a full-time Freelance Copywriter?

Just want to ​improve your copy skills​ so you can get better at online
marketing?

This short guide is meant to help you with two things:

● Get some basic copywriting skills

● Find your 1st clients

That’s it.

This is NOT meant to be a comprehensive guide.

It’s not ​specifically​ designed to help you become a 6-figure Copywriter

(that’s what my ​Facebook group​ and upcoming courses are for), although
it’s completely ​possible​ that you can reach $10K a month by following the
advice in this guide.
This is just to get you up and running and answer some of the questions I
keep getting.

And most of the things I’m sharing here can be done ​within the next 7
days.​​ So let’s get started.

Table of Contents
Introduction

How to Learn Copywriting - Free/Cheap Options

Read These Books First
Read These Blogs
Listen to These Podcasts
Join My Free Facebook Group
Subscribe To My FREE Breakthrough Newsletter

How to Learn Copywriting - Paid Options

Tej Dosa’s Copywriting Course

Niche Selection

Pricing Guidelines

How to Find Clients

Freelance Mindset

Action Steps

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I hand copy sales letters?
I can’t get approved on Upwork. What should I do?
Should I blog? Should I have a website?
When is your book for freelancers coming out?
How do I convince clients to work with me if I have no experience/portfolio/case
studies?
Do you think I should just work with clients locally?
Can I hire you to write or review my copy?
Can I make money as a Copywriter if I hate working with clients?
Introduction
Who the hell are you? Why should I listen to you?
I’m a Email Consultant and Copywriter.

Before I got into the online game I spent 5 years in the mortgage industry
and then 5 years in the advertising industry. I

My ad clients included everyone from non-profits to Fortune 500 brands,

including Nestle, Mattel and General Mills.

My current business is ​100% location independent​​ and I’ve been living in

Mexico on and off since February 2018.

Next year (2019), I’ll start the year off in Brazil, hit Europe in the summer
and finally Southeast Asia in the fall.

That’s really one of the best parts of copywriting (for me): ​the ability to
travel and work from home.

I also like photography, mezcal, the beach, good books and posting
bomb-ass content on social media, like:

⇒ ​The 3 Biggest Online Mega-Markets

⇒ ​10 Rules of Direct Response Copywriting

⇒ ​10 Personal Branding Lessons

⇒ ​65 Ways to Dominate the 2nd Half of 2018

⇒ ​25 Mistakes You’re Making RIGHT NOW In Your Online Business

=> ​The 80/20 of Online Business

⇒ ​What You SHOULDN’T Be Doing If Your Business Is Struggling

⇒ ​Characteristics of a “Beta Business Owner”

⇒ ​Do You DESERVE To Make More Money?

⇒ ​Freelancing, Positioning and Client Acquisition

⇒ ​How the Typical Freelancer Works

⇒ ​How to Use Cold Email to Land Clients

⇒ ​How Do I Build Confidence If I'm Just Getting Started And Have No

Clients, Case Studies, Testimonials or Results​?

⇒ ​How to Get What You Want

⇒ ​How to “Hedge” For A Greater Chance of Hitting Your Goals

⇒ ​Vision, Action and Results

⇒ ​Why You Need to Have Patience in Business

=> ​Why You Standards Are Too Fucking Low (And How to Raise Them)

Did you learn something? Great

Did I hurt your feelings? Don’t care

How to Learn Copywriting - Free/Cheap Options

Read These Books First

(these are affiliate links)
● No B.S. Direct Marketing
● Web Copy That Sells
● Cashvertising
● Crypto Copywriting Secrets
● Great Leads

Other excellent books...

Building Wealth
● How to Get Rich
● The Millionaire Fastlane
● No B.S. Wealth Attraction for Entrepreneurs

Business
● Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got
● Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million In No Time Flat
● The Personal MBA
● Zero to One

Funnels & Personal Branding

● Dotcom Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Growing Your
Company Online
● Expert Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Creating A Mass
Movement of People Who Will Pay for Your Advice

Marketing
 ● The Irresistible Offer
● Positioning

Negotiation
● Start With NO: The Negotiating Tools That The Pros Don’t Want You
To Know
● Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On
It
● Getting To Yes

Personal Development & Mindset

● How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World
● Mastery
● Million Dollar Habits
● Psycho Cybernetics
● Straight-Line Leadership
● The 50th Law
● Winning Through Intimidation

Productivity
● No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs
● The ONE Thing

Psychology
● Predictably Irrational

Networking & Relationship Building

● How to Have Confidence & Power In Dealing With People
● Never Eat Alone
● The Charisma Myth

Sales
● Pitch Anything
 ● Questions That Sell

Storytelling
● Understanding Comics

Strategy
● The 48 Laws of Power
● The 33 Strategies of War

Read These Blogs

● Copyhackers
● Growthlab
● Jamie McSloy

Listen to These Podcasts

● Ben Settle
● David Garfinkel
● Get Your Mind Right
● Smartest Guys in Marketing
● The MFCEO Project

Join My Free Facebook Group

● Underground 7 Figure Copywriting Secrets

Subscribe To My Email List for Exclusive Content

 Click Here To Join My Breakthrough Newsletter
(If you have trouble signing up, send me a DM on Twitter and I’ll add you manually)

How to Learn Copywriting - Paid Options

Tej Dosa’s Copywriting Course

If you want a low-cost option that can help you dramatically improve your
copywriting skills, I highly recommend Tej Dosa’s course, ​6 Figure
Promotions​.

Tej does a terrific job of explaining:

● How he does research

● How he THINKS about a project (super super useful!!)
● How he puts everything together to write copy

6 Figure Promotions​​ is different from a lot of copywriting courses that

focus on psychological triggers and writing copy.

This is more about organizing the entire ​process​ of creating copy with a
heavy emphasis on how to ​think​ of compelling ideas that drive sales.

I’ve used Tej’s course to update my own research process, so I’ve

personally found it very helpful.
I really like his teaching style too because he’ll explain complex concepts
simply, gives examples, and does constant recaps throughout the course.

And at only $125, it’s a great deal (personally, I’d sell it for at least $500…
probably $997).

Click Here For 6 Figure Promotions

Niche Selection
“What’s a good niche?”

The Big 3 Markets

● Health
● Wealth
● Relationships

There are some other specific niches that are good too:
● SaaS (startups at different stages)
● E-commerce (like Shopify stores)
● Personal development / self-improvement
● Survival / prepper

If you don’t know which niche you want to pursue, ​don’t worry about it.

Just find clients.

You’ll develop a niche over time or just continue as a generalist.

It’s not that big a deal (especially if you’re a beginner).

I know Copywriters making well over $100,000 a year and they don’t have
a niche.
Pricing Guidelines
● Avoid hourly pricing

● Offer a per project fee OR a monthly retainer

○ You want at least one monthly retainer (like $2,000 a month)
because it will help stabilize your income

● Don’t work for free (it’s OK for your first couple projects, but at some
point you need to charge money)
○ But wait! There’s an exception to this rule…
■ If your client is well-known in your niche (like Tony
Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk or Tim Ferriss), I’d consider
working for free because an endorsement from a big
name can explode your business

● Understand: Your client should NOT see copywriting as an

EXPENSE
○ Good clients will see copywriting as an INVESTMENT

● Work with clients who ALREADY know what Copywriting is and

ALREADY work with Copywriters
○ Don’t waste time trying to convince people to work with you
when they don’t understand WHAT you do and WHY it’s
valuable

● ALWAYS collect money ​upfront​ if possible (or 50% now, 50% before
the project is completed)
○ NEVER offer to accept payment in full at the END of a project
(Job boards like Upwork and Fiverr are exceptions)
 ■ This is how you end up getting screwed when the client
doesn’t pay

How to Find Clients

My suggestion is to pick ONE method (like cold emailing or posting organic
content) and ONE platform (like LinkedIn or Facebook) and focus on that.

My ​personal preference​ is to post organic content on my personal

Facebook profile and Facebook groups where my dream clients hang out.

If you don’t know how to write cold emails, do sales calls or create organic
content… Google it.

I’m thinking of launching a course on organic content in 2019, but that’s

way beyond the scope of this free guide.

Here are some more ideas:

Join job boards

● Upwork
● The ​Cult of Copy Job Board​ on Facebook
○ On the CoC Job Board, you can apply to jobs AND pitch your
services

Create a list of potential clients

● Whenever you’re online and see a company you’d like to work with,
add them to a spreadsheet.
○ Now you have a ​prospecting list
● Start cold emailing these companies with a brief introduction
explaining how you can help.
Get active in Facebook groups in your niche​​ (if you don’t have a niche,
just join big FB groups for online business owners like ​ClickFunnels​)
● Create high-value posts (if you’ve read the books and blogs I
recommend and listen to the podcasts, you should have a ton of
notes and ideas)
● Add value in the comments so you can position yourself as an expert
● Don't blatantly pitch your services because you'll get kicked out of the
groups

Hit up your immediate network​​ of family, friends, co-workers and

ex-employers.
● Can any of them use copy?
● Here’s a simple “copywriting project” you can do right away:
○ Sell something on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace
■ Boom - you’ve written effective copy
○ You know you’re writing decent ads when you get people
responding to your ads like this (yes, these emails are real):
Pitch To Get Rich
● I used to do 100 cold emails a month and that’s pretty easy to do -
that’s like 3 emails a day
● I know Ryan Holmer recommends cold emailing like ​30 businesses
a day,​​ so you might want to hit that number and see what happens
● If you’re messaging people on Facebook or LinkedIn, you may find
that you can do even more or less prospecting

There’s no “magic” number - you need to experiment and see what works.

Either way, you need to pitch consistently and frequently.

“Dennis, I’ve been doing this for two weeks and nothing’s happening.”

Two weeks? GTFO

If you’re not getting results, the 1st thing I’m going to do is ask you ​how
many businesses​ you’ve been pitching.

You need to turn into a ​pitching machine, ​Young Jedi.

Do this ​consistently​ until you have a full pipeline.

EVERY. FUCKING. DAY.

7 DAYS A WEEK.
If you’re broke, ​you don’t deserve days off. ​I help clients build 
relationships, drive sales and grow their business with a proven 4-ste 
If you’re not getting results, you’re probably ​not having enough
conversations.

That means:

● Emails back and forth

● Private message conversations
● Skype or phone calls

You need to actually talk to people.

Freelance Mindset
Start thinking like an entrepreneur and mini media company...

As you start working with clients, you should:

● Start thinking of your ​process​ for client acquisition

○ How do you get clients?
○ How do they pay you?
○ What’s your onboarding process? Etc.

● Start thinking of your ​workflow

○ What’s the 1st thing you do when you start working with a
client?
○ The second?
○ Third? Etc?

● Do everything possible to get ​testimonials

● The more specific, the better
 ● Leverage them to get more/better clients
● Use ​these questions

● Think about ​what you’re good at​ and ​what you enjoy
○ Are you good at email copywriting? Writing explainer video
scripts? Product descriptions?
○ Do you like working with e-commerce stores? Supplement
companies? Real estate agents?
○ What do you HATE doing? What do you suck at?

Answering these questions will help you get more focused

● Time is money - You need to work ​as fast as possible.

○ This is one of the most straightforward ways to increase your
income… finish your projects ​faster

Action Steps
If you don’t have either:

A) enough clients or
B) enough income

… you need to be pitching potential clients EVERY SINGLE DAY (last I

checked - the internet doesn’t close on the weekends)

That means you should be doing ​something​ to find clients every day:

● Applying​ to jobs on job boards

● Promoting​ yourself on social media
● Networking​ with business owners
 ● Cold emailing b​ usinesses on your prospecting list
● Adding value​ to Facebook groups and social media conversations

What do these 5 things have in common?

⇒ They’re ​revenue-generating ​activities.

This is why I don’t want you wasting time hand copying sales letters or
anything else.

*** Focus on ​daily​ marketing activities that put you in front of potential
clients as often as possible ***

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I hand copy sales letters?

No. It doesn’t work.

You should, however, build a swipe file and use templates and formulas to
speed up your production.

I can’t get approved on Upwork. What should I do?

I’ve heard Upwork isn’t accepting new Copywriters. Not a big deal - just
focus on one of the other options I’ve shared.
Should I blog? Should I have a website?
No. Not right now.

I know freelance Copywriters making $500,000…. $1 million… even $4

million dollars a year… and ​they don’t have a blog or website.

A lot of the wealthiest Copywriters fly under the radar.

They don’t have websites or blogs and they’re not active on social media.

So worry about building (and maintaining) a website later.

You don’t need it right now.

… and maybe you never will.

When is your book for freelancers coming out?

I finished a rough draft of ​“Freelance Freedom”​ on July 31st, 2018, but
the project is on hold.

Altogether, I have 3-5 courses that I’d like to launch in 2019 but
everything’s on hold while I focus on other projects.

How do I convince clients to work with me if I have no

experience/portfolio/case studies?
● Start collecting testimonials (SOCIAL PROOF)
● Explain your PROCESS in 3-5 simple steps
○ Step 1…
○ Step 2…
 ○ Step 3…

When you have a clear PROCESS and can back up your work with
SOCIAL PROOF, you’ll seem less risky in the eyes of your prospect.

Do you think I should just work with clients locally?

Why the hell would you limit yourself to a specific location when you have
an ONLINE business?

I’ve worked with clients in Malaysia, Australia, Switzerland, Canada, the

U.K. and throughout the U.S.

Location ​does not matter.

(You ​could​ specialize in local businesses if that’s your strategy, but this
doesn’t make sense for most of you)

I want to work with the BEST clients possible and I don’t care where they’re
located (and vice versa).

When in doubt, ​FOLLOW THE MONEY.

Can I hire you to write or review my copy?

Maybe.

I tend to work with established online businesses:

✓ With at least ​$30,000 in monthly revenue

✓ Who are investing in paid traffic
✓ And have an email list of at least 1,000 subscribers grown organically
So I’m selective, but feel free to reach out if you’re interested in working
together.

Click Here For More Details

Can I make money as a Copywriter if I hate working with

clients?
Sure.

But first I want you to understand the importance of ​client selection.

Most Freelance Copywriters can only handle 2-4 clients at the same time,
so you need to be picky about who you work with.

If you hate your clients, that’s your fault for picking bad clients.

I’ve been fortunate to have cool clients and that’s because I want to work
with cool people I genuinely like (I’ve done multiple projects with friends).

If you’d still rather not work with clients that’s totally fine.

And I think it’s a good idea to have personal projects (I have several).

Niche sites​ are one good option if you’d like to make money as a
Copywriter ​without​ client work.

I highly recommend the ​Pro Niche Site course​ if you want to learn how to
build long-term, cash-flowing digital assets.

It’s the course I’ve used to build my own niche sites.

UPDATE: Enrollment closed ​Sunday, Nov. 18th

I don’t expect the course to re-open until 2019.

Thanks for reading,

Dennis Demori
Email Consultant & Copywriter
BRAND BARBARIANS LLC
Twitter​ | ​Facebook

P.S. Still have questions?

I do a reader Q&A every Monday for email subscribers.

My goal is to help you get to ​$10,000+ in gross monthly revenue by

working LESS than 30 hours a week from anywhere in the world.

My free newsletter covers everything from niche selection... to

copywriting… to pricing... to cold emailing... to cultivating a success
mindset in ​ridiculous​ detail, so…

Click Here To Join My Breakthrough Newsletter 

(If you have trouble signing up, send me a DM on Twitter and I’ll add you manually)
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Last Updated: Thursday, Nov 22nd, 2018