Hi all,
In today’s newsletter, I want to touch on something I've been preaching to you guys for a long time now (fair warning I do rant a little).
It's one of the main things you need to get right to be successful as a copywriter, however, it's one of the things that, almost without exception, copywriters struggle to do.
My copywriting roadmap
Before we get into that I want to make sure that you've all downloaded a free copy of my copywriting roadmap.
My roadmap is a concise summary of what you can expect on the road to copywriting success plus some of my most powerful copywriting tips in a handy infographic.
Here's the link to my page where you can download your copy of my roadmap:
Time to rant (just a little)
Right, with that out of the way let's get into the meat and bones of the newsletter and discuss one of the aspects of copywriting that I see most new copywriters struggling with.
Yes, it's that old chestnut of not raising your prices to find your earnings ceiling.
In the interest of keeping this real, I did some online research on Reddit to uncover real-world scenarios that relate to raising your prices as a copywriter. What I found was that indeed copywriters are still struggling with this, and the subject of “imposter syndrome” came up yet again.
Just to recap Imposter syndrome is a feeling you get, even when you're successful, that prevents you from raising your prices in line with your true worth as a writer.
We all get it, and I even still get it from time to time. But it is something to be aware of because if you get trapped in the cycle of never raising your prices for fear of doing so, you’re going to severely undervalue yourself and you're not going to be making the kind of income you should as a well-paid copywriter.
So, let's start with an example of someone suffering from Imposter syndrome and holding himself back by doing so. Here's what he had to say on Reddit:
“I'm a freelance writer with almost a year of experience. It's gone well and I've earned a solid amount of five-star reviews, a 100% job success score, and "Top-Rated Plus" status on Upwork. I get excellent feedback from clients and have become the "go-to" guy for some pretty large organizations.
I've been working on steadily raising my rates and have had success finding clients at each level, but lately I've been considering transitioning from a per-word/time-based pricing strategy to a value-based strategy.
For example, the AWAI's pricing guideline lists case studies and white papers at $1500-$10k a pop. And while I understand white papers and case studies are more valuable for organizations, I still have trouble quoting $300 for a 1,000w blog and $1,000+ for a 1,000w case study.
Is this just imposter syndrome? Am I selling myself short by not asking for the (according to AWAI) market rates? Would love to hear from a few veteran freelancers that have been through the pricing gamut.”
Here’s a classic example of imposter syndrome. This writer is obviously very good at what he does, and he just needs that extra little bit of confidence to push him over the edge - to raise his prices to where they should be.
He's clearly worked his way up the Upwork tree to the top level (which is top-rated plus), he has a 100% job success rating. There's no reason at all he should not raise his prices, and the rate he’s talking about for case studies is not unreasonable.
You can see the contradiction in what he says when he talks about having trouble asking $300 for a 1000-word blog post and $1000 for a 1000-word case study. To a certain extent, you should think of 1000 words as being 1000 words regardless of what you're writing. $1 a word is not out of the question; in fact, if I'm asked by a client to quote on a word-by-word basis, I'll be quoting a dollar a word - that's my going rate!
All I would say to this guy is quite simply just go for it you have nothing to lose.
The proof of the pudding - perfect peace of mind!
In this example, also taken from Reddit, you can clearly see the effects of having the courage to raise your prices and, in fact, this writer raised his rate by X4!!
“I was burning myself out by churning out tons of words a day at an abysmal rate. I had a bit of imposter syndrome and also took the low rate in exchange for guaranteed work. This community made me realize how underpaid I was, so I did a professional reset using advice from this sub.
In two weeks time, I've entered contracts paying me four times what I was making. That means I'm finally at the point where I can earn a nice living from writing just a bit each day. Thank you guys so much. You made me realize my services are worth more and I didn't have a sustainable business model. The reset was terrifying but it's always paying off in a big way. If anyone else is stuck with low paying clients, I urge you to take the leap. It's amazing how much better my mental health is since I did.”
What a difference having the courage to raise his rates made to this writer!
I think I'll just let this one talk for itself.
Raise your rates, raise your rates, raise your rates!
Ok, guys, take care till next time when I’ll (probably) drop some more copywriting truth bombs on you with nothing held back. /rant
(All copyrights acknowledged, credit Reddit)
