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Module Three:

GETTING CLIENTS &

GETTING PAID
How To Immediately Get Clients And Have Them BEGGING To Pay
You $10,000 (Or More) To Write A Simple Sales Page For Their
Businesses
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This Ultimate KEY To Never Being Out of

Work or Out of Money For The Rest of
Your LIFE – No Matter Where You Are In
The World, Or What Happens In The
Economy
Copywriters aren’t ever out of work – ever.
First of all, there aren’t enough of us.
Second of all, people constantly need products and services sold and barely anybody
knows how to do it correctly.
Third of all, content is what sells thing and people only ever need MORE of it.
Take Agora Financial for example – a branch of Agora, a billion dollar international
publishing company built from direct response marketing – this branch alone draws in
around $50 million to $100 million (at least) per year.
They are putting out so many promos and are so desperate for copywriters, that they
spend a majority of their time JUST on recruitment.
So desperate are they for good copywriters, they’ve been hiring complete newbies for
their Baltimore offices, spending SIXTEEN WEEKS training them.
The training is so intense and time-consuming that many people quit (they actually have
a bell you ring when you quit…like in the Navy SEALS training) and even if the people
quit – they get paid $1,000.
They got enough money to throw $1,000 at a quitter and pay salary to brand-new
writers who’ve never written an ounce of copy in their lives and train them for 16 weeks
(and then take on another team to train directly after that)…

And They’re STILL Desperate For More Writers

Because they have so many promos coming out, they simply can’t find enough
copywriters to handle the load, even with in-house teams and freelancers (like me).
And that’s just one tiny fraction of the global machine that is Agora, and that’s just one
single publishing company out of many.
You don’t ever have to worry “is there too much competition in the copywriting space?”
the answer is “no”.
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It’s easy to think – for example – as a writer, that everybody wants to be a writer
because you hang out with writers and read about writing.
But the fact is that VERY FEW people want to be writer.
And those that DO say they want to be a writer, will never even sit down long enough to
write a novel (they’ll just talk about it), so in truth you have very little competition.
That competition narrows even more when it comes to copywriting.
Not only does barely anybody want to be a writer, and even out of those who do have
the desire to be a writer even less have the drive to do it…
But also very few of those who have the desire AND the drive to be writers, decide to be
copywriters (and many don’t even know about it or that it’s the easiest, fastest, most
effective way to make money as a writer).
Later in this module I’m going to tell you exactly how to get any client you want,
including getting in with the big-boys that will pay you $10,000 + 3% royalties (like
Agora, Boardroom, Rodale, and more).
But first, I want to drive home the fact that AS A COPYWRITER you will NEVER BE
OUT OF WORK OR MONEY.
The Reason Is Your Understanding Of Basic Human Psychology
Knowing how to persuade people through words is the ultimate job security.
I don’t care if the modern incarnation of Hitler took over the world tomorrow and society
turns into a dystopian wasteland of starving peasants and corporate overlords in Ivory
Towers (I smell a new Young Adult novel!).
I’ll be fine no matter what.
Because I’ll be able to write me myself a letter that gets me in with the government and
those Ivory tower assholes.
How?
Because I know that, in order to get anything you want, you simply find out a way to
appeal to people’s primal desires and to offer something that benefits them.
And hopefully – by now – you know that too.
I’d like to share with you something from a book you should read – which like many of
the books I will encourage you to read, is very old (this one is almost 100 years old). It’s
The Law of Success by Napoleon Hill.
You see, not only was Napoleon Hill an expert salesman, he knew how to write a good
letter.
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But, like everybody, he messes up sometimes.

So, when he wrote a book called “How to Sell Your Services” and wanted some “great
men” in the United States to write letters of endorsement for the book, he admits he was
wrong when he – in a rush – wrote the following letter…
My dear Mr. Ford:
I am just completing a manuscript for a new book entitled How to Sell Your
Services. I anticipate the sale of several hundred thousand of these books and I
believe those who purchase the book would welcome the opportunity of receiving
a message from you as the best method of marketing personal services.
Would you, therefore, be good enough to give me a few minutes of your time by
writing a brief message to be published in my book? This will be a big favor to me
personally and I know it would be appreciated by the readers of the book.
Thanking you in advance for any consideration you may care to show me, I am,
Yours Truly,
Napoleon Hill

Look at this letter – it’s all about doing Mr. Hill a FAVOR.

It’s All About “Me…Me…ME!”

“Can I have some of your time? Would you mind using your most valuable resource in
the world (your time) to do ME a PERSONAL FAVOR?”
This doesn’t work.
You don’t get jobs like this.
You don’t get help like this.
You don’t sell like this.
You don’t get ANYTHING DONE like this.
You certainly DON’T GET CLIENTS like this.
You have no idea how many messages I get online from people that are right along the
lines of this letter – “I want to do what you do, can you help me out? Can you do me a
favor?”
When people want a raise from work, they often plead logically “look what I did for the
company, look how many hours I put in” or they plead to pity and mercy, “I really need
this, it would help my family, I’d really appreciate it.”
When I see people online who are just starting to get into the start-up and
entrepreneurial spaces, and they need funding or they want people to “like” their new
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business Facebook page, or follow the on Twitter, or share their new

idea/product/whatever with friends, what do they do?
“Help me out! Please share my page! Please fund my project! Please do this for ME ME
ME”
But as copywriters – people who know that our fellow humans are inherently selfish and
only interested in the things that benefit them directly –

We Understand What ACTUALLY Gets Results

And so did Hill, when he realized his mistake and didn’t get a SINGLE response to his
letter.
He sat down at his desk again, and this time took the time to pen a proper appeal…
Hon. Thomas R. Marshall,
Vice-President of the United States
Washington, D.C.
My dear Mr. Marshall:
Would you care for the opportunity to send a message of encouragement, and
possibly a word of advice, to a few hundred thousand of your fellow men who
have failed to make their mark in the world as successfully as you have done?
I have about completed a manuscript for a book to be entitled How to Sell Your
Services. The main point made in the book is that service rendered is cause and
the pay envelope is effect; and that the latter varies in proportion to the efficiency
of the former.
The book would be incomplete without a few words of advice from a few men
who, like yourself, have come up from the bottom to enviable positions in the
world. Therefore, if you will write me of your views as to the most essential points
to be borne in mind by those who are offering personal services for sale I will
pass your message on through my book, which will insure its getting into hands
where it will d o a world of good for a class of earnest people who are struggling
to find their places in the world’s work.
I know you are a busy man, Mr. Marshall, but please bear in mind that by simply
calling in your secretary and dictating a brief letter you will be sending forth an
important message to possibly half a million people. In money this will not be
worth to you the two cent stamp that you will place on the letter, but, if estimated
from the viewpoint of the good it may do others who are less fortunate than
yourself, it may be worth the difference between success and failure to many a
worthy person who will read your message, believe in it, and be guided by it.
Very cordially yours,
- Napoleon Hill
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NOW THAT’S A LETTER THAT GETS SHIT DONE!!

Hill got a response to nearly everyone he mailed that second letter to, while no one
responded to the first.
He analyzed why…
“This analysis should start with one of the most important fundamentals of
salesmanship, namely motive. In the first letter it is obvious that the
motive is entirely one of self-interest. The letter states exactly what is
wanted, but the wording of it leaves a doubt as to WHY the request is
made or whom it is intended to benefit. Study the sentence in the second
paragraph, ‘this will be a big favor to me personally, etc.’ Now it may seem
to be a peculiar trait, but the truth is that most people will not grant
favors just to please others. If I ask you to render a service that will
benefit me, without bringing you some corresponding advantage, you will
not show much enthusiasm in granting that favor; you may refuse
altogether if you have a plausible excuse for refusing. But if I ask you to
render a service that will benefit a third person, even though the
service must be rendered through me; and if that service is of such a
nature that it is likely to reflect credit on you, the chances are that you
will render the service willingly.
We see this psychology demonstrated by the man who pitches a
dime to the beggar on the street, or perhaps refuses even the dime,
but willingly hands over a hundred or a thousand dollars to the
charity worker who is begging in the name of others.”
Do you see now why I say it doesn’t matter where you are in the world or what’s going
on?
A copywriter will never be out of work, because we can write a letter that appeals to
people’s self-interest, and come up with angles to sell him/herself, even to the
wealthiest, most powerful people on the planet, and secure positions of power for in the
process.
If you can write a letter that sells yourself in such a fashion – people will be asking how
you can write a letter FOR THEM that sells THEIR products, services, and interests.
I’d like to share a couple more examples of this from The Law of Success book to drive
home the point that you can LITERALLY get anything done, get any job you want
anywhere in the world, and even accomplish seemingly impossible contacts (even when
nobody knows who the hell you are) with good copywriting skills.
You need to have the ability to look at getting people to do things (for you) with the
angle of…
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“How Does It Benefit Them And Massage Their Primal Desires?”

The second letter Hill wrote above, he was massaging the vanity of reader.
He explained that - with just a quick dictation to his secretary, the reader was going to
touch the hearts and souls of half a million people, who would appreciate his quote, and
admire him for it (and hell – maybe that would gain him some ground in the next
election!).
In the book The Law of Success, Hill tells a story about how he was invited to speak in
front of some inmates at an Ohio penitentiary.
When he got on the stage he saw a man who he recognized as a very successful
businessman.
After his talk, he approached the man and asked why he was in jail.
Turns out, he had been sentenced for forgery for TWENTY YEARS.
Hill admired the man and didn’t think he should be in prison, so he said…

“I’ll Get You Out of Here In Less Than Sixty Days!”

The man told Hill, “I admire your spirit but question your judgement. Why, do you know
that at least twenty influential men have tried every means at their command to get me
released, without success? It can’t be done!”
Hill was so challenged by “it can’t be done” that he and his wife moved to Columbus,
Ohio to a temporary residence RIGHT next to the prison.
Then, the next day he called the governor of Ohio and explained he wanted a visit in
these exact words…
“Governor: I have come to ask you to release B--- from the Ohio
penitentiary. I have sound reason for asking his release and I hope you
will give him his freedom at once, but I have come prepared to stay until
he is released, no matter how long that may be.
During his imprisonment B--- has inaugurated a system of
correspondence instruction in the Ohio penitentiary, as you of course
know. He has influenced 1729 of the 2518 prisoners of the Ohio
penitentiary to take up courses of instruction. He has managed to beg
sufficient textbooks and lesson materials with which to keep these men at
work on their lessons, and has done this without a penny of expense to
the state of Ohio. The warden and the chaplain of the penitentiary tell me
that he has carefully observed the prison rules. Surely a man who can
influence 1729 men to turn their efforts toward self-betterment cannot be a
very bad sort of fellow.
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I have come to ask you to release B--- because I wish to place him at the
head of a prison school that will give the 160,000 inmates of the other
penitentiaries of the United States a chance to profit by his influence. I am
prepared to assume full responsibility for his conduct after his release.
That is my case, but, before you give me your answer, I want you to know
that I am not unmindful of the fact that your enemies will probably criticize
you if you release him; in fact if you release him it may cost you many
votes if you run for office again.”
Hill said that, with his fist clinched and his jaw set firmly, the governor responded…
“If that is what you want with B--- I will release him if it costs me five
thousand votes. However, before I sign the pardon I want you to see the
Clemency Board and secure its favorable recommendation. I want you
also to secure the favorable recommendation of the warden and the
chaplain of the Ohio penitentiary. You know a governor is amenable to the
Court of Public Opinion, and these gentlemen are representatives of that
Court.”
The next day Hill returned to the governor’s office accompanied by all the people the
judge required, and they signed for his release, and Hill’s friend was out of jail three
days later.
Hill has this to say about the ease at which he was able to get his friend out of jail where
other more famous (and richer) people had failed…
“Perhaps they asked the governor for his release on the ground that his parents
were prominent people, or on the ground that he was a college graduate and not
a bad sort of fellow. They failed to supply the governor of Ohio with a sufficient
motive to justify him in granting a pardon, for had this not been so he would
undoubtedly have released B--- long before I came upon the scene and asked for
his release.
Before I went to see the governor I went over all the facts. When I asked for B--
-‘s release I did so in the name of 160,000 unfortunate men and women inmates
of the prisons of the United States who would enjoy the benefits of the
correspondence school system that he had created. I said nothing about his
prominent parents. I said nothing about my friendship with him during former
years. I said nothing about his being a deserving fellow. All these matters might
have been used as sound reasons for his release, but they seemed insignificant
when compared with the bigger and sounder reason that his release would be of
help to 160,000 other people who would feel the influence of his correspondence
school system after his release.
When the governor of Ohio came to a decision I doubt not that B--- was of
secondary importance as far as his decision was concerned. The governor no
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doubt saw a possible benefit, not to B--- alone, but to 160,000 other men and
women who needed the influence that B--- could supply if released.
All difficult tasks are easily performed if one approaches them from the
right angle.
Men will grant favors that you request for the benefit of a third person when
they would not grant them if requested for your benefit.”

What have we been talking about throughout this course so far?

With headlines?
With leads?
With body copy?
With guarantees and closes?

BENEFITS TO THE READER!

Loading it up with benefits – how does it help them, how does it make all their desires
come true and their problems get solved?
There’s one more story I want to convey from Hill’s book The Law of Success (that you
MUST read) in order to drive home this point, that the angles we take in copywriting to
get somebody to take a desired action is the same principal that allows us to NEVER be
out of work no matter what is happening or where we are…
Hill had made a trip to a little town called Lumberport, West Virginia.
When he got to Clarksburg he noticed that the only train going to Lumberport had
already passed.
He didn’t want to wait for a later afternoon train so he decided to hop a quick trolley and
walk three miles.
When he got to Lumberport his shoes and pants were muddy and he was angry to say
the least.
The first person he met in town was V.L. Hornor – a cashier of the Lumberport Bank.
Hill - angry about his situation – asked, “Why do you not get that trolley line extended
from the junction over to Lumberport, so your friends can get in and out of town without
drowning in mud!”
The man replied…
“Did you see a river with high banks, at the edge of the town, as you came in? Well,
that’s the reason we have no street cars running into town. The cost of a bridge would
be about $100,000.00, and that is more than the company owning the trolley line is
willing to invest. We have been trying o ten years to get them to build a line into town.”
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Hill – exploding with anger – yelled, “Trying! How hard have you tried !?”
The man responded…
“We have offered them every inducement we could afford, such as free right of way
from the junction into the town, and free use of the streets, but that bridge is the
stumbling block. They simply will not stand the expense. Claim they cannot afford such
an expense for the small amount of revenue they would receive from the three mile
extension.”
Hill – always enjoying a challenge – asked the man to walk to the river, so they can at
least look at the spot that’s causing the inconvenience.
Hill explains what happened next…
When we got to the river I began to take inventory of everything in sight. I
observed that the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad tracks ran up and down the river
banks, on both sides of the river; that the county road crossed the river on a
rickety wooden bridge, both approaches to which were over several strands of
rail-road track, as the railroad company had its switching yards at that point.
While we were standing there a freight train blocked the crossing and several
teams stopped on both sides of the train, waiting for an opportunity to get
through. The train kept the road blocked for about twenty-five minutes.
With this combination of circumstances in mind it required but little imagination to
see that THREE DIFFERENT PARTIES were or could be interested in the
building of the bridge such as would be needed to carry the weight of a street
car.
It was obvious that the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company would be interested
in such a bridge, because that would remove the country road from their
switching tracks, and save them a possible accident on the crossing, to say
nothing of much loss of time and expense in cutting trains to allow teams to pass.
It was also obvious that the County Commissioners would be interested in the
bridge, because it would raise the county road to a better level and make it more
serviceable to the public. And, of course the street railway company was
interested in the bridge, but IT DID NOT WISH TO PAY THE ENTIRE COST.
The next day I got together a committee of townspeople, consisting of the mayor,
councilmen, and some leading citizens, and called on the Division
Superintendent of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, at Grafton. We
convinced him that it was worth one third of the cost of the bridge to get the
county road off his company’s tracks. Next we went to the Count Commissioners
and found them to be quite enthusiastic over the possibility of getting a new
bridge by paying for only one third of it. They promised to pay their one third
providing we could arrange for the other two thirds.
We then went to the president of the Traction Company that owned the trolley
line, at Fairmont, and laid before him an offer to donate all the rights of way and
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pay for two thirds of the cost of the bridge providing he would begin building the
line into town promptly. We found him receptive also.
Three weeks later a contract had been signed between the Baltimore & Ohio
Railroad Company, the Monogahela Valley Traction Company, and the County
Commissioners of Harrison County, providing for the construction of the bridge,
one third of its cost to be paid by each.

Let Me Tell You Something Right Now

There are times where I mentally kick myself in the ass for all the time I wasted as a
freelancer.
I did things the hard way, when I could have simply THOUGHT differently and took the
CORRECT ANGLES to rapidly build my business and charge massive prices for my
services.
If you, too, can look at the things you want and need – not from the perspective of how it
will benefit you – but how you can convince other people that it will BENEFIT THEM,
then whether you’re speaking in person or writing a letter (or really doing anything in life
– from trying to push an idea to making friends), you will be successful in convincing
them to work with you (or work towards something with you).
Now that you understand the principle of searching for the right angles when you’re
seeking opportunity, we can apply it to finding clients quickly and easily.

CONTACTING BUSINESSES DIRECTLY

One of the biggest questions most people just starting out in the freelance world will ask
(and it’s the same question that boggled me for years) is, “How do I get in contact with
the decision makers of a business and convince them to hire me.”
And…

Do It In A Way That Is Reliable With Predictable Results

In today’s world, we’re accustomed to hiding behind our glowing screens to drum up
business.
We rely on blogging and podcasting and emailing and we have a firm understanding
that most of the people we try to plaster our pretty faces in front of aren’t going to give a
shit because…well…the Internet is a big, distracting place.
And, if you’re trying to reach out to a business, it’s hard to know who to talk to and how
exactly to talk to them.
Do you call up the secretary and make an appointment?
Would they even care because they don’t know who you are?
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Do you try to find their email and send them an unsolicited sales message?
Will it even get to the person you want it to get to, or will some email manager/secretary
be handling that as well?
Do you walk into the lobby?
Drop a bag of business cards from a helicopter?
Hire a plane to sky-write your website in front of their office window?
I wish that I knew what I know now…when I was younger…
Right now, I’m going to tell you about an almost extinct strategy to getting your message
in front of the right people – no matter how big and how powerful they are – and nearly
100% guarantee they will read it with interest.
This is something barely anybody else knows about (and barely anybody else will think
about).
Are you ready? Because it’s mind blowing!

Fedex Express
Think about it. REALLY think about it.
Who doesn’t read a Fedex letter?
It has to be signed for (so Fedex won’t deliver it to anybody except the correct person).
It’s a priority - people often open a Fedex envelope as soon as they receive it, simply
because most people don’t receive Fedex packages regularly.
And, you can track it through the website to see if the package was delivered (so you
know if they got it or not).
A Fedex letter is almost never opened by anybody except for the person it was intended
to be opened by.
With an unsolicited phone call, you’re likely to get anger or frustration (if you even are
able to get through to the person you want to get through to). Plus, cold calls can make
you feel like dog shit.
Although cold-emailing is not a totally terrible idea (will get into that later) the likely
chance is that it is going to be opened by a secretary or email manager who will dump it
in the trash bin before your target can read it… or it will get buried behind other mail.
With postcards in the mail or regular letters, it could end up in the shredder.
But…

99.9% Of All People Will Open A Fedex Express Letter

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This is not my idea – I’m standing on the shoulders of giants here.

I’m going back go Gary Halbert and Doberman Dan – guys that built multimillion dollar
businesses from their kitchen table using the mail.

So Here’s What You Do…

Let’s say you live in a good-sized town like where I’m from in Atlanta, Georgia.
You read this book and you’re ready to start drumming up some business for yourself.
The first step? Look around you.
Open up local magazines and see what local businesses are advertising.
Watch the TV – see what local videos are advertising there.
Listen to the radio, look at the billboards, the sides of the busses, the park benches.
See what local businesses are buying ad space anywhere.
Next, start to narrow it down – which of these businesses are advertising in more than
one magazine or more than one channel?
Maybe the same business has a radio commercial you heard, a TV commercial, is in a
local magazine, and has a billboard?
Or maybe just two of those.
The thing is…

These Businesses Are Already Spending Money on Advertising?

Not only that, they’re spending money on SHITTY advertising – advertising they can’t
track and have no idea whether or not it’s working.
The first thing you need to understand is that barely any business out there (most of
them, in fact) have any real understanding of how to market themselves – they just
know they need to.
Some of them blindly purchase advertising in some spaces (sold to them by media
buying salesmen).
Or they call up a company and say, “I want to my business name on the highway…how
do I do that?”
Some of them go with local creative agencies who are more interested in impressing
themselves than getting sales.
Many of these businesses are frustrated – they don’t know if those billboards or
magazine ads are REALLY working.
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Well, you’re different from them because you’re a direct response marketer, so you
write advertisements that require people to take some kind of action that you can track.
To illustrate this, I’ll tell a story about another copywriter who used this same strategy.
First, this guy (who I can’t name – sorry) made a list of 50 to 100 people who he knew
were paying for advertising around the city he lived in.
Then, he wrote a variation of Gary Halbert’s famous…

Dollar Bill Letter

He wrote the following letter with a dollar bill tacked to the top.
He sent all the businesses he had made a list of (by the way, putting the dollar bill at the
top is a “bribe” – it uses the rule of reciprocity).
Dear Mr. Fleming,
As you can see, I’ve attached a crisp, new dollar bill to the top of this letter.
Why have I done this? Actually, there are two reasons…
1. I have something extremely important to tell you and, with all the junk we get
in the mail, I needed some way to make sure I caught your attention.
2. 2. And…since what I have to share with you is about making money, I
thought the dollar bill would be an appropriate “eye catcher”.
Here’s what it’s all about:
I’ve been following your ads in the magazines, billboards, and radio (I’ve
attached a recent one I saw) and have an idea that could easily…
Double Your Sales & Profits Within The Next 11 Months!
In f act, if I’m right about your business (and I’m pretty sure I am), I would like to
invest my own money getting this idea implemented for you as soon as
possible…so you can start making more sales and profits as fast as possible.
I’ll give you a call tomorrow to introduce myself so we can explore this idea a little
more.
I think you’re going to be very excited to discover what I have for you.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
P.S. One more thing about the dollar bill…
Feel free to do whatever you want with it. You can treat yourself to a cup of
coffee or a donut, or whatever kind of “goodies” you like…but what I hope you’ll
do is frame it.
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That way every time you look at it you can say, “that was the first dollar I ever
made because of my association with [your name].

What he did next was…

Call Each Person Up The Next Day

He knew they had received the letter (because he could track it) and proceed to vet the
businesses.
The really clever thing about this guy is that he called himself an “investor” who was
looking for new opportunities.
You don’t have to do this, obviously (I’ll provide some alternative methods in a moment),
but the reason he did this was because he was going off a specific model.
He wanted to find businesses that had a good customer list and that he knew he could
market effectively, and to essentially charge them NOTHING, while only taking a
percentage of the sales.
So, his first line of questioning was to ask these potential clients whether or not they had
recorded a customer list (numbers, names, addresses, emails…preferably ALL of that,
but hopefully at least either names/addresses or names/emails).
Most businesses don’t even think to do this and he decided not to waste his time with
those particular businesses.
But a few businesses did actually have a list, and had quite a few addresses AND
emails.
One of them was a high-end jewelry store.
So, he knew that the prospect had money and the prospect had high-end clientele who
have money (that’s also a really good sign).
If the business had a solid list, a good product, and money (they weren’t five seconds
from being bankrupt in other words) he’d ask to meet with them in person for a short,
thirty minute meeting.
So, with the jewelry store, for example, he didn’t approach as a “copywriter” or a
“marketing consultant” or “business advisor” he approached them as an “investor” who
saw “a lot of untapped potential in the business” that he wanted to “invest his own
money to make a deal happen”.
On this particular meeting, the copywriter found out that the jewelry store guy had some
new Rolexes coming in and that typically these types of watches are priced from $8,000
to $30,000, which is about a 50% markup over the dealer’s cost.
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He told the Jewelry store owner that he’d like to sell the Rolexes for an additional $500
to $2,000 more than what he was going to sell them for – and keep that $500 to $2,000
as the commission.
So, it’s essentially costing the prospect nothing and he doesn’t have to spend any
money.
He provided him with a…

100% Risk-Free Offer To Sell His Entire Inventory Of Rolex Watches

At Zero Cost And Zero Risk
He then went on to write another letter (another “dollar bill” letter) and wrote it “snob
style” for that elitist money-bags crowd, just making these Rolexes seem delicious
because anybody that owns one is THE MAN and is SUCCESSFUL.
He talked about how they’re in limited supply, they were just released…etc.
It then invited them to a private viewing of the watches.
He Fedexed these letters out to the list (only the ones who had previously purchased
high ticket items).
Then he called each one up the next day to make sure they received their invitation,
talked about how great it was going to be and so on.
So, when the event happened (at the jewelry store) the guy had his best sales people
out on the floor, and for that single promotion he was able to bring in about…

$15,000!
Let’s say he sent out 100 Fedex letters with a hundred single dollar bills attached to
each one and he ONLY got this jewelry store client.
Domestic Fedex Express letters cost about $7.50 to send, plus the $100 – that’s $850
he spent to make $15,000 (gross).
The letter was short and would have taken him less than an hour to write. The phone
call would be 15 minutes, and the in-person meeting would be 30 minutes.
Then he would have written another short letter for the prospects and called them as
well.
Let’s say, then, that he would have spent a total of 10 to 15 hours on the entire
promotion.
After the cost of the Fedex letters he’d net $14,150. Let’s say he spent 15 hours total of
work.
That’s…
 P a g e | 18

$943 Per Hour!

Not too shabby.
But that’s only one way to use this strategy.
You could very well market yourself as a marketer, and you’ll do just as well (we’ll get
into that later in this module)
For local businesses, they really do some stupid marketing.
And, you can easily put together a list and offer some outstanding stuff.
But you want to make sure they either sell high ticket items, or they move BIG volume.
You could start out with just charging them 5% or 10% royalties and – if that works out
the first time – start charging them a base fee plus royalties on future projects.
The more money you make them, the more money they should be paying you as time
goes on.
If you live in a small town, this strategy still works as you can mail out to big wigs in big
cities no matter where you are and, instead of meeting with them in person, you can
simply meet with them over Skype or phone.
I haven’t met with an actual client in person in over six years.
Sometimes I’ll meet people at networking events that turn into clients, but even then
we’re having meetings over Skype because we don’t live in the same location.
This strategy is good if you want to take a more involved, hands-on approach to finding
clients, where you also come up with a lot of marketing ideas yourself as well.
However, let’s say you’re like me and don’t really want to get off your lazy ass and make
a bunch of phone calls.
Let’s also say you don’t want to hand-hold stupid business by explaining what it is
you’re trying to do with them.
Let’s also say you don’t want to put in the busy work and logistics of crafting these
marketing campaigns yourself – you want someone else to handle that while you write
the copy.
That’s cool – that’s me in a nutshell.
If you want to work with people who are already desperate for the kind of skills you’re
providing and already know the value of good copywriting…

Companies That Already Rely On Direct Response Copywriting For

Nearly ALL Of Their Income
 P a g e | 19

Start doing research. Look for…

 Supplement companies (that sell health products like vitamins and protein
powders…etc)
 Informational product publishers (that sell self-help books or newsletters and
more – Agora would fall under this category for example)
 At-home exercise type companies (Beachbody who created P90x is a classic
example of this)
 Digital marketing companies (that develop their own products – either physical
products or digital products)
 Super affiliates (we’ll get into that in a momet)
you don’t want to waste your time with this, it’s easy to hire someone off of a website
like Upwork.com, provide them a criteria – for example…
“Find me CEOs, CMOs, and Marketing Directors who work at companies who rely on
direct marketing strategies” and they will provide you with a list of names, emails,
addresses, phone numbers.
These people already know what you offer, they NEED it, they RELY on it, they’re
DESPERATE for it, and usually their in-house teams aren’t enough as they’re always
having to grow their teams.
These are also the people who pay you more money and usually give you royalties.
Most of them rely heavily on Internet marketing to sell their products and services, so…

They Always Need Copywriters To Create Sales Pages

And, you can work with several of these companies at once – you could do a promotion
a month for $10,000 (plus royalties) for one company while also doing another
promotion in that same month for another company.
It would be entirely worth it to send these guys a real letter and give them a call the next
day.
Not only do they recognize and appreciate that initiative, they also recognize someone
who is a good copywriter.
If they see that you can write a solid letter to sell yourself, often they need no other
proof to put you on an assignment.
Later, I’ll talk about what you can expect when you work with one of these “big dogs”.
You can also use this letter approach to contact marketing agencies.
There are plenty of direct marketing agencies out there that get bogged down with work
and need to contract out.
 P a g e | 20

There are also plenty of big creative agency type firms who ALSO do direct marketing to
some extent that need to contract out as well.
Although it may be a little tougher with agencies to negotiate royalty structures, most will
not be opposed, and for those that don’t want to do it - that it’s fine.
Take some quick cash (and if it performs well they’ll want to work with you again, in
which case you say you CAN work with them again…only if you’re getting royalties from
now on).
No matter what – a Fedex Letter is a solid strategy for getting in front of people that you
want to get in front of.
And you don’t have to use a dollar bill, either, but I would recommend using something.
For example, you could put just a penny inside or a nickel or a dime.
Or, you could be clever and use a Band-Aid and say it’s going to help “repair their
business.”
I would recommend some kind of simple “trinket” just like those Hare Krishna cult
members used to hand out a simple flower to trigger that reciprocity in people (like I
talked about in Module One), that’s essentially the reasoning behind including
something like that within the letter itself.
And this letter is easily adaptable.
Here’s is a similar version I wrote for a buddy of mine who is a Real Estate agent.
There are many websites where people list their homes as “For Sale By Owner” yet
most of them (8 out of 10) end up eventually going with a Real Estate agent.
I wrote the following letter, and so far it’s getting my friend 20% more leads than he ever
got before!
Dear Eager Home Seller,
My name is Joe [lastname] and as you can see I have attached a nice, crisp
dollar bill to the top of this letter.
Why have I done this? Actually there are two reasons:
1. I have something very important to say to you and I needed some way to
make sure this letter would catch your attention.
2. And second, I’m going to tell you how you can get significantly more
money for the sale of your home (FAST), so I thought it especially
appropriate to use a dollar as an attention getting eye-catcher.
Here’s what it’s all about…
 P a g e | 21

I see that you have listed your home as “For Sale by Owner” and I believe the
reason you’ve decided to do this is very smart – why give somebody a chunk of
money from the sale of your home when you can keep it yourself?
I admire you for wanting to get the most money you possibly can out of your
home, that’s why I’d like to help you make SURE you get it.
In order to explain how I’d like to help you do that, I need to tell you a very quick
story about my friend Stephen…
You see, Stephen wanted to sell his home for top-dollar, and he needed to sell it
rather quickly.
Like you, Stephen wanted the most money out of his home that he could get,
that’s why he said, “There is no way I’m listing with an agent, because I want to
save on the commission!”
As the months dragged on, Stephen was finally able to find a buyer for his home,
which (for me) was GREAT news!
But… I regret to say that I was shocked at the price he sold it for.
…He had sold it for $40,000 LESS than market value.
When I investigated further, I found out the reasons why, which I’ll list for you
here:

 He didn’t have access to current sales data (and blindly adjusted the price
because this sales data isn’t available to the public)

 He was confused with a lot of the complicated contract terminology, and

wasn’t able to negotiate the best price.

 He wasn’t able to use software to conduct a thorough pre-qualification

investigation on the potential home buyer

 Many of the people who contacted him “low-balled” their offers, because
they figured – if Stephen was saving on commission from a Real-Estate
agent so should they.
Finally, Stephen told me that he was so tired of dealing with negotiating offers,
marketing, and how much time was dragging on (because he just wanted to
move already!), that he settled for what he could get.
Mr./Mrs.[NAME] (if you have it – use either Mr. or Mrs. If you’re sure), because I
know you’re smart and want the most money you can possibly get out of the sale
of your home – and to do it in a timely manner – I’d like to help make sure you
don’t end up like my friend Stephen.
You see, if Stephen had allowed me to be his Realtor, I could have helped him
sell his property at the correct market value of [PRICE] instead of [PRICE] (that’s
a [PRICE] difference).
 P a g e | 22

And even though I would have taken a commission, Stephen wouldn’t have had
to drag on all those months doing everything himself, and would have ended up
netting A LOT more money FASTER.
If you’ll be open minded enough to allow me the privilege of talking with you
about the sale of your home, I believe that – even with the commission I gain –
you will end up with more money in your pocket sooner, and with far less
frustration and wasted time.
May I give you a call tomorrow?
The number I have for you is [NUMBER], and I would like to give you a ring
around [TIME].
If I’m unable to get a hold of you, and you’re interested in speaking with me,
please call [NUMBER] at any time between [TIME SLOTS]. Feel free to text me
as well!
Just mention your name and say, “Hey Joe, I got your dollar bill letter, and I’m
interested in finding out how I can sell my home for the best price in the least
amount of time”
If you prefer email, contact me here [EMAIL] and put “Got your dollar bill letter” in
the subject line.
I’m hoping we can connect soon,
- [REAL BLUE INK HAND SIGNATURE]
P.S: My name is Joe [lastname] and, together with my brother [NAME], we are
The [lastname] Team. We have been operating in [AREA] for over [TIME] and
have helped a lot of sellers just like you get the money you deserve FAST.
Here are what some people have said about us recently…
“Love Joe! He has a calming presence that doesn’t talk over your head, and
makes sure to explain the process every step of the way. He works so hard and
got us exactly what we wanted in selling our home!” – [NAME, LOCATION]
“If you’re ever in the market to buy or sell, Joseph is your guy. He educated us on
the entire process. At any time of day, he was free (my husband works in HVAC
so his schedule is unpredictable) but Joe worked with us and our crazy
schedules. He is fantastic at communicating and patient. He worked around the
clock for us and we closed just after one month! Thanks Joe!” –[NAME,
LOCATION]
[NOTE – ONE MORE TESTIMONIAL – SHORT]
P.P.S: You can do whatever you would like with the dollar, but I would suggest
you keep it safe until you can add it to the HUGE closing amount you’ll get when
you choose to allow me the privilege of selling your home.
 P a g e | 23

P.P.P.S: If you would like to find more out about my brother and I, just go to
[WEBSITE/PROFILE] to learn more.

LinkedIn
I shunned Linkedin for a really long time.
Sure, I had a bio up or whatever, but I never updated and I got messages saying “So
and so viewed your profile” or “so and so wants to connect” and I just ignored them.
Seemed like a waste of time to me.
But it’s not…in fact I’m consistently surprised at how responsive people on LinkedIn
really are.
The best strategy I’ve found for LinkedIn is to invest in LinkedIn Sales Navigator (which
costs about $75 a month).
Then you want to start connecting with the right people.

There Are Two Ways You Can Do This

The first way is by yourself (which can get annoying).
For example, let’s say you want to start getting connected with movers and shakers who
run publishing companies…
People who run the marketing for major law firms (they need A LOT of copywriting and
do a lot of direct response)…
People who run the marketing for hospitals/medical oriented fields (again, they do a lot
of direct response marketing and need a lot of copywriting done)…
And maybe you want to toss non-profits in there too (they do a ton of fund raising and
the best way to do that is by sending out letters/sales pages online and through mail
that convince people to pay money).
So, let’s say you start with publishers.
You just type in “publisher” or “advisory” or “newsletter” into LinkedIn Sales Navigator
and you’ll get tons of results.
Then you want to click “connect” with people who are CEOs, CMOs, Director of
Marketing, Marketing Strategist, and more.
This can take a really long time though, sometimes there are pages and pages of
hundreds and hundreds of results.
So why not pay somebody to do it for you?
This isn’t expensive, either.
 P a g e | 24

You can pay somebody to make lead lists for you and “connect” with people on LinkedIn
for you according to your perimeters (like the ones I set above).
Then you can either give them a template message, such as…
Hello [NAME],
Thanks for connecting with me. My name is Joe Awesomeface and blah blah blah
Which will go into your sales pitch.
Of course, the guy you hire will just insert the right name into that field and manually
send messages to all the leads that connect back with you (and you’ll honestly be
surprised at how many do…even if they don’t know you).
That’s a spray-and-pray method.
But, if you’re going after the big dogs (like Agora, Rodale, Boardroom) or some other
big-sized publishing companies or businesses that rely off direct marketing…
Guys that you KNOW need copywriters…
That you KNOW pay royalties…
That you KNOW have zero problem with throwing $10,000 at a sales page even if
they’ve never worked with you before…
If you’re going for these guys you need to be…

More Specific!
You’ll want to study their business a bit.
Find as much information as you can about them.
Write them a message that really connects with them on a personal level.
Demonstrate that you put in the work to know who they are and what their business
does and how your skills can benefit them.
You’ll also want to include an example or two.
Don’t have an example?

MAKE ONE UP!

The first ever job I got at a magazine was because of an article I wrote and sent them
as an example.
I wrote the article specifically in the style (I did my research) and it was on a subject I
knew the staff (and the readers) would be interested in.
They hired me based on that.
 P a g e | 25

They simply ASSUMED the article was published (it wasn’t).

But of course, working for a magazine was very bad pay.
If you’re really serious about working with a big-dog company and you’ve got your eyes
and heart set on working with a select few companies that you know will pay you well
and appreciate your talents…then you should write one or two sales pages on the
subjects they deal in and submit them as examples.
Is if a supplement company?
Create a fake supplement brand name and write a sales page for it and use that as an
example.

Don’t Be Scared To Be Clever

When Doberman Dan wanted to work with Gary Halbert, he wrote a fake article.
Because they were both from the same town, he wrote an article about “Dan and Gary
Make Business History – [Town] Residents SHOCKED” (or something like that) and
created a really witty, funny article with references to certain places and businesses in
that town that Gary Halbert would recognize.
Then, he had it formatted to look exactly like that town’s newspaper.
He then framed it and sent it to Gary Halbert.
Gary loved it so much he called up Doberman Dan, they went down to Costa Rica to
work on a project, and they did – indeed – make business history.
At this time, Gary was a multi-millionaire and VERY busy. Doberman Dan was a small.
All it took was a well-crafted letter to develop a partnership and get through all the
gatekeepers.

Think About It!

If you wanted to work with Joe Moneybags at Big Fancy Company, you could connect
with him on LinkedIn and then write a blog about…

“Joe Moneybags and Bob Buckwheat CRUSH Sales In July, With This
Unusual Partnership”
Put your pitch in story form – as if you two are already working together.
Then send Joe Moneybags a message on Linkedin with the title, “Did you see this news
article written about you?”
In the body you could say, “Hey Joe, you don’t know me, but I thought it was important
to see this very sensational sounding news article that was written about you…is it
true?”
 P a g e | 26

Remember, you need to think creatively…

You Have To Find “The Angle”

Now let’s say some of the people you REALLY want to get in contact with don’t respond
to your Linkedin.
That’s not a big deal, because maybe it got buried, maybe they hire a secretary to
handle that stuff (and the secretary didn’t think it was important enough because she
doesn’t have a clue).
Get together a list of leads you found on LinkedIn that DID NOT respond to you, then
hire a researcher on Upwork to find their personal emails (or business email), phone
number, and address (at the business or home if possible).
Trust me, for like…$50 these guys can do it and THEY’RE GREAT – they’re like your
own little personal detectives.
They’ll typically send you a spreadsheet with all that information.
First you’ll want to email them.
If they don’t respond after about two tries…do what we talked about earlier and…

SEND THEM A FEDEX LETTER!

And call them the next day.
If it doesn’t work out after that – move onto the next.
But, honestly, it probably will work out because you’re taking a kind of initiative and
approach barely anybody else takes.
SIDE NOTE: If you want to get a job, using this Fedex approach (and
LinkedIn approach) with writing a sales page for yourself also works. I’ve
seen guys use this approach to get jobs at agencies, or pretty much in any
field, and they had employers ringing their phones off the hook and
leaving messages like, “I just got your letter and I can tell you’re
somebody I want to work with, please , PLEASE give me a call back”).
What works – works.

Cold Emailing
Cold email is not a stupid strategy, but before I even talk about it I’ll say that you should
use it in a combination of things.
Don’t think that, just because someone doesn’t answer your first two or three emails,
that you should just drop them as a prospect.
Email gets buried easily.
 P a g e | 27

Sometimes people open it, read a message, decide they’ll respond later and forget.
Sometimes it’s their secretary handling everything.
Sometimes it’ll go into junk mail – whatever.
If that happens – go to the Fedex strategy.
Fedex letter can be your FIRST approach, or your FINAL approach, either way doesn’t
matter. It just depends on what you want to try first.
Perhaps you’d like to go the soft approach first and save Fedex as your final big push.
With cold emailing you’ll want to do it much in the same way you did with Linkedin.
I recommend hiring somebody, providing them a list of perimeters you’re searching for,
and having them “scrape” together a list for you of 100, 200, 300 people.
Now, you can use the spray and pray method here as well.
And if you simply Google “cold email tools” or “cold email software” plenty of results will
come up. Do your own research on that.
Personally, I haven’t used one of these because I like to laser-target my prospects and
create highly customized messages.
But, let’s say even if I’m doing “spray and pray” I prefer to use my actual business Gmail
account because I find that you’re much more likely to end up in people’s inboxes.
What I do is use a really useful tool called Bananatag (it’s a Chrome browser extension
that works with Gmail).
What Bananatag lets you do is…

Track The Emails You Send Directly From Gmail

So, you can see when your prospect opened the email and also see if they downloaded
the attachment or clicked the link you sent inside (also when they did it, if they re-
opened it later or re-clicked it later, where they were when they opened it, what browser
they were using, and whether they did it on mobile or desktop or tablet).
This is useful for cold emailing because you are never in the dark about whether or not
your prospects have opened or clicked (and if they’re opening more than once, you
know they’re really interested).
It’s also useful for everyday correspondence, simply because if I’m working with a client
I like to know when they opened my work and looked at it.
If they take two or three days to get back to me –I don’t want to be wondering if they got
the email or not.
So, let’s say your researcher scraped together a list of 100 prospects.
 P a g e | 28

You could send 10 to 20 emails out a day Monday – Thursday (usually not good to send
on Friday because people are gearing up for the weekend).
You could just copy/paste your message, fill in their name, and knock that out in the
morning over a cup of coffee.
But, again, if you’re REALLY serious about working with a few select people, I would
take the time to craft hyper-specific emails to them.
By rule of thumb, for somebody that opened, but didn’t respond, follow up with them two
or three more times.
If you still don’t get a response – send them the FedEx letter.
But many times, you’ll find that you’re already on the hook with one to three clients and
starting a project, so you can put those people who didn’t get back to you on a list for
later.
If people get back to you and say “I’m interested, but not right now I’ll get back with you
later” or something, make sure you don’t lose their email.
Stay organized!
You need to follow up with people who said “later”.

Attending Seminars / Conferences / Networking

Events
I’m an introvert with ADHD, which I’ve come to find is a pretty regularly occurring
diagnoses in this field of work (independent entrepreneurs, copywriters…we seemed to
have failed at “normal” life and succeeded very well at becoming rich from the confines
of our basements).
As an “introvert” I found that being around a lot of people for even short periods of time
drains me of energy.
I have to go back into my “cave” in order to recuperate.
However, even with that introversion and the fact that being around a lot of people is
often a struggle, I have found that seminars and networking events are…

AMAZING Places To Get Great Clients!

For example, a seminar happened recently in Bangkok put on by Affiliate World
Conferences (Affiliateworldconferences.com).
They do one in Europe and one in Asia every year.
 P a g e | 29

The people who put this on are associated with Stack That Money Forum (STM.com -
one of the best and most exclusive forums/information resources for current and
aspiring super affiliates).

What Is A Super Affiliate?

These are online marketers who essentially market OTHER people’s products.
Let’s say Joe’s Hemorrhoid Cream is a best-seller and they have an affiliate program –
if you market their product and sell it, they’ll give you 75% of the sale.
It’s great for the business, because other people are spending the time and cost of
marketing the produts (something they don’t have to do) and they get money anyway.
It’s great for the affiliates, because they don’t have to spend time creating a product or
messing with any shipping/handling/warehousing/manufacturing logistics, and get to
make hefty money anyway.
They can also market many different products at once, building up big streams of
passive income.
Nearly every major business and product out there (including porn sites for example)
have some kind of affiliate program.
I know people who get $1 to $20 per name whenever someone signs up to even APPLY
for a credit card through their marketing efforts (even if they get rejected).
So what makes a super affiliate?
Some guys can get SO GOOD at affiliate marketing – where they are marketing several
products and have many funnels set up and even big teams of people to helping them –
that they can pull in, quite literally…

$100,000 Days…In Their Sleep

That’s not a made-up number. It’s not super typical, either, but there are more people
than you would think who are lazing around on beaches, pulling in $100,000 on
products they don’t have to create or manage.
They’re just creating ads and driving traffic.
On average, a super affiliate will make $500,000 or so a year (about $1500 per day) up
to $7 million a month (I’ve seen it!)
And how do they get so many people signing up for offers, buying products, and more?
The good ones (the super affiliates) don’t just pay for ads and send traffic to the offer
(for example, pay for an ad, the user clicks the affiliate link, and they are sent straight to
Joe’s Hemorrhoid Cream website, and the affiliate just HOPES they buy once they get
there).
 P a g e | 30

No, they create their own sales pages, write their own ads, create their own email lists
and offers…etc.
In other words – they RELY ON COPYWRITING.
In fact, they’re DESPERATE for good copywriting, because they have so many funnels
and are developing so many new offers and doing so many new projects every day,
they never have enough content creators.
Not only that, but many people at the Affiliate World Asia conference I went to were also
entrepreneurs who market their products/services/businesses primarily online.
They, of course, also need good copywriting.
And – not only that – but many digital marketing agencies were there who – as you
might guess – need to contract out (or hire full time) good copywriters.

This Conference Was A Candy Store For Any Copywriter Looking For
Clients
I paid $700 to go to this conference.
Then I created a website JUST for the conference.
The website was super simple. It was just one page (using Clickfunnels.com) and the
page was selling myself and my services.
It said, for example, “It was great seeing you at Affiliate World Asia – here’s what I can
do for you”.
Then I had some business cards printed up with the URL to that page (as well as email
and phone of course).
On the card I put a reminder “We met in Bangkok at Affiliate World Asia, and I write
sales pages that generate multi-millions of dollars like clockwork. Go here [LINK] to
learn more”.
I did that because I was sure that – throughout the networking event – so many names
and business cars were going to get thrown around, they’d forget who’s who, so I made
it very clear, wrote myself a short sales page, and included testimonials and examples
(not necessary, but if you have them – then why not?)
So, sure, I had to take a flight down to Bangkok, drop $700 on the conference, pay for a
hotel room, food, drinks, and other stuff… but I got two clients out of it and they gave
me….

$20,000!
And they continually hire me for more work.
 P a g e | 31

Not only that, many of these guys stayed there past the conference just to hang out.
A group of us got together and went down to Koh Samui Island where we talked
business some more.
And – these seminars are typically GREAT places to learn stuff.
Another method at these seminars besides just going around and talking people, is to
make sure you participate in the Q&A sessions of the speakers.
So, come up with an interesting question (that will produce a valuable answer) and start
by announcing yourself…

“My Name is William – I’m a High-Converting Direct Response

Copywriter. My question is…”
You’ll be amazed at how many people seek you out after the talk is over to pick your
brain and say they need your services.
If you just look around for seminars and conferences that concentrate on business
building, digital marketing, entrepreneurship, and so on, you should at least be
attending a few of these every year.
The other thing you should do – especially if you live in a big city – is hook up with your
local Chamber of Commerce.
When I first started out as a freelancer this is one of the first things I did.
I was a clueless kid in his early 20s and I got my first ever consistent client by paying
$400 for a one-year membership to my local Chamber of Commerce and just regularly
attending the meetings.
I’m sure there are many business organizations and networking groups in your town!

Make Your Face Known!

And, look, if you’re like me and it’s not really your “bag” to spend a lot of time wining,
dining, talking, and chattering – no problem!
I’d say just reserve your time for a couple of BIG conferences every year where you are
interested in attending to LEARN and getting clients is a side effect.
If you’re like me, you like to do things from the comfort of your home.
This is called a “kitchen table business”, but I still think that getting out there and
networking with people every once in a while is important (especially when you first
start).

Online Groups and Communities

 P a g e | 32

I had never really considered this option until recently and now I feel terrible because if I
had done simple things like participating in niche groups and online communities in the
past, I would have been able to…

Sky-Rocket My Business FAST At Barely Any Cost

The person who got me into this idea was Mitch Miller (of Opposed Media), who
charges WAY more than I do for a sales page ($25,000).
But that’s only because he has a consulting business now and hates doing copy for
MOST people.
So he charges a lot of money to do it to weed people out.
He knows that anybody who wants to pay his $25,000 price is somebody he wants to
work with.
So how did Mitch – a dropout like me – get to that point?

Facebook Groups!
You see, if you search on Facebook for entrepreneur groups, online marketer groups,
and so on, you’re going to find plenty of “open” and “closed” groups.
If you simply go in there on a regular basis and start providing value – people will start
seeking you out and asking to work with you.
If people post up questions like, “Why isn’t my landing page making sales?” you – as a
copywriter – will be able to explain to them why it’s not making sales (because it’s badly
written) and to “Contact me if you’d like to work together on it”.
If you post up advice every day as well, that’s good too.
If you do really well for a client, create a case study and post it up for them to see.

Build Value And They Will Come!

Now, even though there are plenty of business-oriented Facebook groups that are free
to join that you SHOULD JOIN and participate in, the best and most valuable ones in
my opinion are ones that require you to pay in order to join.
People that are spending money to be a part of something are significantly more
devoted.
And, even though there are plenty out there, the number one paid Facebook group I
recommend you to be a part of is…

Digital Marketer Engage

In Module Two – when we were looking over headlines, leads, and body copy for sales
pages - I showed you a consulting letter from Ryan Deiss.
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Well, Ryan Deiss is the one who created Digital Marketer.

And if you go to lab.digitalmarketer.com and sign up for around $38 a month, you not
only get access to TONS of free marketing classes (this is invaluable, honestly, they
have some of the best training and insight on the web – it’s so good I find myself going
back to these training materials over and over again, it’s like being part of one of the
world’s top universities for marketing for just $40 a month)…
You will also get to be part of their Digital Marketer Engage Facebook group.
This group – that has tons of active participants (including Ryan Deiss himself) - is filled
with (among newbies) some of the world’s biggest online businesses.
At the time of this writing, one guy who owns a multi-million dollar marketing agency just
posted up he needs to…

Hire A Copywriter!
Another international publishing company posted they need to hire a copywriter.
You can also go to Jobs.digitalmarkter.com to see listings).
There are plenty of businesses who are also always posting up questions about their
landing pages/sales pages/headlines/sales videos and more and you can simply help
them.
The goal here isn’t to shout “Hire me hire me!” that’s actually not only annoying and
stupid, it goes against the rules of most of these Facebook groups.
The goal is to PROVIDE VALUE.
In providing value, people begin to look at you as an authority and ask you questions,
they’ll add you on Facebook, send you private messages, want to setup meetings on
Skype.
All you need to do is be helpful and know what you’re talking about.
You can “soft sell” them by simply saying something like, “Feel free to PM me if you
have any more questions – happy to help” after you’ve explained something to them.
If you have a blog, you can write content regularly that offers value, and share it with
those Facebook groups as well.
Something I REALLY like to do is what is called an “AMA”…

Ask Me Anything!
AMA stands for “Ask Me Anything”.
A Help Thread is where you offer to help people out on their projects for free.
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I recently had nothing to do – for example – and was just drinking beer, so I decided to
make a little video of myself with my phone and say “Hey, I’m here drinking beer, my
name is William, I’m a copywriter and that generates millions of dollars – I’d like to help
out anybody today with their landing pages and sales pages. If you’ve crafted a sales
page recently, post a link below, and I’ll give you my thoughts and advice!”
I posed that on Digital Marketer Engage Facebook group.
I had over 100 responses, and I did my best to help everyone.
Low and behold, many people began messaging me asking hey they can hire me.
I ended up working with one guy on a tiny little project where I wrote his sales page for
$2,500 plus 5% royalties (only took me an afternoon).
And he has come back to me over and over again to have me take care of projects for
him.
This is the online introverts’ answer to networking meetings, and they’re just as effective
in my opinion.
But, there are many more resources to use this strategy than just Facebook.

Reddit.Com – The Front Page Of The Internet

On several occasions I have posted AMAs on r/entrepreneur.
For example, “I’m a high school dropout turned digital nomad currently living in
Thailand, I make my living as a copywriter AMA!’
On the three of these I’ve done, I had over 700 “upvotes”, ended up on the first page of
r/entrepreneur, had over 500 comments, and over three hundred direct messages (that
was on EACH one).
This also started getting shared on Facebook groups.
The hilarious thing is that – after writing these two or three AMAs – I will introduce
myself to a new contact here in Chiang Mai, and people will go “Oh! You did that post
on Reddit!” it’s kind of been blowing my mind.
I was even having a beer with an online product creator (who deals with men’s health
products) who started talking to me about this Reddit AMA some guy in Thailand was
doing and how much “controversy” it was stirring up.
The more he talked about… the more I realized it was MY AMA! After that we started
working together on a few projects.
Other times I’ve had entrepreneurs private message me and we go out and get coffee
and talk business strategy.
It’s been very fulfilling.
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On my first one, I made over…

$10,000 Simply Off Consulting!

And I wasn’t even planning to make money, I was just bored!
I had many businesses message me and ask me to take a look at their online setup and
sales pages.
I would throw some advice their way and then say – if they wanted – I could re-write
their sales page and give them a six-month marketing plan for $2000.
It was no skin off my back, usually I was able to re-write the pages in an afternoon while
chilling out on my balcony, and just type of a quick bullet-pointed list of what they
needed to do next to drive more qualified traffic to their offer.
If you’re not a marketing expert (like me) and you just want to stick with the basics
(copywriting) no problem!
Talk about copywriting then.
For example, I wrote a post on r/entrepreneur talking about why NO small business
should ever hire a creative agency, but should only do direct response style marketing.

It Got Over 100 Upvotes

And it got posted on the r/advertising subreddit.
It caused such a shit storm of controversy, that it kept getting shared in other locations
(such as Facebook groups)…polarization is powerful.
That resulted in plenty of direct messages and in fact one guy was so impressed with
my viewpoint, he hired me and paid me $6,000 (plus royalties) to help him get his six
figure residential cleaning business into the commercial market.
If you’re on Linkedin – by the way – I would also recommend posting Linkedin posts that
provide value as well (you could just copy what’s on your block or what you wrote on a
Reddit post for example).
Next up we have…

Forums!
Here are the forums I recommend being a part of…
 Stack That Money
 Warrior Forum
 Wicked Fire
 Self-Starters Weekly Tips Forum
 Digital Point Forum
 P a g e | 36

 Problogger.com
You use the same rules as you would use in Facebook groups and on Reddit – you’re
not there to say “look at me go to my website, read my blog!” blah blah blah.
You’re there to provide value, do AMAs, show case studies of projects that you did for
clients that worked really well, and also (of course) ask questions.
This will simply and naturally build your authority and reputation and people will begin
to…

Contact you And Ask How They Can Work With You
You can always use the soft-sell “Message me if you have anymore questions – I’m
here to help” and so on.
Also, with forums, you have your “signature” which is a great place to write some
compelling copy about your website and a small call to action to check it out.
But that’s ALL the blatant promotion you should be doing.
Being active in groups and forums and Reddit is simple, easy, and effective and it’s
something you can do in the mornings over a cup of coffee.

Content Creation
By content creation I’m referring to… blogging, podcasting, making YouTube videos,
guest-blogging, guest-podcasting (for example being interviewed) and so on.
Although I know how to do all this stuff, because I’ve done it for clients, I’ve never done
much myself.
I’ve been interviewed on podcasts before, but every time they asked me to give my
website out so people can find me and ask questions… I never had one to give.
That’s right folks – I don’t have a website (at the time of this writing) and I haven’t had
one for the better part of the last four years.

That May Shock Many Of You

Because well…
Well…
You HAVE to have a website! Right?
But, when you’re good at contacting people directly, you need not the site of the web.
But, as time has rolled on, as I’ve been asked repeatedly over and over again what it is
that I do and how I do it and…
 P a g e | 37

“Can you teach me and help me get started?!”

… I’ve decided…it’s time.
I’m writing this book, so of course I’m creating a website at the same time to both sell it
and start blogging, doing videos, and more.
It’s time for me to stop being a selfish little prick who hides in my Thai condo making
money in the shadows and start contributing to people – yay.
Now, if you want to go ahead and start doing that NOW, I totally recommend it.
Here’s my view on content creation –

It Ain’t Going To Hurt You, But You Don’t Need To Spend All Your
Time On It
You see, I was always too busy working on client projects to build a website –my roster
was FULL.
To blog every day and stuff like that would have just taken away from my paying
projects.
But, the value of it is inherent.
Without going into an SEO lesson and how to build a blog (that’s not what this book is
about). Here are my quick-and dirty tips for blogging…
o Built a website with Wordpress (get a good theme off
www.themeforest.net). Download the YOAST SEO plugin.

o Use SEMRush.com tool to search for a list of HIGH SEARCH / LOW

COMPETITION keywords (in other words you want something that is
searched for pretty often, but that doesn’t have a ton of other sites using it
– that improves your chances of ranking for it).

o Make a list of keywords at the beginning of each week – let’s say three.
For example, “What is direct response?”, “Atlanta copywriter”, and more
(or whatever town you’re in).

o Write three informative blogs around those keywords (include the keyword
once in the title, once in the meta description, at least three or four times
in the blog itself…etc, the YOAST SEO plugin will guide you).
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There you go, this will help you start building organic traffic.
But, to be honest, If I were you, I’d be less interested in ranking high on search engines
than I would be for…

Creating Content For Niche Online Communities

Facebook groups, forums, Linkedin, Reddit. Provide value.
That way, you don’t have to worry about SEO and you can provide more value.
That traffic is going to be higher quality and it builds more authority.
Do the basics you need to do for SEO, but don’t get a bug up your ass about it. I know
so many people who start blogging and become obsessed with their rankings and
improving their SEO.

It’s A Waste Of Time

Just do two or three blogs a week and maybe video re-caps of those blogs as well (to
get your YouTube channel popping… also video will help for posting it in those
communities).
As far as podcasting, I’ve never actually hosted a podcast, but I know that being
interviewed on podcasts has helped.
I have been able to put “If you want to learn more about me” on sales pages and just
put the podcast up.

Your Main Goal With Content Creation…

It’s all about creating authority.
But, this is a LONG-TERM strategy – bear that in mind.
It will only serve to backup TRUST in you when people contact you, but it won’t be
instant.
If you want instant, you need to contact businesses and prospects directly.
If you want semi-instant (as in many people interested in working with you) you need to
help people in online communities and do AMAs and post case studies and so on.

Freelance Job Board Websites

There are only two I’m going to recommend – Upwork.com and Freelancer.com. An
honorable mention is Guru.com.
Now, if you were to ask me just three years ago…

“William How Do You Get Jobs As A Copywriter?”

 P a g e | 39

I would have said Elance.com (which is now Upwork.com).

And I would have recommended it as my NUMBER ONE way to get clients fast.
So, why am I listing this as the final strategy?
Because I think it’s easier to get higher quality clients using the other methods I’ve gone
over in this module.

I Wish I Knew That Three…Four…Five…Six…SEVEN Years Ago

Because, for the better part of my freelance career, these types of websites were my
bread and butter.
And, because they made me consistent money…
And because there are diamonds in the ruff…
And because I still have VERY high quality clients whom I work with on a regular basis
that had originally hired me on Elance…
And because I KNOW I have peers who own businesses and hire copywriters and other
professionals off of Upwork for cheap (just to vet them) and end up paying them tens of
thousands of dollars per project later…
I think it’s important that you don’t dismiss these sources and that you know how to
make them actually work for you.
You see, when I worked on Elance (I’ll just start calling it Upwork now) I was able to get
jobs like clockwork when everybody else was talking about how it was a scam and it
wasn’t worth it and people were only there to pay cheap, bargain basement prices for
top talent (they’re still saying that now and they’re still wrong).
On a typical month I’d pull in $3,000 (on average) and on a good month I’d pull in
between $5,000 and $7,000.
My typical price for a sales page was between $300 and $700.
I would also ghostwrite a lot of books like the one you’re reading right now, except a lot
shorter….25,000 to 60,000 words.
They would either be used as an incentive to opt-in to an offer “Get this free report on
how to make a lot of money being a clown!” or they would be the actual informational
product being sold.
I would ghostwrite these books for between $1,500 to $5,000
Or I would write whitepapers for $300 to $600 or a “batch” of emails…let’s say 10 to 45
emails for an email campaign for $200 to $500.

My How Times Have Changed (For Me)

 P a g e | 40

I would also write short little explainer video scripts for $75 to $100 and I would get a lot
of those.
They were 30 second to 90 second scripts that people would use for short videos that
explain and sell products.
But the thing is, those typically took me no more than 1.5 hours to write.
The other thing about the projects I got off these sites is that the clients typically knew
what they wanted already.
They had detailed outlines…references for me to look at….so I didn’t have to do days
and days (to months) of digging.
There was also no legal department or other red tape for me to deal with.
Compare that with the TWO MONTHS it takes me to complete one sales page for
Agora.
I’m the one that fishes around for the good idea.
I’m the one that has to do all the research to back it up (like you saw my process with
that Lithium promo in Module Two).
I’m the one who has to write it (and then go through several revisions with the team).
On Upwork, when I got a client that wanted me to write a sales page for their product or
service they just gave me all the information I needed and I was able to pound out a
2,000 to 7,000 word sales page in one or two afternoons for $300 to $700.
So… maybe four or five hours of work total, which isn’t shabby, ESPECIALLY if you’re
just starting out and you want to work from home as quickly as possible.
I was able to pull in three to five of those projects a week… but I was also lazy, so I
didn’t work as much as I could.
I also got burned out really quick because, with my ADD, not only do I get very
distracted, it’s incredibly difficult for me to transfer from one thing to another to “switch
gears”.
So I may have done one of those short scripts in one hour and, realistically, could have
gone on to do a sales page for another client… but instead I’d have to stop for the day,
and maybe even take the next day off.
Other people would have been able to handle more work and make more money.

But Here’s Where I Went REALLY Wrong

Even though I was very good at easily at predictably getting jobs, and even though I got
a lot of clients that asked me back to work with them over and over again…I didn’t really
ever ask how much these pages were pulling in.
 P a g e | 41

I didn’t think about it.

I Hadn’t Read The Old Masters Yet

Like Gary Halbert – for example.
I had not yet realized the enormous earning potential of a good sales letter.
If I had gone back and made a point to say…
“So, how did that sales page perform?” and they said it brought in “$300,000” or
something…
I obviously could have said, “Great! Want to work on some new ideas for your new
project? I’m confident I can pull in similar numbers – can we do $5,000 base pay this
time and royalties?”
But I didn’t do that because…

I Was STUPID
Don’t be stupid like I was.
A lot of the people needing copywriting done on Upwork are super affiliates like the
ones I talked about earlier or they run very successful online companies that sell
informational products and other services.
They’re always on a look out for finding new and reliable talent that they don’t have to
micromanage.
Now that I am one of those people who looks for talent and now that I know other
people who run big online companies that are looking for talent…
I know that many of them go on Upwork, hire three, four, or five different people for a
couple of projects at a low price, find the best one, and end up working with them long
term…

Paying Them More And More Money

So, Upwork and Freelancer are good resources – especially if you’re just starting out.
And, they can potentially make you BIG contacts.
Not only that, they’re very safe.
Because they operate off an escrow payment system, you don’t start the project until
the client pays you 100% up-front, but it goes into escrow.
The client cannot just cancel the project and take their money back, or receive the work
and decide they don’t like and decide not to pay you.
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Instead, they would have to file a complaint with Upwork arbitration, and the staff at
Upwork would look at all the communication you two had back and forth in the “work
room”, see that you completed the work, and award the money to you.
So it’s VERY safe for you.
And it’s safe for the client.
If you don’t deliver the work, the client doesn’t have to worry about you taking a 50% up-
front payment – for example – and disappearing to Mexico with it.
Most transactions go down without a hitch – you deliver the work, the client releases the
payment, and a day or two later it’s in your bank account.
And, the other advantage, is the client gives you ratings.
After every project I would just make sure to remind the client, “Hey, if you liked working
together, don’t forget to leave me 5 stars and a review”.
I was able to use the reviews on my Upwork profile as “social proof” to other clients
outside of Upwork.

How To Pull In The Big Bucks On Upwork And Freelancer

1. Don’t get a free account – get a paid account. On Upwork, for example, every
time you bid on a job it costs “connects” if you want to SPONSOR your job it
costs even more connects. Sponsor and bid on as many as you can, when you
run out of connects, buy more. Don’t be stingy – you’re there to get jobs, do what
you have to do to improve your chances of getting them.

2. Don’t obsess too much over your profile and how it’s written – write a nice
one, include some portfolio pieces, but most people are only going to be looking
at the proposal you send them and the work you attach to that proposal, they’re
usually not going to click away to look at your actual profile.

3. Don’t have a portfolio or any work to show? Make one up. Write some mock
sales pages for some mock products. When you see a job posted for a
product/service you don’t have a portfolio piece for – make a mental note and
create one for it.

4. RULE: Bid on jobs EVERY SINGLE DAY. The biggest problem I see with
people is they will get on Upwork, bid on a bunch of jobs, then sit back and wait
for three, four, or five days, and then say it doesn’t work. Wrong – Wrong –
WRONG. I would suggest bidding on jobs twice a day – once in the morning and
once in the afternoon around 3PM EST. This way you can bid on jobs that were
posted from people in UK/Australia and also from people that were posted in the
 P a g e | 43

US on the East Coast and West Coast not too long after they posted them (being
first to bid counts). Bid on jobs EVEN when you have plenty of work going
on! That way, when you’re finished with one project, you have another project on
the way. And remember, you can always reject projects if you’re too busy.
Sometimes it can take three days to maybe a couple of weeks for someone to
award you a job, bidding every day makes certain you have a pipeline. This is
how you get consistent work.

5. RULE: Only bid on jobs posted within the last 24 hours. This is part of the
reason you bid every day – you want to bid on jobs posted within a 24 hour
period only, and you want to bid on jobs roughly every 24 hours. People who
don’t make good money on Upwork are people who are bidding on jobs that are
two days to two weeks old – well no wonder! What I like to do is set my filters
(will talk about that in a second) and then look at the jobs posted within the last
24 hours, when I see one that I’m interested in – instead of bidding on it right
away – I just add it to my “Watch List”. Once I have browsed through all the jobs
posted within that 24 hour period, I go to my “Watch List” and begin to bid on
those jobs. I typically bid on between 2 and 5 jobs a day. That means, I’m not
bidding on EVERY job I see! I bid on jobs that had good prices, that I felt
confident that I could do.

6. RULE: Filter your searches. Here’s what I’d do – I’d click the writing section. I’d
filter search results to only show jobs posted within the last 24 hours that are
FIXED PRICE (I’ll explain that in a moment). And, I filtered jobs to ONLY show
jobs that are at least $100 and above. If it’s below $100 I wasn’t interested. If I
was loaded down with plenty of work, I would look at jobs $500 and above. If I
was light on work, I would broaden my price range.

7. RULE: ONLY bid on Fixed Price jobs! Do you trust me? I mean… do you really
trust me? Good. DON’T DO IT. Copywriters don’t work per hour (nobody in a
creative field should work per hour). You are not paid based on how long
something takes you to do – you are paid based on your ability to do it. Clients
who charge per hour are more interested in micromanaging you (because they
don’t understand what the fuck you do) than simply letting you work the way you
work. I can’t quantify into hourly pay, the time I go to ride my motorcycle in the
mountains because I need to clear my head, or when I plop down in front of the
TV to clear my head, or when I’m pacing the floor with a bottle of whiskey and a
pack of cigarettes to come up with the perfect idea. To anybody watching I’m
NOT working… but I am. My walks in the park, my lifting sessions at the gym,
whatever girl I happen to be screwing at the time I’M WORKING. You’re in a
creative field, it’s impossible to really tell when you’re working and when you’re
not. I spend VERY LITTLE time writing, and TONS of time researching and
 P a g e | 44

pacing the floor. Which one of those am I going to charge for? DON’T DO IT. Let
me tell drive this home by telling a story…
There is an old story of a boilermaker who was hired to fix a huge steamship
boiler system that was not working well.
After listening to the engineer’s description of the problems and asking a few
questions, he went to the boiler room. He looked at the maze of twisting pipes,
listened to the thump of the boiler and the hiss of the escaping steam for a few
minutes, and felt some pipes with his hands. Then he hummed softly to himself,
reached into his overalls and took out a small hammer, and tapped a bright red
valve one time. Immediately, the entire system began working perfectly, and the
boilermaker went home.
When the steamship owner received a bill for one thousand dollars, he became
outraged and complained that the boilermaker had only been in the engine room
for fifteen minutes and requested an itemized bill. So the boilermaker sent him a
bill that reads as follows:
For tapping the valve: $.50
For knowing where to tap: $999.50
TOTAL: $1,000.00”

Your job as a copywriter is to charge for “knowing where to tap” not how long it
takes you to tap. So, when you’re looking at jobs you need to consider – how
long would it take me to do this?
Also factor in communication time with your client and revisions.
So, if a sales page for a product is fairly clear-cut, and you should be able to
write about 4,000 words and get it done, and all in all it’ll take you between 5 to 8
hours to complete (by the way, over time you’ll get a “feel” for this), and his
budget is between $200 and $500 on Upwork, then you can charge for example
$350, which comes out to about $44 per hour.
“But William, what if he just keeps asking for revisions and the hours drag on?”
There are two ways to handle this – you can say, “You have three revisions, after
that any additional revisions will cost $X”. That will deter them from going past
that.
However, I found that – no matter what – nearly ALL my clients were pretty
ethical and sometimes, some changes DID need to happen after the third round
of revisions, but they were typically very small.
I also found that, when my clients were worried about a revision cap, they tended
to take longer to get back to me (to make sure they caught all changes the first
one or two times).
 P a g e | 45

So, I would tell them, “I offer unlimited revisions within reason. Typically, I’ve
found that most clients don’t require more than three revisions. However, I’m
willing to do revisions past that as long as the project is moving forward toward a
definite goal. If the revisions become too numerous and are not moving toward a
definite goal, I reserve the right to conclude the project and receive payment for
work rendered”.
I’ll tell you this – for five years – I only found myself with a handful of clients that
did the “lots of little changes” thing. Meaning, they would say “just a little change
here” over and over again, with no explanation.
After a few times I recognized these clients BEFORE I started working with them
and would simply avoid them.
Most people you work with are going to be alright.
NOTE: I’ve learned something very important. Whenever you come
across a job ad where the potential client is saying things like “I just
need to jazz up my copy” or “Make it pop!” or “Need to clean it up!”
and other terms that you CAN’T QUANTIFY (what the hell does
“make it pop” mean?) DO NOT work with them. If they start to throw
that shit out in communication – prepare yourself for a client that
will kill you with lots of “little” changes without ever being able to
properly explain what they want. Best course of action is to avoid
people who can’t explain what they actually need done.
8. RULE: Avoid bidding on jobs that have over 20 proposals already (unless
it’s REALLY good!)

9. RULE: Bid somewhere between the average bid and the high bid. You will be
able to see the “average bid” on a project and the “high bid” on a project, you
usually want to bid somewhere in the middle. But, let’s say there are only two
proposals so far…then you look at the low bid and the high bid, and you KNOW
for a fact what each of those two people are bidding. Now, this isn’t a rule that
can’t be broken. There’s been plenty of times I’ve seen a REALLY high average
bid and a REALLY HIGH bid, and I thought to myself…this project isn’t that
difficult, I have nothing going on right now, and I could finish this in a few hours,
I’ll low-ball it this time. But, if I got plenty going on, no lack of jobs, I’ll usually stay
with this rule.

10. RULE: NEVER Copy/Paste your proposals. Now we arrive at THE NUMBER
ONE REASON people don’t get jobs on Upwork or Freelancer and it’s because
they’re too lazy to write a good proposal – from scratch – for every job they bid
 P a g e | 46

on each day. Instead, they write some generic, “Dear Sir/Madam/Hiring Manager
– I went to this college, got this degree, and do this work!”.
You should know by now – after reading through this course – that this is a bad
way to go about convincing people to hire you for anything and that a good letter
makes all the difference.
And, if you can write a good proposal, you will get jobs plain and simple.
Here, again, as with so many other applicable areas of dealing with everyday life,
your skills as a copywriter come into play.
By the time you’re ready to start bidding on your jobs for the day, you should
have added jobs you’re interested in to your Watch List using the previously-
mentioned criteria.
Now you want to actually READ THE JOB ADS CAREFULLY.
Crazy… I know.
When you read the job ads, pick anything out that you can. Did they mention
their name? Their product?
Their service?
Their location?
Did they provide links to a website?
Did they provide an attachment?
If they DIDN’T provide their name or location, but provided a link to a website –
go to the website, what’s on it?
Is there an “About” section where they have a bio?
If so, read it, type their name into Google can you find their Linkedin?
Sometimes you’re going to have more information than others, but even a little
information goes a long way.
Then, when you write your proposal, you want to IMMEDIATELY mention any of
that information you can.
For example…
Hey Joe!
Just checked out JoesCoffee.com. How’s it going up there in Denver? I’m having
a cup of coffee right now, but I wish it was your house blend - that looks
delicious. I can tell you take immense pride in what you do.
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Listen, I read through what you’re struggling with, I looked over your ad, and I
feel I have a very firm grasp of what you need and I believe I can help you
achieve your goals.
I’ve attached two recent examples of work, but in order to really get an idea of
how we can work together and make this a huge success for your unique brand,
I’d need to have a chat with you.
I know you’ve got a lot of very good (and eager) candidates clamoring for your
attention on here, so I’m willing to work around your schedule.
Just let me know a time that works for you – we can do phone or Skype.
I’m looking forward to speaking with you Joe!
Talk soon,
- William
This RIGHT HERE will set you apart from literally 90% of everyone else bidding on those
jobs. I mean that.
I hire people on Upwork all the time now and I do the most obvious things to weed
people out.
For example, I will explicitly put in my job ad my name at the beginning and, at the very
end of the ad, I’ll put something like “Put KAKOW in the beginning of your proposal so I
know you read the whole thing”.
Like clockwork….if I get 10 proposals, nine of them will not have the “KAKOW” at the top
(which means they didn’t read it) and they will start out “Dear Hiring Manager” or “Dear
Sir/Madam” and proceed to robotically make a laundry list of qualifications without
referring to any of the needs I had in my job ad.
The first person who puts “KAKOW” AND refers to me by name, gets my attention.
Everybody else is immediately rejected – I don’t even look at their work.
If you write a proposal that refers explicitly to details in their job ad, mention in a
conversational manor any “telling” information they put in there
(location/name/whatever), explain how working together will benefit them, and issue a
call to action to set a time for a chat, then you will do better than all the other people out
there on the Internet complaining about how Upwork is a scam.
And you know what?
All those clueless people complaining that Upwork doesn’t work– let them.
Because of what you know, you’ll easily be in the top 1% of the site in 3 months while
they just give up.
Don’t get discouraged with Upwork.
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If you choose this as your beginning strategy. It will take a week or two of bidding on
jobs every day to start getting traction and it will take getting a couple of jobs and a
couple of reviews to start getting awarded jobs more regularly.
I can say this as a matter of fact – you can, within a couple of months of following my
advice on Upwork, begin making $3,000 to $6,000 a month in supplemental income (if
that’s what you want) or in primary income.
I think for a lot of people, making $3,000 to $6,000 a month working from home as a
writer seems like a far-off distant dream, but it’s not. You just have to be consistent and
bid on jobs the way I’ve explained here.
But, I wouldn’t spend a lot of time here…I’d move up to charging MUCH higher prices
and experimenting with the other methods of getting clients that I explained previously
throughout this section.

The Four Stages of Freelancing

1. LITERARY WHORE
Everybody has to start out at this stage.
This is the trenches.
At this stage, you’re pretty much the equivalent of a prostitute, hanging out on the street
corner with a legal pad and a pen saying, “I’ll write whatever you want for a few bucks,
baby”.
You’re doing all the dirty work – all the freaky stuff – you don’t care what it is…penis pill
emails, ghostwriting a book about sexual meditation, writing a sales page for an asshole
bleaching product.

You’ll Do It…For A Price.

This is where you’ll charge $150 to $500 for your first sales pages.
You won’t know which subjects you excel at writing about/for and which ones you don’t.
You may experiment with sales pages, emails, ghostwriting, white papers, website
copy, and just about everything under the sun.
You won’t have a solid understanding of how to “feel” clients out and know who is good
to work with and who isn’t. You just need some money, and you’re willing to WRITE for
it.

Don’t Shun This Stage

It’s a good stage to be at and learn at.
You get some good work in your portfolio.
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You start to build up some good connections.

You learn how to handle clients.
You build confidence.
You start to learn what habits work best for you – working in the morning, at night, in the
afternoon, at home, at a coffee shop…etc.
You start to get an understanding of your limits as well.
For example, you tire out after 5… instead of your pushing yourself, you need to hang it
up for the day.
Maybe you WISH you could write in the morning, but notice you’re too distracted or
tired, then STOP trying and work when you know you work best…etc.
However, you shouldn’t make the mistakes that I made, and that’s to remain a literary
prostitute for too long.
If I had taken my craft more seriously and learned what I’ve taught you in this course
about a year into my freelance career, I would have been commanding the prices I am
now… within my first year of freelancing. I know it for a fact.
But I was clueless.
I didn’t read the right books.
I didn’t study the old masters.
I didn’t know the potential of what I had.
I would recommend you stay at this level for 6 months to a year and no more.
After that, you need to DRAMATICALLY increase your prices and start demanding
higher prices, which will bring you higher quality clients.

2. THE BROTHEL WORKER

This is where you’re “off the streets” and you’re in a steady gig.
This effectively puts you in the top 40% of copywriters.
You’re not the BEST, but you’re not a bottom-feeding street whore either.
At this level, you could realistically work at an agency (ugh, but I can’t even imagine
doing that).
You could realistically get an in-house job with a direct-marketing company like Agora
as well, starting out as a Junior Copywriter.
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Or, if you choose to continue freelancing (which is what I would recommend) at this
point you’ve got a roster of revolving clients who hire you regularly to write promotions
and campaigns for them and.
You’ve long since stopped having to look so hard for work, because it comes pretty
regularly without you really trying.
And, when new people do contact you, it’s typically from reference.

You’re Consistently Pulling In $2,000 to $5,000 Per Project

You’re likely working with companies who create products and services and market
them digitally and are churning out launches several times a quarter.
You may be also working with some mid-tier publishing companies as well.
Perhaps you’ve started to negotiate royalties as your sales pages begin proving
effective on a regular basis.
This is a pretty comfortable place to be, and when you begin getting royalties, over time
it can build up to a low to mid six figure income within a year and a half (with money just
coming in during your sleep).
Even though I’m writing at the next level, I still take jobs within this price range
sometimes when I have down-time.
The jobs are usually pretty quick, not too hard, not too research-intensive, and can
usually get knocked out in one to three days.

3. THE HIGH CLASS ESCORT

This is where you’re working with nine-figure companies all the way up to billion dollar
enterprises – ones that have been built on direct response marketing.
They could be publishing companies like Rodale, Agora, Phillips, and Boardroom or
GIANT supplement companies and more.
Doing these jobs are not easy, and even the multi-million dollar copywriter John Carlton
said

“Doing Those Jobs Can Take Years Off Your Life”.

You typically are the one fishing around for ideas.
For example, with Agora financial, I’m looking at the news, I’m reading all their
newsletters as well, seeing how I can come up with a new idea, some unique angle
that’s going to sell more subscriptions or products they have.
And you’ll have to pitch four, five, six, seven ideas before they accept one.
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Then… you have to do a MASSIVE amount of research to make that idea work,
because they have a legal department that will review your sales page and they require
that every single claim or reference you make be backed up by reliable sources (which
you have to provide).
From start to finish, it’s not uncommon for a single sales page to take two months.
Now, I don’t want to scare you away from this because, truth be told, I prefer working
like this.
Remember I told you my ADD makes it hard for me to “switch gears” on projects or go
from one project to another quickly?

This Type Of Work Allows You To Focus On Just ONE THING

Not two or three sales pages in a month like I used to do – but just ONE.
I personally really like that.
I also don’t want you to think you’re going to be working crazy hours for two months
straight.
I find that, some days, when I’m really focused, I will sit at my computer working from
sun-up to sun-down, all the way to midnight.
But I’m not hating the work – I’m doing research, searching for angles, and more. I
really love doing research because I like to learn.
Or, I’m writing and getting really into it and just don’t want to get torn away.
But, I might also choose not to work the next day, or the day after that (even though it’s
a week day).
Maybe I decide to take a trip to the beach and relax because my brain is getting too
flustered.
Because the deadlines for these are pretty long (these guys know it can take you three
weeks to formulate your idea –they’re fine with that) I don’t have that “monkey” on my
back for hyper-quick turnaround so I don’t feel rushed.
I feel like I can work at my own pace, take my time, and relax when I need to, which is
also really ideal for me.
Your goal with these sales pages for these types of company is to…

Beat The Control

The control is the currently best-performing sales page.
If you can beat the control to knock it off it’s top slot – you’ll make TONS of money and
be a hero…until somebody knocks YOU out of the top spot.
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However, these guys know that not every promotion can be a winner, so they’re not
going to blame you.
They recognize hard work.
They recognize good research.
Even better they will work with you (these guys are expert level copywriters themselves)
to tweak and polish your promotion.
If you went into your first job with these guys as a pretty good copywriter, by your third
job you’ll be a grizzled .1% top pro.
You will be charging…

$10,000 to $25,000 Base-Fee Per Promotion Plus 2% to 5% Royalties

On Gross Sales (Minus Refunds)
If you do five to six promotions a year (which is pretty normal) you’ll be making between
$60,000 and $150,000 a year only on base fees.
Even “run of the mill” promotions will bring in between $350,000 to $1 million, so if your
royalty is 3% that’s an extra $10,500 to $30,000 for A SINGLE sales page…and that
money comes in your sleep.
So, if you have six of those floating around every year (many of which can run for years,
by the way) your royalties start to stack up.
So writing six sales pages in a year could realistically bring in $120,000 to $300,000 a
year for even mediocre sales.
Every once in a while you’ll hit a jack pot and then you’ll feel REALLY good about
yourself.
There was a copywriter in 2016 at Agora that wrote a control, it drew in…

$27 MILLION
He got five percent of that… so he made $1,350,000 off royalties for ONE sales page.
You can see how – after just one year, two years, three years – those royalties stack up
over time.
And, because you’re a freelancer, you don’t have to just stick with one company.
You could do a project for Agora for example….hell you could do 6 promos a year for
Agora, and at the same time take on a project for a big super affiliate or two that you
met at a conference and make twice the money.

Remember When I Told You That Copywriters Are Never Out Of

Work?
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And let’s touch very quickly on Super Affiliates or big product creators who market
online primarily.
If you get in with them and write for their big online launches, you can charge the same
price points as you would for a company like Agora – they have that money and they
don’t mind spending it.
In the online product-launch space (and super affiliate space) it’s not uncommon for a
good sales page to bring in $11 MILLION in just two, three, four WEEKS!
And, in that space, when someone launches a product that brings in millions of dollars
online EVERYBODY is watching – they ALL want to know who wrote the damn thing.

That’s When You Get To Famous Level

That’s when you’ve got twenty multi-millionaires beating down your door begging you to
let them pay you $25,000 or more (plus royalties) each, and you’re able to pick and
choose them.
The best feeling is when you start rejecting more offers than you take…and every time
you reject someone they come back throwing MORE money in your face.

4. The Mamasan
Here in Thailand the “mother” of a whore house is the Mamasan – the brothel OWNER.
I never want to get to this level, because I’m lazy.
I don’t like handling logistics. Iwant to do the least amount of work for the most money
possible.
But some of you out there reading this right now may decide you want to start your own
company under an agency model and I know a few people who have done it.
These guys build teams of copywriters (either that already know how to do copywriting,
or that they train up from scratch), and they start marketing businesses using direct
response techniques.
But their teams consist of online advertising buyers, analytics experts, designers, and
more. And, that’s a lot to keep up with.
It’s not my bag and I’ve never looked into how to do it, so I can’t help you much on this
one.

Types of Payment Structures I Use

NOTE: These are some of my common price points so you can both see what I
charge for certain things and the ways in which I charge. These prices could vary
in any direction for you.
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 $2,000 - $5,000 for a Quickie – These types of jobs typically come from a guy
that knows a guy…or maybe someone who knows me from a Facebook group,
someone off Reddit, or someone off a forum. They know what they need, they
like my work, and they just need a quick sales page (or VSL script) this is not
something that takes me a long time. I’m not doing an ungodly amount of
research (all the information I need is already there – they have it), I’m not
brainstorming for a major angle or concept (I write straight-forward copy) and
many people who write copy for awhile would be able to knock a project like this
out in an afternoon. My default on these jobs is 100% up-front (because it
usually comes from a reference who knows I’m reliable or from my
reputation gained in online forums…etc). However, if they’re “iffy” about
that I will say 75% up-front and 25% on completion. If they’re still iffy and I
like their project enough to still work with them, I will charge 50% up-front
and 50% upon completion. Anything else is off the table.

 $10,000 to $25,000 + 3% to 5% royalties on gross (minus refunds) with a

large company on a big promotion – This is like I talked about before, this is a
lot of work for those big companies and requires a lot of research and even travel
and interviewing people…etc. If the cost is lower ($10,000) then the royalty is
higher (5%) if the up-front cost is more (up to $25,000 for example) then the
royalties are typically lower (2% or 3%). Typically with these big companies, the
base fee is paid 50% up-front direct deposit, 50% when the editor gives it
the green light and it’s ready to be sent to legal. Royalties are typically paid
out per quarter.

 Base Fee Plus Royalties AFTER Base Fee Is Made Back – I’ve done this a
few times for businesses I had a vested interest in working with, but maybe they
didn’t have the capital to afford a BIG payment. For example, I worked with a
cleaning company in NYC that wanted to move into commercial cleaning. I said
I’d write the direct mail piece, the online sales page, and the Facebook ads
because I REALLY liked this guy and his company. So I told him $6,000 up front
and 5% royalties. BUT, he only starts paying me royalties after he makes
that $6,000 back in sales. This is a good way to overcome some objections
from people. If they’re really on the fence, you may just want to go ahead and
say “You only pay me royalties AFTER you’ve made the money back that you
paid me” that puts your money where your mouth is.

 Gross Royalties Only – If you’re just starting out and you know the business
has a good, well-priced product, has a good list and established marketing
practices, then you may want to just forgo any fee and do the work for free in
exchange for 5% of the royalties. I did this once, for example with a guy that had
over 200,000 people on his email list – he SUCKED at marketing to them, and
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they were ALL buyers (they had bought something from him previously). He was
making money, but he had the potential to make a WHOLE bunch more. I saw a
great opportunity and told him I’d write a couple of emails that send his list to a
sales page I wrote and I’ll do it for free if he gives me 5% of the profit. He
laughed at me like I was crazy and said “ok”. Well, he generated $135,000 off my
email and landing page – from ONE mail out to his list – which made me $6,750
and got me a new client for life. And the work took me an afternoon. Sometimes
I’ll do this simply because I can smell money with a business and I KNOW if they
will just do what I say and use my page, they will make money, so I’ll just do it for
free. If you’re just getting started, this may be really good way to let HUGE
companies with a lot of customers give you a chance…after all, they’re not
paying anything. They can’t lose and can only win.

A NOTE ON UPWORK: Always get 100% of the total cost of the project paid up-
front in escrow before you start on any job.

CONTRACTS AND INVOICING

If you work with a big company, they will typically have their own contracts and invoicing
systems, so you don’t have to worry about it.
If you’re going through Upwork or Freelancer, they will have all that stuff built-in to their
system, so you also don’t have to worry about it.
In many cases, if it’s just you and another business, the contract is a formality. It’s just
something you do, but it’s not a big deal – it’s just a record.
I’ve never been majorly screwed from a client and I’ve never gone to court. It COULD
happen, but I seriously doubt it will.
I rarely write up contracts with clients unless they request it. The reason why is simple.
Even if I write up a quick agreement and get – let’s say – 75% up-front and my client
doesn’t pay the 25% on the back-end.
What am I going to do? Go to small claims court in whatever country they live in? Pay a
bunch of legal fees for something that will amount to essentially $2,000 or $1,000 or
something like that?
Nah. So, even with the contract, it doesn’t “protect” you.

Invoicing
I only use one tool for invoicing and it’s Freshbooks.com.
Just go there, sign up, connect your bank account, and you can just email your invoice
to your client and they can pay directly through email using any major credit card.
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You can use it free for 30 days and after that it’s something like…$30 a month.
If I’m doing 50% up-front or 75% up-front, on the bottom of the first invoice in the Terms
of Service, I include the following…
“This invoice is for the 50% deposit of the total project price of [PRICE]. This
deposit is non-refundable. The client agrees – by paying this invoice – that the
amount is non-refundable for any reason.”
This way, if the client ever tries to fuck with you that they aren’t happy, they don’t’ want
to work with you, they want their money back, they’re going to sue you (whatever) you
can just show them right there on the terms of service that they agreed – by paying the
invoice – that the amount was non-refundable.
It would also be good to mention in email if you’re talking with them about the price to
say, “I’ll send you an invoice for the 50% up-front deposit (non-refundable) in just a
second!”
That’s proof, basically. That IS your contract.
And, if you’re doing 100% up-front, you also put in the Terms of Service at the bottom
that this is non-refundable. When the client pays, they are agreeing that this fee can not
be returned to them for any reason.
I typically word it like this…
“Once the project has started and the client has received the first draft of the
project, the payment becomes non-refundable”
The reason why is because, if the client pays the money, and I start doing research and
typing up the page but then – without receiving anything – they get cold feet and decide
they want a refund –FINE.
I haven’t actually done a lot of work yet – I’ll give them their money back (perhaps
coming to a civil agreement that I get to keep a couple hundred bucks for the hassle).
But the MINUTE they get work into their actual hands – that means services have been
rendered (even if they may not be complete). So they get no refund in that case.

Contract
The invoice IS a contract.
Any terms of service that you want to include in the bottom is to cover your ass and as
soon as they pay that invoice, it’s like signing it in ink.
You really don’t have to worry too much about contracts.
If you are worrying, talk to a lawyer and have them draft something up.
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But, if you’re working with a client who doesn’t have their own contracts and they’re
saying “We need to sign a contract and lawyers present” and all this other mumbo-
jumbo – drop ‘em like a bad habit.

This Is A Handshake Business

Don’t be stupid – get your money up front, say it’s non-refundable and non-negotiable.
If they try to dispute payments with your bank or something – show them the invoice
and show them the email where you stated it.
May a client work you like a horse and then refuse to pay you your final 50%? Maybe
(that’s why I typically do 75% to 100% up front unless it’s a big company like Agora).
One tactic (if you’re worried about that happening) is to show them the final sales page
on a shared Google Drive document, where they are not allowed to edit it if perhaps
you’re leery about their intentions.
But this has never happened to me.
If you want to make sure you’re not getting screwed over with clients – work with
clients who have a good reputation and something to lose.
There’s a possibility you may get screwed over one of these days, but it’s never
happened to me.
Nevertheless, you do need to protect yourself. So let’s talk about a couple of easy was
to do that in…

DEALING WITH CLIENTS

I could write an entire course on how to deal with clients, but for now I’m going to give
you some guidelines.
When you have meetings on Skype, download Amalto Call Recorder and record all the
calls you have (in fact, insist on using Skype if you can).
If you come up with a verbal agreement either over the phone or in person, write your
client an email re-capping all the stuff you talked about and what they agreed to and
simply, politely ask them to respond to the email that they understand and agree that
those are the things you talked about.
Now you have a record of it.
You need to record every piece of interaction you have with clients in the discussion of
your project. This is accumulating proof for later if something goes wrong.

On Dealing With Changes

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You need to have a “Zen” feeling about dealing with clients and changes they may
have.
Remember – YOU are the expert, so you need to have a light, but firm touch and if they
come back to you and say “I don’t think this should be here” first ask yourself…

Are They Right?

Maybe they are.
In many situations a client has pointed something out that I didn’t see and – because
they know their product, service, and audience better than I do many times – I will say
they’re right.
Other times, they want to make a change because they’re SCARED, maybe the
headline was too shocking for them, maybe the copy is to “salsey” and they don’t get it
and you KNOW you’re right.
In that situation, you need to set your foot down (but not in a rude way) calmly explain to
them why you did what you did, why you believe it will work, and just say “let’s try it”.
My old standby? “You may be right, but how about we test it? If it doesn’t work, we can
try your idea and see which one gets better results” that usually shuts them up.

DON’T GET OFFENDED

It’s so silly to me how many people, once they write a page, will get offended that the
client asked for changes, so the copywriter will go on the defensive and act like they
were just insulted, “You just don’t understand good copy” as if the insult was on you
personally.
Don’t EVER argue with your clients – GUIDE them.
Like I said, many times your client will have a valid change, and even if you don’t
completely agree with it, ask yourself – will changing it really affect the overall copy that
much?
No? Okay, delete that passage, or change that word – no big deal.
The only time I get hung-up on a client change is if I genuinely feel that the change they
want to make will negatively impact their sales.

PRIDE YOURSELF ON BEING EASY TO WORK WITH.

Create a good, smooth, easy-going process for your clients and they’ll keep coming
back to you again and again.
I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve had who I can TELL have been bashed for offering
insight by other copywriters they’ve worked with.
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I can tell because they’ll start off a list of changes with, “Please don’t take this the wrong
way, I really like the copy, it’s really good, but I just have a few changes and I hope you
don’t mind if I list them….”
I always say, “Hey, you don’t EVER have to apologize for providing changes – we’re
working together on this as a team, feel free to offer input, feel free to provide changes,
together we can make this great and I need your input to do that.”
Remember – you and your clients are partners.

This Is The End…My Friend

But I’m not disappearing forever.
Remember to join me on The Dark Arts Copywriting Guild Facebook group if you have
questions or need guidance. I’m here to help. I WANT you to succeed.
Keep an eye on your inbox too. Whenever I think I can add value to your life, I will email
you.
Now…
Take a deep breath….
Shoulders back…
Chin up…
And…

GO GET ‘EM TIGER!