“I earn 120k on texts and I’ll teach you” – is there really that little money in copywriting?
A couple of days ago I came across this ad. And I felt very sad. One hundred twenty thousand – is it really so exciting to the imagination and greed of authors? On the other hand, no one will believe 500k, and most people get 60k anyway. So what does it mean, a copywriter is by definition a poor and unhappy person who is ready to work to pay for a rented one-room apartment and food? Or are there prospects in the profession?
How much does a good text cost?
What is a good text? Does it solve specific problems, does the customer like it, does the author like it, is it written competently? The criteria are very vague. And the text itself does not solve any problems, unless it is a refrigerator manual.
assalthough it seems like they are writing about real f****
A targeter must set up advertising, a designer must create creative ideas, a marketer must organize an email newsletter, and a PR specialist must agree on publications. And this is not to mention that the product or service that the text promotes must be in real demand. What is the contribution of a “good text” here, 10% or 20%? And if so, then why do you have to pay a lot even for a very good text (and the criteria are very vague, see above)?
Why is there such an attitude towards texts and authors?
When he asks what I do for a living, my palms get sweaty and my eyes start darting around. Here and there, that and the other, here and there – it's true that writing texts is somehow not respectable. One of my friends, when he found out what I do for a living, exclaimed: “And they pay money for this?!” I saw such genuine surprise only once in 20 years of friendship with him, when they banned the sale of “Yaga”.
And it's not just me.
The threshold for entry into the profession is insanely low. Texts can be written by 9th grade graduates, for better or worse. And among the SMM marketers, every first person knows about it. More precisely, every first person will tell you why your text won't work. It's more difficult to write your own from scratch.
A couple of examples
And it's not just in commercial texts. It's the same with screenwriters, for example. “If a famous director has finished a project, he's in the game, studios are after him. If a screenwriter has finished a project, he's out of work” – Blake Snyder.
Michael Arnd worked as an editor in a Hollywood studio. He read scripts, chose the more or less passable ones and passed them on to producers, who didn’t even look at them. He wrote his own script. And he couldn’t get it for 10 years, even though he was from the industry. He still managed to launch the film production. And he won an Oscar for his script. If anyone knows, write in the comments what kind of film it was.
And then he was kicked out of the new Star Wars trilogy. I'm sure his script was better than what ended up being made. But even such an undoubtedly talented author was not appreciated. Because in reality, no one cares about the texts, and the evaluation criteria are very vague (see above).
Everyone has more than one example when a customer arranged a crazy ride with edits and rode with you on the emotional swings of “everything is fine, but it needs to be finished” to the point of nausea, and in the end chose the very first option.
People rarely know what they want, don't like new and creative things, and may dislike you personally because of your annoying habit of begging for payment for work for six months.
How not to burn out in such a whirlwind of devaluation
No way. It's better to change your profession. True. You won't get a Pulitzer Prize for such texts. Past experience, even very successful, will not protect you and will not help much when changing jobs, because the criteria… that's right, are very vague. You are unlikely to be hunted down by some large company. And your current employer will not try to keep you if you decide to quit. But is everything really that hopelessly bad? Yes. But there are some things you can do to make swimming in this pool of stress and broken hopes less painful.
Who gets paid a lot and for what
They don't pay for good texts. After all, good texts don't always work. And if they do, it's not just about the text, well, you remember about the vague criteria. So who gets paid a lot? Those who have authority and an audience. And they pay specifically for them.
So develop your personal brand, write for yourself and about what you really like. It doesn't even have to be according to all the rules. Typos, mistakes, bad structure – if the text is really interesting, they will read it and say thank you. And if not, they will offer 100 rubles for 1000 characters without spaces and screw you over with the payment.
Often, the people who earn the most money are not those who write the best, but those who know how to communicate, make friends, be pleasant, and can be in the right place at the right time. Why do you think job postings always include “adequacy” as a requirement, whatever that means? People work with those they enjoy working with. If you are a toxic, vulnerable, infantile person and you are unlucky enough to become a copywriter (and this happens all the time), then you can forget about earning big money.
“How I earn more than 120 thousand on texts…”
You can get 250k. True. But you need several sources of income for that. It doesn't have to be freelancing. Get a permanent job, find another part-time job. That's a stable income and you can take out a mortgage. No one is stopping you from looking for additional income either. I usually got orders from old acquaintances and former colleagues. Exchanges are for masochists. Advertising your services is for masochists with money.
In general, you either need to really want it and believe in your strength, or you should have no other choice. If you want strong motivation, take out a loan for the most expensive course on “Explosive Copywriting and Turbo Marketing”. You will have to pay back the loan, you will have to work.
By the way, I have a channel in TG. Everyone ran, and I ran too. There are more posts there than subscribers. I write about how to write. Simple and short tips specifically about text. If such “useful” content comes in, you are welcome: https://t.me/money_text1
