How Much Money Could You Make in 4 Months Freelance Writing? (Answer)

in #writing7 years ago

This is a question I get often...

The answer?

A Lot.

Well, it depends.

Depends on what?

What the market needs. In the music industry, it'll probably be much tougher. I've made a TON of progress freelancing, but I work with businesses to do copywriting.

Businesses have money.

Studios and artists do not (usually). I don't know much about what mix engineers do. I've been in a band, composed music and understand what a producer does.

The music industry doesn't make much money in general (only the top % do), so you could expand your horizon out into video production companies, jingles, TV statiosn and others.

This is all hanging on you know a bit about mix engineer. If not, you'll need to spend 1-2 months just becoming better than 95% of the world so you stand out a bit.

To Lay out what you need to do in the next 4 months:

MONTH ONE:

  • Set up a website

-Put samples on said site

-Set up your Linkedin as well.

-Start with one list. Target Video production companies and movie studios.

-Research a list of ALL of the ones within 2-3 hours of your house. Use your local library to research, Data.com, Linkedin, associations and more.

-Everyday, reach out to at least 15 of these places on your list. Offer your services. Don't be long-winded. Do a bit of research on each of them so you can complement their work already. EVERYDAY do this.

-Find 2 people each day to reach out to who are doing exactly this: Mix engineering or producing. Mix engineering might be the lowest hanging fruit

-Do some small jobs on Upwork to make some money and gain some experience.

MONTH TWO:

-Continue with Steps 6-8 from Month One.

-Research a list of television stations and also full-service ad agencies (they make commercials). Find all within 2-3 hours of you.

-Everyday, reach out to 5-10 of these places. Now, you should be reaching out to about 20 companies a day. NOTE: You'll be following up with each of these companies every week until you hear NO or after 6 times of no response. Make sure you have the right person you're contacting. You would know better than I who the right person is)

KEY: Don't spend a bunch of time "networking." Yes, reaching out to 2 people each day could lead to some networking, about 30-50% won't answer , some will write you a short answer and a small number will want to meet.
HOW TO REACH OUT TO SOMEONE:

*Hi Target New Buddy,

I saw some of your work with X Company. Really liked your project where BLAH BLAH. I just went full-time to be a mix engineer and would appreciate your advice.

I'm in month one, what steps would you take in my shoes?

Hope we can connect more,

Joe*

MONTH THREE:

-Continue will Steps 1 of Month 2.

-Research list of Television stations. Reach out to 5 of them per day until there's no more. (All of these you will run out, then it's just follow-up and you won't then be doing 20 each day, just make sure you contact them all AT LEAST 3x)

-Hopefully, you've secured some contracts to work.

-To follow-up with companies, send your target prospect relevant information, a cool mix you've heard, ask for their thoughts on a piece, do some research on them and send them something about which they like. Anything to get an answer out of them. Call, email, if you can afford to send a letter/postcard, do that. Tweet them, FB them. Sounds stalkish but they will respect your perseverance.

MONTH FOUR:

-Do Steps 1,3,4 of Month 3.

-Research any other companies you think you could help. Reach out to 2-5 of them everyday.

-Don't give up. This is hard.
I did a hybrid version of this as I'm still growing. Your sales pitches will get better, you will work faster.

This is a TON of work, somedays you won't be able to reach out to the 20 companies. It's fine. Just keep going. It usually takes (I've heard) about a year before you gain some slow traction.

Trust me, I wasn't close to perfect in any of this and I've made some traction. Patience and persistence.

Sort:  

I've done copywriting for a couple years, then brexit happened, I think xD The company I worked for was in the UK so I think that's the likely explanation. At any rate, by then I was already tired of the same topics, same writing style, same formatting so it was a good break to get too. Online jobs seem a bit rarer now or maybe I'm just not feeling like going through the trouble again. Good luck to you, thanks for sharing!

Hi Yakuhi,

There's actually more online jobs out than you think. Many believe you have to slave away on Upwork making pennies to do so.

Nope!

Plenty of companies are looking for great writers. Find companies ALREADY WRITING COPY (i.e. ads, content, e-books, white papers, direct mail) and reach out to them.

All I hear now: "There aren't enough writers out there"

Doesn't matter where you live, there's opps out there!

Good luck on the new ventures :)

Well, I guess it also comes down to how much these companies are willing to pay. Many times I've noticed high demanding jobs with penny rewards offered.

Yeah, those mean the companies don't value copy much. The ones that understand and use it to drive business will pay...sorry about your experience