Effective Self-Marketing, a “Go-For-It” Attitude, and Hard-Earned Copy Skills Helped this New Copywriter Get a Great Start to His Copywriting Career

Just six months ago, John Brewer was a brand-new copywriter tackling the Accelerated Program for the first time. But after putting a profile up on LinkedIn and setting up a freelance website (www. b2bwriter.com.au) to market his services … John landed three clients!

“Two months into the program my LinkedIn profile attracted a potential client in the finance industry. This client advises businesses in the $10- to $30-million market. We met for coffee, and he showed me a brochure that he had designed and asked me if I could improve it,” says John. “I improved his flier by completely rewriting it, showing benefits to the reader and also adding a strong call to action.”

That first client gave John a glowing testimonial, saying, among other things, “the

improvement is amazing and I am confident they will bring the results aimed for.”

“I was over the moon to land my first paying job. I was a bit nervous at first but AWAI’s copywriting course was great to fall back on to give me the confidence that I needed to succeed,” says John.

Then it was on to a second client, this one in the construction industry, for whom he audited their website. Currently working in home repair and building, this is a niche John has expertise in. That’s a tip – use your work experience to your advantage in your freelance career.

“I improved his website by completely rewriting it, showing the reader the benefits for them and also a strong call to action. It was difficult for me to know how this rewrite increased sales as the owner could not tell me how many extra orders this

created,” explains John. “I do know that before I started on his rewrite it could not be found on Google. Three weeks after I submitted it to the search engines, it started showing up on fourth page then third page then second and climbing. It has since fallen in ranking as they have taken over the SEO to save cost. I am predicting a call for help in the near future.”

Landing these clients has been a huge confidence-booster, and the projects have paid off financially as well.

“After losing all our life savings in the great financial crisis, we struggled to pay for these courses … but in the last six months, I have earned enough extra income from copy to pay for all my costs including enrollment in Circle of Success. My goal now is to earn enough from copywriting to pay all our costs to this year’s Bootcamp, which will be considerable as we live in Australia,” says John.

John also plans to concentrate on finding work from alternative health clients; it’s a niche he’s passionate about. In fact, he’s currently rewriting a health-oriented website for a third client and optimizing it for search engines – a skill he picked up from an AWAI program.

Wherever freelance copywriting may take him, John is confident that copywriting will transform his life.

“I absolutely love writing good copy … it does not feel like work to me. I do building maintenance at the moment and need to replace my current income to make it easier on my body. I can now see myself travelling the world writing great copy – and getting paid for something I enjoy. I have always been my own boss so this opportunity of freelancing really appeals to me,” says John.

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Published: July 2, 2015

6 Responses to “Effective Self-Marketing, a “Go-For-It” Attitude, and Hard-Earned Copy Skills Helped this New Copywriter Get a Great Start to His Copywriting Career”

  1. Great article, John. I'm just six months behind you. Plan to have a similar story.

    Mr. C (Wm. Casner)

    Cas

  2. John, this news you share is so very encouraging! I only just began last week as I am taking the Online class now. I am a full time educator but have written a few things here and there. I hope to reach into my courage bucket soon and pull out some gumption to apply for some freelance work in the arena of education, faith based writing or life skills or even some finance like yourself. Hope you reach your goal of copywriting full time sooner than you think,

    Bruno

  3. I really want to get started to soon can wait to start writing making extra cash in my pocket please can i get started soon

    Amanda Powell

  4. Congratulations, John, on your first paying clients! You must be very talented. Thanks so much for sharing your inspirational story; you never know how much impact your encouragement might have on a struggling copywriter! Perhaps you just prevented someone from giving up on his/her life dream? I wish you continued success in each of your upcoming ventures!

    Dr Kristi

  5. Great story! I hope you come back with updates in the future... no doubt this is just the beginning of a successful and happy copywriting career!

    Louise Wolfshagen

  6. Your article is truly inspirational. Thank you! I have just signed up and is just (skeptically) going through the materials. Your article is therefore a confidence booster and I am sure I can have success also.

    Jackie Warburton


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