Shiv Shetti Explains:

Freelance Copywriting Nirvana

Written by Shiv Shetti

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(Head's up - this article is long... but it has the potential to COMPLETELY revolutionise the way you view your copywriting career. That is, if you're serious about finally making a big breakthrough...)

Yeah, I know —

You’ve been sold on the ‘copywriting dream’ before…

…but now you’re in the freelance copywriting game, working with clients and making money, ‘reality’ is telling you a different story.

It’s a long slog.

You’re overworked and underpaid.

You aren’t making the money you want to be making.

You aren’t working with the kinds of clients you want to be working with.

You’re wondering how to ‘un-stagnate’ yourself and start actually making progress in your freelance career.

From where you’re standing, it seems like the ‘copywriting dream’ just that.

A dream.

(Perhaps missing ‘pipe’ in between those two words…)

But I’m about to flip that concept on its head.

Because I’ve turned the freelance copywriting dream into a PROCESS.

In other words:

I’ve created a concrete set of steps, that if followed, will get you to whatever your definition of the copywriting dream is —

Which I’ve called freelance copywriting nirvana.

This is the process that my successful students have been following to ACTUALLY level up their careers and get to a point where they’re making the kind of income they want, and enjoying a level of freedom in life that they want.

I can assure you, a process like this has NEVER been created or fleshed out before by any expert, guru, or A-lister in our industry.

At least, not to my knowledge.

Now, I’m sure you’re still pretty skeptical
of everything I’ve just said…

So let me first throw in some caveats:

1. This will take time

Depending on where you’re at right now, anywhere from 6 to 12 months.

(If you’re a total newbie, it’ll definitely be north of 12 months)

2. This will take quite a lot of work upfront

That goes quadruple if you’ve got a busy 9-to-5 job, a hectic family life, or any other stressful life responsibilities that drain your time and/or cause premature hair loss.

3. This is not for the faint of heart

I know, that’s a total cliché.

But if you’re NOT entrepreneurial…

…if you‘re NOT willing to make some short term sacrifices for long-term gain…

…and if you‘re NOT comfortable with the thought of having to deal with failure…

…best to click off this article and go back to scrolling on Facebook.

If you’re still here, let’s cut straight to the good stuff:

Freelance Copywriting Nirvana
Explained In A Few Simple Diagrams…

Ok, so the first step is to bag yourself a copywriting retainer, ideally between $3k and $5k/month.

If you’ve already got that, fantastic.

If you want help with that, go here.

So in terms of income and time investment, here’s what we’re looking at:

Pretty simple stuff.

One retainer has increased your income.

But it has also increased your time investment, since you’re obviously gonna be deep-diving into your client’s offer and audience and taking on projects for them (daily emails, autoresponder emails, sales pages, Facebook ads, whatever).

If you’ve got a 9-to-5 alongside this, then you’ll be busy — but not crushingly busy.

It’s manageable… until step 2, when we start to ramp things up a notch:

Now your income is floating around the $6k-$10k/month mark (NICE!), but your time investment has also shot up (LESS NICE!).

This is what I meant when I said this wasn’t for the faint of heart.

This is a super awkward transition phase that any freelance copywriter serious about getting to freelance copywriting nirvana has to go through.

Not gonna sugar coat it… this will be tough.

ESPECIALLY if you’re juggling a corporate grind, a family, and other responsibilities.

But luckily, for most people $6k-$10k/month is enough for them to ‘peace out’ of their regular job.

Regardless — when you get to this point, you’ll have a LOT of copywriting projects on your plate.

You’ll probably be quite stressed.

And, you’ll probably start to view freelance copywriting as another 9-to-5 grind.

But stick with me here, because this is where things start to get seriously exciting…

So, you’re now deep diving with 2 clients, spending time learning their offers and their audiences.

You’ll slowly start to figure out what resonates with each audience, and, more importantly, what DOESN’T resonate.

That means over time, the copy you write will convert better and better and better.

Stay awake, this is the important bit!

You’ll ALSO be writing with pretty tight deadlines — so couple that with the large workload and you’ll have no choice but to write copy fast.

Which all culminates neatly into one thing:

You’ll be writing great copy that consistently converts well for your clients faster and faster every single day…

Your copy chops improve exponentially.

Your copy speed improves exponentially.

Your ability to deal with the workload improves exponentially.

Remember those bar graphs from earlier?

They’ll go from looking like this:

To this:

^ Do you know what you’re looking at here?

Freelance copywriting nirvana!

You’ve got a stable, 6-figure yearly income (or close to it) - giving you financial security.

And, most elusive of all to the vast sea of freelance copywriters, you’ll actually have time freedom!

Yes, obviously you’ll still need to work.

But since you’ve spent the last few months diving DEEP with your 2 retainer clients and learning their offer and audience, and getting comfortable with the workload…

…you’ll have slowly clawed back your time until you’re working anywhere from 1 to 6 hours per day.

On some really slow weeks, you might be working even less than an hour per day.

But on busier weeks, like when your client(s) has a new product launch, you’ll be working closer to 6 hours per day, perhaps even more.

That’s the closest you’re ever going to get with time freedom from freelance copywriting retainers!

And you’d be doing better than 95% of other poor sap copywriters who are making 6-figures, but working crazy hours with a ton of different clients.

Or, who are enjoying waking up when they want and working when they want, but are stuck in a hellish feast and famine income cycle, earning nowhere near 6-figures.

Remember — you’re now free from your 9-to-5 (if you had one).

You’re waking up when you want and working when (and where) you want, because your clients won’t care so long as you get the work done.

And, you’ll finally have financial stability from copywriting.

Now, here’s why one-off projects will NEVER get you to the promised land…

At this point, you might be thinking:

“Can’t I get to this point by doing one-off projects instead of retainers?

Wouldn’t that be a lot easier?”

Nope. Here’s why:

Freelance copywriting nirvana requires income stability.

If you’re hopping around from client to client (or, heaven forbid, client-getting strategy to client-getting strategy), you have ZERO financial security.

Sure, you’ll have some 5-figure months.

But you’ll also have some less-than-5-figure months.

It’ll be feast and famine.

In fact, I was speaking to world-class email copywriter John McIntyre a few months ago and he told me he wished he’d started off in the beginning by doing things my way, instead of going after one-off email copywriting packages.

So don’t think you can get to freelance copywriting nirvana any other way than what I’ve outlined.

Because you can’t.

(I should know, I created this process!)

The real magic of freelance copywriting nirvana?

It, By Definition, Means Whatever YOU Want It To Mean

For some, it’ll be both 6-figures AND time freedom.

Others will be happy to work longer hours since they’re only really interested in getting to $10k/month.

For a smaller group (myself included), they’re happy as Larry making $5k/month and enjoying total time freedom and a lower overall workload.

And for an even smaller group, starting a freelance copywriting biz is a passion project for them and they want to hit $10k/month as proof that they’ve ‘made it’.

There is no right or wrong here.

Freelance copywriting nirvana is whatever you want it to be.

But the process is simple:

✅ Get one or two retainers between $3k-$5k/month

✅ Deep dive and learn their offer(s) and their audience(s) really well — learn what resonates and what doesn’t resonate, all the while ensuring you stay on top of your deadlines

✅ Given you’re receptive to market feedback and you aren’t a prideful idiot (because you WILL write copy that bombs), you’ll get better and more consistent at writing copy that converts, AND you’ll get faster at writing copy overall

✅ Over a period of a few months, you’ll start to claw back your time until you get to a point where you’re enjoying both a 6-figure yearly income and glorious time freedom (or whatever freelance copywriting nirvana means to you)

Beautifully simple, yet far from easy.

I wasn’t lying when I said this would take work.

Consistent work.

But this is the proven roadmap…
the journey up the mountain!

I followed it...

...and got to my freelance copywriting nirvana at $5k/month and blissful time freedom just 6 and a bit months after starting my freelance copywriting journey.

(Later, I pushed my income up because I’m all about growth… but I was a happy chappy at $5k/month)

And, more importantly, my students are following it to get to their own definition of freelance copywriting nirvana.

(Like Ericson, who recently landed a $4.5k/month retainer and is looking to bring on a second retainer in early 2020, bringing him to 6-figures… so he can then start the process of clawing back his time)

But remember:

This could take anywhere from 6 to 12 months, or longer if you’re just starting out!

Anyway...

...I hope you now understand the exact steps you need to take to finally reach the elusive ‘copywriting dream’ that made you want to become a freelance copywriter in the first place.

Or, at the very least, I hope this has been food for thought for you going into 2020.

Now -

If you’re making at least some money from freelance copywriting, and you’re ready to pull your finger out and take concrete steps towards ‘levelling up’ your copywriting career as per the nifty diagram below…

…then do yourself a favour and get my help through every single step.

Don't waste another minute stagnating.

Click the button below to begin your journey towards your definition of freelance copywriting nirvana right now:

Click Here To 'Level Up' Your Copywriting Career

Shiv Shetti

I help entrepreneurial freelance copywriters with solid chops 'level up' their careers and land $3k-$5k/month retainers with 6, 7, and 8-figure clients ASAP...

...without using any over the 'usual suspect' client-getting strategies.

Click here to find out how I do it...