How To Make $10,000 Per Month As A Copywriter

I’ll be honest, there aren’t many careers where you can make $10,000 per month.

And even less if your goals include:

• Working from home
• Working remotely
• Working at your own pace
• Working with only your ideal clients
• Working in your pajamas (not judging… )

But copywriting is one of them.

This is because effective copywriting is something few people can actually do. So if you’re one of them, you can charge a premium for your services.

This post will show you how.

But before we start, let me emphasize that earning $10,000 or more per month is a process. You won’t go from $0 to $10,000 with the snap of your fingers…

That’s not realistic.

If it were, you could throw a rock in any direction and hit at least two copywriters.

So plan on starting off small and increasing your income as you improve your skills and gain more clients.

It takes some time, but it’s definitely worth it.

Now, let’s get started.

It All Starts With SKILLS.

And these skills can pay the bills, as they say.

If you want to command $10,000 per month as a copywriter, you must have the skills to generate much more than that in value for your clients.

This is not easy, but it’s certainly doable.

Only two things are required: practice and patience.

If you have these qualities, earning this kind of money is well within your reach.

(If you need to develop your copywriting skills further, start with John McIntyre’s Udemy course and eBook.)

Once you have the knowledge to write premium copy, you’ll be able to charge a premium price.

A common question here is, “How long will it take to learn this and get good enough to charge that much?”

The answer is simple: It depends 100% on you.

Learning copywriting is an investment in yourself. So the amount of effort and time you put into it will directly effect what you get out.

In my opinion, plan on at least 6-12 months of very focused work.

Remember, this is a high-value skill. If it were easy everyone would be doing it!

What Copywriting Services Pay the Most (and the Least)?

Not all copywriting services are created equal. And nor do they pay equally.

Knowing this, you’ll want to focus on the specific areas of copywriting that pay the most so you can maximize your earning potential.

In my experience, there are two areas of copywriting that pay exceptionally well:

1) Sales letters

2) Email campaigns

To get the most money for your time, these are the two copywriting services you should focus on.

While you can offer other services such as creating web content, blog posts, video scripts, brochures, and many more, they won’t have as much of an impact on your client’s revenue… so don’t expect to be able to charge as much.

For the quickest path to $10,000 per month, focus your time on sales letters and/or email campaigns.

How To Start Getting (the Right) Clients

This is a very broad topic, so here are two excellent McMethod articles on the subject to get you started:

How To Get Your First Freelance Client On Upwork (Without Leaving Your Job)

How To Become A Copywriter With NO Experience (Follow These 2 Steps)

So what do I mean by “the right” copywriting clients? I mean the kind of clients you should go after to help your reach your income goals as quickly as possible.

These are clients that not only have the money to spend on great copywriting, but who are also willing to spend it.

Clients that are only interested in spending as little as humanly possible are not who we want to target (example: The Soul Doctors).

Avoid them at all costs. Trust me on this…

We want people who care about growing their business and are willing to spend the money required to do it.

They are focused on sales, not on expenses.

These people tend to have an abundance mentality, not a scarcity one.

Typically, these clients are already successful business owners who are looking to take their sales to the next level. Their businesses are usually larger and cash flow is less of a concern.

They are focused on expanding, not surviving.

(Unfortunately, smaller startups and mom-and-pop businesses usually just don’t have the money to pay you very much. That’s OK, you can come back to them when they do.)

So start with the local businesses in your area and expand from there.

Walk in and introduce yourself.

Shake their hand.

Make it clear that you understand their business and have a skill that can help them reach their goals quicker than anyone else.

They’ll be all ears and much more eager to learn more and potentially work with you.

(I’ll discuss how to get clients in much more detail in a future post.)

How To Charge for Your Services

Now that you have the skills to actually write great copy, and a strategy to get the right clients, let’s do some basic copywriting math:

$10,000 per month breaks down to $2,500 per week.

If you work 5 days per week this comes out to $500/day (or about $357/day if you work all 7 days).

I’m lazy, so I’m going to use 5.

$500/day comes out to $63/hour if you work 8-hour days and $100/hour if you only work 5.

Now, let’s be honest, are you actually going to work 8 hours a day?

We both know you’re not.

Don’t kid yourself.

I think 5 hours of focused work is a very reasonable goal. (Heck, studies show that the average worker only does 1-2 hours of actual work per day!)

So, depending on your daily working hours, between $63 and $100 per hour is where we want to aim to reach our income goals.

From experience, I’ve found that aiming for a minimum of $100 per hour is the best way to go.

There are several reasons for this:

• It allows you to work less and make more
• It provides a cushion for those times when you may not have a ton of work lined up
• A higher hourly rate (that you are willing to defend) tells clients that you are a professional and know the value of what you bring to the table

They may grumble about the rate, but they’ll respect you for sticking to it.

Tip: You don’t have to always charge “by hour.” You can charge flat fees per page or per project as well. The goal is simply to have your time equate to at least $100/hour, all else being equal.

Ask Satisfied Clients For Referrals

Now that we have a solid framework for reaching our monthly income goal, it’s important to set up a system to ensure that business keeps coming in.

This means a steady stream of satisfied, well-paying clients to keep our income at the desired $10,000/month level.

And the best way to do this is through qualified referrals.

Here’s what I do:

When it comes to creating satisfied clients, my approach has always been to charge a high rate (which I stubbornly defend) and then produce results that blow them away.

I’m not talking about results that get me a “great job” or a “nice work Ryan” at the end.

I’m talking about clients having to pick their jaw up off the floor.

I’m talking about being the easiest person they’ve ever worked with.

And someone they actually enjoy working with.

When someone pays me $100, my goal is to return them $150 in value back.

It’s a basic mindset I keep in every business dealing.

I don’t aim for a “fair trade.” I aim to have the client so thrilled with my work that they immediately start recommending me to their friends.

That’s how you build a system of repeat clients.

Doing only what’s required doesn’t cut it. You have to act like your only goal on this planet to to help your client reach their goals.

That’s what will get you a roster of high-paying and valuable clients, and what will ultimately get you to your $10,000 per month goal.

Without this mindset, plan of spending a large chunk of your time trying to find new clients instead of creating a funnel that will let them find you.

*This is actually the most important step of all.*

That’s why it’s so important to ask for referrals (and testimonials) after you effectively knock your clients goals out of the park. It sets the most valuable type of marketing there is–word of mouth–into motion in your favor.

In fact, if you do this right, you won’t even have to ask for referrals, your satisfied clients will just give them to you!

That’s when you’ll have yourself a truly world-class copywriting business.

Summary

So there you have it, an A-to-Z guide on how to both set up and maintain a system that will allow you to earn $10,000 per month, every month, as a copywriter.

Again, this won’t happen overnight, so be patient and persistent.

But when it does happen, you’ll be thanking yourself for putting in the necessary work.