Why I quit, who it might appeal to, and where to start if copywriting is your calling.

Copywriting sounded like a perfect match for me! And I jumped in with both feet. I quit my job (I was planning to do it eventually anyway). I dedicated all my time to being the best copywriter. If you don’t know what copywriting is you can read my first post in this series, What is Copywriting?

And I did love some of it.

I loved how I could make my own schedule. I loved getting to fall down all these rabbit holes of information. I love the community that I found in Write Your Way To Freedom. I loved the idea of helping companies find their audience. I go into pros and cons in previous posts: Copywriting Pros & Copywriting Cons.

But like most fairytales, when reality set in, I realized it wasn’t a good fit for me.

1. Client Acquisition sucks and is a form of sales. I’m burnt out on sales. Maybe the kind of sales I learned made it harder for me. Who knows.

2. I fell in love with writing. I wanted the freedom to write whatever I want.

3. I didn’t care about what I was selling. Even if the products are good and environmentally conscious, I wasn’t interested in selling them. I am becoming more and more frustrated with capitalism and consumerism. We have so much stuff already.

4. I want to help others in a way that feels right to me. When I thought about doing it day in and day out, it didn’t appeal to me at all anymore.

In the end, I realized what I loved the most about it was the freedom of working for myself and helping others. I can do this in a million other ways.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not perfect for you. These are the biggest things I see that will determine if it’s a perfect fit for you.

1. You like researching trends and letting that dictate what you write.

Some people love to follow or be at the beginning of trends. If you like to have prompts on what to write about, this will be a great solopreneur business for you!

2. You like figuring out what motivates people and understanding what they want

You have to do this with your clients to find their voice and their audience. And you do this when you write the copy to appeal to the audience. A lot of people don’t realize they have this skill. Once you see it, it can be really fun to know you are connecting with people on this level.

3. You like to learn different platforms, new approaches, and aspects of online

There are plenty of copywriters who don’t use social media and have very basic websites. So this isn’t a dealbreaker. But I found myself getting frustrated figuring out my site and other platforms. I spent so much time learning tech. As copywriting evolves, this is going to be more important. You will have to acquire some online skills.

The Wrap Up

If this sounds like the kind of solopreneur gig that fits your personality, here are some of the ways to start learning.

*Disclaimer* I have only researched/used Write Your Way To Freedom. The rest are ones I found, someone suggested, or others have talked discussed. I don’t know how good/bad they are.

Write your way to freedom (paid) — The owner, Sarah Turner has a YouTube channel, Sarah Turner Agency. Most of the information from the courses is available for free. But it’s not organized

Coursera (paid and free options) — I haven’t taken any of the copywriting classes. But I have taken others and they are pretty good. It may not be self-paced though.

Udemy (paid and free options)

Alison (free)

Brian Clark’s Copyblogger’s Copywriting 101 (free)

Skillshare (free)

Awai (paid)

The Creative Copywriter Academy (paid)

Joanna Wiebe’s Copyhackers (paid)

College of Media and Publishing (paid)

SuccessWorks (paid)

The Charted Insitute of Marketing (paid)

Copywriting has been around for a long time, just in different formats. It isn’t going away. There are plenty of other ventures out there. Selling digital products is blowing up right now. But trends shift and it won’t be lucrative forever.

Copywriting takes more time and effort invested in the beginning. And for some people, it will take a while to build traction. But the payoff is stability.

When the next big technology shows up, we will need copywriters for that new tech too. Don’t ask me what that might look like. But people who learn to copywrite now will be ready when it comes along.