I wrote a long-form sales letter on Monday and Tuesday. The client has proclaimed it “excellent” and paid me $3,000 for it. That’s just under a dollar per word… a good price for a relatively-new start-up company that must rely on a targeted audience and great conversion rates to keep on keepin’ on.
I feel very good about this. It gives me confidence to charge what my copy is worth. (“Price is only a problem when value is a mystery.” If you gave me five dollars and I handed you back twenty-five, you’d jump at the chance to give me another five, wouldn’t you? Just a heads up: if your copywriter isn’t making you money, you have the wrong copywriter. It’s our job to make you money, honey.)
I offered this client “25 cents per word plus a percentage of the conversions” as an alternative way to get paid because I felt confident that I would end up making even more if we went this route, but she said, “Maybe next year. We need to keep and use the income we get this time.”
That’s all right with me. If it brings her in buckets of money, she’ll have enough to “share the wealth” next time around and I can offer her the discount then and reap residuals on the copy for as long as it keeps converting for her…which could be years.
In Other News…
I was on a panel and gave the final speech two nights ago during the Graham-Kapowsin Dream Builders Career Fair. During the speech, I talked about fear and how it can derail plans. I had a lot more to say but only five to seven minutes to say it, so I didn’t get as many talking points in as I would have liked… but I think I’ll be invited back at some point to elaborate and delve into the topic a little better. The speech I gave just skimmed the surface but it was heart-felt!
On Monday I’ll be teaching attendees about 30-second commercials/elevator speeches at Candace Thompson’s Wild Child Group. I’ve given the talk at least four times before, so I’m ready for it.
The goat babies are growing like weeds and dancing up a storm. I’ve taken lots of video of them gamboling, so if you’d like to see those, befriend me on Facebook (Kristine M. Smith, Tacoma WA) and indulge thyself…
That’s all for now.
