Up in arms over cheapskates
I just turned down a large six-month project that I won via a small test piece because a clueless client has no concept of the value of killer evergreen copy and content and was unwilling to pay adequately for it.
The fellow didn’t want to pay anywhere near what a professional copywriter is worth, despite the fact that he paid me a bonus for the test piece I did for him because I told him I would not even take the test unless I was compensated better for it.
He loved what I did and picked me as a result of it but then wanted to pay me LESS than he paid for the test piece (that is, his compensation per piece would have been a mere fraction of the price he paid for the test piece). He paid $50 for the 647-word test piece and then wanted to pay me $187.50 (Upwork’s 20% fees included) for developing and enhancing more than 7,000 words of copy!
Unbelievable.
People who want the moon but are not willing to pay for the spaceship that gets them there, OR a percentage of the income they receive from what I write, OR pay me great up front to write the evergreen copy that will turn browsers into buyers, are hopelessly out of touch with the going rate for professional writers. (I repeat: professional, tried-and-true writers, as opposed to hobbyists, charlatans and wanna be’s…)
I reckon this poor fellow will hire a fly-by-night who will succeed only in shooting him in the foot if he doesn’t want to pay professional rates for professional results.
You get what you pay for when you hire a copywriter.
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