Like most people, I love helping my friends, and even lots of strangers. Twice this week I’ve tweaked friends’ marketing materials who are in networking meetings I attend. I didn’t expect financial compensation because I know they’ll be giving me kudos publicly and sending more people my way, and what I did for them took about twenty minutes each. Both were delighted, so I’m delighted.

Then there are the strangers who pick my brain for upward of an hour with the idea that I can probably help them with their websites and marketing materials. They ask me to be candid, so I tell them that what they have is sub-standard. Then they ask what I’ll charge to “fix” it.

So I explain that what I mean by sub-standard (in the present case) is “god awful” and that their copy will require an extreme makeover (a complete rewrite) and that it will take about four hours. They don’t want to pay for four hours of work. They want me to “fix” what’s there. (No can fix! Totally broken! What part of this statement is written in an unknown language?)

At age 63, I’m all-but-finished cutting deals. I’m exchanging a portion of the balance of my remaining life when I serve as a copywriter.  I love what I do but need to be paid what it’s worth. Most copywriters charge $1 to $3 per word–and UP! Per word! I charge $250 an hour and usually write upward of 500 words an hour. So I’m already “cutting deals” in the grand scheme of things.

“The price of anything is the amount of life you spend for it.” Henry David Thoreau

My writing time/life is worth way more than $250/hour! Period!  But $250 an hour is all I ask to write peoples’ copy for them. But I do expect that!

I give what I can, as often as I can, to people who can’t afford me right now because I know they’ll bless me in some other way. They’ll recommend me to others. They’ll go on Facebook and extol my virtues as a consultant and writer.  They’ll become viral “sneezers”!

But I’m done giving to people who make a lot of money (the person I’m referring to above does)  and who expect to make a lot of money off what I write for them.  I won’t get “residuals” or a percentage of the income he gets for the evergreen copy I write for this fellow. Maybe I should start mandating  a percentage of what I make others with the words I weave for them, in addition to the time it takes me to produce the copy (other professional copywriters do this) but (alas) I don’t know of any way to enforce it. Does anyone else know how to enforce something like this? I’m all ears!