Today’s burning question:

Why are so many attorneys and real estate professionals such cheapskates?

One thing I’ve noticed repeatedly as a copy and content writer is that far too many professionals who make the most money come across as total cheapskates when it comes to paying what good copy and content are worth. Why is that?

 

Case in point  

 

I wrote a postcard for an Ohio attorney a few years ago. It was 248 words in length.  It was evergreen copy that he can use for the rest of his career.  He just about dirtied himself when I told him it would cost him $900.

 

Seriously, I thought he was gonna have a stroke.

 

But he finally went ahead and hired me.

 

The post card brought him $25,000 worth of business in the first two months alone  

 

He is still using it because it targets people who have had liens placed on their properties and are about to go into foreclosure. Needless to say, there are new people falling into this category every day of the week.

 

He was happy as a clam. Did I get a bonus? 

 

No.

 

I got a good review. (Better than a sharp stick in the eye, but reviews don’t pay my mortgage.)

 

Last year he came back to me for another evergreen piece  

 

I asked him who the target audience was. He told me. I knew I’d make him another fortune, so I asked for a higher fee or,failing that, for a percentage of the income he would get from it for the next five years (not in perpetuity, just for the next five years, which would have been a lot more than I was asking up front.)  No, he wanted to pay me the same amount as he had the first time, when I was an unknown to him and he was scared spitless to give me a chance!

 

Bye-bye, Ohio attorney client!

 

On Upwork, I see projects from attorneys and real estate agents who want to pay next to nothing for copy and content that will serve them in perpetuity.

 

You and I both know that attorneys get upward of $500/hour for their services, and usually a percentage of whatever they get from their clients in a court of law.

 

But do they want to pay $500/hour to entice more clients their way?  Or even $250/hour? No.  They want to get killer copy and content for what looks to be an average of  $35/hour, which is chicken feed. They’ll only get newbies and wanna be’s at those prices, and their conversion rates will be in the bargain basement.

 

When you shop the bargain basement, what else can you expect?

 

It’s the same with real estate brokers and agents.  They want copywriters to bring flocks of buyers and/or sellers to them in perpetuity, but they don’t want to pay what getting that done is worth.

 

No copy/content writer worth their salt should have to struggle to make a living. Period!

 

No one else pays our overhead or buys our insurance. We have to do that out of our own pockets.  We also have to pay hefty self-employment taxes and all of our SS and FICA fees without company help.

 

When professionals outsource to freelancers, they save enormous amounts of money. They need to realize what life is like at our end, and the enormous value we provide to them. Those who do don’t balk when they get our quotes for what we do.  They gladly pay up, knowing that every copywriter worth their salt is worth beucoup bucks more than they charge in perpetuity, in most cases! Good sales copy — copy that converts —  doesn’t have to be tweaked or updated.  It’s good to go 24/7/365 for literally decades.

 

High-income professionals need to wake up and hire people who can actually help them succeed WILDLY.

 

No newbie or wanna be can do that. Nobody worth their salt is going to work for peanuts.  We simply can’t afford to if we’re living in North America. And few people lving outside North America understand it well enough to write fluently (and natively) for its audiences.

 

So, today’s life lesson for high-income professionals is this: 

HIRE A TRIED-AND-TRUE PROFESSIONAL TO SERVE YOU. 

A professional is defined as “a person engaged in a specific activity as a main paid occupation rather than as a pastime.”   

Professionals ask for, and expect to receive, fees that adequately support their continued existence as a business. 

 

‘Nuf said! A word to the wise it usually sufficient…