There’s always something new to learn, something more to discover.

But there are indeed ways you can rise up the ranks in your copywriting career so that you can call yourself a master (and feel 150 percent confident in that title) – and you can do so in just one year. Possibly even less.

How to become a copywriter

Here’s exactly how you can become a master copywriter in less than a year, and in just five easy steps:

1. Read a whole lot

Mastering any skill means absorbing all the information and education that possibly exists. Copywriting is no different, and plenty of resources can get that learning going on the path to a solid writing education.

Head over to Amazon and pick up several copywriting books from renowned leaders in the industry, like Bob Bly, Joe Sugarman and David Ogilvy. It’s best to avoid books from relative unknowns or wannabes; to become a top copywriter, you want to learn from the top leaders in the field.

Read each book slowly and with high levels of focus. Don’t just skim the content or skip chapters because you think you know what’s in them — you’ll forget 80 percent of everything you’ve read and miss the crucial details that make a big difference.

Then reread each book as you finish it, taking notes the second time around. Your brain will retain more information and understand it better, thanks to devoted effort. You’ll absorb the education and make it second nature much faster that way.

2. Practice even more

Deliberate, intentional practice of each technique you learn is key to mastering it. Think of Olympic athletes who spend years perfecting one specific movement, over and over — you should do the same with every single copywriting technique you learn.

In fact, lack of practice is one of the most common reasons good copywriters never become great. They don’t put in the extra effort to truly master their craft, and they always stay stuck at status quo because of it.

So as you read through your books and learn new, specific techniques, take time to practice each one thoroughly. Then practice it some more.

Have a sheet of paper or your keyboard handy so as you spot a new technique, you can stop right there and try it out immediately, over and over. When you feel you “get” it well, you can move on to the next new technique.

But that doesn’t mean you should stop practicing. Have individual practice sessions for each technique, then as you become truly confident, integrate two techniques you feel you’ve mastered. Practice them together, as a whole, then add in a third technique you know well.

Schedule regular, daily practice into your calendar, and put in the effort to continually improve your skills. You’ll pat yourself on the back for going the extra mile.

3. Get one-on-one training

Self-education is great, and it can certainly take you a long way, but there’s nothing better than working one-on-one with a copywriting coach to advance even further towards mastery of your skill.

After all, this person has been where you are and can show you how to take your copywriting skills to the next level. He or she can provide direct, immediate feedback on what you think you’re doing well enough or what you feel you need work on.

Feedback from someone better than you is key: You’ll learn which areas need work, exactly what you should do to improve and get confirmation when you’re doing it right – or correction that helps you when you can’t quite get it.

Group course environments are good if you can’t get a leading copywriter to mentor you personally in a one-on-one environment. You’ll receive less attention in a group because the instructor’s focus is diluted over several students, but it’s definitely better than no feedback at all.

4. Get over your issues

The biggest hurdle to becoming a master copywriter isn’t your skill set, your lack of education or your ability to produce good prose – it’s your psyche.

The biggest roadblocks that slam themselves down in front of would-be copywriting masters are always psychological in nature. They’re rarely skill-related obstacles only. Writer’s block, blank-page syndrome, difficulty knowing what to say, endless editing, performance pressure… those are all common issues that could prevent mastery.

The good news is that these issues are all in your mind, and you control your mind. There are all sorts of ways you can overcome your writing psychology roadblocks so you can advance to mastery levels.

It may sound fu-fu, but never underestimate the value of a good therapist or coach. This person can help you overcome writing fears and issues for stress-free copywriting in short order.

Strategies that could be used include exchanging bad habits for better ones, relaxation techniques, and discussion of fears so you can dissolve them into full confidence.

A creative psychology coach is often the best person to have on your side, though they’re fairly rare and difficult to find. You’ll reap the rewards, though, and find yourself mastering copywriting at twice the speed you were before.

5. Expand your knowledge

Okay: You’ve read the books, taken the training, practiced like mad and sorted out your crazy-making. You’re doing well and feeling great about your copywriting skills!

Now’s the time to expand and enrich your education in complementary fields, such as sales and marketing, storytelling, consumer psychology and critical thinking. Add a dab of each of these to your copywriting, and you’ll be able to reach new heights in your copywriting career in no time flat.

In fact, it’s well known that copywriting is simply salesmanship in print. So why not start there?

Before you get discouraged at all this learning, take heart: You don’t have to become a master in each of these related fields. But with a good working knowledge of related skills sets from different fields, you can integrate each into your copywriting.

You’ll be well set to take your copywriting skill set to the final levels… and become a master – in less than a year.

Looking at other writing careers? Check out this article, where you’ll find more options to get paid as a writer.

Perhaps this quiz can help you decide.

This is an updated version of a story that was previously published. We update our posts as often as possible to ensure they’re useful for our readers.

Maybe yours is a lack of confidence. Or it might be that you battle resistance. Perhaps you fight against an inner critic; more than a few writers struggle with the nagging voice of someone from their past who told them they’d never succeed.

No matter which demon you have to battle, no writer escapes the black dog of doom that creeps close and growls when they sit down at the keyboard.

Having a writing demon is so universal that it’s become a trope. Cue the story of the angst-filled creative who can’t get past his blocks… until some unexpected event or person changes everything and unlocks his creative genius.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a miracle like that happen to you? Well, you could sit around waiting for that moment to happen. It’s what most writers do.

Or, you could just take matters into your own hands and slay your personal writing demon from the comfort of home.

How to defeat writing demons

In the movies, defeating a demon requires the dramatic. Common approaches include finding a magical artifact that’s been hidden for eons, or taking a harrowing trip to a fiery chasm. Some massive battle of wills or strength takes place, and at the last minute, all that seemed lost is saved.

Defeating demons in real life is far easier.

You don’t need a magical artifact. No fiery chasm is required. Your writing demon is simply a bully — and as with all bullies, all it takes to come out on top is to stand up tall and not back down.

Here are a few time-tested ideas that always do the trick.

Decide how much power you’re going to give away

The reason a personal demon has power over you in the first place is because you’re consistently giving it over.

The demon didn’t always have power — in fact, it didn’t have any until you started giving it control. Mentally, you created a hierarchy in which you began to believe the demon had all the power… and you didn’t have any. Now you’re at its mercy, letting it dictate your options.

It’s the same psychological phenomenon that keeps people stuck in unhealthy, abusive relationships.

Whenever you encounter your demon, you need to decide whether you’re going to believe what it says or follow its advice. That’s your decision to make — only you have control over that.

You can choose to believe you have no options. You can choose to believe your demon has taken them all away.

Or you can choose to believe in your own free will and ability to act.

You can decide to stop giving your demon the power of an authority figure. You can refute its message. You can refuse to be controlled. Instead, you can start treating it like some random bozo on the street. One who doesn’t know you, and who can’t tell you what to do.

You don’t have to listen to your demon. How much power you relinquish to it is your decision, and yours alone.

Find the easiest way to chip away at its power

Your demon has been around for a long time. It’s conditioned you to hold beliefs that don’t necessarily go away just because you want them to. It affects your confidence that you can be creative, productive and successful.

It affects your ability to write.

You might think that you have to engage in some epic battle against these beliefs to break free. That approach might work, but to be honest, it’s prone to fail.

Your beliefs have strong foundations. They’re not easily toppled. But they are easy to chip away. Instead of using brute force to topple a belief, undermine it by taking small actions that run counter to the idea.

Your writing demon wins because it has you believing global statements like, “I just can’t write” or “My writing isn’t any good.” The universal nature of these beliefs gives them their power.

This is what you can chip away.

For example, the next time you think, “I just can’t write,” chip away at that universal belief. Sit down and write for five minutes. You could write a mere 100 words. You could write on a completely unnecessary topic — anything to get reactivated.

This small step won’t magically turn your writing life around, of course, but it does create a reference point that immediately works to undermine your global belief, and it helps your brain to re-engage. You’ll come to realize that sometimes it’s more difficult to write, and most times, it’s not difficult at all.

And when you think, “I just can’t write!” you’ll begin to realize that statement isn’t true. The voice of your demon begins to lose credibility. Eventually, it becomes a fleeting whisper until the day you don’t hear it anymore at all.

Will it take time? Of course it will. But if your writing has been stalled because of your demon, gradual improvement is better than the zero you have now.

Assign a talisman to remind you of your power

The beliefs you currently have are the result of long-term conditioning. They’re going to be your default pattern for a while. That’s why it’s a good idea to have something at your disposal to remind you that you can break that pattern any time you choose.

In legends, a talisman is an object that protects you from harm. In real life, you can have one, too.

You might choose a “lucky pen” you keep on your desk to remind you that if you just write for 10 minutes, you’ll warm up to the task. It could be a sticky note on your monitor that says, “Everybody starts somewhere.” It could even be a picture of a loved one that you can look at and think, “This person believes in me, and I’m going to believe in me, too.”

Be creative. Have fun with this. Choose a talisman that makes you feel good, that makes you feel confident, capable and strong. Just pick an object that you associate with your new, more empowered belief, and keep it handy.

The psychological term for this is anchoring; you anchor a particular thought, state of mind or emotion to the sight or feel of an object. It’s a smart thing to do, because it can help you break from your rut when you’re feeling trapped.

Can defeating your writing demon really be so simple?

Yes.

It’s likely that on your search for the miracle cure that’ll save you from your demons, you’ve encountered all sorts of other writers talking about their difficult struggles and sharing “helpful” advice suggesting a long, daunting road of recovery back to writing health.

Sometimes the simplest advice is best. And even better, not only is this advice simple, but it’s easy to implement.

No matter how long your demon has held power over you, that power is fragile. It was never the demon’s power to begin with — the power was, and always will be, yours.

So the next time your writing demon starts whispering in your ear, use these three simple steps to get the power back in your hands… where it belongs.
Have you battled a writing demon? What strategies or tools did you use?

That’s the prevailing attitude of most freelancers today — and it has to stop.

You’ll have happier clients, better profits, more respect and ultimately a more successful business if you’re brave enough to be upfront and proactive with your clients… even if you lose them forever.

Think you have what it takes? Being honest with your clients takes guts and integrity, and not everyone has the confidence to pull it off.

But if you do, you should. Here’s why:

What your client doesn’t know

You know a lot. Your client doesn’t — at least, not about what you do.

After all, you’re the expert. People hire you because you’re a professional who knows way more than they do. That’s the way it should be.

But there’s a big difference between being a professional expert and being the one who doesn’t shout a warning when your client’s about to step in a hole.

Here’s an example, taken straight from my personal life. In the past four months, I hired a contractor to build my custom home. And I’d heard the warnings: everyone says that when you have a house built, you should expect the project to cost more than the initial quote.

How much more? Well, now. That’s a fun surprise you get to figure out on your own.

Now, I don’t have a problem with extra costs that the contractor can’t foresee. When we hit some unexpected bedrock during excavation, I paid the dynamiter’s bill with no fuss at all.

But some extra costs were the sort that the contractor definitely saw coming a mile away — because he’s experienced, and I’m not. Here’s my favorite example:

We knew we needed a well to provide water to the house. The contractor gave us a quote for digging the well. We agreed to the quote.

Once the well was dug, we expected we’d have water.

But then our contractor told us, “Now you’ll need a special pump to help maintain the right water pressure because your house is so far from the well. It’ll cost $300.”

“Oh, and there’s an extra charge because we had to dig past 300 feet. That’s another $2,500.”

Didn’t you know about these possibilities beforehand?

“Well, we didn’t know for sure, but it was pretty likely.”

So why didn’t you tell me?

“Well, we could’ve hit water sooner and found it wasn’t really necessary, and we were hoping maybe the pressure would be strong enough on its own… ”

Frustrating.

What do you know that your client doesn’t?

Many people who get in touch with me want great web copy to improve their conversion rates.

Now, great web copy I can provide. But improved conversion rates? That depends on a huge number of factors that may or may not be related to the great copy.

Great conversion rates require that you have a certain number of visitors to begin with. That’s not copy, that’s traffic.

Great conversion rates require that you’re driving the right kind of visitors for the product or services you’re selling to your site. That’s not copy, that’s marketing strategy.

Great conversion rates require that your website looks credible and trustworthy. That’s not copy, that’s website design.

And so on.

I could do what my contractor did: just agree to provide what they’re asking for. I could say, “Sure, we can give you great web copy,” and take their money, even though I know full well that they have a particular intention for that copy.

I didn’t know that there was an extra step between digging the well and getting the water piped into my house — but my contractor did.

My client doesn’t know that there are extra steps between slapping up great copy and getting improved conversions — but I do.

So here’s the big question: do I tell him now, or do I tell him later?

Always tell him now

I’ve experimented with both strategies. I’ve been concerned that if I tell the client my great copy won’t magically solve all his problems, he’ll walk away. That’s a legitimate concern. Many do.

But here’s an even more legitimate concern: the client will hear me agree to solve his problem, and he’ll operate on the assumption that I’m handling the problem he presented to me:

Not getting enough conversions.

Since he thinks I agreed to solve that problem, not just provide him with excellent copy, he’s going to be pretty unhappy when it turns out that copy doesn’t automatically result in better conversions.

It doesn’t matter if I explain to him later that it’s obvious copy alone won’t solve the conversion problem. It doesn’t matter if this is a well-known fact among successful online entrepreneurs.

My client clearly wouldn’t know, if I didn’t tell him.

Which would make the resulting misunderstanding my fault, as far as the client’s concerned.

He’s not likely to be happy about paying me for my services, even though I provided exactly what it said on the contract. He’s not going to recommend me to others. In fact, he may even leave me bad reviews or tell people that I’m a dishonest service provider.

The almost-certain hit to my business is way worse than the possibility that the client might walk away when he realizes the solution he needs is more than he thought.

What to do when a client wants magic

When I have a client who thinks copy or design has magical properties that solve all his marketing woes, I stop and explain what he can and can’t expect from the work he’s asking me to do.

I can provide you with great copy, I’ll say, but your conversion rate will depend heavily on these other factors, and those are probably bigger priorities than copy right now. You may want to get in touch with a marketing consultant or a traffic strategist.

If the client doesn’t want to do that, it’s fine. I can still provide the copy.

But the client won’t be able to say that I promised him conversions. I didn’t. It’s clearly written down in black and white: great copy will solve one of your problems, but not these other ones, and you should look into them.

I often even make myself as useful as possible: I always try to suggest a few trusted people who might be able to provide the other elements of the required solution.

Being upfront with a client works

Let’s pretend my contractor had followed this plan. Let’s pretend that when we discussed the original quote about the well, he mentioned, “Just so you know, since your house is so far from where we’re planning to put the well, you may need to have a special pump to help with pressure.”

“How much will the pump cost?”

“$300. And you’ll want to prepare for the possibility that we may not hit water within 300 feet, so there might be extra charges if we have to go deeper.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. I hope it goes well! How much would it cost if you have to go deeper?”

“Could be about $2,500 extra.”

“Ouch! But what can you do, eh? Oh well. Thanks for letting us know; we’ll factor that into our budget just in case.”

The contractor still gets paid the same amount, whether he tells me now or tells me later.

The big difference is that I know in advance that I may have to spend this money, and I know why.

I also know that my contractor knows what he’s doing. I know that he understands my needs and is looking ahead to warn me about pitfalls that might get in the way.

In short, I know he’s got my back.

Which makes spending more money feel okay. I don’t feel cheated. I feel like I dodged a bullet. I can plan ahead with confidence. I feel like I successfully avoided hassle and headaches in the future. Good thing he told me about this!

It makes me feel good about handing over an extra $3,000.

Communicate as much as you can

Always assume that your client doesn’t know — even if it’s common knowledge, clearly obvious or plain fact. Take responsibility for your client’s well-being, and be proactive about as much as you can.

The worst that can happen is that your client says, “Oh, I already knew that, don’t worry.” No harm, no foul. You still look good for having communicated as much as possible ahead of time instead of after the fact.

And you’ll make your clients feel good about working with you. You’ll make them feel good about the money they’re spending. They’ll see you’re looking out for their best interest. They’ll feel like you’re going to shout “Watch out!” if they’re about to step on a snake.

Clients who know you’ve got their back are loyal clients. And those are the ones you want to keep.

Have you ever had to tell a client she was making a mistake? How did you explain the situation?

That person might be you.

In fact, it’s pretty likely that something will go wrong for you today — no day is ever absolutely perfect. Maybe your favorite client doesn’t like the work you delivered. Maybe you said the wrong thing and it cost you a gig. Maybe your latest blog post got negative feedback.

It happens to the best of us. You completely miss the mark. You fall flat on your face. You get bad results and generally make a mess of things, despite your best intentions.

You’ve failed. Now what?

Most freelancers get hung up on what went wrong. They focus on the slip-up, analyze the situation, and dissect every angle, feeling upset and discouraged. They often head over to their favorite freelancer hangout, where like-minded freelancers living pretty much the same sort of life jointly lament about the situation and hash over what went wrong.

That’s what most freelancers do — and it means they’re lying to themselves. Worse, they’re holding their businesses back.

The 3 lies that kill your freelance writer success

Whether you’re just starting out in your career or have already become a wild success, you will fail. You’ll make mistakes, you’ll screw up and you’ll suffer setbacks. This isn’t discouragement; it’s just the way life works.

What you tell yourself about these failures determines how you move on, and whether you move forward. You can be honest, truthful and proactive, or you can lie to yourself about what it all means.

What are these lies that freelance writers tell themselves?

1. It’s personal. This screw-up? It’s all about you — all your fault. You didn’t do the “right” thing. You’re not good enough. The client doesn’t like you.

2. It’s permanent. You worked hard, tried your best, and blew it. That project? A total failure. It’s done. Over. It’s the end of the line.

3. It’s pervasive. You never do anything right. You’re always screwing up. You think like Charlie Brown: “Everything I touch gets ruined!” Why even bother trying? It’s just going to be more of the same.

Sound exaggerated? Not at all. I see freelance writers telling themselves these lies all the time. Worse, they believe them to be true. The more they think these lies and come to believe them, the more these freelance writers slowly, surely, and definitely destroy any possibility of ever reaching success. You’ll find them five years later, with the same sort of clients, the same sort of work and complaining about the same sort of things.

It’s self-sabotage at its very best. But it doesn’t have to happen to you.

How to choose your own story

Think of life this way: it’s a story, and you’re the author. You’re writing your story every single moment of every single day, and the choices you make determine what happens next.

If you face failure and then spend the rest of the workday running through all the reasons you weren’t good enough, or how this always happens to you, you’ve written a story full of drama. You become a victim of circumstances, wallowing in self-pity.

That won’t get you anywhere — not in life, and certainly not in business. You don’t have to write that story. You can make different choices, ones that completely change what happens next. Imagine you faced the same failure, and instead of wailing “why me?” you ask yourself this instead:

“Why not me?”

Just imagine how your story would change then.

You see, failure isn’t personal, or permanent, or pervasive — unless you choose to make it so. Failure is only ever temporary, and an isolated result brought about by the choices you made within the given circumstances.

[bctt tweet=”Failure isn’t personal, permanent or pervasive, says @menwithpens“]

It doesn’t signify the sum total of your freelancing career existence, even if you’ve failed repeatedly for the past six months.

It does signal that next time, you should try something different. You’ll inevitably get different results.

Even better, you can choose to view failure as feedback, like clear GPS evidence that shows you’ve made a wrong turn somewhere and need to get on a different path. It gives you an opportunity to learn something about the path you were on and the behaviors you chose, and it allows you a chance to course correct and get back on track.

Think about Michael Jordan, a six-time NBA Champion and five-time Most Valuable Player in the world of basketball. He’s incredibly successful, and no one who thinks of failure thinks of him.

Yet he says: “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Wayne Gretzky’s take on failure? “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Replace failure with failing forward

Most people see failure as a negative event versus a positive learning experience, but failure makes us better at what we do. Successful people risk failure every day, and their risks often involve very high stakes.

But successful people risk failure because failure helps them succeed more. They’re failing just like you might be… only they’re failing forward, taking negative results and turning them into positive learning experiences.

If you’ve been thinking of yourself as a failure for some time, or even just feeling downtrodden about failures you’ve experienced, it’s time for a change in mindset. And since you’ve likely been operating with a failure mindset for some time, adopting a new outlook will likely take some practice.

Start here:

1. Ask your brain better questions

The human mind is built to answer any questions that pop into it. The answers it gives back to you depend on the quality of the questions you ask in the first place.

Questions like “Why does this always happen to me?” or “How could I be so stupid?” send your mind racing to find reasons that explain why you’re not good enough.

“What can I learn from this experience?” is a much better question. It sends your mind chasing after answers that become learning lessons.

Other questions you could ask yourself include, “What can I change about my approach for next time?”, or “How can I use this situation to my best benefit?”

I guarantee you’ll gain positive results from smart questions like these.

2. Stop listening to people who aren’t doing any better than you

It’s normal to share what went wrong with friends, family and people we trust. And very often, these people give us advice about what they think went wrong, and what we should do about it.

Be careful about whose advice you take. If these people aren’t currently doing better than you and enjoying more success than you are, it’s likely their advice won’t do you much good.

Seek out advice from people living the type of success you’d love to have — who have the sort of clients you’d like, the sort of income you want, the sort of lifestyle you dream of. They’ve been where you are — and gone far beyond it, which means their advice will likely help you move forward more than anyone else’s.

Avoid people who continually complain or talk about what’s not going well. Instead, hang around with positive-minded people who fire you up, who motivate you. They look forward to the future, and they’ll inspire you to dream big while helping you achieve your goals.

3. Seek to serve

Feelings of failure often creep in when focusing on your own problems and concerns. But mentally rehashing what’s not going well often just reinforces the feelings of failure and how hard it is to succeed.

That type of thinking keeps you firmly where you are — which is definitely not where you want to be.

Pull your eyes away from the mirror. Look instead to the needs of others and practice finding ways to lend a hand, while encouraging those around you. Become someone people want to be around, and help them move past their own struggles.

You’ll deepen your relationships, increase your confidence, and get your mind away from focusing on failure. You’ll also find yourself becoming more of a problem-solver, a person who can see the positive side, take action and help out. With that mindset firmly in place, you’ll soon find ways to help yourself.

Everyone fails. It’s how you deal with it that counts.

[bctt tweet=”Everyone fails. It’s how you deal with it that counts, says @menwithpens”]

You might not be succeeding right now. You might not have all the clients you want, or the type of work you want to do every day, or the sort of income you’d like to be earning.

That’s okay. You can get to that point — if you’re ready to accept that all failures are actually learning experiences.

Be willing to look on the bright site, learn from what went wrong and use that as feedback to change your behaviors and make better choices moving forward.

Just imagine: you’ll have your failures to thank for your success!

What have you learned from your failures?