3 Ways I Landed Copywriting Gigs

This article does NOT contain affiliate links or paid promotion of any kind.

Every digital nomad blog tells you that the best way to make money and travel is to become a copywriter.

That part is true. Copywriting is the most superior skill in building an online business. And once you learn it, making money is easier than the girl next door.

However—what’s not true is that they (nomad bloggers) always suggest using platforms like Fiverr and Upwork.

Okay wait! Even though I started my copywriting career using Upwork and earned $60K plus “top rated” status, I would never recommend it to you or my enemies (yes, that includes you, Steve!).

No, you deserve realistic ways to land a proper, paying copywriting gig⁠.

So here are the best ways I found copywriting clients while traveling and living in Asia since 2014.

1. Join Copywriting Communities

I wanted to keep that H2 short, but what I really meant was copywriting AND copywriting-adjacent groups.

Fact is, the best jobs aren’t posted online. They’re gated behind paywalls or shared between peers.

Nobody actually wants to hire a stranger. Those that do typically know what they’re looking for and have gone through the vetting process before.

Here’s a few solid groups to join and yes, they cost a little monies up front. But, if you’re truly focused, paying $15 to $30 for a month and landing a $100 gig is an easy ROI. Investing $150 to $300+ a year and yielding $10K to $100K? Come on. You’ll be launching your own online course very soon.

My recommended groups to hunt copywriting gigs:

1. Jacob McMillen’s Write Minds ($29/mo) — I joined this group during COVID and I can vouch for Jacob, he’s an awesome guy. I paid for a year and earned 17X in copywriting contracts/opportunities.
2. Superpath Pro ($50/mo) — I was a member when it was free. They ran a Slack group but switched to a paid plan as the founders shifted toward Superpath as a full-time gig. I’m not sure what’s inside anymore, but there’s always solid leads and networking opportunities in their Slack community.

Got a group to share? I’m happy to add more to this list if either:

• (A) it lands me a copywriting gig. Or,
• (B) you pay me $150 CAD to place a link here for perpetuity (it will be labeled [sponsored], so if you’re cool with that, shoot me an email at: sponsor@jefvandegraaf.com).

2. Cold Pitching

If you went to your spam box right now, you’d likely see 100s of shitty emails selling you services like this:

Yeah, don’t ever do that.

In fact:

• Don’t automate your outreach
• Don’t spam the people you’re pitching
• Don’t be a cold emailing a-hole

I’ll teach you how to properly cold email—for free—if you click here and join my newsletter.

If not, this is the short’n’easy way to cold pitch like a pro:

2.1. Curate a list of businesses/people you’d enjoy writing for

Desperation smells worse than not showering or wearing deodorant for a week straight. You’re always better off curating a list of businesses and people who may need a copywriter.

How do you do that? Use LinkedIn and Google Maps. Look for companies and humans in your area relevant to your skills and knowledge.

Then, make a friendly intro email. It could just be a compliment, too.

As much as you want to “go in for the kill” and get a money transfer to pay next month’s rent, the reality is, hiring a copywriter is a slow process, especially with cold outreach.

A compliment warms a cold relationship with a stranger. If you don’t believe me, go and tell the next 100 people you see how cool they look in the shoes they wear. Ask them if they got a new haircut and say, “because it’s gorgeous.”

Just watch how many faces light up with joy. You just became their favorite person today.

Whereas that stranger in their spam box? Yeah, they’re dead to them. Forever.

2.2. Ask, don’t sell tell

That guy in my spam box selling me SEO services? No one buys that garbage.

Instead, use one of my favorite pitch lines:

“What is the one thing you would change about {X} to improve your {Y}?”

For example:

• “What is the #1 thing you would change about your blog to help you communicate better with your readers?”
• “If you could change one thing about your landing page to increase conversion, what would that be?“
• “Your website looks great, but what is the 1 thing you’d want to change to make it better?”

Look at that! Not only do you have 3 additional templates to test, you also have the exact scripts I’ve used that landed me copywriting gigs.

I will say that the 3rd example is dicey. Putting “but” in a sentence negates whatever positive sentiment you intended prior.

“Those new jeans look good on you, but…“
“OMG, Stacey, you’re so right, but…“
“I love this idea, but…“

We’ve all experienced this before. Someone sets up a nice thing then punches us in the gut with their “truth.” And their truth is not what we signed up for or wanted to hear.

The difference is that my method sets up an open-ended question.

Which I’ll explain in detail later. Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter for when I publish that.

Anyway…

2.3. Persistence DOES pay off

This is a bit off topic, because it relates to my pre-travel+copywriting era.

But (he he), when I stopped being a factory slave while in university, I was hungry for a job on campus.

So, I applied to everything:

• Dishwasher at the cafeteria
• Library put-a-book-back-on-the-shelf guy.
• Front desk at the U of Waterloo’s Turnkey

You can follow people’s “procedures“ for getting a job. But at the end of the day, it’s people deciding which people they prefer to work with.

And because I never got a callback after “following the steps,” I checked in at the places where I submitted my resume.

I showed up once or twice a week, inquiring if they’d already filled a position or had another position available.

After the 4th time I visited the Turnkey front desk, they said:

“You know what, come back next week at 9 am for an interview.“

Guess what? I got hired.

My point here, in the context of “cold emailing“ is that a no response is a good response.

You can assume any of the following when the email you sent got no response:

Optimistic Assumptions:

• They saw it, but were busy and got distracted
• They have an overflowing inbox and missed it
• They started a reply but forgot to send it

Sad Reality:

• You were sent straight to spam
• OR—they manually sent you to spam (ouch!)

Again, I will teach you everything I know about cold emailing—for free—when you click here and join my newsletter.

3. Build a Lead-Gen Copywriting Website

You know what’s crazy, 9 out of 10 websites for copywriters suck.

Actually, that’s probably not a true stat, but my experience proved that most copywriters have outdated or poorly designed websites.

Yes, even website copywriters. I’ve seen their websites. Total crap.

I won’t list them here because they’re so bad and probably working at McDonald’s again.

Instead, here are a few notable copywriting websites to study and learn from (don’t forget to browse around Jacob’s website (I mentioned him above, in part 1⁠, remember?):

• MichalEisik.com — B2B Tech Copywriter
• Daniel****.com — Nope! Sorry, I’m not linking it. Just checked the guy’s site as I write this and it changed since the last time I saw it. It sucks now and shouldn’t even be on this bullet list. My bad.
• HoneyCopy by Cole Schafer — A true f***ing legend (TFL). Although, I never met the guy and maybe I shouldn’t. They say, you should never meet your heroes…
• VeryGoodCopy by Eddie Shleyner — Another TFL. But actually, the only old school copywriter alive today that’s turned traditional copywriting into a website that’s clickable, readable, and f**able (sadly, my headphone jack port won’t fit my meat stick, otherwise I would…)
• CopyAdsContent.com by… Me! — I’ve gotten a nice number of leads here. Some because Google was good to me, others because AI recommended me. Or this guy⁠, who was hunting for a copywriter on LinkedIn, found my website, and said “Jef! I loved your site. I knew you were the right guy for this job!“
• HXCopywriting.com — My new copywriting brand and weekly letters⁠.

If you don’t know how to build a website that gets your copywriting business found online or you hate web design, let’s talk⁠.

I can help you build the architecture for your copywriting website, with an easy way to manage and grow it.

Don’t worry, I’m not concerned about competition. There is no competition here. When I’m compared to other copywriters, I get hired every time.

Well, truthfully, I only know my competition because my client revealed them to me (when I asked AFTER getting the invoice paid). 

Should I reveal my real copywriting competition in a future post?

If so, subscribe to my newsletter⁠. My site will count your signup as a vote toward revealing my competition.

Yeah, it does that.

You’d be amazed at how I’m doing sites these days (since abandoning WordPress). Happy to tell you more about that, if you book a consult.

Not ready for a consult? No worries!

I hope this article helped you.

Every Monday I post new Copywriting opportunities here⁠.

Good luck on your hunt for a new copywriting gig.

p.s.

Copywriting is NOT dead.

Because AI writing is still shitty af.

And there’s plenty of money to be made as a writer.

;)