Copy Cub Corner: Watch Colin go from Corporate Cubicle to Freelance Copywriting Freedom

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Pain Meds, Surveys, Long Copy Struggle, Schwartz — about time!

by Colin | February 26, 2009

It’s catching up to me. This daily grind I embarked on nearly a year ago. I popped two Robax Platinums just now. I ache from the base of my neck down to the small of my back. Muscle spasms. At twenty eight.

It hurts, dammit.

I also had small panic attacks this past week and a bit.

OK. Something changed right? It can’t just be the fact that I wake up at 530 AM and don’t sleep until half past midnight… fitting in job, copywriting and family right?

Yes, something changed. Shaune assigned the first long copy assignment in his copywriting coaching program and I am wrestling like Jacob and his angel on it.

Listen, I don’t want you to think I’m popping pain medication because of this coaching program. Becoming a copywriter doesn’t require the crazy stunts I pull – you have to remember, I have a full-time job, a young family and I’m accelerating my copywriting education and experience on top of that.

A sane person would take it easy and work on this secondary part-time business one hour a night. I am simply doing too much with too little. Do NOT role model me.

Also… I currently excel in Shaune’s coaching program and I set up tall expectations for myself.

I’ll talk more about struggling with this long copy exercise in the coaching section below…

Promoting My Copywriting Services…

Fuhgettaboutit. Didn’t you just read the section above?

Writing for Copy Clients…

Ditto. Very little work here.

Our subscribers at www.awakeparent.com reached the mid eighties though. Our traffic ranking on Alexa ranks at 785,000 from a 1.6 millionth ranking a month ago. And I got reciprocal links from a few parenting directories. Our page rank will achieve a 3 status soon… I can feel it.

(I have a secret weapon up my sleeve… good friend use to write articles on Adobe years ago. His byline linked to this old site he put up for his baby daughter… so it’s got a good page rank from that. He said he’d maybe link to us.)

To get away from the SEO-speak… I did write a bit of copy for the site. Added two new auto-responders to the main list. One “educates” the list on how to comment on blogs and asks them to “try it out” on a guest book. The second one asks them to fill out a survey.

Surveys rock. They rank second to an Intimate Interview™ if you can’t get them. You got to post the questions just right though, to identify their frustrations, fears and desires.

Of course… you need a much larger sample size with surveys when compared to 3 or 4 interviews conducted Shaune-style with the Secret Six™. And I must add… you may never reveal those hidden, emotional frustrations and unspoken objections with surveys. (Not many people type out their darkest secrets to a survey, you know?)

Like I said though, next best thing. A far second, sure, but better than visualizing the conversation in your prospects’ heads.

Shaune Clarke’s Copywriting
Coaching Experience…

As you may already know… Shaune Clarke’s copywriting coaching program focuses on a no–hype, graceful persuasion approach to copywriting… looking to break down buyer resistance through connection rather than shouting loud adjectives at the reader.

No surprise, then, the market he assigns the long copy exercise for – absolutely, utterly rejects hype. (The target audience: maternally-minded women, 25-40 years old.)

Yeah. Tough bananas.

You see… I’m a guy. I have problems understanding my wife… let alone her entire market segment.

Due to the turnaround on this exercise, conducting Intimate Interviews™ proved near impossible. I tried though. I posted on a few highly relevant forums to see if I could bait a few strangers to help me out. No luck. One moderator took my posting down lightning fast. Thought my message was inappropriate.

Geez. It was the most graceful, gentle forum post I’d ever written. Shouldn’t have said I was a marketing student doing research probably. If I had lied and said I was a psychology student… maybe. More honourable.

Welcome to your new world as a sales copywriter. Might as well accept it now. People HATE marketers. Deal with it.

So anyway… what’s the reason I wrote this blog so late? This long copy exercise. It’s killing me bit by bit and ever so softly.

Shaune warned us about this. The “power of the struggle” as he so eloquently put it. And a struggle it is.

I think I’m one of “those” writers who likes to talk about writing, critique writing, brainstorm writing, sketch out writing… but has chronic issues with sitting down and ACTUALLY write.

Several great writers dealt with this problem too. Coleridge, Fitzgerald, Heller.

Yep. I am definitely not an Asimov or King.

Copywriting Income & Expenses…

I gave up the “putting off” and plunked down the $95 for Eugene Schwartz’s “Breakthrough Advertising.” Going through my “about time” list recently… realized I still need to read all the classics.

Can you believe I have a copy of Scientific Advertising sitting around for over six months now? Don’t tell John. It would upset him.

And yeah… Caples, Reeves, Schwab. All on the list.

Otherwise… yet another neutral week.

Talk soon,

Colin Y.J. Chung