I woke up this morning and checked my emails to find a message telling me that I should be open with my pricing and write in a friendlier manner for those who might purchase my copywriting services.
The person who sent the message was genuinely trying to be helpful so here’s a brief explanation of why my fiverr gig is written like it is and why I don’t have my pricing up for you to see.
(For reference: my gig is https://www.fiverr.com/s/7tb3g1 )
The main reason it’s written like it is due to me practising what I preach. I’ve identified my ideal customer; the bootstrapping entrepreneur who can’t afford the services of a professional copywriter yet but understands the value of good copywriting.
With that in mind I wrote my copy to exclude everyone else; low quality clients, cheap clients, overly demanding clients, clients who don’t understand what’s involved in copywriting and clients who don’t understand communication.
Why? Because I don’t want to work with them. And besides, if I wrote my copy in a way that tried to appeal to everyone I’d appeal to no one and devalue myself in the process.
Moving on, the reason I don’t display my prices is because it’s an impossible task using fiverr’s pricing structure.
Copywriting involves several stages:
- Research
- Writing
- Testing
- Revision
Without knowing how much research you can provide me with and how much I need to do to fill in the gaps I can’t give you a quote.
If I priced per word (the most common method) I’d be charging you for the writing stage only; which itself includes brainstorming, first drafts, rewrites, edits and proofreading.
But more importantly pricing by the word has a fundamental flaw: In the process of determining the exact quantity of a particular currency required in exchange for the procurement of a quantity of words designed with intent and proficiency at increasing the number of readers and conversion of said readers into customers I can write any amount of bullshit and fulfil the criteria.
Good copy is concise; charging by the word encourages bloated copy.
Another reason I don’t display my prices is to encourage communication from the start: you have to talk to me to tell me what you need. As I don’t specialise in copywriting for every industry I like to give myself the opportunity to decline. (Those who do are rare, brilliant individuals are they’re lying).
If my services aren’t for you then that’s fine. There are plenty of copywriters on fiverr you could use so here’s my advice for finding a copywriter on fiverr that is worth their salt:
- They don’t charge by the word; they price for the project.
- They are native level speakers of the language you want your copy written in.
- They communicate with you.
- They guarantee their work.
Just be aware; if you pay just $5 for copywriting, you get copywriting that’s worth $5.
Take care,
Will