On This Page: My “12-Step Program” for Quitting 9-5 Drudgery, and Replacing It with a Profitable, Adventurous, Freedom-First Freelance Copywriting Career
Here’s the master plan:
Do the exact right things in the exact right order to unlock a sustainable copywriting income. . .
I’ll let you fill in the blanks for the possibilities that will open up in your life.
For me, it was about never having to work in an office again, never asking permission to spend time with my family, and occasionally bunking off on random surf trips. (Costa Rica’s nice in January.)
You might want something different.
It might be as simple as stepping away from whatever you’re doing at the moment. Or the excitement of a “new beginning” and diving headfirst into your first writing project.
Maybe it’s the buzz of attracting a steady stream of clients to your business so you can handpick those who vibe with your vision.
And does anyone get bored of the sweet sound of money hitting your account while you’re at the gym or out for dinner?
Not me. Not yet.
This is the taste of freedom, at its finest.
Let Me Ask You This: ‘What’s Better than a Copywriting Course?’
How about a real, concrete PLAN. With action steps you can tick off as you go. And that move you forward in obvious ways.
Come with me – I’ve got 12 steps for you. Dive in, ignore fear, stick to the sequence, and you will be rewarded with reliable freelance copywriting income.
It is time to stop running around like a startled prawn. It is time to get paid handsomely and consistently. It is time – if you’re ready – to start freelancing like a grown-up.
Even a Startled Prawn Can Google “How to Get Copywriting Clients”
But what comes back is a mess. It’s like trying to tune one of those old radios during a thunderstorm. There’s the occasional note of clarity, but mostly it’s just static.
Why? Because the number of people playing this freelance game the right way is small. I’d wager between 1 and 2%.
And the guru courses appear to have all the parts. But when you look inside there are no assembly instructions. A common problem. But not here.
“This is the most actionable freelancing resource I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been through a few.” – Ray Butler, California
The difference? I’m a real guy. And this is a take-you-by-the-hand, step-by-step SYSTEM, not regurgitated generic advice.
Offers? I built and tested a formula for that.
“I picked this up a couple of weeks ago to learn the basics and it’s a steal. The anatomy of an offer section is worth the price alone.”
– Ryan Johnson, Texas
Phone sales? Here, take my 10-point call guide.
“I grabbed this a week ago, and yesterday, a prospect reached out to me after some back and forth emails asking me to send him the agreement. You saved my ass-never put together a contract before!”
– H.B, Seattle
It took me a while to work this stuff out. That’s because most people never attempt to understand anything IN DEPTH.
The good news is I’ve worked out exactly the things you need to do and the order in which you need to do them.
“I’ve run through a few copy courses but none of them go into as much detail as you about actually getting clients. I felt like I was in a rut this morning but having you lay out a foundation like that has helped tremendously and I can’t thank you enough.”
– Thomas W, Tampa
Here’s the Key Insight That Separates What You Are About to Learn from Every Other Course, Blueprint & Playbook
This took me 6 months to figure out. But it takes some people 6 years. Others never get it. I’m happy to share it with you today.
How good you are is not as important as how good people think you are.
You might have noticed some writers getting paid big bucks. You might have thought to yourself they’re better than you.
No one is better than you.
They simply know something you don’t know. They believe something better than you’re believing. And they are doing something that you’re not doing.
These are all things that can change very easily.
My Name’s Paul, Last Name French.
I trained as a journalist and wrote for magazines in London for five years. When I kicked the desk job and started out on my own, I saw there are 3 parts to the game:
PART #1: Can you write?
PART #2: Can you sell?
PART #3: Can you freelance?
Because writing a good sentence is a different skill to signing and keeping clients. That’s why good writers can stay broke.
And when I bought some copywriting courses, I realized something important:
They’re all copies of copies.
You can trace it all back to a few books you can get on Amazon. And at the end of the course they all say the same thing:
“Thanks for reading – but there’s no better teacher than experience!”
That’s why the smart move is to skip the gurus. Focus on getting clients, securing cash flow and learning the craft on the go.
So I decided I would put something together that would be about only the most important thing:
Getting paid in the real world.
There are 12 steps to making a freelance career work by signing clients on retainers.
And they’re right here waiting to go.
2 Weeks from Today?
You WILL be 14 days older.
You COULD be on your way to a stable and lucrative freelance copywriting career. Now find the nice pink buy button (it’s here somewhere) and click it.
“Wait a minute. That’s it? No lavish sales pitch? Where’s the unique mechanism? Call yourself a copywriter?!”
I do call myself a copywriter. A busy one. Busy working. For clients.
My materials are here if you want them. I don’t have a large social media following and I don’t rely on sales for income. I’m busy gaining deep experience writing for real products out in the wild.
Are you still with me?
This Is What’s Inside Freelance Copywriting Master Key
- The 3 KEY ingredients of a freelance copywriting offer. You don’t dream up offers, you build them. I’ll show you how to put yourself in the slipstream of regular work that pays well. If you do this the way I lay out, you cannot fail.
- A PRECISE plan for outreach. Please don’t demean yourself by lubing up and sliding into 200 DMs a day just to say: “Doing anything with email?” There are more dignified (and less excruciating) ways to go about things.
- The SIX questions I love to ask potential clients. If you try to put together a freelance copywriting offer by reading $100 Million Offers you are going to fail. Your job is to DIAGNOSE the problem.
- Avoid the mistake that cost me a huge amount of time. Don’t fall for the cult of consistency. Diligence in the wrong direction feels like momentum, but will not get you what you want. Do this instead.
- How I hit a 63% “close rate” on sales calls. I’ve got two things for you. The first is the mental model you must switch on. The second is the 10 points you must cover. If you leave even one of these out, clients tend to avoid making a decision.
- The secret to clients never wanting to let you go. There are two specific things I do every week without fail that will separate you from the pack. They’re quick and easy but will pay you financial and karmic dividends well into the future.
- The 53-word cold email script that made me $13,840. That’s how much my second client paid me over several months. You can send this script – unedited – to business owners in ALL industries, verticals, and niches.
- Specialist advice for “How to Handle Cash Flow.” There are 12 Steps inside Master Key. The 12th step is what to do with the money you’ve just made. Hint: not body shots and sushi at the strip joint. This is financial advice.
Pick Up Your Master Key for Just $197
Here’s the Buy Button
More Praise for Master Key
“Master Key lays out brilliant freelance strategies that normally take YEARS of trial-and-error to learn–I can’t even imagine how much further along I’d be if I had this when I got started. Should be the first thing anyone even remotely interested in freelancing touches.”
— Alex Getz
“Honestly, Master Key is just so good and so well written. The content is exceptional. As I read your story and instructions it created a mindset shift because now I can see the types of clients there are and how many are available. It was like you were programming new beliefs without outright stating it.”
— Chen @VisionAndSales
“If you’re a copywriter or freelancer struggling to get consistent paydays and you want to learn the ins and outs, the ABCs and the A-Zs of the *business* of freelance copywriting, look no further. Just go get it.”
— Eddy Quan
Who Built This?
I could make some claims about who I am and why you should listen to me, but it’s better to let happy clients do the talking (and inside Master Key, I explain how you can get testimonials like these).
“Paul wrote the indoctrination sequence to my personal brand’s newsletter. He really took the time to learn more about me, and recreate my voice for the email sequence. His work has resulted in consistent 5-figure months since the launch of the newsletter. Would highly recommend him for any sales and marketing matters for your business.”
John Constas, Kinesiologist & Lifestyle Optimizer
“I had the pleasure of working with Paul as a direct response copywriter and can confidently recommend him for any projects related to the marketing funnel. In particular, Paul was able to improve our email open rates, doubling them in some cases. His ability to craft compelling and persuasive copy helped us to drive more conversions.”
Jakub Michalski, Marketing & Community, AJ&Smart
“Paul re-worked my indoctrination sequence and as far as testing goes, I’m sold – I’ve already got a +20% jump in revenue. So glad we worked together and can’t wait to see what comes when I start promoting the email list.”
JK Molina, Tweets & Clients
“Paul is an excellent copywriter. The kind that does the research legwork so his writing never sounds like a formula. He delivers emotionally charged copy, on time, and is a pleasure to work with. Highly recommended.”
Oliver Cantin, Co-founder, and CEO, B1 Strategy
“Paul took what was a time-consuming and increasingly difficult task out of my hands and turned it into one of the strongest aspects of my business. So much so, that I regularly thank myself for choosing to work with him. He can accurately identify the energy I want to give off and then tunes it far better than I or anyone else could have – in turn actually creating a voice for the brand that never even existed before.”
Sami Loyal, 100K YouTuber
“I worked with Paul on a number of projects over a period of 18 months and apart from being an excellent writer and an overall badass to work with, I was always impressed with his analytical approach to the SEO side of content creation. His insights and understanding drove our SEO content to the next level and for example, as part of an individual month-long project, we saw an increase of 500% in traffic related to some of the most important keywords for us.”
Aleksi Seppo, Head of Marketing Intelligence at AirHelp
“Paul’s writing at CareerFoundry contributed to a 300% increase in revenue over the space of 12 months. He has become the person I always turn to when I want copy that converts. Due to his experience beyond copywriting, he’s also an excellent sounding board for strategic marketing ideas.”
Malcolm Cannon, Head of Communications at F2Pool