The 3 Top Things That Will Have the Biggest Returns to Your Writing Business
Lessons on building a freelance writing business.
Welcome to the 7th edition of The Essence!
For this edition, I’m bringing you lessons inspired by an article I wrote almost a year ago.
It was one of my first articles on Medium. I self-published it. But soon, The Startup editors asked me to publish it with them.
Although it didn’t get many internal views, the article still gets me a couple of external views a day.
It is a case study of Joe Karbo and how he was able to sell millions of copies of his self-help book, The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches.
I first came across Joe Karbo’s story while reading my favorite copywriting book, Advertising Secrets of the Written Word. I was hooked. Then I went on to study his popular classic ads and learn more about him.
Here are some of the best lessons I learned from Joe Karbo and his marketing efforts:
You can barely sell without credibility and social proof
Credibility or social proof, as coined by Robert Cialdini in his 1984 masterpiece Influence, is one of the top things that can have the biggest returns to your writing business.
Writers in Charge CEO, Bamidele claimed that social proof can make or break a writer’s career. I cannot agree more.
Guest blogging expert, Aaron Orendorff, wrote this about guest blogging:
“Guest blogging was the primary sales funnel that grew my freelance business from nothing to six figures in a year and a half.”
In his popular ad for The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches, Karbo humbly bragged about his wealth. He mentioned his Cadillac, two boats, mountain cabin, and his beautiful office beside the beach.
But he didn’t just brag: He also provided proof. At the end of the ad, he included a statement from his accountant testifying that Karbo’s net worth exceeded one million dollars.
This statement alone gave him enough credibility for people to buy his book.
You can’t tell people you have the secrets to wealth—the lazy man’s way—and expect them to trust you without evidence. Karbo knew that and chose a powerful way to show proof through a sworn statement from his accountant.
You probably already know social proof’s importance. The real question is; how to get social proof?
There is no one way. You can write for major publications. You can become a top expert in your niche by getting accomplishments, or degrees, and certifications.
Or, my favorite, by building an audience.
A loyal audience can make your rich
Joe Karbo co-hosted “The All-Night Show” alongside his wife from 1961 to 1963. He also published several how-to books before The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches, selling tens of thousands of them.
This existing audience didn’t just give him social proof, it helped sell his book.
Loyal readers can market your product or service better than you. Word of mouth marketing works best because it’s more genuine.
A loyal audience can take you from a broke artist to a self-made millionaire. How? Well, there is a reason why Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 True Fans concept is so popular. All it takes is 1,000 loyal readers to earn you a six-figure income. If each one paid you $100 a year, you will make six figures.
But even if you don’t charge your audience, they will help you with credibility and social proof. You can approach a company with confidence and sell them marketing services. An established audience is a solid proof you know your marketing. You can say:
“I can build your email list. I managed to build my own to 5000 subscribers. I learned a lot doing so.”
Again, the question is how? And again, there’s no one way to go about it.
You can start a blog, a newsletter, or both. You can write on platforms such as Medium and LinkedIn. Guest blogging can help you build an audience too by linking to your newsletter at the end of each post.
Find out what works best for you and do it. The key to building a loyal audience is consistency and providing value. And, this should go without saying, patience. Lots of patience. It usually takes years to build a loyal audience.
Excellent copywriting skills can make you richer
In Karbo’s classic ad for his book, many things stood out to me. The powerful 31-day money-back guarantee satisfaction conviction. The design of the ad. The social proof he presented.
But what stood out to me the most was the way the ad was written. I was hooked by his copywriting skills. I couldn’t resist reading it more than 50 times.
Quoting myself from my old article:
“He got the headline right, the sub-headline right, the first sentence right, the second sentence, and the third one right. Then from there, you can’t stop reading. You can’t stop reading. You just can’t stop reading. You can’t stop until you finish.”
I couldn’t take my eyes off until after reading the last line.
That’s the power of excellent copywriting skills. It is perhaps what will bring the biggest return to your writing business. After all, as Beth Comstock said, you can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything.
Don’t make the foolish mistake many writers make and disregard learning how to sell. How can you sell your services to clients if you don’t how to sell? How are you going to sell products or services to your readers?
Selling is a must-have skill in every professional writer’s toolkit. And copywriting will let you know how to sell through the written word.
It matters not whether you write for companies, your blog, newsletter, copywriting can always make a world of difference.
I do not doubt the importance of these three things. That's why I’m trying to do my best to develop them. I suggest you do the same.
With excellent copywriting skills, credibility and social proof, and a loyal audience, your writing business can exponentially thrive.
Until next time,
Mohammed
Great stuff here, Mohammad. Keep it up. This is very insightful as I'm rebranding myself and overhauling my entire social presence from keywords on my new website, to targeting my audience and consuming as much information as possible from credible people such as yourself.