Friday, April 29, 2005
Wealth and independence
That independent lifestyle part is also
important to me -- and many others.
Although I am NOT someone who says things
such as, time spent at home goofing off
is worth a reduced income.
My desire independent lifestyle will require
a larger than average income!
And copywriting does appear to be a good
opportunity for both the income and
independent lifestyle.
As a freelancer you're not tied to any
particular employer or place.
I've never been attracted to the idea of being
a corporate CEO who spends 16 hours a day
working or by making money from real estate
where I have to stay close to one physical
location.
I want to travel wherever I want to, whenever
I want to, with whomever I want to.
Most high income careers come with responsibilities
that make that difficult, although some have
travel-related perks. But they aren't under the
control of you.
I know of one copywriter/marketer who has that
traveling lifestyle -- Randy Gage, who I met in
1996 when I went to a seminar he gave on MLM.
I don't know how involved with MLM he is now. I
get his online newsletter and he talks mostly
about copywriting, online marketing and such
subjects -- as well as writing from Paris
outside cafes etc. Maybe he just does not mention
his MLM consulting in his newsletter. If he
actively works on building downlines, he must
do it internationally or just by having the
reputation he does, he gets people to sign up
under him.
As I recall, some time back he mentioned that he
had adopted an international lifestyle of
establishing 3 homes -- his base in Miami,
Costa Rica and Paris.
And I'm jealous that I can't afford this,
although I'd pick different locations, myself.
The one nit I would pick with the AWAI
copywriting course is when they say you can
do the business even without a computer. Whoever
wrote that section said they knew a professional
copywriter who wrote their letters out by hand,
then hired someone to type them up on a computer.
That may be, but I doubt if more than one or two
actually do that.
And what if you're living in a place where nobody
is familiar enough with handwritten English to
retype your scribblings? If your handwriting is as
bad as mine, even native English speakers can't
read it!
And you still have to be close enough to an Internet
cafe to transmit the file of your salesletter to
the client.
And of course banking is a problem, though
international ATM machines and Pay Pal are a
partial solution.
And if you are not close to an Internet connection,
regular mail delivery may be even worse. I know
foreign countries where mail to and from them and
the U.S. is 10 days at the major cities. In the
boonies . . . who knows? And I'd sure hate to
be waiting for a check, because it'd be very easy
for a check to be stole and fraudulently cashed.
So I do not recommend trusting the international
mail for anything important.
So if you want total independence from the modern
world, you need to carry all your assets with you.
That's not practical for most of us.
Copywriting comes close to offering the more
desireable mix of high income yet independent
lifestyle -- including traveling -- available.
Of course, even better is to have an Internet
marketing income that is virtually automatic
or needs only an Internet connection -- widely
available throughout the world except in the
very boondocks at Internet cafes or to have
enough investments generating automatic
income.
But copywriting's high fees can help you get
to the above places.
copywriting software
important to me -- and many others.
Although I am NOT someone who says things
such as, time spent at home goofing off
is worth a reduced income.
My desire independent lifestyle will require
a larger than average income!
And copywriting does appear to be a good
opportunity for both the income and
independent lifestyle.
As a freelancer you're not tied to any
particular employer or place.
I've never been attracted to the idea of being
a corporate CEO who spends 16 hours a day
working or by making money from real estate
where I have to stay close to one physical
location.
I want to travel wherever I want to, whenever
I want to, with whomever I want to.
Most high income careers come with responsibilities
that make that difficult, although some have
travel-related perks. But they aren't under the
control of you.
I know of one copywriter/marketer who has that
traveling lifestyle -- Randy Gage, who I met in
1996 when I went to a seminar he gave on MLM.
I don't know how involved with MLM he is now. I
get his online newsletter and he talks mostly
about copywriting, online marketing and such
subjects -- as well as writing from Paris
outside cafes etc. Maybe he just does not mention
his MLM consulting in his newsletter. If he
actively works on building downlines, he must
do it internationally or just by having the
reputation he does, he gets people to sign up
under him.
As I recall, some time back he mentioned that he
had adopted an international lifestyle of
establishing 3 homes -- his base in Miami,
Costa Rica and Paris.
And I'm jealous that I can't afford this,
although I'd pick different locations, myself.
The one nit I would pick with the AWAI
copywriting course is when they say you can
do the business even without a computer. Whoever
wrote that section said they knew a professional
copywriter who wrote their letters out by hand,
then hired someone to type them up on a computer.
That may be, but I doubt if more than one or two
actually do that.
And what if you're living in a place where nobody
is familiar enough with handwritten English to
retype your scribblings? If your handwriting is as
bad as mine, even native English speakers can't
read it!
And you still have to be close enough to an Internet
cafe to transmit the file of your salesletter to
the client.
And of course banking is a problem, though
international ATM machines and Pay Pal are a
partial solution.
And if you are not close to an Internet connection,
regular mail delivery may be even worse. I know
foreign countries where mail to and from them and
the U.S. is 10 days at the major cities. In the
boonies . . . who knows? And I'd sure hate to
be waiting for a check, because it'd be very easy
for a check to be stole and fraudulently cashed.
So I do not recommend trusting the international
mail for anything important.
So if you want total independence from the modern
world, you need to carry all your assets with you.
That's not practical for most of us.
Copywriting comes close to offering the more
desireable mix of high income yet independent
lifestyle -- including traveling -- available.
Of course, even better is to have an Internet
marketing income that is virtually automatic
or needs only an Internet connection -- widely
available throughout the world except in the
very boondocks at Internet cafes or to have
enough investments generating automatic
income.
But copywriting's high fees can help you get
to the above places.
copywriting software
Comments:
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Hi Rick,
One of my sources of contention with the AWAI course was that it glossed right over the computer and the Internet as tools for copywriting and for getting clients. I believe this is because the underlying marketing (which, interestingly enough brings in most of its students via the Internet)is designed to draw prospects into its parent company's mail-order publishing business as much as possible. Simply put, they want to ensure that the best and the brightest are "ripe" for the picking by Agora and its respective affiliates, who are big-time mail-order publishers. They do this by offering spec assignments to people who go beyond the basic course into the Master's course and boot camps and various other spendy courses.
As a marketer, I can appreciate this. It's just business as usual. But at the time I signed up for the AWAI course (a couple of years ago) I was somewhat less savvy. Looking back, I feel that they led me down the primrose path with promises of how easy it would be to get copywriting jobs from anywhere in the world. Since I live in northern Europe, the thought of being able to get work from abroad was a primary consideration when I signed up in the first place.
I later gave in and purchased one of their high-end packages for promoting oneself as a copywriter. Not cheap. And, while the Internet figured prominently in the course, it was again simply not geared for someone already living outside North America. Face-to-face meetings with prospective clients and heavy-duty telephone prospecting, oft- mentioned techniques in the course, are simply not possible when one is living abroad.
Yes, their methods could be transposed to a local foreign market. But that presupposes utter and total fluency in the local language and an economy that supports direct response copy. I have heard that in some places in Europe "our kind of copywriting and marketing" is going over big. Not here in Finland, however. But I do manage to get a bit of work writing promotional material for Finnish companies in English.
What I've had to do is branch out beyond the AWAI world in order to get the training I need, training specifically geared towards the Internet. David Garfinkel and Yanik Silver have been my two biggest mentors in this regard. I've also found that the marketing side of things for getting copywriting clients is better dealt with through techniques above and beyond the haphazard bread crumbs tossed out by AWAI and their ilk.
But AWAI is still a great place to start. It's only the beginning though...
Regards,
Bruce
One of my sources of contention with the AWAI course was that it glossed right over the computer and the Internet as tools for copywriting and for getting clients. I believe this is because the underlying marketing (which, interestingly enough brings in most of its students via the Internet)is designed to draw prospects into its parent company's mail-order publishing business as much as possible. Simply put, they want to ensure that the best and the brightest are "ripe" for the picking by Agora and its respective affiliates, who are big-time mail-order publishers. They do this by offering spec assignments to people who go beyond the basic course into the Master's course and boot camps and various other spendy courses.
As a marketer, I can appreciate this. It's just business as usual. But at the time I signed up for the AWAI course (a couple of years ago) I was somewhat less savvy. Looking back, I feel that they led me down the primrose path with promises of how easy it would be to get copywriting jobs from anywhere in the world. Since I live in northern Europe, the thought of being able to get work from abroad was a primary consideration when I signed up in the first place.
I later gave in and purchased one of their high-end packages for promoting oneself as a copywriter. Not cheap. And, while the Internet figured prominently in the course, it was again simply not geared for someone already living outside North America. Face-to-face meetings with prospective clients and heavy-duty telephone prospecting, oft- mentioned techniques in the course, are simply not possible when one is living abroad.
Yes, their methods could be transposed to a local foreign market. But that presupposes utter and total fluency in the local language and an economy that supports direct response copy. I have heard that in some places in Europe "our kind of copywriting and marketing" is going over big. Not here in Finland, however. But I do manage to get a bit of work writing promotional material for Finnish companies in English.
What I've had to do is branch out beyond the AWAI world in order to get the training I need, training specifically geared towards the Internet. David Garfinkel and Yanik Silver have been my two biggest mentors in this regard. I've also found that the marketing side of things for getting copywriting clients is better dealt with through techniques above and beyond the haphazard bread crumbs tossed out by AWAI and their ilk.
But AWAI is still a great place to start. It's only the beginning though...
Regards,
Bruce
Hey My Friend,
Enjoyed your article, I'm not sure if I've ever heard of your friend who you met at the MLM seminar you went to but if he's not still in the MLM consulting business here a great article full of resources that will help anybody who may be looking for MLM consulting. Just click on the followin link to check it out: MLM Consulting
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Enjoyed your article, I'm not sure if I've ever heard of your friend who you met at the MLM seminar you went to but if he's not still in the MLM consulting business here a great article full of resources that will help anybody who may be looking for MLM consulting. Just click on the followin link to check it out: MLM Consulting
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