Profession of a copywriter: responsibilities, requirements, how much he earns. Who is a copywriter and what does he do, what is copywriting and how to make decent money from it? The advantages of working as a copywriter
Yandex gives a rather interesting definition when asked “who is a copywriter”. The search engine displays the answer in the card: “Copyright Specialist, advertising activities" This definition is somewhat incorrect. Nowadays, copywriters are anyone who writes text: descriptions of sections in online stores, blog articles, meta tags for pages, product characteristics and many other types of content.
A copywriter searches, processes and processes information, creates original materials, interviews and comments from experts, monitors literacy and is responsible for the result. Some specialize in informational texts- those that respond to the user’s main request, some are advertising ones: their goal is to sell services or goods. Copywriters write:
- texts for landing pages- one-page websites created to sell a specific product;
- SEO articles- content with keywords optimized for further promotion in search engines;
- blog articles- useful cases, opinions, detailed longreads on a specific topic;
- advertisements for sale for bulletin boards and social networks;
- press releases— for distribution to the media;
- many other types of content.
The scope of responsibilities of a copywriter depends on the requirements of the employer. In general, the correct range of responsibilities is searching for information, fact-checking and writing texts according to the provided technical specifications. Less often, a copywriter’s responsibilities include posting materials on a website, that is, working with a CMS. But the wider the range of responsibilities, the greater the responsibility, and, accordingly, the level of earnings.
The market dictates its conditions, and today various tasks are added to the responsibilities of a copywriter:
- searching for experts to interview, writing questions and interviewing;
- development of a content plan for the site, corporate blog or social networks;
- editing your own and other people’s texts, correcting various errors;
- posting texts, photos and videos on the website via CMS;
- monitoring reviews about the company and addressing negativity;
- Creation positive image companies in global network Internet, writing positive reviews ;
- development of memorable slogans, company names, headers;
- selection and clustering semantic core for the site or a separate article.
Copywriters often find themselves underestimated or, conversely, overestimated. In the first case, they are trusted only to write the text according to the prepared technical specifications, and the editing and finalization of the text is carried out by a proofreader, editor, or content manager. In the second case, the copywriter himself carries out the analysis, looks for a topic, selects keywords, writes and edits text, uploads it to the website, carries out optimization and responds to user comments. Such a “multi-armed many-legged” is beneficial to the employer, because he can be paid less than all the specialists individually. But the speed and efficiency of work in this case are reduced.
Most often, employers have simple requirements for a copywriter. Among them:
- literacy - it is needed so that the specialist does not make grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors;
- education in the field of journalism or philology - journalists know how to work with information, and philologists usually write competently;
- the ability to work with a CMS - this is necessary so that the copywriter can upload articles or edit texts on the site.
Also, employers may impose many other requirements on a copywriter - for example, knowledge of English, free access to the Internet for most of the day, availability of accounts in social networks. The list of requirements depends entirely on the tasks that the copywriter must solve, and the personal preferences of the employer or customer.
An example of requirements for a copywriter from a vacancy on hh.ru Many customers who really monitor the quality of content require certain competencies from the author, for example, an understanding of the basics of Internet marketing for writing blog texts marketing agency, medical education to create content for a medical information site or experience in the construction industry, almost like in the example above. This way, the customer has a greater chance that the author will not make factual errors and will issue good material right the first time.
There is a lot of debate on this topic. This is because everyone has their own truth: someone works all day on the stock exchange at meager rates and barely earns 100 rubles a day, and someone takes from 10,000 rubles for one article and writes it for several days.
The range of prices in copywriting is huge. Dumping appears thanks to newcomers who come to the profession from maternity leave, with the desire to earn extra money in addition to their main job or “out of nothing to do.” Orders for them are calculated at 5, 10, 15 rubles per thousand characters of text. On the same Etxt exchange, for example, there are a huge number of them.
Example of a “five-ruble” order on Etxt If a copywriter does not “grow,” he risks becoming disillusioned with the profession. Because you can get a lot of money for articles if you actually solve the customer’s problem with them. And this is possible with constant training, improving skills, and mastering new competencies. Top specialists easily earn from 200,000 rubles per month. Copywriters who do not promote themselves in any way, but write well, can earn 100,000 rubles a month or even more. It all depends on your skills, desires and ambitions.
Copywriting training
Due to its characteristics, many people try to teach copywriting. But you shouldn't trust everyone. It is better to choose proven courses.
The course is called "Commercial editor/copywriter." The course includes three modules, each of which is designed for a different level of readiness. The first module is for beginners, the second is for experienced authors, for those who are ready to manage authors.
Well “Copywriting from A to Z”, where you will master the skill of creating content, learn how to write texts for any audience, competently engage the reader, and distribute materials on social networks and other platforms.
Instead of a conclusion
- copywriter writes texts. Miscellaneous: texts for landing pages, storytelling, SEO articles and others;
- The responsibilities of a copywriter are to write texts. Various, in compliance with the requirements of the technical specifications;
- requirements for a copywriter - to write according to specifications, to be literate and smart, and a bunch of other things depending on the customer;
- a copywriter’s income depends only on him, because freelancing you can take on an unlimited number of projects, and you can always learn something new
Are you planning to develop in copywriting? If yes, ask your questions - we will be happy to answer them.
In English, the word “copywriting” is a neologism and is not represented in dictionaries. The word "Copywriter" ( copywriter) is interpreted as “a writer of advertising and propaganda texts” ( a writer of advertising or publicity copy).
Copywriting has nothing to do with the term “copyright” (English copyright), which also came from the English language, which has a completely different semantic meaning.
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The activity called copywriting has existed for a very long time. It arose along with trade, since the seller’s remarks are already the result of copywriting.
The texts invented by copywriters of the Soviet era were and remain very popular, many of them turned into catchphrases (“Smoking is harmful to health”, “Chatterbox is a godsend for a spy”, “Build firmly - deliver ahead of schedule”, etc.). Many advertising slogans are also known to this day: “Tryokhgornoye beer will drive out bigots and moonshine,” “There have never been better nipples. Ready to suck until old age”, “Nowhere except in Mosselprom”, “Keep your money in a savings bank”, etc.
Species
Direct Response Copywriting
Within advertising agency a copywriter works in tandem with an art director. This symbiosis is called a creative couple.
John Caples (1900-1990) is considered one of the pioneers of copywriting in direct marketing. His book Tested Advertising Methods was first published in the United States in 1932 and has gone through numerous reprints due to its continued relevance. The book was published in Russian in 2011.
Copywriting may mistakenly refer to texts whose technical uniqueness is close to 100%. To determine technical uniqueness, automated software is used that compares text fragments with similar texts posted on the Internet. The result of the measurements is the ratio of the found fragments with total volume text - the more matches, the greater the likelihood that the text is plagiarism or compilation.
LSi-copywriting
LSI copywriting is a technique for writing text material that increases its relevance when analyzed by search engines.
In 2012 chief engineer search engine optimization Google Matt Katt emphasized the role of natural content, target audience which are real people, not search robots.
A year later, Google launched the Hummingbird algorithm, which began to perceive content as a collection of words related to each other. The program analyzed texts on websites in terms of compliance with user search queries and was able to “understand” the essence of the content and the relationship between words.
The peculiarity of LSI copywriting is its dual role: such textual material is rich in relevant key phrases and is tailored to the thematic needs of readers.
Copywriting and rewriting
The difference between copywriting and rewriting is the originality of the structure and content of the text; borrowing is allowed only for quoting purposes or when using established terminology, for example, in medical or legal texts, where a free interpretation of some terms is unacceptable. This rule This is true for all types of copywriting, including SEO copywriting.
In literature
Works as a copywriter main character postmodernist novel by Victor Pelevin “Generation “P”” by Vavilen Tatarsky.
See also
Notes
Literature
- Mayorova N. Metacopywriting. Line spacing in your texts. - [b. m.]: Publishing solutions, 2017. - 96 p. - ISBN 978-5-4485-7553-2
- Mayorova N. Neurocopywriting. What you haven't read about the texts - [b. m.]: Publishing solutions, 2017. - 50 p. - ISBN 978-5-4485-7650-8
- Kaplunov D. Neurocopywriting. 100+ techniques of influence using text - M.: Eksmo, 2016. - 352 p. - ISBN 978-5-699-89113-9.
- Panda.P Copywriter, grow! About selling texts and professional growth- M. Peter, 2016. - 224 p. - ISBN 978-5-496-02055-8
- Ogilvy D. Ogilvy on advertising. - M.: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2012. - 240 p. - ISBN 978-5-91657-458-6.
- Ogilvy D. Revelations of an advertising agent. - M.: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2012. - 240 p. - ISBN 978-5-91657-465-4.
- Bernbach B. Levenson B. Bill Bernbach Bible. The story of advertising that changed advertising business. - M.: Eksmo, 2011. - 288 p. - ISBN 978-5-699-45877-6.
- Hopkins K. My life in advertising. - M.: Eksmo, 2010. - 304 p. - ISBN 978-5-699-42036-0.
- Hopkins K. Scientific advertising. - M.: Eksmo, 2007. - 128 p. - ISBN 5-699-15765-4.
- Caples D. Proven advertising methods. - M.: Career Press, 2012. - 376 p. - ISBN 978-5-904946-54-8.
- Sugarman D. The art of creating advertising messages. Directory of an outstanding American copywriter. - M.: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2013. - 400 p. -
In short, a copywriter is a specialist who creates texts. Often this is a generalist writer who can write advertising text, congratulations for the school wall newspaper and instructions for a pocket knife.
When creating a text, a copywriter searches for information (in various languages), reads found materials (one of the main tasks is to understand the topic so as not to write nonsense), selects quotes for an article, interviews people (sometimes an article needs reviews or opinions of people).
Life story. I started writing a sales article on tent hangars. There are no difficulties with literacy and style, but in hangars I’m not “boom-boom”.
I read a number of articles about tent hangars - some things became clear, but there was a feeling of information overload. Then I decided to meet with the customer and talk. He asked questions, inquired thoroughly about clients, competitors, prices and alternatives to tent structures. After this meeting, I read more information on the topic and... somehow everything settled down in my head.
Next is the routine. An outline of the article, effective wording, a request to the customer for the selection of content (the article will require photographs of built hangars, a screenshot of one of commercial offers, two or three reviews), creation of text, coordination with the customer and improvements, final version of the article and its placement on the website. Hurray, the order is completed, you can relax.
Copywriter specializations
In addition to writing articles, the profession of a copywriter requires solving the following problems:
9 out of 10 copywriters know how to write in different styles and decide various tasks. Almost all multi-machine operators, because this allows you to earn more at the first stage. Once a specialist has a name, he can focus on one thing.
Places of work
Full-time positions of copywriters are found in online agencies, web studios, media, educational institutions and other companies. If the company is a large specialist, he works in a team with proofreaders, layout designers, journalists, correspondents and editors.
Among copywriters, there are many freelancers and those who work remotely and receive payment for finished texts.
Responsibilities of a copywriter
Basic job responsibilities copywriters are:
- Writing texts and content in various formats.
- Collection of materials - customer surveys, interviews, photographs.
- Drawing up and adjusting the content plan (when and what needs to be done). Planning the development of Internet projects.
Sometimes the tasks of a copywriter include:
- Entering texts onto the site.
- Translation of foreign texts.
- Participation in the creation of videos.
- Creation of presentations.
Requirements for a copywriter
The basic requirements for copywriters are as follows:
- Literacy.
- Ability to quickly find information on the Internet.
- Skill in using key queries in texts.
- Fast printing on PC.
- Portfolio of works.
Sometimes a copywriter must know HTML and CSS (for layout of material), English language(for translating articles), website admin panels (wordpress, joomla, UMI and others for posting articles on websites). Occasionally required higher education in philology, journalism or marketing.
How to become a copywriter
To become a successful copywriter, you first need to love writing and get great pleasure from it. You can evaluate the level of love for this business through maintaining your own blog or public page. This will give you the necessary skills and start a portfolio.
The second stage is fulfilling orders for customers. Since the customer will most often be a business, it is important to know the topics you are going to write about.
I regularly encounter one problem with copywriters - they have absolute literacy in writing and almost zero knowledge of the topic. Recently I was looking for a copywriter for texts on MBA business education. 24 people applied, but I couldn’t choose a specialist who could clearly write about MBA.
For this reason, some copywriters position themselves as specialists in medical, legal, construction or automotive topics and build themselves a strong portfolio. These are popular and complex niches where for good articles you need a deep understanding of the issue.
How much do copywriters earn?
The salary of a copywriter on the company’s staff ranges from 30 to 80 thousand rubles per month. Big money is paid, as a rule, to those who can write and at the same time be a PR manager and marketer in one person.
Copywriters earn money in freelancing in different ways - some agree to work for 80 rubles per 1000 characters of text, others write for 300-800 rubles per 1000 characters (depending on the topic). Selling texts can be priced not by the number of characters, but by the piece - one text costs 15,000 rubles, for example. In general, prices are set at our own discretion and adjusted during negotiations with the customer.
There are two opinions. The first is that a copywriter is a person who can literally “print money.” The second is that a copywriter is a “rogue” who does what he does because he’s not good for anything worthwhile.
We will analyze which opinion is correct in this article. Looking ahead, I will say that copywriters are different. And let's find out what the difference is.
Be sure to check out our free training (opens in a new tab).
First, let's look at the most common type of copywriter - who they are and what they do.
Who is a “regular” copywriter, and what does he do?
In Russia, a copywriter is a living text generator for websites. Today, search engines pay great attention to ensuring that the site is filled with a large number of original articles. Then they consider this site to be “useful” and push it to the top of the search results.
That is, such sites begin to receive free traffic from search engines, which they then somehow convert into money. But in order for there to be a lot of money, there must also be a lot of visitors. And for this, there should be a lot of content (text articles) on the site.
Therefore, copywriters today are people who write a LOT of articles every day, and not at all different topics. The same person can write today about electric generators, tomorrow about treating gout, and the day after tomorrow about ways to train raccoons at home.
And here’s the question: how do people who need texts for a website find such “universal” writers?
Where does a copywriter get orders from?
There are many special online exchanges where you and any other person can register, call yourself a copywriter (fortunately, they won’t ask you for any diplomas or licenses), and start earning money by writing texts.
Here are some of the most popular exchanges for copywriters:
- Freelance.ru
- Weblancer
- Etext.ru
Working through exchanges is the very first stage of working with customers, and big money you won't see it there. Simply because several thousand more copywriters are registered on the same exchange, who also need something to eat.
Most copywriters use this tactic. They first complete several orders at low cost for different customers to show the quality of their work and their responsibility.
And then the customer invites them to a conditional permanent job. That is, of course, a copywriter is not registered anywhere, and no entries are made in work book doesn't appear for them. The customer simply begins to give all orders directly to the selected copywriter, bypassing the exchange.
This type of cooperation is beneficial to both parties. The customer is confident that his articles will be written with high quality and on time. And the copywriter does not pay commissions to the exchange, and, as a rule, receives much more than through the exchange.
As a rule, at the second stage of cooperation, the customer even stops giving the copywriter technical tasks. Whereas when working through an exchange, this is a mandatory component. Let's look at what it is in a nutshell terms of reference for a copywriter.
A technical specification is a description of what exactly a copywriter should write. The more detailed the technical specifications are, the better.
Typically, the technical specification indicates the topic, title of the article, and the main key query for which the article should be optimized. They also indicate the “tail” of the key query - these are smaller keywords derived from the main “key”, which must also be used in the text.
Well general requirements to the text - write more spoken language, or vice versa - more academic. How best to formulate the first paragraph, what to write in the conclusion of the article, and so on.
If all this is correctly described in the technical specification, then the copywriter is very lucky. This will make his work easier, and then most likely there will be no problems with the customer when handing over the work. And this often happens - the customer says “write me an article about London.” And the copywriter writes about Big Ben and the features of obtaining a visa. But in the end it turns out that I should have written not about the city, but about nightclub"London".
You can download an example of terms of reference for a copywriter. It will come in handy later.
And as I said above, when working with a regular customer, the need for detailed technical specifications usually disappears. There, the copywriter is already given only a set of keywords for optimization, and he does the rest himself.
But in order for a customer to want to work with you constantly, you really need to be able to provide high-quality text material. And let's look at how a copywriter works. All his work can be divided into three stages.
How copywriters write their articles
#1 - Gathering information
Having received the technical assignment, the copywriter opens many articles on given topic. For example, he needs to write an article about growing dwarf pines on his windowsill.
Thank God, the Internet is big, and he is far from the first to write something on this topic. This is where the stage called “vacuum cleaner” begins. The copywriter literally “sucks in” all the information from the articles, and then gives it out in a different form, in different words, but with the same meaning.
He cannot think of any other meaning, because he is not an expert in growing dwarf pines. And all he can do is repeat what others have written. But at the same time, it is important that the article turns out to be “original” from the point of view of search engines.
#2 - Text checking
The good news is that search engines are robots. And they are far from the smartest. Where a person immediately notices that such and such an article was almost entirely “ripped off” from another article, the robot will accept it as completely original.
But the copywriter definitely needs to check the level of “originality” of what he has done. This is one of the main parameters of the quality of his work. And it depends on this whether the customer will accept his work or not.
And for this, the copywriter goes to a resource like this one, there he inserts his text into the window and checks it. An acceptable value is originality of at least 96 - 98%. If it turns out lower, it needs to be improved. That is, again changing words in places, replacing synonyms, and all that jazz.
There are also other formal parameters of text quality. For example:
- Percentage of water in text
- "Nausea"
- "Academic Nausea"
If the indicator of the same “nausea” (using the same word in the text) is too high, then the text must be rewritten. The same thing with “water” is the use of empty words that only complicate the understanding of the text, and are written solely “for volume.”
Theoretically, drier articles have a better chance of getting into the TOP. But this is only theoretical. In practice, it turns out that people like to read more lively articles. And if the article is written like a scientific report at an institute, then no one will read it.
After required level“originality” and “quality” of the text have been obtained - the copywriter moves on to the final stage of work - optimizing the text for SEO.
#3 — Optimizing text for SEO
Actually, this is what everything is started for. We need not just an article, but an article that search engines will show in first place for certain queries. And at this stage, the copywriter places in the article all the necessary keywords that are specified in the technical specifications.
Usually the main keyword query gets the most attention. There should not be very much of it in the text, but not very little either. They try to insert the main “key” in a direct word form:
- In the title of the article;
- In the first paragraph;
- In the subtitle (slightly changing the word order);
- To the end of the article.
Then the person who will publish the article will place the same key in the description, in alt tags for pictures, and in other places. This way we will ensure that not very smart search engines still understand that our article is about exactly this and not about something else.
As you can see, this is not the easiest job. Find material, write formally high-quality text, optimize the finished text for the necessary key queries. Perhaps such complex work should be paid accordingly? Unfortunately no.
How much do copywriters get paid?
Above, we described the ideal work process of an ideal copywriter. When it produces really high-quality text material that both search engines and people - real readers - will love.
Some copywriters try to work like that. And others simply produce tons of printed characters per day, without particularly thinking about the consequences. But both are paid very little. 50-70 rubles per 1000 characters with spaces (and sometimes without spaces) - this is the “normal” rate for a copywriter in Russia today.
The most expensive and elite copywriters will charge 100 - 150 rubles per 1000 characters. But at the same time they will have big problems finding customers.
That is, an ordinary copywriter needs to write 10 thousand characters a day to earn 15 - 20 thousand rubles a month. And this is provided that he works seven days a week. Why are copywriters paid so little?
Why are copywriters paid so little?
The point here is not that they have very simple work. We have already seen above that not everything is so simple there. Doctors, for example, also have a difficult job. But for some reason no one is going to pay them a million a month.
In fact, there is only one reason - there are a lot of copywriters. And there are much fewer customers. Accordingly, customers can dictate almost any conditions, and there will always be several performers who will be ready to work under these conditions.
In addition, even if the customer suddenly wants to find the best and most expensive copywriter in the world, and decides to pay him 1000 rubles for 1000 characters, it is far from a fact that he will get quality work done.
Strange as it may seem, the quality of a copywriter’s work does not depend at all on the price of his services. Someone who writes for 30 rubles per 1000 characters can work for you several times better than some “elite” who has orders less than 100 rubles. beyond 1000 characters and doesn’t look.
But in any case, these are all very low earnings at a very high workload. But there are copywriters who can earn several thousand dollars by writing just one text (and not even a very long one). Yes, there are some. But these are completely different copywriters.
How to earn 300 thousand a month as a copywriter
You see what’s the matter, in Russia the word “copywriter” means something completely different from what it means in the rest of the world. Our copywriters are the same “generators” who write articles for websites to promote them in search engines like Yandex and Google.
In the West, a copywriter is a person who writes selling texts for magazines, newspapers, or the same websites. And here the payment for work does not depend on any formal indicators such as “wateriness” or “originality”. The only thing that matters here is the result - how well the text will sell.
If you learn how exactly the printed word makes readers take out their bank cards and buy what you offer, then you will definitely never have problems with money.
Beginning sales copywriters (sometimes called “commercial writers”) usually take a percentage of the sales they can make with their copy. The sales letter can be posted in the mailing list, or on, or on social networks. And even on interest alone you can earn from one hundred thousand a month (by writing just 1-2 texts).
And seasoned copywriters charge 100-300 thousand just to write text. Even if he doesn’t sell anything, they receive their payment in any case. But seasoned copywriters, as a rule, make sure that the text sells, and very well.
A bad SEO copywriter is one who doesn’t dream of becoming an elite commercial writer. The question is how and where this can be learned.
Where can I learn copywriting for free?
Abroad there is a whole institute for training selling copywriters. There is even an Association of Copywriters and Writers. And you can pass large number trainings, get completely official “crusts”, and become a real professional. The tradition of copywriting in the West is long and rich.
We don’t have anything like this, and it’s not expected yet. Everyone has to get out on their own. Look for it yourself educational materials, practice, look for customers. Explain to customers that accountant Aunt Lyuda will not be able to write normal advertising text, and that this should be trusted to a professional.
I hope you found this little overview of who copywriters are and what they do helpful.
Don't forget to download my book. There I show you the fastest way from zero to the first million on the Internet (extract from personal experience in 10 years =)
See you soon!
Yours Dmitry Novoselov
