A while back, I was lurking in the CopyHour Facebook group when a post caught my eye.
By the way, CopyHour is a course offered by Derek Johansen.
It’s a structured take on Gary Halbert’s idea of neural imprinting — basically, copying out successful sales letters by hand each day.
Anyways, the post in the CopyHour group was by a guy going through the course, and trying to get started on Upwork as a sales copywriter.
He was asking for feedback on his profile overview statement. That’s the description about yourself you put on Upwork to tell potential clients about yourself. The trouble is, copywriters, especially new copywriters, mistake this for an opportunity to display their copywriting skills.
That’s exactly what this guy did.
He wrote a long, conversational post.
He tried to make the skeleton dance (“I’m new and inexperienced but that means I’ll work extra hard”).
And he even used a “secret” lead.
In my opinion, this is not the right way to toot your own horn as a sales copywriter on Upwork. So I responded to this guy with my thoughts, which might be relevant to you as well if you’re starting on Upwork:
1. Don’t be clever. There are good clients on Upwork but they are outnumbered by people who need miracles for under $50. To me it seems your description would appeal more to the second group than to the first.
2. Don’t apologize for starting out. The majority of people offering services on Upwork are incompetent to begin with — odds are, you’re already better. Instead, tell potential clients in detail what you will do for them, and give them reasons to believe you will deliver (beyond just trying hard).
You see, Upwork is basically a B2B platform.
People who are searching for freelancers on there already have a pretty good idea what they need. They just want to make sure you’re it. And that’s why fancy copywriting tricks that are designed to suck in prospects from cold traffic will only get in your way.
Instead, I think it’s much better to be direct with your Upwork self-description.
Yes, there are some tricks to making your description stand out, and making it more convincing. Though it’s more about putting on your marketing hat, rather than your copywriting hat.
Anyways, if you want to find out what these tricks are, and how I used them to write my own Upwork profile, you’ll be able to read about it in my upcoming book on the business of Upwork freelancing.
I’m planning to finish this book by the end of the month.
And if you want me to notify you when it’s out, simply sign up below: