How many copywriting jobs can one reasonably take on?

I am a writer, not a copywriter, but I would suppose the conditions would be similar except that copywriters often charge much more for their work. You decide how much you want to work and then try to get enough work to fill that time. That's what I do, although it doesn't always work out as planned.

I think this really depends on the writer. If you are just starting out, it won't happen right away, it's something that you need to build up to. Factors like your experience and skill set will determine how much you can reasonably charge your clients. Having a solid client base certainly helps as well, but again, that's something that needs to be built up and comes with time.

I started freelance writing about 6 months ago and I can tell you a few things that I've noticed:

1) It gets easier as you keep going. I thought I was a pretty decent writer before I started but, I've noticed that the more I write, the easier it gets to just sit down and hammer it out... even my typing speed has increased dramatically.

2) The more clients that I work with and the more I vary the types of projects I work on, the more confident I become in myself and my skills.

3) Getting away from the content mills and the cheap-o clients is a must if you want to make a decent living and keep your sanity doing this.

So far, my method is to give myself a financial goal each month and do a combination of slowly raising my rates and taking on enough clients to satisfy my goals.

The most sales letters I ever did in a month was 10 and
I got sick afterwards, so I promised myself never again.

To each his own but except you are putting out boiler
plate copy, writing one letter would take some time,
Just that there is no 'standard' for that time.

-Ray Edwards

I've never thought about this as a part of making six figures. I decided how much I wanted to make, how many hours a week I wanted to work and what experience and expertise I brought to the table and worked backwards from there. I got there easier this way than I would have trying to see how many jobs I could take on.

And honestly, even if you had a definite answer now, there are thousands of things that could cause that answer to change just next month. Hell, it could change every month from now until you go toes to Jesus.

I've seen a lot of writers overextend themselves thinking in terms of jobs completed and volume. They get stuck in the "marketing like crazy, getting overloaded, stopping your marketing and working your butt off, panicking cause things are drying up, marketing like crazy, getting overloaded...etc" cycle.

There are more than just jobs to consider. You also have to consider marketing time, esp in the beginning. You'll be spending more time doing that than you will writing. If you're good, you can stop marketing about 2 years in and do really well of repeat business and referrals.

As far as number of jobs goes, too many variables. You might have 5 pages of web copy here, a 40k word sales training manual there and another long term project where you're doing more than just writing copy but you're building a marketing strategy for a new product launch or book publishing. It can be overwhelming to think too far ahead, people get distracted like that. If you're just starting out, set a goal to complete one job and get an amazing review from it.

Once you've done that you'll have a much better idea of what your workload will look like.

The better you are, the more value you can bring to the table... and the more you can charge.

When you really know what you're doing, you can get 6 figures off of one project. Probably not in up-front fees... but in upfront fees + royalties.

Of course, you won't get paid royalties unless you bring a commensurate skill set to the table. No one WANTS to pay you royalties, so if they can find someone else who doesn't take 'em, they'll do that.

When you really make money is when people hear your name and want YOU... not just "a copywriter" or "a marketing consultant".

But as always, you need to be really, really REALLY freaking good before you can get that kind of recognition.

Don't make it about the money... make it about how good you can get. Do that, and the gigs will sort themselves out.

-Daniel