The dark side of long-form copywriting for freelancers

Happy Wednesday! I'm Jim Hamilton. Over the past 7 years, my copy has contributed to $10m+ in sales for clients in health, biz opp, and B2B.

Each week, I send out 1 short-form copywriting tip to help you write ads, emails, and social content that sells.

Money is what attracts people to freelance copywriting.

The potential for a big payday if you write a winner is hard to resist.

Especially with long-form.

One sales letter, webinar, or video sales letter can be worth millions to the right client.

That's why top copywriters get paid 5-figure fees plus royalties to write them.

But after spending the first half of my career chasing long-form home runs, I can tell you it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.

Today, I’m revealing the dark side to long-form copywriting for freelancers.

Specifically, 4 things you need to know before committing to writing a sales letter, webinar, or VSL script.

Let’s dive in.

Read time: 2 minutes and 45 seconds

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1. Long-form pieces take a long time to write (duh)

Long-form copy typically runs 5,000-10,000+ words.

Even with AI and ChatGPT, producing that much polished sales copy is no small feat.

You’re talking countless hours researching, writing, and editing.

It can easily take 4-6 weeks or more.

Plus the mental investment is massive...

Which limits your ability to switch gears and work on other projects.

2. Long-form copy has a lot of moving parts

Crafting a high-converting piece of long-form copy is like putting together a gigantic puzzle.

There are a lot of individual pieces:

• Headline

• Lead

• Authority

• Credibility

• Fascinations

• Objection handling

• Paradoxical question

• Unique mechanism

• Story of discovery

• Product intro

• Features

• Benefits

• Close

• Etc

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, not an exhaustive list.

And the more puzzle pieces there are, the more complex it is to put the whole thing together.

3. It takes a long time to get data back

Data is gold for freelance copywriters.

You need to know how your copy performed in order to improve your skills.

Plus your ability to charge higher fees depends on your track record.

The problem with long-form though, is that writing is just the first part.

There’s still:

• Legal review

• Design & funnel build

• Tech integrations

• Product warehousing

• And more

Bottom line:

It can sometimes take another 3-6 months before it goes live and starts getting traffic.

Meanwhile, you’re stuck with hat in hand trying to line up the next project without any new results to showcase.

4. Long-form copy needs lots of traffic to be tested properly

You need a lot more than 100 clicks to test a webinar, sales letter, or VSL.

That means having a big enough warm audience to drive thousands of clicks, a robust network of affiliates willing to promote your offer to their lists, or a big enough budget to run cold traffic via paid ads.

The most successful direct response companies have all three.

But the reality is, many clients have none.

So while they may have enough cash to hire you, they don’t have the resources to properly test what you write…

Depriving you of valuable insight on how good your copy is.

Putting It All Together

Long-form copywriting can still be insanely lucrative for freelancers.

But you need the right client and the right offer.

And even then, writing a winning piece is really hard to do.

I’ve written 30-40 long-form pieces in my 7-year copywriting career.

Only 3 of them were winners.

So don't let the allure of a big payday blind you to the downsides.

That’s it.

Thanks for reading!

See you next week.

Jim Hamilton