Introduction
In this interview, we speak with Umair, a 22-year-old college student from New York who has generated $40,000 through copywriting. He shares his journey on how to start a copywriting business, the impact of AI, and his strategies for landing high-ticket clients using a commission model.
Founder Success Story: How to Start Copywriting Business QnA
Could you please give an introduction about yourself?
You pronounced it right. My name is Umair. I’m 22 years old from New York. I’m currently a student of the Copywriting Campus inside The Real World and I’ve made so far about $40,000 doing copywriting.
How did you find out about The Real World and what were you doing before?
I initially joined in 2022 back when it was called Hustlers University. I decided to test on TikTok, Instagram, and everywhere. I was interested in the make money online thing, so I decided to check it out. At the time I was in college and was very focused on that, so I wasn’t taking this thing very seriously until 2023. Once I started taking it seriously, I really started seeing results within a matter of months.
When did you start taking it seriously?
Probably August of 2023 is when I started taking it seriously. In July I joined the Copywriting Campus, went through the lessons, and in August I started outreaching and working on getting clients.
With the advent of AI, people say copywriting is saturated. What do you say to that?
You cannot use AI to write all of your copy. AI is a tool that will help you write copy, edit copy, and help with market research, but ChatGPT by itself does not write good copy. It’s a tool to help you write better copy, but AI itself is not a great copywriter. A professionally trained copywriter can write really great copy with the assistance of AI, but certainly not as good as a professionally trained copywriter alone.
What is AI missing compared to human copywriters?
It’s kind of that human touch. It sounds robotic. For the most part, AI copy sounds the same—it has this AI writing style which is not very relatable to most people. One of the most important parts of copywriting is relatability. A good copywriter will write in a way that the target audience relates to, using similar types of language, tone, and playfulness. AI is just incapable of doing that. AI is very good for analytical things, but it is a robot after all. When it comes to creative things, it’s not there yet.
Is copywriting saturated?
Copywriting is actually not saturated. Every single business on planet Earth could benefit from a professionally trained copywriter, every single one without exception. Many of them don’t have good copywriters. I see ads pretty often, from shorts to ads on YouTube to ads in the subway, and a lot of them suck. It is very obvious to me as a copywriter with experience that they could benefit from a good copywriter. I see businesses that could benefit from copywriting; they just don’t know it. Most people struggle with creating that need, so that’s why they say it’s saturated. They send five outreaches, it doesn’t work, and they say it doesn’t work. No, you just haven’t tried hard enough. Once you know how to sell the need, you can get clients relatively easily.
What has your progress been like in terms of mistakes and improvement?
The biggest mistake I made, and the biggest mistake I see many copywriters make, is with market research. Copywriting professors spend a lot of time teaching us about market research for clients, but no one ever does market research for themselves or their own business. No one analyzes their target audience or the clients they want to land. Once I started doing that, my results skyrocketed. I understood exactly how to outreach my target audience, exactly how to sell them, and exactly what they were looking for. Initially, I got clients through cold email and my personal network. In the start, it was pretty useless because I didn’t understand the process and didn’t do my market research, partly because I didn’t have the experience. But eventually, it got pretty easy. I got good results, got a case study, and kept upgrading from client to client.
How did you go about landing those clients and scaling up? How much were you charging?
I charge the same backend now that I charged then: a 10% commission on all the sales I generate. The only difference is back then I was working with clients that would do like $2,000 a month. If I scaled them and added hundreds of dollars, that was a big increase for them, but I’d make like 100 bucks. I just used those small clients to get experience, build my network, and get case studies. Then I got clients doing more money—bigger businesses. At 10%, for me, that went from maybe 100 to like 5 or 600. Now I have clients doing I think one and a half million dollars a month. I generate a lot of money for him, and he pays me next month—he’ll probably end up paying me 20K. I just kind of kept my case studies and kept upgrading clients to get bigger and better clients, so my commission grows proportionately.
How different is your average day now compared to before you joined?
Very different. Back then, when I joined, I was still a student, so most of my time was going towards that. I wasn’t spending as much time on the business. Nowadays, I spend lots of time on the business. I just wake up, work for pretty much most of the day, eat dinner, go to the gym, come back, work, sleep. Now I’m just very, very focused on this one thing, very disciplined. Once I make a bit of money, I’ll go out once or twice to have fun, but for the most part, my days are just work.
What is your drive that keeps you doing that?
It’s multiple things. For one, I like the game personally. I just think it’s super fun to keep growing. I have a personal drive to keep improving myself, keep getting better, and build a bigger, better income. The other part is I feel like as a man, I have a duty to make money for people I provide for. Eventually, I’m going to have a family of my own, so obviously, I need to make money for that. It’s the duty as well as just enjoying the game and personally having drive.
Is there anything to add for people who say you need more work-life balance?
Some people say that, and to them, I say to each their own. If you want work-life balance, you can have that. If I wanted, I could work less, have fewer clients, still make a very good income, and have more balance. I just choose not to. That’s one of the great things about having your own online business—you have that flexibility. If you want to have more work-life balance, you can. If you want to scale up to make tons of money and eventually have employees, you can work a couple of hours a week. If you are ambitious, you can work 100 hours a week. You can do what you want. It’s not like you have a boss telling you how to live. I work a lot because it’s my choice and I like it.
How do you continue to improve your copywriting skill?
I’m always trying to improve my skill set. I try to get better at copywriting, market research, and design because my service involves quite a bit of design alongside copy. There are also other things in the business that matter, like eventually hiring or scaling to an agency, so I have to learn about that and general business skills. Another important thing is that problems in your personal life will always manifest in your business. If you have no discipline, that will manifest. If you have no focus, that will manifest. It’s always a quest to improve yourself as well as copywriting and business in general. Over time, day to day, you’ll find inadequacies and things you can improve, and then I work on those.
What do your parents think about what you’re doing and dropping out?
They’re happy about it. They like it. Initially, they were a bit skeptical about dropping out, but they tolerated it. Now they’ve kind of come around. They’ve seen the success, so they’re very happy with it and very proud. The final step that made me drop out was that I had a bit of success at the time—working with tiny clients making little money. But I saw the long-term potential. I thought, “Okay, if I get bigger clients, they pay me a couple hundred a month. If I get bigger clients, I can make $2,000 a month. If I get real big clients, I could be getting five figures from each client.” I saw the potential there. I also saw other people winning inside the campus making tens of thousands a month. I thought, “Let me just go all in, hyper-focus on this thing, and inevitably I will win.”
Are you still involved in the community?
Yes, I’m still involved. Actually, I’m more involved now than I was a couple of months ago. I enjoy it. It’s fun to stay engaged in the community, you meet people, and you learn a lot. Helping other people is also pretty fun. It’s awesome. One of the best ways to get good at copywriting is critiquing other people’s copy. So somewhat selfishly, by engaging in the community, I myself become better.
What are your future plans?
Short term, I’m trying to keep getting more and more clients. I’m going to try to get as many clients as I can handle on my own. Once I hit that limit, I’ll try to be more efficient, get more clients, and keep repeating that. Eventually, I’ll hit a hard limit, so in the medium term, I’ll be scaling to an agency, hiring some staff, and growing this. In the long term, though, I’m going to use my copywriting skills not to do copywriting for e-commerce brands, but to own my own brands. I see a lot of potential there. Right now, I’m using my time as a copywriter to learn about the industry as well as make money that I can use to grow my own brands.
What advice would you have for aspiring copywriters struggling to land clients?
I would say two things. First, other people have done it. If they’ve done it, there’s no reason you can’t. Look at the leaderboard, look at the win channel in the campus—there’s tons of successes. If it’s been done before, there’s no reason you can’t do it. The other thing is that you’re starting out. When I was starting out, it took a long time to get my first client without really paying me much. My effective hourly rate was like $1.50 an hour. I was barely getting paid at the start. It was tough at the start; it’s always like that. But if you persevere and go through it, you will win. The good thing is that most people won’t. If you’re one of the people that actually keeps working hard for months and months, you’ll win. There’s going to be less competition. You’re doing the things that other people won’t, and that’s how you’re going to stand out and be better than everybody and really win.
What would you say to people unsure about joining The Real World?
You personally interviewed over 400 people who have succeeded there. There’s so many success stories. There’s so much evidence that this works. How can you say it doesn’t work? How can you call it a scam when there’s so many success stories? And that’s just some people that you’ve personally interviewed. There are thousands of success stories in The Real World. If you’re scared of investing $50, it’s been proven to work. You can’t really say it’s a scam.
Umair Business Stats
Umair has achieved impressive growth in a short period by focusing on a commission-based model and scaling his client base. Below are the key statistics from his copywriting business journey.
- Total Earnings: $40,000
- Commission Rate: 10% of client sales
- Time to First Result: 1 month (August 2023)
- Top Client Revenue: Clients generating up to $1.5M/month
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Business Model | Commission Copywriting |
| Primary Skill | Direct Response Copywriting |
| Start Date | August 2023 |
| Current Focus | Scaling to Agency |
Umair Method
Umair’s success comes from a strategic approach to self-marketing and client acquisition. Here is how he did it:
- Market Research for Self: Analyzed target audience before outreach to understand their needs.
- Cold Outreach: Utilized cold email to land initial clients.
- Networking: Leveraged personal network for early opportunities.
- Case Studies: Used results from small clients to attract bigger clients.
- Client Upgrading: Continuously replaced smaller clients with higher-revenue businesses.
Umair Tools
To achieve efficiency and high-quality output, Umair utilizes a mix of traditional skills and modern technology.
- ChatGPT (AI): Used for editing, market research, and assisting in drafting, but not for final copy.
- Email Clients: Primary tool for cold outreach and client communication.
- Design Software: Used to create visual assets alongside copy (specific tool not mentioned, but implied skill set).
- The Real World Campus: Community for learning, feedback, and networking.
Key Notes
Umair highlights several critical insights for anyone looking to succeed in the freelance space.
- AI is a Tool: AI lacks the human touch and relatability needed for great copy; it assists but does not replace the copywriter.
- Market Research is Key: The biggest mistake is failing to do market research for your own business to find ideal clients.
- Commission Model: Charging a percentage of sales allows for significant upside as client revenue grows.
- Perseverance: The start is difficult and low-paying, but pushing through the “grind” eliminates competition.
Get Started in Just 5 Steps
If you want to replicate Umair’s success and learn how to start copywriting business, follow these steps:
- Learn the Skill: Invest in a course or community to learn professional copywriting fundamentals.
- Research Your Niche: Don’t just research clients; research the businesses you want to work with and their needs.
- Start Outreach: Use cold email and networking to land your first few clients, even if the pay is low.
- Build Case Studies: Deliver great results to small clients to create proof of your skills.
- Scale Up: Use your case studies to pitch larger clients and move up to higher commission brackets.
Conclusion
Umair’s journey from a college student to earning $40,000 demonstrates the power of focus, market research, and the commission model. By treating his copywriting services as a business and continuously upgrading his clientele, he has positioned himself for exponential growth. His story proves that while AI may be rising, the human element in sales and copy remains invaluable.