A Clever Way for Copywriters to Live High on the Hog Without Working for Clients
By Ben Settle

If you are a copywriter who wants to (1) make a nice monthly income without needing so much as one single copywriting client, and (2) live like the proverbial hog in the fat house … then the following is how one of my students does it. And how you can, too.

Here’s the full story from my customer and student David Kyte. He’s an AWAI Member like you. He sent this to me after I wrote some emails to my list about building businesses selling subscription-based offers:

Thought I would update you on a little offer I created a few weeks ago.

I have a list of 2,000+ nursery owners — all vetted.

Email 3 times per week.

Mostly do mastermind groups with Zoom (no prep). :)

Decided to offer simple Google Ads campaign for them.

£300 setup — £99 per month management.

Management takes about 2-3 hours on a Monday a.m.

Results: 13 campaigns going already, 20 more in waiting list.

Aim to have 20 clients — generating £2k per month for less than a morning's work.

VA (probably my wife, ha ha) will take over the work shortly so I will have to do less.

You don't have to build a seven-figure business — 20 minutes x 3 times per week to keep tribe happy and a morning a week to deliver.

There's more than 1 way to building recurring revenue.

When you are closing rapidly in on 63 years old, semi-retired, have a lot of golf to play, not interested in building a large business, but would like some golf and beer money — job done.

Gotta love the subscription model.

Use as you wish. ;)

David then followed that up with these details:

So far I've had subscriptions for

property investing
horse training
marketing
magazine
masterminds
credit checking
coaching

Didn't like coaching — too much like a job … ha ha ha

The horse training generated £90k per month. :)

Let’s “unpack” this, as he literally handed everyone reading this article a business plan in 222 words.

The key thing to note is he uses nothing but subscription offers.

This is the core idea that makes it so writers wanting a clientless copywriting business — where you are your own client, and don’t write copy for anyone else — can potentially have a workday reduced to just minutes per day.

Or, as in David’s case, a short morning each week.

Subscription offers are a beautiful thing for customer and seller alike.

It’s why you are seeing more and more companies — including gigantic companies like Disney, Microsoft, Adobe, and hundreds of others — switching their business models to revolve around subscriptions. It’s simply much easier for a customer to pay a monthly fee for entertainment or software, that is always there and always updated, than having to buy those same offers each time there is a big update.

Some people call this the “Netflix” model.

But Netflix certainly did not invent it.

Subscription-based business models have been around since at least the first record-of-the-month club was launched, and probably even before that. They are not only very profitable for businesses, but customers tend to love them because it makes their lives simpler, saves them time, and creates a buying atmosphere where everything is delivered to them, instead of them having to go out and get anything.

For example, think pizza delivery vs. takeout.

Which brings us to copywriters wanting to use subscription offers to build a clientless copywriting business.

It can be as simple as following these steps:

1. Find a market to sell to that has money to spend.
2. Acquire or create solutions for problems that market (preferably) is already paying money for or investing in to help solve.
3. Make your core offer a subscription offer and not a one-time offer. Yes, your subscription-based offer should be the “core” of your business.

In fact, many years ago I remember reading a Dan Kennedy article saying how, by his estimate, he probably left some $20 million on the table by not having continuity (i.e., a subscription offer) in his business from the start.

The good news is there are many subscription offers options to choose from — from information (newsletters, membership sites, etc.) to ongoing coaching (masterminds, group coaching, etc.), to software (mobile apps, games, etc.), and the list goes on.

If you want to have your own clientless copywriting business, you have two choices:

1. You can sell a one-time offer and have to keep going out and getting new customers to keep your income the same or grow it each month.
2. You can sell subscription offers where your customers automatically “rebuy” each month, and that gives your business an ever-stronger layer of financial security with each new customer.

Technology has made this easier than ever.

You simply have to do the work and use the copywriting skills you already possess.

If you want help with structuring a clientless copywriting business, my 10-Minute Workday program can show you how. Like anything worth doing, it takes a lot of work to get set up, and you will have to be able to think independently without requiring hand-holding.

But once it’s up and running, the sky truly is the limit.

What questions do you have about launching a clientless copywriting business? Share with us in the comments so we can help.