How To Engage And Get The Most Out Of Your Membership

How To Get Maximum Return From Your Copy Chief Membership (Guide for Newcomers)

A helpful guide written by Copy Chief Community member Zac Hanson

I literally flushed over $600 down the drain.

When I first joined Copy Chief back in January 2019, I was all over the place.

Trying to figure out what I wanted to do, where I was going in my miserable freelance career as a failing Facebook Ads copywriter.

I was severely lacking confidence, so I was jumping all over the place.

So I joined in January, watched a few trainings and forgot about Copy Chief. Rarely logged in, didn’t do any of the challenges.

Essentially, I flushed 6-8 months of my membership down the drain.

Now after getting my mindset in check, I’m getting closer to 5 figure months (I’ll be there by December at the latest), and, I’m on the right path and committed on sticking there for the next year (at a minimum).

There is a lot going on here, and it can be a bit overwhelming for noobies so, I wanted to create a quick little writeup to help guide you in the right direction in this beautiful forum.

The Essentials
No matter if you’re a business owner, new/experienced freelancer, this is what I recommend to get the most out of your membership:

1. Make sure you log in at least 2X times a week.

You always want to balance your learning time with your work. So make sure you’re not spending 24/7 here, but you must be consistently coming back, or else you’re going to forget about it!

If you forget, simply “Follow” the forums you’re most interested in to make sure you get email notifications when there are new posts.

2. Go through the forums and get involved in discussions.

Don’t let imposter syndrome creep in if you’re new at this

You are way smarter than YOU give yourself credit for! Focus on adding value or asking questions. Everyone here is incredible (including you) so don’t think there are wrong questions.

Not sure where to start? Go to General Discussion >> New Members section and introduce yourself!

3. Use the Forum Search

If you want an answer to a specific question, you can click on that little search Icon in the top right, use the advanced search and punch in a keyword to see what others have already talked about.

You can do this for questions like prospecting, niche information etc.

4. Find The Right Trainings For You.

I’m going to give specifics for newbie freelancers below.

However, I wanted to list the top 3 CORE trainings I would recommend for everyone to go through in this order.

Please note that I haven’t finished ALL the trainings yet. I’m still going through them, but in my experience (no matter who you are), these are essential.

You can find ALL of these in the “Courses” section of your Training Dashboard

  • The Money Skills Trainings
  • The Question Authority Research Method
  • 4X6 Copywriting Method
  • 60 Second Sales Hook
    – The “reloaded” version is also excellent to see how powerful this is and how you can apply this to ANY market/client.

5. Get Involved In EVERY Challenge

I had a lot of regrets looking back at all the fantastic trainings with top marketers like Mike Rinard, Chris Orzechowski, and Rachel Mazza teaching story-driven Facebook Ads, Advertorials and Emails. All these trainings had challenges associated with them. You want to make sure you do these to hone your skills and get your copy reviewed by the experts.

Now, most months, there is a new challenge. Make sure you do it, even if it’s not your area of speciality because every time you get a chance to write, you’re going to do better.

Even if you’re going to hire someone for this role, you should still have a base understanding of how to do it yourself, so you know what to look for.

Moral of the story: do the challenges.

6.Join Chief Chats
Keep an eye out for Chief Chats. You can get Kevin and other expert guests to give you LIVE feedback on your work!

PLUS – It’s a great way to sit back, relax and have a few laughs with everyone while breaking down copy.

7. If You Can’t Find an Answer, Ask
If you can’t find an answer to your question in the forums, ask!

Create a new post in the Copy Chief Community Forums to get input from other members.
One of the ambassadors will almost always help you out so it’s an easy way to get your questions asked.

Advice for New Freelancers

Man (and woman), freelancing can be outright stress-inducing horrifying if you do it the wrong way.

I wanted to share a few great things I have learned from the community about freelancing and a few of the best resources to get clients and improve your copy game.

1. Read a Piece of Control Copy Everyday and Ask Yourself “How Can I Improve This”

This is SO important for new copywriters that are hand-copying right now. I never did the hand copy exercise, so I’m currently doing 45 minutes of hand-copying every day for the next 180 days and learned such an important tip from Kevin. He learned this from Gary Bencivenga when he was starting.

His pro tip is to review a piece of control copy every day and ask “How can I make this better.” Do it every day and every time you write something by hand.

You can find great examples to read in the “Swipe File” Section of the Community Forums.

2. The Money Skills Training

If you don’t know which direction you want to go in…LISTEN UP! The money skills training are gold. No wait.. platinum.

The money skills are in-demand copywriting skills that people have been asking Kevin for. This is where you want to go to pick what skill you are going to focus on.

Now, this may be daunting but this is how I recommend you do it.

Pick 1:
– Advertorials
– Facebook Ads
– Email

60 Second Sales Hook is part of the money skills training but it’s something that you should just know how to do because it’s so damn easy and powerful once you get it.

Did you pick one?

Great!

If not, ask a friend or someone RIGHT NOW to pick a number between 1 and 3
Facebook Ads 1
Advertorials 2
Email 3

Whatever number they pick, focus on that money skill for the next six months without hesitation.

Don’t switch, say to yourself “I am going to practice every day and master MONEY SKILL over the next 6 months”

Good, now that you have that sorted out, you should also go through a few other core trainings but specifically, all the research trainings in the “Elite Research” set.

Side note: Even if you focus on one money skill, go through all the trainings of Money Skills. Mike R’s storymapping framework is worth the entire admission of Copy Chief in my opinion. It’s the best Facebook ads copywriting training I’ve seen and I’m in 2 high-level Facebook ad courses.

You will notice overlap across all the trainings that you can apply to your chosen money skills.

3. Put your Wallet Away
The WORST thing you can that will cripple your freelancing career is to get sucked into information overload spending TIME and ENERGY buying and going through courses.

You have everything you need right here to become a successful freelancer. Don’t go on a course buying spree because, you’re going to waste your TIME and ATTENTION. Time and Attention are the most valuable resources that you can’t get back if you use them poorly.

The best way to learn is to use everything you have right in the forum as well as reference the amazing trainings you have in Copy Chief.

A lot of which will carry over.

For example, you can use Kevin’s 4X6 method to write a series of emails based on each section of the 4X6.

I’m doing this with Facebook retargeting ads at the moment, and it works wonders.

Or, learn Mike’s R’s story framework for Facebook ads and apply it to email or advertorials.

Point is, don’t waste your precious time on filling 90% of your calendar with learning activities. It will suck your soul dry (it did to me anyway). Write every freaking day, don’t just watch.

It’s like masturbation, it sucks. Way better to be a participant and dive in head first than sit on the side lines.

4. Prospecting and Finding New Clients
Search the forum. There are SO DAMN MANY great threads out there on finding clients.

5. Post in The Freelancer Business Zone
If you’re struggling with anything at all, post in the Freelancer Business Zone to get help from a pro.

And most of all, have fun! This is a great community and we’re a family. Excited to see you in there.

 

 

 

 

Not yet a member of Copy Chief? Click here to join!