In my coaching program, a student who is an upcoming copywriter recently asked where he could find clients willing to pay higher rates for his skills.

Having built a client base through networking on Internet forums geared towards start-up business owners, he now wanted to find opportunities that would allow for upward mobility within his craft.

This is a common scenario, because start-up businesses are easy to find and provide plenty of opportunities to practice your emerging copywriting skills.

I talked about three tips for aspiring copywriters in the past. I recommend any new copywriter to follow these three tips to build a track record and get to a level that makes them appealing to higher-paying clients.

After your skills are developed, however, it becomes necessary to seek out clients — better, more lucrative clients — who are established enough to pay a fair wage for your skills and, above all, your results.

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Scarcity is a tactic often used in copywriting to create a sense of urgency and convince the “on-the-fence” customer to make a purchase decision. Above all, the goal is to prevent prospects from procrastinating.

As online consumers become wise to these direct-response copywriting tactics, one question often arises:

“What about digital products and electronic downloads, like ebooks and software? How can you create a sense of urgency for something that, in itself, is limitless (or perceived as such)?”

Here’s how to use scarcity selling effectively with digital products:

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The 10 Commandments of Power Positioning: Magical Marketing Strategies for Creating an Endless Stream of New, Repeat, and Referral Business is Michel Fortin’s ebook that brings together the art of positioning with the science of direct response.

This version is the 3rd edition with over 140,000 copies distributed to date! This is includes third party distribution since people are invited to freely pass the ebook around. In fact, the estimate is in excess of 140,000 copies in all. (It’s probably closer to 300,000 copies if not more.)

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I am not a copywriter. I make my fair share of sales online, but I have to assume that most people buy from me because they know me and like me. Either that or they really want what I am offering, and just roll their eyes and hunt for the order button. Because my copy skills stink — and they stink bad.

Over the years I have read everything that I can get my hands on about copywriting, and I’ve even made some substantial improvements. But just recently I found a much better (read: easier!) way to write sales copy.

It’s a backwards fill-in-the-blanks strategy, but it works.

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The buzz is on. People are talking about Rich Schefren, and they’re talking about him all over the Internet.

If you don’t know Rich, then you better get to know him now. Rich is a small-business strategist, and has helped many businesses — including his own — make millions upon millions of dollars.

His marketing strategies have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, ABC, CBS and NBC. He was worked with Jay Abraham, Stephen Pierce, John Carlton, Jeff Paul, Jeff Walker and too many others to mention here. He’s also a personal friend of mine and a brilliant marketer.

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Search engines change all the time and many of them now charge for the privilege of including your website. So, people often ask me how to generate traffic, beyond the search engines and with little to no cost.

Let me be candid by saying that I am not a search engine expert, nor do I play one on TV. But there are two methods that I’ve used consistently to attract thousands of qualified hits to my website at virtually no cost and with very little effort.

Granted, everyone’s different. And these techniques may not be appropriate for all people. However, let me share what works for me and what I do.

The two biggest traffic builders I use are: 1) posting on message boards, forums, blogs and discussion lists; and 2) writing, syndicating, publishing and submitting articles to ezine publishers — including my own (such as my blog, my newsletter or my website’s archives).

Now, let’s take a closer look, shall we?

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