Advertising copywriters are highly valued for their ability to successfully pitch products. The internet is a constant source of new information and ever-better opportunities for sales, but good advertising copywriters know just what to say to make surfers stay on a webpage, pull out their credit cards and buy. Because of this ability, they are some of the best-paid writers on the internet. However, many copywriters often find themselves handling impossible jobs and difficult clients. The following are some of the perks and downsides to being an online advertising copywriter.

High Earnings Potential

Article and SEO content writers can earn a respectable living on the internet, but copywriters can truly strike it rich. Whereas a good article or page of web content might sell for twenty-five, fifty, or even one hundred dollars, a single five hundred-word sales page can cost thousands. These high rates come with the territory of playing a direct role in the sales process. If a merchant stands to make six or seven figures from a sale, then paying a writer a few thousand dollars for high-converting sales copy is a worthwhile business expense. The same cannot usually be said of articles and blog posts, which primarily just provide information to readers without a hard-sell aspect present.

Impossible Jobs

Not every copywriting client has a good product to sell or even a significant group of potential customers. If you look at an online marketplace such as Clickbank, you'll typically see a few highly successful products and an astounding number of items that never sell. In some cases, a market is so completely saturated by a few items that no other merchants can break into it. At other times, merchants create products which are doomed to fail due to lack of appeal. In either case, the copywriter hired to pitch such a product faces a nightmare of a job. This is why many copywriters reserve the right to refuse clients: if you product is a flop, then even the best copy in the world isn't going to sell it.

Flexibility

Like many other people who earn their living on the internet, advertising copywriters enjoy a tremendous amount of flexibility in their day-to-day lives. Provided they retain clients, meet deadlines and collect pay, they are free to live where and how they want. Additionally, exceptional copywriters who command high prices can afford to be selective about the jobs they take. A struggling beginner might have to take nearly every cheap copywriting job he or she can get, but someone who makes hundreds or thousands per job has the freedom to turn down undesirable clients.

Unscrupulous Clients

Face-to-face sales have always carried risks of scams and frauds, but the internet makes unprincipled business practices more common than ever. Ethical copywriters will sometimes face dilemmas when their clients instruct them to "review" products they've never even tried or pose as authorities on subjects they know nothing about. Clients might also require copywriters to add blatant lies to their sales copy or hyperbolize certain features of a product to make more sales. Finally, some clients will simply avoid paying their copywriters altogether; especially when their sales are poor.

Overall, copywriting jobs can be a boon or a nightmare for online writers. They can involve some of the worst frustrations and complications, but they can also bring in incredible amounts of money for a few hours' work.