On this website, I have dedicated myself to empower young Nigerians by revealing practical ways to earn money using the power of the internet. Today, I will talk about 10 ways you can make money online in Nigeria with copywriting.
Now copywriting is a vague concept to many people, especially if you haven’t come across the word. In simple terms, it is the process of selling things using the power of words.
Words are powerful. You can get things done by saying the right words. The way you say words also matter. You can make consistent income, I mean good income, by knowing how to use words in writing.
Why Copywriting works
Copywriting is a tried and tested craft. Anyone can do it, whether you are a student, a civil servant, or even a retired civil servant. Humans respond to words. You’re reading this page now, and you are getting information from it. I wrote this page myself, not with AI. If you keep reading, there’s a tendency that you’ll do what I suggest.
That’s how powerful words are.
Copywriting also works because humans are emotional. If you can connect with them on an emotional level with words, you can convince them to do something. That’s exactly how copywriting sells products or services.
When was the last time you bought something? What convinced you to buy? I’m sure it was probably what you read or heard from people or the salesman, or maybe even online. That’s the power of copywriting.
Copywriting works because it allows you to connect with people on an emotional level, and because of that, they are able to buy what you are selling.
Copywriting and Advertising
Copywriting evolved to what it is today, but it took a long period of time. However, copywriting and advertising are like Siamese twins – they always work hand in hand.
There was a time in the US when mail orders were a thing. In those days, there was no internet, so people in rural areas didn’t have a streamlined way to buy what they needed conveniently and quickly.
Enter mail orders! A mail-order is like this: a company selling products creates a catalog, including their products, complete with beautiful photos of the products, product descriptions, phone numbers, and exact information on how a customer can pay for the product and receive it.
Customers get these catalogs by either receiving them in their mailbox, probably because the retail company has their information in their mailing list, or through any other means like during a trade show.
Another way of getting catalogs could be if the retail company buys a mailing list from a third party and sends out their catalogs to the contacts in the list. These lists could contain tens of thousands or even millions of contacts sometimes.
So, when customers read these catalogs, they can make a purchase decision there and then. They fill out their information and include a payment in the return envelope included in the mail order, send it back to the company (retailer), who in turn sends them the product.
Guess what? That catalog is a product of copywriting! The mail-order business produced millionaires in the US back then. This is the power of copywriting, and it can make you a millionaire too!
Today, e-commerce websites like Amazon, Jumia, and Aliexpress have practically replaced mail-order businesses, but they still use copywriting to sell their products.
Read on.
Where to learn copywriting in Nigeria
You can learn copywriting in Nigeria either online or offline (physically). But then, there are not many places you can learn copywriting physically unless you stay in the major cities.
Here are the best places I could find:
- The Knowledge Academy – Lagos
- Olivet Cloud Digital Marketing Institute – Port Harcourt
- O2 Academy – Lagos
- VSL Concepts IT Academy – Lagos
- Sabi Programmers – Akure
- Socialander – Lagos
- Crestware Solutions – Lagos
- Kenneth Price – Abuja
I don’t know about Enugu or Kano or even Kaduna, or any other city for that matter. You can make inquiries on your own on social media. But I can say this: your best bet is learning copywriting online.
Best websites to Learn Copywriting in Nigeria
You can learn copywriting by taking an online course, which I strongly recommend. You can even get lifetime mentorship and a certificate of completion. Of course, the advantage is that it’s not that expensive compared to offline schools, and you also learn at your own pace and convenience.
The most popular and highly recommended courses can be taken from
- Udemy
- Creative Academy
- Coursera
- Alison has some free courses on Copywriting
Amanda, an experienced copywriter, has a comprehensive list of some free copywriting courses you should check out. There are other websites where you can buy copywriting courses – just conduct your research properly.
Copywriting gurus from Nigeria
There are guys who have made money practicing copywriting in Nigeria. These guys are like the experts. Here are some of them.
- Akin Alabi
- Chinonso Nnamani
- Toyin Omotosho
- Emmanuel Johnson
- Lanre Adisa
- Ronald Nzimora
- Waju Abraham
- Victor Njimogu
- Abdul -Qawiyy Hammed
- Andy Mokolo
- Golibe Ilechukwu
- Stanley David
And more.
You should look up these names on X (Twitter). Follow them and probably get inspiration from their posts.
10 Ways to Make Money with Copywriting
OK, so here are the ten ways you can build a career and make consistent income using the art of copywriting:
Writing Email Copy
You can specialize in writing email copy for clients. Many companies need someone who is skilled in writing email newsletters which enable them to connect with their customers. Email newsletters play a powerful role in marketing today because they are a key component of email marketing.
Email marketing is extremely effective. It has the highest conversion rate of all modern marketing channels, up to 30%. That’s why companies need skilled copywriters to craft marketing emails for them.
If you play your card right, you could land yourself a gig which can make you lots of dollars in the long run. Expert copywriters charge as much as $5000 upwards for an email marketing campaign.
Writing high-converting ads for social media
Have you seen those ads on Facebook, or X (Twitter)? Well, those ads were written by copywriters who have one thing in mind: to make as many sales as possible using ads. Social media managers are always on the lookout for good copywriters to complement their marketing efforts.
You can make good money by mastering the art of writing compelling ad copy for companies or businesses. This kind of business will never be replaced even by AI, because humans are far better at writing to fellow humans.
Writing Social Media Posts
You can write social media awareness or promotional posts for companies using the power of copywriting. Such posts may be to drive awareness for brands, to get more followers, or even to sell products or services.
Writing copy for Websites
Website copy is a key element of modern website design. You can become an expert at writing copy that keeps the website visitor engaged and allows them to do exactly what the website was designed to do.
Many companies and businesses are looking for fresh talent who would help them write copy for their websites and project their brand in the marketplace.
Freelance Copywriting
You could get freelance copywriting gigs which could be contract or one-off jobs. You could get these gigs from freelance platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer, Guru, etc.
Though these platforms are highly competitive, you can still get good offers from them. However, you can get good jobs by using platforms like Indeed and LinkedIn.
Content Writing for blogs
You could also write content for blogs. If you’re skilled in content writing, this could be a great way to earn foreign currency in dollars or pounds sterling.
Many bloggers simply do not have the time to write content, so this is where you come in, by writing posts for a fee. You can do this either through a freelance platform like Upwork or by landing a remote job which you can do from the comfort of your home in Nigeria.
Ghostwriting
This involves writing books for a fee. The owner has the full rights of ownership after they have paid you. The book bears their name, not yours. Ghostwriting is a specialized job, and you need to be quite good to land ghostwriting gigs.
Ghostwriters charge a lot for their work. On sites like Fiverr, writing a book of about 25,000 to 30,000 words can cost as much as $1,500 or even more, depending on the book genre.
Create Copywriting courses
If you are pretty good at copywriting, you could create an online course and sell it on a platform like Udemy or Coursera. It’s a great way to earn passive income for life – you just need to create the course once and earn with it forever.
Write Ads for Magazines and Newspapers
You can write advert copy for magazines and newspapers for a fee. Again, you need to be highly skilled and experienced at writing sales copy before you can break even in this field. One of the ways to expose yourself is to pitch to newspapers and magazines about your services. Once they realize that you’re good, you’ll never lack work and the corresponding income.
Writing Effective Product Descriptions
Remember I talked earlier about the mail-order business in the US? That business has seen its best days and is now almost obsolete. It has been replaced by e-commerce websites. You, my friend, are responsible for writing effective and high-converting product descriptions for online stores and marketplace listings.
Many sellers lack the knowledge of copywriting. You simply have to pitch to them about your services. Once they realize how good you are, they’ll always rely on you to optimize their product descriptions. This in turn means more money for you!
How do you receive payments for your copywriting services? There are many ways you can utilize, but my recommendations include PayPal and Geegpay.
Concluding Thoughts
Now that you understand what it takes to make money with copywriting in Nigeria, I’m sure you are going to implement what you learned here. This is just one way to make money online in Nigeria, among others.
If you can put this into action, you will have put yourself in a place of financial freedom in the future. If you got some value from this post, let us know in the comment section. I can’t wait to see you succeed!
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to share this post using the big button to your left.
