Seems like everyone is a marketer these days. 

When I search LinkedIn for "marketer" there are 58,900,000 marketers. 

Huh? 

I don't know how many marketers there were before the big Pandemic Pivot, but I doubt there were 58 million of us (I do call myself a marketer because I've been doing it for over 20 years). 

In February 2020, there were 2 million coaches on LinkedIn. 

This morning there are over 4 million coaches. 

Can you take a weekend seminar and call yourself a coach? 

Sure, you can call yourself anything you want. 

Does that make you a good coach if you have a little knowledge, but no experience? 

When I was network manager in the late 90s, there were very few system administrators. 

It was a brand-new career so there were only a handful of experienced sys admins. 

A new industry was born almost overnight. 

Pay a training company $5000 and they will "certify" you as a Microsoft system administrator. 

I started studying for my MCSE but stopped when I realized the certification exams were based on what Microsoft wanted you to know (heavily Microsoft-focused) instead of reality. 

One day I was interviewing a candidate for a sys admin position. 

He was well dressed (not the norm for techies), very polite, and well-spoken. 

His resume included a copy of his Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE) which means he paid $5000 and passed the extensive certification tests. 

I congratulated him on his MCSE certificate and asked him how many servers he has managed in his career. 

He sheepishly said he passed the MCSE but had never administered a live server. 

I immediately ended the interview because we were growing at 200% a year and needed someone to hit the ground running. 

The other day I was reading an email from Daniel Throssell, which I highly recommend. 

Get on his list at https://persuasivepage.com 

He was ranting about a company that was training people to get rich quick by learning copywriting. 

Here's what Daniel said: 

Many of these people seem to think copywriting is some ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme (like, LITERALLY) … 

and in their own words, they’re in it for the money. 

Guys… That is NOT how this works. 

Copywriting is a profession. 

There is both serious art and serious skill involved. 

I don’t know of any other job where you can rock up and say “You know what, I am going to be one of the highest-earning people in this field in 3 months because I’m HUNGRY TO SUCCEED!” 

Ya know what? 

Too bad! 

Being hungry ain’t enough — plenty of ‘hungry’ people in this field already. 

Can you make good money copywriting? 

For sure. 

Can you make it fast? 

Sometimes. 

Is studying copywriting for a few weeks going to give you ‘guaranteed online income’ so you can quit the rat-race and live the life of your dreams? 

NO!!! 

News flash: If you have been writing copy for less than a year… 

YOU SUCK AT WRITING COPY. 

It’s not even a ‘probably’ thing. 

You literally, definitely, 100% certainly suck, and your copy is about 100x worse than you think it is. I’m not even kidding. 

I’m really good at copywriting now … yet for the first year … heck, the first several years of my career … I sucked, bad (at least, by my current standards). 

I can relate to this. 

When I got started in marketing, I was a coach not earning any money because I didn't know how to market or sell. 

I had my coaching certification and zero experience. 

I attended Dan Kennedy conferences to learn direct marketing. 

I did a few copywriting courses. 

I studied Google AdWords with Perry Marshall. 

I learned about SEO. 

I became a Web 2.0 master (that's what they called social media in the early 00s). 

And HTML so I could build websites (we were years away from WordPress and automated marketing funnels). 

I had a little knowledge in a lot of areas. 

Jack of all trades, master of none. 

It wasn't until I had the opportunity to write Ultimate Guide to Twitter for Business and Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business did I focus on becoming a better writer. 

I write every day. 

I read books on how to be a better writer. 

Books from Roy Peter Clark, Stephen King, Ernest Hemingway, Eugene Schwartz, and more. 

I watch Masterclass and learn from David Sedaris, James Patterson, Dan Brown, Margaret Atwood, and more. 

Writing is like golf. 

You can play golf every day and get better, but you never master the game. 

There's always room for improvement. 

The same goes for writing. 

The more you write, the better you get but you never feel like you've mastered the skill. 

You can practice marketing every day and never feel like you know it all. 

Things change so fast that it's hard to keep up. 

I used to try to keep up with the latest SEO strategies, Facebook ads, Google ads, WordPress, social media, and copywriting. 

Today, I focus on being a better writer. 

I feel like it's the best way for you to get to know me at a deeper level. 

I can post my writing across the internet and people find me. 

I still keep my finger on the pulse of social media and marketing trends, but I know writing great content sets me apart from my competition. 

You can't fake it until you make it these days. 

What skill do you need to master to stand out? 

About the author 

Ted Prodromou

Would you like me to help you?

I'm the #1 best-selling author of Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business and Ultimate Guide to Twitter for Business. People call me America's Leading LinkedIn Coach.

I'm the founder of Search Marketing Simplified, LLC, a full service online marketing agency. The SMS team designs and implements advanced LinkedIn and social media lead-generation strategies for small to medium-sized businesses. SMS will set up and manage your marketing funnels using organic, social and paid traffic.

Did you know I've been working with the internet since 1991, long before Al Gore invented it?

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