🐦 Twitter bleeds cash

Together with The Copywriting Gig

Get the shortcut to copywriting mastery in 4 minutes each week

Forget long-form copywriting.

Webinars, VSLs, and sales letters take forever to learn and even longer to master. If you want to level up your copywriting skills fast, focus on short-form copywriting instead.

Luckily, The Copywriting Gig is here to help you do exactly that.

Every Wednesday, you’ll get 1 short-form copywriting insight to help you write better ads, emails, and social content in just 4 minutes each week.

Subscribe to The Copywriting Gig for free today.

Making the Rounds

Elon Musk says Twitter's cash flow still negative as ad revenue drops 50%

• TLDR: In a recent tweet, Elon admitted the company’s ad revenues have dropped by 50%, leading to negative cash flow.
  

• Why it matters: Subscription revenue from Twitter Blue is nowhere near enough to stem the bleeding for a company that previously depended on ads for 90%+ of its total revenue. The company also carries a heavy debt load, but then again, Elon could pay that off with his lunch money if he wanted to.

Meta Threads engagement has dropped off since red-hot debut, tracking firms say

• TLDR: After driving 100 million sign-ups in its first 5 days, Threads has seen daily active users drop off by more than 20% according to Sensor Tower.
  

• Why it matters: It’s going to take more than hype to displace Twitter. Threads recently introduced a Follows tab, but is still lacking key features like DMs and desktop functionality.

Prime Day drove record U.S. online spending, bolstered by deep discounts

• TLDR: U.S. customers spent a total of $12.7 billion across the 2-day sale, an increase of 6.1% from 2022.
  

• Why it matters: Amazon continues to shape consumer behavior. More ecommerce operators are being forced to march to the beat of Amazon’s drum and run their own sales alongside Prime Day just to keep up.

Working With Clients

How to Make Unpaid Invoices Slightly Less Painful

If you’ve ever had to chase down a client just to collect on an unpaid invoice…

Then here’s a simple tip to soften the blow next time:

Ask for a deposit up front.

It can be 25%, 50%, or even more..

Use your judgment, of course.

But the more established you are (and the bigger the project is), the more you should be asking for up front.

So even if the project drags on, or you have trouble getting the rest of your fee paid in a timely fashion…

At least you’ve collected some cash up front.

Plus, if a prospective client scoffs at the idea of putting down a deposit, that’s a red flag.

Working For Yourself

Should You Start an Agency?

If you’re running a successful freelance business, time is money.

Problem is, you’ve only got so much time you can sell.

So, if you want to earn more money, there are only a few ways to do it:

• Raise your rates

• Look for rev share deals

• Create digital products

• Or start an agency

Starting an agency is tempting to many freelancers because on the surface, it seems simple.

All you have to do is hire someone to help you with fulfillment…

Then you can take on more clients.

No need to raise your rates or deviate from what’s worked for you so far.

But here’s the issue:

Hiring, managing, and training other service providers is a totally different skillset.

Just because you’re talented at copywriting, video editing, or graphic design…

Doesn’t mean you’ll make a good manager or operator.

So unless you’re passionate about going from solopreneur to real CEO, we’d recommend other alternatives when looking to scale.

Tool of the Week

Spotted: International Freelancer After Converting USD

It looks like inflation has (finally) peaked.

But the U.S. dollar is still holding strong.

Which means international freelancers should be pocketing a little more than usual on every invoice…

Only problem is:

Most of them rely on PayPal (or god forbid, their local bank) to convert their currency.

Instead, they should be using Wise.

With Wise, you can:

• Get better rates on currency conversions than PayPal or a local bank

• Send money cheaper and easier than old-school banks

• Get paid like a local in 10 different currencies

• And convert & hold up to 53 different currencies.

In fact, Wise is 6X cheaper than other international accounts on average.

That’s why over 13 million people (including us) trust them to handle their international payment needs.

So if you’re an international freelancer…

Set up a free Wise account today to start saving big every time you get paid.

Bonus Points

😎 Lifestyle: How to redesign your life with 100% intention (link)

💰 Business: How to find your calling in 5 minutes with the Ikigai exercise (link)

🤝 LinkedIn: 5 steps to maximize your visibility with LinkedIn Skills (link)

▶️ YouTube: The man behind MrBeast’s $500M portfolio (link)

✍️ Copywriting: Alex Hormozi reveals his ad writing framework (link)

Gig Alerts:

Looking for clients? These freelance jobs were posted on Upwork in the last 24 hours:

• Digital Marketing Specialist - Multi-Discipline, Retainer Basis

• Creative Youtube Script Writer for Multiple Channels

• Copywriter for Twitter, FB, Linkedin Channels

• Video Editor (Iman Gadzhi style)

• ROCKSTAR Video Editor for Stargazing Resort (Long-Term)

• Email Marketing / Funnel Expert for Online Course

NOTE: We only share job postings from Upwork. We’ve found it to be the most trustworthy platform with the highest-quality clients.

Furthermore, job postings must be for high-income skills like copywriting, media buying, funnel building, graphic design, remote closing, etc in order to qualify.