Latest / The Side Hustle Career Podcast with Fexingo: Second Income, Freelancing While Employed / How a Customer Support Rep Built a $5000 Monthly Side Hustle in Email Copywriting
Transcript
- Lucas: You know, I've been looking at a bunch of freelance marketplaces lately, and one category just keeps popping up in a way I didn't expect — email copywriting. Luna: Really? I would've guessed web design or social media management were still the big ones. Lucas: Those are huge, sure. But email copywriting has this interesting entry point — you don't need a portfolio full of splashy ad campaigns. If you can write a clear, persuasive email that gets someone to click or buy, you have a skill businesses will pay for. And the customer support desk? Turns out it's a perfect training ground. Luna: Okay, I'm listening. Who's the example here? Lucas: I talked to a woman named Priya — she works as a customer support rep at a mid-size SaaS company, about two hundred employees. She handles inbound tickets, mostly troubleshooting for existing users. But here's the thing — every day she writes between twenty and forty emails. And she noticed that some of her replies were getting forwarded to managers, praised for how clearly they explained a feature or solved a problem. Luna: So she realized she had a knack for writing that converts. Lucas: Exactly. And she thought — if I can write an email that stops a frustrated user from churning, I can probably write an email that gets someone to sign up for a trial. So about eighteen months ago, she started a side hustle in email copywriting. Within twelve months, she was making $5,000 a month. And she still has her day job. Luna: Five thousand from zero? How did she even get the first client without a copywriting portfolio? Lucas: She used her day job — carefully. She asked her manager if she could write a few internal email templates for the support team. Not client-facing, just internal. That gave her three polished samples she could anonymize and show potential clients. Then she started a tiny personal newsletter on Substack about customer experience — just fifty subscribers at first. But every issue was a writing sample. Luna: That's smart — the newsletter becomes the portfolio. Lucas: Right. Her first paid client came from a LinkedIn post where she shared one of her newsletter issues. A founder of a small B2B software company reached out and said, 'I need someone to write my weekly email to leads. Can you do that?' She said yes, and charged $500 a month for four emails. That retainer lasted six months. Luna: And from there she scaled up? Lucas: She did. But not by raising rates immediately. She used that first client to get testimonials and a case study. Then she pitched similar companies — other small B2B SaaS firms with fewer than fifty employees. Within six months, she had three retainers at $1,500 each. The key was that she kept her service narrow: email copy only. No landing pages, no blog posts, no social media. Luna: I love that focus. Most freelancers try to do everything and end up mediocre at each. Lucas: Exactly. And she was careful about her day job. She checked her employee handbook and found a clause about not using company resources for outside work. So she uses her personal laptop, handles client work during evenings and weekends, and never writes for a direct competitor of her employer. She told me she even ran her client list by a lawyer friend to make sure there was no conflict. Luna: That's a smart move — non-competes can be tricky. So what exactly does she write for clients? Lucas: Mostly two things: drip campaigns and launch sequences. A drip campaign is a series of automated emails that go out when someone signs up for a free trial or downloads an ebook. A launch sequence is the pre-sale and post-sale emails around a product launch. One of her clients is a project management tool that sends a seven-email onboarding sequence. She wrote the whole thing. Luna: Seven emails — that's a big project. How does she price something like that? Lucas: She charges per project for those — $2,000 for a full sequence of up to eight emails, including two rounds of revisions. That's in line with industry rates. According to the Professional Writers Association of America, the median rate for a B2B email is about $350 to $500 per email for an experienced freelancer. She's at the lower end of that range because she's still building her name. Luna: So $2,000 for a sequence — and if she does two of those a month plus a retainer, she hits $5,000. Lucas: Exactly. And she works about fifteen hours a week on side-hustle stuff. That's about eighty-three dollars an hour. Not bad for a skill she developed by paying attention to her own emails at work. Luna: It really shows how transferable some skills are. I mean, customer support isn't traditionally seen as a writing job, but it clearly is. Lucas: Yeah, and I think that's the broader lesson — if you write a lot of emails in your day job, you're probably better at it than you realize. The question is whether you can package that skill for a different audience. Luna: So if someone's listening and thinking, 'I write emails all day — maybe I could do this,' what's the first step? Lucas: Priya's advice is to start with one client. Not five, not ten. One. Offer to write a single email sequence for a small business owner you know — maybe a friend's startup, a local nonprofit, even a family member's business. Charge a flat fee that feels comfortable — even $200 for a five-email sequence. The goal isn't the money at first. It's to get a real-world sample and a testimonial. Luna: And then use that to get the next client at a higher rate. Lucas: Right. And she emphasizes that you don't need a fancy website. A simple Google Doc with three samples and a one-page rate sheet is enough. Most founders just want to see that you can write clearly and understand their product. Luna: One thing I'm curious about — how does she handle revisions? I imagine clients can be picky about email copy. Lucas: She includes two rounds of revisions in her project fee. After that, she charges $75 per hour for additional changes. She told me that most clients are satisfied after one round. The biggest issue is usually tone — some founders want it very casual, others want it more formal. She asks for three example emails the client likes before she starts writing. Luna: That's a good filter — if they can't give you examples, they probably don't know what they want. Lucas: Exactly. And she's learned to say no to clients who expect her to also design the emails or set up the automation. She strictly writes the words. That keeps her scope clear and her hourly rate up. Luna: What about tools? Does she use anything special? Lucas: Nothing fancy. She writes in Google Docs, uses Grammarly for basic proofing, and she has a swipe file — a folder of email copy she admires. She studies subject lines from Morning Brew and The Hustle. She told me she once spent an hour analyzing why a particular subject line got a 45 percent open rate. That kind of deliberate practice is what separates her from someone who just writes. Luna: That's the kind of detail I love. It's not just 'write well' — it's study what works. Lucas: And that's also how she justifies her rates to clients. She doesn't just say 'I write emails.' She says 'I write emails that convert based on data and best practices.' That's a much stronger pitch. Luna: I can see why founders would buy that. So what's next for Priya? Is she planning to go full-time? Lucas: She's considering it, but she's in no rush. She told me she likes the stability of her day job — the health insurance, the team. Her side hustle income goes straight into savings. She's aiming to hit $8,000 a month within the next year, and at that point she might take the leap. But for now, she's happy with the extra five grand. Luna: It's a nice position to be in. And I think a lot of people in customer support — or really any role that involves writing — could replicate this. Lucas: Absolutely. And, you know, it's conversations like this that make us want to keep doing these episodes. We put a lot of work into finding real stories with real numbers. And honestly, the reason we can keep the show ad-free and focused on what's useful is that a small group of listeners chips in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's not a big ask — just that if you've gotten value from an episode, you can throw in a few bucks to help us keep going. We don't run ads, we don't have sponsors, so that support literally makes this possible. Luna: Yeah, and it really does add up. Even a couple of dollars a month from a handful of people covers the hosting and the research time. We're grateful for every single one. Lucas: Okay, back to Priya — one more thing I found interesting. She mentioned that the biggest unlock for her was learning to write subject lines. She tested subject lines with her newsletter and tracked open rates. When she started offering subject line testing as an add-on service, three clients upgraded their retainers. Luna: That's a great way to increase revenue without finding new clients. Lucas: Exactly. So her standard offer now is: a monthly retainer of $1,500 for up to ten emails, plus $200 extra for subject line A/B testing. That's a 13% increase for a small additional service. And it works because clients see the data. Luna: I think the takeaway here is that you don't need a fancy degree or a huge network. You just need to be good at one thing and find the right clients. Lucas: Yeah, and start small. Priya's first client paid $500. A year later, she's at $5,000. That's a tenfold increase. But it started with that first email to a founder on LinkedIn. Luna: Alright, I'm convinced. I might start a newsletter myself. Lucas: Do it. And if you do, let us know how it goes. We love hearing listener stories.