This is an impor­tant con­cept to grasp, even if they’re friends of yours: the per­ceived value of the ser­vice depre­ci­ates imme­di­ately after the ser­vice is rendered.

Why is this impor­tant? For one, if the copy doesn’t do as well as expected, who cares if you did it for free? (Your client cer­tainly won’t.) But it goes fur­ther than that.

If all you had were rights to the copy and it did per­form well, and if any­thing should hap­pen between you two, would you ever con­sider stop­ping your friend from using your copy? Even to the point of send­ing them a cease and desist, or tak­ing legal action?

Friend­ships notwith­stand­ing, would you be will­ing to work twice as hard try­ing to sat­isfy an insa­tiable client when you could be work­ing on other, bet­ter, pay­ing clients?

It’s some­thing to think about.

Ask­ing for a larger con­ces­sion before work starts helps to stop the poten­tial grinding-​​away process after the copy is deliv­ered. If they try, then each time they ask for a con­ces­sion you in turn ask for one. Always ask for a counter-​​concession. Always.

Plus, by ask­ing for a sub­stan­tial con­ces­sion in the begin­ning, you also increase the per­cep­tion that each counter-​​concession you will ask with each one they request from you will be just as large, which will force them to think twice before nib­bling for more.

If they are demand­ing (and cheap clients usu­ally are), ask yourself:

“Am I pre­pared to do two to three times the work, deal with a high-​​maintenance client, and divert my atten­tion away from other, pay­ing clients (let alone away from mar­ket­ing my ser­vices in order to find bet­ter clients), for a mere addi­tion to my résumé?”

On the other hand, mak­ing a bal­anced con­ces­sion — giv­ing a dis­count instead of doing it for free, for exam­ple — will increase your per­ceived worth. And a good way to do this is to raise your fees. Rais­ing your prices is not just about increas­ing per­ceived value.

By rais­ing your fees and giv­ing a more sub­stan­tial con­ces­sion will allow you to ask for a larger con­ces­sion from them in return. So ask for some­thing upfront, even if it’s little.

Say: “I under­stand this may be out of your bud­get range. In exchange for a spe­cial con­sid­er­a­tion (a dis­count), may I sug­gest (what­ever con­ces­sion you want them to make).”

Even bet­ter, let them make their counter-​​concession for you. They might sur­prise you, as it might be a lot more than you antic­i­pated. Say some­thing like: “In exchange, what can you do for me?” Then let them tell you what they’re pre­pared to offer you in return.

(Inci­den­tally, doing it this way also gives you a pretty good idea of what they think of you, and how much value they place in your ser­vices and your copy.)

Ulti­mately, your copy no longer becomes the object of the trade­off. Your con­sid­er­a­tion — e.g., a dis­count or what­ever con­ces­sion you’re mak­ing — is. Apples to apples.

Also, don’t limit your­self to a dis­count. You can offer a bonus (such as an extra revi­sion, free of charge), an extra con­sul­ta­tion, an extended guar­an­tee, an add-​​on ser­vice (such as writ­ing the opt-​​in page copy, for­mat­ting, or even test­ing the copy), and so on.

That’s why the key is to break­down and denom­i­nate each com­po­nent of your ser­vice — from research to revi­sions. In other words, give each com­po­nent a price tag. Sure, give a flat rate. But break the project down into indi­vid­ual parts, with indi­vid­ual values.

Not only will each ele­ment have a price tag, which can be used in the nego­ti­a­tion, but also it will help to jus­tify your higher fees. It will seem less “pulled out of thin air.”