I was wondering if anyone had advice on creating a website highlighting your own copywriting services. I'm looking to start a career in freelance copywriting and I would like to put up a website. Right now I'm learning the basics, reading books on copywriting. Looks like a great opportunity. I don't see any advice anywhere on writing your own copy for your own website. Any help is greatly appreciated. I've looked around a bit at some members sites. If anyone would like to point me toward a link for their website, I'd appreciate that too. Thanks.
If you understand the basics of copywriting, you shouldn't have a problem writing the copy for your own website. In fact, you should be able to do that before trying to market yourself as being able to do it for clients. No one can tell you exactly what to write. You need to think about the exact services you're offering, who your target market is and what motivates them to buy, and your value proposition / selling points. That varies from writer to writer. The best thing you can do is to keep looking at examples as you mentioned. You don't want to be too similar to your competitors (if you can't set yourself apart, prospective clients aren't likely to feel you can do that for them), but you'll pick up some general ideas that way.
Jenn - you beat me to it. If you can't sell your own skills, I wouldn't think of hiring you to sell our services. I tend to be very skeptical of copyrighters since mostly, they seem to charge a lot for just a few words. And they don't seem to come with any guarantee that they'll keep optimizing and analyzing them to find the most effective copy. Maybe I've just dealt with losers but my impression of online copywriters are that they somehow heard that they'll get paid huge rates with no responsibility. I've yet to find one willing to do the hard iterative work to really optimize the copy on a landing page.
There are certainly some here (look at Webgal perhaps), but you're right in that most here don't. I always find it funny that some of my newer clients are baffled by the fact that I ask them a lot of questions before beginning any kind of project, whether that be copywriting, press releases, white papers, or whatever I'm working on for them. I've heard on more than a few occasions that most writers they've worked with before just get basic project specs and then go to work on their own, with no real care or understanding for the site's goals, features, benefits, target market, competitors, etc.
This is unfortunate and extremely unprofessional. I always try to call, meet or IM a client and get to know them. I want to know why they care about their business, what they think their business has to offer that is different from any competitors, who they want their client to be, and where they want to take their business in the future. I like to work with clients who care about their business as much as I care about my own. Their passion inspires me to write. There are some clients that have very specific content and format needs that don't require this level of service, and I usually charge those clients a lower rate. Then, there are clients who refuse to answer emails I send asking for background info, won't communicate or respond to IMs, just bark out orders to me to complete X,Y, or Z. I think a little due diligence on a buyers end will help them avoid one-cheeked work.
Seriously, why don't more people do this? I know we are a Web 2.0 generation, and we don't like talking without typing, but really - this is a business like any other. Save the anti-social hooey for a Saturday night if that's what you want, and treat your clients with a bit of respect!
I have to disagree quite a bit with that remark. Working entirely virtually with a client is not disrespectful. It's a type of business. It's also far more efficient, and a contributing factor to those same clients being able to save money going with you over a local that would regularly be visiting, on the phone with them, etc. We can get more done when we streamline our communication processes in many cases, and that in turn allows for lower rates for the client. My rates may look high compared to a lot of the DP crowd, but they're actually relatively low on the professional scale. It's attractive for my target market of buyers, and they couldn't enjoy those rates if I didn't work in a predominantly virtual environment. That said, if they specifically request a call because they need to go over things in detail, I generally schedule a phone conference with them (I've never not landed a contract after a phone conference actually - it's one of my strongest suits, so hardly a simple case of anti-social hooey). I've found most clients are actually far more thorough when you send them questions via email over a phone call where people are pressured for time. They can link you to specific things on-site (or competitors), they can give as lengthy a response as they please, and frankly I've found them to be far more open in most cases (I don't get the "I don't know"s to as great of a degree). There are also other benefits to predominantly email (or similar) communication: 1. Having that direct written record of a client's exact words can come in quite handy if they later decide to alter the project specs (and in copywriting, they often do). 2. It allows for more international business to take place, where phone calls simply aren't feasible given the time zone differences (most of my current regulars are scattered throughout Europe and Australia actually (significantly ahead of me), with a few on the west cost of the US, which is several hours behind my time zone). 3. It allows you to enjoy one of the most fundamental benefits of working for yourself to begin with - the ability to set your own schedule. For me, that means starting at 5am and working through noon (my clients get my most productive time writing-wise, but it doesn't make for the best availability for other types of contacts). For others it means working late evening hours after a day job or after the kids are in bed, where again, regular phone consults just aren't realistic in a lot of cases. I'm not saying you should never pick up the phone. But I think it's absolutely ridiculous to make assumptions about the writer's level of "respect" for their clients based on what you personally consider to be appropriate business behavior. Like it or not, the Web 2.0 generation is as valid and accepted these days in this field as it is on our Saturday nights. Hell, a big part of my PR work before going full-time with my writing was about bringing companies into that world (and believe it or not, even big ones are falling all over themselves to get in on it). So don't judge something as it applies to others here just because it doesn't suit you.
themrsweets: ask yourself the same questions that you would ask your clients later on when you go full time with copywriting. Questions like what makes you different (your Unique Selling Point or USP), who is your target market, how will your service work, etc. It would also help looking at your 'competitors' websites to give you an idea of what should be on your website (but I personally don't consider other copywriters or any other writer a competitor because I believe we always have something to learn from each other ). Anyhoo, about using IM when communicating, I think it would be useful for quick questions. Personally, I still like to print out the specs of the project so that I can always refer to it while doing the project.
Thanks everyone for the advice. I really appreciate it. I look forward to growing and participating further in this community.
A lot of my copywriting is "under the radar", I wanted to put a public face on my writing though to get more opportunities to write and consult for a wider range of clients... so I put together a copywriting website at http://copymatch.com - and it's working out pretty well even though much of the writing on there isn't heavily edited. Much of it was just typed straight into a web editor and uploaded.