Hi, I'm just starting out looking to become a writer. I'm guessing this plea for tips and advice would be a great excuse for some of you to link to articles and web sites on this topic? I hope so, because that's what I'm looking for, unless you have some quick tips you can post for me here? Am I stuck starting with $1 articles until I get established?
A general search of the copywriting forum should answer a lot of questions. My first bit of advice is to write a few articles as samples. Pick something to promote, research, or that you enjoy doing and write a few hundred words about it. A few portfolio pieces will demonstrate the quality of service you provide.
This might be dumb question, but I'm a beginner, so it's allowed... When people refer to a portfolio what do they mean? Do I just point to some blog posts that I feel are well done or should I put together something more formal? I've been writing a blog for several years, there is some really good material, but it's not all at that quality level.
see... first try to explain some logic in starting about the content and in mid try to develop the faith about the content and lastly conclude with your conclusion or result... these 3-steps are must for any writer and you can apply this on any topic... hope it helps...
A portfolio is a compilation of previous work you have done. If your articles aren't satisfactory to your highest quality see if you can't edit or rewrite them to suit your needs. My first portfolio pieces were a few speeches I wrote and a handful of school papers that I adapted to appeal to a mass audience. If you have the means I recommend building an online profile and portfolio using a blog or website. You might list rates you prefer to work at as well. Though it is a work in progress you can view part of my current portfolio at http://www.johnsonsart.com/freelance (shameless plug for an underdeveloped site!)
Saying you want to become a writer is like saying you want a job. It doesn't say much. What kind of writing do you wish to do? Examples might be: fiction, creative non-fiction, advertising copywriting, business communications, news writing, blogging, and many more. Also, how serious are you? Are you just looking to churn out some stuff and get paid a couple cents per word or are you looking to become a solid writer that is able to to craft publishing-quality work? When you can answer questions such as these, your path to achieving what you desire becomes clearer.
First, thanks for the tips and advice so far everyone. Let's see, I have been doing a lot of blogging, and my readers have suggested I write a book, but I'm not sure that is in the cards. Basically, I'm looking at news, topical blogging, general interest articles and things of that ilk. I find it hard to be smarmy enough to write sales letters or highly promotional material. I'd love to write sci-fi, but I don't think that is in the cards either.
Jaundice, man. You don't have to write for $1. But getting clients and getting experience is somewhat of a Catch-22. You'll find it hard to get clients unless you have the experience and you can't get experience without the clients. Confusing, eh? Anyway, I suggest that you try working for reasonable rates first and try to get loyal clients. Just do your best and take good care of good clients. If they like your job, you could negotiate a higher rate and they would PROBABLY agree. Like I got this client whom I've written for consistently. Since I assumed he liked the way I worked, I asked for a raise. But instead of raising the rates, he increased my number of words instead while working for the same rates! It was a joke, so I quit the job. Anyway, you'll learn as you get along. Good luck, man! - Ced
I would advise you to start writing at $5 per 500 words. This will help you improve your style and after just a few professional articles you will see a big difference. From there move upwards so start charging $10 and then $15, the point is to make sure that you are offering good value for money by increasing the quality of your work. Sure, I could charge $5 per 500 words and write a crap article if I really needed cash, but I could also write an incredibly professional magazine quality article for $100. I tend to stay in my comfort zone so I don't have to spend too much time on each article, and thus I charge $30, this means I am offering high quality but also not selling myself short. Also, try to read professional writing and don't spend too much time reading on Digitalpoint. The writing on here is generally very poor english and the more you can surround yourself with high quality grammar and sentence structure, the better your writing will be. Good luck!
The way I started out, I dug out the crappiest of clients on purpose and wrote them some articles for like $2.5 per 500 words. Needless to say, these were of poor quality (almost bathed in diarrhea) but what I did all this for was to simply build up my portfolio. I took these same articles and later rewrote them so now they look a bit more presentable and I've been using them to bag some neat gigs lately. Whatever you do, I for one seriously suggest beefing up your 'folio. Then shell out the bucks to get yourself a website; showcase your best work on there and branch out. Good luck