Hey there! Any suggestions for a person like me who wants to start copywriting? I'm actually a high school student in Canada, but I would love to learn the ins and outs of freelance copywriting. Right now, I'm just trying to outsource my work, but it does not seem to be working. So, my idea is to begin writing myself. I don't think it will be too difficult, as I have a natural writing ability. However, I do know that it will takes quite a bit of effort to start. Anybody have suggestions? Thanks! Liam
Being a good copywriter requires more skills than just the ability to write well. I suspect your youth will work against you, as us old folks simply have more experience to draw from. That said, if you write well, you don't have to accept peanuts just because you are still in school. You might want to consider starting out as a content writer. That type of writing doesn't require the business and marketing knowledge that copywriting does. It will hopefully expose you to more industries and start building your online reputation so that as your experience grows you can either demand higher rates and/or migrate into copywriting. Not to stereotype based on age and gender, but if you are an avid video gamer, you could probably do quite well writing reviews and tips on the games. It's an area that seems to have more demand than supply. I would strongly urge you not to say too much about your age. Unless you want to focus on writing targeted to your age group, how old you are is irrelevant. People might assume that they can steal your services or that you could be unreliable. There was a young person on a different part of these forums whom everyone respected. His comments were quite intelligent and helpful to the community. He ran a quality site with a great reputation and was very professional. It was quite shocking when he accidentally admitted he was only 17; no one believed him. I don't remember who he was because in the end, his age didn't matter. Like I tell anyone starting out. Build a site or a blog to both promote your services and show prospects that you can actually write. A site with a unique domain creates a more professional image than a free blog. Good luck. Perhaps one day, we will be saying, "I remember when Liam was just starting out. Who woulda' thought he would become..."
An unconventional way of doing it would be to actually write for "peanuts"! Take up stuff that you can write easily and write 10+ articles a day. Since you are staring out, you need an impressive portfolio and speed. Once you're a couple of projects old (it shouldn't be difficult if you work for a low fee), you can start aiming at high paying gigs. You might set up your own "portfolio" blog, but people usually seem to get more interested in paid work. P.S - Always remember to ask for a testimonial from your client. It helps in more ways than one. Hope that helps a bit. Cheers!
Doesn't matter if it goes well or not... you should try out your writing skills on small assignments available. Being an experienced article writer you will be able to see new prospects to earn good and explore new dimensions of this business. You can also do some free reviews in order to build up reputation and groom your profile in initial stage. A natural writer is a bit different creature from a copywriter. Where natural writer finds flow in his writing and craves his own ideas copywriter has to bound in some predefined limits and grab the optimum results. Well good luck and welcome to the community buddy!!!
Just get started, take up some writing jobs and you will learn. With experience, you can become a better writer, get paid more and work out whats best for you. You may think you are a good writer, but you only become a good writer if the audience and your clients feel good about you. If many clients are happy with your work and you get results whenever you write for websites (Your own or other peoples sites), you are justified.
YMC has the right idea. You can take on some smaller projects that pay less just to build up your experience. There are people on here that will throw out some of these small projects just to test writers, then they might hire you to do a large amount of consistent work. Your young age gives you plenty of time to build up your writing abilities and expand your client base. Stick with it and do not give up. Potential customers are not going to like you being younger, but you should still let them know your age if they ask for it. If they catch you lying about it, you will most likely lose their business. I'm young too, but I would much rather tell someone my age and have them evaluate my work in addition to it. Honesty has been the best policy for my business, and it is always a top priority. It is going to get you the "big fish" clients.
I think that the quickest shortcut to becoming a great copywriter may be to collect ads written by great copywriters. If you study how they write their ads and practice writing out their sales letters by hand then it kind of sinks into you and becomes part of your subconscious. A great place to start would be go to the following free site and read everything on there several times. It was put up by the late great Gary Halbert before he passed on and went to copywriter heaven. Just go Google the "Gary Halbert newsletter" and you will find his free archives of many of the best marketing newsletters he wrote in the past. Hope it helps