Hi all, I am new too and I'm Italian... do you think I'd be able to find any freelance jobs abroad? Writing in Italy is a privilege given to a small élite (and not only writing, I'd say...) thanks all and have a nice weekend!
I locate opportunities for copywriting services (among other things PR, creative and events' production related) on the phone - business to business. I talk to people in marketing departments about anything they outsource - try to anyway! Most bigger companies (in my experience) employ someone in house to write copy - but some outsource. In smaller companies (ie those employing less than 500) you often find that the director or manager of the marketing team is tasked with writing copy - they usually like to do this, can turn out good copy themselves and wouldn't trust anyone else to do it but sometimes they find it very time consuming and would like to find someone else to do it - if only they could! Obviously it's the latter I search for on the phone. If they are in this situation they want introductions to copywriters who have knowledge of their sector, products and services or writers with proven track records of research and writing for a diverse range of products and services. If you have knowledge of a particular product or service, have you tried contacting companies that produce and provide them? PM me if you want some advice on selling your services on the phone. I was in a similar situation to yours (about 18 years ago) so I'd like to be of assistance - this offer does not include baby-sitting! Also, have you considered creating your own blog or website and the adsense route? You'll see there's loads of information and advice about doing this on here. If I'd found DP before I started I'd have avoided so many mistakes!
You might try getting into Mike Filsaime's Butterfly Reports site / program. It is supposed to allow you create articles / ebooks and have them available to be used by many other marketers.
You really want to focus on learning how to do it right, which many copywriters do by imitating good copy of others. Rewriting, copying it, learning the tricks they are using in their sales copy. You can often find great free giveaways by some online copywriting gurus, and of course there are expensive courses, but start small and within your budget. I don't know that I agree with some of the suggestions above. Don't write for pennies. Don't sell your work on sites that have too many sellers listing their work and few buyers. You are better off going to Elance, Getafreelancer.com, and some other freelance sites. Bid on some jobs, do your best and get ratings. Don't surf the low paying webmaster posts, you'll spend a lot of time making no money. Yes you want to build a portfolio, but you can post samples of your work on a blog, to attract clients. On my site I just posted an interview with Tiffany Dow, who started out as a ghostwriter, stay at home mom to be with her child. She's now making six figures, and has an online writing career anyone can learn from. Good luck! SueC