Sell Your Copywriting Services Online in Five Easy Steps
By Angela Booth

** Note: NEWLY revised and updated for 2004.**

The online world is the ideal venue for a copywriter. Every business needs copy. And sooner or later, those businesses which derive a major portion of their revenue from their online storefront realize that they could make more money if they invested in better communication.

If I were starting out as a new copywriter today, I'd focus on the online environment. It's a big market and it can only get bigger. And there's next to no competition online.

However, you do have to market yourself efficiently. This means that you need to keep working at marketing. Send out at least five marketing missives a day, every weekday, and keep this up for at least a couple of months. I recommend that you forget email marketing for now. The spam-creeps have ruined business email for the next year at least, until technology catches up with them and tosses them into the void.

Here's how to sell your services online:

=> Step One: Decide what you want to write

Start by researching the field of Internet marketing. Most small businesses (that is, businesses with from one to 20 employees) have no expertise in this field. You need to be able to advise them on their needs, which means that you must learn about this new field, and keep learning.

How do you study online marketing? Go along to the library, and pick up a couple of books. Most of what you know, you can learn by doing. You'll know enough to get started within a week. Once you're up to speed on Internet marketing, pick a specialty. Then create a few samples, so that you have something to show. You could specialize in: sales page copy, ezine copy, autoresponder copy, popup or banner ad copy, or whatever else you feel drawn to. 

Or come up with a unique sales tool and sell it to a Web site. A couple of years ago (I have no idea whether the site's still operational, and I don't even remember the name) a site selling lingerie used a diary/ journal theme a la Bridget Jones to promote their lingerie. The copywriter wrote copy in the format of a Bridget Jones-type diary, where two girlfriends were wearing the lingerie and had various (general audience, not R-rated) adventures. You could use your creativity to come up with a great, unique idea too, and sell it.

The idea of creating a specialty is that it makes it easier to sell your services. If you try to describe all the copy you COULD potentially write for a site, you'll only confuse everyone. Stick to one area, at least at first. Also, it's easier to become an expert in one area, than it is in a dozen. This is important in the online world because things change so fast.

=> Step Two: Create a Web site to promote your services

I always emphasize the importance of a Web site to copywriters, and copywriters always say they're going to create their own Web site, real soon now.

I understand this attitude completely, because creating a Web site takes work and effort and money and time-- and you need to learn a lot of new stuff. So I've created a Creatives Club section of the Digital-e Web site. This means that you can have your own Web presence (and can even sell from the site) within a few minutes. All you need to do is copy and paste some material into a form, and we'll create the site for you: http://www.digital-e.biz/creat_club.html. Alternatively, consider creating a blog (Web log).

Several copywriters have created blogs, including: 

* John Kuraoka: http://www.kuraoka.com/adblog/ 

* Debbie Weil: http://www.debbieweil.com/  

* (The very irreverent) Hog on Ice: http://www.littletinylies.com/ 
Hog on Ice's writer is a lawyer, but he does talk about writing. Here's a VERY funny clip from Hog on Ice:

"I remember applying for a copywriting job a long time ago. I sent in a funny application to an ad agency, and the lady who was in charge of hiring praised me to the heavens and talked about what a genius I was, and then she didn't hire me. I sent the same letter to a radio station, and they read it over the air. The guy who interviewed me said he looked forward to buying my books some day. Then he hired some idiot.

"My sister had worked briefly in the advertising field, and she explained it to me. The little people who have to interview applicants don't want to find the people with the most talent. They want to identify people more talented than themselves and make sure their bosses never meet them. This is how hacks survive and become rich."

As you can see from these blogs, your blog doesn't need to be straightlaced and boring. Be yourself, write what you want to write, and enjoy it. 

=> Step Three: Write FREE promotional articles to showcase your skills

You need to get known for what you do. And the way you get known online is pretty much the same way you get known offline. You can throw a lot of money at the problem, using advertising, or you can spend a lot of time.

Writers are often shocked when I recommend writing for free. Trust me, I would NEVER recommend you write for free. When you write promotional articles, you're writing in return for being able to advertise your services.

My article "The Writer's Dilemma: Should You Write For Free?" should convince you of the benefits of writing for promotion. You can read it here -- http://www.digital-e.biz/art_writing9.html

Dr Nunley uses the promotional-article-writing tool to perfection. He says on his Web site that it's the only promotional tool he's ever used. It works.

Here are some of the articles Dr Nunley sends out:
http://www.topica.com/lists/drnunley/read

 => Step Four: Approach businesses with proposals

My article "How To Write A Proposal To Get Freelance Work" gives you precise how-tos. Here it is-- http://www.digital-e.biz/art_writing8.html 

Note: In the article's "Spotting a need" section, I give the example of a Web site with typos as having a need. This is only an *example.* Please find real needs that Web sites have-- things like: no Unique Selling Point, confusing copy, features- laden copy rather than copy emphasizing benefits etc. I mention this only because a (new) writer did comment negatively on this example. 2004 Update: send out your mini-proposals via postal mail rather than email, in the current climate.

=> Step Five: Set weekly and monthly goals and income targets

This is the biggie. You need to set goals and income targets. If you don't you'll just float along without achieving a tenth of what you could be achieving.

Everything changes when you set income targets. In the beginning, you might want to start out small, say at $1000 a month. Within a few months, as you surpass that, you can aim at $1200 a month. Increase your targets by small increments, so that they're achievable for you. Never aim impossibly high, because you'll only get frustrated.

There you have it: five steps to selling your copywriting services online. You'll find that if you follow these steps, you'll build up your business in next to no time. 

To read more articles by Angela Booth, visit the Digital-e Website--Information for writers and creatives. Ebooks, free ezines, Creatives Club. http://www.digital-e.biz/ 

Want to develop a pro writing career? Visit Pro Write for extensive writing tuition, including a free writing workshop every month: http://www.prowrite.biz/ 

Copyright © 2004 by Angela Booth. All rights reserved.

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