Copyright 2006 Michael Senoff
If you are a copywriter looking to get your feet wet -- and don't know where to turn or how to get started -- this article will give you two simple ideas you can run with today and be making money by tomorrow.
But first, you need to know copywriting is in huge demand.
Reason why is because so many people are just afraid to write copy, don’t know how to write copy, or are simply too lazy to learn.
And so, if you know even the bare basics of copywriting you are in big demand and you just need to find where the "starving crowd" (as master copywriter Gary Halbert puts it) is that are hungry for what you got. Here are two ways you can get started:
1.) First, you could look at trade publications or magazines where you see ads, newspaper ads, anywhere in your local community, and usually there are phone numbers on there.
And you call or write these people and say, “Hey, I’m looking at your ad. I’m a writer and I’ve got a couple ideas that I think could double the response of your ad if you’re interested.” And that's it. If you call 20 or 30 people a day, I’m sure you could pull in three or four jobs a day. Or at least get some good leads.
2.) And the second way to get started is you can take a person’s brochure or letter or flier or display ad that you see in these publications -- the ones that you know aren't pulling anything -- and make a couple of corrections on them. Then, after that, send the corrected ad with a letter explaining that you’ve made these corrections and it should increase their response. And if they like what they see and want a completely redone marketing piece to contact you.
Now, neither of the above ideas is complicated and anyone can do them. And just doing these two things alone should give you more than enough business to get started. You just have to put in the effort.
Let’s get a little more specific to quickly start your copywriting career with an easy example of a way to get leads just by searching through eBay and then writing an email.
Here's what you do:
Go to eBay or some other auction site and look for ads selling things that are selling for maybe $400 or $500 or even just $300 or $200, and that are listed over and over again -- but not selling.
Look for ones that are very poorly written. Ads you can look at and say, "I can do better than that!" and use your copywriting skills to rewrite the ad.
Then, when you've rewritten the ad contact that seller and simply say, “I’ve been looking at your eBay ad for the last couple of weeks or the last couple of months, and although you have a good ad, there are a lot of things that you can do to make this auction sell better and sell at a higher price and sell more often. What I’ve done is I’ve taken the liberty of rewriting your ad, and I’d like to get your opinion on it.”
Then, you put your ad up on a webpage, and you let him know the ad is copyrighted under international and federal law. You may even want to use a simple "non-disclosure" form they must sign before they can view the ad as an extra layer of protection (just in case).
If you really want to go the extra mile, you can even get some simple software that will allow you to protect the page, meaning he can’t copy and paste or print the page so it’s just view only.
The idea here is you want to show him your work, but you don’t want him to be able to copy and paste it, or use it. At that point you can then get his opinion and you can sell that to him, or you could negotiate.
You could say, “I’ll let you use my sales letter to sell your product. Why don’t you test it on one or two of your auctions? And then you pay me a percentage on everything you sell for using my sales letter.”
If he says no, move on to someone else selling something similar where you don't have to do any massive rewriting.
And just keep going after them. There are so many ads on these auction sites.
You should especially look at the completed auctions for stuff that sells for ten, fifteen, twenty thousand dollars. Let’s say you find someone selling a million dollar boat, for example. And let's say he has great pictures, but he has no copy, no benefits, no descriptions.
You can simply say, “Did you ever sell the boat?”
Chances are he'll say something like, “Nah, I never sold it. It’s still sitting here.”
You could negotiate and say, “Let me help you sell your boat. I’ll write an ad to sell the boat, and if we sell the boat, you split it with me. You pay me $2,000 or $3,000 or $4,000, whatever.”
Look, this may sound simple, but it works. The world is starved for good copy -- especially on the online auctions.
And this is a great way for a beginner copywriter -- who knows the basics -- to get your feet wet and maybe make some good money at the same time.
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