If
you prefer to undertake your own copywriting jobs, or are considering
setting yourself up as a freelance copywriter, the articles
and recommended resources on this page will serve
as a useful launchpad.
Discover
how to write million dollar advertising and sales letters by
teaming up with the world's top copywriters...
To start right now click
image:
Freelance
copywriting excellence.
By Miguel Alvarez
Writing all of the copy for your web site yourself
can be tiring and time consuming, especially if you are not a
professional freelance copywriter. It can also be daunting when you
type freelance copywriter into your browser's search engine and are
presented with 44,800 possibilities.
The problem is that it is difficult to determine what sort of service
lies behind those possibilities. Although the Internet has its share of
excellent writers it also a lot of hacks, plagiarists and tardy writers
listed who have paid big bucks to be listed in that search engine too.
Here are a few things that you should look for when
looking for a freelance copywriter
A freelance copywriter who knows what Search Engine
Optimization is. A freelance
copywriter that charges an affordable hourly or fee for their services.
If the fee is lower than $25 an hour it is practically understood that
your project will be late simply because that is already less than one
quarter of writer's union fees. It also means that the writer will also
have to be working on multiple projects in order to finance your
project.
A
freelance copywriter who can establish a firm date for when you will
receive the deliverables. Another
thing to keep in mind is that a freelance copywriting service is highly
linked or highly rated in the search engine is not necessarily your
best choice. Remember that search engine listings and indexing can be
paid for.
You may not also not
necessarily find the freelance copywriter of your dreams on the
Internet. There are plenty of copywriters listed in the phone book and
also within creative agencies that are capable of doing the job for you.
Probably the two main
sites where freelancers conglomerate on the Internet are guru.com and
elance.com. Both of these sites use the auction format. You post your
project and name a budget and the writers that belong to these
organizations bid on them. These are both reputable places to find
writers willing to do your copywriting but keep in mind that both sites
charge monthly enrollment fees as well as listing and transaction fees
in order for you to do business.
When looking at
writer's profiles on either elance or guru, it is a good idea to take a
good look at any samples that they might have posted. You can also tell
a lot about a writer by the way their profile is written. If the
description of their own services is riddled with grammar and spelling
mistakes you can pretty much assume that the copywriting that they
produce for you will also be plagued with similar problems.
As these are online
market places, they have their share of nuts and wackos. It is well
known that really good freelance writers can be a bit eccentric as many
of them on the Internet work at home and don't see a soul all day.
Don't expect a freelance copywriter to deal with you like one of your
corporate chums would. Many of them are freelance because they can't stand the
corporate world and its jargon and protocol in the first place.
It is also important
not to judge a writer too much on any negative feedback that may have
been left for them for other clients. Both guru.com and elance.com
slant their feedback systems so that a client can leave feedback even
if there has been no contract has been signed or a single word has been
written. Even an excellent writer's rating can be adversely affected by
feedback left by a client that has not assigned or paid a cent to the
writer!
Another thing to
consider is the number of clients that the freelance writer has had as
opposed to the actual feedback. For instance if you notice that a
writer has completed 90 successful transactions but only ten people
have left both positive or negative feedback, then you can pretty much
assume that they are good freelancers. This is because on both guru and
elance less than 10% of individuals actually leave feedback for a
writer.
Another indication that
you are looking at the profile of an excellent copywriter is a high
number of repeat customers. Both elance and guru allow you to see who
has assigned articles to a copywriter and how many times. If the writer
has lots of repeat business then that is more of an indication that
they offer reliable and accurate copywriting services than a five star
feed back rating.
Both elance.com and
guru.com also tell you how much money the writer has made that year
from selling their services. Chances are that the higher the figure is,
the better the writer is.
Another way to find a
freelance copywriting service on the web is to type the words
"copywriting portfolio" into your search engine. This will lead you to
thousands of sites displaying portfolios that feature different types
of copywriting. However keep in mind that some of these sites will be
off shoots of creative agencies or advertising agencies who will
probably want to charge you an arm and a leg for a brochure and some of
them may belong to writers who have launched their business on the web.
They might betrying to offer customers an option that is a little more
expensive than what is offered on elance or guru but not as expensive
commissioning the work from an agency.
As is true with all business-to-business
enterprises on the web, the type of writer you should avoid is the one
that cannot maintain a web site. If the writer's site has broken links,
bad grammar or other problems you might encounter that old adage "You
get what you pay for!" if they offer to do your copywriting for next to
free!
www.milliondollarads.com
8 Powerful Online Copywriting Tips.
By Miguel Alvarez
Writing profitable online copywriting is a
challenge for many Internet marketers simply because they are better at
marketing then they are at being a scribe! It is very common to
experience difficulty and frustration if you are new at writing
advertising copy. Even seasoned, experienced writers who have been at
it for years find it difficult especially when the copy must meet a
number of length, SEO and content perimeters.
If you are just starting out however, you may not
be able to hire the services of a professional marketing copywriter
(even though the services of some of those listed at guru.com and
elance.com are quite cheap.) Here is a breakdown of the top ten things
you need to master in order to create effective profit generating ads.
Copywriting Tip #1. Imitation
is not only the sincerest form of flattery, it can also be extremely
educational! This is especially true when it comes to writing
advertisements. Before you write anything your first step should be to
type a few keywords into your search engines and see what your
competition is doing. What approach are they taking? Do you have a
counterpoint to their point of view that would make a good selling
pitch in your own ad? You can certainly derive a great deal of
inspiration from studying the copy on other sites that sell similar
things as yours. However if you do find a site that you like, make sure
that you don't copy their proprietary material. That is a big no no
that could get you in a lot of trouble.
Copywriting Tip #2.
Also make a point of studying the copywriting that you admire on sites
that are not related to yours. Study the style of how this content is
written. Is it lean and spare or full of long descriptions? Is it a
hard sell or written in a more casual way, as if it was a letter to the
consumer? Subscribe to their ebooks, newsletters and other materials to
see how they are laid out and if it is possible for you to do a similar
thing with your own business.
Copywriting Tip #3.
Set an intention for your advertisement. Determine exactly what it is
that you want your online advertisement to accomplish. Online
copywriting that tries to accomplish to many goals at once often sends
mixed messages to potential subscribers or consumers. Decide at the
outset what mission this particular piece of copy that you are about to
write should accomplish. Ask yourself if your intention is to qualify
prospects, generate leads, increase membership conversion, create
anticipation about a new product or serve, attract more web traffic or
simply introduce yourself as a new player on the scene.
Copywriting Tip #4. The best
way to organize your copy is to first think about why you would buy
your product or service if you were a customer. Your first step is to
make a list of all your key selling points and then all of your
product's features. Decide which benefit or feature fits best with the
intention you have decided on for your advertisement. Keeping these two
factors (your ad's intention and your most attractive benefit or
feature) in mind is a great way to escape that writer's block when it
comes to writing your own online copy. Make sure that this key benefit
and your intention is also crafted in one superb headline and one
superb first line in your first paragraph. This helps get your
advertising message across even if the reader only ends scanning your
ad as opposed to reading it all.
Copywriting Tip #5. The most
successful online copywriting is more specific than it is vague. For
instance rather than say you have the "best food" it is better to say
that you have the "spiciest genuine barbecue pork ribs this side of
North Carolina." The more specific you are with your language the more
likely you are to attract the eyes of your consumers. Keep in mind too
that if you are writing copy for Google Adwords that your submission
will automatically be rejected if you use words like "the best" or
"superior" instead of active statements that take a more active form of
grammar.
Copywriting Tip #6. Back up
your claims with descriptions and proof. This means that if you make a
statement be prepared to include as accurate of a description as
possible for your product. If you claim that your service can improve a
conversion rater, back up that claim with exact numbers, percentages
and testimonials. If you are selling a product elaborate on its
features and benefits by including exciting adjectives in your writing
that describe its color, smell, feel etc. Don't be afraid to refer to
the five senses.
Copywriting Tip #7. Help your
customers distinguish your product or service from that of your
competitors' by listing all the ways that your product is superior or
different than theirs. However be careful about mentioning the product
by name too often, or even at all as you could end up sending your
visitors to the competition's site to check out what all the fuss is
about quite accidentally!
Copywriting Tip #8. Embellish your online copywriting
with graphics and images to show off your product. This is particularly
important if you have an online store. Make sure that every photograph
or image that you include in the advertisement also has a caption as
studies have shown that people are very drawn to reading captions
beneath photographs.
Hopefully by incorporating these tips into your online copywriting
endeavors you can avoid many of the mistakes that beginning marketers
make when they first attempt to create the content on their own.
Home
|
