- Five ways to start copywriting
and make a portfolio with zero experience.
When you are just getting started,
when you are a beginner copywriter,
you're going out there to the marketplace
and you're trying to get gigs,
you're trying to get clients,
one of the most common questions you will get is
"Do you have samples of your work
"that you can share with me?"
"Do you have a portfolio?"
Now, if you're brand new, you may be saying
that, "Well, I don't have a portfolio,
"I'm brand new, and I'm just getting started."
And what you'll hear from your prospects
are, "Well, then we can't really trust you,
"we can't really hire you."
Well how the hell am I going to do a portfolio
when I'm brand new?
So I cannot get any gigs because I don't have a portfolio,
but I cannot build a portfolio
because I'm not getting any gigs.
I understand your frustrations.
The question is, are you going to let not having materials,
not having a portfolio stop you from pursuing
a professional, lucrative career in copywriting?
Comment below.
Today, I'm going to share with you
five ways you could get started in copywriting.
Get your foot in the door.
For some, you may have to accept one, or two, or three
no-pay or low-pay gigs just to get started.
I'm not asking you to do that forever,
what I'm asking you to do is to get two or three samples.
That's all you need.
You need to get your feet wet,
you need to get your foot in the door,
get in the game so you can start getting paid right now,
and that's how you do it.
Way number one, volunteer to write
for non-profit organizations.
Non-profit organizations, they're always looking for writers
to write their newsletters, their press releases,
their fundraising campaigns and emails.
I'm talking about your local Parent Teacher Association,
I'm talking about animal shelters,
I'm talking about environmental groups.
All you need to do is send them an email,
and say, "Hey, you know what?
"I am a copywriter, I'm looking to gain some experience."
You could connect with them on LinkedIn.
Yes, on LinkedIn.
You just need to approach them.
Now, one of these three things will happen
after you write for them.
Number one, it shows your future clients
that you are a nice person
because within the samples of your work,
they can see you write for a non-profit.
Chances are, you're a nice person.
I hope that you are, right?
You're a good person.
Number two, that if you actually do very, very good work,
they might actually turn into a client, a paying client.
They like your work so much,
they will hire you for other projects.
Number three, there's a possibility
that they might give you a recommendation,
a referral or an endorsement.
However, don't expect an endorsement or a referral.
It's nice if you get it, but that's not why you're doing it.
You're doing it to build your portfolio.
Does that make sense?
Way number two, if you belong to a church
or any religions, any religious organizations,
you could also approach them
because they're always looking for writers
to share the message.
Especially when you approach them as one of the believers,
it's very easy for them to say yes and give you some gigs,
give you some opportunities to practice.
Way number three, approach business owners.
Now, that's what I did in the beginning of my career.
I would approach local business owners,
chamber of commerce, just talking to them
and say, "Hey, do you need any kind of brochures?
"Maybe your direct mails, maybe your ads?
"Anything that I could write?
"Now, of course now social media.
"Your landing page, your email, right?"
Anything that they might need help with.
All I'm asking the business owner is
if they like my work, they would give me an endorsement
and the right to showcase this work
to other future prospects.
That's it, and most of the time they will say yes
because first of all, they would save money,
and second of all, they're always looking for marketing,
materials, and literatures for their businesses anyway.
It's very easy, and once I've done a few of those,
boom, I've got a portfolio.
Way number four, take an online course.
I teach a seven week certification program
that helps people to become a high-income copywriter.
How to develop a high-income skill that allows them
to earn thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars,
with nothing more than the power of the keyboard
or pen, and combine that with their skillsets.
If you want a proven path to six figure income
as a copywriter, I will put a link in the description below.
Every single week during that seven weeks,
they will join us virtually
from the comfort of their own home.
And every single week, we will give them assignments to do.
So by the end of seven weeks, you will have a portfolio
of different examples of the work that you've done.
Emails, landing pages, and ads that you can present
to your potential clients.
And that's why my students are able to get clients
in as little as seven weeks based on the strength
of the portfolio that they built during that seven weeks,
just doing the assignments.
- Yeah, it's happened!
Finally I got my first boom.
Not even finished the program, we just finished class six
two days ago and I had my first boom.
Wow, that's just an amazing feeling.
To generate $1,000 with a cash net
and I feel like, wow, that's amazing.
Just spend 20 minutes of my time
to make $1,000, and as a result, she paid me $100,
10% in commission, that makes me feel so happy.
Now I feel that I believe in myself.
- Finally and officially, I got my first boom!
And it's $100, I am so happy and I finally got it,
and I earned it with my soul, I was working hard for it.
But I wouldn't do it without the help of the team,
Desmond and Tina and everyone, and my friends in HIC,
and the whole HIC family cause your posts inspire me daily.
- Way number five, you actually rewrite
other people's copy.
So you go through different landing pages,
you go through different funnels and different emails,
and you would take their copy and you actually rewrite it,
and that becomes your portfolio.
Now, don't lie, you're not saying that these people
are your clients, you're not saying these businesses
are your clients, you're simply saying to them
these are samples of your work, what you could do.
Now they could see, they could get a glimpse of,
okay, this is what you could do.
These are your skillsets, this is how good your writing is.
It's a very simple thing to do.
Now, you don't need 20, 30 samples
of your work in your portfolio.
All you need is two or three.
A confused mind, a confused prospect, always says no.
As time goes on and now you have more samples
in your portfolio, what you want to do
is you want to send them exactly what they are looking for.
Here's what I mean.
Let's say they want to hire you to write emails for them.
What do you do?
You send them two or three email examples
that you've done in the past.
They're looking to hire you to write some landing pages.
You show them two or three landing pages examples.
You don't want to show them emails
when they're asking for landing pages.
So as you get gigs, you might have a lot more samples
in your portfolio that you could show,
but you don't show them all, you got it?
Let me give you one more bonus tip.
Do you want an extra bonus tip?
When you are talking to a prospect,
don't focus on your background,
don't focus on your experience or lack thereof.
At the end of the day, the prospect is not interested
in your writing per se.
What they're interested in is what needs to be done,
and what can your writing do for their businesses.
That's it, so focus on them.
So when you are talking to them on the phone,
and I recommend you talk to them on the phone,
after the initial conversation, after initial email
or social media exchange, you get them on the phone,
you ask them good questions.
You discover their needs.
You discover exactly and precisely
what kind of outcome they're looking for.
And then you position your top-rating service
as the solution to get them there.
And I've made so many videos on YouTube
on sales and closing, you could easily go
to my playlist and watch those.
So make sure you sharpen your closing skills on the phone
before you talk to the prospects.
If you want to stop writing the hard way,
head over to InstantScripts.com
or click on the link below in the description.
In as little as three minutes,
you can fill in the blanks of these simple,
yet extremely powerful sales letter and email templates
instead of staring at a blank piece of paper
every single time that you write.
You'd be amazed how simple, easy, and effortless
this process is.
Click on the link below and see for yourself.