Hi Everyone!

I'm a newbie trying to get into the copywriting biz. I've created a web page with writing samples, but have no clue if what I have is good enough.

I'm pasting my link below in hopes that some pros can share their wisdom with me.

www.geocities.com/k_blagrove

Do I need more samples? Do I need stronger samples? Since I mostly have spec samples are they formatted properly or do I need finished/produced work to really get some attention.

What tips do you have for someone trying to get their foot in the door?

Whatever advice you have is appreciated. Let 'er rip!

Many thanks,
Kimberly

kblagrove wrote :

so, i havn't find any page with this title:

about me.

hope it help.

Haha!

Abdellah is right - Your writing doesn't connect with your reader by showing them the "what can you do for me".

Once again Abdella - great observation!

Primo wrote :
thank you primo, i learned a lot there all the merit is yours (I mean all copywriters there).

PS:what about the JP Contest. I hope that it will be explossif.and we will have a lot to learn from the participant copys.

good luck.

I don't see this as any form of direct market copywriting. Your ads appear to be old style Bosom Buddies type campaigns while your long form writing is more like journalism.

I don't see any direct market materials here.
(Come on now... Some benefits... some bullets... a call to action... a couple dozen PS's!)

Also, I don't know if you changed it for legal reasons, but I think the wine is called Ernest and Julio Gallo.

Wow, you guys work fast!

Many thanks to you all for your feedback.

I think I'll have to rework my material to be geared towards the right market. I actually don't want to do direct market copywriting. I'm interested more in print work, commercials, entertainment sites (for movies, movie posters, etc.) and creating concepts for companies.

I threw a bunch of stuff out there to see what would stick and I've gotten my answer.

Also, tvwriterguy, you were right about the Ernest & Gallo name. I did change it for legal reasons.

Your comments have all been helpful.

Thanks again,
Kimberly

Who's your market? Who do you want to write for? If it's general copywriting (press releases, web sites, etc) you're going to need more than you have here. You'll need at least one sample of each kind of writing you do.

No pro would be caught dead on a freebie web host. GeoCities sucks. It makes you look cheap and pathetic. Get out of there. Use GoDaddy or Yahoo for inexpensive site building and hosting.

If you're going to be a generalist, you'll need more than that page to impress prospective clients. Regular biz clients like to see (at a minimum) Home, Services, About, Samples, and Contact.

Plus, the search engines will never find you with your existing page. That's like setting up a billboard selling high-heeled shoes in the Gobi Desert. Nobody knows you're there, and nobody cares.

Yes. Yes. No, you don't need formatted samples. Just good ones.

Read everything on marketing and copywriting that you can get your hands on. Start with
Peter Bowerman ( The Well-Fed Writer excellent primer for a newbie generalist),
Steve Slaunwhite (Start and Run a Copywriting Business good for the nuts and bolts of setting up your biz),
Bob Bly (The Copywriter's Handbook for an introduction on writing marketing copy. Also read pretty much anything else by Bly), and Marcia Yudkin (Persuading on Paper). Also visit Marcia's site for a boatload of helpful and excellent information for a new copywriter.

If you want to go into direct response, this board has more useful information than you can make use of in a lifetime. Carve out an entire weekend and comb through it. In particular pay attention to the Copywriting and Critique areas. The education you'll find here is killer.

That ought to keep you off the streets and out of trouble for a while. Good luck.

Again, terrific advice and information. Thanks chocho. I certainly have my work cut out for me.

Greatly appreciated.

All the best to you.
Kimberly

Kimberly,
Everything that you mentioned here will eventually "require" you to use copywriting in one form or another if you want to sell your services...

And what is copywriting?

-- a simple definition is "salemanship in print".

Many that come here aren't interested in doing direct market copywriting, but they still come here to sharpen their sales and marketing skills.

Eventually you'll want to try to sell to your services and you really "need" these basic skills to do so.

I highly recommend you study what basic copywriting is all about.

Trust me on this...

-- learning the basics of copywriting will help you "ten fold" when you are ready to sell products and services to your target market!

I hear you Stephen. Even though some areas of copywriting interest me more than others, I know I should make the effort to learn it all.

There's actually a basic copywriting course I've been wanting to take that starts in May. I'm hoping this will give me the overview I need as a start.

This experience has been great. I look forward to learning from you all on these message boards.

Kimberly