How do you attract prospects to take you up as a copywriter?

The best way to attract clients is to be good at what you do.

Proof of results is the single best way to get more jobs than you can
handle. Once you're bringing in results and beating controls, you won't
need to prospect much.

this requires you to first get some results. So even if you have to go on
elance or guru or any of the outsourcing sites to start, so be it. The end
result is what you're after.

One of the first things I do with my copy cubs is have them draft proposals
and try and land jobs on elance.

Then its all about writing really great copy that will produce tangible results.

Because once you have some copy written that has produced results, you
can say to prospective clients... "this piece I wrote returned X conversion rate and
brought in X profits for my client. This piece doubled the sales of my client, this piece returned $6 for every dollar spent, etc..."

the single best way to attract and land clients is to show proof that you can get them
the end results they want. they honestly don't care about you, your training, your samples... they only care about your results and how it can relate to them.

so get pieces written and out there... get results and proof, and testimonials if you can, then use those in your marketing to attract new clients.

Offer your work scaled for payment based on result levels.

To build up your portfolio create mock ups. At least three different fields or niches.

Oh. Here's a dirty little secret you may feel a little squeamish or reluctant to use: after you create the three mandatory mock ups create a ton of mock ups promoting yourself and your services.

Examples: client reactivation letter with you as the seller, newsletter for your own business, brochure for your business, telephone sales script for your business, etc etc etc All mock ups.

This accomplishes two things. The first is that it shows you know how to actually write, thus promoting yourself as an actual copywriter. And second, if you do a good job with the contents of your mock ups you are promoting yourself and your services with each mock up your prospective client actually reads. The best proof is experiencing your services for themselves. Irrefutable proof because your prospective client has 'proven' to themselves internally you know what you are doing. They are not going to argue against themselves

This of course can backfire if a person doesn't actually know how to write right. ehem, correctly :p

Thanks for your input guys. I will take some suggestions here and put it to work. I am working on some brochures, website content as well as posters. Only 1 paid job thus far so alot more need to be done.

Do you think this work as well?

I read somewhere that you can use existing ads online or magazine, edit it and call it your sample. For example, I can find some really bad adsense ads, use them as my 'case studies' and do my own editing and call it my sample. Though when you tell others that you are the one working on the samples, you have to mention that it's just a sample, not a paid job.

do you think it work that way? Or was it unethical?

As a copywriter, if you want to have a portfolio and you are just starting out? hhmm... What I did before was take out some ads myself from magazines or even from the internet and copy write it myself, just for portfolio purposes, you are not going to publish it yourself. It is called a SPEC ADS. you can read it here:How to Create the Perfect SPEC AD - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Just so you can show your skill to your prospect clients

If I may also add, be confident and always believe in your talent. But do not be over promotional. Try to become more "helpful" instead of just offering your service.

Why not help them edit their marketing materials and offer free review copies/copy critiques? When it comes to prospective clients looking for freelance writers, it's a considerable risk to decide and give new ones a chance. Review/critique copies essentially help bridge this wall as long as you realistically limit it to people or members whom the rest of the community respects and will trust in their evaluation.

Also remember that every client is a prospective return client, so keep their contact information and touch base with them every now and again to see if there was anything they needed.

When it's all said and done, though, your work will always speak for itself, and if you do consistently good work, word will spread. Constantly work at improving your craft, always strive to continue learning new things, styles and techniques, and never shoot for anything less than absolute perfection. After all, as the late, great Vince Lombardi once said:

"Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence."

Good luck!

With the best portfolio you can draw some attention. If you find your client has good reputation then you can always take money only if they get satisfied with your work. This way you get repeated clients since they get confident on your work.

Focus on a niche like DIRECT RESPONSE COPYWRITING. Not all of copywriting is cutthroat. There are some fat niches out there. You just need to put in the time to get good at those niches.

Do some "almost free" jobs and make revisions if you screw up. Prove your worth. Don't expect to make much money while you're still learning. You'll get some testimonials quickly from doing this. Word spreads quickly. Work that network and keep ramping up your fee as you get better and as the load of prospects increase. That's how I started.

You're doing everything you should be doing. I ran through your list to see if there was something additional I could suggest, and there really isn't. Just do your very best just as if they were paying clients. Good luck.

One little thing I may add is know your strengths and have great confidence in them...Just show it in your work

Wow there are new tips and techniques here. I think I might get something out of this thread too! thanks you for all the awesome tips and advice. They are really helpful