First copy for free.

No I don't think that's a good idea.

People want copy to make them money...

They won't see the value in a freebie.

What's your standard of copywriting now?

I ask because you can easily set up a thread on the Warrior For Hire section to attract paying clients... But if you haven't put the work in to be able to write something which converts, then you shouldn't be offering your services out at all.

Considering you said 'How do you think', my guess is that your free copy would be very expensive in terms of opportunity cost for your client.

Unless you want to write in a different language?

If you want to write in English I'd keep practicing before taking on any clients - even for free.

It's a tough one.

It can be really tempting to do work for free when you're starting out and need some samples. Especially for something results-driven like sales copy.

But chances are you won't get much out of it.

For one thing, a client who can't budget for even a cheap newbie copywriter isn't likely to have the skills to send relevant traffic, so you won't have an opportunity to demonstrate conversions anyhow. Still no results to show...

If you just want to practice writing sales pages and pull together something to show so that prospects believe you at least understand the basics, consider just tossing together a sales page or two on your own domains. You can use them to pitch your services, sell an imaginary product, or build a list - just a few ideas.

Yet another idea might be to contact people who have crappy sales pages and offer to rewrite them. If you can beat their existing copy, they keep it. If not, they take it down.

If you're doing this for free and they actually take you up on it, chances are their existing page will have to be pretty bad. And again, make sure they're already getting traffic or it may not be worth your time.

I agree with JohnRussel too; you don't appear to be a native-English speaker. If that's the case, it presents a huge problem in itself...

EDIT: I just saw the response about the English criticisms.

Unfortunately, it's very relevant in this discussion, whether you like it or not. Maybe you were just being careless and wrote that quickly, but keep in mind that people are more willing to give out advice to people they think can run with that advice, which your OP did not suggest was likely.

Personally, I think it's a sign of respect to other warriors to put time into writing clean posts. They don't have to be perfect, and there's always the chance you're not writing for English markets (all you have to do is say so).

It's nothing personal if English isn't your first language, but in a copywriting discussion, writing skills are bound to be scrutinized.

if you want to go down the freebie road why not at least ask for cut of the sales. ?

if you have studied any copywriting material at all, you are streets ahead of most people, so you have some value.

It's no crime to start your career off by working for free. I did. You can too.

Just get some results for that client. Forget about YOUR money. Make THEM money.

GET RESULTS.

Then leverage those results into paydays for yourself.

Results will get you paid. Do whatever you have to do to get them. In the long run, they are the be all and end all.

--- Ross

Most people around here will probably say that's a bad idea.

I'd also agree it's a bad idea to create something like a full length sales letter just to give out as a freebie.

However, I think there can be some merit to the idea of rewriting a prospect's web copy (just one page) or autoresponder emails (again just one) as a sample to get your foot in the door.

The genius of this approach is, if the page you write is radically different from the style of the other pages on their site, they'll need to hire you to write the other pages or else consistency will suffer.

As others have suggested, offering a free first copy to a client won't really help you gain long term customers or win credibility as it devalues your copywriting services. Potential clients will wonder why you would offer the service for free if it's really valuable. Others may suspect you are desperate to build a portfolio. A better idea would be to offer a free critique of your client's current copy (just one page or sales letter) to new sign ups to your mailing list. This should only take five minutes of your time and will win you a subscriber with whom you can talk later. You could offer some simple pointers on the page being evaluated. This might be valuable to a potential client and a good way to show your expertise in copywriting, rather than giving away valuable content.

It depends on how good you are. Without knowing that, I wouldn't advise you either way. I can tell you this...

...convincing someone to pay you isn't much harder than getting them to be a free test subject.

The best thing would be for you to start working on a percentage of the increased sales you generate. That way you will get clients and you will also make money if the copy you create generates sales. Plus it is a whole lot easier to sell and it is not for free.

By working on a straight commission at first you will get to generate a portfolio and testimonials from your satisfied clients. And you will also get the initial clients to pay you more in the future because they already know and trust your skills.

Of course you can. I think it is a good idea. People want to know how good you are before they spend their money. Besides, you can expect much better response that way.

i think its a good idea too...why not?!try!