Writing

Did you know that jobs writing about food are available? These opportunities are available in a variety of areas. Employment in these fields is an exciting concept. For many, getting their foot in the door is the most important and most challenging first step. In order to succeed, a wide range of knowledge is needed as well as a good base of experience.

These jobs are available in all sorts of media. The internet is full of postings for good quality writers in a variety of fields. Some in this field write for magazines, newspapers, or even books. Others work right online. There are several avenues a prospective writer can take.

The first step in getting into any of these, though, is getting a good base of knowledge. There are courses that can be taken to give a good base of knowledge for the food aspect of the business. But, for the writing, grammar, and compiling of the articles and pieces, you will need at least a few years of schooling. Writing is the foundation of the work you will do, after all.

To start out in freelance writing though, you need to know how to get experience.

Your goal is to land a few nice, secure freelance copywriting jobs, but how do you get them? The most important factor in finding these jobs is that you pursue the job you are looking for with all of your ducks in a row, so to speak. Here are a few things you need to do in order to get the freelance copywriting jobs that you have been looking for.

Prepare yourself through schooling. Most people in the copywriting industry have at least a two year degree. If you can afford to do this, do it. It will benefit you for a long time down the road. Often times, getting a four year degree is beneficial to getting into the bigger companies. Some schools offer internships which can be an outstanding way to get your foot in the door. Hopefully, they will hire you right after the internship and you’ll be set. If not, you will need to pursue other companies, but you will have this real world experience.

Place yourself in the right company environment. If you want to find jobs in copy writing, don’t settle for something in an unrelated field. Instead, look for a small start in the right career.

These days, you don’t have to traverse the dark forest on the eve of the Full Moon to find a gypsy, psychic or “intuitive” as many now call themselves. Chances are, the local astrologist or tarot reader is making more than a comfortable living for herself in a corporate complex near you. She’s probably dressed in proper business attire, scheduling consultations from her art-deco office right now.

If you’re a copywriter, the intuitive, mystical or occult audience is an ever-growing market that’s worth tapping. Most Intuitives see the Web as an ideal way to attract covert followers… and in that regard, their “intuition” is dead-on.

Why all the secrecy? Pretend for the moment that you’re the typical astrology client. Maybe you feel a little silly telling the naysayers at your office and even in your family that you’ve been seeking answers in the stars. Thanks to anonymity on the web, no one has to know that you just ran your husband’s birthday through that Astrological Personality Profiler and are now clued into his Venus in Scorpio that may be clashing with your Mars in Gemini which is why sparks always fly in the bedroom after you’ve had another one of your hair-raising arguments.

If you made it this far, the headline for this story has caught your attention. Hot headlines are a hit with readers because they stick out, grab attention and urge them to read the rest of the story.

We’re all experiencing information overload and have made it a habit to skim pages. According to David Ogilvy, a successful advertising writer, “Five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy.” Sounds like we need to treat those headlines like trying to get our foot in the door.

It doesn’t matter if you’re writing a sales letter, Web page content, email, or an article. Pulling together a handful of powerful words and putting them ahead of the content is more likely to grab eyeballs than just going right into the story, letter, or content.

Despite our success with newsletters, we continue to learn how to add more punch when writing headlines. Here are the tips we have learned and try to apply:

As a freelance copywriter in New York, your work is never done.

What?

Do you mean to say that it is hard to find regular freelance writing jobs, even here in New York City?

For those looking to succeed, employment is hard to find only because we lack the knowledge of where to find the work we want. However, for a freelance copywriter, New York is an excellent place to start working. In fact there may be no better place, actually.

With this city, it’s all about being the first to get your resume in, right?

Well, ‘hurry up and rush’ is not always a good practice when it comes to this business. But, in this city it is often necessary to succeed. Clients demand work to be well done, complete, on time and in a rush! Can you meet those demands? Honing your skills to fit that of your employer is what is going to have you filling your name next to the job vacancies the company has. Most essential is being prepared, resume fully developed, portfolio in hand, when you walk in to speak to the new client. If you haven’t gotten to this interview level yet, create these essential pieces, then begin the search by applying at companies that need your services. Think out of the box on this! In this sense, being a freelance copywriter in New York is no different to anywhere else.

Market identification
Custom writing services market is a sector of the e-commerce industry. Custom writing services are fee-based.

Market size
The precise size of custom writing services market is unknown, though some rough estimate could be made. The number of competitors in the market approaches nearly 200. It is also known that around 30 percent of organizations in the industry have annual turnover amounting to $120,000 approximately, whereas other 70 percent have almost twice as low annual turnover. Total market size is estimated at $10,800,000 annually. The size of the market in relation to the economy is yet unknown.

Segmentation
Segmentation is the process of allocation of particular homogeneous sub-markets within a heterogeneous market. A market is a multitude of sub-markets that have similar motivations.

In the case with the market concerned, segmentation is interpreted as follows. Companies that operate within the market could be divided in accordance to specialization differences into such categories: (a) generally-oriented companies; (b) particularly-oriented companies. Generally-oriented companies are those that produce custom-written papers on a wide variety of topics. As a rule, such organizations hire writers representing different specialties or simply those able to perform on appropriate level in one or several fields. Companies ascribed to another organizational category usually operate within a narrower framework. In the market there are companies that offer custom-written papers exclusively on math, physics, sociology, the African-Americans, William Shakespeare, Charlotte Bronte, etc.

Your initial freelance writing assignments are the best way to present yourself to your client for repeated work. If you provide for them a good product, at a good price, they are likely to come back time and time again. The goal of any career, particularly as a freelancer, is to have steady business. Instead of continually needing new clients or another job to fill your day, why not utilize repeat business? When you make the most of your freelancing time you are helping yourself to gain more business and maintain that which you already have.

For many people getting that first job is the key to success. It is the hardest part of working because more and more people want quality providers and want to use someone who is proven and worth the risk. You cannot get these jobs if you are new. But look at it another way. When you do get to that point, it is important to make the most out of all assignments so that you get return business from that client. This could be any number of things, but should always focus on maintaining a strong working relationship with the client. Providing them with good work, timely work, and listening and meeting their needs will have them coming back to you time and time again.

Professional copywriters are well-familiar with what’s commonly referred to as “the voice.” What is this exactly, and why do you need to master it in your writing?

If writing is icecream, then “the voice” is the flavor in your scoop. You may be slurping on mellow vanilla, while I’m over here crunching Rocky Road. Sure, we’re bothing having a cold and creamy treat, but our waffle cones are packing two entirely different tastes. So it is with the “voice” that carries your message in writing.

Another way to say this: the voice is the personality that comes across by way of your written message. When you set pen to paper or get those keys clicking, what comes out is your own voice or chosen style of expression.

The words and intonation you choose may be very different than what I’d use. That’s the variance in the voice. You must nab this for your copywriting clientele if you want to impress people!

Questions to Ask When Writing Web Copy:

1. Who am I speaking to?”

Most of us have seen a heckler at a baseball game. Sure, he’s likely to draw attention, both positive and negative. The louder he hollers, the more attention he gets.

But do you and I want that kind of attention? Probably not. What most of us want to do ? especially with our writing ? is to make a positive impression that stays with the reader.

That’s the reason I wrote the little book "Words That Stick"?to help writers create impressions that stick to a reader’s memory like duct tape.

So, here are five ideas to help you attract attention:

1. Begin with a unique headline. Some of my favorite headlines are slightly incongruous, or create curiosity. That’s what forces me to read more. Example: "Cold wave linked to temperature."

2. A second headline technique: ask a question. Example: "Do you have these symptoms of work fatigue?"

3. In the first sentence, offer the reader some benefit for reading the article. Example: "While biking through the woods last month, I made a discovery that changed my life."

4. Another way to begin: ask why. Example: "Why do I always remember where I left the keys, but never remember where I left the car?"

Here’s another drill ripped out of the Field Guide for my Red Hot Copywriting Bootcamp. There are 20 drills total which take 15 minutes per day (my "recruits" get weekends off). Each drill stands on its own but put them all together and the impact on your salesmanship is phenomenal! So here is another one for you?

Copywriting is a team sport. There is you (the writer) and the reader. But the reader has all the power. She gets to decide when the game’s over. As soon as the reader is gone, no one is there to read the copy! So anticipate what’s going to keep her interested and intrigued ahead of time. Here’s how it’s done.

Pick a primary target market. (Yes you can have more than one, but the more specific you make your target market, the easier it will be to sell to them. So let’s go with ONE.) Now let’s narrow it even further. I coined a term called "tarket" which is a combination of Target + Market = Tarket.