In the last two decades the world wide web has grown from a novelty that only a select few knew how to use to an indispensable aspect of modern life. As the number and variety of online resources has grown, so has the need for online copywriters. Copy is defined as text that is meant to persuade or influence, so to be a copywriter is to be someone who writes the text that makes up the majority of the advertising material online. Advertisements, blog posts, and even that annoying commercial that appears before your favorite video all had to be written by someone. If you have good written communication skills, maybe your next career move should be online.
I made the decision to become an online copywriter after many years in my former career.
Long commutes, high gas prices, and increasing incidents of downsizing were some of the factors that fueled my decision to begin to look for a job in a different field, but what to do? I have always enjoyed writing, and have even been fortunate enough to have a piece published, but I always thought of a writer as someone sitting at a writing desk penning the next New York Times best seller. I never gave a thought to applying my skills toward advertising, even though as a parent I have certainly been the target of a large share of well-written ads.
My change in attitude towards writing came after taking a class at the local college. I already have a Master’s degree, so needless to say my spouse was less than thrilled at my taking yet another class. But this one turned out to be the one that changed my point of view. We were allowed to explore all types of writing in the class, not just stories and essays, but all types of what I would now call ‘real world’ writing. I couldn’t wait to do a personal search for some of these new terms and see what was out there.
All I had to do was to type “online copywriters” into the search engine, and instantly I had more choices than I could ever consider. I have to admit this was overwhelming at first, until I developed a plan. I started by narrowing the list of tens of thousand choices to a few that appealed to me. I checked out their websites, and then selected the ones that appeared to be the most professional looking. The sites that I focused on were ones that had a lot of information about how the company operated, what was expected of its online copywriters, and most importantly, a list of frequently asked questions. By reading through the answers to these, I found out a lot about both the company itself and the job of online copywriter as well.
Some of the sites looked promising at first, but as I tried to navigate through the site, I found myself getting frustrated at the lack of information or the complexity of the directions. After I had weeded out some of the choices I had made, I then began to search for the companies directly in the search engines. I learned quickly that if I followed the name of the company with the word “scam” or “fraud” I would be directed to blogs and forums that had had people mentioning the company by name. These entries were helpful in that they were unsolicited – people had no trouble telling what they liked or didn’t like about a particular company. In this way, I made my selections as to which sites I wanted to apply to be an online copywriter.
After submitting a resume and a writing sample, I was hired a company and had started my new career as an online copywriter. You too can begin your new career as a writer. Look into the different styles of writing that are needed and decide which fits your skills. Maybe a new career is right around the corner for you as well.
