How do you begin your copywriting career and create your own portfolio with no experience?
When you are just getting started, when you are a beginner copywriter, you’re going out there to the marketplace and you’re trying to get clients, one of the most common questions you will get is;
“Do you have samples of your work that you can share with me?”
“Do you have a portfolio?”
Now, if you’re brand new, you may be saying something like; “Well, I don’t have a portfolio,
“I’m brand new, and I’m just getting started.”
And what you’ll hear from your prospects is; “Well, then we can’t really trust you, we can’t really hire you.”
Well, how the hell am I going to build a portfolio when I’m brand new?
So you cannot get any clients because you don’t have a portfolio, but you cannot build a portfolio because you’re not getting any clients.
Well, I understand your frustrations.
The question is, are you going to let not having a portfolio stop you from pursuing a professional, lucrative career in copywriting?
Hell no!
Today, I’m going to share with you 5 proven ways you can get started in your copywriting career.
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To get your foot in the door.
For some persons, you may have to accept one, two, or three no-pay or low-pay clients just to get started.
But I’m not asking you to do that forever.
What I’m asking you to do is create 2, 3, or 4 samples.
That’s all you need.
You need to fold your sleeves and sweat a little and get your foot in the door and get in the game so you can start getting paid right now, and that’s how you want to do it.
Copywriting Career Tip #1: Volunteer To Write For Non-Profit Organizations

Non-profit organizations are always looking for writers to write their newsletters, press releases, their fundraising campaigns and emails.
I’m talking about your local Parent Teacher Association,
I’m talking about your Community Development Association
I’m talking about your local Zoo or Forest Reserve, environmental groups, etc.
All you need to do is send them an email, or text message or you could connect with them on LinkedIn and say; “Hey, you know what? I am a copywriter, I’m looking to gain some experience.”
You just need to approach them.
Now, one of these 3 things will happen after you write to them.
Number one, it shows your future clients that you are a nice person because, within the samples of your work, they can see you write for a non-profit.
Chances are, you’re a nice person and of course, I hope that you are a nice person, right?
Are you a good person?
Number two, that if you actually do very, very good work, they might actually turn into a client, a paying client.
They like your work so much, they will hire you for other projects.
Number three, there’s a possibility that they might give you a recommendation, a referral, or an endorsement.
However, don’t expect an endorsement or a referral.
It’s a plus if you get one, but that’s not why you’re doing it.
You’re doing it to build your portfolio.
Does that make sense?
Copywriting Career Tip #2: Write For a Church or Religious organization

You could also approach the church because they’re always looking for writers to share the message.
Especially when you approach them as one of their believers, it’s very easy for them to say yes and give you some opportunities to practice.
Copywriting Career Tip #3: Approach Business Owners.

I use to approach local business owners, and chambers of commerce, just talking to them and saying;
“Hey, do you need any kind of brochures or direct mail or maybe your ads? “Anything that I could write?”
Now, of course, there are social media.
There are landing pages, and emails, right?
Anything that they might need help with.
All I’m asking the business owner is if they like my work, they would give me an endorsement and the right to showcase this work to other future prospects as my portfolio.
That’s it!
And most of the time they will say; “yes!”
Because first of all, you are helping them save money by writing for free, and second of all, they’re always looking for marketing materials, and literature for their businesses anyway.
It’s very easy, and once you’ve done a few of those success stories, you’ve got a portfolio.
Copywriting Career Tip #4: Take an Online Course.

Dan Lok teaches a seven-week certification program
that helps people become a High-Income Copywriters.
How to develop a high-income skill that allows them to earn thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars, with nothing more than the power of the keyboard or pen, and combine that with their skill sets.
If you want a proven path to a six-figure income as a copywriter, click here
Every single week during those seven weeks, you will join the Dan Lok team virtually from the comfort of your own home.
And every single week, he will give you assignments to do.
So by the end of seven weeks, you will have a portfolio of different examples of the work that you’ve done; emails, landing pages, ads…that you can present to your potential clients.
Copywriting Career Tip #5: Rewrite Other People’s Copy.

So you go through different landing pages,
You go through different funnels
You go through different emails
You go through different ads
You go through different social media posts and you take their copy and you actually rewrite it, and that becomes your portfolio.
Now, don’t lie, you’re not showing your prospects that these people
are your clients, you’re not saying these businesses are your clients, you’re simply saying to them these are samples of your work, what you could do.
Now they could see your samples and, they could get a glimpse of;
“Okay, this is what you could do.”
“These are your skill sets, this is how good your writing is.” It’s a very simple thing to do.
Now, you don’t need 20, or 30 samples of your work in your portfolio.
All you need is 3 or 4 samples.
What you want to do is, you want to send them exactly what they are looking for.
Here’s what I mean.
Let’s say they want to hire you to write emails for them.
What do you do?
You send them 3 or 4 email samples that you’ve done in the past.
They’re looking to hire you to write some landing pages.
You show them 2 or 3 landing page samples.
You don’t want to show them emails
when they’re asking for landing pages.
So as you get clients, you might have a lot more samples in your portfolio that you could show, but you don’t show them all that you’ve got.
Is that fair?
So, What Does a Copywriter Do?
A copywriter specializes in creating ad copy, web copy, and other marketing materials. They are also responsible for catchy slogans, creating attention-grabbing headlines, and writing persuasive sales copy.
How Do You Become a Copywriter?
First of all, I want you to create an account on LinkedIn if you haven’t done so yet.
You will be blown away by the number of job opportunities available for copywriters out there and you don’t need any certificate whatsoever to grab a copywriting job my friend plus you can work from anywhere provided you have a laptop or tablet or even a mobile phone and internet connection.

Now, you don’t need any specific qualifications to become a copywriter. What you need are strong writing skills and an ability to understand how to inspire your target audience to take action.
I have put together a Copywriting Checklist with 7 Advanced Copywriting Secrets That Turn Strangers Into Buyers [pdf]
In as little as 5 minutes, you’ll discover very simple but extremely powerful copywriting secrets that turn complete strangers into buyers for your products or services, and see how you can use them to make your writing so much more appealing to your prospects.
You’d be amazed at how simple, easy, and effortless your writing process will become.
And there is more from where these came from…
Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
And if you want me to do everything for your business, speak your mind here.
Wow a great opportunity to learn from you through this article sir am so much happy. The points highlighted are so amazing and an eye opener to me and a lot of people out there aspiring to dig deep into this field. And following your point carefully it will cause “a target audience into taking action ” definitely. Looking forward to read more of your articles.
Thanks, Desmond. I’m glad you found this article helpful ? Copywriting is one of the lucrative careers out there that doesn’t require a college degree.