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A Complete Guide To Copywriting Jobs For Students

Introduction To Making Money From Copywriting Jobs
There are many student jobs out there that you can consider as a way to earn some extra funds while you are doing your studies. Many students will do part time bar jobs or restaurant jobs for example, while others prefer retail jobs . Working while you are at university can be beneficial for many reasons; student jobs don’t just make your bank balance look a bit more healthy. For example, some students prefer to do work that relates to their degree or other studies so they have relevant experience when they apply for graduate jobs - and some of these jobs could come with the option of being able to work from home.

Do you consider yourself to be a bit of a wordsmith? Do you think you might be someone who could use words to convince others to your way of thinking? Maybe you are already studying creative writing, marketing or something similar at university or college and are pondering a future career centred around your writing talents. If this is you, then one way of making some extra money is by doing copywriting work. Copywriting online jobs could mean you can work from home, while other copywriting jobs are office-based. In this instance, this type of work could be done as copywriting work experience or maybe as gap year jobs.

Depending on who you work for, the types of copywriting jobs you are doing, and the amount of experience you have, copywriting work can give you a good income while you are at university. They could even be a lucrative full time graduate career for you when you leave university, especially if you invest in specialist copywriting courses where you can pick up valuable tips to boost your skills.

This sounds like something I might be good at - but what exactly is copywriting?
Copywriting is a special skill, even for writers, because you are playing with words in a particular way. It’s not for everyone.

Quite often, copywriting jobs will be centred around marketing where you will be writing a group of words that come together to either encourage people to part with their cash and buy a product; or, other times, your words will raise awareness of something as part of a campaign. This could be a political campaign or a local charity campaign to raise awareness of the charity’s presence and the work they do, for example.

If you enjoy promotion of events, goods and people by writing in ways that really resonate with your readers, then copywriting jobs could suit you down to the ground. These types of roles are usually known as direct response copywriting jobs because your words are encouraging people to take some form of action.

Copywriting is all around us and can be used to sell ideas, too, as well as goods. It’s not all about trying to persuade people to spend their money.

And it’s also not just about writing. In order to keep picking up copywriting jobs, a good copywriter, whether they are working from home or within a company, needs to be extremely organised and have excellent time management skills.

If I wanted to get into copywriting, what types of copywriting jobs are there?
Since the invention of the internet, copywriting has become one of the most essential components of online marketing and, of course, the internet has opened the door for people to be able to do copywriting jobs from home. The good news for students who are thinking about trying to get copywriting work is that, because of the internet, freelancing roles are increasing all the time. This means you can work flexible hours to fit in around your studies and perhaps take on more projects as summer holiday jobs , for instance.

Freelance copywriting jobs from home could be ongoing projects or short, one-off jobs. You can choose how much variety you would like by choosing to do projects for different types of companies. Web copywriting jobs could involve writing blog posts for companies (and often accompanied by doing their social media such as Facebook and Twitter campaigns) writing copy for company websites and doing direct marketing such as writing emails and newsletters.

For students who are seriously considering future careers in copywriting, working for an advertising agency, marketing firm, public relations company or for newspapers and magazines can give you valuable experience. Obviously, this would be difficult if you are a full time student, but you may be able to pick up some summer holiday work experience or perhaps you are taking time out and are looking for gap year jobs or internships .

Copywriting jobs at places like this will give your CV and your portfolio a real boost and it means you could also get to work with the art director of a large company who will create the visuals around your writing to produce the complete picture for the readers.

I Haven’t Got Any Previous Experience. How do I go about landing these copywriting jobs?
In years gone by, landing that first copywriting job was a pretty tough task. Experience was asked for and it was preferred if you were part of an established copywriting team. The good news is student jobs in copywriting are now far more accessible and are increasingly so, moving forward. You can thank the internet for that. Students who want to do online copywriting jobs now have doors ajar for them, even for solo copywriters. Copywriting jobs from home are also on the rise, too.

So, let’s say you haven’t got previous experience in copywriting work but you would really like to do this type of job, either as a short term money earner or as a full time future career. What can you do to make the door that is slightly ajar suddenly burst wide open? Here are some tips for landing copywriting jobs:

Start to build a portfolio - Obviously, copywriters who have been in the copywriting business for some time are going to have lots of professional examples of their previous work - but just because you haven’t got that does not mean you can’t start to add examples of your best work to a portfolio to show to potential employers. If you have a blog, choose some of your best examples of your writing from your blog to add to your portfolio. .

Do you write for a university newspaper or have you helped out with the design of any flyers for student events, for example? If so, add those, too. Your portfolio should demonstrate to any potential employer that you have a passion for writing, a gift for persuasion and a determination to do the job well.

Make social media work for you - Social media is not just about sharing photos of your friends and telling everyone which bar you have just checked into. Whether you are looking for copywriting jobs or some copywriting work experience, join relevant Facebook groups and join in discussions - without leaving typos of course. Tell people your intentions. Twitter also has an excellent search service. Create a list of companies (like E4S, for example) who advertise their vacancies on Twitter so that you can be one of the first to jump in there in applying for the job. Follow people in the business and create lists of those people, too. You can build up relationships with them and this could help you get a foot in the door.

Are you on LinkedIn? Tailor your LinkedIn profile so that it shows your keenness for writing, and especially your passion for copywriting jobs. If you are hoping to find copywriting jobs in London, for example, make sure this is clear on your LinkedIn profile - and, you never know, you may just get spotted by a London company looking for a copywriter.

The key is, for any copywriting work, if they are entry level copywriting jobs and you have no previous work experience to speak of, show the company how keen you are and do this across all of your presence on the different social media channels. If it is a genuine passion and you are being yourself, that will come across in your profile.

Join online freelancing companies - Websites such as Freelancer.com are especially useful for those looking for student jobs such as copywriting jobs from home; especially online copywriting jobs. While the pay might not be as high as other copywriting work at first, you can do a few jobs and and use this to build up the portfolio mentioned above. The good news about these types of websites is they usually have an automatically generated profile for you that shows all your previous jobs and what the person you did the job for said about you. If you have a good profile, be sure to add this to your CV for future employers.

Are there any particular skills or useful tips I need to be successful in copywriting jobs?
Love creative writing
That might sound obvious - but to be successful in copywriting jobs, you need to love your craft and enjoy playing around with words to create the best outcome. Remember, copywriting is about creating emotions in people that cause them to take action. That’s what your words need to do - and sometimes, you won’t have a big word count to play with, so you’ll often need to get the message across concisely and succinctly.

If you have done any type of writing study at college or university, you may already know a few tricks that immediately grab the reader’s attention such as writing good headlines which entice the reader to read on and using certain types of action words to make people do what you want them to do, even though they might not even know it themselves.

Observe what is all around you - copywriting is everywhere
Use the world around you to improve your chance of getting copywriting jobs. London and other big cities are brimming with examples of copywriting. Look at the side of buses, taxis and billboards. These are all written by people with advertising copywriting jobs. We’ve all seen adverts or promotional pieces of writing where we think, “Ahh, that’s really clever.” If you see any examples like this which just jump out at you, make a note of them. In years gone by, this could have been a time consuming exercise; getting out your notebook and scribbling down sentences. If you have a smartphone, take photos of any examples you see. Nice and quick and you have a record of what you have seen.

Use the internet to view examples of other people’s copywriting work and make notes of good examples. Social media such as Facebook is packed with examples of copywriting both in adverts and on Facebook fan pages. Read, observe and see what it is the writing is attempting to convey. What are they trying to get you to do and what words and images are used to convey that message? Once you’ve worked that out, have a go at writing some of your own versions.

Can you write for a purpose and keep to the point?
It’s not important whether it’s copywriting jobs online or copywriting jobs within a company; good copywriting conveys a message, clearly. Some projects will require a higher word count than others but are you good at keeping within a given word count while getting your message across and keeping within the appropriate tone at the same time? Students tend to be familiar with tasks like this because you will have no doubt written countless essays for your degree, gone way over your word count and then spent time trying to work out how you can reduce that count. This could stand you in good stead for getting copywriting jobs because you will be familiar with critiquing your own work and being ruthless where you need to cut out words.

Again, you can always do some extra practise by doing a short piece of writing and then seeing if you can cut it down by halving the amount of words and still keep the meaning. A thesaurus is a good tool for this because you can use more exciting vocabulary and often, one word that really hits the mark will easily replace four or five words. Keep a document with words you use regularly so you have easy access to them without wasting lots of time.

Be honest with yourself - How is your time management?
Time management is a skill - and a very necessary skill - for all types of copywriting jobs. Again, as a student, you should be well-equipped to take on copywriting work because you are familiar with working on different assignments with various deadlines. Copywriters need to be able to work to strict deadlines and, ideally, thrive under the pressure of this - that includes the points listed above about keeping to your word count, being ruthless with your own work, redrafting, proofreading and using time saving techniques.

If you are looking for freelance online copywriting jobs as a student, the bonus is, you can accept projects when you have time on your hands and work the hours to suit you. Remember, the copywriting work you produce must be of a high standard so don’t take on too much. Allow yourself wiggle room to be creative and produce your best work, especially if you are looking to build a graduate career from this in the future.

Are you writing right now?
The emergence of the internet means anyone who wants to, can get their writing out there. This can be via social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. If you are leaning towards specialising in advertising copywriting jobs, Twitter, with its 140 character limit, is perfect practise for keeping to the point while keeping that word count low.

Another way to showcase your writing online is to write a blog. These days, you don’t need lots of tech experience to set up a blog and they are excellent tools for getting your writing out there, and you can choose your best posts to add to your portfolio of writing examples when applying for copywriting jobs. Blogs can be about anything you like; daily life, a particular interest you have, even random rambles.

Other places to get involved with writing activities could be writing for your university newspaper or helping with writing flyers for different student events. Any examples of your work can all go towards landing those initial copywriting jobs.

Learn a little SEO
SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is the term given for improving the visibility of information in search engines. If you are looking for student jobs in the form or online copywriting jobs from home, the chances are you could be doing some type of internet marketing and direct response copywriting jobs. You don’t need to be an SEO expert - but learning a few of the basics could help to make you stand out above others when applying for copywriting work. There are lots of SEO blogs online where you can pick up basic tips to help you get SEO copywriting jobs.

Examples of where you will see or hear copywriting
Copywriting is all around us both in the written form and in speech. Let’s take a look at some examples of where you will see copywriting in action in the real world. As mentioned, if you are keeping your eye out for examples, this will invariably improve your own work and increase your chances of getting copywriting jobs. Manchester, London, Leeds and other big cities like these will be packed full of examples - but you will find examples just about anywhere.

Travel brochures and posters - Whether it’s for a national or regional tourism branch or a private travel company or agency, their promotional leaflets, brochures and posters are all examples of copywriting.
Jingle lyrics - How often have you found yourself singing that jingle that comes on your local radio station to advertise a nearby business? That’s an example of good copywriting and copywriting jobs like this could well come along.
Verses inside greetings cards - Funny, expressing sorrow, an expression of love. We’re all familiar with these types of cards and copywriting jobs can involve this type of work.
Press releases - not all copywriting jobs are about short, snappy advertising titles and slogans. Some copywriting work will involve longer content such as compiling press releases, political speeches and magazine articles.
Online copywriting - We’ve already mentioned copywriting on social media such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs but you will also see copywriting in your emails in the form of direct marketing and newsletters you may have signed up for. Rather than deleting these, start to use them as research to improve your chances of getting online copywriting jobs.
Flyers - If you live in a student house or halls of residence, chances are you are always getting flyers and leaflets pushed through the letterbox. Again, don’t just throw them in the drawer for ‘just in case.’ Study them and save the ones that tempt you to take action because that’s good copywriting.

These are just a few ideas of where you will come across copywriting. If you are serious about getting copywriting jobs whether as part time jobs working from home or as a career, start to look at the world around you with a copywriter’s eye and you’ll soon have many examples and ideas of your own.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of content writing jobs?
  • Many students would like student jobs with flexible hours that will fit around their studies and copywriting jobs, especially copywriting jobs from home, can often allow for that flexibility.
  • As long as you enjoy writing, boredom should not be a factor as each copywriting job will be a different project. No two days are the same.
  • You are in charge of your career. Maybe you just want to do some copywriting work from home as a student job and maybe you want a full time career out of it. It’s down to you to decide how far you want to take it and how much money you want to make from it. Some copywriting jobs can prove quite lucrative and you get out what you put in.
  • And just imagine how proud you will feel when you see your work out there on a billboard, in a magazine or online.
Copywriting jobs are just one example of student jobs you can do where you work from home. For more ideas, take a look at our legitimate work from home article. And if working from home isn’t for you, E4S is packed with ideas for other student jobs you can do such as seasonal work and part time evening and weekend jobs such as student jobs in hotels .
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