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Internet copywriting

Internet copywriting is not only a great passion of mine, but also keeps a roof over my head and food on the table (it’s my job by the way).

I went all the way through high school and then University studying writing in many different forms from journalism to academic essays to short stories and even writing for children. I vaguely remember one University lecturer mentioning something about ‘blogging’ but other than that I never thought about the internet in terms of a future job-prospect. Fortunately, I would eventually see the light.

Here’s the bottom line: If you’re a writer and have some spare time, you can make money off the internet. Allow me to elaborate…

As we all know, Google is the biggest and best search engine on the internet and we all use it to find the things we’re looking for.

The websites that do best on Google are the ones that have hundreds and thousands of pages of written content. This is because when we search for things using Google it crawls the internet looking for those words and if it finds those words on your site then your site will be one of the sites they display.

Therefore, if you’re a writer and can quickly hammer up a few hundred pages of content on any given subject, then you can make money on the internet.

Of course you have to have the technical knowledge to set up a website and learn a little about how to monetize it but if you’re prepared to dedicate a small amount of time to learning, then you’ll be more than rewarded in the long run.

Here are a few ways you can get involved with internet copywriting either for fun or for hard cash.

Blogging

A blog or a weblog if you’re not sure, is like an online journal that writers (or anyone) can keep to talk about their life, their interests, their family, their hamster…you get the point. You can basically write about anything you want and then post it on the internet for an audience of millions to read. So if you’re itching to write, not that bothered about making money and just want your writing to live on through the ages, then blog away my friend. There are hundreds of blogging sites on the internet but the best one by far is Blogger. Free and easy to use and your pearls of wisdom can be live in seconds.

Writing for existing websites

If you’re like I was and have a passion for writing but don’t know where to look for a job (outside of journalism, publishing etc) then there are websites and online companies everywhere that are looking for internet copywriters so be sure to keep an eye out. They will probably want you to know a little about SEO copywriting and I’ll explain about that on a separate page.

Start your own website

This takes a little more dedication but you can easily set up a website within a day and be writing content just like you would on a blog. Take this website for example. I set it up in about an hour and can now write pages like this in a matter of minutes. Put in a little time and do some research and when you’ve set up your website, write like there’s no tomorrow.

Once you’ve written a couple of hundred pages you should start thinking about monetizing your blog with adverts and tracking your visitors to see how many people are actually visiting your site. I’m not going to go into these things now because this site is after all, about writing. However, what I will say is that Google itself offers you everything you need to monetize and track your sites performance.

Anyway, these are just a few things I wanted to share with you about internet copywriting because it has done so much for me. Hopefully, I’ll get round to adding some more pages about specific things at some point and if I do they’ll be listed below.

Essay writing

Ahoy there, me hearties! The essay is a nefarious thing. It is an elusive whale of a thing. Man the longboat, get twenty of your finest men, and grab your harpoon. Hove to.

Here is some general advice on essays.

Read More →

Speech writing

If you’ve ever had to write a speech, you’ll know that it can be a difficult process coming up with something appropriate. Here is the perfect speech writing structure to get you started.

Like any writing, you need to have a beginning, a middle and an end. This sounds simple enough but each of these parts serve a specific purpose and getting them right will make or break your speech.

You need to start your speech as strongly as possible. Most experts will tell you that if you don’t have your audience in the first thirty seconds, then you won’t get them at all. Don’t think you have to tell the worlds funniest joke though. If humour isn’t your thing or perhaps isn’t appropriate for the occasion then you can start with a strong statement or even a thought provoking question. Just put something in there that will immediately hold your audiences attention.

The middle or ‘body’ of your speech will be where you deliver all of the relevant information. Whatever the purpose of your speech is, the important thing to get right is the organisation. Know exactly what you’re going to say and the order in which you’re going to say it. This will ensure that your speech flows and comes across effectively. Heading in unorganised can lead to mistakes and an uncomfortable flow, so don’t make this mistake.

Always finish your speech strongly, reminding your audience of the most important information. You can sign off in a number of ways, for instance with a toast to the bride and groom or a friend celebrating a birthday. Whatever it is, strong sentiment will always go down well and leave your audience with a warm memory of your words.

These thoughts will help you put together the skeleton of your speech. Make sure to look at further resources for help with more specific parts you might be stuck with.