How Long Should A Writing Sample Be

VirginiaLynne is mom of 5 and an online writer with over 1250 published articles. She loves assisting others start an online writing career.

Copywriting is an important occupation. Make sure that your sample is up to par so that you can get the job!

Thought Catalog

What Is Copywriting?

Content writing means that you are contracted to write articles for company websites. The most common assignments are:

Blogs: Most company websites have blogs that give the customers information that either directs them towards the products or services of the company, demonstrates the expertise of the company or provides the customer with interesting facts.you will write on a topic assigned to you to explain something related to the business.
Websites: You can also be assigned to write the copy that appears on a site to describe their business or product. Sometimes you will be re-writing the poorly-written content on an older website.
White Papers: Many companies try to attract customers by providing free downloads of a short booklet of information, which is called a "white paper." I've written white papers on zero energy homes, how to apply for a VA loan and many other subjects. Worried you wouldn't know anything about those topics? The company generally provides you with the information you need or research sources.

Where to Find Copy Writing Jobs

Interested in getting started writing? Website content can be done for many online companies. Here are three I've used for jobs:

Constant Content
Textbroker
Zerys (Interact Media)
Mechanical Turk

Getting Started Copywriting

Getting started in copywriting doesn't require any special training. If you have good basic writing skills and are willing to learn, you can get started. You just need to:

Sign up with a Content provider.
Provide a sample writing portfolio.
Provide a profile and other information.
Set up a Paypal account if you don't have one.

Earn money writing online.

Start up Stock CC0 Public Domain via Pixaby

Tips for Writing Your Sample

Write something new.
Don't use your favorite article.
Write a business style blog.
Check grammar and spelling!
Use headers and make your writing easy to read.
Remember, you can always improve your rating.

1. Write Something New

I did a terrible job in my first sample copy because I had no idea what type of writing copywriters did or what sort of clients Interact Media was planning to attract. Not really knowing what to do, I picked something I'd already written for my MOPS group, "Celebrating Advent with Children" for my sample. Bad idea. It wasn't written in the style of the example I was told to follow which included headers and bullets, so I ended up completely re-writing it and taking a long time.

Example

Here is a good example. This one is a blog post for a medical office.

How to Keep Healthy During Flu Season

Feeling stressed about keeping healthy during the flu season? Here are some tips to balance your health and family:

Get Flu Shots for Everyone

Although the flu shot or mist is not 100% effective, you can reduce the chances of getting the flu and usually reduce the severity of symptoms and length of the illness if you do get a flu shot. Getting the shot earlier in the season is best because it allows full immunity to develop by the time the flu arrives.

Schedule Rest, Exercise, and Good Nutrition

Especially during the flu season, you need to take care of your body through regular rest, exercise, and proper nutrition. Make a schedule for your family for bedtimes and exercise. Be sure you do that for yourself too. Spending time each week to plan healthy menus can make sure you aren't tempted to get fast food after a tiring day.

Prepare for Family Illness

No time is a good time for a person in your family to be sick. However, if you have a plan, you can reduce stress. Be prepared by:

Purchasing medicine for illness ahead of time.
Teaching family how to reduce spreading germs.
Plan for how to isolate ill family member.
Practicing good hand washing at home.
Not sharing towels or using paper towels.

Take Time for Yourself

Stress can weaken your immune system, so balance care of your family with self-care. Relax, take a walk, read a book or chat with friends!

2. Don't Use Your Favorite Article

If you do use something you've already written, make sure it isn't something you might want to post elsewhere later. Eventually, I regretted submitting "Celebrating Advent with Children" because Interact Media takes the copyright of the piece and displays it on their own page. When I later decided I would like to post it on my website, I had to start all over.

Writing online is a job that you can do 24/7.

Startup Stock CC0 Public domain via Pixaby

3. Write a Business Style Blog

Interact Media says you can write about any topic you want for your sample, but I think you will do better if you remember the bulk of the clients are businesses that need the copy for their websites. Blog posts are a typical assignment and are pretty easy to write and find on the Internet. Here are some of the most frequent businesses that give assignments on Interact Media:

Plumbing blog
HVAC company blog
SEO marketing advice blog
Using Social Media in a business blog
Insurance
Doctor or Dentist
Construction company
Landscaping business

Many of the clients are small businesses that are seeking to generate more sales through offering information on that makes them seem like a reliable source. Choose a small business you know something about and look at their blogs. You won't have to be an expert in the industry to write a blog since information is accessible to research on the internet. When you are asked to write an assignment, your client will often give you that information, but for this sample, you'll have to do your research, but it shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

4. Check Grammar and Spelling!

Excellent grammar skills are a plus to make the top dollars in online writing. Make sure your sample doesn't have small mistakes.

PDPics CC0 Public domain via Pixaby

5. Headers and Easy to Read Writing

Remember that most people reading on the web are looking for relevant information. They "scan" rather than read. You are probably doing that right now! So make your points easy to see by using:

Headlines with only 2-3 sentences of text underneath each.
Active verbs.
Concise wording--edit out unnecessary words.
Bullet points instead of text when possible.

6. Remember You Can Always Improve Rating

Lastly, it is important to remember not to get discouraged if your initial star rating isn't too high because your clients can quickly raise that rating so you have access to more jobs.

I ended up with a 3-star rating on Interact Media, which limited the number of jobs I could do initially. That, and the fact that Interact Media was just getting started at the time I signed up meant that I didn't get started writing until about five months later. However, after accepting some assignments from the job board, I managed to get a few regular clients. One of those clients regularly gave me 5-star ratings, so my overall score went up to five stars pretty quickly.

Sample Blog

I wrote this sample copy for a wedding planner who specializes in organizing unique wedding events at exotic locations. This assignment did not want bullet points and asked for a cheery, upbeat tone.

Pre-Planning Trip Tips

Excited about your wedding location? Taking a pre-planning trip is a terrific way to work out the details. Make the most of your journey with these three tips:

Schedule the Wedding Season

If possible travel to your location at the same time of year as your wedding. That helps you see details that might fulfill or destroy your dreams. One place might have enchanting snow-covered mountains that are precisely what you've pictured for your winter wedding, while another otherwise beautiful location does not. Or a beach location might not be what you envisioned because there are too many tourists during that season.

Limit Your Choices

Bite the bullet and narrow your visit to two venues. If you don't, you'll spend too much time on the venue choice, leaving no time left for tasting menus, looking at flowers or checking out other details. Telling property management that you need to maximize your time can get them to roll out the red carpet! Arrange with destination wedding planner to get the best recommendations for vendors.

Fly Red-Eye

Maximize your time with morning arrival. Use the transportation company that transfers guests to establish a relationship with them. Ask them about area excursions. You will want to know what to suggest for your guests. Maybe you can get ideas for your honeymoon too!

Finally, take a day of your pre-planning trip to enjoy local life. Don't forget, planning your wedding can be just as much fun as the day itself!

Sample Assignment: When to Call a Plumber

You would write tips about what you can do as a homeowner to clean drains and what situations need a plumber's help.

VirginiaLynne, CC-BY, via HubPages

How Much Money?

After you get used to the system, you can probably make about $10-$20 an hour. I currently earn about $500 a month writing part-time for one site. If you want a full-time income from writing online, you will probably need to work for more than one site since there are times when there are not too many good assignments available.

For a couple of years, I took a break from copywriting to focus on HubPages, but this year I went back to work for Zerys (Interact Media) and found that there are more jobs available now than when I started there four years ago. Moreover, I am paid a bit more than before. I'm also starting to get some regular clients who want four blogs a month. The longer I write for a client, the easier it is to do their assignments, and that means I can write more quickly and earn more per hour of work. I'm using this extra income to help put my son through college.

Currently, about half my income is from direct assignments from regular clients. The other work I do is from the job board. In the first eight months of copywriting, I wrote over 250 articles while also writing 150 Hubs, teaching college English part-time and managing my family of 5 children. If you have fewer irons in the fire, you might be able to write more! There are other copywriting companies also, like Text Broker, so you could probably earn a full-time salary if you worked for several companies.

In the past five years of doing this work, I've often taken time off when I was too busy to do this extra job. Even so, I've now written well over 800 pieces and made over $10,000.

Whether you want to pay for extra expenses or pay your regular bills, copywriting can be a good way to have flexible work from home.

This article is accurate and true to the best of the author's knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.

Questions & Answers

Question: This may sound like a silly question, but does it matter what your sample writing is about? I would have thought it is more important how you write than what you write?

Answer: To a certain extent you are correct; however, most of the assignments available are writing business websites. Your writing will be clearer for them to rate if it is similar to what you will be writing for a content site. However, my "advent for children" sample was given a 4 rating (out of 5). I did write some blogs for parents which were somewhat similar to that piece, but the bulk of the 1000 copywriting articles I've written have been for businesses like plumbers, roofers or medical supply stores.

Kalyn Story on January 16, 2017:

This article is super helpful for me as a journalist looking to work in online media! Thanks!

Virginia Kearney (author) from United States on January 12, 2017:

Bray, You could become a writer at HubPages about football or any other topic if you wanted. You just need to know more about a topic than other people. To write copy for websites, you need to sign up and do a sample first. How well you do on the sample determines what sort of pay you are ging to get.

Bravvion Roy on January 12, 2017:

It surprises me that if you want to be copywriter it doesn't take any training or nothing.

Lana Adler from California on October 09, 2015:

Thanks for the advice! I like that you used your personal experience as an example. I always prefer that to just fact-stating writing.

Ronald E Franklin from Mechanicsburg, PA on October 07, 2015:

I'm not planning to do any copywriting at this point, but it's great seeing the process through your eyes. It makes me feel more confident that if I ever want to do it, I can. I found this helpful. And congrats on the HOTD!

RTalloni on October 07, 2015:

Congrats on your Hub of the Day award for this intro to copy writing. I did a little of this years ago for a friend's business but did not feel I had enough knowledge about web writing at the time. It's more simple than it sounds and explanations like this one are helpful. I see you updated this in July and am wondering if you do that every year for this hub.

Kristen Howe from Northeast Ohio on October 07, 2015:

This sounds real interesting, Virginia. It sounds hard to do. Congrats on HOTD!

John Hansen from Gondwana Land on October 07, 2015:

This was very helpful advice VirginiaLynne. I knew very little about copywriting before but was interesting in finding out more. This hub helped.Congratulations on Hub of the Day even though it is three years old.

Patricia Scott from North Central Florida on October 07, 2015:

Such simple, straightforward suggestions Virginia....

I read it to become more informed not because I plan to pursue this as a job. However I do know some who might be interested so will be passing this information on to them.

Angels are on the way to you this early morning hour. ps

Congrats on HOTD...well deserved.

Virginia Kearney (author) from United States on June 11, 2012:

Thanks honeybee2u--hope this is helpful!

honeybee2u from PNG on June 10, 2012:

Virginia, this is a very detailed informative hub and thank you for sharing. You style of writing makes it so easy to understand copywriting. Voted up.

Virginia Kearney (author) from United States on June 07, 2012:

Sarah--Terrific--I hope you will come back and share how it goes for you! Virginia

Sarah and CJ on June 06, 2012:

Thank you for the tips. I am ready to start copywriting and am signing up today!

Virginia Kearney (author) from United States on May 26, 2012:

Let me know if you do try copywriting! I'd like to hear more about how this works for other people.

wetnosedogs from Alabama on May 26, 2012:

I enjoyed reading this and would like to look into copywriting. Thanks for the great hub and good luck gathering up that money for college.