Sorry but I am not sure what Web Copywriting even is.

A few can command decent fees, but there's so many want to do it, that most will find it hard to scrape a living.

Not enough people know they need one ;)

Demasestro, here is the description for a Copywriter from Wikipedia:
"A copywriter is a person who writes text, or copy, for clients. Most copywriters work in advertising or marketing, producing copy that's intended to persuade a reader to buy a product or service or otherwise take action."

People who do this primarily on the web are often referred to as "Web Copywriters".

Quadrille, hmmm, I suppose he then has to inform people as to why they need a copywriter ;)

I suppose he then has to inform people as to why they need a copywriter

Most of the web copywriting books I've read have a few pages or a chapter devoted to promoting yourself and convincing companies that they do need a professional copywriter.

These books also point out the huge difference between writing for the web and writing for more traditional media.

hmmm, I suppose he then has to inform people as to why they need a copywriter

Exactly. And it's not so easy to sell your services when you've told someone their site is rubbish :)

It can be done, of course, and a quality web copywriter is a valuable commodity.

Axgrindr is quite right that the skills are not quite the same as paper copywriting - getting them keywords in while not boring the pants off readers is a skill.

It's all about understanding pronouns ;)

Let's extend the envelope a bit and ask: Why does he have to do copywriting for somebody else? Why not work for himself?

Is he an expert in any particular field? Does he have a passion for a particular interest? Is he a generalist that can write convincing articles on varied subjects?

Help him find a niche and set him up with a site, guide him a bit and see what the heck happens.

budbiss... thanks, haven't heard that term before.

I see great value in such a person, we have a writer on staff but we just call him "the writer"

Have you tried doing some job market research?

Do a few simple searches on the major job posting sites, check what positions or contracts are out there and what they are paying.

A good copywriter doesn't only write quality stuff to a lousey brief; they can also translate the boss's turgid waffle into the Internet equivalent of William Shakespeare.

In fact, one sign of the perfect copywriter is when the boss reads his stuff, totally re-written and rendered 15x as good, and says:

"See - you hardly had to change it at all"

Web copyrighting can be very lucrative if you have a genuine talent for writing, and I do mean `talent for' and not `interest in' or `love of'.

There is a very competitive market for run-of-the-mill writers, but very few who can write brilliant prose. Being able to write grammatically correct articles does not make you a writer.

I've rarely seen quality writing from anyone with a mother-tongue other than English or French, although that's not to say that there aren't any.

Freelancing sites are dangerous territory. The quality is very mixed.

I've rarely seen quality writing from anyone with a mother-tongue other than English or French, although that's not to say that there aren't any.

I hired one copywriter from Bosnia. I was skeptical as first but he showed me some samples of his work and his command of the English language appeared to be better than mine.
After I hired him I found out he also works for his Father's translation firm translating documents from Bosnian to English.

I'm finding that with the copywriters I hire in the US I have to do quite a bit of editing/correcting or just adding some personality to the copy afterwards but at least I get the bulk of the work done for a fairly good price.

If we make a distinction between web content and web copy (content is just about any kind of verbiage, and copy is written language designed to motivate a sale or conversion of some kind), then the true COPY writer provides a very needed and lucrative service.

In the offline world, in marketing agencies and so on, a good copy writer can make a very repectable living. The web is not waking up all that fast to this need, probably because of all the do-it-yourself website businesses. Major corporates have -- and if someone already has a decent portfolio, then they can get work. If they are just starting out, they need to get a break somehow or other.

The job of a copy writer is a bit of a black art. It requires an inner ear well-tuned to word choice, rhythm, pacing and poetry. With that kind of talent a good copywriter can transport language out of its everyday Flatlander mode and put it into an arena closer to, well, hypnosis.

The job of a copy writer is a bit of a black art. It requires an inner ear well-tuned to word choice, rhythm, pacing and poetry.

Tedster, that's exactly right. There are many copy writers who will bid on any contract offered but have not one of the qualities you mention. So, in answer to the original poster's question; if, and only if, the friend has this kind of talent then it is a highly recommended choice.

Yeah..Great copy is hard to come by. There is one direct mail letter(front and back of a page) for the Wall Streen Journal that is estimated to have brought in 1 billion dollars in revenue.

Content writers are a dime a dozen. A great copy writer can get hundreds of thousands of dollars for writing just one letter.