How to Make Good Money in Advertising Without Any Experience

Every year, freshly-minted college grads and those in career transition face the job market with the same catch-22: You can't get a job without experience, but you can't get experience without a job.

But those in creative fields can gain experience in advertising - and make good money doing it - by freelancing to advertising agencies. Depending on the scope of the projects you land, you could earn between $100 - $500 for a day's work (check this year's edition of Writer's Market for sample rates). In fact, you may make enough money that you may decide to freelance for advertising agencies your career! Interested? Here's how to get in on the action:

Portfolio. If you're a creative type and you're gunning for an advertising position, you need samples of your work. In fact, putting your portfolio together should be your first task. You most likely took a couple courses in advertising (writing ad copy, design, layout, etc.) and completed projects for grades. These belong in your portfolio. If you transitioning into advertising from another field, invest the time and money into taking a couple advertising-related courses. Traditional portfolios are paper-based and have zipper enclosures - and those are great. You should also have copies of your sample work to leave with advertising agencies' creative directors. Most modern freelancers also have a website or blog where their sample work can be found.

Get clients. Nothing happens in business until a sale is made. Before you can make the sale, however, you'll need to get some leads. The best place for recent grads to get freelance leads is from your professors - creative directors often hit them up for leads on promising talents. If you're in career transition, then you'll be best served by tapping your existing network. Looking in the Yellow Pages under "advertising" is also a great place to start. And, if your portfolio is online, then you may even be able to freelance to advertising agencies in other parts of the country.

Aim low. That's right - aim low. Creative directors at ad agencies won't hand over important, high-profile accounts to newbies, after all. The first couple versions of your portfolio won't earn you a spot at the big project table (not yet, anyhow). Tell them you'll be happy handling some of the smaller overflow work they don't have the staff to complete. In many cases, the advertising executives will be relieved to have extra help on an as-needed basis. Most ad agencies work with a stable of freelancers, but sometimes they have too much work even for their full-time employees and freelancers to handle. That's where you come in to save the day for them - and scoop up some cash in the process!

Over-deliver. Don't just do a good job - do a great job. Do more than what you agreed to do. Not only will this dramatically improve your portfolio, but this will also increase the likelihood of repeat business. It will also increase the odds of you landing a full-time gig with the advertising agencies in the future - if you decide to go that route. The creative directors you work with may even feed you leads from other advertising agencies. And, when you're done with a project, always ask what other advertising projects you can do for them.

Diversify. It's been said that if you put all your eggs in one basket, you should watch that basket carefully. Likewise, if you're only working with one advertising agency and they no longer need your services, you're left with no work - and no money coming in. By working with a small handful of ad agencies, however, you'll likely have a steady supply of work - and money - coming in. If one avenue slows down or dries up, you'll still have a couple other revenue streams coming in. And, if that should happen, you'll also have a little extra time to find another creative director willing to work with you.

With a decent portfolio and a lot of effort, you can get great experience and make great money in the process. And you may just be able to skip past the whole experience/job catch-22 your peers will face.