I'm not sure if the area you live in has any business directories. If not, contact the nearest chamber of commerce and get a list of their members.

If you can get a directory that lists annual gross revenues, What you are primarily looking for is companies with gross revenues between US$1-5 million.

These are typically companies that don't have any creative staff and usually avoid using agencies for their marketing materials because they are cost conscious.

They may not even have a marketing department.

Create a phone script (as I recall Peter Bowerman's Well Fed Writer" Back for Seconds) has scripts in it you can swipe.

Start calling. Ask for the person in charge of marketing. If it appears no one is in charge, Try to find out the names of corporate managers, choose one, and call him or her.

If cold calling scares you, try this-- Identify a target individual within the company and send that person a letter of introduction. Close the letter with a simple statement, "I will call you within the week to discuss your marketing needs," or something along those lines.

Then call a few days later. you can honestly say to the gatekeeper who screens calls "he/she is expecting my call," and you'll find you aren't as intimidated when they answer "Oh, yeah, I got your letter."

What's the worst that can happen? They say, "No thanks."

Trust me, A "NO" won't kill you. and you're going to get more "no's" than "yes's." Just develop a tough skin and figure it's there loss for missing out on the next Clayton Makepeace.

A few caveats--

You need to have samples to show, preferably something along the lines of corporate communications on the web. An easy way to do this, if you don't want to write out fake printout samples--

Buy a couple of urls cheap at godaddy or some other low cost vendor. Set up at least two websites for nonexistent companies. Create the content, use godaddy (or whoever's) templates to build the site so you don't have to pay a graphic designer and you've got instant samples.

Be sure to knock yourself dead on the sample sites. You want to impress the person you're trying to sell.

Why create samples this way? Because these days the first words out of prospects' mouths are "do you have a website and samples on the Internet?"

By doing the above, you can say "yes."

Another good source for potential work-- all of those search engine optimization and search engine marketing companies hanging around out there.

Most of them don't have inhouse copywriters and need good copy for SEO purposes. Contact them. Just google "search engine marketing company" or "search engine optimization company" for names.

Follow the same procedure as I suggested for the businesses with revenues in the $1-5 Million range.

Be persistent. You'll find work.

The worse mistake I make all the time is in stopping the marketing of my services. Being ADD/bipolar, it's a problem I face all the time (I won't go into explanations as to why). But continuous marketing is vitally important.

There are tons, I mean tons, of prospects out there. I didn't even touch on ad agencies, who generally are clueless as to what good copy is.

Just "Go For It." If you truly have the skills to write good copy, the work is there.