UK copywriters have had it tough for quite some time now. When times were good, until about 2008, it seemed like the wheels of the gravy train might roll for ever.

Today, those wheels are well and truly off. With the demise of Plan A, it's time for copywriters to look for a more-robust plan.

Plan A involved optimising your website for general copywriting terms, or setting up a Google Adwords account, and waiting for the enquiries to come flooding in. But traditional Google searches are just not delivering the right kind of traffic any more.

Instead, Adwords subscribers have to contend with marketing people who've been laid off and want freelancing advice, or sharks looking for web content at $3 a page.

It's a tough recession. However, copywriting and marketing seem to have been the first casualties. This seems an odd approach €" how many companies can 'save' their way out of the darkness?

Traditional copywriting has also been buried alive by the popularity of something called web content, which reduces great writing to something you might buy in a builder's yard, like aggregate. The boys from Bombay are undercutting UK copywriters by a crazy 30 per page. Suddenly, everyone thinks that fantastic copywriting is available for under 10 a page.

Let's move on to Plan B. What does that involve, then? Plan B is all about copywriters finding new markets. That could be at home or abroad. The best thing is, there's no need to leave your desk to find them. Locations such as Japan and Germany are fair game. If you want to become a copywriter in Canada, for example, it's never been easier.

Two methods are at your disposal. The first involves spending a little money €" the second is effectively free.

To achieve results while paying a little cash, just alter your Google Adwords account to take searches for 'copywriting Canada' or 'copywriter Canada'. Just a few clicks and you can turn on other locations such as China and Russia, too.

But here's the cost-effective option. Simply write yourself a customised landing page describing yourself as a freelance copywriter in Canada. Just tie up your copywriting words with geographical words to find new clients from Canada to the Cayman Islands.

The really smart copywriter will use this tactic to pinch work from beneath the noses of your competitors. Just ensure your landing page comes with the right long-tail keywords and that you make best use of H1 and H2 tags. Your next move is to write a couple of articles for high-PR articles sites, making sure your anchor text is relevant.

This copywriter has written just such a landing page to bring work from Canada businesses. He's a UK-based copywriter who's positioned himself as a Canada copywriter.

It's a win-win situation. The UK copywriter gets more work, while the Canada business works with the best copywriter for the job, not just the nearest.