Photo credit Gualtierro Boffi I have the secret. The never-fail secret to making sure your client is thrilled with the web copy you write 99.999% of the time. Gather round me, children, for I am about to speak a word of power. Contained within this word is the secret to web copywriting that knows the [...]
What To Do When You’ve Been Insulted
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The other day, I got an email from a client whom I like very much. He’s a cool guy, profitable business, generally fun to work with, pays on time, all the good stuff. His emails are usually brief, casual, and mention something like, “Have a nice weekend,” or “Hope everything’s good with you.” So it [...]
Imperfection is a Good Thing
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Do yourself a favor and look around the blogosphere. Look at the people who have almost obsessive cult-followings. The people who have started their own movements and revolutions. The people whose fans would knife you if you said an ill word against their favorite blogger. Realize something with me: We are not looking for perfection. [...]
Are You Becoming a Lazy Blogger?
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As your readership grows, it’s easy to think you’ve got this blogging thing down pat. Everyone likes you, you have lots of subscribers, and your posts are Tweeted and Dugg and Stumbled all over the place. You can kick back and relax, right? Afraid not. There’s a growing trend around longtime bloggers: newbie mistakes. Producing [...]
Do You Ask for Permission or Forgiveness?
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You’ve heard the old saying, “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission,” right? It may be easier. But it’s still not a good idea. I’ve been seeing a lot of this sort of thing lately. I’m on a bunch of lists I never signed up for. I have people following me on Twitter [...]
Should You Go Back to School?
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Don’t fret, good people. I’m not here to tell you that you should consider going back to school for a second degree. Most freelancers have enough trouble scrapping together money for the rent without having to worry about paying another couple of tens of thousands. Especially since no one cares about your degree. That’s right. [...]
How to Write Sales Copy When the Standards Don’t Apply
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Recently, we did some work for a couple of folks with a product marketed to rock fans. Specifically, fans of one particular band. These folks needed a sales page to sell their product, and since James is a ridiculous rock freak, he was falling all over himself to oblige. I came along for the ride. [...]
What To Do When Your Client is Boring
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Clients often contact us hoping we can jazz up their current copy. They’re looking for something a little funnier, a little more out-of-the-box, a little less like the next guy. No problem, we say. Why don’t you answer a couple of questions for us about who you really are, and we’ll use that information to [...]
What Would You Do If You Only Had Two Hours?
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I’ve only taken to using Twitter as a regular thing fairly recently, so it’s entirely possible that Dave Navarro (@rockyourday) has been doing this for years and I never knew about it, but I’ve been kind of taken with the way he often starts off a morning: “What would you work on if you only [...]
How to Organize Huge Copywriting Projects
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We often get requests to write ebooks, and most of them are a fairly moderate 5-10 pages in length. Little ebooks. About the amount of information you’d get in five decent-lengthed blog posts. But we also get requests for huge ebooks – upwards of 50 pages. We’ve also had requests for manifestos, white papers, and [...]
