Today, I’m giving up my Monday spot in honour of Laura Vanderkem, the author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think. She graciously accepted to write a post just for you, dear readers, so be nice. Oh, and don’t worry; it’s a special exception – I’ll be back on Monday to regale you with my usual wit. Until then, enjoy.

If you’re like many of us, you send out an end-of-year letter with your Christmas holiday cards. This missive exists to inform friends and family of what your household has been up to, but unfortunately, this genre is known for its tedium. “John is still writing reports for various corporate clients, John Jr. is now in fourth grade and is playing soccer, and Sarah is in 2nd grade and starting piano lessons…”

That’s because most people’s lives are pretty tedious.

But imagine, for a minute, a letter that’s a little different: What do you dream of being able to recount in your annual letter?

Maybe you’ve finally started taking the community college classes you’ve been talking about for years. You started a blog or committed to a regular guest posting gig on someone else’s. Your wife decided that her job was holding her back, and found a new one that makes her excited for Mondays. You took that trip to the mountains as a family and went camping. You and your daughter are singing in a choir together. And, by the way, here are some great pictures you’ve taken now that you’ve rediscovered photography as a hobby.

Wouldn’t it be nice to write a letter like that?

So write it. Now. Imagine it’s December. Write down what you wish you could tell the world about how you and your family have spent the 168 hours we all have each week creating the lives you want. You don’t have to send this letter to anyone. But read it as often as you can.

Because once you know what you’d like to do with the rest of this year, you can break these goals down into actionable steps, and then get organized about putting them on the calendar. What can you do during the next 168 hours to move closer to making your letter come true?

You can research that community college open house and make time on your schedule to show up. You can ask around to see who has camping equipment you can borrow, and start watching air fares. You can use the 20 minutes the carpool is late bringing your kids home from school to take a series of photos of the late-summer trees, and bookmark a photography website to visit later.

When we think about what is important to us, we start thinking about ways to make these things happen. Time management isn’t just about saving a few minutes here and there; it’s about filling your life with things that deserve to be in it.

So write your end-of-year letter early. It’s a great way to figure out what you’d like to be doing with your time. Think of it as an early Christmas gift – to yourself.

About the Author: Laura Vanderkam is the author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think and Grindhopping: Build a Rewarding Career without Paying Your Dues. She’s also one of those people who actually does what she loves to do (most of the time). Take a page from her book and visit www.my168hours.com (just click the clock to read her blog) to learn more tips and tricks.

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Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
168 Hours: Why You Should be Writing Your Holiday Letter Today first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Short because I’m doing something I never, EVER do – I’m writing this post less than 12 hours before it goes live. That means it’s currently Sunday, which means it’s family day, which means I don’t really have the time to make this as great as I want it to be.

But I’m sure you’ll forgive me. You might even be thankful to get a short post, for once! (And if you don’t forgive me, then I didn’t really want you as a reader anyways.)

So. Short – and sweet.

Sweet because this week, we launched Fresh Coat, our new high-end design that’s perfect for freelancers, small business owners or bloggers on tight budgets.

Fresh Coat gives your site a look that makes jaws drop – at a price you can afford, and with the premium design that helps you succeed.

Which is why we created this venture in the first place. See, a lot of people on shoestring budgets wish they could hire us for a site that launches them into success – but they just can’t afford it.

And we feel bad when we hear the disappointment in their voices. (Trust me; you can hear it right through email). We feel bad because we know some of these people really have what it takes to make it – they just don’t have the money to get there.

So we decided to do something about it.

Fresh coat is an ultra-premium, ultra-affordable and ultra-easy solution. It’s only $699, and you get everything you need to launch your site – including us, because we made sure you never have to touch a thing. Just hit the button to place your order, and in as little as 24 hours, you’ll wake up to a brand new site ready to go to work for you.

Zero to hero in no time flat.

Click here to visit Fresh Coat now.

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Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Sundays, Short Posts and Fresh Coats first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Here’s today’s writing tip on how to be a better writer: Don’t write.

Now, when I say ‘don’t write’, I don’t mean you should take a break or get away from the keyboard for a day. That’s just common sense, and you should already be taking frequent breaks. When I say ‘don’t write’, I mean you should stop writing and start listening to what you’ve written.

Yes, I mean reading your work aloud.

Okay, wait just a second here. Don’t roll your eyes that way. I know you’ve seen this writing tip before. It’s all over the place, because plenty of experts (and not-so-experts) suggest reading aloud as a way to improve your work for sparkling copy.

But if you’re like most writers (and you probably are), you’ve read the ‘read aloud’ tip already. You’ve nodded, smiled and completely ignored it.

You don’t need to do that. You’re a good writer already.

Or are you?

Take me, for example. I’m a fair hand with Mr. QWERTY. We’re on good terms, he and I. I know I write well, my posts get attention, my web copy sells. I write using all the usual good-practice techniques I’m supposed to use: keep it simple, keep it clear, and write like you speak.

Well, until I actually spoke, that is. Then it all went to hell in a hand basket.

You see, I had this brilliant idea that I wanted to record some audio files. (Yes, you’ll get to hear my voice more often.) So I sat down with my gadgety gear, determined to give it a whirl. I figured I’d just talk aloud for a few minutes. You know, to practice. To get used to it. To work out the kinks.

That was just about the worst idea ever.

If you’ve ever done audio, you know what I’m talking about. You have to get over the surprise of hearing your own voice, now that it’s not echoing in your head and a full tone different from what you thought it was. Frankly, you think you sound like a dork. (Even if you don’t.)

You feel like a dork, too, because you’re sitting there talking to yourself about whatever comes to mind. Chickens. Ice skating. That you need to paint your office a better color. What you’ll eat for supper.

And while you’re debating whether you’ll have cream or tomato sauce with your pasta, you try on a few different voices to figure out which one sounds best for what you want to do. (Big dork.)

Then you pause to wonder why no one has ever told you how much of a dork you are. Sheesh. Some friends, eh?

Anyways, by this point, I realized talking to myself wasn’t working, so I grabbed a post of mine and decided to read that aloud. I wouldn’t have to fumble about, and I could practice sounding smarter than I am. Great idea. Dorkiness, begone!

Right?

Wrong.

When you read aloud, everything wrong with your writing suddenly leaps out at you. You hear the awkward sentences, you spot a word you should’ve replaced with a better one, and you catch phrases that just don’t sound right.

In fact, you start to wonder how you ever missed all these glaring errors. Not only are you a dork, you’re an idiot!

It’s not your fault. You never saw them – because you didn’t hear them.

The Powerful Benefits of Reading Aloud

Reading aloud is a valuable exercise to improve your writing. Your words become crystal clear, and they’ll convey a more powerful, effective message that gets you better results. Here’s why:

You’ll spot paragraphs that end abruptly. You’ll notice transitions between ideas aren’t as smooth as you thought they were. You’ll hear if your introduction sounds weak or choppy, and you’ll discover whether your wrap-up encourages conversation or just stops it cold.

That’s when you can make your writing better. You can rework it and nip all the awkwardness so that you create flow between paragraphs, clarify your ideas, expand on skimpy sections, and hone the perfect lead-in and wrap-up.

Read it aloud once more, give it a last polish, and voila! Excellence.

Reading aloud lets you craft great writing, but that’s not really why you should do it. No one actually gives a damn about the calibre of your sentence structure or whether it’s sheer art on a computer screen in Arial 12.

You should read your work aloud because it helps you provide people with a better reading experience – not because they have an easier time reading, but because they have an easier time hearing. Literally.

We Have Voices in Our Heads

No, you aren’t crazy, but you do hear voices in your head. All the time, in fact, and it’s perfectly normal.

It’s called sub-vocalization, which is a natural brain process we use while we read. As we read, we imagine the sounds of words and ‘hear’ them in our minds. That’s pretty important, because sub-vocalization helps us understand more of what we’ve read and remember it longer.

(I bet those ‘read aloud’ posts you’ve come across before never told you that, did they!)

By reading aloud, you can improve your writing to help it sound even better during the sub-vocalization process your readers are going to go through when they get their eyes on your words. That means they’ll grasp your razor-sharp message perfectly, learn from it quickly and understand it clearly.

They might even tell their friends about it. Extra reader win.

By the way, sub-vocalization is a handy little process to keep in mind when you’ve spent money to take a course or buy an info-product. Don’t just read it. Read it aloud. You’ll learn more, understand it better and remember it longer.

If it’s well written, that is.

Have You Lost Your Voice?

There’s another reason you might want to read your work aloud, and it’s one that other writers won’t tell you about: Reading aloud helps you find your writing voice.

Finding your writing voice is a common problem. Writers – especially new ones – tend to get confused about the ‘voice’ they should use.
So use your real voice to find your writing voice. Pick up something you wrote, read it aloud, and think about the way that voice sounds to you. Do you like that tone? Does the style match your personality? Should it sound more authoritative or a little friendlier?

What about consistency? Are you carrying your voice the whole way through your work? You might have subconsciously switched ‘voices’ midway. The intro sounds like you, but further down the page, something changed. In fact, the first time you read your work aloud, you might think, “Wow, that doesn’t sound like me at all.”

Even when you’d been sure the voice was a perfect fit.

It’s hard to figure out writing ‘voice’ unless we actually hear what we sound like for ourselves. So go ahead, play around and try on different voices until you find the one you like best.

I bet you’ll never lose it again.

Reading Aloud Without Saying a Word

Here’s another great tip for reading aloud: Don’t do it.

Let someone else read to you. It can be distracting to read your own work to yourself while trying to pay attention to what you hear and take notes on where you should make corrections at the same time. You’ll probably miss a bunch of improvements you should’ve made.

Print out a copy of your work and ask a friend to read aloud to you, or use text-to-speech software like Natural Readers (free!). When someone else reads to you, it makes focusing on listening a breeze. Sit back and pay attention to every word.

Once you get good at reading aloud, you can switch up the game by using speech-to-text software, like Dragon NaturallySpeaking or MacSpeech Dictate. These programs let you skip the writing phase so you can just say what you want to say – the software converts your voice to text and the words magically appear on the screen. It takes a little getting used to, but it’s a lot of fun to use.

Hit publish, and you’re all done!

What about you? Do you read your work aloud? Have you noticed a difference in the quality of your writing? What do your readers think? Oh, and just in case you’re wondering… yes, I read this post out loud.

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Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
How to Become a Better Writer and Get Readers Loving You first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

When I came to write my opening note for today’s guest poster, I realized that if I started by saying “I like Ali Hale” one more time, someone would probably shoot me. So I won’t say it. You can’t make me. I will say, though, that Ali’s post was coincidentally timed – though you’ll have to tune in next week to learn why. Until then, read and enjoy.

The following is a brief, geeky digression. (Can it be called a “digression” before I even begin? Call it a prologue, if you want.)

Back in my misspent youth, I invested more hours than I care to admit in an online roleplaying game. There were orcs and goblins and all kinds of fantasy monsters.

In a roleplaying game, you played a character that had a bunch of stats and a level. To get to the next level, you needed experience points. To get experience points, you bashed monsters.

You bashed monsters for hours. You bashed monsters by hitting keys on your keyboard whilst wondering if you could hook up a nodding bird à la Homer Simpson. You bashed monsters while watching the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, extended edition.

It was called grinding. And I cannot adequately convey its tediousness. And pointlessness. (Hey, I’ll spent all evening hitting some buttons so that a number in a database somewhere slooowly goes up.)

My point? If your writing ever starts to feel like a daily grind, it’s time to STOP.

I’m not saying that you should stop writing for good. You’d lose a crucial part of your life (and your income, if your writing forms all or part of your paid work).

I’m saying that if your writing is just an endless slog to fill blank pages with little black marks, something’s gone wrong.

When you sit down to write, do you feel excited? Do you have something you’re keen to say or to share? Or are you just thinking about hitting your target word count, churning out that blog post, ticking off that task on your to-do list?

There’s a school of writing – call it writers’ boot camp – that tells you things like:

• You must write every day.
• You should set a target and challenge yourself to exceed it.
• It’s all about getting your butt in the chair.
• Writers’ block is just laziness

Now, there’s some truth in these bits of advice, otherwise we’d never listen to them. It really does help to get into a routine of sitting down every day to write. While total writers’ block may be a reality for some individuals, for most of us we’re just stuck on a particular project.

But self-discipline only gets you so far, and it isn’t going to make you a great writer.

The tricky thing with self-discipline is that it can feel good. We’re proud of our grueling writing regime. We boast on Twitter about the number of blog posts we’ve written in a day. (Yeah, I’m guilty of this). We post our novel word count on our blog or on Facebook.

Having accountability in that way can definitely help drive us towards our goals. But self-discipline is a cold and joyless way to write. It’s a useful tool if you really truly need to get something done (looming deadline), but it’s not a long-term strategy.

In my experience, enthusiasm beats self-discipline any day.

If I want to sit down and write a scene for my novel or a blog post or a new chapter of my ebook, then it flows easily. If I make myself sit there and write it, I get distracted. I stare at the screen, watching the well of words dry up. I make progress of a sort, but the finished piece lacks something.

So how do you stop relying on self-discipline and find your lost enthusiasm?

Well, if you’re a writer, you probably enjoy writing. You might not be enjoying it today or this week, but at some point, you loved it. When I was a kid, I dreamt of making a living through writing. I still wake up some mornings surprised that now I do.

I love the magic of words. I love that my black marks on the screen put pictures into your head. I love that I get emails and comments telling me that a blog post came at just the right time. I love that I’m more eloquent in writing than I am in speech. I love being able to find just the right word for the job. I love the nuances words have and the associations they carry.

What do you love about words and writing? There’s something. Find it – dig back to being a kid or a teen or a student or a beginner – and remember why words are precious to you.

On my creative writing MA, we’re often encouraged to remember why we’re writing. We have stories to tell. We have something worth hearing. Writing is a form of communication, and there’s a person on the receiving end.

Sometimes writing does feel like a slog, I’ll be honest. There’ll be times when writing is like a fantastic quest to dig up buried treasure … and other times it feels like you’re in the middle of a very long, dull journey along a flat, grey road with not even a marauding goblin to break the tedium.

If you write for a living, you may well end up writing on projects that aren’t exactly thrilling to you. The trick is to find some way to make it interesting.

• Look for a new angle for your next blog post, anything from a clever running metaphor to an “anti-advice” style of post where you tell people what not to do.
• Pick a writing constraint, like not using the letter “e” in a piece. This is a great way to stretch your vocabulary and your ingenuity.
• Think about your reader. However dry the content, someone will eventually read it. Make your words as clear and straightforward as possible for that person.

Give yourself sufficient space for your writing. If you tend to over-plan, make a real effort not to cram too much into one day – especially if you’re working on multiple ideas, like several blog posts. Sometimes, all that you need to find some enthusiasm is to give yourself a little more space.

Above all, let writing be fun. Give yourself time to play with words – not with any productive end-result in mind, just for the joy of it. Play with writing in the way you’d fiddle around with a guitar or with finger-paint or with Lego blocks.

What drew you to words in the first place? What do you love about writing?

Want more great advice to get you back to writing productivity? Check out Constructively Productive, a brand new blog devoted to getting the most out of your day, brought to you by Ali Hale and Thursday Bram.

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Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
When You Should Stop Slogging Through Writing first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Jeff (the gentle, kind soul that he is) pointed out that fact to me recently during a conversation on future goals, amazing plans, business ventures and ultimate world domination involving oceanfront property, beach houses and frosty daiquiris sipped to soft jazz playing in the backgr-…

Sorry. Delusions of grandeur. They get in the way.

Jeff had a good point. People are curious and they like being in the know. So exactly what is going on at Men with Pens these days? Allow me to tell you:

We’ve overhauled, revamped and created a truly extraordinary resource for fiction writers everywhere, and we’ve packaged it up into a very entertaining and useful book called How to Create Believable Characters. You probably didn’t know about this treasure, because I forgot to blog about it. Sorry.

We’re hiring. Yes, the Men with Pens team is in full expansion, and we’re ready to bring new team members into the fold. If you’re interested in learning what kind of person we’re looking for (and possibly becoming that new teammate who’ll rock our socks off), check out the job postings right here. All copywriters and graphic artists welcome.

We’re going to be creating some wicked stuff for you this year, dear readers. You’ve been clamoring and begging for more MwP goodness in the form of books, resources, and courses, and we aim to please. There’s even been talk of audio bandied about, but that discussion happened over a glass of Shiraz and can’t be considered a reliable rumour.

Not that rumours are reliable to begin with, mind you. Onwards.

In an endeavour to win the award for the site that changes its look the most while still looking perfectly familiar, you’ll notice some design and usability tweaks, changes and rollouts over the coming weeks. In short, we’re experimenting. And it’s our site, so we can do that.

We’ll also be experimenting with the blog. What we write, when we write, how we write it and who writes it. Or, maybe we won’t – half of all great ideas (and possibly more) never see the light of day, mostly because they sound great until someone actually realizes there’s work involved.

Your turn: What are you hiding behind the scenes? Any projects you’d like to drop hints about? Go for it; we’re all ears.

Or maybe you have a suggestion for our blog. Why not let us know what you’d like to see around this joint? Our site is here for you as much as it is for us. Want more of this? Less of that? It’s all good. Just drop us a comment and let us know.

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Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Want a Peek Behind the Scenes? first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

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 heart and mind of your client – yea! Knows even their hopes and dreams and deepest desires for their online presence.

Come closer. I shall whisper the word in your ear.

Questionnaire.

That was rather anticlimactic, wasn’t it?

Yeah, okay, so using a questionnaire to gather information from a client isn’t a mystic legend, but it does work. We started using a basic questionnaire quite awhile ago here at Men with Pens, and doing so has accomplished two things for us:

• Saved us, the guys who put the words on the page, a lot of time
• Made our clients very, very happy indeed

What’s not to love about that?

Why You Should Use a Questionnaire

Questionnaires don’t just work for web copywriting services. They work for pretty much any service you offer, from web design to marketing consultation to any type of business where you need information from your clients.

The questionnaire’s job is to save you time. Years ago, we used to ask clients questions as they came to mind during conversations. “How do you want it to feel?” we’d ask. “What sort of laywer/blogger/sponge connoisseur are you, exactly?” “Do you really, really hate any particular colors or adjectives?”

(Answer: everyone hates the color puce and the word “moist”.)

That method of gathering information worked out pretty nicely, and not just because we were good at asking the right questions. And we realized that we generally asked more or less the same questions for each type of project. We had a pretty good idea of what we needed to know in order to do our job well.

Except the times when we didn’t.

Sometimes we’d forget to ask a question and have to send a new email to confirm a detail – that wastes time. Sometimes we’d word our questions in a way that the client would give us an answer we couldn’t use. Sometimes the client misunderstood our questions. “Well, I have a certification in windsurfing . . .” “No, sorry, we meant your qualifications for, you know. Your job.”

Sometimes we just plain didn’t have the time to ask the really good questions that helped us save even more time and do a spectacular job. When there are fifteen clients clamoring for blood, everyone gets distracted.

The questionnaire solved all these problems.

Ah, but not just any old questionnaire. We took our time with it. We included the questions we usually ask clients, and then we began asking more. And then – this is the tricky part, folks, pay attention – we saved it in a Word doc and worked on it even more.

I know. I am just going to let the genius of that sink in for a moment.

Not Just Any Old Questionnaire

Over months, we altered our master questionnaire. We added new questions that had been cropping up more often and we took out questions that weren’t really necessary. We began getting specific, asking questions that helped us get our clients even better results, and we saw results in our own success rate shoot up as well.

That success rate? It’s extremely rare to hear anything but, “I LOVE this,” around here.

Every single client gets the same questionnaire, and sometimes we need more in-depth clarification, but most of the time we don’t. Most of the time, that questionnaire gets us all the information we need to rock the client’s world.

Because when you have all the information you need to do your job to perfection – what tone and feel the client wants, what adjectives come to mind, the history and the story of their business, the way they want their customers to think about them, whether they want to be seen as funny or professional or cute or consoling . . . .

You are pretty much guaranteed to deliver exactly what they’re looking for.

So ‘fess up. Do you have a questionnaire for your clients? And if you don’t, why don’t you?

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Post by Taylor Lindstrom

Taylor Lindstrom (fondly known as Tei) is a twenty-something copywriter and journalist from Boulder, CO. She’s the team’s rogue woman who wowed us until our desire for her talents exceeded our desire for a good ol’ boys club. She loves the color green, micro-point Uniball pens, and medieval weaponry.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
How to Please Your Client Every Single Time first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

One of the worst mistakes copywriters make is to assume their job is about writing.

It’s not.

Now I know that sounds a bit odd. After all, the word “writing” is in the word “copywriting.” So it’s understandable why you might misunderstand.

But writing and copywriting are two very different things.

When you write a novel or a poem, readers wants great words. They enjoy the rhythm, the imagery, the wordplay. People expect this kind of writing to deliver a certain art and beauty.

When you write websites, ads, white papers, or other business materials, readers simply want information. They don’t care about the artistry. They aren’t looking for beauty. They just want to find out how to solve a problem or meet a need.

This isn’t to say that copywriting can’t be well-crafted. It should be. But it should be crafted in such a way that the words disappear and the meaning shows through. I like to think of good copywriting as if it’s a toy store window: clean, polished, and invisible, providing a clear view of the wondrous goodies inside.

So when copywriters forget that their job is to convey meaning, to connect with needs, to influence and persuade, they focus on the words alone and create, well … crap.

When you do this, it’s not that you’re stupid. It’s just that you’re ignorant.

Ignorant of the purpose of your copy. Ignorant of the meaning of your product or service. And ignorant of the perceptions of your readers. In other words, even beautifully-crafted copy can go bad when you pay too much attention to how you say something and ignore the meaning of what you’re saying.

To illustrate just how incredibly bad copy can go when meaning is ignored, here are some astonishing examples from the world of advertising:

• Coors decided to use its slogan, “Turn it loose,” in Spanish advertisements. Unfortunately, it translated as “Suffer from diarrhea.” Beer sales went down the crapper.
• Clairol introduced a new curling iron called the “Mist Stick.” But when they brought the product to the German market, they discovered that “mist” is slang for manure. Apparently, few German consumers had use for a “manure stick.”
• When the Pope announced a visit to the U.S., an American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for Spanish-speaking residents. The shirt was supposed to read “Vi al Papa” (I saw the Pope) but instead read “Vi la papa” (I saw the potato). I like potatoes as much as the next guy, but I don’t wear shirts bragging about it.
• Pepsi’s slogan used to be “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation.” It proved successful right up to the time when it entered the Chinese market, where it took a nasty left turn. In Chinese, the slogan meant, “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave.” Yikes!
• When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they decided to use the same packaging as they used in the US, with a beautiful, smiling baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa illiteracy is high, so companies put pictures on the product labels to show what’s inside. “Baby food” took on a startling new meaning.
• Frank Perdue revolutionized the chicken industry. However, his slogan, “It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken,” proved even more revolutionary when translated into Spanish as, “It takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate.” Uh. I have no further comment on that.
• In China, Coca-Cola mystified the entire population when it announced “Ke-kou-ke-la,” meaning, “Bite the wax tadpole” or, depending on the dialect, “female horse stuffed with wax.” Perhaps that makes sense if you’re high.
• When Parker Pen began selling ballpoint pens in Mexico, the ads were supposed to read, “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” But a poor choice of words resulted in a benefit statement that proudly proclaimed, “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.” So that’s why people use pocket protectors!

I know, I know. These are all extreme examples. However, they show what happens when you’re crafting copy for an audience about which you’re ignorant.

How do you avoid this?

Reach into the world other people live in. For example, if you’re a liberal and you’re writing web copy for a conservative website, you have to abandon your own views and immerse yourself in the world view of people who think differently.

Empathize with the feelings and beliefs of your readers. They say you can’t understand someone until you walk a mile in their shoes. So become a shoe thief. Walk, jog, and run in as many shoes as you can. You have to feel what others feel to write copy that connects with them.

Have an interest in everything … and then some. In a recent conversation, a writer told me that he hates projects about things that don’t interest him. How can you be a copywriter if you’re not curious about new things? You should know a little about everything.

Be a quick study. Copywriting is always on a deadline. You have to inhale information and understand it rapidly. You have to be a pregnant woman in the morning and a retired trucker in the afternoon. A senator on Monday, a heart surgeon on Wednesday, and a champion cyclist on Friday.

Always do your homework. Read everything. Ask questions. Take notes. And when you think you know it all, keep digging. As Edmund Burke said, “Fact is to the mind what food is to the body.” (Edmund Burke? Could I have chosen a more arcane reference?)

Be willing to change your copy to meet a goal. You can’t be a diva. Yes, you spend hours or days or weeks writing and rewriting. But if the copy doesn’t do the job, you have to let go. Top writers are ruthless editors and heartless revisionists.

Recover from mistakes and learn from them. We all make them. What separates good writers from great writers is that great writers learn from mistakes and become greater. Other writers make excuses and seek to avoid similar situations.

To help myself with this, I use a copywriting cheat sheet, which is a series of questions to help me start to understand who a client is, what they’re selling, and the people they’re selling to. Depending on your area of specialty, you might want to adapt this sheet to your own needs, adding or deleting questions.

If you’re a copywriter, you’re probably pretty smart – so use those smarts and watch out for being ignorant.

Dean Rieck is one of America’s top copywriters and tries hard to be neither stupid nor ignorant. In fact, he provides copywriting tips for smart copywriters at Pro Copy Tips.

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Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Why Good Copywriting Goes Bad: You’re Not Stupid. You’re Just Ignorant. first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

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 make your web copy sound more like you? Because we’re sure you’re a really awesome person with an interesting take on your industry and lots of good reasons your business is way better than the competition’s.

We say to our clients knowing very well that they have trouble writing this down. They don’t know the reasons, or they don’t have the ability we have to work them into their own web copy. We know clients struggle with writing fantastic web copy – that’s why they came to us. Stands to reason.

So we’re not expecting killer answers when we ask clients these questions. We’re just hoping for a nice, real person telling us about themselves.

What we get often sounds more like this:

Question: What kind of person are you? Easygoing, professional, casual, authoritative, fun, devoted, covered in bees?

Answer: I am someone who gives 110% to every project. I always go above and beyond the call to make sure my client is satisfied. I am a professional with excellent communication skills. I work well in teams and independently. I am goals-oriented and have great attention to detail.

Oooooookay.

It Isn’t an Interview

You’re all savvy readers, so I’m sure you recognize the problem here. This sounds like the generic stuff you put on your resume when you’re just out of college and don’t realize that your resume shouldn’t sound like everyone else’s, and also that everyone in the world is lying when they say they are “goals-oriented.”

No one is goals-oriented. Everyone is chocolate-and-sex-oriented. Make a note.

So what the hell do you do when your client gives you answers that makes him sound so boring that you fear committing fraud by writing web copy implying this is a person you would enjoy having a cup of coffee with, much less to whom you should be willing to trust with your money?

You have a couple of options.

Fun Gets Real Answers

Write your client back and explain that this isn’t an audition or a job interview. You aren’t a scary HR person. You’re just a very nice copywriter who wants to make a great human being sound human. You can explain that a few of the things they tell you will wind up in their actual web copy, so you’d love their help to create tone and a realistic voice.

You can then tweak your questions in a way that emphasizes on this point. Instead of asking, “How would you describe your business?” you can say something like, “If your business were a puppy, what kind of puppy would it be?” Except James would never let me ask that. But you get the idea.

Make it fun. Make it obviously not business-oriented. Make it something practically impossible to turn into corporate-speak.

Want a Voice? Hear a Voice

The other option is to call up your client and ask that they talk to you like a human being. It’s almost impossible to talk on the telephone in boring corporate-speak because no one in the history of the world has ever said the following when chatting as two regular people:

“I integrate positive solutions into every customer concern, resulting in an increase in general satisfaction and business productivity.”

No one. Has ever said it.

Why they think they should say things like this to other business folk is beyond me, but there you are. Crack a few jokes right off the bat with your client and the next thing you know, he’ll be chatting away with you like a normal person.

You’ll have a great idea of who this person is and what his business is all about.

Then you can go put that voice into the web copy. See how it works?

If you want your business to have a voice that sounds real, human and jazzed up, contact us today. We know how to give your web copy a voice that reaches readers.

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Post by Taylor Lindstrom

Taylor Lindstrom (fondly known as Tei) is a twenty-something copywriter and journalist from Boulder, CO. She’s the team’s rogue woman who wowed us until our desire for her talents exceeded our desire for a good ol’ boys club. She loves the color green, micro-point Uniball pens, and medieval weaponry.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
What To Do When Your Client is Boring first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Things weren’t so simple.

We found her will, and the executor named within let everyone know the details of it. He made arrangements and began carrying out my great aunt’s last wishes. And while going through her paperwork, the executor found another will.

This will was different from the first – considerably so. It didn’t even list the same executor. So, the new executor had to contact a lot of people and do some backtracking, then contact the new heirs and advise them of the changes. It was annoying and inconvenient, and a few people muttered, but it got done.

Then the executor found another will.

Throughout the months of phone calls, backtracking, moving forward, and backtracking again, there was a lot of confusion. A lot of hurt feelings. A lot of irritation.

And a lot of thought about my own will and testament, and what would happen to my business if I died.

Who Wants My Business?

You may not think that your website, your blog, your freelance business, is something you need to think about in your last will and testament, but it is. It’s an asset you own, and it needs to be sold, dissolved, or left to someone you trust to continue running it.

Otherwise everything just sits there in virtual space, lost and forgotten, collecting dust.

We tend to not think about this. Most people reading this right now probably have a will that leaves their house to their spouse and their insurance money to their children, but they haven’t covered what happens to their virtual lives and businesses after they die.

Consider what you’d like for your website, your blog or your online business if you were to pass on. Do you want to leave it to your children and have them continue operations or close up shop? Do you want to leave it to a partner or one of your staff? Do you want it sold and the profits distributed amongst heirs?

Hang on a second – before you go leaving your business to your kids or spouse, ask them whether they even have the faintest interest in taking over. If they don’t, would another arrangement be more suitable, such as having them continue as owners but letting someone else handle operations? And if so, does the person you’d like to have operate your business want that responsibility?

They aren’t easy questions – but they are important ones to think over.

How Will People Find Out?

People are becoming increasingly active online, but when that activity suddenly ceases, then what? Someone’s going to have to take care of telling those who need to know that you’ve passed on. That means possibly posting something to your blog, sending out a press release, tweeting a public notice or emailing clients.

Most of us don’t write out information like, “Hi, I’ve died,” while we’re here and able, but perhaps we should. We have the advantage of being able to draft a piece just in case and tailor it properly to say what we want to say. Who wants to leave those grieving our passing the task of having to figure out what to post on your blog – and maybe even how to use your blog in the first place?

So go ahead. Write something up, just in case. It’s not morbid – it’s thoughtful. Keep a copy handy and let executors know how to access this information so they can post it if they need to. Provide them with login links, usernames and passwords. If they’re not familiar with blogs, give them step by step instructions, too.

Speaking of Logins…

If you sit down and write a list of every application you use, every site that requires a username and password, every bit of online world you visit, you’d be astounded. There’s a lot of essential information locked behind virtual doors – and your heirs and executor don’t have the keys unless you leave them behind.

Write down a master list somewhere of all the links to important sites and the usernames and passwords to them. Your PayPal accounts, for example. Imagine leaving a few thousand dollars sitting in virtual space, and your children never even knew it existed. And even if they did, they may not know where to look for it.

Think about your other applications. Twitter,Facebook, your project manager, your to-do list app, Google Analytics, your bookkeeping software, or your email accounts? Those are all important, too, and people who need to organize and finalize your life on this earth have to have that information.

Write down everything you can think of that belongs to you – license information, domain names, web hosting services, the whole nine yards. Make sure someone can access this list in case of emergency and tell them where to get the information. Leave a copy with your notary or lawyer to have him attach it to the will, or put it in a safety deposit box that’s been listed in your testament.

Be careful about third-party site accounts, like Gmail or Facebook. Each site tends to have its own rules about who can do what should someone pass on, and executors may need to make special requests to close down accounts or access your information.

Lastly, write down when certain memberships or subscriptions are due to be paid. You might bequeath your blog to your partner but forget to tell him that the domain name renewal is due in June. June rolls around, someone else snatches up that name, and the whole situation just became complicated and difficult.

And for the love of Pete, keep all your lists of information up to date with the most recent passwords.

It’s tough to think about what happens after we’re gone, but the truth is that none of us are immortal. We have the advantage of making many decisions now, preparing and writing the words that we’d like to be said, and creating a smooth transition for our loved ones to deal with our passing.

Can you think of any other preparations that someone might need to consider?

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Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
What Happens to Your Website If You Die? first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

(I know. I said that last redesign too.)

This change wasn’t because our readers didn’t like our last design. It’s not because we decided to change everything about the way we do business. Every business needs to shake things up now and then. It’s about finding ways to be bigger and better and looking at how you can improve your business. It’s also about making sure you’re reaching your target market in the way that these people want to be reached.

So sometime back in September, this overhaul began. Yes, it’s taken five months to bring you everything you see here, and probably more if you want to count the time it took to collect information.

Why so long? Because overhauls make you ask the hard questions:

• What’s important about you?
• What makes you different from your competition?
• How do you want people to feel about you after they visit your website?
• If you had all the adjectives in the world at your disposal, how would you describe yourself?

The answers are important to design and copy, because they’re the first – and sometimes only – impression your customers have of you before they decide whether to do business with you. Most customers drop by your website exactly once, and they give you a solid three seconds before they decide yea or nay.

Three seconds. No joke. Sometimes even less. Potential customers have just enough time to glance at the design and read maybe the first headline of your copy. That’s assuming the headline is a short sentence, mind you.

In that time, you have to explain to that new customer exactly what you’re all about. In order to explain clearly and quickly, you have to know your business really, really well.

You also have to revisit those questions often, because your business grows and  changes over time just as you grow and change. The answer to those questions may not be the same since the last time you tuned in.

Overhauls are a part of growing up. As you grow older, you learn things about yourself and the face you want to present to the world. This is true in your personal life, and it’s definitely true in business. Every now and again, it’s good to check if the image you’re presenting to your potential customers is still faithful to the person you are inside. Sometimes, it needs a little adjusting.

Other times, it just needs a new coat of paint, a new set of clothes. You might still be the same corporate guy, but there’s a new trend on the runways, and you need to upgrade your suit to match the style. You’re still presenting the same image – you just updated it for this year.

Overhauls are how you distill a stronger business, too. An overhaul isn’t throwing out everything that makes you unique and starting over. Not at all. If you look at this site, you’ll see that while it’s a brand new Men with Pens look, it’s also a comfortable, familiar look that everyone recognizes.

An overhaul means filtering out all of the extraneous debris collected over the last few years and distilling a stronger, purer essence into a new bottle. To put it less alcoholically, you’re not trying to start from scratch. You’re simply taking what you have and filing down the rough edges. What’s left is going to be a smoother business, a better you, even more so  than the previous incarnation.

Overhauls take time. Sometimes you don’t see where a rough edge is slowly digging at and destroying the overall image of your business. A year later, you’ll spot it and file that rough edge down. A year after that, something else becomes obvious to you and you’ll take care of that.

All the while, you’re not getting rid of yourself. You’re becoming a more distilled, more perfect version.

That’s what we wanted to accomplish with our overhaul. We kept all the things we’re really proud of at Men with Pens – our casual aggressiveness, our sales savvy, our stylishness, our edginess – and filtered out the stuff that wasn’t quite working for us.

We hope you like the results. Now go explore the new site and have fun.

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Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
We’re Back – and Bolder than Ever first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.