Updates. Ideas. Rants. Techniques. Opinions. Blog.
Six Years, Twelve Questions
The friendly folks over at ProCopywriters have just published a new interview with me - part of their series of revisited spotlights that's definitely worth a read.
A Copywriter Doesn’t Always Sell Things
It's here again. It's almost Christmas. And there are things everywhere. Things to eat. Things to do. Things to wrap. As you'd imagine, I've written copy to sell a huge range of things over the course of the year - from cars to milk. But many of my most memorable projects in 2017 haven't been about selling things at all. They've been about selling ideas.
How To Use YNAB for your Small Business
Stephen Marsh and Seth Rowden are two copywriters with one thing in common; they both swear by using You Need a Budget (YNAB) for managing their finances. Here, they swap notes and talk about why freelancers and businesses should use a zero dollar budget, including:
- Coping with irregular income
- Why tracking every pound doesn't have to be a pain
- How a strong budget solves the biggest problems freelancers and small businesses face around their finances
How to Balance Copywriting & SEO: The Best of Both Worlds
For a long time, the discussion around SEO and copywriting was one of conflict. Concise messaging versus a length that search engines will notice. The most benefit-driven heading for the job versus the one that includes the right keywords. Today, though, search engines are more sophisticated. With the right support from an SEO specialist and a copywriter - in most cases not one person who professes to do it all - you can strike a balance that improves visibility, gets people to your website, and then engages and converts them with strong copy. I'm delighted to have Gareth Simpson on the blog - someone that's seen the evolution of SEO first-hand - to talk about that balancing act between copywriting and SEO. Read on for some practical tips on building relationships with robots and people alike.
Making Sense of your Freelance Income
With National Freelancers Day 2017 coming up on June 8th, existing and aspiring freelancers are coming together to talk about the issues of doing it for yourself. Here's a prediction: expect to see the web full of blog posts and articles about becoming a freelancer, working from home, maximising your rates, and winning work. But that's just one side of things. What happens next? What do you do once you're up-and-running? How do you handle the money (or lack of it)? With inconsistent income, feasts and famines, managing your revenue as a freelance copywriter (or any kind of freelancer) isn't easy. In fact, I'd say it took me six of the eight years I've been in the business to get a workflow that worked for me. And so, whether you're already freelancing or just thinking of getting started, here's a little guide to what I did - and what I do now to keep things organised.
Please Stop Sulking About Copywriting Rates
I’m a copywriter. I’m freelance. I’m all for fair rates for good work. But I’m also a human being. So I’m dead against grown adults acting like little babies.
Four Things I’d Do To Your Email Copy
I like being helpful (and I’m particularly helpful if you book me). So here’s what I do when I’m faced with some email copy that’s not working – and how in-house writers can make their emails more interesting, engaging and high-performing.
Three Things I Learned in 2015
When your seasonal blog post starts life as relevant, passes through 391 days of making your website look dated, then becomes relevant again, you have two options. You make the most of that fact and get on with some real work, or you finally accept that it’s time to put a new post online. And what better topic than the issue of not blogging? What exactly have I been doing for the past twelve months? And, if I’ve not been sharing things I’ve picked up during the year, could I share them all at once now? Yes, I can.
You Lost Me At Model
It's Christmas! Almost. And (spoiler alert) Christmas is all about selling you stuff. Retailers are having the time of their lives, but they're also facing cut-throat competition where only a perfect little Penguin will do. Everyone's trying hard for a heartwarming Christmas ad. But not everyone's doing a great job. Sorry.
You Haven’t Got Time to Read This
So, I haven't been the world's best blogger lately. In fact, I haven't posted for what seems like an age. There's only one person to blame. Wait, no. It's not me! No, I'm innocent in all this. The only person to blame is you. If you're a client, you've taken up my time with, you know, writing copy. Copywriting. You should be ashamed. But I'm not writing this to diss you on the internet. I'm writing this to say thanks. Because it made me realise something quite useful.
