The Copywriter Underground

Until a day ago, Floyd Landis was simply the American cyclist who won the Tour de France after an epic, one-day escape put him in a position to clinch the win.
Now Landis is accused of cheating by using performance-enhancing testosterone, though there are a lot of questions surrounding the testing (and he still has a [...]

So what are you really? Word jockey or success guru? If all you deliver are words, then it’s time to reconsider your role…
It’s not easy for your clients to succeed in today’s fragmented, fast-changing marketing environment, and for a copywriter used to selling success as much as words, writing simply isn’t enough.
A tricky headline won’t [...]

Recently I’ve been reading a lot of “How to write titles for blogs” postings.
The redoubtable Copyblogger is running a series, including an interesting post pitting the “use keywords” crowd versus “the humanists.” Some say keywords are critical. Others say write the best headlines you can, and the users will come. The battle rages.
Look [...]

I just finished a Financial Times Q&A session with Michael Caine lookalike Maurice Saatchi, where he suggests the proliferation of fast-switching media channels will be the death of traditional advertising.
The idea? So many messages coming so quickly means companies must clarify their brand to a single thought/word, and then market it so ruthlessly that any [...]

The online world is awash in “content.” Most of it garbage. Not surprisingly, many of the Internet’s hottest sites aren’t content generators as much as content controllers. Search, filtering, rating… it’s all designed to separate the relevant from the irrelevant. And the wheat from the inedible.
For writers, there’s opportunity in all the mayhem. For example, [...]

The first time I uttered the term “Engagement Marketing” was in the middle of a client pitch. I was trying to bring an online weekly column into existence, and came up with the phrase on the spot. I remember feeling pretty pleased.
After all, this was nearly a decade ago - long before “blog” was a [...]

At the time it seemed unfair. I was just getting the hang of print when desktop publishing took over. And figuring out direct mail when the Internet went “bang.” It’s been like that for the 20+ years I’ve been a copywriter.
I couldn’t be happier. Because each time the status quo exploded, it got more interesting.
Now [...]