The Copywriter Underground

One of the drawbacks of freelancing is the “black hole” effect.
That’s where you write copy, ship it to your clients, and outside of a “this looks great” e-mail, you never hear of it again.
No response rates. No kudos for your witty subhead. No criticism for an obtuse reference. No feedback from sales about the quality [...]

Cat at the cool new BoDo blog (Business of Design Online) is running a series of posts aimed at making it easier for designers (and clients) to work with writers.

The result of online interviews with a group of writers (including yours truly), the series includes thoughtful little gems like Choosing a Writer, the Writer’s Process, [...]

If I’ve learned one thing over the years, it’s that your best new-business technique isn’t advertising, or networking, or picking up the phone.
It’s scheduling a badly needed vacation.

In 1.5 weeks, I’ll be somewhere in the vicinity of this boulder.
Need work? Plan a trip.
Once you’ve actually purchased the non-refundable plane ticket, clients new and old [...]

I stumbled across this nightmarish press release on The Bad Pitch blog. I wish I could say I was surprised. It’s a U.S. Netcom Corp release that leverages the Virginia Tech shootings… to hawk a product.
I’d like to congratulate U.S. Netcom Corp for being the first company (that I know of) to crawl over the bodies of the [...]

The shootings at Virginia Tech dominate the news cycle, and it’s not exactly the kind of atmosphere that lends itself to a zany blog post.
Of course, people die every day — a state of affairs we accept because we know that nobody gets out alive to begin with.
Still, we’re shocked by the random and inexplicable, [...]

I’m embarrassed to admit I didn’t know FreelanceSwitch existed — until I stumbled across this “101 Essential Freelancing Resources” post.

A guide to resources like software, image libraries, business resources, tools, sample legal documents and the ever-popular “miscellaneous” category.
Much of the list was familiar, but the items I didn’t know about were more than ample compensation for [...]

This tidbit from the Black Star Rising blog (the very cool blog of the Black Star photo agency) suggests ad agencies are lagging more than a little bit in the online department:
Consider this little story told by Jan Leth, executive creative director of OgilvyInteractive North America. The agency was assigned by Six Flags to do a promotion [...]

You hear it everywhere on the blogosphere. “Find a niche, and then dominate it.”
It’s great advice – especially when your livelihood is tied to your blog.
I’ve long wanted to write a post on this topic, and when Michael Stelzner published his White Paper Industry Report, I knew I had my hook.

You see, Michael’s Writing White [...]

If it’s one thing I know about Carson at Content Done Better, it’s that he doesn’t do much of anything halfway.
Recently he announced he was getting out of the business in favor of a high-paying job. And rather than let all his hard blogging work just waste away, he’s decided to sell his Content Done [...]

The UK’s Matthew Stibbe writes one of my favorite copywriter blogs (and I don’t think it’s just the accent).
He recently posted the “Devil’s Marketing Dictionary Part 2 ” — a fairly hilarious look at marketing jargon, and what it really means.
Some samples:
Focus group. Feedback disguised as strategy.  For example, a Volvo is an Aston Martin [...]