The Underground’s all about chasing clients via alternate channels, though I’d suggest cardboard signs may not represent the best use of your time.
This spoof video is funny, but in a painful way; I participated in a few new client pitches that – in terms of dignity and professionalism – didn’t exceed this level by all [...]
Like you, I receive the emails every week. They spell out a golden “opportunity” which allows me to write for an emerging content site.
Inevitably, the arc of the communication is predictable; it always ends at a place where the site gets the content, and the writer gets screwed.
What’s remarkable is how many people tumble for [...]
Amusingly, it’s now apparently OK to turn off the swirling tornado of notifications, alerts, bings and (bleeping) beeps that seem to define the working day for so many of us.
We can now move on to actually doing things until complete – one thing at a time – clear in the knowledge that its OK because [...]
I’d love to offer a moral to go along with the picture, but more than anything, it’s a good illustration of just how badly things can go wrong when the real world intrudes on our neatly laid marketing plans:
(Found via Jalopnik, where you can see the “before” to go with the “after” above)
I first published this video in November, 2007, and because it’s more timely than ever, thought I’d run the video again.
Sure, Harlan Ellison is an abrasive pain in the ass, but he’s repeatedly put his money where his sizable mouth is when it came to protecting the rights of writers and content creators.
In a time [...]
Exactly how has the corporate marketing world so clearly overlooked this surefire marketing/branding tactic? Ladies, gentlemen and Undergrounders, we bring you The Corporate Drinking Song:
Yes, let’s all drink to Russian Gas giant Gazprom, which leverages powerful alcohol-related branding lyrics like:
Let’s drink to you, let’s drink to us, Let’s drink to all the Russian gas
Well said [...]
Any writer/copywriter who’s ever published a book, sold an article, or launched an ad/direct response campaign understands the post-campaign letdown.
You wait for the world to shower you with praise – proof that the universe finally “gets” your genius – and then… nothing happens.
No reviews. No letters to the editor. Or an “average” response rate.
You might [...]
I admit it. I’m terminally unhip – at least when it comes to the latest, hottest, hippest, social media-esque uses of the language. In fact, I still think “sick” and “phat” are sorta bad things, which suggests somebody should take my blogging keys away from me.
Fortunately, Web 2.0 offers help even to the sad wordsmiths [...]
The always-interesting McSweeney site (and publication) posted a doozie.
What if God had texted the Ten Commandments?
(Click here to visit the site and see all ten)
Freelancers are suffering a recession-linked double-whammy – not only are clients and customers cutting budgets, but the newly unemployed are swelling the ranks of the self-employed, and driving fees downward.
This New York Time article (found via the Copywriter Maven) looks at the recession’s effect on the self-employed (and under-employed), and touches on an often-overlooked [...]
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