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Category Archives: Copywriting

Friday Font Geek Must-See TV: College Humor’s Font Fight Video

It’s gotten so I don’t even try to disguise my love of all things typographic. And yes, coming out of the font closet means I’m free of the secret shame I’d experience lusting over a particularly telling use of Futura, or a nifty graphic treatment of Garamond Condensed.
Now, College Humor has produced Font Fight – [...]

Posted 08 May 2009 † Tom Chandler § ‡ Comments (5) ° Tagged: , , , ,

Oscar Mayer Ad Says It’s “Blogworthy” – So Why Not Send Us To Their Blog?

You have to wonder what demographic Oscar Mayer’s aiming at with this new “Blogworthy” ad (scanned from Newsweek), though the real question is this: Is the mainstream really ready for Web 2.0-driven ad concepts?

Scanned from Newsweek, but aimed at GenX (and younger)?
And we’ve gotta ask: Will Oscar Mayer’s target market truly understand Blogworthy?
Me? I vote [...]

Posted 29 January 2009 † Tom Chandler § Social Media ‡ Comments (18) ° Tagged: , , , , ,

In a Recession, Go Where the Budgets Are Growing

Some of you may have heard a little something about a recession, and while the Intertubes are awash in strategies for freelance survival during the downturn, I thought a little actual data might be helpful.
After all, my contribution to the freelance survival conversation (and I think freelancesurvivalist.com would be a stunning blog name) amounted to [...]

Posted 22 January 2009 † Tom Chandler § Business of Freelancing ‡ Comments (5) ° Tagged: , , , ,

Wishing Everyone a Prosperous (and Well Written) 2009

To all the writers who struggle daily for the right words – whether they’re written in the service of a client, novel or poem – I wish you a very happy, very literate 2009.
Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

Posted 31 December 2008 † Tom Chandler § ‡ Comments (3) ° Tagged: , ,

Happy Thanksgiving, and… You’re Fired (More on a Tough Economy)

Two days before Thanksgiving I received The Email; one of my retainer projects wasn’t going to be funded in 2009 – a victim, the client said, of the economic upheaval.
No, the timing wasn’t great, but I wasn’t surprised. This was a speculative project – one living far from the organization’s revenue stream. And in tough [...]

Posted 01 December 2008 † Tom Chandler § Business of Freelancing ‡ Comments (7) ° Tagged: , , , , , ,

Post-Project Stress Syndrome, and “Who Really Owns Your Words?”

With my big, deadline-driven Web project launched and humming (for the time being), it’s time to get out of town for my anniversary.
That’s what writers do; we finish the book/Web site/project, then go somewhere warm to shake off the Post-Project Traumatic Stress Syndrome – preferably with an appropriately literary alcohol (the Copywriting Maven says “mojitos” [...]

Posted 03 September 2008 † Tom Chandler § Business of Freelancing ‡ Comments (7) ° Tagged: , , , , ,

Recession Affecting Your Client’s Marketing Budget? Offer Them This Cost-Effective Alternative…

I’ve marketed my way through enough recessions to recognize the pattern; marketers stop playing games, and start spending their money very, very carefully.
In the past, that meant a lot of my ad budgets were switched to less-glamorous media like inserts, card decks, etc.

Today, the rush is on to find the most effective, affordable online media [...]

Posted 07 August 2008 † Tom Chandler § Marketing Consulting ‡ Comments (5) ° Tagged: , , , ,

Instead of Flipping Houses, Try Flipping Web Sites For Fun and Profit

The New York Times fired up a story about online entrepreneurs mimicking real estate speculators: they’re buying under-performing Web sites, fixing them up, and then flipping them for a profit:
Dave Hermansen did not own a bird or a cage when he bought bird-cage.com, an online store, for $1,800 three years ago. He simply saw a [...]

Posted 05 August 2008 † Tom Chandler § Business of Freelancing ‡ Comments (3) ° Tagged: , , ,

Corporations Still Struggling With Corporatespeak In Blogs

Business blogs aren’t exactly booming — at least according to Ken Magill in a Direct Magazine post, where he cites a Forrester report documenting rapid decline in business blog growth:
Business-to-business blogging took a nosedive this year, mainly because returns on corporate blogs haven’t matched investment, according to a recent report by Forrester Research.
…the number of [...]

Posted 12 July 2008 † Tom Chandler § Engagement Marketing ‡ Comments (4) ° Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

Writers Rejoice: It’s E.B. White’s Birthday

The Writer’s Almanac tells us today is E.B. White’s birthday – an event worth a little celebration among the prose manufacturing set.
After all, White edited (and improved) Strunk’s Elements of Style, a book I still pull from the shelf and leaf through when writing seems like hard work.
I fly fish often, and I’m willing to [...]

Posted 11 July 2008 † Tom Chandler § Writer tools § Writing ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: , , ,