I used to spontaneously craft lists just for fun, and today seems like the perfect day to revive the practice.
And rather than beat around the bush, let’s just call this list the “Eight Gratifying Moments in the Life of Any Freelance Copywriter or Consultant:”
Reading a short, pithy, “The copy’s perfect” email from a client
Shipping solid [...]
A New York Times Book Review essay latches onto Bailoutmania with a humor piece focused on a mythical writer’s bailout, and like most humor, brushes up against a few bruised areas along the way. Still, it’s a humor piece, so we’ll start with writer Paul Greenberg’s lead joke:
A little while back my daughter told me [...]
Sometimes the world shifts imperceptibly underneath you, and though you notice something has changed, the difficult part is figuring out what to do about it.
For years, almost every commercial project I wrote was typed into in a heavy-duty word processor. But today finds me writing more blogs, landing pages, emails, and other “live” Web content.
And [...]
Business travel is one of those activities that sounds a bit better than it typically is, and though I’ve been on the road for a couple days (and I’m facing a couple more), I wanted to thank everyone who nominated the Copywriter Underground for Michael Stelzner’s s 3rd Annual Top 10 Blogs for Writers Contest.
The [...]
For some freelancers, acquiring new clients is a hit-or-miss process, and many wait for work to come to them.
In the past, I’ve detailed my tried-and-true Six Point Lumpy Mailer Plan designed to put you in touch with high-value contacts at the companies you want to write for.
This Freelance Switch post details a cold calling plan [...]
If you’re one of the few freelance writers that isn’t already a pathological liar when it comes to deadlines, then consider this handy, non-hosted tool: The “Instant Excuse Ball.”
Modeled on the famous “shake-and-answer” Eight Ball, the Excuse Ball contains 20 different excuses, so if you’re writing a “dog ate my Web copy” email to a [...]
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 [...]
I’m beat.
My wife and I both worked a very, very long work week. And when it lands hard on both of us at once, neither can pick up the slack.
It’s not true, but the last few days, I feel like I’ve eaten nothing but cereal.
Does it look like I’ve been sleeping here? (It feels like [...]
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 [...]
I just finished a conversation with a client who wanted to send me money. Sadly, they expect me to perform a written act of marketing before sending a check, and they wanted a project estimate.
Long ago, I made a rule to never give off-the-cuff estimates on complex projects.
Perhaps I do it badly (perhaps everyone does), [...]
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