I admit it. I’m a word processor geek. My keyboard might as well wear a pocket protector.
So when I find a comprehensive review of word processors, I sit up, re-tape my eyeglasses, and start reading.
Fourteen word processor reviews later, it’s clear that Windows/Linux users have more choices than I thought (Mac versions available in some [...]
I remember freelancing prior to the advent of email. You needed something? You called your client. You drove to a meeting. Or sent a fax.
Now we’ve got email. It’s fast. It’s easy. It’s better.
But over the last six months, several of my client emails simply disappeared. Gone without a trace.
Spam filters? My ISP? Mail server? [...]
Face it. Advertising pros and copywriters need an image makeover.
Public “trustworthiness” surveys suggest we rank somewhere below toxic waste, and guess what — the killer in the last Bruce Willis movie was an advertising executive.
Even in Hollywood which is not exactly awash in Ghandi-class human beings, writers are considered only the first drafts of people.
We’re [...]
Were you expecting a comic strip? This is better.
Scott Adams spells out the lessons he learned in a one-day business writing class. And just so you don’t waste a day learning it, he gives us the short course:
I went from being a bad writer to a good writer after taking a one-day course in “business [...]
The freelance copywriting market is in a odd state. Fees to copywriters at the low end have never been less tenable, yet demand for copywriters is at an alltime high.
This snippet from the end of Anne Holland’s Chief Marketer article suggests what awaits copywriters who can prove their value, especially in revenue-generating fields (direct response [...]
The leading open-source challenger to MS Office (especially Word), OpenOffice Writer is a viable (and free) alternative to writers tired of big-dollar upgrades for little useful functionality.
I’ve got my copy set to automatically save all files in Word format, and I have yet to experience file compatibility problems with my clients (though I haven’t tried [...]
Is the Home Page dead? Are copywriters wasting their time writing them?
That’s the question posed by Matt Ambrose of the Copywriter’s Crucible (to be fair, plenty of others are asking the same thing).
The idea that every page is now potentially a landing page is generating some heavy, Russian-novel-level brooding in the marketing world, and certainly [...]
The GetOutdoors blog (a Top 10 blog in the outdoor niche) is looking for a couple bloggers.
The faint of heart need not apply.
They’re looking for good writers with a little attitude, and they’re even willing to pay for it. I’m too busy making millions off my own outdoor blog to single-handedly turn them into a [...]
“Google Says Blogging is Dead” one headline screams, while BusinessWeek asserts blogs are being “Twitterized” — that blogging’s apparently too-thoughtful posts are being replaced by shallower, less-thought-intensive bursts of information.
Are blogs dead? Should my clients reconsider my advice to build and populate business blogs — and offer 140 character micro-thoughts instead?
Should I be planning for [...]
In an instance of blogging imitating life, I just read the Irreverent Freelancer’s post about getting to “no.”
Interestingly, I invested a significant chunk of my morning writing a “Dear John” e-mail to a prospective client.
As freelancers, we’re most interested in moving our prospects to “yes.” Getting work is our focus. But when should we focus [...]
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