About 4 pm, I become the undead – the Zombie Formerly Named TC who staggers around the house and eating the brains of the living. It’s the result of a potent cocktail of “new baby” sleep deprivation and eleven time zones worth of jet lag, and it’s every bit as unpretty as it sounds.
Unfortunately, the [...]
The Copywriter Underground – despite serving mostly as an outlet for a grouchy, geezerish copywriter bent on annihilation of social media mega-hype – has been picked by the oDesk blog as one of the Top 40 Writer’s blogs.
And yes, it appears that oDesk actually visited the blogs in question instead of simply crafting another linkbait [...]
Google’s Visual Design Leader announced he’s leaving the company on his Stopdesign blog, suggesting the engineer-driven company had become too difficult to work for:
Without a person at (or near) the helm who thoroughly understands the principles and elements of Design, a company eventually runs out of reasons for design decisions. With every new design decision, [...]
Ad agencies want to bill every minute of employee time to their clients, so they demand daily timesheets – which require each project have a unique tracking ID.
While I don’t track my time with such precision (any more), I have adapted my last ad agency’s job tracking system to my freelance practice, and while I’ve [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Because I foolishly took a vacation, I’m now overwhelmed with Stuff to Write, and my workload is treating me the same way trains treat automobiles:
Because she’s a game sort who’s willing to share the pain, Roberta Rosenberg posts pretty much the same story of getaway-related overwork.
I won’t turn this post into a pine [...]
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 [...]
The bookshelves are littered with "How to make millions in your underwear" books aimed at new copywriters — most of them pretty light on original thought.
What’s missing are the books that actually tell you how to do things — books that offer you enough information that you can confidently take on a paying job and [...]
Get Every Post!
The Engagement Principles Blog