
How to Write Copy: Step 1, Be a Woman
Content & Strategy Copywriting SkillsA while back, I was invited to contribute something called "How to Write Copy" to the website of a large, well-known women's networking organization with numerous "star" participants and a robust online presence. However, my contact at this…

How Bewitched Helped me in Becoming a Copywriter
Content & Strategy Copywriting SkillsIn my household, we sometimes debate the merits of science fiction vs. fantasy. (You’ve got a copywriter and a composer living under one roof so stuff like this comes up.) To make matters worse, I study people and their motivations, even…

Going with the flow – copywriting to engage the reader from start to finish
Content & StrategyI’ve not been on a copywriting course. I don’t read every single tips and tricks article that gets published around my area of expertise. My success stems from three things: - Engage the reader, getting an understanding of what the reader…

Struggling With Your Website Copywriting? Try The Iceberg Theory
Content & StrategyCopywriting is hard work for anybody other than a copywriter. Add website architecture into the equation and you end up losing 3 things: time, money and sleep. Fortunately there is a solution that will help you. Ernest Hemingway, one of…

How to Write Copy That Sells – Use Benefits
Content & Strategy Copywriting SkillsAs copywriters we’ve all read that the best way to write copy that sells is to use benefits. But what these articles don’t tell us is how to identify and communicate the benefits that are truly going to compel your readers to reach for their…

Copywriting Pet Peeve Numero Uno
Content & Strategy Copywriting SkillsThere are a lot of things that annoy me. People who chew so loudly I can hear them on the other side of the restaurant. Arrogance in any style or form. Air conditioning blasting through the vents so hard that it makes you put a sweater…

This experience taught me some important freelance copywriter lessons
Content & Strategy FreelancingA couple of years ago I was contacted by the communications manager of a high profile organisation. It was 3.05pm on a busy Wednesday afternoon. It was the kind of phone call freelance copywriters only dream about. Getting straight down…

Active Observation: Before and After Copywriting in Action
Content & Strategy Copywriting SkillsStudy leads to more knowledge, but observation leads to wisdom. This was the opening hook line by my current RMIT Copywriting students for their Group Project calling for less feasibility studies and more action on Solar Thermal Energy. I…

5 Quick Copywriting Rules for Blogs
Content & StrategyAccording to Salary.com, the average copywriter salary is $44,000 a year with the highest paid copywriters bringing in six figures annually. You can imagine, that a lot of training and specific skills go into writing copy that sales and that…

5 Travel Brands With Super-Sticky Content
Content & Strategy(And What We Can Learn From Them) These are the online travel brands that pop. They’re the ones that lure swarms of qualified traffic and keep their audiences salivating for more. In other words, these brands are ‘sticky’. What…

Advice on Being a Freelance Copywriter – 10 Things I’ve Learnt
Content & Strategy Copywriting Skills FreelancingI’ve been self employed since 1996 and running my marketing, copywriting and training business since 2008. Time, I thought, to reflect on what I’ve learnt. Behind the scenes what have I learnt about keeping sane and solvent? 1. Like your…

Expectations: the great creative hurdle
Content & Strategy Copywriting SkillsA friend of mine (a poet at heart) recently told me he was trying to write a poem, but hadn’t drafted anything he considered worthwhile. Or anything at all, really. His reason? He had his heart set on writing a 30-line sonnet. And he hadn’t…
