5 Places to Find Photos for Your Spec Ads
AdvertisingWhen you’re creating spec ads, whether on your own or with a design partner (recommended!), you’ll need to find images to use. And, since it’s bad karma to steal other people’s pictures, you’ll need good places to find them. Read on…
How to Explode Your Freelance Writing Income with Copywriting and Copyblogging
Content & Strategy Copywriting SkillsCopywriting and copyblogging are two highly lucrative writing fields yet too many freelance writers continue to "grind it out" at small-time blogs, "mom-and-pop" businesses and non-profits. In some cases, these freelance writers assume that…
Five Tips for Creating Client-Friendly Webcopy
Advertising Content & Strategy Copywriting SkillsUse the 5 tips below to analyze, plan, and make some needed changes to your webcopy.
1. The “You” Message
Have a look at your webcopy now. How often do you refer to your prospective clients? How often do you talk about you? Consider…
Copywriting without Emotional Intelligence: welcome aboard the Titanic.
Content & Strategy Copywriting Skills“Good morning, passengers, this is Captain EJ Smith. On behalf of the officers and crew, I’d like to welcome you aboard the RMS Titanic. We hope you have the time of your lives…”
Without Emotional Intelligence (EI), you’re sunk.…
Why You Don’t Know Your Audience as Well as You Think
Advertising Content & StrategyBefore I begin writing content, one of the first questions I ask my clients is, “Who is your target audience?”
For some reason, it usually stumps them, or the answer I receive is incomplete.
I talk all the time about writing for people,…
Public perception – How General Mills Shot Itself in the Foot Over and Over
BrandingThe New York Times broke the news about new General Mills legal terms on April 16. Here’s a portion of the “announcement” from the General Mills website:
We’ve updated our privacy policy. Please note we also have new legal terms which…
Does Your Marketing Content Need a Squeegee?
Content & StrategyBack in my radio days, I remember being forced to add excruciatingly long, high-speed disclaimers to the ends of commercials. I think the record was a 15-second disclaimer in a 60-second commercial.
Think about that for a second. 25 percent…
4 Reasons Your Optin Form Isn’t Converting
Content & StrategyMost marketers agree that the secret sauce in marketing is your list.
In years gone by, you only had to buy a list. Expensive, yes, but relatively easy. Today, with email as your primary vehicle and anti-spam laws in effect, you have to build…
COPYWRITING EXPLAINED. A STORY OF ONE SKILL.
Copywriting SkillsWhat’s your passion? If you are lucky, it’s what you do for a living. If you are less fortunate, it’s just a hobby.
Is it painting? Running marathons? Breeding penguins? Not the penguins? Then I give up. But IF you have a passion, I know…
10 Signs You Have a Great Copywriter, Or Not…
Copywriting SkillsEverybody can write, right? Surely, then, finding a good freelance copywriter is about as hard as shooting fish in a barrel.
Sadly not.
The truth is that finding a great copywriter is a tricky task. We all have different specialities and…
Think like your copywriting prospect and avoid these 7 pitfalls
Copywriting SkillsWhen we put pen to paper in crafting our salescopy, we will want to impress people. Sometimes, we can get a little carried away in telling people how wonderful our product and services. You are right. There is nothing wrong if we toot our horns.…
Copywriting tips for key marketing channels
Content & Strategy Copywriting SkillsYou don’t speak to your boss the same way you speak to your friends.
Like relationships, materials for different marketing channels have different language styles. The tone and text of an email promotion differs from that of a Facebook…