How to be a copywriter

Bad Copywriting – Just hire a copywriter next time!

I read junk mail avidly – looking for good copywriting ideas to steal (er herm!) and bad examples to laugh at. One of the latter arrived recently. I am not going to name-and-shame, but I am going to share some of the disaster with you. The…

skills-freelance-from-home-copywriter-collective

Who moved my support staff? The skills you need for a home-based freelance job

Last Thursday, around bed time, I learnt a valuable lesson about what it really means to be a freelance copywriter – to run my own little home-based freelance job. And it has nothing to do with writing. I was playing around in the back…

The story of how I went from broke wannabe writer to living the freelance life

Freelancing Work Habits

I always knew I wanted to be a writer. Yet I ended up in a Master’s program in Slavic Linguistics at UC Berkeley. (And yes, I did love it!) Then I had to make a choice: Do I want to continue on with the PhD program or follow my writing…

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Does SEO Stifle Your Ability To Be Creative And Authentic?

Content & Strategy Copywriting Skills

That is a question I get asked all the time, especially because a large majority of my clients are creative and purpose-filled entrepreneurs. The simple is NO. The good news is yes you can be CREATIVE and AUTHENTIC and use SEO. Hooray.…

The secret to my lucky life as a freelance copywriter

Content & Strategy Freelancing

“You’re so lucky!” Three words that seem so harmless. They’re often said with heartfelt goodwill, but those three words make my blood boil! Truth be told, I am lucky. Very lucky. This post shares the secret of my lucky, lucky life…

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How I Got My Blog Post On The First Page Of Google (After 2 Days)

Copywriting Skills

Last week I published my most successful blog post to date. By successful I mean it was the most engaged post I’ve had in a while. It has 50 comments and counting, it received the most number of page views on a single day of any post I’ve…

How SEO copywriting put this customer onto page 1 (in 3 days)

Advertising Content & Strategy Copywriting Skills

Google is getting smarter and smarter all the time. Recently, the almighty Google upgraded its search algorithm to understand the semantics of searches and return relevant content that matched the context and intent of the search, not just the…

Define Your Client ‘s ‘Why’ to Give Them a USP Competitors Can’t Copy

Content & Strategy

‘Why’? It’s an important question. As copywriters, it’s something we ask relentlessly. Why should people buy this product? Why is it better than the other options? It’s also a much deeper question than I realized. As you know, people…

What Makes A Good Copywriter?

Content & Strategy Copywriting Skills

In my twenty seven years of copywriting, I have worked in a number of top advertising agencies in Johannesburg and worked alongside many good copywriters. What is clear is that those copywriters who continuously produce good work are those who…