November 30, 2011Can you rush creativity?

You can’t hurry love. But as a copywriter, can you rush creativity? Is it possible to have too many ideas? Or is more always more?

  • Is it better to go to the client with just one idea?
  • Is it better to go to the client with two or three of the best?
  • …or does your client want to pick and choose from a hundred different options?

The answer depends on the client — and on how well you can read them.

Some clients want to be told what to do. They’re paying you, the expert, to tell them…

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September 21, 2011I’m in London. But does it matter?

The joy of being a freelance copywriter is that you can work, pretty much, from anywhere. From home, from a hotdesk, from a beach in Goa, if you really want. With an 11″ Macbook Air and an occasional wireless connection you could probably write trekking through the Himalayas, if you really wanted. But I’m in London. One of the most expensive, most crowded, and oldest cities in the world. And I don’t mean old in a good way. I mean old as in, our antiquated public transport network makes even the simplest of journeys an absolute nightmare…

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July 28, 2011How to brief your copywriter: download a good, free copywriter brief template

There are a lot of copywriting brief templates out there. Personally, I don’t rate any of them. Most of them focus on facts, figures, times, schedules, costs. Most clients will naturally include this information in their initial contact with their copywriter anyway. And most technical information is as easy to find as a quick google search.

Unfortunately, this information isn’t enough to help your copywriter do a good job. It’s only enough to help them do a generic job. If you want truly personal copy, you’re going to have to be prepared to get personal.

Can’t meet your client in…

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March 19, 2011Less, but better: How to improve your portfolio by spending longer on your work

This week I got together with Spencer Lavery, the genius behind the design of this site, to update my portfolio. After almost three years, it was time to take another look at how I was presenting my work. And I noticed something. I actually preferred some of the work I was doing a couple of years ago to the work I’m doing now.

How long does good work take?

When I first started freelancing, I’d frequently have time to spend two or even three days on a project I’d quoted…

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February 3, 2011How to apply David Ogilvy’s sales technique to web copy

I’ve spoken before about how much I rate Tom Albrighton’s work as a copywriter. I’m also a fan of Ben Locker, in Colchester (Glad you’re not in London, Ben!). What have these two guys got in common? They’re both big fans of the “father of modern advertising,” David Ogilvy. So much so, in fact, that Ben recently produced a long-copy print ad in Ogilvy’s style as an experiment, testing whether or not long copy works. Well, I’ve decided to put my money where my…

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February 1, 2011Big Louise: Why we get lonely without social media

Has a song ever made you feel sad? Lonely? Depressed? Of course it has. But has a song ever made you feel sorry for someone else? You tell me.

I’m a big Scott Walker fan. Scott’s a cult singer who started out as a 60s pop crooner who gradually evolved into an experimental noisemaker by way of the dark, lyrical lounge music of Jacques Brel. Imagine if Frank Sinatra got a gig in Vegas and went from playing crowd pleasers to crooning deep numbers about call girls, death and torture, before finally just deciding to pummel a side…

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January 24, 2011Can B2B copywriting be creative?

Though they say you should never give your competitors the oxygen of publicity, I have to admit I’m quite fond of Tom Albrighton’s copywriting blog. While his site’s a little cluttered for my tastes (I’m sure he’d say mine is too brash), I’ll give him this. The man knows how to write. But luckily for us both, we’re not in direct competition. You see, I market myself as a “creative” copywriter. Tom, on the other hand, is proud to be uncreative. Let’s look at what that means:

With a publishing background, I’m much…

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January 21, 2011Setting up a new business: can you really work from home?

So, I snapped. After valiantly trying to tough it out working from home with two highly-strung girls and their overactive cat, I moved into a new office today. And I can safely say I’ve done more work this afternoon than I have in the last three weeks put together. There’s less furballs, too.

I know what you’re thinking. You get up in the morning. London’s all grey and awful. You’ve got to get up before it’s even light and trudge twenty minutes in the rain to catch a bus to catch a tube and stand around geting pushed around just…

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January 7, 2011It’s good to be back in London

Shoes – Stolen!

Happy new year, folks. Hope you’ve had a good one. I’ve had one of those months. You know the sort, the kind where a vengeful girl locks you out, steals your shoes, and leaves you to drive two hundred miles in your wellington boots to crash on a mate’s couch because you have nowhere else to go for Christmas and New Year.

Never happen to you? Well, you’re lucky. But my month on the road (working, as ever, with my Laptop, my wireless dongle and my trusty Blackberry) made me think about…

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December 15, 2010Copywriting price per word

“Eat your words but don’t go hungry / Words have always nearly hung me,” sang the Tom Tom Club, the 1980s Talking Heads spin-off. Truer words were never spoken — especially if you’re a copywriter. But what are words worth? Let’s take a look.

So far, I’ve held off mentioning copy mills — terrible places where semi-pro writers sell blog posts and press releases for as little as 2p a word. Other copywriters have already said all you need to know. Google “Copify” and you’ll find a whole host of complaints and bad reviews. If you pay peanuts, you’re bound…

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