Freelance Copywriter UK Blog 2010
Latest entry, 30 August 2010
Copyqritr portfolios - physical or digital?
I was reading an interesting discussion on Linkedin recently. Someone asked whether it was still useful to have a large, physical portfolio full of work samples to help persuade a creative director you're worth bringing on board.
Speaking as a long-standing freelance copywriter, I do still have a large A2 portfolio. But it sits gathering dust in a corner of my office, and I can't remember the last time I had to lug it out to show somebody. Given that it's large, awkward and heavy, this is something of a blessing.
Having a portfolio online - such as on your own website, as mine is - also has the advantage of saving time. There's simply no need to go to interviews. For the most part, I think that's good news - an interview plus travel to and from it takes up the best part of half a day in most cases. With much of my work one-off projects, it's also not cost-effective. However, there are downsides too.
Latest entry, 8 June 2010
How Google and egos paid off for one creative
As a corollary to my post below, I was amused to see how one aspiring creative had used his imagination, together with a good knowledge of the human ego, to land a dream job.
New Yorker and aspiring copywriter Alec Brownstein used a small scale Google AdWords campaign to attract half a dozen top creative directors. When someone Googled the person's name, such as 'Joe Creativeguru' or whatever, there right at the top was a small AdWords ad saying: Hey Joe Creativeguru, Googling yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun too.'
Needless to say,it wasn't long before some of the creative directors did Google themselves and saw the ad. Four of the six gave him an interview and one ended up giving him a job. Brilliant.
Latest entry, 1 May 2010
Don't get caught in the Google ego trap.
A recent survey by Microsoft found that 40% of Americans have Googled themselves at some time or another - that is searched for themselves online.
Only 40%? It seems incredibly low (speaking as someone who has Googled himself quite a few times, mostly for curiosity and vanity).
Mind you, for all the Smiths, Joneses, Williams, Patels and so on in the world, it can hardly be worth bothering. Unless your first name is extremely unusual, or you have a very high profile online, you haven't a hope of a first page listing.
But don't worry if your name isn't up near the top. For most businesses, it's not your name that counts.
I remember writing a website for someone a year or two ago who was very concerned about keeping his name at number one in the listings for professional purposes. But much less concerned about getting on the first page for terms that people who didn't know him or his business might use.
Crazy.
While it's nice to see your name at number one on Google (as I generally am, at least here in the UK), it means lickety-spit when it comes to getting more business.
If they know my name, they're going to find me come what may. People Googling my name (assuming it is me they're after, not some other Peter Wise) will probably already know about my website and that I'm a freelance copy writer and are just looking to find the URL, or get my phone number or something.
It's the ones who want a freelance copywriter or copywriting services of some kind that I want to reach. That's why it's keyword terms like those which I push rather than my own name.
And the same goes for clients. By all means mention your name on your site - it helps to establish trust for one thing, and remind visitors who you are. But don't push it for the search engines. What you do is much more important than what you're called.
14 April 2010
The number one copywriting blog - shurely shome mishtake?
Just out of interest, a couple of minutes ago I Googled "copywriting blog". What should come up top but a blog of that name, with the URL to match.
Fair enough, I thought. Good for them. But then I clicked on the link.
It was a blog that has been in existence for all of two months. Or rather had been in existence. There were entries for December and January. 2005 to 2006.
A pathetic little excuse for a blog that hadn't been updated in well over four years was still sitting pretty at the top of the rankings.
The amazing thing was that some of the entries were still attracting comments after all this time. Which may be while it's still astride the top. But honestly....no entries in over four years!
11 April 2010
Blog reorganisation
In case you follow this (and there are a few of you), I've rejigged my blogs somewhat. All site updates are now on my Copywriting Services London Blog
This means that all entries on my Freelance Copywriter Blog will now be about freelance copywriting in general, as well as related topics, so you won't have to wade through the irrelevant stuff.
Latest entry, 9 April 2010
There isn't anything new under the copywriting sun (part 2)
The article site mentioned in my earlier post is a very good one. In fact in the opinion of many, it's the best of its kind. I've submitted more articles about freelance copywriting to them than to any other site and I don't blame them one bit for checking up on possible plagiarism.
But they're in a somewhat difficult position. They need to encourage as many article submissions as possible. And boy do they encourage them. They're forever suggesting new ways of thinking up new articles and making them easier to write. In a recent blog post / email I think one chap came up with 50 suggestions in 90 seconds or something ridiculous.
However, the more articles that get submitted, the more the same ground is likely to be covered.
As an example, I searched their site for the phrase 'copywriting tips'. There were over six thousand hits for that exact phrase, including hundreds of articles that included it in the main headline. I dread to think how many other articles majored on exactly the same topic, but just expressed it very slightly differently.
And as for the content of the actual articles, it goes without saying that the same advice keeps on coming up again and again, and often expressed in much the same way.
Which is why I've concentrated on more peripheral subjects for my article writing, such as brochure copywriting, or different angles, such as the need to occasionally stress features rather than benefits. (That said, I did once write an article on proofreading, which has since become quite a common topic itself.)
However original I tried to make an article on basic copywriting tips, other people elsewhere would have likely made exactly the same points in much the same way. Looking at a few of those articles, that's certainly the case. The irony is of course, that this topic is so over-subscribed that the authors in question could probably have got away with simply cutting and pasting from elsewhere and no-one would have noticed.
6 April 2010
There isn't anything new under the copywriting sun (part 1)
It's a theme I've touched on a few times over the years, but it's one that keeps cropping up regularly.
No advertising copywriter worthy of the name is going to simply copy an idea that one of his or her peers is currently doing, although a few will shamelessly rip off something which was done years previously, preferably in another market. And 'creative re-imagining' of something they've seen on YouTube, in the cinema or in a photographer's or illustrator's portfolio is another matter.
In the same way, no freelance copywriter worth their salt is going to simply lift copy wholesale (unless told to). But as time goes by, more and more stuff goes online, the sheer volume of information expands. And more and more often, people are going to address the same subjects - and in much the same way.
A case in point is a recent article I submitted to a leading article site. It was about the top 20 disasters in international marketing due to linguistic errors. At first, it was accepted. But then I suddenly received an email from their editorial team stating that the article was rejected and my account suspended. The reason given was similarities in my article to a piece written by someone 18 months earlier, in late 2008, although not as a free article.
I clicked the link given, and sure enough, this other person was citing some of the same examples that I did.
Should this in itself make my article worthy of rejection?
In my opinion, no. This other article was about linguistic errors generally - in books, software and so on, not just in marketing. Where the examples did match, the way they were described was largely different. So I wrote back to the editorial team highlighting this.
Fortunately, I also had a clinching argument. I had written my article several years ago, and was able to point the team to it, duly dated from 2007, on another site.
So if there had been any plagiarism, it was by this other chap of my article, not the other way round.
My article was duly accepted by the article site and my account reinstated.
But it made me think. International marketing disasters through language misconceptions was a subject I wanted to know about for another project. I was able to find a few instances here, some other examples there. But nothing in the way of what I would consider to be a definitive list. Which is why I decided to pen the article.
My piece was necessarily compiled from a variety of sources. Some of the cases I mentioned were well-known, others much less so. And I did rewrite them with some wry overtones of my own. And I do consider the article to be original. Even had it been done after this other chap's effort, not before.
Latest entry, April 2010
The importance of testimonials
Every time I'm asked to write a new website or revamp an existing site, one of my first recommendations is to have a good testimonials page.
Testimonials can make all the difference when persuading someone to buy your product or service. Relevant praise, preferably with a certain amount of detail, supported by an actual name and location where possible, is what to concentrate on.
If you have a lot of testimonials, then consider grouping them into different categories. If they refer to a specific product or service that has its own page on your site, it's worth having them on that page too.
If the service is quite complicated, then it's well worth having a case history or two, which is kind of an extended testimonial. The classic structure is to have problem / solution / results sections, but don't be tempted to put in all the detail, just the key points. If you can round it off with a quote from the happy customer, so much the better.
March 2010
CopyC*nts
Some ads are very much like other ads. Or videos, film clips, still photos and so on. The debate rages on about how much this is 'homage', blatant rip-offery, 'inspired by' or coincidence.
Much of the time I incline to the view that ads which have been esentially done before, whether as ads or something else, is simple coincidence. There are many ways you can say, for example, that a bank is friendly, a fruit drink is fruity, or a piece of software is powerful.
But many as they are, this has to be measured against the number of ideas a creative team has to come up with, times the number of banks, fruit drinks or software solutions on the market, times the numerous different campaigns that run over the years, times the number of executions within a campaign.
In other words, a great deal of repetition is inevitable.
However, I always thought that no creative worth their salt is going to simply copy another ad deliberately. But sometimes, that does seem to be the case.
At least that's what this blogger thinks;
http://copycunts.blogspot.com/
Mind you, it's not the first site I've seen pointing out advertising 'rip-offs'....
March 2010
Playing with yourself...and others
Another film from the people who brought us 'Growing Creatives in the South-West'.
A slightly strange and disturbing one this, but well worth a look. It uses an animated armadillo and a Harry Enfield Mr Cholmondeley-Warner style voiceover to promote the need for professional insurance for freelancers.
As a freelance copywriter, I'm generally not too much of a risk,but you never know...
Risk Mitigation for Beginners with Arnie the Armadillo
March 2010
The 100 essential websites
Here's the Grauniad's latest attempt to identify the cream of the web.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/dec/09/best-websites-internet
Of their hundred "essentials" I regularly look at only about seven or eight.
My essential ones include the BBC, YouTube, Guardian Online, Brand Republic (for all things marketing, advertising and copywriting), Flickr (now and then), Facebook (occasionally), Linkedin, and Rotten Tomatoes. With the last-named, I commonly (and slightly sadly)find myself looking at it after seeing a film - just to see if my opinion was shared by the critics.
March 2010
Copywriting distractions, no. 94
Here's a fun way to lose a few minutes but help a good cause at the same time.
Go to www.freerice.com and play their word definitions game. You're given words plus four possible meanings. Every time you get one right, you donate ten grains of rice to a good cause and you're given a slightly harder word.
It may not sound much, but after playing only a few minutes, I was up to over a thousand grains.
Latest entry, February 2010
Madmen's maddest moment
This week's Madmen just got weirder and weirder. The Brits were very much to the fore in this episode, which focused on all the (unwanted) change the new masters from across the pond were foisting on Sterling Cooper.
I love Madmen, but I watched the decidedly strange and awkward British characters wreak havoc, I was wondering if Madmen was turning more and more into a parody of itself.
Then came the horror moment when one of the British account men is ploughed into (pretty much literally)by a mini tractor. Blood and gore everywhere, and, as one wag put it, the poor chap was no longer able "to get his foot in the door".
And I decided that yes, the show is turning into a parody of itself. But doing it so brilliantly that I didn't care.
February 2010
Irishman pisses on French bread
Ok, it's slightly old hat now, but I've only just found this. One Irishman's protest against the Thierry Henry handball:
http://newsfromireland.com/2010/01/irishman-urinated-on-french-bread-in-protest-at-henry-handball-court-told/
I also loved this bit:
"She [the defendant's solicitor] said that Mr Larkin had become quite agitated with the result of the World Cup match and had worn an 'I shot Thierry Henry' t-shirt that he had made up in a local t-shirt shop,' she said.
Latest entry, January 2010
Women in advertising agencies - sexual discrimination?
Anyone working in advertising agencies can't help but notice that there aren't many women in the creative department. And the cry tends to go up that this is for reasons of sexism.
Nonsense. For one thing, what the critics rarely point out is that overall in agencies, women are very well represented. In fact nowadays in most agencies I think there are slightly more women than men.
Most of them just happen to be in other departments. In particular, account handling.
And there are reasons for this. For one thing, account handling requires organisation and attention to detail - something in which women often have the edge over men. It also requires good inter-personal skills - again, something in which many women excel.
As for the creative department, one reason why there aren't more female copywriters and art directors is that, in big mainstream agencies at least, they're less likely to put up with the bullshit involved in moving up the first rung or two of the ladder. Such as doing placements for peanuts. And I don't blame them.
And men, who tend to be somewhat obsessive and playful(like the small boys many of us remain in many ways), tend to have the edge in coming up with creative concepts - and in working through all the various rejections and variations necessary in order to get something that runs.
That said, long copy is becoming more and more important. Where a campaign once usually meant a TV commercial and posters or some press ad, nowadays it often involves a microsite, a mailpack, emails, flyers and so on. Increased detail and one-to-one communication, in other words. So not surprisingly, more women are becoming copywriters.
January 2010
When life tosses you a lemon...
The advertising and media industries in the US seem to be even harder hit than they are here in the UK. Apparently over 187,000 professionals have lost their jobs in the last year or two....ouch.
A group of them have done something about it and made a 30 minute documentary. It's called 'Lemonade' and you'll find it at The Lemonade Movie site
It shows what happened to them and how it made them change their lives. For one, getting the chop made him decide to...get the chop. He changed sex.
For a less radical solution, going freelance is a geat option forcopywriters. it's certainly the best thing I ever did. I started as a freelance copywriter 16 years ago when I was made redundant and haven't looked back.