A former Israeli prime minister once chastised his fellow politicians by saying their slogan could be, “Sure, I promised. But I never promised to keep my promise.” Outside the semi-virtual world of politics, of course, there are real consequences to failing to keep one’s promises. There is a strong incentive, especially when we are starting out, to agree to any project … [Read more...]
How To Come Up With Wildly Effective Copywriting Concepts
One of the most daunting parts of a project can be the brainstorming, or copywriting concepting, process. Concepting can feel like a mystical process, conjuring brilliance out of nothing or mixing a magical potion. (I suppose in some ways it is kind of magical since you'll use just three ingredients—you, your design partner, and the brief—to produce your ideas. Sometimes it may … [Read more...]
Slash and Burn: How To Write Less More Often
Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, logician, physicist, and theologian of the 17th century, wrote in a letter, “Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parceque je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.” (“I have only made this letter rather long because I have not had time to make it shorter.”) As copywriters, we don’t have the option Monsieur Pascal had. We … [Read more...]
7 Habits of the Successful Copywriter
Think of copywriting as an umbrella term for those of us capable of turning a boring idea into engaging, meaningful messages. Ads, brochures, emails, blogs, websites, social media—these are just delivery systems. Today’s successful copywriter is a jack-of-all-trades scribe that is unafraid of tasks, diligent with research, and subtly persuasive at the same time. Good … [Read more...]
Copywriter Niches: Should You Specialize?
When it comes to your career, it's a pretty big decision to go "all in" on one niche or another—especially if you can't be sure that it will be a successful strategy. So, should you specialize? I get questions from students all the time that are something along the lines of, "It seems like there are a lot of financial copywriting jobs available in my city. Should I try to … [Read more...]
Why Staying in Touch With Former Colleagues Is Crucial
In the creative industry, people are always moving from job to job and project to project. And that means, of course, that you meet a lot of different interesting people. But just because they're gone doesn't mean they should be forgotten. In fact, ex-coworkers can be incredibly valuable to building your copywriting business. Whether you're working on staff or as a … [Read more...]
3 Ways to Deal With Friends and Family Copywriting Rates
You love your friends and family. And they love and support you. They also think you're quite the talented writer. So they ask you for writing help. A lot. Now that you're getting into copywriting, they're asking for even more help (or maybe you didn't want to tell them for this reason!). Resumes, cover letters, emails, landing pages... You don't want to be a jerk, but you … [Read more...]
The Right Way to Barter Your Copywriting Services
Bartering, or trading, your copywriting services can be a great way to acquire things you need (design, website development) without having to lay out any cash. But just as with anything else, there's a right way and a wrong way to go about it. Ready for the right way? First of all, whether or not it's okay to barter your copywriting services is completely up to you. No one … [Read more...]
4 Tools to Stay On Top of Your To-Do List
If you love making lists (perhaps you add already-done tasks just to cross them off? I'm in your head!), then this post is for you. There's nothing our remote team loves more than maximizing our productivity and using the best productivity tools possible to get our jobs done from home (we even did an entire YouTube episode on improving productivity; check it out!). That's … [Read more...]
Copywriting Interview Questions: 9 Questions You Need to Prepare to Answer
When you get called in for an interview, you need to make sure your online and print portfolios are up to date, you need to make sure that your resume and references are current, and you need to be prepared to answer all kinds of copywriting-specific questions. In addition to the standard-issue job interview questions like "What's your biggest strength?," "What's your … [Read more...]