Archive for the ‘Copywriting’ Category

Entrepreneurial / Copywriter’s Tip – How I Schedule Work

September 9th, 2009

I was asked by an aspiring copywriter the other day how to go about scheduling work. She was concerned with “ok, I tell a guy I’ll write for him this week… then I get more e-mails all wanting work… they all need a response…. one wants work now, another by Friday, three more need stuff next week… how do I schedule everyone?”

Now, I never really thought much about scheduling before, but she had a point – depending on the week, the above can/does happen. So maybe by listing how I schedule work, I can help a reader or two. By the way, the following is how I do it for my business, but the same rules can apply to almost any home-based business or service-type business:

All inquiries get a response within 1 working day. I’ve learned to check my e-mail less often, as it can be maddening to get e-mail after e-mail as you are working. I’m still working on this, though, as I have a bad habit of checking e-mail more than I should.

I have an information sheet I attach to the first response to everyone. This sheet has info about me, my business, links to samples, and basic prices. It saves a ton of time, because it answers two big questions: “can I see some samples” and “how much?” Now, the prices on it are generic prices, but they immediately cut out the “oh, I was hoping you’d work for $10 an hour” guy (believe me, they do exist.)

I never put anyone new on my schedule without money. Never, ever ever ever. EVER!! Man, If I had a dollar for every time someone said “yea, let’s do this”, then when it came time to do it, said “nah”, I’d be a rich man. Money gets you on my schedule - everything else is just talk. Seriously, this is the biggest, best piece of scheduling advice I can give – you do not exist on my schedule unless I’ve collected a 50%, non-refundable deposit (or 100% prepay if the project is under $750 or so).

Newbies have a real hard time with this rule. One of the hardest things to do when starting out in business is to ask a client for money. But you have to do this. I know it sounds a little harsh, but if you do not do what I advise, I guarantee you will get burned. A lot. There’s nothing worse than losing other business because you held time for someone, and when the time came, they bailed.

In relation to the above, it’s first-come, first-serve. Say I have two weeks from now open on my schedule. I will tell everyone that’s when I can start their project. First one (or two) with the cash gets on my schedule. Stragglers get bumped. This is clearly spelled out in my proposal form, and also by me in our communications. I have had situations where someone took a week to get in their deposit, and they got bumped. It’s never been a problem, because they understand – I can’t “hold” time for anyone.

Plus, I’m well worth waiting for

I do not typically agree to “hard” deadlines. Most deadlines are completely arbitrary. In the case of advertisements and magazine articles, yea, ok, I realize a very real deadline exists, and I’ll promise (and make) the deadline. But otherwise, I’m not going to do a rush job just because the boss said “I want it by next week”. Again, most clients totally understand this.

I generally schedule work by the week. Generally, I say I will start a project “the week of xxx”. And time to completion is usually “1-3 weeks” (for most things). This gives me a ton of flexibility.

In regards to timeframe, I’m almost always finished early, by the way. But doing it the way I do allows for emergencies, overlap, etc.

In my years of doing this, I have found my way to work very well. I realize the above sounds a little “firm”. It is in a way, but you kind of have to be. Trust me when I tell you: good clients do NOT have a problem with the above. Professionals know this is how business works. For example, if someone has a problem giving me a deposit to block out time for them, trust me, I know they aren’t a serious client.

Now, I’m also flexible on the above for many returning clients. If we have a good relationship, I’ll squeeze you in, get it done by Friday, forgo a deposit, etc etc. That’s also good business.

Hope this helps someone. And if you take just one thing from this, take the “get the money to schedule someone” part – it’s easily the most important part of how I do things.

Posted in Copywriting, General Marketing, Home Business / Entrepreneural Stuff | No Comments »

Who would work for this???

August 23rd, 2009

I just got an e-mail from this guy in the UK about an hour ago. He needs articles written. Specifically, 1,000 word articles.

He tells me that he has 4 writers in the US currently writing for him at the rate of 7.50 GBP per article, and can I match that rate?

So I’m looking at this and thinking… “wait, there must be some other meaning for GBP… because he can’t possibly mean British Pound, could he? Because that translates to about 12 bucks and change. And a professional 1,000 word article is like… prettymuch a half day’s work at minimum for any writer. Probably a full day for many, also”.

But of course, he did mean British Pounds and not “Gobs of Beer and Pretzels” or some other form of trade I might be interested in (those brits can certainly make some excellent beer!)

Anyway, I wrote back with a polite note saying essentially “not even close”, although I really wanted to say “are you @#$%ing kidding me??” But the professional in me says to keep it clean and instead complain right here.

But my point of this post really isn’t to complain about the guy… what puzzles me is there are writers out there who will actually work for this (I’m probably stretching this that these are real writers working for this rate. They are probably cut and paste hacks…)

But let’s assume they are writers…. listen, that rate isn’t even worth “well, I’m getting experience”. Because you aren’t. What you’re getting is friggen exploited for some moron’s SEO purposes. Wake up, chumly – there’s plenty of good paying work out there – don’t give guys like this the satisfaction of exploiting you.

Anyway, there’s my “need a good night’s sleep and won’t get it until the construction guys finish” rant for the week. House looks great – probably another week to go.

Posted in Copywriting, Home Business / Entrepreneural Stuff, Misc / Personal Stuff | No Comments »

An interview with Dan Furman

August 13th, 2009

I was interviewed on the radio yesterday, (a talk radio Home Based Business show). In it, I talk about business in the current economy, what I did to combat such and make business better, etc etc – it’s a solid half hour of Dan goodness (this is assuming you think a half hour of me is good, of course - I imagine there are a few folks out there who would think that’s 29 minutes too many, but I digress…)

Ok, click this link: Dan Furman Interview . Then look to the left, click “Home Based Business”, then look for the 8/13 show in the list- that one is me. Save it to your computer, then pour yourself some coffee (or perhaps something stronger.)

Happy listening.

Posted in Copywriting, Fun Stuff, General Marketing, Home Business / Entrepreneural Stuff, Misc / Personal Stuff, Success | No Comments »

Fan Mail

August 11th, 2009

I got this e-mail the other day from a reader who owns and operates a Winnipeg Pet Sitting Service (hey, if you write me as letter this nice, the least I can do is give a plug). It was so nice I thought I’d reprint it here (with her permission, of course).

Hi Dan,

This is my first ever “fan mail”, but I am totally compelled to write you, and tell you how fantastic I think your writing advice is.

I purchased your book at McNally Robinson (in Winnipeg) which led me to your site. Several times I went into the bookstore and read snippets of your book “Do the Web Write”, until one day I figured I should just go ahead and buy it, and enjoy it at home.

As a young woman and home-based business owner in Winnipeg Manitoba, I built my own website (winnipegpetsit.com) when I started my pet sitting business.

My website is my hub, so it’s very important for it to be the best “face”

for the business I can make it.

With your advice on secondary landing pages, and google AdWords I’ve done a lot of restructuring, and all of your suggestions are working. I’m also working on a fly-out menu (it’s a work in progress), because I think it will give more structure and flow to my site.

But your most valuable advice has definitely been on style. I’m reading all of your articles on your site, and I love them all. You always say that your reader should want to take action, and your articles seriously compelled me!

Thank you, I’m a devoted reader now.

Posted in Copywriting, Misc / Personal Stuff, Websites and Web Marketing | No Comments »

quick website thought

July 28th, 2009

You’d be surprised how many times I’m asked to write for a new or semi-new website, and the website owner really doesn’t have a solid grasp on what he or she wants the website to do.

Oh, they know what they want the end result to be (sell products, contact for services, etc.) But they don’t know the really important factors in getting to that point.

A website is like a new business – before going into business, you need to know who your customers are going to be, where they are coming from, etc. With that in mind, here are four questions every website owner should be able to clearly answer:

1) Who will be coming to your site?

2) How/Where did they get your web address?

3) Why did they come to your site?

4) What do you want from them once they get to your site?

It’s the classic “who, what, where, how, why” (just not quite in that order). But being able to answer these four will go a long way towards the success of your website.

Posted in Copywriting, Websites and Web Marketing | No Comments »

Writing out numbers

July 16th, 2009

Someone asked me about this today, so I thought I’d pass it on:

When you are writing numbers, generally one thru ten are spelled out. The rest aren’t. So we spell “seven”, but not 17.

I break this rule often, though (it’s not really a rule, but more of a handshake agreement.) Why do I break it? Because “we handle any size job, from 3 pages to 300″ catches the eye better than “we handle any size job, from three pages to 300″ (although the second one actually looks more professional when reading – so it’s really about what you are after – scan-ability, or a professional read.)

Anyway, just thought I’d share that.

Posted in Copywriting, Misc / Personal Stuff | No Comments »

Website Landing Pages

July 1st, 2009

Just a quick thought on website landing pages.

I was having a discussion the other day on the Small Business Forum, and the topic was “landing pages”. One member seemed a bit confused as to what a landing page was and why one would need one. I posted the following as a reply, and I think it’s a succinct enough description to include here in the blog (the guy’s name was Fred, which is why it’s addressed to Fred).

*******

Look at it this way, Fred… say you’re a plumber. You have a ten page website. A few of those pages are for individual services (one for water heaters, one for remodels, one for new construction, etc)

Your home page, obviously, gives the birds-eye view of your business. The navigation bar will have links, and maybe the “services” link has a javascript flyout that shows the individual pages, etc. And maybe even your homepage copy has a bulleted list to a few of the services

Fairly normal so far, right? Despite that I used “plumbing” in my example, I’m really describing millions of business websites.

Now, say you run a google ad for water heaters. Instead of sending those clicks to your home page, why not send them to your water heater services page? And tweak the copy ever so slightly to “welcome” people as if this is the first page they are seeing (which to many, it now might be)

THAT’S now considered a “landing page”.

In other words, because you control the google ad and where the click ends up, why not send the people interested in water heaters to a water heaters page, and send the remodel people to the remodel page, etc etc? It falls right into the “solve the problem people came with” quite nicely.

When landing pages are discussed, the conversation is almost always talking about PPC, e-mail, or some other type of “direct” advertising. Because it’s very easy (and fast) to control who clicks. With organic, it’s nowhere near as timely – you might have to wait a year, making it impractical for testing products, strategies, etc. This isn’t to say you can’t tweak pages to welcome organic traffic, but it’s MUCH more scattershot, and usually not implied whenever landing pages are discussed in the context they usually are.

Posted in Copywriting, General Marketing, Home Business / Entrepreneural Stuff, Websites and Web Marketing | 1 Comment »

Business relationships ending

June 23rd, 2009

I wrote in Start and Run a Real Home Based Business that almost all business relationships will end sooner or later. That client you have that gives you solid work month after month… guess what? That relationship will eventually end.

Be it change in management, new ownership, fires, floods, locusts eating your client’s crops, recession, falling sales, change of direction, or even “just because we want to look at someone new”, the business relationship will eventually end. And you need to be ready for it (it’s one reason I don’t take on any job that blocks all of my time – I will never give any one client my full attention for more than a few days. Even 300+ page jobs, of which I had 2 last year, were done over a period of time, with outside help.)

I was reminded of ”all business relationships will end” today. When I got fired from my last job (2001), I started freelancing the e-commerce programming I did at that job. This eventually turned into copywriting (which I knew had to happen, as the software I specialized in was being phased out), but even to this day, I still had 2 old e-commerce clients who kept the old software and needed me from time to time. I kept these clients because I enjoy the “logic buzz” that programming gives me – kind of keeps that left brain occupied.

Anyway, one of the “remaining two” was my very first, meaning we had been doing business together since 2001. Well, two years ago, they had major shakeups, new management, etc etc… I sensed the relationship changing. Where it used to be ”just call Dan, tell him what we want, Dan does the work and sends a bill”, it became “send us a complete itemized estimate for this project and we’ll think about it”. Basically, it became very formal and corporate. Which bugged me a little because that’s not me. It also bugged me because I really did exceptional work for them – always on time, always right, I made little modifications for free, etc. But the new people didn’t “know” me. I could just hear them saying “who’s this shorts-clad Night Owl schmuck sitting in some NY basement that we send a grand to every now and then??”

Then, last year, they got to a point where they didn’t pay me for work I did. I had to chase them for payment (and I *detest* that. I hate being bullied by corporate idiots.) I finally got paid when they decided I was too valuable to let get away (I am literally one of a scant handful that works with this particular software). But you know, I can be a formal, unfeeling corporate prick too – after that, I started insisting on prepayment for any job. They whined, but I held firm, and for the past year, they paid prior to me tapping a single key.

Well, today we spoke, and I sensed it was the end. There’s a problem that their software can’t handle, why can’t I make it work without more hours, why should they pay for further development (errr, because that’s how it works?) Then I found out they were talking to another company, and would upgrade to newer software, etc etc. Which doesn’t bother me – I kind of expected this two years ago. And I’m pretty busy writing anyway – the EDI (which is the e-commerce stuff I did) is extra lunch and DVD money, really.

But this did make me think a bit – here I’ve been working for them for 8 years. For six of those eight, the relationship was perfect. And for eight of those eight, I did *stellar* work. And it didn’t matter.

Almost all business relationships end, folks. Don’t ever forget that.

Posted in Copywriting, General Marketing, Home Business / Entrepreneural Stuff, Misc / Personal Stuff, Success | No Comments »

A dirty little advertising trick

June 1st, 2009

A group of TV advertisers are resorting to pretty slimy form of trickery with their advertising and sales pitch.

The advertisers in question are the slicer / dicer / cleaner / handy dandy gadget type advertisers. They usually have a hype-filled one-minute commercial, and then, at the end say “and you can get yours for only 19.99…. BUT WAIT…. Call now, and we’ll throw in a SECOND one for free. That’s TWO slug trail removers for only $19.99″

Obviously, I made the product up, but my point should be clear. They throw in a second one for free. Ok, that’s not so bad. So what’s the slimy trick?

The trick comes in when you order. A computer recording takes your order, and asks you how many you are ordering… they fail to mention they want to know how many SETS OF TWO you are ordering.

So the commercial says 2 slicer dicers for $19.99. The computer voice asks how many you want. You say “two”, thinking one, plus the free one.

They then send you TWO ORDERS OF TWO.

They basically get a double order from almost everyone. And, it’s such a pain in the ass to send something back via mail, most people say “oh well, I’ll just give one away”.

Pretty slimy, huh?

Anyone need a magic slicer?

Posted in Copywriting, Fun Stuff, General Marketing | No Comments »

Experimenting again

May 28th, 2009

Last week, I had enough.

I was pretty busy with projects, and must have had ten quote requests in two days. Normally, this is good, but this particular time, eight out of ten were WAAAAAY out of my price range. I mean, MILES away.

Now, I realize not everyone out there is familiar with a copywriting service, and probably doesn’t have the foggiest idea what one costs, but don’t you think that someone like me, with my credentials and professional website, is going to cost more than $10 an hour?

Anyway, since most of the time it averages three back and forth messages before I have enough info to get a price, I just reached my breaking point in chasing business that has no chance of materializing (I would venture each of the eight took 20 min to 1/2 hour total time to converse with.)

So I went and put some basic prices on my quote page.

I’ve done this before, and it stops a lot of people from contacting me, so this time I did it a little different – I put the prices and the “here’s some pricing info” after the form.

See, my thinking here is if one goes to a quote page, and first sees three paragraphs of text explaining price, well, that’s a turnoff… they came to contact me, and now they have to scroll for the form. No good.

So I’m first giving them the form, and the price info is there if they want to read it. Most will, but the perception is a bit different. I’m hoping that doing it this way will keep the “$10 an hour” people at bay, but also encourage those who want to use me (and let’s face it, I’m really not that expensive.)

I’ll revisit this in a few weeks and give you the results, as it’s something maybe we can all learn/benefit from. And please, if you have any ideas, feel free to comment with such.