“Money never sleeps” is an old saying – it essentially means that money is made around the clock. And while I’m not a huge fan of a “business 24/7″ mentality, there is a definite truth to the thought, especially for businesses like mine (copywriting / website writing / etc), and similar (web design, marketing, graphic design, consulting, etc). Let me explain: (more…)
Archive for the ‘Websites and Web Marketing’ Category
Money never sleeps
October 21st, 2011Small businesses… you get a day to be out of touch
September 10th, 2011We’re now almost two weeks from our Northeast weather event (Hurricane Irene). It was bad for a lot of people – lot of flooding, lots of damage, etc. I know you Florida people are laughing that a CAT 1 hurriucane was such a big deal, and I do understand. It’s the way I laugh when you guys get an inch of snow and everything comes to a standstill. Now try a decent blizzard – there’s your comparison.
Anyway, I was prettymuch unscathed – I lost internet for a day or two, but that’s about it. But the storm did teach me something in regards to small businesses and being “out of touch”. And that is, you get ONE day. (more…)
Prices on your website?
August 17th, 2011One thing I have struggled with over the years is whether or not to put my copywriting rates on my website. There are two conflicting schools of thought here that battle it out in my head:
Do SEO Keywords work? An SEO Keyword Test
June 16th, 2011The results of my SEO keyword test are in, and I think you’ll find them interesting – especially if you are of the opinion that keywords can help you rank.
In short, it’s my opinion that while you DO need to have them, they do not really help you rank high. Assuming you have any type of real competition out there, all they do is give your site the bare basics for Google (et al) to find you. They just are not all that important beyond those few basics – other SEO stuff counts for WAY more than keywords. Let me explain by showing you my test results:
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Godzilla and Gamera Drink Bourbon to Settle Their Differences
June 8th, 2011Yea yea yea… Godzilla and Gamera drinking Bourbon is a pretty silly topic for a post. Those of you who read my old blog will know I’m doing a simple SEO test with this (have to do a new one for the new blog), and those of you reading my blog for the first time are likely saying “hmmm, this Dan guy is a little strange… no self respecting businessperson would blog about Godzilla and Gamera.”
Stupid Credit Card Thieves
June 7th, 2011God, it can be sooo annoying doing online business sometimes.
I have a payment page here on my site with both a “normal” credit card processor, and PayPal as well. I did this so someone who hired me for copywriting could prettymuch pay me any way they want (because when I set this all up years ago, PayPal was still seen as somewhat “small time” – I wanted both). My copywriting fees are pretty variable too – I needed a payment solution where the customer enters in the price (as opposed to “add to cart”.)
Anyway, for years I used a company called Skipjack. They set me up with a button that generated a payment form on their server – one with a blank “customer fill in” amount. Nice. Until today.
New site is LIVE!!!
June 1st, 2011We are live here with the new Clear-Writing. I finally finished all of the copywriting for it (the cobbler’s kids now have shoes!)
Ok, what’s new around here, you ask? Well, the site has a LOT more information for people who are looking to hire a copywriter. I have pages for the different types of writing I do, several “about” pages so prospective clients can get a good feel for who I am and what I do, lots of info about the types of consulting and entrepreneur stuff I do. I now have a page for success theory too, as I think it’s important (if not a bit self-indulgent – but that’s cool – people seem to like what i say about success.) I also moved the blog here instead of on another site (having two sites was silly), and expanded the section on my books.
But the biggest change is the overall focus. When I started out, I was just a copywriter. But I’m now more of a brand - you’re not hiring a copywriter here – you’re hiring Dan Furman. That’s a big difference, and I wanted my website to reflect that shift in thinking. I think it does now.
I hope you like it – let me know if anything is broken or whatnot.
Yikes (Google changes)
September 10th, 2010So Google changes their search to provide “instant” results as you type. This is going to be HUGE, and it’s going to sting a lot of people. Likely me included. Until we adapt, at least.
One big problem I see here is negative keywords in adwords. For example, I do “business writing”, then minus a few keywords, like “tips” (because I don’t want to pay for a visitor who is just looking for “business writing tips”). But my ad starts showing up before the searcher gets to even write “tips” – thus, showing this person my ad. That’s not going to be good (at least on the surface.)
Second, many advertisers counted on “long” keyphrases, like “NY hotel upper west side” – but now, most searchers will stop after typing “NY Hotel” because Google will give “NY Hotel” results right after “NY Hotel” was typed, making it very possible that the rest of the phrase won’t get typed out.
This is going to outright destroy some businesses that relied on towns and such in their online keyword advertising. I don’t know what it’ll do to me yet, but I’ll find a way to adapt. I suspect it’ll raise my ad budget some (as I didn’t rely on location stuff, but I did do well with a few “longer” phrases). But some businesses might not be so lucky. And others will probably flourish.
Such is the nature of the internet. You gotta stay sharp.
Anmyway, I’m off to tweak adwords some, and then work some more on the new site.
How to spot a fake testimonial
August 15th, 2010Testimonials can be a very effective marketing tool. Kind words from happy customers go a long way in making potential clients feel good about your product, service, or company.
In fact, they are so useful, that many people cheat when it comes to testimonials.
I have to let the cat out of the bag here – very early in my writing career, I’d write “fake” testimonials for customers if they asked.
Being young, dumb, and broke, at one time, I’d write just about anything if you paid me to. And trust me, some people paid me to write testimonials. And sign them something like “Debbie K from KY” or “John J and Family, NY”. Or “Joe’s Pizza, NJ”
Notice the one common thread? Nothing verifiable. No “real” last names. No actual towns. No website links. Lots of “Dan F from NY”. But no “Dan Furman, Kingston, NY”
So, here’s some general advice on spotting a fake testimonial:
1 - No real last names. Or all the last names are amazingly common. In this age of the internet, pictures are even meaningless.
2 - No real cities. Or only big cities. Or all testimonials come from towns in the same 4 states (trust me, coming up with different sounding cities and towns is more work than most fake testimonial people want to do.) Obviously, a local business is exempt from this rule.
3 - No website links. This is the biggie. There should be a few testimonials with real, working website links.
I have a lot of testimonials on my website. Most have a link, all but one have a last name (the one requested it not be used, but I’m sure in the face of all the other proof I supply, I can be cut some slack there.)
Trust me – 15 testimonials and not one link to a business prettymuch means all the testimonials are fake (the only exception here is if the end users are completely non-business consumers, and even then, it’s very unlikely that not one of them owns a business.)
And, of course, it goes without saying that “Joe G, Alabama” really doesn’t think all that much of the product. In fact, “Joe” is the writer’s father’s name, and “G” represents his childhood friend’s nickname (Goober.)
It took me a long time to build up the testimonials I have. And I’m proud of them. Anyone who has real testimonials will tell you the same. That’s why I want to tell you how to spot the fake ones.
And no, I don’t write them anymore. It’s just not fair to the people who earned them.
<sarcasm> And now that my conscience is clean, let me get back to this term paper I’m writing for some rich kid. </sarcasm>
“contest” type hiring/freelance sites
August 3rd, 2010On a message forum the other day, a company proudly stated how they used a site called 99designs (or something like that) to get a logo made. The way the site worked was you put up your project, how much you were willing to pay (in this case, about $200), and designers the world over would submit designs – you pick the winner, and he or she gets the spoils.
Are you @#$%ing kidding me? What’s next… ”Dance for the money, lowly freelancer – I SAID DANCE”
To start, that’s not really a contest. That’s prettymuch slavery.
Secondly, the only designers that will do this are really low on the totem pole – the company was so happy that they had “182 designs to choose from”… except that all 182 kind of sucked. They would have been better off had they hired someone competent for $50-$75 an hour and worked with them – I’m pretty sure a competent designer could come up w/ a nice logo in a few hours time.
Here’s how I replied to them:
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Not nuts about any of the logos (I see you chose one, so this is after the fact.). They all seem a bit amateurish, really. Like someone got ahold of Corel Draw and played with fonts and colors.
Personally, I think you could have done better finding a decent designer in the $50-$75 an hour range – the cost would likely have been pretty close to what you ultimately paid. Ok, maaaybe it costs you 4-5 hours time – we’re not talking bank-breaking money here.
To comment on the other area of the thread – cost / hiring / paying people / etc… I’m not for “contest” sites like that, and I do not think it’s a good business practice. Let me tell you why: I assume that whatever you are going to do you will be charging more than the buck-something you were so proud to get people to work for you for. (“We are 2 hours away from having to make our choice and there are currently 182 designs for an average of $1.16 per design!! Not a single designer in the world would be willing to work for that output. Overall, we feel this has been a good experience and investment on our part.”)
So essentially, you want stuff done for you cheap – like slave wage cheap. But you are certainly not going to be willing to work as cheap yourself, are you? Why, may I ask? You expect others to.
It’s a double standard that has no place in business. You simply don’t value the professional efforts of others. My .02 anyway.
Now, I’m not saying you can’t start on a shoestring or a budget or hire based on price. But sites like that border on exploitation. But to a certain mindset, exploitation is ok, I suppose. But it doesn’t speak volumes for your character as a business.
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anyway, that’s my thoughts on the issue. Not a fan.
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