Clients and Writing Samples

These two things go together, so I’ll talk a bit about who hires me, and then I’ll show you a few website samples so you can see my work in the wild.

Who Hires Dan?

It sounds cliché, but I work for any size business in any industry. I’ve worked for chains with hundreds of locations, and I’ve worked for kitchen table startups. And everything in between. I even write letters for private people.

That said, the majority of my clients have between 5 and 500 employees, with the owner/president still being pretty hands-on. They are successful and want to work with professionals, but don’t need an in-house / full-time copywriter.

Ok, I don’t really work for kids. But my client base is so diverse in business type and industry that any standard “business picture” becomes exclusionary. So this seemed like a fun way to get that point across. These kids can all grow up to be my client, no matter what profession they choose.

Writing Samples

A note on samples: I only post websites as samples, as they are public. Everything else (PDF’s, internal stuff, letters, emails, etc.) are selectively distributed, and may have a shelf life too. So I don’t share that work.

Second: While I wrote copy for the websites I post here, there’s a chance someone else wrote on them as well (I cannot control that). So if you see any terrible writing, it’s not mine! Also, for blogs and advertorials, I generally give the company’s executives credit.

Lastly: this is a teeny tiny sample of sites I’ve done (I’ve written for more than a thousand websites). But it should give you a good cross section of my writing. Plus, if you really want a great sample, I wrote every word on the site you are reading now.

Oh, the links will all open a new window or tab. Just so you know. I’m a “right-click / new tab” guy myself.

CREST CAPITAL (www.crestcapital.com). Atlanta, GA.

Industry: B2B Equipment Finance.

Write and update copy for entire B2B website (500+ pages, including online directory, articles for executives, and The Lease Guy blog.)
Write strong SEO pages. Here’s a great example: In the summer of 2023, Crest launched a new program to finance SUV’s in the company name. In a massively competitive national industry, in two months, the page rose to the top of the rankings. There is an art to writing good, informative, and authoritative pages that Google loves.
Write bylined articles for trade publications (priceless SEO). Sample 1. Sample 2. Sample 3.
Regarding articles, I’m also an inc.com columnist. https://www.inc.com/author/dan-furman
Video Scripts. 10 Reasons Crest Capital is Better Than a Bank, Turning Clicks into Sales. I storyboarded these and wrote the scripts. 10 years in, and these are still fun.
Conceptualize and wrote stealth marketing site www.section179.org which is the #1 ranked Section 179 website online, getting 10k+ visits a day. I update this often to stay current.
Handle all internal content such as process instructions for data entry, sales scripts for reps, internal memos, and corporate communication. Obviously, I cannot post this stuff.
Crest has been a client since 2007, and I regularly consult with the CEO. He values my input and opinion, and named me VP of Strategy. Crest is the leading equipment finance company in the USA.

MEDIA FORCE (www.mediaforce.com) Holon, Israel.

Industry: B2C Direct Response Sales / AdTech

For this company, I write direct response ads, advertorials, landing pages, and lead aggregators for consumer products and services. The ads appear on cnn.com, the weather channel, Fox, and almost every other consumer news and information page you visit.

Here are a few examples. Besides the wording, I also design most of the layout for these, choose pictures, embellish them (circles/arrows) for better sales effect. We sell trainloads of these products.

Note: most of these are generally written for an older (45-75) demographic.

Fitnus Family Products – Our consumer brand is Fitnus. This is our shopify home page for all the products – I write everything here.
Fitnus Tracker – Here’s one of the product pages – this one is the Tracker.
Life Insurance Lead Aggregator – More than 300,000+ leads… this is still the control piece.
Car Insurance Lead Aggregator – Same thing, but for car insurance. That “old/new” graphic was also my idea. It helped skyrocket leads.
Neuropathy Foot Pain Relief – I wrote this man’s story for this excellent product.
Weight Loss Product – I credited the company doc here, but it’s all me. “The Lazy Way to Lose Weight” has proven extremely popular. When I added that line, sales jumped.
Neuropathy Pain Product – Home page for Fitnus Neurostim

The below are advertorials – part ad, part embellished story. I took details from real experiences, wrote the stories, and turned it into an effective first-person sales piece. Since it’s consumer products, I don’t wish to be credited, so I asked to use pseudonyms (pen names). We came up with Dave Freeman (close enough) and Audrey Beck for the female perspective.

Fitnus Brace – Writing as a retired man with bad knees (I love the blue pill line!) This advertorial has been the control piece for several years now (as are the rest of these.)
SafeAlarm – Writing as a woman.
Security Camera – Sales shot way up when I rewrote and redesigned this.
Fitnus Socks – Writing as “Fun Grandma”. We sell tons of these.

AARDVARK STUDIOS (https://aardvarkstudios.com/)

Industry: B2C Mobile Tours / Experiential Marketing for some of the world’s largest brands.

Been writing for Larry Borden for years, all the way back to when he started “The Borden Agency”. He’s grown exponentially, becoming the leader in his industry. Over the years I’ve written a ton of marketing and sales collateral for them.

POP ON THE BLOCK (www.popontheblock.com)

Industry: B2C Popcorn Sales

First of all, this is easily the best popcorn you will ever eat. Seriously, go buy some.

Pop on the Block is a great example of an idea gone big. They started out with the owner making uniquely-flavored popcorn in her kitchen for her kids. But from movie night snacks came a business – first pop up stores, then a permanent location, then another, then nationwide online sales. I wrote all the copy along the way, including hundreds of popcorn descriptions that still make my mouth water.

SOFT TOUCH FURNITURE (www.softtouchfurniture.com)

Industry: B2B Commercial Furniture

I love these folks. I’ve written their website, catalogs, tons of monthly newsletters, all kinds of internal writing and memos, I’ve written letters to clients on their behalf, and more. I discuss marketing and strategy with the owners, and even hung out at the trade show in NYC with them.

NEW ENGLAND TREE EXPERTS (www.newenglandtreex.com)

Industry: B2C Residential Snow Removal

This is a local Massachusetts tree service. And Greg and his crew do the best, most professional work possible.

I gotta be honest – I’m not nuts about the design of this site, but it’s the words that matter for this page. In an industry where there are a lot of “Buck With a Truck” type guys, Greg wanted his attention to detail, equipment, crews, and similar to come through in the website’s writing. It does, and as a result, he gets constant inquiries from the site.

ASHLEY KIRKWOOD (https://www.speakyourwaytocash.com)

Industry: B2C Personal Development

Ashley is awesome! I started working for her about three years ago. She’s a prominent Chicago lawyer who ditched a $300k/yr corporate attorney job to do it on her own. She started a virtual law firm, but it quickly became apparent she was an extremely talented speaker and trainer. I write web pages, emails, and landing pages for her. I also helped her rebrand.

POWER STRATA SYSTEMS (https://www.powerstrata.com/)

Industry: B2B Software Sales

I’m experienced in a lot of industries, but I never heard of Strata Management Software before these folks contacted me. But I quickly “got” it, and wrote them a very effective website that brings in consistent business.