It should go without saying, but let's get this out of the way: expletives aren’t generally appropriate in the workplace. They are, however, sometimes appropriate to use in your head. Directed toward your workplace. Sometimes, you just gotta get out of there. But you need to make sure you can. Now, to be entirely clear and avoid any liability lawsuits, we're not financial … [Read more...]
What Your Headlines Are Missing
On the quest to make our copy as effective as possible, there’s one tool we can wield that takes our power up a significant degree. You already know about benefits; now meet deep benefits. These can take your headlines to the next level. The first place to start when thinking about creating copy for any product or service—or anything you’re trying to persuade people to do or … [Read more...]
Tips for Copywriters Working With Remote Clients
Working from home (or, frankly, wherever you want) is a dream shared by many copywriters. And, now more than ever, clients don't care where you are. They care about the work you do. Working with remote clients, whether they're in another state or another country, though, is a greater challenge than many people realize. You need to make sure you're setting yourself, and your … [Read more...]
Building Your Copywriting Business While Working Full-Time
When people get excited about a new career, they often want to jump in with both feet. However, there are big benefits to starting that new career while you’re in your old one. I can certainly appreciate the excitement of going all in on a new career … but I’m definitely not a “jump and build a net on the way down” kind of person. It makes a lot of sense to build up your … [Read more...]
When Copywriting Panic Is Bad—and When It’s Good
Your heart pounds. Your stomach is in knots. You break out into a sweat: You’re panicked. But the good news is that sometimes that panic is actually good for you. How can you tell the difference between good versus bad panic when it comes to copywriting and what are the techniques to fight copywriting panic? So, right off the bat, I want to cover the fact that this is going … [Read more...]
Copywriting Q&A: 4 New Trends in Portfolios
It used to be that your simply portfolio entailed a big binder with printouts of all of your best work. But welcome to 2016 kids—here’s what portfolios are looking like today... Today’s question comes from Nedda H., who asks, “I’ve worked hard to make my samples awesome. Is there anything you can recommend to make the way I present them awesome, too?” First, let’s start … [Read more...]
How Much Experience Do You Need to Become a Copywriter?
The concept of “experience” for copywriters can be a bit tricky: Adequate experience for one project might not be enough for another. And just what constitutes ”experience”, anyway? Is it years? Types of projects? Let’s break it all down. Experience is made up of a combination of knowledge and practice. You gain a base level of knowledge first through training, you … [Read more...]
What’s a Back Pocket Career? (And Why You Need One)
Getting fired or downsized is devastating—emotionally and financially. But there’s something you can do to help prepare yourself and make sure a career shock doesn’t completely throw you. Everyone (and I truly mean everyone) needs a back pocket career. If you like copywriting, but aren't sure you want to do it full-time, that's totally fine! There are plenty of … [Read more...]
How To Prepare for a Copywriting Interview
You applied for the copywriting job and got the call to come in for an interview. Congrats! Now what? You need to prepare for the interview. This means having a ready answer for commonly asked questions and doing some prep work. Your standard interview prep should involve familiarizing yourself with their company philosophy, reorganizing your print portfolio to features … [Read more...]
How to Avoid the Copywriting Niche Trap
Many so-called copywriting gurus will tell you that the path to success is to proclaim a niche right away. But that advice is 100% wrong and, worse, it's potentially damaging to your career. Read on to hear why and find out what you should do instead. The other day, a student said to me, "I’ve heard that I should pick a niche and focus on building samples and finding clients … [Read more...]