Why Most Interviewers Miss the ‘Good Stuff’
Is there anything more maddening than watching a reporter (or cable news host) ruin an interview that could have been really fascinating? My mind goes to a butchered interview with Deepak Chopra, a flubbed talk with Mark Messier and a missed opportunity with Michael Stipe. There’s one constant with all these conversational catastrophes: The interviewer isn’t actually listening …
Next Level: Business Blog & SEO Copywriting
Our business blog services caught fire in 2008. Clients love how easily they can speak directly to clients’ needs, reach a larger audience and espouse the benefits of their services. We made it our mission to create an “effortless” experience for our clients – handling both the creative and technical components so they can focus on their day-to-day and moment-to-moment workload. That was the key to the explosion of business blog clients …
New Year, Next Level: More Conveniences & Social Media
It became clear during the fourth quarter of 2008 that my clients (and potential clients) would benefit from a full range of merchant services. In response, we’ve added virtual terminal processing for all major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover). We’ve also added an extra fax line to facilitate the transfer of project documents and contracts …
A Week of Sustainability
As a copywriter, I print documents. I try to read on the screen until printing becomes unavoidable, and if those documents stay in-house (and aren’t sensitive in nature), you bet I’ll flip ‘em over and put them through the printer again. Ultimately, it all gets recycled — either as-is or shredded — depending on the situation. Still, whether it’s pen-and-ink or push-to-print, I have to admit that I’m going through some paper. That’s why I was immediately so smitten with the ECO-SAFE “Merit Badge.”
The Makings of a Newsletter
You’ll notice newsletter subscription functionality has been added to the sidebar. I have plenty of ideas about what I’ll write in those installments, but again, I already know what I plan to say. What would be wonderful would be to get the thoughts and feedback of readers, clients, friends, (maybe even webcrawlers) about what would make a compelling newsletter …
A Nod to Nic Harcourt
Friday, Nov. 28, 2008, was Nic Harcourt’s last day as host and music director for KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic. I tell you this because no other music program — streaming or otherwise — has inspired my creative and writing processes quite like Eclectic …
Client of the Week: Technology Dojo
I ultimately decided on migrating my content into a WordPress-powered format. The next morning I visited a business networking group in Oakland, met Lee and discovered he does that (among other things) for a living. At TechDojo, Lee does technology coaching and strategy sessions on how to make bloated, do-nothing sites more flexible, more search-engine optimized and easier to monetize. We hit it off, and I’m thrilled to now be a copywriter and proofreader in TechDojo’s stable of resources …
Wooing the Beast that is SEO
The importance of Google PageRank in our daily lives is becoming more and more obvious. Just think about how many Google searches you’ve run today … or this past week … or this past month. And in all those searches, did you click to Page 2 once? With me, it happens, but it’s rare. I scan for the listing that is both clearly reputable and meets my needs (or price) and away I go …
Proofreading Year-End Rate Special
Introducing the Year-End Proofreading Rate Special
For the grotesquely low price of $89 (total), I will proofread any professional’s site* for grammar, punctuation, spelling, flow, meter, parallelism, punch and active/passive voice. You (or the colleague you refer) will be amazed at what a difference a little tightening and sprucing up can make. It will read and feel like new … or like the copy it was originally intended to be. Proofreading also eliminates all the little mistakes and misused words that undermine professional credibility …
The Power of a Business Blog
Blogs provide a wonderful opportunity to boost your credentials, heighten your visibility, promote yourself and engage your client base in a way that builds familiarity and trust. As a copywriter, I’m getting more and more inquiries about “ghostwriting” blogs for clients. I’m excited whenever the topic comes up because it’s something interesting and different (like SEO) that adds diversity to my workload and engages my creativity …