Next Level: Better Credit Card Processing

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.

The spectrum of credit card processing is especially useful for the business blog clients who hire us for an “effortless” experience: We worry about the intentional blog copywriting, the technical administration/ troubleshooting and setting up a monthly recurring credit card charge. All the client has to do is talk to me once a month on the phone to generate all the material I’ll need for compelling and useful business blog posts.

Next Level: Time to ‘Tweet’

When clients (or my mom) want to know how I’m spending my time and energy, they can now follow my activities on Twitter. I tell my clients that it certainly can’t hurt for their prospects to see how busy they are via

Copywriter Evan Denbaum begins using Twitter

Twitter. And I just read an insightful e-newsletter that suggested we all utilize Twitter to follow those successful people in our field (or beyond) whom we admire. This notion immediately “clicked” with me because I’m a firm believer in emulating the positive behaviors and choices of those who are where you want to be.

In the coming days I’ll be writing more about the direction of this company and the expanded services I’m excited to extend to clients in 2009. Stay tuned and happy holidays.

Are you sensing a theme yet?

Let’s take them one-by one:

The ECO-SAFE Foundation & ECO-SAFE ‘Merit Badge’

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.

Inspired printing alternatives

That’s why I was immediately so smitten with the ECO-SAFE “Merit Badge.” This little bug easily goes beneath page content or in your blog sidebar. (Look down and to the right.) And if you’re working with me on an “effortless” business blog, there’s a WordPress widget that adds flexibility and happily takes code manipulation out of the equation.

This “printing alternatives” button is so simplistic and minimal that it’s easy to overlook the implications. What if every time a potential client or employer needed to print my resume, that person instead downloaded a surprisingly gorgeous PDF of the page or “self e-mailed” a clean, “green” version? It adds up … and it’s efficient as can be. It helps in the larger sense, and it adds functionality that helps you, too. And I haven’t figured out yet exactly what it means, but there’s a box on their site that says, “Receive free music from Apple iTunes by telling us where you placed the merit Badge.” I’m all for win-win-wins, so a bravo goes to the folks over at ECO-SAFE.

East Bay Green Tours & the Sustainable Business Alliance

I’m only just becoming involved with these two fine organizations, so I’ll mostly wait to write dedicated posts from a more informed perspective. Let’s just say that I love living in the East Bay because it’s so rich with conscious, forward-thinking people, communities and companies. I’m sincerely curious about the depth and scope of the East Bay’s green economy, and a tour around its sustainable businesses (with a chance to meet and ask questions of owners) is a splendid opportunity. The same can certainly be said for the Sustainable Business Alliance, where I can support through my copywriting and editing skills and network with a lot of open, like-minded individuals and business owners.

Sustainable Web sites

Again, this is a new discovery for me, so I’ll wait to say much more. But “100 percent carbon neutral Web hosting” with a “100 percent offset of energy usage with Certified Wind Power” and “green” hosting plans sounds like another step in the right direction.

Feel free to call me at the office (510-647-8529) or send an e-mail if you’d like to discuss these topics more.

One of the best examples was my introduction to Lee Rodrigues, co-founder of The Technology Dojo. Unbeknown to Lee, I was privately researching how to best convert my clunky, “overly masculine” (to quote my wife) Web site into being a lighter, more versatile communication tool. 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.

I was also amazed at how much more quickly and efficiently my SEO techniques took effect in the WordPress format. Within just a few days my site moved near the top of the Google rankings in categories crucial for me. For instance, I’m the first two listings for the Google search “proofreader berkeley.” I’m also the first two listings for “berkeley copywriter,” and so on. My old site and Google didn’t get along nearly that well, despite my best SEO efforts.

Additionally, WordPress has hundreds of thousands of users contributing new plug-ins and themes, and it feels like all those people are working as my Web team in some small way. Many of those user-generated plug-ins are now essential to my workflow. WordPress (combined with MacJournal) also makes writing this business blog a heck of a lot simpler.

Now that my professional Web site is humming along, I’m utilizing The Technology Dojo to take things to that proverbial “next level.” And my wife is going to be taking advantage of a special very-reduced strategy session rate they’re offering right now to move her blogspot blog over to her own domain as her audience and reach expands. (She writes a blog that explores sea vegetables a a sustainable food source. It’s fascinating stuff, and she somehow makes seaweed fun, too.)

One of my goals with this blog is to highlight great local and online resources. WordPress and The Technology Dojo both fit that description, and it just so happens that they go hand-in-hand.

If you want to chat with Lee about your site’s growth opportunities, you can reach him toll-free at 1-866-556-4269 or through their contact form.

I love being a professional copywriter … but I love being a copy editor even more. As I say on the “about” page, I just love to play with words and work with clients to make stories, books and business materials better.

That being said, the vast majority of the work I do for businesses is generating Web and print copy from scratch. That certainly has its own creative rewards, but it tickles a different part of my brain than the part used for tightening and punching up existing copy. There’s a part of me that just “knows” when something needs fixing … and what that change should be. It doesn’t really process like “that’s a dangling modifier” or “that really needs a conjunctive adverb.” Instead, it’s just instinctual — just as when any of the many musicians in my family “just know” when a note is off or what lyrics are meant for a melody.

I was telling all this to my wife over the Thanksgiving holiday, and she gently suggested that “I do something about it” to increase the percentage of time I spend on proofreading and copy editing (as opposed to interviews and copywriting). What follows is my attempt at doing just that:

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. I rarely proofread a site without finding one or two of these tiny-yet-big blunders. Usually the business owner is bright and capable but has just read that Web copy too many times to notice the “little things.”

You’ll also receive a Recommendations Report highlighting “what works” and “what doesn’t” about your site (from a copywriting perspective) … along with my suggested Top 5 priorities for improvement. In the report I’ll provide all the contacts and resources you’d need to get those items accomplished.

I’m also open to the idea of extending this offer to print materials on a case-by-case basis. Just keep in mind that this is line editing; we’re not talking about major copy reconstruction or rewriting.

This offer is only good through Dec. 31, and I can only accept as many clients as my schedule permits. So, if you are even remotely interested (or know someone who would be interested), please contact me now so I can save a spot on the calendar.

I can be reached during office hours at 510-647-8529 or via e-mail. Like I said, I don’t usually do this kind of thing (or work at that kind of rate), so take advantage of it!

*Promotional rate covers the first 10 pages of any one Web site domain. Please call me at 510-647-8529 to discuss terms if your site(s) contain more pages than that.