Do people read long copy? On an almost daily basis someone suggests to me people don’t. The argument goes: In this modern world of failing attention spans no one gives anything any longer than a few seconds. What do you think? I think this whole question is piffle. I’ll tell you why in a minute… But […]
My mind is a mess. I mean, literally, a mess. There are too many ideas in there. Bits and bobs lying about all over the joint. Send help. Send a cleaner. Send a shrink. It’s like someone ran into a library with a barrel of explosives and let rip… There are pages everywhere. Ideas strewn […]
If you’re a copywriter wondering which books you should ask for this Christmas, or if you’re searching for the best books to buy a copywriter… Help is at hand. Here you’ll find five recommendations that will help inspire and influence anyone who writes to sell. In fact, influence is actually the title of the first pick… Influence by Robert Cialdini Most […]
I was recently in the hot seat for a monthly live Twitter event organised by ProCopywriters called #ProCopyChat. It’s basically an hour where the guest fields questions about copy. It was pretty intense with chatter flying all over the shop, but it was also a lot of fun. In case you didn’t get to catch the event live, […]
Something a little different this week… Rather than sharing some insight with you here in this article, we’re going to delve inside my brand new book – The Art of the Click – and quarry some insight from there. You see, my publisher has set up a cool little thing were you can access and read a […]
Questions in copy can be dangerous… Do you agree? No. And there you go: my question is answered. Just like that, it’s all over. Sorry to waste your time. I’ll speak to you another day. … … … Wait. What happened there? Well, I asked a question. You had an answer. The transaction ended. Hell, […]
I think it was Kurt Vonnegut who said it… “If you can’t explain your story to a fourteen-year-old in one sentence, you’ve got a problem with your story.” Something like that. Possibly. And hell, if he didn’t say it, he should have. It sounds like something he’d say. Anyway, it’s a useful little thought. Indeed, […]
David Ogilvy or David Lynch? I ask. “As a copywriter,” Gareth replies, “I’ve got to go with Ogilvy. He’s the main man on Main Street. The don. I did enjoy Twin Peaks as a kid, though.” Charles Bukowski or Charles Saatchi? I continue. “Tough one that. Saatchi has done loads in copywriting and in art, but I’m […]
I have a confession. Each night, around nine o’clock, my fiancée and I sit down and turn on the television. What we watch might shock you. You see, typically, we don’t watch a lot of television. I’m usually reading. At the moment I’m being very cultured reading Walter Isaacson’s obscenely heavy biography of Leonardo Da […]
“Er…it’s actually fruit infusion for me.” What? I’d just asked fellow copywriter, André Spiteri, if he prefers putting the milk in before the tea bag or after the water. I live a pretty controversial life myself by putting the milk in first… And in Earl Grey no less, an already-too-weak-tea in most people’s eyes. But […]