I was recently asked to do an interview by a young guy in Germany who’s looking to start his own online Internet marketing business. Me: Catching some sun on the Seine in Paris. As I’m grateful to the many people who accept my own interview requests, I happily agreed to spare an hour to take […]
If you work in copywriting, there’s probably a copy of The Copywriter’s Handbook somewhere near you… Maybe it’s in that drawer you’ve not checked for a while… or hidden on the shelf between the Ogilvy, Hopkins and Schwartz… heck, it might be right next to you, acting as a coaster. Point is: this book is everywhere. And so it should be. You see, its author […]
“And the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them.” These days it’s almost cliché to say so… But, as a copywriter, I find the writing of Ernest Hemingway such a useful resource. If you’re not regularly reading his work, you […]
“Live. Die. Repeat.” That’s the tagline of Tom Cruise’s new movie, Edge of Tomorrow. Have you seen it? Basically Tom Cruise gets the blood of an alien on him, which means that whenever he’s killed he returns to the day he got the alien blood on him. He meets Emily Blunt and then he has to […]
I’m a huge fan of the Glove and Boots blog. “Mario and Fafa: unlikely internet marketing experts.” There are very few sites on the web that I actively visit to check for updates, but Glove and Boots is one of them. If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ll remember I first featured them in my 15 other things to […]
One of my mentors, the American entrepreneur and writer Mark Ford, once taught me a simple way to improve problematic headlines using ‘the Four Us’. I’ve written about the idea many times before, but today I thought I’d put it to the test LIVE. Or rather, as I write this article. Why not, eh? Indeed, I’m […]
We’re a funny sort us copywriters… You see, I turned 33 this week. Having spent most of the previous year being 32, I’d been expecting it. But I wasn’t expecting a card from my auntie with my face plastered on Don Draper’s body. (What did we do before Moon Pig, eh?) Of course, it was a […]
Where did the 30-day trial period come from? Seriously – if you know, please comment below and tell me. If you’ve written copy for online products or services, no doubt you know the 30-day trial well. Or maybe, if you’ve written for a product or service that’s being sold on Clickbank or some other joint venture website, […]
I recently put together a free copywriting ebook that reveals five easy ways to write better copy. I think it’s a cracking little download and it’s all been very nicely laid out by my @rhinett. But best of all, it is completely and utterly free. HOORAH! It’s aptly titled Five Easy Ways to Write Better Copy, which […]
For some strange reason, a lot of people seem to think the business world should be a grey, lifeless place that exists between 8.30am and 5pm (if you’re lucky). People assume that you’re not allowed to be interesting, that you have to talk in facts, figures and graphs; the boring stuff, basically. You only need to scroll […]