Slow cooking in winter
slow cooked thoughts are the best thoughts
Okay, this winter things have been pretty hectic but right now everything seems to have drawn to a halt.
And this means that I've finally got time to give full thought to those I've placed in the slow cooker of my brain.
It seems to me that it's not really mid-winter that causes the sudden pause in business life, but rather the end of the financial year that brings things to a temporary halt.
Every year I use this time to think about new projects and how I can do things better.
In the flurry of day-to-day business activity it is easy to flit across the surface of projects and put everything not immediately important on the back burner. The trouble is we may never get to that back burner. And, so, life becomes a merry-go-round of simple survival. This project, next project and so on.
How many times have we all had a great idea which hangs around in the back of our mind but never gets the attention it truly deserves? Perhaps this idea is not dead and gone, but rather slow cooking. In my case, I really need to slow cook an idea. I place it in the back of my mind, ponder the thought and sit on it for a period of time others believe is actually procrastination. It's not! It's me thinking, questioning and coming up with the best way to move my idea forward.
Don't give up on those ideas thought up long ago. Perhaps they are just slow cooking in your brain. Revisit and serve them up when business is slow. They may be your best ideas yet!
The benefits of joining a writers’ group
Yesterday I went to a meeting of the local writers' group. It made me think a lot about the benefit of these types of community groups and how they fit in with professional writers.
Of course, a community writers' group will have an eclectic mix of young and old (mostly in the older bracket), people writing for fun or wanting to be published, novelists, playwrights, poets and anything else you can think of.
Some of the members are too shy to reveal what they have written. Others self-publish believing without a shadow of a doubt that there is an audience out there waiting to be enthralled by their words.
My local group has the following mission written on their website: 'To encourage and support writers from all genres, age groups and levels of writing to grow, learn and excel in their craft.'
Seems like a pretty good Mission Statement but, again, where do professional writers fit in?
In my case, I find the beginning of every meeting slightly boring and a time-waster. I'm not interested in committee agenda items or more than three members at any given meeting getting up to read out their work. Perhaps this is wrong of me, but I really don't have the time.
Of course, I am definitely interested in other writer's work just not two hours worth!
For me, the real benefit of meeting other writers is the socialising afterwards. Once all the committee stuff is out the way and everyone heads to the pub for a drink and chat, this is when I really get to talk to people, find out what they've been doing or are working on and connect in a way that provides something deeper and more satisfying.
Yesterday, I met a writer who had met and interviewed a very interesting local identity who doesn't generally talk to anyone. There were a couple of women who dabble in basic blog design, just like me. And, lastly, there was a spiritualist, about to launch his words of wisdom through a series of seminars and self-published work.
Everyone of these individuals, plus others I haven't mentioned, enriched my life that afternoon and gave me something to write about today. I found kindred spirits and fascinating personalities, each one a writer in one form of another.
To me, this is the true benefit of belonging to the local community writers' group.
The fantastic World Wide Web
You are a business, perhaps relatively new and with little money. Should you have a web presence? Absolutely, are you crazy?!
I get asked this question so many times: What does a copywriter do? Well, the truth is we help get your business message out to the world. And the main way to do that is through the World Wide Web via a website.
It is not okay to letter-drop a brochure to your neighborhood anymore. This just won't cut it. You have to be prepared to market to a bigger audience, even those who live close by, who chose to search their options online.
Think about how many people you can reach? Perhaps you are the local Chinese restaurant that also does take away and deliveries. If you place all your information online, a quick search by a savvy (and thankful, by the way!) customer will help them to order from you without the messy and time-consuming task of leafing through the yellow pages.
You can put so much more about yourself on a web page, and, believe me, your customers want to know everything about you. They are not just interested in your menu, what you offer in terms of massage or even copywriting. They want to see examples, testimonials, perhaps pictures.
A web presence can give you all of this and more.
If you are looking for a professional but basic online presence for your business, check out Cheap Websites For You!
Are you working on a May day?
Being a copywriter is a really fantastic job, but if you're working for yourself, like me, then it's one of those jobs that you do all the time.
Today is May Day, which in Australia (where I am) is a public holiday. It seems like everyone is down the beach or relaxing at a family bbq. Actually, I shouldn't complain too much, because that's exactly what I'll be doing later on. The point I'm making is that right now I'm working, as I do every single day.
Having your own consultancy is not a 9-5, Monday-Friday job. You don't open your bank account every fortnight and find your salary conveniently paid. Sometimes I'm unsure where my job will come from. Am I putting you off?
The fact of the matter is that working for yourself is very rewarding. I'm happy to put the effort in today. I really like what I do and have no-one telling me how to do it! I can choose who I work with and the projects I work on.
And, yep, I did say that I pretty much work every day, but I don't necessarily work all day. I can complete work first thing in the morning, late at night or even on the weekend, which means that when I want some time free, I can go ahead and take it.
I meet my girlfriends every Wednesday for a long lunch. Something I absolutely wouldn't be able to do if I had a 'steady' job.
So, working for yourself is hard, but the rewards are there. Is it sounding better?
Pets and possibilities
So you might be wondering what this has to do with copywriting? Well, the fact is that pets have been very good to me lately. It's an absolute fact that I am a pet lover. I have the most beautiful dog and sweetest cat. But, put simply, pets can provide all sorts of possibilities.
Sometimes pets just seem even more lovable!
It was late March that I got a message from the Pet Industry Association. They wanted help with a Code of Practice for the operation of boarding establishments. I'm sure all you pet lovers have wondered, every time you placed your beloved in a dog or cat boarding facility, will they be looked after? Will little sweetie tinkabelle be okay?
As one of the side benefits of being a writer - a genuine love of learning new information - I got to discover that, actually, my pet would be very well looked after. Tinkabelle, really would be okay.
So, again, what's this got to do with copywriting. Well, the thing is that opportunities can come from anywhere, and if you are true writer you will be interested in them.
I'm, personally, interested in pretty much anything. I found it fascinating to read about and edit the correct exercising, food and cleaning techniques that must be used by boarding facilities. I looked my pets over when I viewed the diagrams detailing whether a pet was obese, emancipated or exactly right.
But what really got me was the fact that no matter how old or new a facility was, it was the genuine care of your pet that mattered the most!
I'm looking forward to writing the next code of practice for pet shops. I'm sure I'll find it just as intriguing and informative.
Copywriting is about everything and anything. Well, to me it is.
So what do you know about SEO?
If the answer is 'nothing' then we need to talk.
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO to make it less of a mouthful, is all about making your site as friendly as possible to search engines, such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing. The more you guys are buddies then the higher the ranking of your mutually loved website on their search engine pages.
It's a bit of a game, really. But this is a serious game that can mean money. Your money.
Does SEO really matter?
If you don't consider SEO then you obviously don't care if someone finds your website or not. And if your website is one of the tools you are using to generate new clients then your lack of care is costing you money.
When someone types the words they have chosen to search with into Google or any of the popular search engines, certain websites will pop up at the top of the page and you really want one of them to be yours.
A key study has found that 62% of users click on a search result in the first page of search results and a full 90% click on a search result within the first three pages of search results. So, basically, if your website isn't listed in the first three, you're toast.
Don't be discouraged, SEO is like a puzzle. It's an interesting challenge (and I mean that)
It's okay if you don't really want to spend the time finding out about SEO and personally optimizing your site. That's when I come in handy, but if you do then here are a few pointers to get you going.
Think about your keywords
The words that you use in your content and meta tags will tell the search engines what your website is about. They will use this to classify your website and place it under certain banners so that when the 'searcher' types in their search words, if you have included these in you content and meta tags then you will be found.
Content matters (a lot!)
You want people to come to your website? Then content matters. The words that you choose are powerful and should be well thought out. If your wording is dull or misleading then your audience will find it so and they won't come back.
Links also matter (a lot!)
Every time a person comes to your blog and leaves a comment, that provides a link. If you join a directory, that provides a link. If you create articles and place them on high traffic websites such as Article Dashboard then you are creating links - free links. When the search engines crawl through your site, the more links and traffic to and from your site makes them think it is important and relevant. This moves your site up the pages in the search engines, exactly what you are aiming for.
Start blogging
Oh how dull, how time-consuming, can't be bothered, too many already on the net...sound familiar? The benefits of a blog are that if you provide relevant, informative content you just might get yourself an audience. Do that and you have repeat visitors to your site and that can mean money. If you are selling a product, you want people to keep coming back. Perhaps you have something new, something you want your customers to know about. Blogs that keep them revisiting your site on a regular basis will advertise your new products, for FREE!!!!!
Start optimizing now!
Don't just put a website on the Internet and forget SEO, it may mean that your website is never found and never read. What a waste.
Tweet me, baby!
By Susan Guthrie
Everyone is atwitter about Twitter, but what, actually, is it?
Twitter, put simply, is short (less than 140 characters) instant messaging put out into the public domain. You will receive the ‘Tweets’ of people you choose to follow and those who choose to follow you will receive all yours.
Many of us will have read news and magazines reports about how celebrities love Twittering as a way of letting their friends and fans know what they’re doing. This has led to the general public conception that Twitter is a mindless, time waster. Really, who wants to know if Brittney Spears has just visited Starbucks and is loving her mocha whatever? Seriously.
But the interesting thing is, it’s how you use Twitter.
Let’s have a look at the idea of social Tweeting. Yes, Twitter can be mindless drivel Tweeted to fill in time during the ad breaks on TV or when you’re stuck on a bus (don’t subscribe to these types of friends unless you’re in your teens), but Twitter can be used as a useful way of staying in touch.
Let’s remember that many of us now have phones that connect to the Net. Here’s an example of when Twitter can be socially great. I’m on Twitter and so are a whole heap of my good friends. I have an hour to kill that I hadn’t anticipated or planned, so I Tweet my location and ask if any friends would like to join me for a coffee.
Instead of sending countless text messages which costs heaps of money, all my friends who follow me will instantly receive my Tweet and perhaps one of them will be in the neighbourhood with time to join me. How cool is that?
And what about business?
Twitter is fast becoming the marketing tool of choice for savvy business owners. Sales Specialist, Cindy King, was reluctant to use Twitter at first but decided to give it a try after a high-profile colleague suggested that it would be a good marketing tool. Within a month King experienced an 800 percent increase in inquiries about her business.
The massive Twitter population provides fantastic potential to get your voice heard, your product advertised and information about you or your business passed onto other people through your followers’ lists resulting in phenomenal advertising reach.
Business Tweets can supply interesting information and links for clients, promote products, forward great tips or thoughts from other lists you belong to, or even give customers the specials of the day!
Think about it? If you are the local café and want to let your customers know the specials of the day, what better way than through a daily Tweet? They don’t have to call you or come to your café to look at your notice board, they simply sign up to follow you on Twitter and bingo! receive the specials each day!
You’re probably thinking that perhaps your friends don’t want to know about your products, marketing Tweets and so on. Well the good news is you can create lists and control who you Tweet to.
Twitter is easy and connects you to potentially thousands of people in a very short time. To start your Twitter journey go to twitter.com and sign up! It’s that easy.
Have you been wondering where I am?
Well I've been working on some pretty cool blogs that have been taking up all my time.
My favourite is Gifted Girls Got The Gab! It's a forum for women about women. Your voice can be heard above the crowd and any post you send will be read by an ever increasing audience as word gets around.
Do yourself a favour and subscribe today, post today and be a part of this fantastic community today!
Is good copy really that important?
You have decided that your business needs a website or perhaps you have heard that you really should think about adding a blog. Who will write the content? You, of course. You know what your business is about, you know all the facts and tiny details.
The real question is, can you actually write?
You've thought about your website, so you hire a well recommended web developer. You're not sure about design so you hire that graphic designer that everyone talks about. These are all very important aspects in creating a fantastic online presence for your business.
But then, alas, your customers read the words on your site and they don't seem to have quite the impact or result that you were expecting.
Why hire a copywriter?
The truth about hiring an excellent copywriter is that they will write copy (read web content) that will make you proud. The content will be informative and interesting, it will (hopefully, if you hire the right copywriter) have personality and feeling. Your clients will love reading your pages and they will find it so easy to understand exactly what you are trying to sell.
And this is what you want.
A good copywriter will research your business. We really are interested...I promise. And with that understanding, a good copywriter will write the content that you desire. We will put into words all the important points you want to get across, all the information your customers need to know without boring anyone (promise again).
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The other really important thing about hiring a fantastic copywriter is that they will optimize your site. What does this mean, I hear you say?
Basically, it is essential that your content include words important to your business. They need to be included in an interesting way within your copy and also within your site's metatags. To find out more if you are really, really interested (and you should be) follow this link.
What’s going to be new in this New Year?
We're at the end of 2009 and it's time to look back and reflect. I know that so many people think it's boring to talk about goals, but, actually, it's really necessary.
Why set goals?
Research has shown throughout the ages that those who write down their goals (don't just think them...too easy to forget!) achieve greater success than those who don't.
'What keeps me going is goals.' - Muhammad Ali
The thing about having a goal and writing it down is that you now have something solid to work towards. We all dream, which is great. Many of us dream and dream and dream. We dream big, we dream small, but what we really, secretly want is to see those dreams come true.
Write them down.
Hands up who's seen the movie 'The Bucket List'?
When the main character (now what was his name?) finds out he's dying, he decides to create a list of all the things he's always wanted to do. Creating a 'bucket list' is a great idea, but do you really want to wait till you're gasping your last breath? Nope? Didn't think so.
How about you create that list now. There is a wonderful book called Creating Your Best Life by Caroline Adams Miller and she describes the benefits you can achieve by creating your bucket list, and others, right now, right this instance! Doing something about achieving all your secret dreams right now, all the sooner to enjoy your rewards.
Here's to putting myself on the line
Okay, so we're talking about setting goals and writing them down. Well, I'm going to write mine in the world's notebook right here on this blog.
This year my writing business is going to be successful enough to send myself and my daughter on a one month holiday to Europe. 'Bout time I caught up with the rels.
Now what do you think I'm going to be writing about this time 2010?