It’s been almost 10 years since I took the plunge into self-employment by becoming a full-time freelance writer. From a marketing perspective, the first thing on my to-do list as a self-employed professional was to build a website. Even in 2009, you had to have a website if you wanted…
Way back in 1982 when I decided to major in advertising, I thought I’d be an advertising copywriter and work for a big-time agency on high-profile campaigns for major brands. Basically, I envisioned myself as Don Draper before the iconic Mad Mencharter was dreamed up. Things didn’t quite turn out…
When the Internet first went mainstream in the mid-to-late 1990s, I was working as a copywriter and editor for a custom publishing firm in Atlanta. I clearly remember the excitement of watching a brand new communication medium arise and learning all the nuances involved in writing for online consumption. I’ll…
One of my all-time favorite commercials is the Snickers spot that riffs on The Brady Bunch. At the end of the spot, the actor Steve Buscemi stands at the top of the staircase in the Brady home and spouts the famous Jan Brady line, “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!” I’m laughing out…
About a year ago I wrote a blog I titled “The State of SEO Copywriting in 2017.” I made the point that search engine optimization (or SEO) changes so fast that successful marketers can’t afford to sit still when it comes to staying abreast of the latest SEO trends and developments.…
In a phone call yesterday, a prospect explained to me why her organization was looking for a new blog writer. It seems they had been working with a writer who just couldn’t nail the blog writing format. “He’s a really good writer and he does a great job on whitepapers,”…
Every since the 2016 Presidential election campaign, the term “fake news” has become part of the American lexicon. It was during this time that legitimate-looking news sites started popping up on the Internet and in social media feeds with all kinds of reports about the election and the candidates. Of…
The rise of content marketing is one of the biggest marketing trends in recent memory. Content marketing itself isn’t really new — businesses have been using “content” to tell their stories and attract new customers since modern marketing and advertising first started taking shape over a century ago. But the…