Avoid Using Your Powers Of Influence For Evil
In the course of conversation, Small Biz Lady Melinda Emerson said to me yesterday, “I don’t want to use my powers for evil.” I can’t remember the last time anyone with as much online and offline weight has said this aloud–in my presence, anyway. To help others, definitely. To combat negative forces, certainly. But the above statement gave me pause. There was no vanity in it: it was a bald acknowledgement that influencers can’t behave the same way as...
Read MoreGenuinely Curious: What Do You Do At Business Milestones?
There are two philosophies here: either do nothing or reward yourself. I like to think I’m of the “do nothing” camp, but what tends to happen is I do nothing… but stare at my shiny new Accomplishment with a big, goofy grin. Dangerous while driving a business down the solo business owner freeway. Whatever you set as a business goal, whether you reach it much faster or way later than you expected, it’s difficult to ignore it for any length of time. You pull it out...
Read More5 Conversion-Making Website Changes You Can Make Right Now
James Clear hosted a webinar by marketing copywriter D. Bnonn (say “Non”) Tennant last Tuesday titled 10 simple changes you can make to your site to increase online sales. I didn’t know Bnonn, author of Attention Thievery, but I’ve trusted James’s unassuming nature and practical advice on increasing freelance (and any business) income for months. I wasn’t able to attend the webinar live, but I asked James for a link to the recording and received one from the...
Read MoreWordbite: The Truth About “Very”
No doubt about it, the usage of very is for either truly great writers or children. No others need apply. “My train was very fast.” “When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.” Both sentences are above reproach. For the rest of us, though, very is that word we furtively stomp on as if it were a roach we don’t want guests to notice. We wait till they move on, then slap a “stronger” word on top, and no one will ever know....
Read MoreGenuinely Curious Monday: What Do You Think Of When You Think Of A Copywriter?
I’ve read a few posts in the past–and have joined in on rants–written by fellow copywriters who are constantly needing to describe our occupation to laypeople, and today I want to get some “real-people” responses (I mean, from people who aren’t copywriters). So let me give you something to go on before I ask my question. I work from home, and my copywriting business is run alongside a full-time jay-oh-bee, for which I also work from home. It’s like...
Read MoreWordbite: The Purpose of “That”
I recently brought a disconsolate-looking word in from wandering in the cold, flinching at every mention of its name. Over banana milkshakes, with a bit of whipped cream on its upper lip, the little four-letter fellow–that–told me it’s no longer certain whether to jump in or stay out of a sentence, or even about its real purpose in language anymore. “It depends, you know, on so many things. I watch closely these days, to see if the writer is an easygoing sort,...
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