Words to the Wise

A web designer/friend of mine called this week to talk about the economy and his job. He mentioned that in these current economic times, he believes it’s often ‘creatives like us’ who are the first to lose our jobs.

Now, I’m no economist, but I am a big fan of exact language, so I had to correct him before he got too much farther into the conversation.

“You mean creatives like you,” was my interjection.

I’m paraphrasing here, but his response involved a blanket statement placing both of us in the same realm of creative ‘employment’ whose inhabitants are at increased risk of losing their jobs in tough economic times due to decreased marketing budgets, blah, blah, blah.

“Maybe,” I said. “But I’ll never lose my job. Even if I have no clients and no income, it will ultimately be my decision to give up. Nobody can fire me, nobody can cut my salary and nobody can pass me on the corporate ladder.”

I think he grasped the concept, but he strikes me as a serial careerist, so I’m not so sure. The last eight years of my life have been a balance between freelancing, full-time employment, part-time employment, self-employment and (I’m being realistic here) plain old collecting unemployment.

But that was a long time ago. It took me a little while to catch on and say ‘hey, I’m in charge here’ and put my all into freelancing. I now count myself among the lucky ones to be working for myself. Yes there are added stresses, but, to me anyway, stress is just a code word for fear of which I apparently have little.

Look at all the things I have to be thankful for as a freelancer:

• I work from my home office via the Internet and buy gas one or two times a month
• My clients are located around the world - I estimate I’ve met 5% of them face-to-face
• Even if the economy sucks, I can find new income streams via the Internet without worry about the boss firing me for surfing the web
• My online network exceeds my offline network by a ratio of 75:1 - I am officially connected
• Nobody tells me to stay late - I decide when to do the extra effort
• There are no egos to protect, no gossip and no HR departments to hassle you with lame policies

I can certainly see my friend’s point about how tough economic times can affect creatives, and by no means do I consider myself impervious to the current markets. But, when my friend’s company cuts jobs, it means someone becomes unemployed. When I cut back, it usually means peanut butter and jelly for lunch - if I eat lunch.

Jason Pedley is a freelance copywriter in Clayton, North Carolina. He’s been hired, fired, laid off, yelled at, called ‘F#$^ing stupid’ and sent cease and desist letters by former employers. Now, he laughs at all (and thanks some) of his former employers while he writes marketing copy for his clients around the world.

I had a budding copywriter email me the other day with a question about how, and most importantly, where to put her online copywriter portfolio and information about her services. She mentioned that she didn’t have a lot of money, didn’t want to pay a designer, and that she was slightly averse to the idea of paying someone to host a site that might not get a lot of traffic out of the box.

I can appreciate her need to save money, and I can also appreciate her desire to get her work online so she can compete in the online marketplace. Fortunately, there are solutions to her problem.

One of the best solutions is Google Pages. Leave it to Google to offer you a free, web-based service that lets you make your own pages with a simple web page editor and host the pages with the search-engine giant - WITHOUT the annoying ads and interference that you get with other free pages like Tripod.

I’ll tell you what, if you want to read the rest of this post about using Google pages for your site, you’ll just have to visit my example Google page.

See ya there!

Some days, it seems like all I get in my inbox are questions. I find myself answering questions about copywriting, questions about marketing, questions about search engines.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the questions. In fact, I welcome them…although sometimes I get people who just pick my brain with no intention of hiring me. I weed these people out with some carefully worded follow-up questions.

Regardless, I figured my blog would be a great place to talk about some of these questions and share my knowledge and experience with you. Some of the questions are technical, some are personal, and some you’ll just have to figure out for yourself.

1. What did you study in college to become a freelance copywriter? Good question. In my final year of high school, I had to decide what I would study in college. Since I truly had no idea what I wanted to be, I decided that PR would give me a foundation and skillset that I could leverage the most. But even though I studied PR, my most important lessons have been learned in life. There’s no class that teaches you how to navigate your way through the freelance world. I truly do learn something new every day.

2. Have you ever thought about leaving the world of freelance copywriting and getting a full-time job working for someone else? Yes! If any freelancer tells you otherwise, I’ll bet money their lying to impress you. While there are certainly times I think about leaving my freelance copywriting gig, these times are usually short-lived thanks to some good friends and colleagues. I’m very independent and can only work for certain types of bosses…the ones who are the most like me. Go figure.

3. What’s your methodology for reviewing websites? Good question. One of the first things I do when I review a website is to look at the message it sends. Your website either says you’re professional or you’re not. After looking at the overall message, I look at the content you have - its navigation, usefulness, purpose and length. Then I get into technical aspects, like keyword choice, title tags, descriptions, etc. If you’ve had your website reviewed and want a second opinion, let me know.

4. Do you use any special software to write copy? Not really. I use Word for 90% of the work I do. I also use a program called CopyWrite for some projects that have multiple elements, chapters etc. Some days, I just close my computer, pick up and number 2 pencil and write.

5. Why are you such a critic of podcasting? Let’s clarify here. I never said I dislike or don’t see any value in podcasting. I DO however say that there are some really BAD podcasts out there. Most podcasts are recorded by PR agencies who don’t have the time, manpower or experience to truly grasp podcasting for the opportunity that it is. Podcasts aren’t ‘off the cuff’ conversations. If they are, then chances are they’re worthless. You can view some of my other blog posts to get more of my opinion on this topic.

For a guy who never really planned to have a career as a freelance copywriter (let a lone a successful one), you’d think my days would somewhat unplanned as well.

In fact, my days are as orchestrated as live television. Each day has its own goals, both long-term and short. The long-term goals and their associated tasks keep me pointed in the right direction in life and my career. The short-term goals help support the long-term ones.

But it hasn’t always been this way. There was once a time when I would sit down at my desk to a pile of new mail in my inbox, 100 new e-mails and a ton of articles and helpful emails that I’d love to read. I kept telling myself that the tasks that were most important could be done later and that I had to ‘invest’ my time into emptying my inbox and reading about how to be a better copywriter. Before I knew it, the day was done and nothing that truly mattered had been accomplished.

I decided that if I were to be successful in my career as a copywriter, I had to be in charge of my time - regardless of who was paying me or not paying me for it. The best way to do that, I decided was to create my day based on a list that I create.

My Daily Task List:

Taking a cue from FedEx founder Fred Smith, I start each day the afternoon before.

What I mean is that I create my daily list of tasks at the end of the previous day - usually after 5pm when I’ve ‘left’ work for the day. I even do this on Friday night in anticipation of Monday.

I begin my list by by taking a look at my list from the current day. I make a note of which items on the list I’ve completed and which ones I have yet to do. My new list - for the next day - starts with those tasks I have yet to do. I then take a look at my weekly, monthly and yearly objectives and goals to see if there are any other tasks that I want to add. After that, I look through my email to see if there are any actionable items I can add to my list there. I either schedule some of those inbox items for the following days, or trash them.

I do all this in my own handwriting on an 8.5 x 11 pad of paper. I write down each task, and the time I estimate it will take me to complete it. After I complete a task on the list, I note the actual time it takes to complete a task.

On an average day, I wind up with anywhere between 10 and 20 15-minute to one-hour tasks.

While I prefer to create my list by hand, in ink, you may prefer to create your list on your computer. There are still days that I use software, like iCal, to plan my days.

If I happen to have a task that I think will take more than three hours, I split it into pieces and do it over a couple of days. I tend to do a better job since I’ll have more energy and time to review and edit my work as I go.

In a perfect world, on a perfect day, I get all of my important tasks and most of my medium- and less-important tasks done every day. I try to accomplish as much as possible each day so I can achieve my long-term goals as quickly as possible. But, at the same time, I also want to feel good about my productivity at the end of each day.

When I complete a task, I cross it off my list and move to the next one. I’ve been doing this for a couple of years now, and I still find myself with a little burst of energy every time I finish a task.

Creating my daily task list takes me under 15 minutes. The trick is to work from weekly work objectives, which are integral to monthly and yearly goals.

This system doesn’t work for everybody, but I promise you it’s worth a try. I think you’ll like it.

Before my clients and competitors have even called it quits for the day, I have figured out everything I need to do the next day to meet my goals. I know what has to be done, I know what my priorities are, and I’m already thinking about how I’ll tackle them. I never have to worry about forgetting something important. If you create your lists the way I do, you’ll end up with my same sense of energy and excitement, confident that your day, your week, your month, your year and your life are going to be productive.

Not usually, but I like you, so I’ll let you in on a little bit of the magic. Well, MY magic that is. Copywriting isn’t really magic, but to me it’s part science, part art and part luck.

I’m surprised that when people call to inquire about my copywriting services, they don’t ask if I work out of an office or my home. Not that it matters, but I, personally, like to know these things.

So have you ever wondered what copywriting looks like?

Now you know.

And, if you squint hard enough, you’ll see two laptops on my desk. It’s a copywriter secret of mine. I use one for research and email, and I use the other for writing in one of a number of word processors. Of course, you’ll also see me writing on a pad of paper in this picture - another secret of mine.