Tag Archives: LinkedIn
Copywriting tip – Would you like more business?
Yesterday I received a message via LinkedIn with the compelling subject line “Would you like more business?”. This simple, powerful opener had the desired effect – I clicked through to see what amazing insight I was being offered.
If you thought horsemeat in your burgers was bad, wait until you see what Tesco have put in your coffee
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the message was actually from a LinkedIn user* selling website development services. Fair play to them for exploiting the power of social media to sell their products plus a bonus 10 points for the effective subject line.
The body of the email contained a number of links to previous projects completed by this person and their company. I clicked on one at random and landed on a fairly inoffensive website selling TV aerial installation services. So far so good.
At the top of the page was a large slideshow type-animation intended to showcase the very best of the business. If you are a fan of such gimmicks (I’m not), you may have been quite impressed. Until you started to read the headline.
In a huge font was a blatant typo. The slideshow, the font, the colour choices, everything conspired to ensure that the only thing you noticed was a huge spelling mistake.
It is not uncommon for a typographical error to creep into the body of any text, including webpages. We have even discussed whether spelling mistakes may be desirable in the past. But when it is all that anyone notices about your shiny new homepage, then it is definitely a copywriting failure.
Unfortunately this particular typo not only reflects badly on the company to whom the website belongs, but also on the web development agency who are using the site as a reference in their portfolio of previous projects. Even if the client was responsible for producing all the text for their shiny new website, the web designer has to shoulder some of the blame for not spell checking before publishing.
Based on this observation, would it be wrong to assume that the development agency will be equally negligent with my website if I put business their way?
Sometimes people assume that professional copywriting services are an optional extra. A “nice-to-have” rather than a “must-have” in the grand scheme of their website project. And in some instances they may be right. However the case of the web developer and their client clearly shows the problems that can arise if you make the wrong call.
If you would like help creating quality website content without the sorts of errors that turn customers off, professional copywriting services from Tech Write could help. Contact us to find out more about some of the website text projects we have completed in the past to the great satisfaction of our clients and their customers.
* In the interests of fairness, I have chosen to keep this person, their company and their clients anonymous.
2012 – Our copywriting year in review – Part 1
January
2012 began relatively slowly here at Tech Write as we continued to provide ghostwriting services as part of our long-standing relationship with the team at Write My Site. Over the course of the next 31 days Tech Write created white label content on topics as diverse as:
Because a magnifying glass make analysis look so much more professional
- Electronic invoicing and document interchange
- Supply chain management
- Hair loss
- Car and household insurance
February
February marked the beginning of a new working relationship with ESP Recruitment- a specialist recruiter of skilled support staff for roles in schools. As well as establishing new Twitter and Facebook pages for ESP, Tech Write also began writing content for their new blog designed to showcase the recruitment services offered and publicise upcoming events.
Tech Write also began work writing regular blog content for another Write My Site customer, this time a major household insurer looking to publicise their new smartphone app. Then there was a project to ghostwrite the content for a brand new cosmetic surgery comparison site followed by a number of articles relating to property investment!
March
The pattern of diverse projects continued throughout March as Tech Write were employed to write several hundred product descriptions for the gadget and gift website ParamountZone.
Write My Site also came up with some novel new projects. A copyediting project for a London-based SME IT Support Provider saw us re-writing the content for an entire website and assuming responsibility for another weekly blogging gig. We were also asked to write a quarterly newsletter for a property investment firm for distribution to their customers discussing the current state of the property market.
March ended with the writing and distribution of a press release to publicise the new In Arrivo! iPhone app for Italian developer Fabrizio Bartlomucci.
April
By now the the year was hotting up. In addition to regularly blogging for a number of Write My Site’s clients, Tech Write were then asked to prepare a major report on UK Planning Law reform for a property investment firm. We also landed another plum role writing regular articles for one of the UK’s largest credit card providers
And if that wasn’t impressive enough (for us anyway!) we were then asked to produce a series of short blog posts and LinkedIn discussion starters for one of the world’s leading vendors of database software and systems.
April was also the month in which we discovered the incredible iPad app from CloudOn at which point productivity exploded!
May
May felt slightly unusual in that for the first time in 2012 Tech Write were not approached by any new clients. That said, blogging continued apace for WriteMySite until we asked to:
- Produce a special whitepaper for an Irish software company explaining why email was not the best medium for business document transfer
- Triple our output for an IT service provider, copywriting content for their new US and SME-focused blogs
June
In June we:
- Joined the Professional Copywriters Network
- Created a Wikipedia entry for a client regarding a niche collectible range from the 1980s
- Submitted a guest product review to the Total iPad website
As well as all our other regular monthly copywriting commitments!
Don’t forget to check back for Part 2 of our review of 2012 which will cover July to December.
If you have some specific website copywriting requirements in the meantime, drop us a line to see how Tech Write can help.
Making your web content work harder – Part 1
Recently I was asked by a customer whether it was OK to post an article which I had written for them in multiple locations. Obviously duplicating content across the web tends to cause trouble with search engines and so I advised against it. However the question led me to ask one of my own – how can my clients make better use of the content which they have commissioned me to write thereby maximising the return on their investment in my copywriting services?
So I came up with ten ways to rework and repurpose an initial blog post or article without having to request more content. Here are the first five (the second set will appear on Thursday):
1. A press release
If the initial article was about a new product, service or achievement, why not turn it into a press release? There are thousands of publications and blogs looking for content and press releases help them meet their needs. With a little work, the press release can be pitched at industry publications or commentators with a view to gaining extra brand exposure. Alternatively you can submit the news item to an online distribution site as a way of gaining backlinks.
2. A white paper
Try expanding the original article with some relevant research and pertinent quotes to create a multi-page document. The completed white paper can then be offered as an incentive to would-be mailing list subscribers or made available for free download from your website.
3. Newsletter content
If your company sends out a periodic newsletter, chances are that you often struggle for content with which to fill the pages. Cut down on the time and effort usually associated with writing a newsletter by repurposing some of the content from your blog.
4. A forum topic starter
If your company maintains a forum somewhere (like LinkedIn), you can use a cut down article to start a new thread, thereby stimulating debate. Even better, give a brief rundown of the article along with a link back to the original article on your website. You can then pose a question based on the article to get people talking about your business.
5. A manual
Often overlooked, manuals are still very important to some users and should not be completely neglected in favour of self-help forums. You can collect together related blog posts for compilation into a manual which can then be made available for reading online or download from your website. Much cheaper than having someone write one from scratch.
So there you have the first five. Don’t forget to check out the next 5 examples of Making your web content work harder.
If you need assistance with a copywriting project in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line.
LinkedIn password compromised? How to pick a secure replacement
If you are a user of social media, then the news that 6 million LinkedIn passwords have been compromised and posted online should be worrying. Not only could your reputation take a hit if someone decides to spoof your communications, but the implications could be far larger and more damaging still.
Because contrary to best practice, most people still use the same password for each of their online accounts. So if hackers get hold of that password via LinkedIn, they can then use it to get into your bank, PayPal, and Facebook accounts too. Obviously you need to (a) change your LinkedIn password and (b) come up with a new, yet memorable way to have unique passwords for each of your online accounts.
Creating a new, secure password system
The first step to creating a secure password is to think of a common root phrase which will form the basis of all your passwords. Never, ever choose a family member’s name or similar as these are easily guessed and insecure. Instead try picking a line from a poem or your favourite song and abbreviating it. Say you elect for Feel Good Drag by Florida-based rockers Anberlin, taking the first line of the song (“I’m here for you she said“) it can be reduced to ihfyss. Good start, but not massively secure yet. 
Next, replace any letters which look similar to numbers; in this case the letter s looks a bit like a 5 and an i looks like a 1, so when substituted, the root passphrase becomes 1hfy55. Being six characters in length, this password is relatively complex and enough to satisfy most login systems. However if used on every account, once compromised, all of your details are once again open to exploitation.
So to create unique passwords, take your root passphrase (1hfy55) and add the initial of the website. Thus your Amazon password becomes A1hfy55, PayPal is PP1hfy55 and LinkedIn can be L1hfy55 or LI1hfy55 according to your preference. So long as you remember the passphrase, the website name will remind you of the starting letters.
If you are feeling really brave and trust your memory, the password security can be improved further still by adding punctuation. An exclamation mark or similar at the beginning or end of the password makes it even harder to crack (LI1hfy55! or @LI1hfy55)
And then?
Now you have your new password system in place, all that remains is to actually change the passwords on your accounts. This may take some time, but will be well worth it in the long run!
P.S. Never, ever, ever write your root passphrase or other passwords down or you leave yourself open to theft.
