I’ll admit it: I have an unhealthy obsession with checking my WordPress stats. OK, not as unhealthy as when I was a newbie, desperate to know I was reaching someone (anyone?). But I peek most days.

And that’s how I spotted an odd referrer to my site. I clicked it and at the other end was…. me. An exact replica of my site in every detail, but with a fake name and logo.

A web designer had scraped not just my website content, but my whole identity. It looked like I worked for them, or my alter ego did, anyway. My copyright, my testimonials, my insurance details, my ProCopywriters membership. All stolen.

I Googled the fake name to see if they’d indexed yet and found a second site almost the same. The only differences were these guys had swapped the fake name for my name in the web content and were asserting their copyright.

WTAF? I’m all about the words. The back end of my site and the technical details bring me out in a cold sweat. Where to begin?

This article covers the free, low-tech things I did to squish the stolen content. Plus a bunch of links to people far more expert than me. Continue reading →

Another Tuesday, another chance to put my questions to the wise and generous #ContentClubUK.

If you’re not familiar: every Tuesday at 11am UK time, some lucky person gets to ask three questions of an ever-expanding audience of content marketing stars. Over the next 30 minutes, copywriters, designers, marketers, social media experts and others from the content world pile in with their advice, experience and ideas.

It’s tons of fun and I frequently leave with something that changes the way I do business.

Because the sun’s shining and a break might be on the cards, we talked about vacations: Continue reading →

I recently got the chance to host the fabulous #ContentClubUK for the first time. Listed at number 5 in Awario’s “10 best Twitter chats for digital marketers”, it’s my favourite way to start Tuesdays.

If you’re a copywriter, designer, marketer, social media expert or anyone else working in content marketing, in-house or freelance, you’ll find something to love.

It’s pretty simple: beginning at 11am UK every Tuesday, a different content pro poses three questions on Twitter with the hashtag #ContentClubUK. And all kinds of smart and talented people from the world of content post replies.

As a freelance copywriter, I often don’t meet or even speak to clients, so I decided to ask the group how they handle time and their clients’ expectations. Here you’ll find the ton of ideas, tips and thoughtful conversation that followed… Continue reading →

While I do work with agencies, most of the time I’m hired directly by my clients. And that usually means we create the copywriting brief together.

It can seem like unnecessary process – “we need a brochure and here’s what we do, over to you” – but a good brief is the surest way to great copy.

A copywriter’s job is to describe you irresistibly, to set you apart from your competition and inspire your audience to take action. And the more your copywriter knows about you and your audience, the better able they are to put all their energy into stringing the perfect words together.

But I’ve noticed time and again there are questions in my standard copywriting brief that have my SME clients pausing for thought, scribbling notes and scratching their heads. Not because the questions are odd (if you’re a copywriter, you’re bound to have similar in yours) but because they really go to the heart of my client’s marketing approach and even their business.

In short, there can be surprising insights for a business in creating a strong copywriting brief. These are the questions that we often linger over: Continue reading →