Instant reform By Avoiding These Copywriting Mistakes

admin    Web Marketing     Avoiding, Copywriting, instant, Mistakes, reform, These

Instant reform By Avoiding These Copywriting Mistakes

Want to know why so many copywriters fail at making their sales copy work effectively? We’ll go over some of the simple, basic copywriting mistakes that so many people commit, and when you learn how to avoid them you’ll be one huge step ahead of the rest.

One of the biggest mistakes is not learning at least the basic details about what they are promoting. If you don’t understand the product you are writing about you aren’t going to be able to convince someone to buy it. Your prospect could easily figure out that you do not know very much about the product. This is going to adversely affect your conversion rate and bring your sales down. So always remember to learn everything you possibly can about the subject of your writing from pros to cons and in betweens. When you learn about a product inside and out, right side up and upside down it is easier to be creative when you sell it with your writing. When you’re sure of these points, you could easily be crystal clear to your prospect and give them a fair idea about it. The subject of headlines is critical because headlines are so critical to success. Obviously you need to command attention with it so people will stop and continue reading. To drive the point home, just remember that your headlines will only get about two seconds, roughly, to get the job done and make the reader want to know more. There are some professional copywriters who will write 100 or 200 headlines before they make a decision. If you study copywriting long enough, you’ll soon find out that some copywriters use different strategies with headlines, but one particular method involves including the main product benefit in your headline. If you write a headline that works well, then your job will be much easier.

If you don’t already know, copywriting is totally different than academic English composition. You need to remember that any sales copy needs to be easy to read and at the same time do a great job at presenting the product’s benefits to the prospect. Benefit bullets are extremely important and work very well in sales copy, so be sure to use them and include them, always. Perhaps the best way to learn about benefit bullets is to search Google for good sales letters and then study them very carefully. Bullet points give you the opportunity to open-up your copy and provide “white space” which is important for breaking up the copy and reducing eye strain and monotony. Just the way you wouldn’t like reading a huge block of content, even your prospects are looking for benefits when going through your sales letter.

It does take time and effort to become a good copywriter, but you can almost instantly become better if you just avoid making the kinds of mistakes that you’ve just read about.

Top Web Design Mistakes

admin    Web Design     design, Mistakes

Top Web Design Mistakes

Web design is the single most important factor for you web site to flourish. As a good web design raises your site’s reputation, a bad design can mar it.

Here are some top web design mistakes that you should never do when creating your website :
1. The use of PDF files for online reading: As a PDF file breaks their flow of web browsing, never use PDF file for online reading. PDF is good for printing and for distributing documents that requires to be printed.
2. The use of non-scan able text: A stream of text is painful for an interactive experience. To draw users into the text and support scan ability, use these tricks: subheads, bulleted lists, highlighted keywords, short paragraphs, the inverted pyramid and a simple writing style.
3. The use of [removed] JavaScript is a superb technology – it make web site more interactive. But it should be used when it is needed otherwise it would create chaos.
4. Spelling and Grammar Mistakes: We all make spelling mistakes when we type but we leave the burden to Microsoft Word Spell Checker. But, the web editor may not be as rich as Microsoft Word. It may catch spelling mistakes but not grammatical errors.
5. Use animations with Flash and GIFs: Animation serves to distract you. For this reason advertisement banners are animated. It is annoying to view an animation in a webpage that does not require this.
6. Putting music files to run in the background: Don’t use music files to run in the background on a webpage. If you have to use MIDI music on a website, you should put the code and allow the user to stop it.
7. Never Split your content into pages: Put the whole article on one page, because the long pages discourage the user to read.
8. Breaking FAQs into multiple pages: You should refrain from creating every FAQ question’s answer as a link that directs to another page. That makes your readers to click on each link, read the text and now a back button click to read the whole FAQ. For an entire FAQ of about 12 questions, you have to click 24 times. Instead place entire FAQ questions and answers in one page.
9. Use High Contrast Text Colours: It is hard to read with a textured background as contrast to a background of solid colour. Ensure your text is readable without the viewer having to stress their eyes.
10. Screen Size Width: You should design your site for the minimum – 800 x 600otherwise produces a scroll bar for users using 800 x 600 resolutions. Users won’t like scrolling horizontally when on a website.
11. Font Usage: You should use a common font in your pages. Never use Times New Roman in your website. This font is appropriate for print.
12. Pop-Up Windows: You should not open your entire web site within a pop up window. Viewers generally watch web sites in the browser window with all the features.
Not Providing a Basic Search Function: Most of the viewers find websites through search engines such as Yahoo! and Google. So place a simple search box in each page.

10 Mistakes Your Web Designer Can Make

admin    Web Design     Designer, Mistakes

10 Mistakes Your Web Designer Can Make

Technology is moving at an amazingly rapid clip and nowhere is this more obvious than in the number of websites that have literally popped up like weeds, in the last decade. While having a website is an absolute “must” for anyone considering an Internet business, unfortunately, not everyone is willing to pay the money needed to commission a professional web design development team.

This is partly due to the fact that many people believe they can do both the programming (code) and the designing of their websites – if they can’t, then certainly their cousin, friend or co-worker, who has dabbled in website creation will do the trick. Unfortunately, this kind of thinking will get you in trouble and will certainly not generate website traffic numbers you were hoping to achieve!

The fact is if you want to have a successful business, you have to have a professionally done website which means hiring fully qualified web design teams, who are knowledgeable about both programming and site design. You should be looking for someone who has had several years of experience and has a solid portfolio to back up that experience. You may want to consider browsing the Internet to find your web development company. By simply clicking a few keystrokes and entering key words such as “Vancouver Web Design” you will find what you are looking for.

Fortunately, web design development is a growing trend in the Vancouver area and this has turned out to be “the” places to do some one stop shopping. If you are uncertain about the qualifications of your web design team, there are some significant “errors” that are commonly made by amateurs in the field, according to some of Vancouver’s best web design professionals and these include:

Not spending enough time considering the “look” of the website. This includes the choice of colors and fonts. Considering the use of topography, as opposed to just plain fonts is a definite must in many cases.
Loading the site with too much information – which makes it almost impossible to grab the user’s attention immediately.
Being too detailed about everything. Keep it short and to the point.
Building a site with programming (code) errors or that simply has that “homemade” look.
Loading the site with too much information, including Flash loading – which slows down the site and makes loading a long and drawn out affair.
Adding to many “extras” such as music – unless it is absolutely necessary, stay away form the gimmicks.
Making it a requirement to “register” to have a access to the site.
Making the site difficult to search.
Not including a FAQ section and/or a help and/or contact us section.
Not adding a “search” button to help locate information within the site.

Why leave the building of your website to anyone other than a professional? Consider contacting a professional Vancouver web design firm in the Vancouver area – they will make sure your website is designed to your satisfaction.

Find More Web Design Tricks Articles

5 Common Social Media Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

admin    Social Media Marketing     Avoid, Common, marketing, Media, Mistakes, Social

5 Common Social Media Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

You could follow all the right steps with your social media marketing and yet your efforts could still fall flat. The reason is you may have over looked 5 of the major mistakes. Steer clear of these and you’ll have a better chance of enjoying a successful Social Media Marketing campaign.

1. Encroaching on Customers Time

Any company thinking of starting a conversation with its customers must begin by asking where its customers currently spend their time, how willing they might be to move their conversations to a new location and whether they can manage another set of conversations. If you don’t think this through before you bud something you may finds yourself with an empty community.

2. Your customers don’t want to hear you.

 The social web is fundamentally about people talking to each other about what is of interest to them. It hasn’t been designed to be a marketing vehicle. However some brands have naturally permission, in a manor of speaking to be a part of those conversations where as others may not.   

 To find out if your brand has that permission you must ask yourself how you engage with your customers (your SMM voice) and if your customers look to you for advice and information beyond the realm of the product you sell. As you answer these questions you’ll come to discover whether your brand has the permission to participate.

 3. Not Being Patient

 With SIM efforts it can be difficult to know when It will “break out” (i.e When your efforts suddenly gain immense traction.) Many a marketer has cancelled a social campaign only to see a competitor launch something 6 months later which turned out to be a huge success. Be patient with your Social Media Marketing efforts. It may not be a success on day 1 or day 100. It could take longer.

4. Focusing on one large campaign

Social Media Marketing is about many little efforts that when strung together have a much impact (Usually much more) than a single traditional campaign or marketing program. This means that it’s always important to plan to launch several small initiatives at once. Rather than run one long mammoth one. 

Your customers are going to be doing a lot of “digital snacking” they hop from one platform to another sharing comments about one thing then viewing a video on another. Putting all your eggs in the one basket doesn’t serve you well.

5. Forgetting to reward your participants.

 You must incentivise, reward and recognise the contributions of the community. This may seem obvious but you’ll be surprised at how many marketers assume that consumers will participate generously without any return.

 Make sure you match the reward with the amount of participation you demand. These rewards don’t have to be monetary but if you’re asking something extra of the community that surrounds your product then you better be willing to thank them for contributions and reward them for their participation and recognise them for how they are helping out. 

These rewards can be as simple as inviting them to exclusive events, discount coupons or featuring them on your website.

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Some Newbie Mistakes With Web Design

admin    Web Design     design, Mistakes, Newbie, Some

Some Newbie Mistakes With Web Design

Approaching retirement age I was made redundant last year and decided to create my first web site, initially knowing little about it. I hope that, by reading about my experiences, that I may save you both time and money if you ever find yourself in the position of wanting to build a site with little initial knowledge.

eBooks
I bought five or six ebooks on how to make my web fortune from the one-page web-sites that you see on the web. The prices ranged from .95 to .95. It would be unfair of me to say that they were of no use, as you can always pick up the odd pointer, or contact. However, with the benefit of hindsight I would not have purchased any of them. Instead there are free, better written books which give you at least the same pointers, and often have more substance. You can download from my web site, for free, two excellent books by Ken Evoy, which will provide you with a good basic knowledge to move forward. Don’t get carried away with the sales hype contained in some of these “get rich quick” single page sales letters that offer huge free bonuses and an imminent price increase.

Universities and colleges
There are various colleges and universities on the web which promise you the ultimate in web creation, site marketing, search engine optimization and much more, “all under one roof” They usually have libraries of “how to” books and membership is by monthly subscription with some offering a lower fee for the first month. Have a look, by all means, I looked at three and claimed my refund within the stated period. I found that I could obtain similar information offered for free with a little searching, and that what they really offered was convenience.

Web Design software
I initially purchased a web site building package for .95 and was soon disappointed by its lack of functionality. I then looked over the shoulder of a friend whilst they showed me the workings of a top-end product costing nearly 0.00 but I found it to be too complicated with too steep a learning curve too be quickly productive.  I posted a request for help on the Warriors forum and there were more recommends for a particular product than any other. So I decided that my first web site would be a review of that product, which I would create as a trial, before I went on to build a site that would aim at generating income.

What should the web site be about?
Several of the books that I read suggested that the subject matter should be about something that you enjoy doing and therefore you will create your site with more passion and enthusiasm. Whilst this is sound advice I found that the need to create a trial site, which would force me to learn the basics, was more than a sufficient driving force.

Domain name & Web hosting
Go for a dot com registration and pay no more than per annum. Don’t go for free hosting, you get what you pay for. I looked at hosting sites that offered complete package with hosting, autoresponders,  SEO and linking software and much more. Whilst everything was conveniently in one place they failed to convince me that each product would stack up well if they were competing in each niche market. I therefore opted for the best of breed approach and a little less convenience.

Search Engine Optimization
This was probably the subject that I was most worried about as I new that it referred to making a web site as easy as possible for the search engines to find, but I had no clue as to how to go about it. I have a free ebook that you can download entitled “Search Engine Optimization Made Easy” which will give you the basics to carry out this process. The book is really a plug by the author of SEO software for his excellent product. I was fortunate in that the web design software I selected also, somewhat unusually, held my hand through this process, carefully pointing out page, by page, what I needed to do.

Article Distribution
I was aware that, in order to succeed, I should submit articles to the numerous Article Directories present on the Internet. There are two ways to do this. By purchasing one of the two major pieces of software to assist me in doing it myself, or to use a company to do it for me. I looked at each way and found that, whilst both software solutions cut out some of the tedious manuals tasks of submitting to over 150 directories, it was still time consuming. Having examined the market place carefully, discounting any company who charged for a fixed number of submissions, I opted for one who for a fixed quarterly fee would submit any number of articles.

Link software
Again, so that I would get more site traffic, I new that I should get other sites to link to mine and that I would have to manage those links and the emails back and forth etc. I initially started to design an Excel spreadsheet linked to Microsoft Word but decided that I would still have to create the links pages by hand. My advice is to obtain software which houses all your links in a searchable database, handles all of the emails, including template housing, and that automatically creates the HTML link pages for you.

Related Web Design Software Articles

Tulsa Web Design Tips – 5 Mistakes

admin    Web Design     design, Mistakes, Tips, Tulsa

Tulsa Web Design Tips – 5 Mistakes

We all know the traffic of web sites these days on internet. A skillfully made website will certainly be a good benefit for you. Mistakes are a part of life and it is not a big thing to do because by doing a mistake you will be educating yourself. We all make common web design mistakes. First you must have to read a lot about how to create a website, or a good design or a user friendly design. But not all of us focus on major aspect that is equally important in a website. In short, it is important to reduce the bounce rate of your website.

Here are a few points:

It is said that a lot of the internet users surf the internet in a hurry when it comes to finding something they want. People do not prefer on staying at the same website for long when collecting information. The navigation links play a vital role in this area. The viewers browse through different pages simultaneously. It is a very annoying task to look into the same page again and again. It is very important for you to change the color of the visited links. This reduces the bounce rate and gives the viewers a pleasant browsing experience.

There may be a possibility that your text that is used on the web page is not right. It cannot catch the eye of the users and there is a possibility that you may get some loss. Using different combination for writing the text makes your website beautiful.

The rapid increase in website has certainly increased the traffic on internet. In order to make the website attractive, it must be compatible with multiple browsers. Many website owners fell bad when they heard that their website do not work properly in Google Chrome.

Many website owners made an attractive website but they forget to include a feedbacks form. Feedbacks are very important for the website because website fails terribly if proper feedback is not given or if the visitor’s query is not addressed at the right time. A repeatedly done mistake is that owners often put a lot of irrelevant ads on their web page and this cause a lot of disadvantage in the progress of their website.

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Internet Marketing Strategy – 4 Stupid Mistakes That People Tend To Make!

admin    Web Marketing     Internet, marketing, Mistakes, People, Strategy, Stupid...., Tend

Internet Marketing Strategy – 4 Stupid Mistakes That People Tend To Make!

We often hear people saying that their internet marketing strategy does not seem to be working. When you ask them what their actual marketing strategies are, they tell you the same old story. It’s quite simple to understand that in the internet marketing search engine optimization is involved; people tend to make a lot of foolish mistakes. Some of the most common mistakes made by them are listed below:

Blindly trust the internet marketing consultant

This is the one of the silliest mistakes made by many who carry out internet marketing for their products and services. They trust the consultant who has offered them the internet marketing services blindly, without any cross checking or cross questioning. However, you definitely do not want to trust them to the extent of forgetting the services that they had promised and the deadline too. If at all, the consultant tends to delay your work after signing the contract, there will be nothing you can do. Hence, go to a reliable source and agree to all the necessary terms well in advance. This internet marketing strategy will keep you away from risks and frauds.

Totally rely on Internet marketing

Once started, people tend to believe in the myth that internet marketing will solve their entire problem and will do all the advertising needed. No doubt that internet marketing will help you to a great extent and will largely improvise your business. However, depending on what you are dealing in you have to resort to the other modes of advertising as well. For instance, if you are dealing in computer spare parts, just marketing it online would be perfect, but when you deal in something like eatables or clothing, then you would have to use all the open options available.

Fail to maintain proper records

The next most common dumb mistake that people make in the internet marketing is that they do not maintain proper records. When you start up with an internet marketing campaign, you must have a bottom line. You should know the number of clients you are bringing in, the estimated profits, and lots more. If you do not have an aggregate of these things right in the start how will you come to know if your internet marketing strategy is actually working or not.

Starting up with an incomplete website

This is again a very common mistake made by many. They start up with the marketing campaign even before their website is complete. Internet marketing surely does lead people to your website, but when the visitors get to your website and see that it is under construction, they would get really annoyed, having a very bad impression of your website and its products. So make sure you’re website is up to date before you start advertising.

The internet marketing strategy might be a bit complicated at times, due to which a lot of people tend to make stupid mistakes. The secret to an effective campaign you have to make sure you’re getting the most for the amount you are paying.

My Mistakes as a Web Design Newbie

admin    Web Design     design, Mistakes, Newbie

My Mistakes as a Web Design Newbie

Learn from them

Approaching retirement age I was made redundant last year and decided to create my first web site, initially knowing little about it. I hope that, by reading about my experiences, I may save you both time and money if you ever find yourself in the position of wanting to build a site with little initial knowledge.

eBooksI bought five or six ebooks on how to make my web fortune from the one-page web-sites that you see on the web. The prices ranged from .95 to .95. It would be unfair of me to say that they were of no use, as you can always pick up the odd pointer, or contact. However, with the benefit of hindsight I would not have purchased any of them. Instead there are free, better written books which give you at least the same pointers, and often have more substance. You can download from my web site, for free, two excellent books by Ken Evoy, which will provide you with a good basic knowledge to move forward. Don’t get carried away with the sales hype contained in some of these “get rich quick” single page sales letters that offer huge free bonuses and an imminent price increase.

Universities and collegesThere are various colleges and universities on the web which promise you the ultimate in web creation, site marketing, search engine optimization and much more, “all under one roof” They usually have libraries of “how to” books and membership is by monthly subscription with some offering a lower fee for the first month. Have a look, by all means, I looked at three and claimed my refund within the stated period. I found that I could obtain similar information offered for free with a little searching, and that what they really offered was convenience.

Web Design softwareI initially purchased a web site building package for .95 and was soon disappointed by its lack of functionality. I then looked over the shoulder of a friend whilst they showed me the workings of a top-end product costing nearly 0.00 but I found it to be too complicated with too steep a learning curve too be quickly productive. I posted a request for help on the Warriors forum and there were more recommends for a particular product than any other. So I decided that my first web site would be a review of that product, which I would create as a trial, before I went on to build a site that would aim at generating income.

What should the web site be about?Several of the books that I read suggested that the subject matter should be about something that you enjoy doing and therefore you will create your site with more passion and enthusiasm. Whilst this is sound advice I found that the need to create a trial site, which would force me to learn the basics, was more than a sufficient driving force.

Domain name & Web hostingGo for a dot com registration and pay no more than per annum. Don’t go for free hosting, you get what you pay for. I looked at hosting sites that offered complete package with hosting, autoresponders, SEO and linking software and much more. Whilst everything was conveniently in one place they failed to convince me that each product would stack up well if they were competing in each niche market. I therefore opted for the best of breed approach and a little less convenience.

Search Engine OptimizationThis was probably the subject that I was most worried about as I new that it referred to making a web site as easy as possible for the search engines to find, but I had no clue as to how to go about it. I have a free ebook that you can download entitled “Search Engine Optimization Made Easy” which will give you the basics to carry out this process. The book is really a plug by the author of SEO software for his excellent product. I was fortunate in that the web design software I selected also, somewhat unusually, held my hand through this process, carefully pointing out page, by page, what I needed to do.

Article DistributionI was aware that, in order to succeed, I should submit articles to the numerous Article Directories present on the Internet. There are two ways to do this. By purchasing one of the two major pieces of software to assist me in doing it myself, or to use a company to do it for me. I looked at each way and found that, whilst both software solutions cut out some of the tedious manuals tasks of submitting to over 150 directories, it was still time consuming. Having examined the market place carefully, discounting any company who charged for a fixed number of submissions, I opted for one who for a fixed quarterly fee would submit any number of articles.

Link softwareAgain, so that I would get more site traffic, I new that I should get other sites to link to mine and that I would have to manage those links and the emails back and forth etc. I initially started to design an Excel spreadsheet linked to Microsoft Word but decided that I would still have to create the links pages by hand. My advice is to obtain software which houses all your links in a searchable database, handles all of the emails, including template housing, and that automatically creates the HTML link pages for you.

Find More Web Design Software Articles

Fatal Negotiation Mistakes Copywriters Make, and How To Avoid Them

admin    Web Marketing     Avoid, Copywriters, Fatal, Mistakes, Negotiation, Them

Fatal Negotiation Mistakes Copywriters Make, and How To Avoid Them

In this article I’ll share two financially ruinous negotiating tactics often made by beginning copywriters. Both came from my coaching students just this week.

Financially ruinous negotiating tactic #1 comes from a successful book author who is adding copywriting to his writing skill set. Here, paraphrased, is a comment he made to me on Monday:

“My client seems unhappy with the work. I’m thinking of telling her she doesn’t have to pay the final 50 percent.”

My response:

Copywriting is part science and part “art.” And it’s the subjective aspect of assessing copy that leads writers to feel responsible when a client is not happy.

However, time (and expertise) is all the copywriter has to sell. A client contracts for that time and uses it, and must respect it with the agreed-upon pay.

Is the copywriter always right to demand payment when a
client’s satisfaction is unrewarded?

If the copy is indeed poor, then of course the client shouldn’t have to pay anything at all. But in the case of my student, a Creative Brief was used, and in fact, filled out by the client herself.

Thanks to the Creative Brief, the Web site copy was “on target,” and since I reviewed it as a “copy chief,” I know that first draft copy was very good.

However, the client’s email noted that the “voice” was not sufficiently hers, that she did not feel that her positioning as a “rural GP” came through strongly enough, that her bio seemed overly altruistic, and that it was clear that she would have to take the copy “in house” to finish.

When a copywriter gets this kind of feedback, his immediate response is often one of confusion, and sometimes deep insecurity. These emotions cause him to react defensively, instead of studying the response.

Rather than throw in the towel and lose half the copywriting fee, I advised my student to call the client and offer to add what she perceived to be missing from the copy.

Unless the copy is way off mark, and it shouldn’t be if the writer used a Creative Brief, the solution is to make changes and edit until the work is acceptable and meets expectations.

The take-away: DON’T offer refunds or partial payments. DON’T get defensive. Instead, study and analyze a client’s response. Get a clear picture of what the client is complaining about, then fix it.

If the client can’t specifically tell you what’s wrong, then it becomes obvious to both parties that it’s the client who is failing in the communication process. Revisions, refinements, and editing are a natural part of the copywriting process and their function is to “fix what’s wrong” and perfect the piece.

(In this case, the small two-person operation exhibited characteristics typical of small business…they were unsophisticated about marketing and its processes, and unclear about the value of copywriting. They confirm my timeworn advice to avoid small businesses and seek work from more marketing-savvy mid-size and large companies.)

Financially ruinous negotiating tactic #2 comes from one of my recently “graduated” coaching students.

She asks: “Do you always quote based on your time or do
you quote based on the value the project has to the client?”

The answer is to always quote based on the value to the client. If your work makes the client many thousands of dollars, or more, then you should be fairly compensated.

In cases where your work is directly linked to leads or sales, it helps to view yourself not so much as a “copywriter” but as a sales pro. Get the fact that you’re a writer out of your head and see yourself in a different light.

Who are the most important individuals in any for-profit entity? Those who bring in the business! Everyone else’s salary depends on them. That’s why they’re usually paid more than anyone else. YOU are in that category.

Two Common Negotiating Mistakes Copywriters Make, and How to Avoid Them

admin    Web Marketing     Avoid, Common, Copywriters, Mistakes, Negotiating, Them

Two Common Negotiating Mistakes Copywriters Make, and How to Avoid Them

This month I’ll share two financially ruinous negotiating tactics often made by beginning copywriters. Both recently came from my coaching students.

Financially ruinous negotiating tactic #1 comes from a successful book author who is adding copywriting to his writing skill set. Here, paraphrased, is a comment he made to me:

“My client seems unhappy with the work. I’m thinking of telling her she doesn’t have to pay the final 50 percent.”

My response:

Copywriting is part science and part art. And the subjective aspect of assessing copy often leads writers to feel responsible when a client is not happy.

However, time and expertise is all the copywriter has to sell. A client contracts for that time and uses it and must respect it with the agreed-upon pay.

Is the copywriter always right to demand payment when a client’s satisfaction is unrewarded?

If the copy is indeed poor, then of course the client shouldn’t have to pay anything at all. But in the case of my student, a Creative Brief was used, and in fact, filled out by the client herself.

Thanks to the Creative Brief, the Web site copy was on target, and since I reviewed it as a copy chief, I know that first draft copy was very good.

However, the client’s email noted that the “voice” was not sufficiently hers, that she did not feel that her positioning as a “rural GP” came through strongly enough, that her bio seemed overly altruistic, and that it was clear that she would have to take the copy in house to finish.

When a copywriter gets this kind of feedback, his immediate response is often one of confusion, and sometimes deep insecurity. These emotions cause him to react defensively,instead of studying the response.

Rather than throw in the towel and lose half the copywriting fee, I advised my student to call the client and offer to add what she perceived to be missing from the copy.

Unless the copy is way off mark,and it shouldn’t be if the writer used a Creative Brief,the solution is to make changes and edit until the work is acceptable and meets expectations.

The take-away: DON’T offer refunds or partial payments. DON’T get defensive. Instead, study and analyze a client’s response. Get a clear picture of what the client is complaining about, then fix it.

If the client can’t specifically tell you what’s wrong, then it becomes obvious to both parties that it’s the client who is failing in the communication process. Revisions, refinements, and editing are a natural part of the copywriting process. In this case, the small two-person operation exhibited characteristics typical of small business. They were unsophisticated about marketing and its processes and unclear about the value of copywriting. They confirm my timeworn advice to avoid small businesses and seek work from more marketing-savvy mid-size and large companies.

Financially ruinous negotiating tactic #2 comes from one of my recently “graduated” coaching students.

She asks: “Do you always quote based on your time or do you quote based on the value the project has to the client?”

The answer is to always quote based on the value to the client. If your work makes the client many thousands of dollars, or more, then you should be fairly compensated.

In cases where your work is directly linked to leads or sales, it helps to view yourself not so much as a copywriter but as a sales pro. Get the fact that you’re a writer out of your head and see yourself in a different light.

Who are the most important individuals in any for-profit entity? Those who bring in the business! Everyone else’s salary depends on them. That’s why they’re usually paid more than anyone else. YOU are in that category.