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Previously, I’ve commented in this e-newsletter on an internet phenomenon — “transparency.” It’s the odd but true fact that your email subscribers are, for some strange reason, not just interested in learning more about your topic — but also about you. Apparently, spilling your guts — and sharing personal details — engages many of your […]

Recently, my friends at AWAI asked me to participate in a small panel discussion about writing copy on spec. Spec work means no money up front, no obligation on the part of the client to use or even read your copy, and no obligation to pay you a cent. Because I am militantly anti-spec work, […]

Vince Lombardi famously said, “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get back up.” Rocky Balboa elaborated on this idea a bit more eloquently here: As I look back on my decades as a writer, I can tell you I got knocked down plenty of times … and had many bad things […]

A lot of digital marketing today is direct response — only it’s all done with electrons instead of ink on paper. As a result of the rise of digital marketing, direct response has now become mainstream. But back when I got into direct response in the early 80s, DR was considered the ugly stepchild of […]

There’s a weird thing about some songs, I have noticed. Let me explain…. Like so many people, I love music. I play 2 ½ instruments: clarinet, sax, a little piano. And I listen to music CDs a good part of the day while I write. One thing I have noticed is that there are certain […]

Subscriber JL writes: “Bob, I was hoping that you could do a few posts about research. “How much time do you spend just on product research for a copywriting job? “Where do you start and how do you know when you are finished?” Well, as to the first question, I would say that of the […]

Subscriber DC writes: “I’ve been a full-time freelance copywriter for 21 years. It’s been great — but maintaining a constant flow of good projects has been harder work than I ever imagined. “I know this is ‘feast or famine’, but it requires massive effort to overcome. Many business books (certainly not yours) gloss over this […]

Subscriber RL sent me this comment from the late suspense novelist Robert B. Parker — one of my favorite commercial authors: “I do first draft. I don’t revise. I don’t reread. I send it in. They edit it. But they don’t make any significant changes.” By comparison, Hemingway revised every morning. He claimed to have […]