How to become a professional copywriter

The Secret Of The Premise [Copywriting Secrets]

April 8, 2020
/ Copywriting
/ By Quentin Pain

If you’ve been following along with the ICA Getting Started series, you’ll know all about the power of a premise (if not, sign up here: https://internationalcopywritersassociation.com). Everything worthwhile has a premise behind it, but it’s not just worthwhile stuff. It’s everything. If we could reproduce viral posts that had the same effect as the original, […]

Muck Rack’s New Viral Trending Tool

April 1, 2020
/ Copywriting
/ By Quentin Pain

Google trends is excellent for spotting rising keywords (and using that to help clients with their next campaign – thus positioning you as a good researcher AND someone who knows what they’re doing when it comes to business growth). One of the places I subscribe to is a site called Muck Rack. Sounds utterly spammy […]

Writing For An Audience Beats Writing For A Product Or Client Every Time

March 30, 2020
/ Copywriting
/ By Quentin Pain

The first thing we have in life that matters is time. The second thing (but equally as important) is our right to be who we are (our right to our life). Remove either and life sucks. That’s the problem for many of us right now. Although we have our time, what we can do with […]

The Art of Saying No Without Saying No – Copywriting Secrets

March 27, 2020
/ Copywriting
/ By Quentin Pain

As you find your copywriting business getting busier (and it will once you know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and who you’re doing it for), you’ll need to learn how to say no in a yes kind of way. You don’t need to do that of course, you can just say no and […]

How Not To Use Ethical Divide And Conquer In Copywriting

March 25, 2020
/ Copywriting
/ By Quentin Pain

Life is mostly about judgement. Judgements are reactions. They’re always automatic and based on everything we have experienced – in other words, our entire lives up to now. When something occurs, such as discovering the pasta section in the supermarket has been scavenged by desperate people, we have an instant reaction (a judgement) about these […]

How Not To Use Cliches In Copywriting

March 23, 2020
/ Copywriting
/ By Quentin Pain

Every other press release, blog post, authority information piece, etc., seems to start with the words “In these difficult and challenging times…”. It’s become the world’s fastest cliche. On the other side are the many gurus telling us that we should lead and stay positive “in these difficult and challenging times”. Every time we read […]

Why Human Behaviour Underpins Everything Copywriters Need To Know

March 20, 2020
/ Copywriting
/ By Quentin Pain

We think of ourselves as the dominating species. We’ve been around for 200 thousand years, yet the dinosaurs survived for 165 million. Insects have survived 480 million, and plants for 700 million. The most obvious differentiator is our ability to manipulate our surroundings like no other species. We are inventive, and our inventiveness increases exponentially. […]

How Much Do Copywriters Charge For Their Work?

March 18, 2020
/ Copywriting
/ By Quentin Pain

How much would you charge to write 280 words? Good quality content pays around 22p a word in the UK (that’s for content pieces, not sales copy). That would work out at £61.60 (or about $70 USD). Sounds OK right? But suppose it took 3 hours to write, then another 2 hours to edit, would […]

Taking Advantage Of The News For Attention [Copywriting]

March 16, 2020
/ Copywriting
/ By Quentin Pain

Are you getting newsletters from marketers about coronavirus? I am. They fall into three categories: 1) “What to do with all this free time…” 2) “What I’m doing to help…” 3) “How to exploit it…” Categories 1 and 2 are examples of category 3. This is what marketers do. The whole of marketing revolves around […]

Why Being a Specialist Copywriter Matters To Every Business

March 11, 2020
/ Copywriting
/ By Quentin Pain

Great copywriters change the world. Making money is a by-product of that and should never be the major consideration. Buyer motivation varies from hunger to safety to status, but the primary motivator is always the same, hope (not money). Kill or degrade hope, and all motivation is lost (even if the prime motivator appears to […]

Category Archives for Copywriting