A. James Editing, Inc

Google Integration of Your Life

Amber — Fri, 18 May 2012 22:43:27 +0000

To sync up your life to Google or not? That is the question I ask myself.

I recently migrated my email to Gmail and I’m extremely excited about it. Not only that, I can easily get my Gmail on my Android.

This is as far as the Google integration of my life has gone…for now.

Why don’t I organize my schedule with Google Calendar?

Why don’t I write all of my client documents in Google Documents?

Because I can’t remember any of my friends’ phone numbers anymore.

Remember when you were a kid and you not only remembered all your friends’ phone numbers by heart, but you knew how to get places without a GPS, and you remembered where you had to be and when and with whom you were meeting?

Remember that?

Remember when you actually used your brain for storing information? Instead of relying on some electronic device to remind you and thus, enable you to forget?

Cross-fit your brain!

I was talking with my friend about the pros and cons of using Google Calendar and smartphone alerts vs. a paper planner. She relies on her electronics to remind her, I use a paper planner to remind me.

But what if you forget your planner? Well, what if you forget your phone? Or worse, what if your phone/email doesn’t sound the alarm when you set it to?

This is what happened to a friend of mind earlier this week. He set an email alert to remind him of our coffee meeting. The alert didn’t go off and he hadn’t committed our meeting to memory. And why should he? He knew he would be reminded.

Well, he wasn’t.

And he didn’t show.

Kinda sucky if you’re in business and you miss a meeting because your tech failed you.

Am I making a argument for the paper planner?…Not really. I’ve missed meetings too because I neglected to write them down in my planner.

I want us to start remembering again. To use our most powerful muscle. Commit things to memory again. Train your brain to be a badass. There must be a cross-fit equivalent for the brain. If you know any awesome brain training tools I would love to hear it.

Fewer Projects, Better Quality, More Repeat Customers

Amber — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 21:05:50 +0000

This may seem counterintuitive for most freelancers (and business people in general), but it really is true.

I attended a small business development workshop recently and one thing the presenter really drove home was the fact that small business owners really need to be specific about what their product/service offerings are, and stick to them.

She warned against having too many choices or diversity in your offerings because most people get so overwhelmed with their choices, they become debilitated and choose nothing at all. Her example was as follows:

The Jam Study
The study group set-up a sample table at a grocery store that showcased a selection of 24 different flavors of jam. 40% of the passersby tasted the jams and each person tasted about 1.5 jams. 3% of those that tried the jam actually purchased any.

The group conducted this study a second time, but this time they only offered 6 jams for tasting. 60% of the passersby tasted the jams and each person, again, only tasted 1.5 jams. Of those that tried the jam, 30% of them purchased jam.

The moral?

Do a few things well and your customers will reward you with their wallets.

The end.

Beautiful Websites

Amber — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 23:58:31 +0000

And tablet applications.

I’m part of the team recreating the website for the Oregon American Marketing Association (AMA-PDX) and one of our members showed us three websites that he was particularly impressed by.

I was pretty impressed by them too. Take a look and fall in love.

authenticjobs.com
spacecollective.org
guardiannews.com (tablet application)

Why Copywriters Should Make Nice with Web Designers

Amber — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 22:23:23 +0000

I’ve been busy.

So busy in fact that I’ve had to de-prioritize the backend administrative work and focus on my work for clients.

Which really is as it should be, right? (As long as I set aside some time to catch-up…later…soon though…maybe.)

The reason I’ve been so busy is because my web designer friend has been so busy.

The man is a selfless do-gooder and has referred me to two of his clients, who want their websites professionally written, in just the past two weeks!

My brief advice to every single freelance copywriter out there: make nice with a web designer or two or three.

They are worth their weight in gold.

Do you have a home office or rent a desk?

Amber — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 23:56:48 +0000

This is where I work. Well, my desk is inside.

My living situation has scaled down recently (from a duplex with a spare bedroom that served as my office) to a room in a house that just won’t do for double duty.

I’d been toying with the idea of renting a desk in one of the many gorgeous creative spaces here in Portland for about a year now, and finally, Fate has forced my hand.

I’ve rented a desk in the incredible Olympic Mills building in southeast Portland.

The office houses a graphic designer, architects and a foodie-focused PR firm. Seriously? I couldn’t have planned this better if I tried.

The reason I abstained from renting a desk was obvious: the money. AND the fact that I was able to write part of my house off as a business expense. But I’ve heard from more than one freelancer friend, “I’m so much more productive now that I have an actual office.”

Which, presumably, would make up for the extra amount of money you’re spending on office space rent.

“Hmm,” I thought, without actually believing it.

Not sure if I believe it yet, but I’m going to find out. My first official day in the office will be Monday. I’ll report back on my productiveness when I have more to report.

Do you rent space or work from home? Have you done both? Which did you like better?

A Writing Professor Who Wants to do Away with Spelling Rules

Amber — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:42:19 +0000

So excited about Anne Trubek’s article, the rebuttal from Wired Magazine‘s Copydesk and her Twitter dialogue with Grammar Girl, that I just had to post this!

Here’s the original article about why it’s ok for the English language to be altered and abbreviated as texting and 140-character communication becomes more mainstream.

Here’s the editor’s rebuttal.

Here’s Anne Trubek.

And here’s Trubek and Grammar Girl’s conversation on Twitter.

Post to the article to give your two cents on the issue!

On My Way to Grady Britton I Met eROI

Amber — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:46:00 +0000

There was an epic party last night to celebrate the incredible 38-year advertising career of Frank Grady, King at Grady Britton (no really, that’s his official title).

The wine flowed, the food sated and the family, friends and colleagues of King Frank were in high spirits.

That part was excellent.

But the most excellent part took place before I even got to the party.

Living within two miles of the Grady Britton office, I decided to ride my bike to the party.

If you’ve ever been to this industrial area, you’ll know that bike racks are in short supply. So it was when I arrived.

Luckily though, just as I had paused to consider whether or not I should lock my bike to a Stop sign, another cyclist rode up, hopped his bike over the curb and rode in the direction of the party.

I called after him:

“Where are you going to put your bike?”

“Are you going to the party?” he asked.

“Yeah!”

“Oh, then we can just bring them up. I’ve been here before and it’s totally cool.”

Sweet.

He held the door for me and we entered the building.

As we crested the stairs, there was a server at the top who offered us wine and/or beer.

Awkwardly, but with grace, we both took a glass of red wine while simultaneously navigating our bikes into the elevator.

“Cheers,” we said.

This nice man showed me where to park my bike and he introduced himself as Ryan.

I spoke with him again later in the evening and he told me he worked for eROI. I already knew a few people who worked for eROI so this was exciting for me to meet another one.

He mentioned what his title was at eROI, but I didn’t catch it over the music and the chatter.

I left the party close to 8pm and when I got home, I went to the eROI website to read a little bit more about him.

Ryan Buchanan, CEO
Ryan was named by Oregon Business magazine as one of the ’50 who fix it, move it, build it, change it, and get it done right.’

Yep.

That was the guy.

Like I said: the most excellent part.

Content Marketing Consulting Is What You Think It Is & More

Amber — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:14:57 +0000

I was sitting down to a fine catered lunch at this month’s PABA Luncheon when the woman sitting next to me asked, “What do you do?”

I love this question.

Because I get to tell people what I do and, more often than not, help them with their copywriting.

This time was different though.

After I had given her a rundown of what I do, she very pointedly asked me, “So you could come into a business and help them figure out what their next step should be in terms of their content and marketing?”

Wow.

“Yes,” I answered. “I can.”

She wanted me to consult on the content of her marketing efforts, and help her and her assistant come up with some new marketing ideas that were low-cost, relevant to their customers and within their capabilities to perform.

This was the first time a client had asked for this service specifically, and in that moment it occurred to me that I’ve been doing content marketing consulting for almost five years.

I didn’t even know I was doing it.

Turns out, when you educate people about their marketing options, and you do it well, you’re a content marketing consultant!

Huzzah!!

I am a content marketing consultant!

Usually I’d be working with a client on something else entirely–a website, an email, a press release–and I’d answer any questions they had about writing and marketing.

Who knew I could offer this (apparently) extremely high demand service separately?

I did a little research on my new area of expertise and found a great content marketing consulting resource:

The Content Marketing Institute (CMI).

While CMI discusses content marketing in terms of strategy, I came across a much more simplistic definition of content (not marketing) consulting that limits it simply to written content.

I guess the term can be as broad or as narrow as you need it to be to accomodate what it is that you do.

Mine is broad: working with written content in addition to marketing strategy.

I bet there’s something you do that you didn’t even know you were doing that your clients and prospects would love to get from you as a potentially separate service.

The question is: what is your little gem?

Thank you, Robert Rose, for writing the article that got my wheels a-turnin’.

You Can’t Outsource Good Writing

Amber — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:10:19 +0000

I responded to a question on LinkedIn Answers this morning that asked about the various sites like Elance and Simply Hired that churn out low-paying copywriting gigs.

I gave my two cents as a professional freelance copywriter and remembered a post I read a few months ago by Peter Bowerman about this very topic.

He talked about the kinds of jobs that typically get “outsourced” like computer programming and customer service, for example.

But what about quality writing?

Well, quality writing doesn’t get sent overseas necessarily, but certainly the market has been saturated with sub par work by writers who are paid $5 or so per article they write. Obviously if this is going to be any kind of income source for them they’ll have to churn out as many articles as possible in as little time as possible.

It sounds scammish, but it happens. Regularly.

Instead of paraphrasing the whole article, read it here.

Catvertising Video: Ask yourself, “What can cat videos do for my business?”

Amber — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:02:20 +0000

As a consumer of cat videos, I’m not entirely convinced that this idea would never work.

On a more serious note though, I think this video speaks to the dangers of following the trends of the moment that may not have much staying power.

It’s certainly a hilarious video though.

Trombone cat! Hah! Priceless. Enjoy.

(Thank you, Peter Bowerman, for sharing this!)