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China was where printing methods were developed, as early as the 6th century CE. During that period, block printing methods were in use to produce cloth as well as manuscripts, wall hangings, and tapestries.
The oldest surviving printed book, a Buddhist scripture, dates to 868 CE, and the movable type printer was invented by Pi Sheng in 1040 CE. There are wonderful legends that describe libraries filled with printed books in Asia as well as Arabia. And, in all probability, the art of printing went from China to Europe along the Silk Route through India, the Arab world, Persia, and Egypt.
In Germany, one of the first to develop printing technology using oil-based inks and movable types was Johann Gutenberg, and since then printing has revolutionized the spread of knowledge.
There are many innovative methods used, such as offset printing, relief print, screen printing, silk screen, rotogravure, laser printing, and digital printing.
The term “printing services” has gone to encompass duties beyond just printing. They offer design, processing, as well as printing - every aspect of producing a newsletter, brochure, business card, poster, magazine, or book is done in-house.
And there is more. The neighborhood print shop has gone online–you can, at the click of a mouse, get estimates, schedules, and proofs for checking. They offer the whole gamut of printing services at competitive prices and quality.
So, you can get on-demand printing, digital printing, and offset printing done professionally with quick turn-around time. There are discounts for reprints, as well as the ease of uploading files electronically, thereby minimizing transfer errors. The services offer a great selection of paper, fonts, and color options all from your computer system, with the product being delivered on-schedule to your doorstep.
On-line or off-line, to make the most of your budget you need to use a printing service that can give you value for your money. Always match your print job to a printer’s area of expertise, type of printing, and kind of printing. Aim to get the best quality at the lowest price, and on time. Always be market-savvy and ask for at least three quotes or bids, especially for a large-volume job. Ensure that the printer knows his business and is able to give valuable and effective advice on paper, binding, and the use of special colors.
Printing can be a complex business, but eases problems by providing material in formats given by the printer. Be sure to outline instructions clearly and in writing or by e-mail. Mark corrections legibly on proofs, and provide enough time to do a world-class job.
Printing Services provides detailed information on Printing Services, Scanning And Printing Services, Digital Printing Services, Business Card Printing Services and more. Printing Services is affiliated with Check Printing Company.
During the last period we can recall the Savings and Loan and Junk Bond Scandal everyone was up in arms over that. It led to a public mindset that all business people were greedy and evil. One songwriter in the band Jefferson Starship who wrote “We Built This City on Rock and Roll” had a verse in his song; “Someone always playing corporation games; Who cares they’re always changing corporation names.”
The songwriter captured the minds of the masses. But who said Corporations are bad? They bring us everything we desire. Entrepreneurs are not evil, they bring us everything we see and everywhere we go. Someone produced it, sold it, invented it and made it. You bought, because you desired it. Today we see similar attitudes in our societies and today’s songwriters like Bono, attacking the corporate interests of the world. We need both of them. Yes we need the corporations for those things we desire and some Bono types out there to help the masses cope. But why is everyone so stressed out?
The media has incited the masses with the Enron, World-Com, Adelphia, Arthur Anderson, US Foods, Global Crossing, WebVan and paraded our TV sets with the names of the purported perpetrators. But really there are so few actual bad people in corporate America. Even academia and PhD’s have got into the scene now, painting entrepreneurs and executives with a broad stroke. There are many such individuals, which offer great products or services at fair prices to consumers and provide things for the world that are extremely important. Some contend that ethical business is an oxymoron and that if you were truly ethical by nature your belief system would be in conflict with your job. I would say that a corporate executive position does not necessarily counters someone’s belief system if they are a worthy or benevolent by nature human beings. When those from academia, reporters or mere TV watchers who do not understand such individuals and make a blanket statement such as calling their belief system an inner struggle and ethical corporate profession an Oxymoron. I question this really.
From my own personal experience I have created businesses which serve mankind, individual running them and are conflict free. And further would like to point out that there is nothing more noble than an entrepreneur capitalist who provides for civilizations desires.
If we label all executives and business this people who work in corporations; where shareholders equity and quarterly profits and the best interests of the owners of that business, stock holders must be of the highest priority; then in fact the we end up labeling those who truly care and create win/win /win situations for themselves, investors and consumer of end products or services; as self serving. Which they maybe in fact be true, yet without that there will be no incentive to do anything. I would like to recommend Ayn Rand and Charles Dickens to you if you are not following or disagree with my contention.
If we tell humans they have inner conflicts or should have ethical and moral conflicts in their jobs then they might start feeling inferior in the corporate inner circles where organizational capital is king, thus we have weakened the corporation and the entrepreneurs involved to a point it effects the flows of our civilization and therefore affected the quality of life and cause stress to the masses.
So let’s listen to the radio and realize indeed; we did build this city on Rock and Roll with the help of our corporations and entrepreneurs. And if it was not for us, you morons would be living on dirt flows with your farm animals contracting bird flu. Stop condemning business people, lest you will have nothing. Just shut up and give thanks. Think about it.
“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/
Is your business in a post-holiday slump? It happens every year; service companies face a dip in business as consumers tighten the purse strings to compensate for holiday spending. Coupons may help bring in some business, but they can only do so much to improve the bottom line. So how do you keep your business in the black during the first months of the year? Try barter; it’s a great way to build your business, attract new customers, and fill downtime during slow months.
Barter is a way to effectively market your business. A new customer acquired for a barter transaction can easily transition into an ongoing cash customer. Unless that customer offers a service that you routinely pay for, then you can develop a deal for an ongoing exchange of services and lower the amount you pay out for services.
Barter is simple: you perform a service for someone and they perform a service for you or give you product that equals the value of your service. It’s a powerful way to build your business, in good times and bad, as long as it is used effectively. There are a few tips to leveraging barter wisely.
First, never barter for something you don’t want or can’t use. Barter for things you need to buy, such as product for your company, tax services, cleaning services, or consulting. It’s also great to barter for things you want, but wouldn’t spend your hard earned cash on, like sewing machines, spa services, or that fabulous cashmere throw you just won’t buy for yourself. Remember, while it is better to barter than sit idle, only make trades that provide you with something of value.
Second, set your barter appointments for when you have the most downtime. The idea is to bring in new business when you don’t have any, not turn away cash paying customers. Hair stylists often experience slow periods during the day at the beginning of the week; that’s a great time for them to swap a haircut for a new sweater or a highlight for a full body massage. You can also schedule recurring appointments for slow periods, such as the personal trainer swapping a Tuesday afternoon appointment with a CPA who keeps his books.
Third, barter, like any other financial transaction, requires solid bookkeeping and clean records. The IRS treats barter transactions as income received for both accrual-basis and cash-basis clients, therefore your records and your tax returns need to reflect it as such. It is easy to manage in a straightforward exchange, and can be a bit more complex when utilizing a barter exchange where you accrue points. In those cases, follow the rules of the exchange and make sure you spend all your accrued points by the end of the year.
Give barter a try and you will be pleasantly surprised by the options available to you and the growth in your business.
About the Author
Jessica Hardwick is founder and CEO of a startup, http://SwapThing.com that changes the way people barter goods and services through the Internet.
SwapThing is a site focused on building a strong swap community online for consumers and businesses.
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Ok the first thing that I have to give is a warning. Be very careful and do your research which should include the specific companies that you are considering joining up with and finding as much feed back from those who “have gone before” you. Here is the dealjust like with anything else in this world and unfortunately especially on the internet you are going to find that for every legitimate web site out there offering you hundreds of dollars of consistent income per day there are 20 more that are a bunch of broken promises. So please, BE CAREFUL, and keep this in mind as you get excited about the potential that paid online surveys have to supplement your income.
Another huge thing that you have to realize is that most of the paid online survey sites are not the actual sites that you will do the surveys for and get paid by. They are simply the gateway that has organized the opportunities and given you direct access to the different companies that are seeking input for their product or service, or are simply performing market analysis research. These sites charge (if they are real) will charge you a one time fee and this is to pay the real live online support that they provide to their members that need help or have questions about these survey jobs.
So do your research, understand the process, and then you can start earning money. It is well within the average computer user’s ability to make several hundred dollars per day while working about 3 or 4 hours per day filling out paid online surveys. Sounds good right? Another cool thing is that these sites will organize the type of job so that you are making comments and answering questions about stuff that you know and enjoy rather than trudging through material that you have no idea or interest in.
These companies (the real ones) are your friends. They do everything that they can to help your work go smoothly and to help you do things faster and make more money. The sites even sometimes offer you software that allows you to fill out more paid online surveys in less time than. This software is something they could easily charge for but the don’t, and it really increases your income potential.
As an internet marketer Abrahem Mittell knows how valuable survey results can be for market analysis. He encourages people to do them because they bring great benefit. Where can you find a paid online survey? Go to www.beginpaidonlinesurvey.info
If an office expects to spend about $50 or more on routine postage in a month, then a postage meter is definitely beneficial. The postal charge is printed by the meter unit of the equipment. In the case of online postage, there are services that permit the customer to download the postage from the Internet and print it directly onto the envelope or labels using the existing printer. This is either software based or integrated with a mini-hardware storage device.
The postage meter uses a homogeneous ink for printing the indicia. This ink is formulated by dissolving a coloring material made of a fluorescent toner in a non-volatile blending solution consisting of low molecular weight, fluid, and nonionic surfactants. The surfactants are organic solutions of alcohol or ester and glycols. The consistency of the ink can be altered using viscosity modifiers. All the components of the ink are non-toxic, non-hygroscopic, and do not affect the material on which they are used.
The colors of ink used for printing postage meter stamps are red, blue, purple, green, black, orange, and lilac. According to the United States Postal Service (USPS) customer support for mailing standards for meters used in post offices, only tape and red ink furnished by the Postal Service may be used. Post offices are required to use the green ink in meters, while customers should never use red ink. They may use other colors as long as the ink meets the Postal Service’s fluorescent requirements. Of late, inks using components for both fluorescence and phosphorescence have been patented.
The printers generally use different ink cartridges, so it is important to be aware of the specific cartridges for replacement. The lifespan of the ink cartridges depends upon the extent of use; with this in mind, they may be bought in bulk from the manufacturers. Compatible cartridges and recycled and remanufactured cartridges may be purchased from other manufacturers to suit several models of printers. Generally, offices always take stock of the needs of the quantity of ink or the cartridges before placing the purchase order.
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Postage Meters provides detailed information on Postage Meters, Postage Meter Supplies, Postage Meter Tape, Postage Meter Ink and more. Postage Meters is affiliated with Postage Meters. |
Are you one of those people who get into something and just works day and night on it? Or are you one of those minimalists who didn’t start papers in school until the night before they were due? You know scraping by doing the bare minimum. That was me in school, but I am getting off topic here.
You may be one of those people that will work like a maniac if it is something they really love, but will drag their feet if it is something very boring and unexciting to them. That last description fits me to the T. Guess School just didn’t excite me much. Which would explain why I did so much better in College when I got to choose my subjects. Sorry, getting off topic here again.
If you are one of those overachievers, remind yourself why you became a wham in the first place. To spent more time with your kids. Go take them to the park, play cars, Barbies or Lego blocks for a few hours. Read some books with them. Then put up some pictures in your work area to keep you on track.
If you are one of those that just barely do the minimum, make a list each morning of things that have to get done and sort them in order of priority. Get as many of them accomplished as possible and if you get everything on your list done, reward yourself with a nice long bubble bath, a walk in the park with your kid, a new manicure or whatever else works for you. Positive reinforcement always worked for me. Just make sure you don’t cheat by keeping your list short. Keep it challenging.
If you are like me, keep a task list. Get the stuff that needs taken care of and you don’t like to do done first. Then set yourself a limit on how much time you get to spend on the stuff you like to do. If you have to, set yourself a reminder in your outlook calendar, or set your alarm clock to go off. Then stop and do something fun with your family.
Your biggest tool is going to be a task list. You can scribble on a piece of scrap paper, use your outlook task list or make yourself a template. Whatever method you decide works best for you, I suggest you get in the habit of checking the tasks on your list off as you accomplish them. There is just something very rewarding about putting a little checkmark next to a list item, or crossing it out.
Play with a couple of the options and find the one that works for you. The important part is to make it part of your daily routine. You may want to create your list first thing in the morning, or the night before. I also end up adding to-do’s to my list as the day goes on. Just make sure you don’t over do it particularly if you have a little overachiever in you.
Now go get that work done.
About the author:
Susanne is a partner of http://www.WAHMWannabe.com, the one-stop online WAHM shop. WAHMWannabe offers home business comparison, business tools, work-at-home related articles, a unique WAHM marketplace, message boards, and a whole lot more. Be sure to stop by and check out what’s new, as WAHM resources are added constantly!
One reason companies continue sending tasks overseas is because
they are satisfied with the results.
Despite the challenges of moving IT, business process and
contact center services to India, China and other overseas
locations, companies are satisfied with their offshore outsourcing
initiatives, according to a new study by the Weissman Center for
International Business at Baruch College and The Paaras Group.
The joint study was based on surveys and interviews with 38
global companies, mostly based in North America.
The survey found that momentum for offshoring is
continuing unabated, especially as companies gain confidence and
experience in their ability to manage offshore operations. The
survey also found that offshoring delivered significant benefits
to pioneers as well as newcomers in 2003, with companies able to
improve quality while cutting costs. “Despite protectionist
backlash in the US and Europe, the offshoring wave has
turned into a Tsunami - an inevitable outcome of globalization
and economic integration,” said Suresh Gupta, Managing
Partner of The Paaras Group. “In fact, the leaders in offshoring
are no longer focused solely on offshore opportunities. They
have graduated to a broader model of ‘global’ or ’smart’
sourcing, which combines multi-location, multi-vendor and both
in-house as well as outsourced solutions
for IT and business processing.”
Key findings from the 2003 offshore outsourcing
survey include:
* Satisfaction Levels are High The vast majority of companies
(89%) moving IT, business processes and contact center work offshore reported
that they are satisfied with their offshoring initiatives.
* It’s Not Easy Knowledge transfer (76%) and internal commitment
(76%) were identified as the major challenges in launching
offshore initiatives, which companies said need to be addressed
early on to ensure success. Many of the survey participants
recommended hiring outside services providers to help build
consensus and bring ‘best practice’ experience.
* Cost Isn’t the Only Driver Companies cited cost savings (94%)
as the main goal of offshoring in 2003, followed by accessing
skilled resources (63%) and improving quality (51%).
* Program and Change Management are Keys to Success Most of the
companies surveyed (85%) believe that the establishment of a
Program Management Office (PMO) provides the foundation for
offshoring
success, with two-thirds (67%) stressing the importance of
proactive communications programs.
* ‘Best Practice’ Companies Prefer Global Sourcing to Offshoring Companies
with significant outsourcing experience have moved or are moving
toward a strategy of multiple locations, multiple vendors and a
judicious blend of both in-sourced and outsourced models to
minimize risks and maximize flexibility.
One of the things that can be guaranteed in this lovely world of
ours is that the same questions keep coming-up time and time
again.
Sure, they may be asked by different people, at different times,
but they still come-up.
Over the years, I have had many people ask me “Craig, what are
the biggest mistakes you see with home businesses?”
Having become tired of answering the same old questions, I’ve
decided to detail the 5 biggest mistakes I’ve seen made by home
businesses (in no particular order).
1. No Clear Plan of What is to be Achieved
In this day and age of ecommerce, an unfortunate consequence of
the ease with which these type of transactions can be conducted
is that novice business owners believe they can establish their
business, make a mint within a year, then retire or move onto
the next project.
Whether your business is internet-based or a more traditional
“bricks & mortar” business, you still need to plan what you want
to get out of the business.
This by no means preparing a 10 page business plan, however, you
should still set your goals so you can identify your progress
towards achieving those goals.
The more identifiable your goals, the more focused a person is
towards achieving those goals.
2. Lack of Commitment
When the first million isn’t made within the first year, most
people give-up.
Remember, success takes times! If it were easy, you would all be
millionaires.
Set goals for the first year, the second, the third and so on.
If you achieve your first year’s goals, there is momentum to
achieve the next year’s goals.
Don’t make your goals unrealistic either. Think about what you
can achieve and go from there.
Despite what people may think, most overnight successes have
taken years to achieve.
3. Not keeping an Eye on the Finances
Cash flows! Budgets! Projections!
Boring, I know but so critical.
Big businesses do these and there is no reason why home based
businesses should not either.
Some of the best home based businesses I have seen have adhered
strictly to the preparation of these documents and continually
monitored progress against them.
Do you know that your bank account will show a significant dip
in 8 months time? How are you going to finance your new stock
intake? Will the bank sign-off on that new car you wanted to
lease even though this month’s turnover and profit were down?
These are all questions that can be answered by having the right
financial documents prepared.
These documents also highlight when significant government
obligations (such as tax) which, in my experience, most business
owners forget about (or try to forget about).
4. Failing to Network
Even with an internet-based business, it is essential to
maintain a contact network.
These could include monthly chamber of commerce meetings,
supplier meetings and indeed, even informal discussions with
competitors.
There is a wealth of information to be obtained from having an
informal drink or lunch with any of the above and for also
keeping a tab on what people critical to your business think
about the future.
5. Failing to Service the Client/Customer
A number of home based businesses I have seen think the job is
finished when the order is sent or the money in the bank.
Here’s a little secret that successful business owners have
known for some time now.
The job is never finished.
This is because you must always market your products and
services to your clients and customers.
You must always be aware of the sentiment of those people (Is
the tide turning? Do they want something different? Can I offer
it?).
Successful business owners never rest on their laurels, they are
constantly looking to improve and this is the drive that keeps
them at the top of the pack.
All comments above are of a general nature only and are not
intended to be construed as specific advice. Always seek
professional advice for your own personal circumstances.
Are Make Money Scams Your Fault?
Make money failure?
——————
If you toss a coin 100 times and it comes down
heads 99 times, does that prove that it is a two-
headed coin?
Match Your Abilities
——————–
You have heard that if you invent a better
mousetrap the world will beat a path to your door.
Imagine that you sell your invention together with
full manufacturing and selling rights to 100
people. One make money purchaser is soon a
millionaire because of your invention. The other
99 people clamor for their money back. It didn’t
make money for them therefore it must be a scam.
They must be right. As with the coin toss 99
times out of 100 proves that it is a scam and
nobody can make money.
My Failures
———–
Inkjets: I bought a kit to make money
by refilling inkjet cartridges. I had big plans
about expanding my business once it could make
money big time. I would set up a van, and drive
round the country businesses in Western Australia,
and make money refilling their cartridges each
week.
Or I might even be able to drive into the
parking lot of some local manufacturers who had
hundreds of inkjet printers operating, and refill
a couple of hundred cartridges before driving on
again. Think how I could make money then!
My main abilities are technical, which suited
refilling the cartridges.
My main lack of ability is in salesmanship. The
business failed. I only made a few hundred dollars
out of it over a period of several years.
Was the idea a scam? No. I am a bad salesman.
Others do make money this way, and very good money
too.
Translation: Next I bought a make money idea to
become a translator. This was great. I sailed
through my translator’s exams and joined two
professional organizations.
But the work didn’t come in. I didn’t make money.
It turns out that not all translation is equal to
make money. If you can translate from English into
the language of a new third-world market that
manufacturers want to open up you can make money -
large dollops of it. The manufacturers are happy
to help you to make money so that they can make
money in larger quantities.
However, if you translate into English as I do,
then the manufacturers are in the third-world
countries. That means that they can’t afford
quality translators. They will always go for the
cheapest work from their own country where slave-
labor fees are charged. It doesn’t matter that
English is not the native language of the
translator. The manufacturer can’t afford to help
you make money by going for quality.
I only made money of a few thousand dollars over
two years.
Make Money Scams
—————-
Of course, there are make money scams like the one
about getting money out of Nigeria. You can often
recognize this type of scam by
1.If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
2.Money making scam merchants like it to be barely
legal. That way you won’t want to complain about
them to the authorities.
3.No work needed. If it needs no work to make
money, why do they want your help?
Make Money from Services
————————
In the examples I gave above I was trying to use
my services to make money.
You will almost always make some money - even if
you are a hopeless salesperson. The only trouble
is that you may make money that is too little to
interest the tax man. It is embarrassing when the
tax man returns your money with the comment that
it is a hobby not a business to make money!
But suppose that you are a brilliant salesperson.
In that case can’t you find better ways to make
money than working hard? OK suppose you are a
mediocre salesperson. You have found a service
where word of mouth soon brings you so much work
that there aren’t enough hours in the day for it.
That is the big problem. Why do you want to make
money? To get freedom? Then why are you working 70
hours a week on your business to make money? What
kind of freedom is that?
One way is to sell the business for a large sum of
money and then build another, and sell that to
make money.
Automated Income
—————-
This is the best way to make money. You don’t make
money with no work. It takes a lot of hard work to
set up the automation. But it is cumulative like a
rolled snowball. The hard work you do today will
make money for you tomorrow and next year and…
Grasp Opportunity
—————–
I had the chance recently to buy into a business
that needs my technical abilities and needs no
salesmanship to make money. I grabbed the chance.
You can’t get in - the offer was only open for 24
hours. If you are too skeptical then when
opportunity knocks you will miss your chance to
make money. Fortunately I already had experience
of working with the vendor, so my skepticism was
low.
How To Match Your Abilities With the Opportunity
———————————————–
It’s only logical. If you want to match the
opportunity to your abilities you want to have as
many opportunities to choose from as possible. So
I’ve gathered a range of articles by many authors.
Don’t be brainwashed by just one author, but
please, don’t ask for a refund just because a way
to make money doesn’t work for you. Unless it is a
scam like the one about helping to get hundreds of
millions of dollars out of Nigeria then the fault
is probably your own.
One man who became filthy rich from the internet
says that he expects 15 out of 16 of his projects
to fail. He starts banking his ongoing income from
the sixteenth project, then moves on to the next
sixteen.
Ian McAllister wins some and loses some but is always looking for new ways to make money. Visit his new site packed with ideas to make money.
If you’re hunting for a good freelance copywriter and have never done it before, or if you have but find yourself needing another for the first time in a while, I don’t envy you. This “brave new” e-world has turned your once straightforward search of a neatly stacked file of brochures and introductory letters into a bothersome wade through a mucky world of half-baked online listings and search results which only seem to list those freelance copywriters who are experts in SEO, or at least know what the heck it means (search engine optimization).
You: “I just need a good freelance copywriter to write this product launch brochure
who’s not going leave me hanging or make me ask for another round of financing.”
Google: “Results 1-10 of 44,700 for brochure copywriter (0.17 seconds).”
And that’s not even a very popular search term. Yet, with 44,700 doors (or
thousands more depending on your search) to choose from, what are the chances
you’ll click the one that leads to:
• A freelance copywriter who plays nice with designers and doesn’t charge a
first-born child
• A freelance copywriter who knows when and where to offer their expertise on
how to communicate a message
• Creative, cliché-free, differentiating, success-enabling copy that is turned in
clean and on deadline
It’s probably better than a 1-in-44,700 chance, but you’re still more likely to fall
short than be wildly ecstatic about your freelance copywriter decision unless you
add a few points of structure to guide you through the online chaos:
1. Look at freelance copywriters further down the list. Unless you’re specifically
looking for an SEO copywriter, how high a freelance copywriter or a link to a
freelance copywriter ranks in search results is not indicative of how good that
copywriter may be. Search engines rank web sites according to formulas of keyword
saturation in site copy, meta tags, links and other places. Not how well a freelance
copywriter’s work achieved his client’s objectives. Spend some time at this. There is
more to the marketing, branding and advertising worlds than the Internet, and there
are many worthy and successful freelance copywriters who work in the offline world,
but have only a token presence on the Net. Go ahead and look at the top-ranked
freelance copywriters, but investigate the others as well. Look at who their clients
are, the work they do, the brands they’ve worked on, what their site is like and
testimonials from past and current clients. That should give you a good gauge. Or if
you like the advertising a specific company do a search for “CompanyX AND
copywriter.”
2. If you want quality, steer clear of “bidding” sites. There’s too many of them
already, and more seem to be popping up all the time. The online auction is a great
concept for your old fishing equipment or clunker on cinder blocks, but not for a
good freelance copywriter, designer, photographer or any other “creative service”
professional. Sites like Elance.com, Guru.com and their many cousins allow service
providers to whore themselves out for projects in a reverse auction where the lowest
bid wins. Unfortunately, there really is no winner. The freelance copywriter (or
whoever) gets a fraction of the fair market value for their work and the client, unless
they’re extremely lucky, will be stuck with a student, green amateur or someone
who might not even speak English wellto say nothing about the copy they’ll write.
3. Seek out freelance copywriters with online portfolios. Find freelance
copywriters who have some kind of online portfolio. Go through it in detail. Try to
get an idea of the communications problem the freelance copywriter had to solve
and get a grasp on the talent and thinking that went into creating the finished copy.
Then ask yourself, “If I was in the market for something like this, would this make
me more interested in learning about this product or want to buy it?” The work of a
good copywriter will be obvious.
4. Judge by the work, not the product. You may have a great new product that
everyone’s going to want, or an old product that everyone already has, but with a
new feature or something. Now, your first instinct in finding someone who’s going
to write copy to sell this product is to find someone who, if you’re selling
underwater titanium door hinges, has written copy for underwater steel or plastic
door hinges. Yes, too many marketers think if a freelance copywriter has only
written for X and not Y, that they can’t write for Y. This kind of thinking is
misguided. Again, go back to No. 3 and look at the portfolio. Gauge the talent. If
they did a great job communicating something about X, you can bet they’ll be able
to do the same for Y. A freelance copywriter isn’t defined by the product. He is
defined by how he writes about that product.
These guidelines, along with a little “buyer beware” mentality, will help you wield
the Internet as the powerful information tool it’s purported to be. You will find a
good freelance copywriter.
Adam Barone is a freelance copywriter from the Boston area, who writes results -
generating copy for such clients as The Timberland Company, Bank One, TJ Maxx,
and other clients and ad agencies.
Visit him at http://www.adambarone.com. Subscribe his e-newsletter, CopyTHINK at adambarone.com/mailinglist/?p=subscribe
.
©Adam Barone 2005. All rights reserved.
Reprint rights granted as long as the article is published in its entirety, including
links.