Tips

In 2009, I chucked my marketing job to become a freelance copywriter. I worked from home each day. I had a waitlist of clients and my business grew. Life was good. With a consistent stream of projects to complete, I thought I was under pressure, but looking back, I knew ...

When I started out as a professional copywriter — exactly 40 years ago this year — I was full of energy and excitement. No surprise there. It was my first non-manual job. It paid crazy well compared to every other job I’d ever had. And I loved what I was ...

Me: “Hey, Brain, it’s time to proofread!” My Brain: “We don’t want to.” Me: “But, Brain, this article isn’t complete until we proof it.” My Brain: “Our eyes are tired.” Me: “There might be a mistake I want to correct, or I might find ways to make the text even ...

Our culture glorifies being busy. But we don’t always glorify spending time on the right things. This week was about spending your time and effort intentionally. About getting more powerful results, without necessarily putting in a lot more hours. It’s not always easy to work on the right things over ...

The answer to, “How do I get more engagement, more traffic, more search engine authority, more sales,” or more of anything else of what you want is often: “Publish more content.” But there comes a point when creating more content is a recipe for flat-out exhaustion. I had a fun ...

Back in the sweltering summer of 2007, I got a bit crazy. I wanted to get across to people that becoming a better writer is not something a “10 Step” article can teach you. Yes, reading helps writers immensely, but when it comes down to it, you become a better ...

It doesn’t matter if you create content about minimalism or motorcycles. Every audience has these three sub-groups: People who read your content. People who read and share your content. People who take action on the advice you provide in your content. The sub-groups aren’t mutually exclusive. For example, those who ...

It’s a funny thing — so many of the most gifted and capable people wrestle the hardest with impostor syndrome and self-doubt. And often, the biggest barrier between you and your ambitious goals is your own head. This week, we offered resources to get your confidence kickstarted and your creative ...

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but keeping your creative confidence going is hard. Our friend Austin Kleon has one of those creative practices we all envy — a robust, consistent work ethic that’s paid off in a New York Times bestselling book and the kind of audience that would ...

It happened somewhere around third grade, when you were about nine years old. Do you remember? Before that age, we were all multi-talented bundles of potential. We ran, climbed, learned to read and write, did simple math, made pictures, and built towers out of blocks with our own two hands. ...