Know Your Value: How to Price Copywriting Services Effectively
Chris Guiton Chris Guiton

Know Your Value: How to Price Copywriting Services Effectively

E.B. White once remarked: "There is nothing harder to estimate than a writer’s time, nothing harder to keep track of. There are moments—moments of sustained creation—when his time is fairly valuable; and there are hours and hours when a writer’s time isn’t worth the paper he is not writing anything on." The quote prompts some interesting thoughts about how freelance copywriters go about pricing jobs.

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Why Writing Like You Talk Is No Bad Thing
Chris Guiton Chris Guiton

Why Writing Like You Talk Is No Bad Thing

People in writing circles still seem to get uptight about the insight that ‘you should write like you speak’. You do wonder why it generates so much controversy. Perhaps it’s based on a misunderstanding of what’s being proposed here.

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The Irresistible Power of Case Studies
Chris Guiton Chris Guiton

The Irresistible Power of Case Studies

Case studies are the gift that keeps on giving. Yet few small businesses bother with them. Or even know what they are. This is a shame as they’re a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. Demonstrating the value that you provide to your customers. And why you’re the right choice for them.

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Inhabiting the Words
Chris Guiton Chris Guiton

Inhabiting the Words

Writing about the composition of an early piano suite, composer and pianist Erik Satie said that: “‘The beautiful and limpid Aperçus désagréables... are written in the most superior style and enable us to understand why the subtle composer is justified in declaring: 'Before writing a work I go round it several times accompanied by myself'”.

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Why You Need to Take Notes (and Take Note)
Chris Guiton Chris Guiton

Why You Need to Take Notes (and Take Note)

Are you a jotter, one who jots? Do you use a jot-book? Do you ever refer back to your random jottings for inspiration? If you do, you’re in good company. If you don’t, maybe you ought to give it a try.

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Binding Words (And Letters) Together
Chris Guiton Chris Guiton

Binding Words (And Letters) Together

It’s always struck me as odd that the word ‘ampersand’ is so much longer than the word ‘and’. After all, it’s the descriptive name for the character ‘&’. Which is a shortened form of ‘and’. But I’ve only just found out why.

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To Split or Not to Split, That Is the Question
Chris Guiton Chris Guiton

To Split or Not to Split, That Is the Question

Fans of Star Trek will instantly recognise Captain James T. Kirk’s introduction to each episode: “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!”

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Copywriting and the Art of Simplicity
Chris Guiton Chris Guiton

Copywriting and the Art of Simplicity

Why do many people prefer complicated explanations to simple ones? Seeing complexity in things that are really quite straightforward. Why do some things appear to be more complicated than necessary?

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Coming Out of Lockdown: Is Your Business Ready?
Chris Guiton Chris Guiton

Coming Out of Lockdown: Is Your Business Ready?

Businesses forced to either close or reduce trading as a result of the latest Covid-19 lockdown are looking forward to the opportunity to reopen in the weeks ahead as restrictions ease. The Government’s roadmap provides hope that those businesses affected can resume trading, re-engage with their customers and return to some sort of normality. But this begs the question: are you ready?

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Lurking in the Ellipses
Chris Guiton Chris Guiton

Lurking in the Ellipses

You know that moment. Your thought has trailed off. You leave the sentence open-ended. It might suggest an idea not fully formed. Or imply an awkward silence. On the other hand…

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It’s a Funny Thing, Copywriting
Chris Guiton Chris Guiton

It’s a Funny Thing, Copywriting

“A comedian does funny things,” Buster Keaton said. “A good comedian does things funny.” This might appear a bit opaque on first reading. But it’s an interesting distinction.

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How a Specialist Bid Writer Can Help With Your Grant Application
Chris Guiton Chris Guiton

How a Specialist Bid Writer Can Help With Your Grant Application

Covid-19 has presented charities and voluntary organisations with a huge challenge. They have faced a perfect storm as traditional sources of income have dried up while demand for their services has soared. Smaller charities are particularly exposed to the crisis, especially those working to tackle poor health, poverty and domestic violence.

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The Art of Slow Copywriting
Chris Guiton Chris Guiton

The Art of Slow Copywriting

Advocates of the Slow Movement have been popping up all over the place in recent years. Slow Travel. Slow Reading. Slow Radio. Slow Parenting. Slow Cities. The list is endless. It might seem a bit on the faddish side. But I must confess a sneaking admiration for these attempts to slow life down. 

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What I See, What I See…
Chris Guiton Chris Guiton

What I See, What I See…

It feels like everyone’s blogging these days. What started in the late ‘90s as a way of sharing the often random thoughts that characterise a daily journal with a wider, online audience, soon morphed into thematically-based personal blogs, professional blogs, business blogs and niche blogs.

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