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Christmas DIY bird box goes down a tweet
German advertising and communications agency Grow issued me with a challenge at the end of November: “Christmas is getting closer and we are sending clients a DIY bird house. We want to combine our...
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How to use subcontractors successfully
Subcontractors are a great solution if a job is too big to handle on your own but many freelancers fear to use them. They worry they’ll lose clients or their business image may suffer if the...
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Super subs network saves sinking editor
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. When a freelancer is under the cosh, there’s one way to turn and that’s to other trusted freelancers. I had just four days to edit more than 40 policy and...
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Is a freelance famine good for internal comms?
When I heard I was one of only a few freelancers attending the Institute of Internal Communicators (IOIC) conference ‘How do we future-proof IC?’ I couldn’t believe my luck. One freelance writer and...
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Do badly bulleted lists drive you mad?
Are you driven mad by bullet points that make no sense? I was proofreading my toothpaste this morning, like you do, and spluttering over this prime example: This badly bulleted toothpaste ruins every...
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Five ways to get creative juices flowing
No one can keep on top of their game when they’re tired. So after a mammoth writing and editing session lasting nine hours, I took a break and did something completely different yesterday: I baked a...
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Why The Hobbit movie is a billion dollar success
Deft changes of pace and a witty script are why I think The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has become the 16th movie in film history to earn over US$1 billion worldwide. It’s 15th in the latest Internet...
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A step-by-step guide to writing features
Summer is a quiet period for magazine and newspaper editors, making it a cool time to send them an article on a hot topic relevant to their audience. Here’s my step-by-step guide to writing a...
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Must you keep blogging Mr. Blogger?
Reblogged from bottledworder: How do you stand out in the blogosphere? Do you want to? It's important to ask that second question first because it's tough work. Blogging. Because the work never gets...
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A plea for contact details in email signatures
As head of branding in a former life I used to get red in the face when the company logo was incorrectly reversed out on stationery or the wrong Pantone colour used. Now I find myself getting grumpy...
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Bold idea for a wow corporate Christmas gift
One of my last jobs of the year is to write a Christmas card for funky German advertising and communications agency Grow, to go with its bold idea of a festive gift. Then they send me the gift. Result!...
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Flooding and stupidity – are they linked?
The recent floods in the UK make you wonder how mankind got to the top of the food chain. First, there’s the idiocy of building on or near floodplains – and continuing to do so. If you live in...
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How to write a press release that gets results
Press releases are an efficient and free opportunity to publicise news about your company by getting the media to do it for you. The difficulty is persuading a hard-pressed journalist to run your story...
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Creative agencies offer fertile ground for freelancers
Thinking about becoming a freelance writer? One of the most stimulating working environments is content writing or brand journalism for corporations, especially through internal communications (IC)...
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Brief encounter: how writers get it right first time
Great words preferably wrapped up in a swift service. It’s a goal that clients dream of and copywriters aspire to, but delivering it depends on one vital ingredient: a decent brief. Copywriters are...
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Rail station? No, no, no!
I’m all for the English language changing and adapting, but there are some expressions that not only sound wrong, they are wrong. Rail station is one of them. Every time I walk pass this sign near the...
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Five reasons why headlines matter
There are some great headlines. The Sun’s SUPER CALEY GO BALLISTIC CELTIC ARE ATROCIOUS is just one example. And then there are some appalling, laugh-out-loud examples. Favourites from my cuttings...
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Are brand journalists on a par with ‘proper’ ones?
DWPub has just sent me a survey to complete about brand journalists. One of the questions was: ‘When do you think brand journalists will be treated the same as traditional journalists’? The answer...
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Design terms for editors: the sub-head explained
The sub-head is a short headline inserted in long columns of text to give readers respite and to provide a teaser for the content below it. It is primarily a typographical device and comes in two...
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Concorde ticket freebie recalls marketing fiasco
I’ve just come across a load of marketing material in the garage from my flight on Concorde in the early 1990s. My boyfriend at the time had won a pair of tickets to Hamburg in a free flights...
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