A Matter of Words  

Recently I’ve been working on a book with a client, and one of the lessons being taught has to do with quality. In a nutshell, you don’t want to accept second best simply to pay a lower price. Putting out the extra money to get what you really need will save you double the effort, time and money down the road. 

I recently had a object lesson in this myself. For a multitude of reasons I’d been planning on switching to Macintosh for a few years. I had just been putting it off because I knew there’d be a learning curve on it, and also knew it would be quite a bit more money than just another Windows computer. But at the beginning of last year I knew I had to get a new laptop for an extended out-of-town trip, and decided enough was enough—I’d just get what I really wanted: a MacBook Pro. Read more

I do beg your forgiveness for that title. It doesn’t escape me that the phrase “above the noise” has been used to death since the 1990s web explosion. We’ve seen it in the titles of white papers, books, articles, and blog posts. Heck, it was probably even the name of a band at some time or other.

Despite all that, the phrase keeps on being used. Businesses, brands and enterprises keep on seeking ways to “rise above that noise”, hoping to propel their message like a bullet through a densely noisy marketplace and land it squarely between the ears of ideal prospects. Read more

Why have I come to love writing for businesspeople?

Probably because I’m really not one.

Yeah, okay, that sounds a bit loopy. How could I make a living and get along in this world if I wasn’t a businessperson? So, I must be one, at least in some sense. Read more

Finding the time and space to sit down and write, for someone working 16 hours a day, is probably never going to happen. But it’s the people who put in those kinds of hours—innovators, entrepreneurs and business leaders—that really should be writing, because folks who aren’t nearly as successful need to hear their stories. Highly successful people often do have the idea that they should write a book, and even place the task on their long-term to-do list. But their workload and schedule often totally precludes it. Read more

With Elton John currently getting tons of media attention—entirely deserved—for his biopic Rocketman, I thought I’d take the opportunity to make a few remarks on what Elton has meant to me—as a writer, a musician,  and human being.

I was 19 when I bottomed out to the lowest period I would have in this life. I had been summarily ejected from my father’s house, and my mom couldn’t take me in at the time. With nowhere to go, I found myself crashing on the floor of a friend’s place in a very run-down apartment in what today is trendily known as East Hollywood. Read more

If your business has a high written content requirement, you’ve most likely already hired a writer or even a team of them. If they’re doing the job you really need from them—in other words, delivering a top-notch written product every time—then you can stop reading.

If you’re still here, then perhaps you’re looking for more from a writer. If that’s the case, I can help. Read more

Here are 5 important reasons to hire a professional freelance writer:

1. A professional writer can often turn out a spectacular written communication in a fraction of the time it would take a non-professional.
2. A professional writer has extensive experience communicating with the written word. Your message will come across exactly the way you want it to.
3. Because you only pay for each product, in the end it costs you far less than it would a salaried employee. You only pay for what you need. Read more

Today’s mantra for high visibility on the web is “content, content, content!” Anyone creating a web site is highly advised to fill their site with meaningful and relevant content, and regularly add to it so that visitors are engaged, and more likely to return, and most importantly more likely to purchase your product or service, or more of it.

The above will go a long way to rate a site high in the search engine rankings. But the next key question becomes, “Will potential qualified prospects read it?” Will the messages hit home? Will they be more motivated to buy, or buy more? Read more

 The same applies to creating content. I bet you could randomly sample a few web sites and, applying this principal, tell instantly if the writer really cared at all about the people they were writing to. Too much of the time, they care only about making themselves or their company look fantastic, in an effort to draw interest. But sadly, their lack of caring for the reader can come across in spades.

As an afterthought, you also have to give a crap about what you’re selling or promoting. That shows in your writing or your sales pitch as well. If you don’t, or you’re just pretending, you might want to consider a different line of business. Just sayin’. Read more