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Tips, ideas and humor for the freelance copywriter. Voted a Top 10 Writer's Site, the Copywriter Underground combines straightforward ideas with wry humor.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'writer tools'
Too Many Characters in Your Latest Mastertweet? Use The Shorter Thesaurus…
In an era when 141 characters is considered simply too damn long, a “shorter” thesaurus makes sense – especially one that’s no further away than your Firefox Search Bar: The Shorter Thesaurus site simply accepts the word you t...
Blogging For Money? The Feed Pauser Plugin Offers You (and Your RSS Feed) a Second Chance
With more copywriters business blogging for bucks (say that three times fast), and people now accessing streams of information more or less instantaneously, the dangers of the WordPress “Publish” button loom large. Mis-type a word in a h...
Apparently, Finishing Things a New Online “Trend” (or, Singletasking??)
Amusingly, it’s now apparently OK to turn off the swirling tornado of notifications, alerts, bings and (bleeping) beeps that seem to define the working day for so many of us. We can now move on to actually doing things until complete – on...
Wordnik Provides Social Meaning of Words (or, Research for the Terminally Unhip Writer)
I admit it. I’m terminally unhip – at least when it comes to the latest, hottest, hippest, social media-esque uses of the language. In fact, I still think “sick” and “phat” are sorta bad things, which suggests some...
Distraction-Free Writing (or, How Even Old Writing Dogs Can Learn New Tricks)
My working day hasn’t grown less complicated over the decades. I used to openly mock techniques invoked in the service of productivity, but because of the temptations and interruptions of our connected lives, I now embrace them. That includes m...
The Online Marketing Map (or, Why Teaching is Just Learning in Disguise)
Teaching - done right - is really just learning in disguise. And what you learn when you teach is often what you already knew, though perhaps not as deeply as you should have. I recently finished teaching the last local session of my Online Marketing...
Simple Job Tracking For Freelance Writers (or, Maybe Paper is Better)
Ad agencies want to bill every minute of employee time to their clients, so they demand daily timesheets - which require each project have a unique tracking ID. While I don’t track my time with such precision (any more), I have adapted my last ...
Getting Words Down: Write or Die
Getting words on paper (excuse the archaic reference) is either our job, our passion, or our biggest roadblock. Of course, writer’s block isn’t exactly new. What is new are some of the high-tech (and often high-comedy) techniques we use t...
The Modern Online Copywriter: Why a Programmer’s Editor Might Be In Your Future
Sometimes the world shifts imperceptibly underneath you, and though you notice something has changed, the difficult part is figuring out what to do about it. For years, almost every commercial project I wrote was typed into in a heavy-duty word proce...
Dimensional Mailers: Misunderstood, Underutilized, and Yet Another to Set Yourself Apart
Regular readers know I’m a fan of lumpy mailers. They’re powerful self-promotion tools - the kind of tactic that invariably finds your pitch on the desk of decision makers. Of course, they’re not just a short-run tool used for self ...
The “Top 10″ Writing Blogs Contest Concludes
Michael Stelzner concluded his “Top 10 Writing Blogs” contest, and this year’s winners represent a nice mix of repeat appearances and new faces. And yes, I did notice the Copywriter Underground fell off the list this year, and that...
Email Interruptions Cost You 64 Seconds in Downtime
Need a reason to turn off that “you’ve got mail” tab, ghost box or other notification? Every time it pops up, it takes an average of 64 seconds to regain your train of thought. Via the Sydney Morning Herald: It had been assumed that...
An Introduction to RFM: Three Letters Every Response-Oriented Copywriter Should Know
Sometimes, better copy isn’t the solution to a client’s marketing problem. As a value-added copywriter - someone offering your clients more than vowels and consonants - you should know how to generate success for you clients, even if it d...
The Ubuntu Project #5: Does Ubuntu Linux Stay, or Go?
When I started my “Is Linux Ready for Word Workers?” series, I thought I’d squeeze a pair of posts from my Ubuntu Linux installation, erase it, and dive right back into Windows Vista. So much for expectations. No, I didn’t mu...
e-Junkie Makes Selling Online “Information Products” Easier
Another good tip from Writer’s Technology Companion - this one for a $5/month online service named e-Junkie (they lose points for the name) that really looks to simplify e-book downloads, paper book sales, and more: From the Writer’s Tec...
Free Download: Liquid Story Binder Writing Software
Word processor geeks rejoice! Liquid Story Binder XE is writing software (Windows) designed for those who write, organize and publish larger writing projects (not blog posts). For the rest of today (Friday, 7/18), you can download it free from the G...
The Ubuntu Project: Trouble In Paradise
So far, my Ubuntu Linux experience has been amazingly trouble free. Installation was easy. DVDs are playing. And - most importantly - the work is getting done. I even like the new software. But lately, I’ve grounded on some shoals. Deal breaker...
Writers Rejoice: It’s E.B. White’s Birthday
The Writer’s Almanac tells us today is E.B. White’s birthday - an event worth a little celebration among the prose manufacturing set. After all, White edited (and improved) Strunk’s Elements of Style, a book I still pull from the sh...
Google Keyword Research Tool Now Displays Search Volume
Maybe it doesn’t quite eclipse the presidential race in the news cycle, but I learned (via Dave Alston) that Google’s External Keyword tool now offers keyword search volumes. This handy little addition allows you to do simple keyword res...
The Ubuntu Project #3: An Update From the Road
I’m on a two-week fly fishing trip in Montana, and in the Interest of seeing Ubuntu Linux perform on the road, I brought my work laptop with me. Not many posts? I’ve been spending my time here. The results have been instructive, if not al...
The Ubuntu Project Post#2: The Copywriter’s Software Dilemma
I’m a week into my Linux test flight, and Ubuntu is working largely as advertised. It seems its reputation as a hard-to-use/hard to install OS is outdated – at least for Ubuntu. (For an amusing look at Bill Gates’ take on Windows XP usa...
The Ubuntu Project: Is Linux Right For Word Workers?
My six year-old HP laptop has never failed me. But lately, it has been making me wait. It’s running Windows XP, and even after a clean install – once its 512K MB of RAM was burdened with service packs, security updates, anti-viral software an...
Create Word Clouds From Your Favorite Text at Wordle
As Web 2.0 fanatics, we’re always searching for our next online time waster, and Wordle might be one of the best. You cut and paste text into the box, and it generates a “word cloud” based on word usage (often-used words are shown b...
The High Tech Writer: A Blog Worth Reading
As a writing techno-geek of the worst kind, I admit to a fascination with the tools we use to write. That’s why I’ve added an interesting new writing blog to my RSS Reader: The Writer’s Technology Companion. Articles about PayPa...
Could The Feelance Writer’s Most Important Tool Be The Lowly Spreadsheet?
I just finished a conversation with a client who wanted to send me money. Sadly, they expect me to perform a written act of marketing before sending a check, and they wanted a project estimate. Long ago, I made a rule to never give off-the-cuff estim...
We’re Living Web 2.0; Why Aren’t We Using Browser 2.0?
Modern Web browsers (like Internet Explorer or Firefox) are far nicer than the limited creatures we wrestled with in the mid-90s, but as “Web 2.0” matures, why are we still using Web 1.0 browsers? SHARETHIS.addEntry( { title: "We’re Livi...
Instapaper.com: The One-Click "Content Bank" I’ve Been Looking For
The dark underbelly of the Information Age becomes apparent when I try to organize my online life — especially when noting useful Web pages and blog entries for later use. I’ve tried several approaches that didn’t quite work, and no...
An Underground Review: Writing White Papers by Michael Stelzner
The bookshelves are littered with "How to make millions in your underwear" books aimed at new copywriters — most of them pretty light on original thought. What’s missing are the books that actually tell you how to do things —...
It’s Moving Day: So Exactly What Does the Modern Writer’s Office Look Like?
Moving is stressful. It’s a lot of backbreaking work (and I noticed none of you offered to help). The Writer’s Office doesn’t look like this. So what does it look like? The good news? A new home office space is in my future. (...
A Monster Word Processor Review: The Underground Geeks Out
I admit it. I’m a word processor geek. My keyboard might as well wear a pocket protector. So when I find a comprehensive review of word processors, I sit up, re-tape my eyeglasses, and start reading. Fourteen word processor reviews later, it...
