I got a call from a BIG company the other day. They’ve been whacked by the Farmer update (Pandapocolypse 🙂 ) but despite having copped it once already, they were still looking to only pay content mill/craptent rates.

Weird.

Weirder still is when people use the promise of vast amounts of work to entice you into agreeing a ball braking rate. When they want to screw you into the floor on a price and think that repeated screwing is going to make it all ok. What’s all that about?

Actually, I know what it’s about. It works too. It’s about selling the destination – the fat final figure and not the journey.

Reductionism breaks copywriting into a piece rate. An eye on the horizon blurs the process.

Someone will end up doing the work though. Reluctantly perhaps or believing that by showing ‘flexibility’ they’ll be opening the door to better paying work in the future.

Fail.

And yes – I do declare – there were times when I was so lonesome I took some comfort there.

You know, sometimes… we exploit ourselves.

One word – two completely different businesses

The confusion occurs because both businesses use copywriting as a means to their respective ends.

Professional sales copywriting is intelligent, researched, insightful and based on a clear understanding of the product, the audience and the business objective. Google fodder isn’t. It’s just words thrown on to a page to try and boost rankings. No hard feelings though – different objectives, different business model. The problems only start for both copywriter and client when the two are confused.

Just to clarify.

If it’s fifty, 500 word articles on cheese, or 120 thousand word articles on umbrellas that you’re after and you budget extends only as far as rock bottom – please don’t contact me. It’s not the business I’m in.

On the other hand, if you want 5-star sales copywriting, crafted website copy, high performance landing pages, emails that sell or expert  SEO copywriting – the kind of copy that helps build your business on line – that’s exactly the kind of business I’m in.

Thanks to Reintji for the CC Flickr image