So, you’re a small business, and you want to hire a copywriter. This can be a pretty scary prospect, since most small startups, especially artsy/crafty ones are a) nervous, b) pretty much broke, and c) don’t always know what they want, just that they want more sales. I sympathize with this. So you go to some fancy website and contact the copywriter of your choice. I’d love this to be me, but to be fair, there are lots of different options out there, and many copywriters do better with a certain type of business. It’s worth checking out your options and seeing what appeals to you.

Before you set up a meeting, think about what you want. Do you have a message that you’d like to express more clearly on your site? Do you have some great products and have no idea how the hell to sell them, or what your message might be? Or are you somewhere in between? Any of these options are okay, but you should let your copywriter know that upfront in the consult. We are not scary monsters, we are smart people who for the most part, really want you to succeed. After all, from a highly selfish perspective, your success is also ours. Letting the copywriter know where you’re coming from, even if it’s from a point of total confusion, helps them know how to help you.

At this point, if you like the consult, you should be able to set up a deadline and fee for the copy. Copywriters do payment in different ways, and you should ask about that too. A good copywriter will work to make the copy to your satisfaction before considering the job done, and may show you several drafts and ask many annoying questions. This tends to be my method of writing for small businesses. Ideally, at the end of this, you should have some great readable copy for your site (more on this issue later), and both of you should be satisfied with the experience. Remember, as a customer, the writer wants you to be happy; the happier you are, the more likely you are to be a repeat customer. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or say that you don’t like something. We’re writers: we’re pros at being criticized and rejected.

So what can you do to make your copywriter, who has written you this copy so lovingly, a very happy person? It’s pretty simple. Don’t be a jerk, and pay on time. One of a writer’s biggest fears is simple: not being paid. Sites like Odesk have an entire business model that is based on guaranteed payment for a reason. Outside sites like that, writers can’t ensure payment very easily (I ask for half upfront for a reason). Every writer has had an experience where they’ve never been paid for services rendered, and it sucks. If you can’t pay it all at the time you promised, okay, we can probably work with that. We understand being a poor underpaid small business. But don’t just leave us hanging with no choice but to assume that you’re a jerk. In addition, feel free to ask questions, ask for rewrites, and generally not be satisfied until the job is well done. But please do this politely; we’re professionals, you can trust us.

Finally, a word on SEO copywriting. It’s hot now, people get paid ridiculous amounts of money to do it. In some situations, it’s very useful. For some business models, it’s really not and you should just ignore it. Check out the ittybiz link to find out more about this, Naomi has some great writing on it that I won’t try and replicate since she’s the expert. Don’t let someone sell you expensive SEO copywriting if you don’t need it, and educate yourself on what benefits it would provide you with. In addition, don’t let someone sell you an SEO friendly page that reads like a badly programmed robot wrote it. Search engine rankings are nice, but you want people to stay on your page and look around, rather than be put off by repetitive phrasing. In addition, while search engine rankings get people to your page, once your potential customers are there, SEO won’t help you. Customers want to see a message with great products; they want to know who you are and why they should buy your stuff and not the other guy’s stuff. Once you get to that stage, keywords aren’t very useful.

I know it sounds like I’m knocking SEO copywriting. I’m really not, and I don’t mean to offend any SEO writers out there. It’s a valuable tool, when used correctly, and there are many people out there who do it with style and flair and make it sound great. However, I will argue that a strong message and great products is what makes a sale, not keywords. I try to incorporate SEO writing into my copywriting, but I refuse to do it to the extent that it ruins the copy or the quality of the writing. That said, this goes back to my earlier point. Different copywriters have different fields and specialties. If someone came to me and wanted a strictly SEO page with no message, I’d probably send them somewhere else. Not because I disliked them or what they wanted, but they’d get more for their money with someone else who was into that kind of thing.

Last announcement, and then I’ll stop. I’m having an Etsy only sale this month as well as the startup sale: go check out this forum thread for more information. The short version is: free consult, discount if you buy my services afterwards and you’re an Etsy seller. Hell, if you’re an Etsy member I might be talked into doing a goods and service trade type of thing. I’m in love with all of the stuff over there. So all your Etsy businesspeople, please get in touch, I’d love to see what you have!

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