From the category archives:

attitude

Copywriting is about putting ideas onto the page. In writing, as in speaking, you need to put these ideas down authoritatively. You need to know what you’re saying, and you need to say it. That may take work, and it definitely takes revisions. But in the end, you need to do it if you want to write good stuff (and trust me, you do).

I guess that sounds simple enough… and it is in a vacuum. But as you know, startups (and startup writing) don’t occur in a vacuum. There’s attention, rumors, and of course, there’s criticism. Lots of it. The business world and the startup world are full of criticizers - people who are in first in line to declare ‘FAIL‘ and who are first in line to tell you how little you know (and how much you suck).

No matter if you’re one of these people, or if you’re good at dealing with criticism, these things can ding you… they can get you down. The criticizers (no matter how dumb) can make you doubt your ideas, and thus, make it harder to write good idea-based copy.

The solution? Keep working. Keep focused on producing quality-content, not on how stupid people receive it. In the end, you’ll have good copy, a better shot at a successful company, and a better shot at the last laugh.

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EVERYBODY is a writer

by brianlburns on 16 April 2008

in attitude, links

I don’t think I ever got anything better than a B+ in an english or writing class - all of my former teachers would probably swallow their pocket protectors if they heard I’m writing for a living. And tell you the truth, I have a hard time believing it sometimes. Fact is, I’m not making [...]

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Do Copy

by brianlburns on 15 April 2008

in attitude

It’s been my experience that there are two types of people in this world: doers and criticizers. In the startup world, even more so than the real world, there are a bunch more criticizers than doers. You know who I’m talking about – the one’s always there to tell you your idea won’t work, that [...]

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Copy That Sells

by brianlburns on 14 April 2008

in attitude, good writing, links

This morning, Seth Godin wrote a good piece on unintentional blogging income. The idea is that most successful bloggers start out for fun, and for the thrill of having good content read. Money only comes later (and as an afterthought). It’s good stuff, and brings up an important point for me here. Namely, that writing [...]

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