Either way, it’s damned funny, and I’ll let you decide which between smirks:

See you drinking “Mitch,” Tom Chandler.

It’s not easy. Businesses don’t necessarily believe a freelance writer can write coherently about their business or their industry.

And then there’s the question of money. Blogging often pays poorly, and businesses have a lot of marketing options.

Still, it’s being done. And today’s copywriter is ideally positioned to handle the whole project (instead of letting some agency rake off all but a pittance).

The Wall Street Journal Independent Street blog outlines a Florida-based company selling blogs to businesses (note their rates & their process):

The company brainstorms “hot topics” to blog about with its clients and then its search-marketing-experts-slash-copywriters write “keyword rich” posts on those topics, says Danielle Leitch, executive vice president. The ghostwriter also embeds relevant links in the posts and lets clients review the posts before they’re published.

MoreVisibility charges clients about $500 a month for one weekly post to about $2,000 a month for daily posts. It also charges a one-time fee starting at $2,000 for setting up the blog. The company manages blogs for about 20 businesses, Ms. Leitch adds.

Want to bet their “search-marketing-experts-slash-copywriters” are working for peanuts?

If you’re already blogging - and you’re good at it - then why not scale your revenues by offering businesses a Blog in a Box? (Because I’m a friend to all copywriters, I’m giving that idea away free.)

Basically, make it as easy as possible - the client’s only decisions should revolve around “how much” and “how do you want to pay me?”

Blogging is hardly the highest-paying gig in copywriting, but there is something to be said for that steady, reliable stream of money - especially if you’re new to the game.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

Its launch coincides with the rollout of several new Dell computers, though at its heart, Digital Nomads isn’t simply a product microsite.

Instead, it offers visitors a truckload of social network opportunities: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, an online community, and even a crowd-sourced white paper. (Warming the heart of marketing executives everywhere is the realization that most social network channels are free, provided you can fill them with content.)

This interesting bit of messaging came from the initial post on the Digital Nomads blog:

We’re all becoming digital nomads. And nomads want to know how to use
their technology in the most productive way every day. So, we decided
to create a site dedicated to Digital Nomads — a community where you
can network with others, learn and share ideas, and hear from some of
the best who are doing exactly what you do.

Compare that with the message found on the Dell blog:

Lots of folks are out there are connecting to the Internet to work from remote locations—places like coffee shops, conference rooms, airports, etc. Technology is enabling that capability through things like Wi-Fi, mobile broadband, cell phone networks and a host of mobile devices.

Those trends are changing the landscape of how work gets done and how people connect with each other. We hope to foster conversations about these trends and the technology and devices that are driving them.

They’re delivering largely the same message, but Digital Nomads does so in a direct, personal, engaging way.

The Dell blog reads like a corporate PR flack trying to sound folksy, and therein lies the value of a site like Digital Nomads.

Given the rapid adoption of microsites among the direct response crowd, it’s not that surprising to see Digital Nomads launched into what is likely Dell’s fastest-growing market segement.

Like any good community, Digital Nomads wants its users to identify themselves:

As I tell my clients, the static home page - packed with corporatespeak - is largely dead (though you still have to pry the monolithic, one-size-fits-all Web site from their fingers).

Is Digital Nomads is one more nail in the coffin? Undergrounders, the floor is yours.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

In the past, I’ve detailed my tried-and-true Six Point Lumpy Mailer Plan designed to put you in touch with high-value contacts at the companies you want to write for.

This Freelance Switch post details a cold calling plan that eschews the lumpy mailer step, focusing instead on calling 300-500 prospects.

The article goes into a lot of detail (scripts, etc) that I didn’t. You might find Martha’s plan more to your liking than mine.

After I left my second agency job, I made a lot of cold calls, and yes - collected new clients. Success is in the details, and Martha does a good job of outlining the steps. (Build a client profile, write a script, follow up, etc.)

I prefer my system because it’s more selective and lumpy mailers are fun, but either method will find you on the phone with your target companies.

Cold calls? Lumpy mailer?

You decide. Just don’t decide to do nothing.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler

Which calls for some fun this weekend (I’m hiking into the mountains and going fly fishing). Hopefully, there’s a little recreation in your future too.

Still, we’ve got to survive the mean streets of Friday. And to help, I stumbled upon the virtual version of that most cathartic of stress-relief devices.

Bubblewrap.

(Click graphic, and away you’ll go)

Pop the bubbles one at a time, or turn on “Manic Mode” and indulge yourself in an orgy of loud, obnoxious stress relief.

Unlike the real world (highly overrated by most measures), you’ll never run out of Virtual Bubblewrap. Never.

Turn up the speakers and keep writing, Tom Chandler.

In the past, that meant a lot of my ad budgets were switched to less-glamorous media like inserts, card decks, etc.

Today, the rush is on to find the most effective, affordable online media (hint: online ad buys seem stagnant). And while coupons are regarded by many as a relic of the pre-Internet era, a New York Times Magazine story says coupons are back - especially online coupons:

Its figures show that in 1998 consumers redeemed about 4.7 billion coupons. The number of coupons that manufacturers issued has gone up and down since then, but the redemption number fell steadily every year until last year, when it leveled off at about 2.6 billion. According to the Promotion Marketing Association Coupon Council, less than 1 percent of coupons are distributed digitally — which seems a little surprising given that coupons-on-the-Web companies have been around for years.

Perhaps it was the positive economic mood that held them back, but that’s changing: the online data tracker Hitwise says visits to a variety of thrift-focused sites are up by about a third over the past year, and the likes of Coupons.com and more recent entries like CouponWinner.com are lately reporting big spikes.

Good news? Bad news? Does it matter to you?

A little fiscal reality check is always a good idea (if the supposedly targeted ads on social network sites aren’t working, it’s time we moved them elsewhere). But the take-away here is simple: in the face of a shrinking budget, the smart copywriter offers their client a cost-effective alternative.

And while “everybody else is doing it” is hardly a killer business case for a promotion, it’s the kind of statement that opens a client’s mind (if not their checkbook).

Remember, in a recession, clients are often scared. That means they’re seeking value from their marketing efforts, and while coupons and promos aren’t glamorous, they’re cost-effective - and they work.

And in the case of online coupons - a largely untapped medium - it’s likely your competitors simply aren’t competing.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

Modeled on the famous “shake-and-answer” Eight Ball, the Excuse Ball contains 20 different excuses, so if you’re writing a “dog ate my Web copy” email to a client - and you’re a poor liar - this is surely a worthwhile investment.

At the Copywriter Underground, we never stop looking for ways to make your life better.

Keep making excuses writing, Tom Chandler.

Dave Hermansen did not own a bird or a cage when he bought bird-cage.com, an online store, for $1,800 three years ago. He simply saw a Web site that was “very, very poorly done,” and begged the owners to sell it to him. He then redesigned the site, added advertising and drove up traffic. Last December, he sold it for $173,000.

Color me impressed. I simply hadn’t considered flipping in the online arena. And yes, I’ve got enough projects going that I don’t need another, but it could be a solid idea for copywriters with a little time on their hands - and something to prove.

Take over an underperforming site, increase traffic by an order of magnitude, sell it for a profit, and you just built a powerful, self-generated case study (assuming you don’t start flipping sites fulltime).

In many ways, a fixer-upper Web site could be the ideal project for the modern, “value-added” copywriter - who’d better know more about their job than simply where to put the little period thingees.

As always, Undergrounders, the floor is yours. Is online flipping a great idea, or speculative (and time-wasting) nightmare?

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

From the Writer’s Technology Companion:

Enter e-Junkie. For $5 US a month, e-Junkie provides you with an online shopping cart, storage for digital downloads, order processing, inventory management, email autoresponders, and a lot more.

Let’s say you’ve written an e-book. You upload the file to e-Junkie, write a sales page on your own site, and insert e-Junkie’s code to place a “Buy it now” button on your page. When visitors click through to buy your e-book, they’re directed to your e-Junkie shopping cart, where they can pay via PayPal or Google Checkout (or a couple of other services) and instantly get a download link.

e-Junkie will also handle physical products?—?it works the same way, except that when an order is placed, you get an email with the details so you can fulfill the order yourself. You can offer several variants?—?say, a paperback and hardcover of the same book. e-Junkie will even calculate the shipping costs and sales tax (where applicable).

Lately, I’ve been telling clients that online technology is finally receding a bit - it’s getting out of the way of the non-techies using it - and this seems like a good example.

In my online marketing classes, student entrepreneurs are often baffled by online shopping carts, or forced to hire a Webmaster to setup and maintain the thing. Next thing you know, the Webmaster’s joined a cult, and the micro-entrepreneur’s in trouble.

Let’s hope e-Junkie (that name again) helps ease some of those problems. The idea, after all, is to do what you do best, not waste a lot of time on peripheral matters.

Keep selling, Tom Chandler.

The Orwell Prize is delighted to announce that, to mark the 70th anniversary of the diaries, each diary entry will be published on this blog exactly seventy years after it was written, allowing you to follow Orwell’s recuperation in Morocco, his return to the UK, and his opinions on the descent of Europe into war in real time. The diaries end in 1942, three years into the conflict…”

The rich comedy opportunities aside, this could introduce a new crop of people to an interesting writer (whose real name was Eric Arthur Blair). Blogs are simply powerful electronic publishing platforms, and this promises to be an interesting publishing project.

The posts begin on August 9… 1938.

Keep writing (even after you’re dead), Tom Chandler.