– Why pay a copywriter when you can buy words for $2.50 a page?

A colleague of mine (a technologist who turns knobs up and down to trick people into visiting his clients’ websites) enjoys mocking creative services. The other day he sent me a link to an Indian company selling wordsmith ‘services’ for $2.50 a page. “There you go. You’ll be out of business when this catches on,” he gleefully predicted. Read more…

- Everyday over 70,000 new blogs are created, so why add to the noise?

Clients frequently ask me if they should bother blogging. I hear their silent reservations: Just what’s the point adding to all the shouting? The last thing the world needs is another blog, I say.

Unless of course you’ve got something really bloody interesting to say and don’t think clumsy rehashing of other people’s work is good use of a blog. Read more…

- Not just for lumberjacks

Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me a truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever. A rare gem illuminating the power of communication, this Indian proverb has never rung truer. Read more…

- Throw out your CV

Jobs are in short supply, under-used workers abound, and CVs slosh about the marketplace, the flotsam of a bashed up commercial era. CVs frequently wash up on my desk; and at various times I’m asked to appraise and tweak the CV handiwork of job aspirants.

However, despite the competition for employer attention, for some reason creativity goes out the window when job hunters construct their professional brands. Read more…

– The free lunch is over

News publishers are sick of picking up the tab for readers and financing newsrooms to churn out stories offered for free on the web. They’ve persisted till now, deceived by brown cardigan dogma about advertising returns, which have so far failed to eventuate. Charging for content is the only choice. But it’s been tried before and people didn’t like it and clicked on other news outlets still hoping for the great online advertising windfall. Read more…

- When competitors are in the news chances are you should be, too

It’s just not right. Your competitors are in the news, talking up their chances and spreading the gospel, but you’re not. You go about your business unnoticed. Trouble is, not being noticed is as good as being invisible. So how do you go about joining the conversation? Read more…