Friday, April 30, 2010

Becky Beard: Friend of Fort Stark

She came from Jackson, Tennessee in 1961. Her husband was in the coast guard. She saw Elvis in Memphis in 1957 but someone had to tell her it was him. Now she lives on Rose Lane in New Castle as she has for 50 years and guards the fort. Full interview is on the way.

You want to see a man on his knees?

It really is impossible to be anything but a pitchman in this world. Like Adam Smith said, "We are a nation of shopkeepers."


April, 29, 2010

Re: Freelance copywriting position

I’m very interested in the web content writer/SEO specialist opening. I produced copy as an in house content writer for a start up company in Los Angeles where I was responsible for all the content for a number of web sites and products. My responsibilities included customizing the eBay store content, managing our Overture PPC campaign to optimize the sites for keywords, compose the emails, press releases and affiliate marketing material as well as phone sales and affiliate revenue account management. Because the site technician, the graphic editor and the owners were also in house we worked closely as a team to grow the business. The company I worked for was short lived as it invested in fad products like pocketbikes, helium filled hoverdiscs, hovercopters and digidraw toys so the domain names are no longer active. But here they are anyway:

www.scooterselection.com

www.hoverdiscstore.com

www.digidrawcenter.com

www.hovercopterweb.com

I am a creative writer and my specialty is entertaining copy. I recognize and appreciate the balance that must be reached between readability and keyword placement on e-commerce sites. I approach ad copy like a research project. What is the demographic of the audience? What are the product’s features? What are the major selling points? What’s the clearest way I can communicate the allure of the product? Whenever possible I took the products home and familiarized myself with them so I could write from an informed perspective. I rode the razor scooters around the parking lot so I could write product specific copy. Then I added buzzwords, action verbs and loads of search terms strategically placed and boldfaced. Most product copy on the web is generic or comes from the manufacturer. My copy is never generic and we had to force several competitors to discontinue the use of my copy when we found them using it. I still occasionally see my copy on an eBay ad though the products we sold are mostly discontinued.

I am a diverse writer whose imagination is limitless. I can turn any product, service, event or cause into Internet gold. With a clear keyword and strategy the content I write is guaranteed to drive traffic to the site and inform and entertain readers once they get there. I was trained to write press releases by the now deceased Rolling Stones journalist Patrick William Salvo in Los Angeles, who was trained by L. Ron Hubbard. While I am not a Scientologist, the influence strategy made an impact on me. Patrick Salvo asked me to look for the life and death drama in any assignment from a Chiropractor to a Charity Marathon, and lead with that to transform information into news.

The workflow process we used for the websites allowed me to write simple text with html and paste the text into an online inventory database field that updated the online content. I own Dreamweaver if more advanced html is required.

I graduated with a degree in English and Music from Humboldt State University and have explored many occupations such as electronic engineering to motorcycle repair and have traveled extensively in my quest for education. My love of learning and my ability to reveal the story behind the story are what sets me apart from other writers. What I bring to a writing project cannot be replaced with a few hours of online research. I have unique life experiences that enrich my writing with a tone of authority and authenticity you’ll not find elsewhere. My priority is always the needs of the customer and I look forward to using my diverse skills to provide all your website and press release needs.


Sincerely,
Oggy Bleacher
Creative Commons License
Man in the Van by Oggy Bleacher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.