Thursday, April 26, 2012

DO YOUR OWN INPUT! How’d I forget the first step in the Kamikaze Copywriting/Creative Process + Something New: Watch Doreen edit short! (**Details, end of Post.**)


This is strange and wonderful area, doing whatever we need to do to get everything else done.  Possibly, the most important step in the process. It’s Something I’ve always loved, even when I’ve had to go it alone. 

There are huge accounts and big agencies that pride themselves in giving you what you need to create.  I’ve had boxes of studies dumped in my office, perused hundreds of white papers, websites, hung out in grocery stores, sat through endless meetings, focus groups, and phone calls.  Read trade pubs, studied competitive work, taken so many plant tours I know the difference between a horizontal milling machine and a Swiss Turn lathe.  Eaten, driven, tried and tried-on; watched and helped do.  Signed non-disclosures that make your head spin. 

I’ve also sat across the table from small account sales folk, CEOs, marketing/ad people, even admin support.  Called on their customers or hung out where I could find them.  Read the consumer magazines prospects read, watched their favorite TV shows.  I’ve yet to attend an input funeral, but I’ve yet to work on that kind of account.  When I do, you’ll find me dressed appropriately, respectfully in the back row.

Input corresponds to the first stage of the creative process:  Define the problem.  This isn’t just the KCWP-type Prospect Centered problem.  It’s a bigger picture problem *that leads to *leading to Prospect Definition, Objectives (Objective Based KCS or KCWP), Kamikaze Creative Promises and their Reasons Why.  It also gets more less expected you closer to **the Kamikaze Key Facts.  If you don’t do your job, process and strategic considerations can't hold the smart, unexpected insights great creative demands. 

Defining the Creative Problem (Process again) requires you do so in the most broadly inclusive manner possible.  (How to move from room to room vs. How to build a door.)  Input does the same thing.  The longer you write on an account, the better you learn your client’s business ***and their competition’s.  ****You bBecome One with the minutiae of Prospect studies, focus groups, consumer culture, what’s happening in the trades.  If you’re lucky, all that knowledge won’t get you stuck on the same account/in the same category forever (unless you want that.  If you don’t, at some point you ‘ll have to change accounts or category,even if it means a new job for less money – something I’ve done.)  To do great work on any account, you need to know it cold – and not be afraid to challenge others on it.

There’s an old ad cliché, The better the input, the better the creative.  Good one to write on the chalkboard a hundred times.  It’s not enough for you to know what everyone else who works on the account knows.  To find that one bit that cracks an the whole account open, exposes Prospect insights and leads to Kamikaze Creative Strategies no one else has considered, **you have to delve deeply.  You need Find that nugget of irony, contradiction, fact, and mayhem no one else finds sees – too often because they dwon’t want to ****dig for it.  Not only does this approach inspire  breakthrough creative, it can also lead to new markets, new mediums and – most fun of all – new uses for old products.

A few short/sharp insights about the Input Process:

Get to know your client.  If you show an interest, your client should give you access to everything there is to know – including the wild hair personal insights and puzzlements pointing to the info/thought nugget you seek.

Take a test drive.  Some accounts have elaborate programs that put you inside their product “experience” so you can know it the same way their Prospect does.  Other accounts think a discussion with the AE who discusses it with you is enough.  Most fall somewhere in between.  Encourage your involvement.  If it’s not standard, do whatever you have to do to be the exception, even if you have to do it on your own time/your own dime.  It will always – always ­– pay off.  Creatively first, then financially.

Don’t trust everything your client tells you.  Big client sales personnel and small client CEOs are a great source of prospect and product knowledge/insight.  Problem is, most clients – and the marketing/advertising departments and agencies they work with –believe.  Unquestioning.  If they see contradictions, have doubts, they perceive it against their own best interests to share.  Stay out of that trap.  Verify everything (final stage of the Creative Process:  Verification.  Do it first, too.).  Leave no stone unturned, even if it means what’s usually a painfully obtuse discussion with the client’s Legal department.

Never, ever, leave it up to your partner, AE, planner, client or anyone else.  They’re all part of the process but as the writer, the weight of accuracy falls on you.  I love working on technical, information rich accounts – industrial, B2B (often considered the same), high tech, that kind of thing.  There’s so much information to work with, communicating it clearly and creatively, within Prospect vernacular/Language of Concept is a writing challenge that can get me high. 

I’m know for getting it right the first time, no matter what creative context I use.  I hate rewrites, charge higher rates for being the last writer on technical pieces others couldn’t grok.  The reason:  Deep, Personal Input + Genuine Interest.  (Granted, these kinds of accounts aren’t everyone’s cup of tea – in my youth, I sometimes “ghost-wrote” them for co-workers who either couldn’t – or wouldn’t – understand them.)  It’s a personal thing but – regardless you have to do the work whether it’s consumer, B2B, in whatever medium assigned or imagined.

BONUS TIP ON WRITING SHORT:  Forget the articles.  Xing “the” “a” even “our”personal pronouns  and other word wasters may force you to challenge your structure, but your work will be better –read shorter, get read more – for it.

Something new I’m trying:  leaving in some edited areas, with their edits.  I have to say I t drives me crazy rereading copy like this, but I’llm going to start w/the easy stuff.  If it works, maybe we’ll get more advanced later. Not all long lines should be edited down, so don’t go crazy on your copy.  Let me know if it helps.  If you don’t, this may be the first/last time I try.

*We discussed “ing” ing in last post.
**Get rid of articles where you can.
***Copy Sin:  Redundancy.  The Competition is your client’s business.
****Active is/reads shorter
Other common edits, too confusing/disruptive to share:  
Copy Sins:  Repeating same word too closely in line/paragraph/piece, except where it works for emphasis/stylistic concerns.  Repeating same info disguised by several different approaches, within any particular line/paragraph/piece.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE, I want to thank Portfolio Center Copy Head Robyn Cohen for convincing me I've been out of the classroom too long, needed to come down and do a short program for the school.  In spite of a few snafus, the four hour drive and the bullet hole in the hotel window, I had a great time.  Hopefully, Reverend Rob and I converted a few more believers to the gospel of Prospect Centered Creative.  What did it teach me?  Students haven't changed that much since I last taught at the Circus.  They still want to know, still like to yell, still like to have their thinking challenged. Oh - and I miss teaching.  Could be why April got lucky, getting my usual six months' worth of posts.  Toodles!

Monday, April 16, 2012

TIPS, CLUES, EDITS, THOUGHTS: More on Headlines, but these work in Body Copy, too.


Ad copy (headlines are ad copy, as far as I’m concerned) is such a big subject.  I’m still learning new things.  Sometimes it’s because we must adapt/expand for new mediums, advertising styles/trends, stylebook and semantic changes, new dictionary entries, yadda yadda.  Other times because the more I do, the more I push, the more I try, the more I innovate. 

These tips have always worked for me.  Every tip might not apply to every job, but most are general and apply across the spectrum.  Some aren’t new.  My students have been carried most forward by teaching students of their own.  Some will be put in context as this course progresses.  Others may appear only here, this once.  At the end, I may share a few “assignments” I’ve given to my classes.  Consider them exercises in Kamikaze Thinking, Writing, Doing.  Do them/use them or not, up to you.  If you do, I’d love to hear how it works for you.

Tip #1:  Write Short.  This applies to headlines, subheads, body copy.  Even when you write long copy, even when a long headline is appropriate, it must read short.  Here are a few things to help you turn too long lines into something more actionable.
·      Read it out loud.  Develop your ear, you’ll soon start to “hear” the edits
·      Change word order.  Play with it many different ways.  Should point to the easy edits
·      Get rid of prepositions.  Xing out all the “ofs” “tos” “bys” etc. will show you how it can be made shorter.  Sometimes it’s an easy fix, sometimes you have to operate on your structure.  Either way, axing prepositions point the way to short/shorter
·      Get rid of modifiers.  Find one word/word picture (think writing visually) for the whole lot of them.  Easier than you think
·      Ing-ing.  Using ing on your verbs is an easy way to get rid of passive voice, prepositions and a host of other Copy Sins.  It can also help you clarify structure
·      Keep it active.  Active voice is the most word-thrifty you can use.  It’s also the most compelling.  Unless you’re talking about something that happened in the past, keep it active.  Even if you are talking about results that happened in the past – play with it until you find a way to make that active, too
·      Write advertising Haiku.  Not limericks – they’re too easy.  Haiku are not only short, they’re visual and active, even without verbs.  Next job, try putting it in Haiku.  You may not keep it there, but you’ll be amazed where it takes you

Tip #2:  Think punctuation.  Don’t let your AD/GD/CD/whomever stick a period at the end of your headline because it’s the end of your headline.  Periods are stops (one of the few things David Ogilvy and I agree on).  If you want to make a strong statement, end the thought at the end of your headline, use one.  Period.  If you want the line to lead into your visual/body copy/et. al., want its idea to linger in the prospect's mind, don’t.   Don’t be afraid of question marks (or questions) in headlines.  Just don’t get in the habit.  Don’t think every question takes a ?  Some - rhetorical or not - are beter with periods.  Honest. 

Commas are stops (pauses, really), too.  Try using structure to eliminate them.  If you can’t, use headline line breaks in your headline to fake them  (see how eliminating that preposition shortened that line/sped it up?  Just to keep you thinking).

Tip #3:  Line breaks have to do with meaning and flow, never graphics.  Never let your AD/GD break up a longer headline for you.  He/she may think it looks better, but it can change/confuse the meaning of your headline.  EX:
1) The small brown dog leapt over the hairy red fox.
2) The small
     brown dog leapt
     over the hairy
     red fox.  (Not only did those breaks confuse things, that kind of over-stacked headline cuts down readability/readership.)
3)  The small brown
     dog leapt over the
     red hairy dog.  (Not much better, is it.)
4) The small brown dog leapt
     over the hairy red fox.  (The best so far.)
5) The small dog leapt over
      the hairy red fox.  (Best of the bunch, although I could go either way in a pinch)

Tip #4:  Write short paragraphs.  Even if they add up to more space, people read them as shorter overall.  Long paragraphs also look more confusing – read that way, too.  That sold block of type is so uninviting, most readers become exhausted just looking at them.  Don’t read that paragraph – or any after.  EX:  Same number of words.  Same number of sentences.  Which do you want to read?
A:
Yadda yadda yadda yadda.  Yadda
yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda
yadda yadda yadda yadda.  Yadda
 yadda.  Yadda yadda yadda yadda
yadda yadda.  Yadda yadda yadda yadda
 yadda. Yadda yadda yadda yadda.
Yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda
yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda.  Yadda
 yadda.  Yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda.
Yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda.

B:
Yadda yadda yadda yadda.
Yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda
yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda. 
Yadda yadda.

Yadda yadda yadda yadda
yadda yadda.  Yadda yadda
yadda yadda yadda. Yadda yadda
 yadda yadda.

Yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda
yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda.
Yadda yadda.  Yadda yadda
 yadda yadda yadda yadda. 
Yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda.
 

Tip #5:  KISS.  A cliché, but Keep It Simple Stupid.  The more simple the line.  The more simple the way it’s treated graphically.  The easier it is to remember, the more it’ll get read.

Tip #6:  Innovate.  All rules are made to be broken, even mine.  The trick: you have to be an expert at using the rules to intuit what you can get away with without losing your reader.  The CD, client, AE, etc. are another story (how you present, how well you broke the rules come into big play here, along with politics, who’s wife was an English major, agency creative perspective, brand voice/stylebook, etc.).  Since we’re doing Prospect Centered work, really, the prospect is the only one who matters.  Do it right, do it in the right language of concept, with the right message – the prospect, at least, probably won’t even notice.

Hope these help.  Wow.  Two posts in two days.  What am I gonna do for an encore?

Saturday, April 14, 2012

KAMIKAZE COPYWRITING COURSE/LESSON 1: WRITING HEADLINES. Good friend Betty Gammage, former student, PC grad, Creative Circus co-founder says I’m good at explaining specific How to Do. It’s hard to explain how to “do” headlines without classroom give and take, but here goes.


*** While I’ve tried to help you grok the relationship between the Kamikaze Key Fact and Creative Concept, I really haven’t said much about How To Concept.  Some good books cover it (the new edition of Hey Whipple, Squeeze This, for example), so I’ll assume you have your KCWP (Kamikaze Creative Work Plan) written, pushed and concepts ready. 

I mention Concept here only as part of my Process.  Concept is a many layered, complex thing integral to the headline process.  Don’t think you can go right into writing headlines without it.  Doesn’t work that way.

Headlines pop up concepting, but there’s a big difference between a concept and a headline (clue: reread Concept vs. Illustration).  This is about headline process - my process.  Knowing the mechanics of what I do may help you discover, refine, redefine yours.  Hopefully you’ll find practical tips, insights, inspiration you can use.   If your process isn’t exactly like mine, you’re not necessarily doing it wrong (unless you skip the part about the 10-12 pages).

I start where I always start.  The Lexis/Nexis of every creative assignment, the Kamikaze Creative Work Plan.  I add whatever product info I’ve gathered, emails, notes, competitive facts, random thoughts I’ve already written down, etc.  The flotsam and jetsam of Prospect knowledge.

Once my partner and I decide which (four, five, ten or more) concepts (not ads – concepts) we want to play with, I start Running Lines.  I do mean lines, plural to point Overkill.  At least ten-twelve pages (single spaced) for each idea. 

I write down every line my partner and I spit out tossing around ideas.  Sometimes these “concept” lines turn into headlines.  Sometimes subs.  Sometimes random scraps of body copy.  Sometimes just scraps for recycling.  I save them all, as I won’t know what they are before I push, pull, re-imagine and grind them out until I should have bottomed out – then push out more.

My process uses markers and that beautiful, expensive tracing paper agencies supplied when we hand drew comps.  I’m addicted – markers glide, letters flow - so do ideas.  Some writers use pencils, pens, note pads, binders, composition books, crayons, laptops.  Whatever works for you.

There are no words in my head when I write.  Many writers do.  No right or wrong, just mine, yours.  I see images, colors, nothing that makes sense.  They only turn into words when they come out my fingers.  Until then, it’s just – stuff.

I start headlines by writing what I call positioning lines.  Not even close to anything you could use, they plainly state what I want to say.  I run as many of those through my concept, Prospect and partner as relate.  These help me Translate the Thought.

This isn’t about thesaurus synonyms.  I ignore the words.  For a headline to be conceptual, do more than parrot your strategy, you must show the thought behind the line.  Thought translation starts there.

What does “Translate the Thought” look like?  What does it do?  It turns “I hate sitting in traffic” into something the concept and prospect could agree on -  “I know why birds fly,” maybe.  “Gas guzzling” might translate into “eating dead dinosaurs.”

Well translated thoughts are visual – you see them.  Not because they’re loaded with descriptors, because they engage prospects, speak in the language of concept.  Make them participants, no just readers. 

As I progress, translations get better, with some real stinkers – wild hair lines, really – mixed in.  Don’t self-edit.  Those stinkers can point you in new, exciting directions later. 

It may not feel like it 3:00 the morning of internal presentations, but there’s no such thing as one great line per thought.  When things seem to have run their course (i.e., nothing new, I’m thinking dinner), I take all the papers off the floor (good days, they can be knee deep), pile them in groups and copy them on lined paper.  Not all – just those I think have potential.  I keep the rest to mine for inspiration if/when I come up dry working this first bunch.

I group various versions of the same line, single-spaced.  Skip a few lines, put wild hairs and singles by themselves.  Order thought progressions so I can see how they developed.

The lined paper list (which has usually grown in the transfer) goes into the Mac, adding more lines, twists, progressions, word/order changes, etc.  I don’t worry about caps, punctuation, spelling, correctness.  Just key them in, watch them grow.  

Each step, lines become more Prospect Centered.  Get closer to the final language of concept that’ll become the style my body copy takes.  Speak more directly to the heart of the Prospect. 

Sometimes I veer off strategy.  Sometimes, I push it.  Sometimes the line/thoughts differ enough to present two strategies, let others help decide.  If the strategy changes, I start over.  Good strategy, bad lines?  Keep the strategy, put the lines aside.  I read every line out loud, or have someone else do it. I need to hear the lines, not just read them.

Many copywriters’ headlines are always good, but rarely brilliant.  They run lines until they get one they like, stop there or work until they have three equally acceptable headlines their partner agrees to comp.  These writers offer a preliminary page or two of lines that stop at the ones they settled on.  Many are variations of the same line.  One uses “the,” another “a”; the same words get scrambled into different orders; maybe one word changes.  Still the same line.  Not a bad exercise, but if the root doesn’t pass, it’s always back to square one.

If something totally off the wall shows up, they rarely run it to pages of variations.  Too often it dies:  If there’s an odd line out, there must be something wrong with it!

Had they kept at it, the lines might do a 180, change tone, emphasis, approach.  Then twist, turn into several pages of something else.  You never know where a great line comes from, where it starts (beyond a smart, creative KCWP), where it’ll take you before it ends up at “One Show!” 

All those extensions of the same line, twists turns, wild hairs too many people ignore can lead straight to Cannes, NYC, London, LA.  Where do you want to go?  Follow those lines, even if they take you to the trash.  You’ll never know until you do.

Sure, genius may show up in body copy or when you’re fooling around, trying to get started.  But when all is said, written, edited, kept and/or rejected, you can’t pick the real gems without running every line as far as it’ll go.  (ADs, GDs, WDs, don’t let your partner get away with too few lines.  Even if you have to pull each new line out of them, don’t settle.  It’s your book, too.  It’s as much your responsibility to demand great headlines as it’s your writer’s responsibility to demand great graphics.)

Sometimes your first line is the best.  But how do you know if you haven’t run as many as you can, as far you can?  If you don’t follow wild word combos that make you wince, but hide true brilliance, to evolve?  Especially since after the first half-dozen or so pages, a writer often can’t tell which lines are good, which stink, which foretell genius down the road.

Your partner, ACD, CD, best copy friend are invaluable.  Even if they can’t write a great headline to save their job.  They see what you can’t.  You may disagree, but they can make an excellent point you miss.  Add that perfect bit you’ve been struggling to find.  An important note:  Don’t throw anything out.  You may need your pile of rejects when you present to your CD or even to the client.

Working alone, I print out the list onto a different color paper, in a totally different font.  Anything to make it look fresh, new. I take walks, ride the elevator, go to a movie, talk about anything else.  It’s important to put spaces between you and all that work, so you can actually read it, taste it, feel it.  If you don’t, it’ll all sound so familiar you’ll skip over words, lines, thinking you know what they say.  Then later, have to ask your partner to reset the headline because you missed a typo, forgot to edit out, add/subtract a word or three.

If I’m in house, desperate for distance from the familiar, need to spark something new, I may go out to my car, blast music, dance in my seat.  At home, I play music LOUD (Latin, Big Band, Leonard Cohen, Maria Callas, Jonathan Richman, Ima Sumac, Zappa – anything different, unexpected, fun).  Bang my conga drums.  Stuck in a cubicle, I play with office toys, count ceiling tiles, do yoga  (moving always seems to help), make faces out the window, down the hall.

Whatever I do – even if it’s just five minutes’ worth – I don’t think lines.  CA isn’t far enough away for this kind of thought divorce.  Crossword puzzles, Sudoku, meditation are.  Anything that distracts, helps you relax.

Everything will look new when you come back.  You’ll see things you missed.  Lines you hated then, show promise now.  Lines you once loved are now embarrassing (don’t fall so in love with a line you can’t weed it out later).  Showing your work to someone else helps, but hitting the refresh button in your process first takes off your blinders, turns you around so you let go of where you started, actually hear what they say.

Not everyone needs conga drums to keep words flowing.  But we all need spaces between our thoughts to let great lines happen  (it’s the third stage of the Creative Process – Incubation).  No one – I repeat – NO ONE – ever got to the top putting out three pages of lines and calling it “done.”

If that’s not how you do it, fine.  Just make sure you do whatever you do - often.  Not doing it too long can rust your process. 

I had one student who always showed up shirt buttoned wrong, hair unkempt.  Shaking from Starbucks and Diet Coke, if he had one page of lines, he had twenty.  And those were just the ones he remembered to bring.

Were they all brilliant?  Not even close. But we went over each one, deciding which had promise, which were fully formed.  Ferreted out wild hairs and direction changes he needed to play with.  Not surprisingly, he always ended up with at least half-dozen truly brilliant lines I wished were mine.

Other students?  Five-six pages, tops.  Did it matter?  Today Mr. Prolific’s book’s full of work that’s won CLIOs, flown him to Cannes, been published in Archive, CA.  Brought home Gold Pencils, London International Awards.  You want it, he has it.  The hottest agency recruiters and headhunters all know his name, his work and an agency willing to bust their budget to hire him.

What else could you want?  The same thing he works so hard for.  He isn’t picturing hot shops in fabulous cities grinding away at 3:00 a.m.  He works for perfection.  For the joy of it.  A true Kamikaze Creative, If it isn’t his best, it isn’t good enough.  In the process, he comes up with the some of the best anyone could do.  And many a good deal better.  

His lines don’t just state the obvious, give the visual a title.  They suck you in.  Speak to the Prospect’s inner needs, desires.  Stop you from turning the page, going on to the next screen or forgetting what they said.  If they’re funny, they also have a message.  If they have a message, you can’t ignore it.

There’s one more technique, but it’s hard to explain. 
Going through a line and coming out the other side.  I’ve never been able to explain it so any sane person can understand, but ad creatives are seldom sane.  Here’s how it works for me.

When I get to the end of one direction, know the direction’s right but haven’t found the genius line, I stare at it.  It’s as if I physically go through it, come out where I see it from behind.  Almost like it’s meaning is backward.  If I’m lucky, I see a new conceptual, almost spiritual direction.  If I’m luckier, I see the exact line I’m looking for.  That’s all I can tell you.  Doing this – however it works – usually takes me that last step from really good to breakout fabulous.

I don’t know if it’s a visual thing, a meditative thing or what.  Like Alice’s looking glass, everything goes topsy-turvy; letters turn into cats and a new thought translation hits.  Maybe perfectly formed.  Maybe the start of another twenty pages.  Those who grok it (and I acknowledge I don’t give much to go on) usually tell me it’s amazing, works like nothing else. 

Go figure.

But that’s how I write headlines. 

Editing Tip:  I’ve done five edits, cut out 300+ words.  It’s still longer than I want, but I think it says what I need to say.  How’d I do it?  Check in next time, editing lines is the next step in writing great headlines.

COMING AS SOON AS POSSIBLE:  Practical things you need to know about headlines and body copy.  Scientific method stuff you shouldn’t wait for experience to teach you.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Imagine That!

Just found out this blog has been named a Top One Hundred Advertising Blog.  Amazing.  Thanks for reading - I am pleased, but confused.  I don't promote, it's targeted to advertising students.  Since the ranking is dependent upon (among other things) relevant content, I'm glad I'm doing a good job.  Please tell your friends, your instructors, your Mom (she'll be glad you're not wasting your time online).  Thanks mucho.  Toodles!

Monday, April 2, 2012

Mercury, Google, My Next Post

If you're wondering where the next lesson/installment is, the answer is "almost done."  Retrograde Mercury has been making mincemeat with my schedule (went to Wed. doc appointment on Tues., cancelled Tuesday hair cut thinking it was on Monday, that kind of thing) and I want to apologize.  I'll hopefully finish it up when I get back from Atlanta this weekend, will post it asap.

I'll be in Atlanta to, among other things, speak to the Portfolio Center student body this week.  Their present Copy Director and my former student, Robyn Cohen, invited me and Robyn's not someone I'd turn down.  Am also hoping to connect with some other former students while I'm there, do some business, etc.  I'll be speaking 10 a.m. this Thursday, 4/5/12. Mercury goes Direct that day, so I should be at my best.  If any of you are in Atlanta and want to stop by, please be my guest.  Just say Doreen invited me, say hi when I'm done.  I'm committed to lunch with Robyn and a few of her students after, but if you let me know you're there, perhaps we can schedule something for later in the day (or Friday a.m.) if you'd like to talk, show me some work, etc.

One thing I do want to add:  Google has announced (more or less) that it's finally seen the light and agrees with the approach I've held regarding web writing for as long as there's been web writing.  They will no longer search for SEO key words, will look instead for meaningful, relative, and informative prospect centered copy.

I have refused to do SEO since before it had a name.  If you're looking up words you think Google is looking for, writing Prospect Centered, informative, relative copy is impossible.  If you load up on them, you also break a very important Kamikaze Copy Sin: repeating the same word too closely in a paragraph/piece of copy.  You're also not likely to be able to write in a targeted Language of Concept if you have to tailor your style for words that likely don't have any style at all.  All adds up to poor creative, impossible copy and a less than satisfying prospect experience.

My only question:  What took you guys so long?

All of you who have been fighting this battle with me - and I know there are others out there, because not just a few of you have complained to me about it - how's it feel to have something as all-pervasive and influential as Google say you're right?  Now on to the next great battle in this marvelous, inventive, explorative creative opportunity called the Internet.

One more thing - I am working hard to get my new website, kamikazecreative.com, up and running.  It'll be the new home for my blog (although I may also publish here, still mulling that one) and hopefully will enable me to add a Q&A forum, offer editing lessons on submitted copy (professional and/or student), show produced portfolio samples as examples of my positions, downloads + a few other goodies in the back of my demented and subversive imagination.  I'll let you know when it's up, but for those of you who've asked - I've been working on it.  Mercury's going Direct (see planetaryperceptions.com, Retrograde Mercury button in top left corner) so I'm hopeful as things go back to normal, I can at least put up the first piece of it.

See you in my next post soon. Here.  At kamikazecreative.com asap.  Toodles.