From 12th November, Red Robot Media will be changing our base price for copywriting. We will also alter some of our pricing tiers for technical authoring and screencast work.
If you have an estimate or email quote, the price quoted will expire on 11th November, 2012.
Please book any outstanding copywriting and technical authoring work in as soon as possible if you wish to secure the price you’ve already been given.
Six months ago I took on some casual part-time technical authoring jobs in order to help fund home improvements. In 2011 so far, the accidentally formed, hastily grown young copywriting company grown and grown, purchasing more Apple technology than Stephen Fry. (Well, almost). It has been an insane six months. The ambition I had of hitting the Top Ten freelancers on People Per Hour became a reality twice, in July and August, and we won the Top Jobs award on People Per Hour too.
Three very large copywriting projects have ended this week, and as such, our schedule is opening up. We are still getting lots of enquiries about SEO copywriting services, and we’re pleased to say we can now book these in more promptly. We are also putting some changes in place to ensure our schedule is tightened up and our turnaround times for copywriting and technical authoring are improved.
I have invested in new equipment and have changed the way we book copywriting work in to allow us more flexibility. (Thanks to my sister, a wise project manager, for her free consultancy!). Regular clients should see turnaround times reduced by up to half what they have been in the last two months, and in turn, we should not need to use freelance help as often. This will help us keep an even firmer grip on turnaround time.
Just to warn our regular clients: we will have reduced availability at the end of next week as we’re having some time off for special occasions. Myself and Mathew have both our birthdays and our anniversary on the same day – it’s surely the ultimate in efficient holidaying. Please feel free to send gifts of stress balls, caffeinated drinks and masseurs to our new address.
This morning we awoke to find Red Robot had won two awards on People Per Hour! I had been monitoring the Top Ten Freelancers board hoping we would win a prize, but we also won a second award which we weren’t expecting.
First off, we again came 7th in the Top Ten Freelancers list for August, having hit the number eight spot in July. In both months I was the highest ranked copywriter and/or technical author out of 146,000 freelancers working through the site. I would post the rosette, but the site only seems to allow me to generate one for July which is a shame. Nonetheless, you can see the award on the Top Ten Freelancers for August page, and on my People Per Hour profile page. The August rosette has replaced the July one!
We also won the silver award in the Top Jobs category, as we are working on the second most valuable contract currently in progress on the People Per Hour website. This is an award I haven’t yet come across, so it was a very nice surprise to win it. I’m secretly hoping we’ll hit gold in this category one day – time will tell.
Huge thanks to our freelancers Christine, Heather and Lyndsey and also to my co-director Mathew. All of us have worked really hard in August; Red Robot could not have won these awards without their help.
The week’s coming to a close, and I am working hard to try finalise a project for the weekend: if I do, I get tomorrow off! A day off is a rare occurrence for me, but will hopefully become more normal from Monday when Red Robot becomes a full time copywriting and technical authoring company.
This week I have worked on a massively varied range of copywriting projects, from SEO finance and health article writing to fun pieces about dogs and puppies. Today I’m concentrating on web content and reviewing yesterday’s screencasts and training videos. I’m currently trying out a new screencast product called BB Flashback which is really enjoyable to use.
From Monday Mathew and I will be picking up the pace with existing projects. Although my calendar is booked up for two months, I’m hoping to be able to pull all my deadlines right back and create space for new projects fairly quickly. Being able to concentrate on a piece all day, instead of snatching evenings and weekends to work on things, should mean a more consistent and efficient approach and a more speedy throughput for existing clients. I’m also hoping to expand the website with details of our WordPress consultancy and support services; we are working with a new client on their brand new WordPress site in early September which I’m really looking forward to.
Mathew and I plan to standardise our entire pricing structure shortly and we’re hoping to bring an online quote facility to the site in the coming weeks. For now, though, simply email us for a quote.
If you’re already a client, you probably received one of our lovely Moo cards this week; we wanted to spread the word and let everyone know that we’re open full-time from Monday for SEO copywriting and technical authoring assignments. Here they are if you missed out!
So far in 2011 we’ve come on in leaps and bounds as a company. I have already reduced my hours at my ‘normal’ job to take on more writing assignments. The time finally came to leave, though, and today is my last day.
I’ve really enjoyed working there – I started in April 2009 and I was elated. It was the job I had always wanted! I’ve been very fortunate to work with a lovely bunch of people, and it’s a real shame to leave that behind. However, it seemed like the right time to run Red Robot full-time and try to build the business further than I could on a part-time basis.
So: please get in touch for a quote if you are looking for a copywriter for your new online store or blog, or you need some help documentation for your software. From Monday, I’ll be available full time with Mathew and four freelancers backing me up. Now all we need is an excuse to get some more of those pretty Moo cards printed!
(In other news, Mathew passed his Service Desk Institute exam with flying colours this week and is now a qualified Analyst! We’re going to play some mind-bending ‘Cosmic Golf’ tomorrow to celebrate.)
Leeds’ newest live music venue, Wharf Chambers, is holding a pre-launch party on Friday 5th August with bands and DJs. Here’s our Wharf Chambers preview feature on the Leeds Guide website.
Edit: Sorry, this feature had to be removed. We are working on our next Leeds Guide piece this week!
I blogged a couple of times before about a silly milestone I wanted to reach; I desperately wanted to hit the top ten freelancers on People Per Hour and stay there for the duration of the month. I know it sounds like a small thing, but these little challenges keep me working hard, and I like to see if I can achieve things that seem impossible and ridiculous. It’s something of a theme! Many of the top positions are taken up by people in very high-paying professions and I thought it would be a real coup for a copywriter to hit one of the top spots.
Well, I’m pleased to say that I finally managed it! I spent most of Thursday and Friday with a furrowed brow, expecting to be shoved out of the top ten at the last minute, but thankfully I clung on and ended up at a respectable number 8 out of 140,000 freelancers. Here’s my new People Per Hour rosette which is now sitting pretty on my People Per Hour profile.
(Mathew was most amused that I mumbled something about wishing I was in the top five… but hey, that’s an ambition for next month, isn’t it?).
July was a great month for us all told. Our turnover was six times higher than it was in April, and we hit the five-figure milestone part-way through the month as well. We even managed to find the time for a couple of days away and a bottle of Champagne to toast the company (not charged on expenses, Mr Tax Man, Sir!). Things are getting busier here and we have consistent work booked in until September, with regular jobs lasting until the new year. I’m busy, tired and delighted.
The only problem I have now is time. My full-time job became part-time and still I struggled to juggle my commitments. As such, I’m going to become a full-time freelance SEO copywriter and technical author, beginning later this month. I’ve decided to leave my job and my friends at work to pursue copywriting full time. It’s a risky decision, of course, but I feel like I owe it to our clients to give them the best service I can, since everyone has been so supportive and helpful. I also owe it to my dog to walk her a little more often than I’m able to at the moment.
More news of that to follow in the coming weeks, anyway. I’m off to stare at my medallion.
The price people are willing to pay for well-written web content is a contentious issue. It’s also something freelancers complain about when bidding for work on agency sites. This week, People Per Hour have enhanced their price feedback tool designed to shape more realistic budgets for copywriting, technical authoring and other work. I’m not sure that this really is the solution, but I can see why they feel they should react to the ongoing incredulence.
The low value placed on good copywriting does not really concern me at the moment. So far I’ve not had to work for less than I’ve felt was reasonable, and I don’t really find that clients want me to cut prices either. Everyone has been willing to pay the going rate, and the friendliest and most co-operative clients are keen to keep me on board. I don’t charge excessive prices though, and I work quickly, so there is a mutual trust between us that I’m not out to rip them off – nor them me.
If I see any writing jobs with nonsense rates, I simply ignore them. Bids of 70p per 100, 250 or even 500 words are sometimes requested for these kinds of jobs, but the people placing them churn out so many nonsense articles so quickly, it’s generally not readable anyway. I think it’s up to the client to choose what they want: cheap articles or readable, well-researched, interesting articles. Either may be a valid choice, depending on what you want to achieve. Thankfully, I wouldn’t have the time to work for under £3.50 an hour, although I’m sure some people do.
There is another hidden way clients cut prices, and that’s the ‘free sample’ trick. (Well, to call it a trick might be a little unfair; I’m sure plenty don’t realise that it could be misconstrued). Your client is definitely, definitely going to hire you, but they want you to write the first piece for free – just so they can make sure you’re ‘the one’. Red Robot have a portfolio of past projects, and we have several online examples of writing we have done in the past. We don’t do free samples. Full stop. Free samples are almost as troubling to me as poor pay.
In the early days I had a free sample rejected because the work wasn’t suitable: I was unpaid, yet the client had 90 minutes’ free writing and research from me, and the finished result. I’ve since had free sample requests for technical author material and even video work in Camtasia. The icing on the cake was the email from an experienced freelance writer looking for a free 500 word article of their choice. No thanks! If I bring a freelancer on board to help me, I always pay them from day one. Even if we part company shortly afterwards, everyone has been paid for what they’ve done. Nobody should have to work for free.
This weekend we completed phase one of our longest-running project to date. We were hired to create product descriptions for Wish.co.uk, a new experience and gift online store which opens this Thursday.
I’ve never really thought about buying an experience as a present before. Since working with Wish, my dad has become a member of English Heritage which will allow my parents (and their grandchildren) to visit 400 heritage sites free of charge for a year. Mathew quite fancies a flying lesson, and I’d like to go on a boat trip and look for whales and dolphins or feed some lions and tigers by hand. There’s another member of the family who’s due an amazing experience later this month, but I better not say what it is in case I spoil the surprise!
Our brief was to add a little personality to the experiences and help them jump off the page. We didn’t do all of the writing, but what we did adhered to the general tone of Wish – cheeky, lively and fun, but retaining all the content and detail of the experience so you still know exactly what you’re getting when you book. There’s an enormous range of gifts and days out on Wish, so the job was really fun and challenging for us too.
Pop over to the Wish.co.uk site when it launches on Friday and seek out your treat. You too could fly loop-the-loops in an aerobatic plane or sip afternoon tea at the Cake Boy boutique in London. (Yum.)
After much cogitation we decided to go with ArmyOfCats for the new Red Robot Media logo design. (In our past lives, Graham and I have shared stages at various events at the Brudenell Social Club and other spots around the city.)
He cooked up so many great logos that we could have started four new companies, even only for the pretty pictures!
In the end we plumped for the friendly red robot you see above which was Graham and Mathew’s favourite logo. But what to call him? After a bit of crowdsourcing on the Red Robot Twitter, @jimthediamond and @sarahspangle settled on the name Morris, which eventually became Maurice. So there you have it.
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