A Deadly Mistake Even Some Copywriters Make

Sometimes, just for fun, it's good to look and see what your competition is doing.

Maybe they have a marketing idea that will spark a new one in your own head - you just never know. It's even a good idea to just browse around and look at sites unrelated to your business, because some of the best ideas come from unusual places.

So, tonight I did a little search for copywriters. It all started with checking to see how my SEO was doing, and making sure I hadn't slipped from page one for any of my primary keywords.

No, I hadn't, but then I decided to see who else was sharing the pages and what they had to offer. One was my friend and fellow copywriter Kay Faulk - but I knew she'd be there.

The very first site I visited broke one of the first rules in copywriting: Remember that it isn't about you. It's about your prospect.

But here, on this "professional's" site, there were 17 paragraphs, two of which began with "My" and ten with "I."

One of the ways to double-check your copy is to use the "find" function in word and search out every "I word" (such as me, we, our, etc.) and count them. Then search out every "you" and "your."

The goal is to end up with either 3 or 4 times more "You" word than you have "I" words.

This rule is so firmly ingrained in most copywriter's heads that it becomes difficult to write an answer when someone asks a question that calls for an answer beginning with "I." It just feels wrong.

The lady does know something about search engine optimization or she wouldn't be on page one of a Google search, but if her client copy is similar to her personal copy, it isn't very good.