The dirtiest word in the language for online SEO copywriters
Probably the dirtiest word in the language to me is “comfortable.” It’s so bad that I call it the “C-word” (really!). Where some people take comfort in stability, status quo and knowing what’s around every corner, I like to shake it up a bit. It’s how I roll.
Copywriters – even good, highly-paid, experienced copywriters – get into their own comfort zone. They stop growing. They stop learning. Instead, they burrow into a complacency bubble and insist that they know it all and there’s nothing more to learn.
Guess what? No matter how good you are – no matter how many years you’ve honed your craft – you can do better. Write better. Describe better. You are not all that and a bag of chips all the time. And you owe it to your clients (and to yourself) to keep learning.
We, as copywriters, are required to stretch ourselves if we want to be great – No more settling for just being good, competent, or – heaven help you – “comfortable.” The only way to true excellence is through initial incompetence. True greatness is fighting that feeling of being totally and completely stupid while we try new things. It’s getting over our fear of “not knowing something” and seeing what we can really do.
As we start gaining mastery, we stretch. We grow – and our writing bursts out of its hibernation and buds with newfound brilliance.
You want to know why “old style” print copywriters complain about what used to be called New Media? It’s because they were comfortable with print. They knew the nuances. They knew how to make it work without having to work hard.
Suddenly, online writers became a dominant force. Us new-fangled writers took old-school writing concepts and made them work for a new medium. We weren’t better writers. Heck, back in the day, we were typically green and inexperienced.
The difference is – we weren’t complacent. We weren’t comfortable. We took what we knew and broke out of our comfort zone. And we launched a new industry.
Challenge yourself this November. Read a book where the author’s writing style is completely different than yours. If you’ve worked primarily with B2B, write a fiction short story (just for yourself) that forces you to create characters and have fun with your writing. Time yourself and see how many woods of good copy you can write in a speedy 15 minutes.
Why not bust out of your copywriting comfort zone at least once this month? You’ll be amazed at how “breaking loose” can actually improve your writing…your opportunities…your life… -
Try it.
Amen sister! Gotta stir it up! I’m always inspired when people that I look up to professionally or otherwise are out learning new things and being moldable. One of my mentors once told me that no matter how old you get you have to “remain teachable”. I think that is a concept that is foreign to a lot of people that have “made it” or at least think they have. There is way to much crap going on to have that kind of attitude!
Comment by Kenny Hyder — November 17, 2008 @ 11:56 pm
LOL! I totally agree! I remember making fun of my college professors – the ones with the old-school ideas who were still wearing their 1970′s plaid jackets – and I’d think “have you tried ANYTHING new in years?”
Usually, the answer was no.
It could be argued that some folks are just lazy. They don’t want to try out new stuff because they don’t have to – they are already tops in their field, and/or comfortable with their knowledge levels. I wonder, though, if some of that doesn’t come from fear. After all, you won’t be the “best” if you’re trying something new. You may even fail. And for some people, failure (or perceived failure) is the scariest thing of all…
Comment by Heather — November 18, 2008 @ 8:10 am
[...] also isn’t lost on me is every marketer needs to break out of their comfort zone and stay current in today’s environment. Sure, that’s easy enough to say – after all, [...]
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