Copywriters Need Copy

I've been looking for a way to make money online using my writing talents. Textbroker pays people to write copy for websites but because the requirements are specific, I find myself unable to get any work done without the information I need.

One of the jobs I signed up for was to rewrite the About page for a Finnish company that makes a health food product, to wit, reindeer bone broth powder. This is their one and only product.

The pitch

The main argument they make for you to put your hand in your pocket and shell out in excess of £30 for a 30g jar of powder is that it's a health food that has traditionally been used as a medicine. The blurb on their website is that this is an award-winning product that is made by biohackers with a background in nutrition therapy. This can help your skin, bones, nails, and digestion. It's a superfood. They also give the stuff away to lucky customers on their social media outlets.

The trouble with the pitch is that it's lacking in substance. We don't know who these people are, what their qualifications are, or where they are based. I guessed from what I could see there that they're based in Finland, but I had to contact them to confirm this. They haven't said anywhere how much product you get for your money, where it is made, and who gave them the product of the year award.

I managed to get some more information out of them, including the names of the people who run the company, but they're so cagey I can't tell people much more about the company than that two women run it from Helsinki, Finland, and that this is made in the traditional way.

The buzz

There's none. They're not particularly active on their social media accounts and are not interacting with people who go there. Nobody else is talking about this stuff. The product packaging looks good but the website lets the whole thing down with badly-spelled writing and scanty information. I told them about this during an email conversation, and they gladly accepted my advice about being more social, proving where they got their award from, and providing more information about who actually runs the show.

The dearth of information provided left me with half the words I need to send in the assignment. I'm out of time anyway, so I'm not going to get anything for the effort I've put in. I'd have got less than a fiver for the few hours I put into this so I'm quite annoyed.

Going forward

I can't be bothered to follow this up. Suffice to say that if you want a website that pulls people in, do what I've been saying for years:

• Provide a proper overview of who you are and what you do
• Clearly state what the product is — don't make people guess
• Don't over-sell or under-sell your product or service, tell people what you can do for them
• Let people know who you are and where to find you
• Be social on social media
• Get real recommendations

Half of the problem with the reindeer bone broth people is that they only have one product. The other is that they're not terribly social so we only have their word for it that the product is what they say it is. If they want to get more business, they need to get a buzz going about their product and get going online, chatting to potential customers, and sharing their own experiences of making and using the product. Hopefully, this will generate the text another copywriter can utilize to improve their About page. For now, it won't be me.

UPDATE:

They lowered the word count requirement and accepted my article. Since then I've had another order, this time for link-building. I'll discuss this in my next piece.