Writing - Coastal Content

If not metrics, then what?

If you read The performance trap: When metrics start shaping mediocre ideas, you already know the argument. Chasing CTR does a disservice to content. CTR is a number. It sits in a dashboard, goes up or down and gives everyone…

Technically correct content isn’t a compliment

In March 2018, an ad ran inside Snapchat for a game called “Would You Rather.” It asked users to choose between slapping Rihanna or punching Chris Brown, a grim callback to Brown’s 2009 assault on Rihanna. Every word in that…

The performance trap: When metrics start shaping mediocre ideas

Publishing runs on more inputs than most people give it credit for. The idea. The argument. The timing. The voice behind it. Whether anyone needed to read the thing in the first place. Click-through rate is one input among many…

Why your brief is the problem, not the writer

There’s a particular kind of feedback that lands in a writer’s inbox about once a month. It says something like, “This isn’t quite what we were looking for”. Sometimes it’s more specific. Sometimes it’s less. What it almost never includes…

How to brief a content writer so you don’t get generic work back

You’ve done this before. You send over a brief that says “write a blog post about our new feature, roughly 800 words, SEO-friendly, engaging tone.” A few days later you get back 800 words that are technically about your feature,…

How to handle being ghosted by clients

I want to start by acknowledging something the freelance industry doesn’t say enough. Being ghosted by a client is genuinely awful, and the awfulness doesn’t scale sensibly with the length of the relationship. You can work with someone for three…

How to brief a freelance writer (and what happens when you don’t)

Somewhere in the world right now, a freelance writer is staring at an email that says “can you write something about our software? Approx 800 words, quite informative, let us know if you have questions thanks” and making a face.…

Why expertise sounds boring until it doesn’t

There’s a specific flavour of writer’s block that nobody talks about, and I’ve had it more times than I’d like to admit. It’s not the blank-page variety. It’s not running out of ideas. It’s the moment you sit down to…

The overdue death of keyword-first thinking

How many of you have been presented with a brief containing a keyword phrase so syntactically broken it reads like it was written by someone falling down a flight of stairs? “Best affordable plumber London emergency no call-out fee.” You…

Why speed is a terrible content strategy

Let me tell you about a client conversation that made me need a brief lie-down. A few weeks ago, a freelance client came to me with a mission. Bright-eyed, motivated, and armed with what he believed was a genuinely brilliant…

how we built a 12 month content strategy for a tech startup's blog from scratch

How we built a 12-month content strategy for a tech startup blog from scratch

Every now and then a project lands that’s genuinely satisfying to work on. No legacy content to untangle, no archive of posts written by a previous agency that rhymed “innovative” with “transformative” in every other paragraph. Just a blank slate,…

How much does a freelance content editor cost in the UK?

You want a number. I get it. You’ve clicked on three agency websites this morning and every single one of them has a contact form where the number should be, as if pricing is some kind of state secret you…

If not metrics, then what?

Technically correct content isn’t a compliment

The performance trap: When metrics start shaping mediocre ideas

Why your brief is the problem, not the writer

How to brief a content writer so you don’t get generic work back

How to handle being ghosted by clients

How to brief a freelance writer (and what happens when you don’t)

Why expertise sounds boring until it doesn’t

The overdue death of keyword-first thinking

Why speed is a terrible content strategy

How we built a 12-month content strategy for a tech startup blog from scratch

How much does a freelance content editor cost in the UK?

If not metrics, then what?

Technically correct content isn’t a compliment

The performance trap: When metrics start shaping mediocre ideas

Like what you see?

Twenty years of writing, editing and helping clients communicate. Based in Northumberland. Available everywhere.

Like what you see?

Twenty years of writing, editing and helping clients communicate. Based in Northumberland. Available everywhere.

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