What’s a copywriter? Do you deal with copyrighted material? Are you, like, a trademarker? 

Great question. I get this confused response a lot and it’s totally understandable because the word “copywrite” is a homophone that sounds exactly like the word “copyright.”

In case you need an English lesson refresher, the word homophone is a funny-sounding word that simply refers to words that sound the same—audio-wise—but are actually spelled differently and mean different things. Words like “eight” and “ate” or “two,” “too,” and “to” or “insight” and “incite.”

But I digress. Let’s get back to “What is a copywriter?”

Copywriting is simply “sales writing” or “marketing writing.”

A copywriter is someone who writes with the intention of getting the reader to take action after reading the copy. A good copywriter is trained to write in a language that’s specific to the target audience and is someone who understands best practices for SEO, marketing, and how each piece of copy (blogs, ads, emails, social copy, sales pages, product descriptions, etc) fits together in a sales funnel to further the cause of a brand or business.

…whereas a “copyright” refers to the legal ownership of intellectual property.

**By the way, if you need a copywriter, I know a great one. You can contact her at hello@melindaholland.com (wink, wink). **

Okay, then why do I need you when I can just go to ChatGPT and have it write all my copy for me?

That’s a valid question. I’m loving how logical and resourceful you are. 👏

ChatGPT and other LLMs (Large Language Models) are pretty impressive. I’ve played around with ChatGPT myself and was impressed with how quickly it wrote an article based on a fictional prompt I gave it.

That being said, I still needed to proofread and edit the article, plus fact-check the evidence it gave me. If you use ChatGPT, you still need the knowledge and marketing know-how to correctly prompt it to write the copy you’re looking for, as it only goes off the instructions you give it.

You can tell ChatGPT to write a sales page, but do you understand the integral parts needed for a sales page to convert? And how does that fit into the rest of your sales funnel? Do you have that part figured out?

I could go on, but if you want to use ChatGPT instead of a copywriter, please do. I certainly won’t stop you. As the daughter of immigrants, I completely understand the need to be frugal and resourceful. 

But…if you get stuck and find that ChatGPT isn’t providing you with expert copy that converts (AKA, “makes you money”) then reach out to me. I’m just an email away. 😉

I noticed that you’re mainly an e-commerce copywriter, but I need help with some writing outside of e-commerce. Can you help me write other forms of content or copy?

E-commerce copywriting is my first love and it's the foundation of my copywriting business. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have other loves. I just love working with cool people who do cool things, whatever that may be. If they need a form of written content, I’m all for it.

I’ve had several clients say to me, “I know you don’t do “x, y, z…” but could you do…???”

Sometimes the answer is, “Yes! Absolutely!” and other times the answer is more along the lines of, “No, but I can refer you to a great person who does.”

Listen, all you gotta do is ask. Asking opens a world of possibilities.

Yes, I’m a copywriter who mainly works in e-commerce helping businesses make money and gain more exposure. But that doesn’t mean I can’t help you in other ways.

• I’ve ghostwritten a book

• Organized and built a workflow in Asana for a successful business owner’s myriad of tasks

• Ghostwritten important letters to address issues and concerns for people who had something to say, but didn’t know how to say it…heck, I even wrote a speech for someone wayyyy back when

Oh, and there’s the whole Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography thing I earned. I know a lot of very skilled photogs and understand the creative world having worked as a photo assistant and a freelance photographer. I was even super huge into food photography at one point and I still get requests for headshots and family portraits even though I don’t advertise those skills. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The point is, just ask. People are multi-faceted with many skills and talents—and I happen to be one of those people. 😉