UPDATE 17/02/12: I don’t offer a free hour any more, but it’s still free to talk about your project.
Here on SmyWord I offer a free sample – an hour of my time – so that you can taste a bit of content strategy magic for absolutely nothing.
Only an hour! What could I possibly do in that time?
The answer so far is: plan a blog post, write a tag line, critique site pages, critique whole web sites, write front page copy, or meet up in the pub to talk about content strategy as a career (that one especially fun).
Here are 3 highlights from some recent free sample requests:
I love working with fresh, innovative companies offering genuinely good things. Pitchup are leading the charge in getting the people of Britain camping again. They provide a massive directory of campsites and the tools to find what you’re after, be it beach, yurt, or proximity to the pub.
They asked me to write them a blog post about celebrity camping. They took the free hour as a discount off the fee. Having captured the company’s tone of voice (their words), I’m now helping with the content for their site realignment – coming soon.
I’ve just sent Mixcloud some suggestions to make their service clearer to first time visitors (only just – no time to implement yet). Sometimes you get too close to a web site and lose the outside view.
Mixcloud loved the objective feedback: ‘this is really helpful. We knew that it could be a lot better but didn’t really know what to do!’ Mixcloud are another original, energetic service. I defy you to start listening to their shows without wanting to get up groove around the office.
Political Insight put a tremendously useful tool into the hands of local and national political groups to help them to communicate and campaign effectively. I gave a free hour to developing the tag line, now in use on the site. They were chuffed. They came back for further copywriting and editing.
Do these examples give you any ideas? Is there anything I could do for you in a free 60 minutes?
Thanks Gabriel! We were very impressed with what you managed to put together for us in just an hour. Lots of food for thought – some obvious/quick fixes that have come out of it and some more strategic discussions that will ensue.
Nikhil @ Mixcloud
It is truly possible to be too close to your own site to be able to see it clearly. Not only do we overlook basic errors like spelling mistakes, but we often hold certain elements too close to the heart, when a different approach would be more strategic. This is when a quick overview by someone else is really beneficial!