The Musings of the CopyGhost

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Illness Stinks. And, MindMapping!
2007-03-24 03:09:00
I used to like being sick. Yeah, it sounds odd, but it's true. When I was younger, I used to be able to stay home from school with a stomach ache and watch TV all day. It was great!Then, as I got older, being relatively healthy, I may have occasionally called in sick to work and spent the day relaxing or (does this really happen?) writing!But these days, I can't afford to be sick anymore. And what really stinks about it is that I when I do have to actually stay home from work due to illness, I'm SO sick, I can't write. I can't even relax anymore.So, the bottom line of the equation is that I continue to struggle to make my writing life more a part of my mainstream life. Why this quandry continues, I don't really know. I know what I want, and I know my abilities and the potential of the market. But still, I spend less time writing in a given week than I do commuting to work! Just driving!Well, on to a different, interesting subject. I subscribed to a very interesting ez...
More About: Mind , Ness , Ping , Illness

Keeping a Blog Isn't Easy!
2007-03-18 05:10:00
Can I take a minute to let everyone know that running this blog is not as easy as it looks. Now, I realize there's almost nothing to clicking "New Post", typing up my thoughts at the moment, and hitting "Publish" before going to bed.But, if you hadn't already noticed, I'm trying to integrate this blog into the grand internet marketing scheme of my business. You see, search engines like Google and Yahoo absolutely love blogs because "content is king." And since a well-maintained blog has constantly-changing content, the search engines hit it up all the time.So, I have my link to my main website, (www.copyghost.com) liberally sprinkled throughout, along with marginally appropriate AdSense ads linking to other valuable places and people that can reciprocate. Therefore, the blog serves as a pretty important entrance to my main business in the grand scheme of things.The problem is, in order to get the most out of running this blog, I need people to know it's here. So, I have bee...
More About: Blog , Keep , Easy , Ping , Fakta

The Website Isn't Up Yet.
2007-03-17 05:50:00
For anyone who may have tried clicking on one of the many links I have put here for my main website, www.copyghost.com, you've probably noticed a slight challenge with the site. . .IT'S NOT THERE!!!! I have yet to upload the site for viewing, because I'm just appalled with the design thus far. For all you CopyGhost fans out there, a slight glimmer of hope as peeked over the horizon! My brother, a professional web designer and html programmer extraordinairre (I sure hope he's reading this) has offered his expert advice! So, please be patient. CopyGhost will live online, I promise! Justin Lambert CopyGhost Copywriting and Ghostwriting for businesses of all size, nationwide. Visit www.copyghost.com to subscribe to the FREE e-newsletter, Connexion, your source for tips and tricks to improve your business communication skills. Subscribe now to receive a FREE GIFT: the Special Report: 10 Ways To Spruce Up Your Copy - Even If It Doesn't Need It!
More About: Website , Site , Webs , The Web

Book Sale: Is This a Turning Point, or a Dead End?
2007-03-15 03:27:00
I just put up almost all my writing books on eBay.You know how it is when you get thouroughly engrossed in a concept, and have to soak up every last word on it or you feel like that vital detail will forever escape you?Maybe it's just me.Well, back in 2002, I realized I wanted to earn my living as a freelance writer and author. I had had the entrepreneurial spirit for longer than that, but in freelance writing I finally stumbled across "the one" for me. It really turned me on, got me firing on all cylinders, and (to listen to Bob Bly) guaranteed me a truly healthy income if I did it right.So, I subscribed to Writer's Digest and The Writer, then to the Writer's Digest Book Club. Boy, did they ever find a sucker in me. Not that I didn't appreciate, and get alot out of the books I bought, because I did. But there was alot there I surely didn't need to buy, especially being that I was constantly haunting the local library too.I also spent a fortune on Amazon.com looking for ol...
More About: Sale , This , Dead , Point

Self-Published: "Destroying The Facade"
2007-03-14 03:26:00
Perhaps "self-published" is a touch melodramatic. I decided to post a copy of an essay I wrote a while back for a contest relating to the topic of "purpose". It is actually a rewrite of an earlier essay that rambled far more, but it also didn't amaze the judges in the contest any, so I am left with what I feel is a fairly interesting and thought provoking article which is essentially unpublishable. (Is that a word?) I'd love to hear comments on this essay, if anyone is reading this tired writer's late-night musings. . .Destroying The Facade All of us have something in common. Regardless of our station in life, our personalities and all that has shaped our existence, a common denominator binds us together while simultaneously prying us apart. All of us are frightened to the point of paralysis of telling the truth. Not the truth of inconsequential external details (although some of us seem to have an issue with honesty in these trivialities as well) but the truth inside us. W...
More About: Self , Troy , Published , Publish , Cade

A Busy Weekend, But Little Accomplished
2007-03-11 23:34:00
The weekend has been busy, but little was accomplished in regards to building CopyGhost to the juggernaut it will surely become. One vital goal has been met, however:I completed the writing and formatting of a brief but powerful Special Report entitled, "10 Ways to Spruce Up Your Copy - Even If It Doesn't Need It!" This little e-booklet is available for immediate download at no cost to anyone who signs up for my Connexion e-newsletter at www.copyghost.com. I also discovered a pretty obnoxious fact: My web design software does not accomodate the ugly ad banners that my (currently) free web hosting service requires at the top of the screen, so I now need to redesign the entire site to make room for the banners.Irritations abound when you're starting out on a shoestring budget!Sorry for the brevity of the post today. More ineffectual activity to fill my evening, then perhaps some more effective work this evening! Until then. . .Justin Lambert CopyGhost Copywriting and Ghostwrit...
More About: Comp , Weekend , Week , Little , Litt

Meet me. . .
2007-03-09 04:31:00
I thought this would be as good a time as any to introduce you to myself. So, here I am, working, as always, at my Gateway laptop with a coffee nearby. Not a really flattering pic, but what can you do with the morbidly obese?I am 29 years old, have a wife of almost nine years, Melissa, and two children: Travis (6) and Emily (5). I, like most Americans, am in debt up to my eyeballs, and am stuck in an unfulfilling job because it makes ends meet.At least, it used to make ends meet before a group of foul sub-human beings took up residence in a rental property we owned and decided to sit in two 3-bedroom apartments for 8 months dragging us through the most horrendous set of evictions in the history of the legal system.I am now a hair's breadth from bankruptcy, which has an amazing effect on the eyes! I can now see very clearly how easy it is to lose everything in this transient life. I have a very strong faith in greater things to come, in a higher power that has promised wonderful ble...
More About: Meet

Taking Time for Instruction
2007-03-08 03:26:00
I purchased an audio program from Bob Bly, one of the most successful and well-known copywriters in the world, and a man I have a tremendous amount of respect for because of all he has been able to do in our profession. The name of the program is "Six Figure Consulting", and it consists of four CD's-worth of a conversation between Fred Gleeck (self-storage and publishing coaching guru) and Bob Bly (copywriter) about how to market a one-person consulting or service business. I have almost completed the program, and will likely have it finished tomorrow. My overall impressions are fairly good, i.e. the information is solid, it comes from a few industry insiders who are obviously very successful, and I think the bullhonky level is probably very low. Unfortunately, I also think the information they have provided is very much entry-level stuff, which was disappointing. In other words, anyone who has spent a moderate amount of time surfing the web or reading at the local library about...
More About: Time , King , Instruction , Taking

Keep on Truckin'
2007-03-06 18:27:00
Just a quick post today because I am still at work. I nodded off way to early last night and woke up just in time to hit the road for work, so I had no post Monday.I'm guessing my exhaustion comes from the fact that yesterday was a horrible, horrible day in corporate America. To sum up my feelings at about 3:00 pm yesterday afternoon, I wrote the following paragraph on a piece of paper and pinned it up in my cubicle:"What I absolutely love about my job is how the priorities shift constantly enough to keep me from feeling successful, but not enough to make me feel justified in complaining. There is a middle-aged Japanese man balancing precariously on the railing of a pedestrian walkway overlooking a 200-foot drop somewhere outside of Tokyo who feels better about the job he does than I do."That well describes the main reason self-employment appeals so highly to me. Believe me when I say, I realize freelancing will be anything but easy, especially when I am starting out. But I am abso...
More About: Truck , Keep

Improving My Online Presence
2007-03-05 03:45:00
I purchased my domain name today (www.copyghost.com) and immediately began the fun and exciting process of creating my website. I have done this more than once previously, but decided to start fresh this time with a brand new design and web copy to compliment my new beginning. I also chose a brand new name for my freelance writing company that I believe stands out from the crowd far better than JPL Communications (which was the original name I used starting in 2003.Going forward, I am the CopyGhost. As the name suggests, I intend to focus my marketing efforts on obtaining copywriting and ghostwriting projects, which I feel to be among the most profitible commercial writing gigs for which I am qualified. By building on this specialty I intend to focus my marketing and further qualify my prospects rather than using the shotgun approach as a generalist. I have every intention of maintaining a generalist scope in that I will accept other assignments that fall outside of my main spec...
More About: Online , Presence , Line , Ving , Improv

A movie review and a philosophy on life. . .
2007-03-04 05:48:00
My wife and I brought our kids to see "A Night at the Museum" tonight. I have to admit, a really fun movie, even if the writing was trite and the chemistry between the characters was thin. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson remain a hilarious comic team, even when the script gave them very little room to maneuver. Overall, a fun time and at least a dozen good quality laughs to bring home.But, something else I brought home from this movie was one of the central (albeit overtly stated) themes of the movie: You must create your own future.There is a scene early on where Ben Stiller's son, who has dealt heroically with his Dad's ups and downs as a wishy-washy, failed entrepreneur, asks him, "What if you're just an ordinary guy who should get a job?"Indeed. What if I'm an ordinary guy who should just give up this foolish idea of writing for a living, and keep my corporate cubicle. I have struggled with this question for over three years now, since I first decided freelance writing was...
More About: Philosophy , Movie , Life , Movie Review , Review

Why am I up so late?
2007-03-03 06:31:00
It is 12:30 am on Saturday morning. On Fridays, I work the 3-11 shift at my call center job, which is excellent in comparison to my normal 8-5 shifts throughout the week (the busiest part of the day), but has its own hellish boredom as well.At 10:55 pm, I was nearly comatose in my cubicle, struggling to put the finishing touches on an e-mail that will be going out to the call center, when I realized the last hour had flown by. I had no less than three outstanding end-of-the-night tasks to complete in under five minutes, or I would be staying late.So, my mind exploded for three minutes and I was out of my seat and across the office, whirling in a tiny, sweaty tornado of paper and ink, sending faxes, filling copiers, checking locks and flipping light switches. When I returned to my desk, I fired off a summary e-mail to my bosses explaining how and why nothing happened this evening, and then whirled off again to collect the test faxes I had sent to myself and check on the lunchroom lig...
More About: Late

I shall begin at the beginning. . .
2007-03-03 06:26:00
As noted above, I find myself at a crucial point in my life, and feel the initial sparks of greatness just ahead. Let me interject that I don't mean that in an egotistical way. More of a sigh-of-relief than a beat-my-chest thing. I just feel like after years of semi-aimless groping in the fog, I can finally see some shadowy outlines of a solid future ahead.It feels great.So, I decided now is as good a time as any to begin recording for posterity the transformation I hope to experience. My expectation for this blog is to use it as a sounding board and a soapbox, as well as an archive of the good, the bad and the ugly. So, without further ado, let's move on to today's musing. . . Justin Lambert CopyGhost Copywriting and Ghostwriting for businesses of all size, nationwide. Visit www.copyghost.com to subscribe to the FREE e-newsletter, Connexion, your source for tips and tricks to improve your business communication skills. Subscribe now to receive a FREE GIFT: the Special...
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