How to trademark a name in the UK

Apply for a trademark in the UK

Register a name or phrase for your UK business. Have you ever wanted to trademark a name or phrase for your business? You can do it online in the UK for as little as £170. And you probably won’t need a lawyer or any external help. View trademark for Content DNA® View trademark for relentlessly helpful®

How to create video captions

Creating video captions

Do you create video for YouTube, your website or your social media accounts? If so, adding captions (text subtitles) will improve the viewing experience for your audience. Summary for busy people. Add captions to iPhone video via Apple Clips or . Add captions to pre-recorded desktop video via ($1.25/min) or .

Top proofreading tips

Editing and proofreading tips

Catch mistakes and add polish to your own writing. As a former director of what is now the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), I’m interested in improving the standards of all written work. Here are my top tips to help you proofread your own writing.

HTML introduction – anatomy of a web page

An intro to HTML, the language of the web Do you ever have to fiddle with your website pages beyond just editing text? If you’re confused by the code view, this guide to HTML should make things a bit less scary.

Content DNA

Content DNA

Using congruence and consistency to be the same “shape” everywhere DNA is our blueprint for life. It’s in all our cells and defines how our bodies are made. It’s the same story with our content – the material we publish online and offline. Think of Content DNA as the building blocks of your brand identity. […]

How to measure business success

Do not ignore the positive signals of progress in your business Capture the good stuff so that you can refer back to it when times get tough, as they undoubtedly will. This post was inspired by my marketing mentor, Mark Schaefer.

Tips for new freelance copywriters

Advice from experienced copywriters on how to get started as an independent writer How do I get started in freelance copywriting? What are the challenges? What are the dos and don’ts? What sort of learning should I do? How do I market myself? These are the sorts of question I get a lot from people […]

How to turn on text-to-speech on a Mac

A quick and free way to help you spot errors in your writing Here’s a quick tip to help you check written content on your Mac, using the text-to-speech feature. Instead of reading the text out loud yourself, you can get your Mac to do it via a simple keyboard shortcut. This is useful if […]

Content vs ads – the online battle for attention

Why creating content is the best long-term way to promote your business It’s natural to assume that when you want to promote your business online, you should place an ad. Do ads work online? When should you use them? And is there a better ongoing method for attracting new clients?

How can a copywriter help you?

16 ways a copywriter can provide content to support your business A lot of people think that copywriters write website sales copy and nothing else. In fact, many experienced copywriters can offer much more. Instead of doing it all yourself, hire a copywriter to help lift the burden of writing effective content to support your […]

Headline, subheading and meta description

Headings, subheadings & metadata

My notation for writing website copy for clients I write almost all my B2B client website copy in Word. This post shows how I denote my headlines, subheadings and meta descriptions – and what those things mean. My clients find this clear and it’s easy for their web designers to turn my copy into web […]

Web design options

Web design options

Before you can blog, you need an online space you control. The best place to blog for your business is on your own website – so before you dig in to my business blogging guide, you need to set up that online space. This post covers some options for getting started.

How to create video for websites and blogs

Create videos

Bridging the gap between you and your audience. In this post, we’ll look at a couple of types of video that can add value to your blogs and make your message more relatable. We’ll also see the basic kit needed to create and share video. Before you dive in, note that video creation takes time. […]

How to find blog post ideas

Blog post ideas

10 methodical & creative approaches to uncovering what should you write about. One of the main blockers to business owners starting blogs is not knowing what to write about. In this post, we’ll look at 5 methodical approaches to deciding the topics to cover. We’ll also see 5 creative ways to draw inspiration for your […]

How to speed up Google indexing

Speed up Google indexing

Did you know that when you publish a blog post, it’s not immediately searchable on Google? It can take several days or more for your pages to become findable on Google. Who wants to wait that long? Not me. This post covers a method that could mean your content shows up in Google’s index within […]

CMA Live 18 write-up

  Here’s my write-up of CMA Live 18 (#cmalive18) in Edinburgh on 6–7 June 2018. It’s a summary of all the main sessions over two days at the UK’s best content marketing conference. This was my second time at the event. See my CMA Live 17 write-up to find out what happened the previous year.

You Are The Media 2018

You Are The Media 2018 write-up

On 24 May 2018, the first ever You Are The Media conference took place at the Shelley Theatre in Bournemouth. Here’s my write-up of a truly great day.

Blog republishing strategy

Republishing blog posts

How to syndicate blog content on LinkedIn. This post shows how articles on your website can be legitimately republished on LinkedIn. It means your content does double duty to improve the exposure of your business – without any duplicate content penalties.

5-minute branding

5-minute branding

Putting a consistent “voice” into your writing is an essential step to having a memorable online presence. This 5-minute practical exercise will help you get there. Ready to improve your writing?