Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few weeks, you have probably been hearing a lot about Rework, the new book from dot com mavericks 37 Signals. The book is broken down into chapters, each containing a series of short essays which challenge commonly-held notions about business practices.
The following is our take on some of these essays and how they relate to Copify.
The new reality
Agencies want copy as quickly and cheaply as possible. They don’t want to sit down and discuss their needs, they want to work with people who have enough initiative to get on with the task in hand.
How do we know this? Because we have worked for these agencies and we know the mindset of the very commercially-driven people who run them. This is the new reality folks and it isn’t likely to change any time soon.
Planning is guessing
We don’t have a crystal ball, we have no idea what is around the corner. Some of the decisions we have taken may appear to indicate a lack of foresight, but the reality is that we’d rather learn from our mistakes than be too afraid to try something new.
Draw a line in the sand
In this essay, the writer highlights the importance of having a point of view. One thing we’re never afraid of here at Copify is a bit of controversy and we’ve upset a few people by the way we have gone about things. Specifically, the cost per word model we use has attracted a lot of debate. Whilst many copywriters may hate the idea, most of our clients have reacted positively to it, so we have stuck to our guns. That’s our ‘line in the sand.’
Scratch your own itch
A very simple philosophy from the book is that the best way to create something of real value is to create a product that you yourself would want to use. When I was starting out as a copywriter, I would have given my left arm for the chance to earn money for writing and at the same time build a portfolio. The fact that I wouldn’t have to prospect for work or chase up invoices would be the icing the cake.
Launch now
We spent months developing Copify and on launch we inevitably had a few teething problems. We have also implemented several changes to the site’s functionality in order to make it idiot proof. Again, people could accuse us of a lack of foresight, but our philosophy is that the only way you can truly test that something works is to let the general public loose on it.
Underdo your competition
Many of our competitors may claim that they offer a more ‘personal’ service. You can meet them for a skinny latte and have a chat about your requirements. Alternatively, you could post a job on Copify and have someone working on it in minutes, at a fraction of the price.
Emulate drug dealers
No, we don’t mean driving around in BMWs with blacked-out windows. We’ve found that giving people free trials to Copify is a great way to introduce them to the service. If you’d like a trial, email us with your details at: help@copify.com
Hire the best writers!
Possibly the most salient point to come out of the book. By carefully screening all of our writers, we can ensure that clients will be happy with the standard of copy they receive. So far this policy has worked, with 100% approval rate on all copy.
Own your bad news
You only need to Google ‘Copify‘ to see that there are plenty of people out there who don’t like our business model. Most of these people have taken this stance due to the fact that our concept threatens their very livelihood.
If you read the follow ups to most of these blogs and forums, you will see that we have tried to put our side of the story across, in order for people to have a balanced and objective view of the service we offer.
