How many of you have been burned by charlatans posing as copywriters? I’m taking names. I want your stories. I want the names of the copywriters who screwed you–or tried to.

Because every time someone scams someone like you, the likelihood of you ever trusting a copywriter again plummets–and that’s cause for concern to me and to good copywriters everywhere!  In the same way that doctors despised snake oil salesmen in bygone days, I despise criminally-inept “writer” charlatans posing as real McCoys.

The charlatans and newbies who haven’t even read any books or taken courses in the craft are part of why it’s so hard to land work as a copywriter.  Far too many of the people who need a copywriter tried  one and weren’t even close to satisfied with the result. So now they figure they’re bad “copywriter pickers”, that all copywriters are clueless, or whatever!

As you know if you’ve been following this blog since its inception, I do a lot of business networking, so when a plumber stopped by to help determine whether we had a serious problem or a slight one, he was so great at what he did that I asked if he networked locally.  He said, “Yeah, I did for a while but we got so busy that we don’t need to anymore.” (His response is a great testimonial for networking and for making sure that when you get work you tackle it with utmost integrity! Referrals and testimonials from former customers are crucial to keeping a legitimate business open because there are so many charlatans in most fields that savvy buyers now do their research before doing business with anyone.)

But I digress. Back to the thrust of this post…

When he told me he was real busy as  a result of the former networking he had done and the subsequent referrals his company is receiving, I said, ” That’s great.  I’d like several of your business cards, because now that I’ve used you, I want to be sure to send more business your way whenever I hear of a need.”

As he pulled out a small handful of his cards and handed them to me, he said, “That’s kind of you. Thanks!” Then he asked, “What do you do?”

I could tell by his body language that he was inquiring because he was considering perhaps reciprocating and getting some of my cards in exchange for his, but when I told him what I do for a living, his body language changed immediately; he “retreated” in an instant  into a virtual fortress, cranking up the bridge over the moat.

When I said, “I’m a copywriter” you would have thought I’d announced I was an axe murderer. He physically recoiled; he didn’t intend to be that obvious, I’m sure, but his reaction was apparent to me.  His eyes narrowed, he leaned backward, and all but stopped breathing. The change was dramatic.

I immediately said, “Ooh, you’ve been burned by a copywriter.”

He frowned, looked at the ground, and said, “Don’t even get me started.”

I said, “I’m sorry to hear that.  Unfortunately, anyone can hang a shingle and call themselves a copywriter.”

He nodded ruefully. “I learned that the wrong way.”

I ached to ask who it was that had disappointed him so. I know numerous copywriters in Tacoma and, of the ones I know, there’s one who’s dedicated to  becoming great (and he will one day; he has impressed me already several times), another who’s serving adequately in a specific niche, and there are a couple of downright awful ones who may well be on the way to perdition (if there’s any justice in the hereafter) for being posers and charlatans. I’m not naming names, so don’t ask. Just do your research. Visit websites. Ask for references and portfolios. Pursue due diligence before you hire a copywriter. Please!

Apparently, my plumber friend had done business with one of the bad ones.

One of the local posers was dropping my name at networking meetings left and right, telling people that I was “mentoring” h__ (gender withheld). The claim was a bold-faced lie. I had declined to mentor this person when asked, as I had been forewarned by a previous “mentor” that _____ was trouble, so when I heard my name was being dropped liberally, I emailed  and told the miscreant to knock it off immediately.

This individual’s website and other written outreach reveal, for all to see, a presently-primitive “wannabe” who just decided to hang a shingle one day.   People I know who have crossed paths with h__ and gotten on h__ mailing list laugh about just about everything that issues from h__ email address like clockwork.  It’s a shame that this person doesn’t realize what shooting oneself in the foot looks like.

The takeaway: Washington wannabe should have learned the copy writing craft before deciding to go “viral” (I sure did!) because now everyone knows, far and wide, that sub-standard copy comes from h__ email address–which cannot be helping this individual’s career at all…

It’s a jungle out there…seriously! Buyer beware.