Copy Examples

Homepage headline examples for writers

The headline is read in about a second, usually by someone who arrived from a search. It should confirm they are in the right place.

Ten of them follow, written for writers rather than filled in from a template. Your customer is an editor or a marketing lead deciding in a minute whether you can write, and what they are weighing up before they get in touch is commissioning someone who misses the brief, or the deadline, or both.


Service plus place

Features and essays in [your town]

Use this as the safe default. It says what and where, which is what people searched for.

The outcome

[The problem], sorted — usually within the week

Use this when the result is more compelling than the service name.

Answers the worry

I link clips rather than list clients

Use this when the whole market has a trust problem.

Speaks to the customer

For an editor or a marketing lead deciding in a minute whether you can write

Use this where naming who it is for filters better than naming what it is.

Credential-led

Writers in [your town] — published

Use this where the licence is the first thing people look for.

The question they typed

Need a writer in [your town]?

Use this to mirror the search that brought them here.

The standard

Hitting the brief and the deadline without being chased

Use this if your differentiator is strong enough to lead with.

Plain and unglamorous

Writers who turn up and charge what they quoted

Use this when your market distrusts polish.

Specialist

Just features and essays. Nothing else.

Use this if you have narrowed and want the right people only.

With the next step in it

See the clips — send the brief and the deadline and I will say yes or no within a day

Use this where the headline sits right on top of the button.

Writing for writers: what actually matters

What should a writer’s website say that a generic one does not?

Three things, in this order. That you are published. That you understand the thing people are actually worried about, which for writers is commissioning someone who misses the brief, or the deadline, or both. And what happens next: send the brief and the deadline and I will say yes or no within a day. Everything else on the page is decoration by comparison.

What does an editor or a marketing lead deciding in a minute whether you can write check first?

The credential, then the proof. For writers it sounds like this. I link clips rather than list clients. I say what I am good at and what I am not. I quote rates ranges rather than "it depends". Put at least one of those above the fold rather than on a separate page nobody opens.

What is the most common mistake on a writer’s website?

Writing about the business instead of the customer. "We have been established since 1998" answers a question nobody asked. "Send the brief and the deadline and I will say yes or no within a day" answers the one they are actually holding. If you only fix one thing, fix that.

How long should the copy be?

Shorter than you think, except where trust is being built. An About page of 120 well-chosen words beats 500 vague ones. The exception is anything explaining commissioning someone who misses the brief, or the deadline, or both — there, specifics earn their length.