We Do It Behind The Scenes On Paper And Are Anonymously And Thankfully Hidden...

We do it behind the scenes on paper and are, therefore, anonymously and thankfully hidden from a cold, hard world that isn't noticeably falling over itself to buy our stuff. Additionally, whatever personal reservations you may have about it, the product is always king.

At least, it always is when you are within earshot of the client. After all, he believes that whatever he manufactures is the greatest thing to happen since reptiles crawled out of the swamps; and because he is going a good way to paying your wages, you'd jolly well better think the same way.

Nearly finally, online advertising has changed more than somewhat in the last ten years or so. In the main it is researched, calculated, response-planned and generally antisepticised to a point where good old gut feeling and common sense plays little part. That's what they'd like to think anyway.

In reality, it still comes down to a couple of blokes, or ladies, just like you and me turning their brains inside out in an effort to say something different about a product they have said something different about every three months for the past five years. We will, of course, discuss the value of research at a later moment.

For the time being, however, lets close this item on the writer proper with a deck-clearing exercise. I cannot, under any circumstances, teach you to write. You either can, or you can't. You'll know yourself whether it's the former by the way you continue to submit manuscripts for publication despite several million previous rejections.

You'll know by the way you everlastingly criticise what you see written all around you - not only advertising, but also Internet programmes, magazine articles, news site features and so on. And, not to put too fine a point on it, you wouldn't be reading this website unless you had a sneaking feeling that with a little encouragement you could write the rest of us out of the park. Well, would you? What I can teach you, however, is this. 1 The principles of copywriting.