Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a ‘woo woo’ kind of a blog but I saw a psychic. I had a session with Fiona, for the second time last week. Her opening comments really resonated with me (as did the whole session, really, but that’s not for here).

This is the first in my series of how it works, ‘it’ being working with me, Caroline Kings. Hopefully this blog will answer some of your questions on the blog writing process, but if you have any others, please get in touch! caroline@Carolinekings.com or just hit the ‘Contact’ button above.

There are two main reasons that I hear why small business owners employ a copywriter like me: they don’t have the time and they don’t like writing. I understand that some people just don’t like writing, but I suspect that some people don’t like it because they remember all the ‘rules’ that they were made to practise, practise, practise when at school.

Since we moved to California, one of the things that’s stood out to me is how inclusive the United States are. I know that may come as a surprise given the news we see from the UK, especially as high-profile public figures publish anti-Semitic and anti-Asian posts, but what I have witnessed here in northern California, in day-to-day life, is that Americans’ celebration of diversity is everywhere: greeting cards show people with different coloured skin partying; there are home-furnishing gifts for religious holidays such as Diwali and Hannukah in mainstream stores proudly displayed; advertisements are in languages other than English.

Email seems like an archaic way of communicating in many ways given we can message over social media apps these days, but it continues to be one of the principal ways that companies who want our business contact us. And that’s exactly why you should build up a mailing list and use it on a regular basis - if everyone else is doing it why shouldn’t you? But I can sense some resistance - it’s more work, something else to add to my very long to do list, do they even work? - so let me explain why in a little more detail.

In my one-minute sales pitch at a recent networking event, I spoke about guest blogging and, to my surprise, it was met with many questions and a lot of interest about what it entails and how to go about it.

I’ve looked back in my emails and the first email I sent about the Writers’ Club was February 2019 and it was to my fellow writer, friend and supporter Rachael Hale. I think there’s a famous quotation out there about how if you can’t find what you’re looking for, create it yourself. I network a lot but as a writer, I was looking for other freelance writers – I had questions, challenges that I wanted to discuss and maybe even some successes I wanted to share.

Lava Spirits Co. is a UK based coffee spirit manufacturer founded by Laura Bridge. The coffee gins are award-winning and since launch in August 2020, Laura has already been featured in GQ and Cosmopolitan. Laura and I worked together to create the web copy for her website and we have since worked on a press release and an advertorial piece in GQ magazine.

Do you remember when people told you to check over your work or read through your essay again looking for errors? We didn’t like doing it then and many people aren’t big fans of doing it now, which is where I can step in! I love a bit of proofreading!

In this digital age, never has it been so important to be able to communicate through the written word.

Writing skills are essential and we need to make sure our kids build a strong foundation in the mechanics of the English language from a young age to help them communicate now and into the future.

You’re sat at your desk. Hmmm, how to start? You rearrange a few things on your desk. Then you check your email. You open a Word document and hover your fingers above the keyboard, waiting for creativity to flow. Your elbows slump as no words are forthcoming. You get yourself a drink. Sound familiar?

Are you stuck in a blogging rut? Do you feel as though you’ve exhausted all options when it comes to blog subjects? Fear not! I spend a great deal of time ghost writing blogs, being creative and coming up with blog topics for my clients. I’m going to share with you the ideas that I refer to so that my clients have a fantastic and varied library of blogs that work on many levels.

In these uncertain times, I know that for some small business owners, work has really slowed down. This could be disheartening but I would encourage you to prepare yourself for when the world opens up for business again. I want to be ready to go. I want to have completed all the admin that’s been following me round on to do lists for weeks (let’s be honest, maybe even years).

There is so much going on at the moment that it’s hard to take it all in – checking your health, wondering whether you need to self-isolate, staying sane, thinking about what to do when the children are not at school, juggling everything - the list goes on and then on top of that we have running your business and keeping it afloat.

I was not a sporty girl, despite coming from a sporty family. I was surrounded by sport – both my parents were active, I went to watch my brother play rugby and sport was always on the TV. I did enjoy watching sport but during my formative years, I didn’t play anything preferring, instead, a good book and nurturing my aspirations of being a sports’ journalist. You’re probably wondering why I’m telling you all this but there is a point; a very big one.

It feels great to have award winning clients — they’re clearly at the top of their game and it’s a good feeling to be a part of their success. But why do awards really matter? And who can help you reach the awards’ dinner?

Ghost writing is something that you may only associate with celebrity autobiographies. The ghost writer’s name doesn’t appear on the cover and often, they don’t receive much credit; they’re floating around in the background, working hard to create a compelling narrative of said celebrity’s life.