Blog: Wordsmithery
News and views from me, Charlie Hobson, about all things Wordsmithy-related.
From copywriting and comms trends to grammar pedantry, things I’ve learned from our latest client projects to inspiring people and resources, I’ll share it here in my fairly frequent, shortish blog posts. I hope they help you get to know me better.
Where Wordsmithy’s clients come from
A confession: I hate networking. Another confession: In authentic writerly style, I know that really it’s the term ‘networking’ that I hate. In fact, most of my work has always come to me through people I know – aka my network of contacts. As a one-person band, it’s...
The winding road that led to The Wordsmithy: a career story
Once upon a time a graduate in modern languages left Cambridge University, threw aside her Doc Martens and dungarees, bought a decent suit from M&S and embarked on a career in marketing. She didn’t have much idea about what that entailed, but she’d experienced...
My secret business life: community entrepreneurship
Here’s something that’s quite different from when I started The Wordsmithy: the number of local small and micro-business owners I know. Fifteen years ago, I felt like a daring (and often terrified) pioneer as I set up my limited company and tried to get to grips with...
Who, what, why and where: 10 Wordsmithy Q&As
1. Where is The Wordsmithy? I work from my home office in Twyford, between Reading and Maidenhead, Berkshire. 2. Have you always been there? No. I founded the business in 2003 from my then home in Central Reading. I'm originally from Cheshire but I've also lived and...
The story of The Wordsmithy… once upon a time in 2003
2018 is a milestone year for me. It's 15 years since The Wordsmithy was born - the company name registered, the website set up, the email account created. Open for business! I sat at my desk in Reading in 2003, chewing the end of my pencil and watching tumbleweed blow...
Email subject lines: a copywriting conundrum
Five or six of the hardest words One of my most challenging copywriting tasks is coming up with email subject lines. Getting cracking on the content itself is no problem for me. But it can take as much time as a whole article draft to pick a catchy little phrase that...
Digital newsletters: the new rules are tougher
I last wrote about newsletters two years ago and was already apologising for them feeling like old hat. But still they keep on coming. Businesses use email newsletters to reach out to customers and prospects because it's an easy way to put information in front of them...
Working collectively: freedom to flourish
Last week marked the launch of an exciting new venture for freelancers like me. The Difference Collective opened its doors to support clients in the healthcare sector with projects and extra resources. And I’m delighted to be a part of it. So have I gone over to the...
Home for Christmas?
Reading the Crisis at Christmas website as I made the Wordsmithy's Christmas donation, one statistic jumped out at me. The average age a homeless person dies is 47. Homelessness is a complex topic and there's lots of debate about how to define and number the homeless...