9 reasons why we shouldn’t work together

Here are some reasons you shouldn’t work with me - ranging from my need for information and time to my boundaries around when I work and how I communicate.

I understand this means I’m not the right fit for everyone, so I’ve explained everything below to help us both out.

You use AI to write

Some people copy and paste exactly what AI gives them and that’s fine. Ish. The quality of AI writing is only as good as you make it - if you brief it properly - but even then it’s pretty recognisable and boring. I think personality, tone of voice, alignment with your strategy etc. needs to be added to it.

Here’s an example I saw last week of something written by AI. No writer would ever abuse the power of three like that!

This is just an example I’ve seen recently with my own eyes. There are absolutely tons of examples of poor AI writing out there.

But if ‘fine’ is good enough for your business, by all means carry on.

(There’s a place for AI but it’s more around planning and structure than straight copying and pasting what it’s written for you.)

You don’t value writers

If you think the actual writing is all we copy and content writers do, and you can do the same but for free, then we shouldn’t work together.

A lot more goes into writing than sitting down at a keyboard and tapping away. My process includes:

• Project briefing questions: To understand your business, values, and goals.

• Research: Of the topic, of competitors, of keywords, of your audience etc.

• Writing: Creating outlines, writing using my years of experience to talk in the right way to grab your audience’s attention and persuade them to take action.

• More research and more writing: Yep.

• Proofreading and editing: Checking my work for spelling and grammar, checking facts, making improvements. (You won’t receive a genuine ‘first’ draft from me. Ever.)

You can’t afford it

Likewise, if you think you can get quality copy or content for £0.01 per word, or anything per word, then you’re in the wrong place.

I understand not everyone has a huge budget, but content is an investment that when done properly will make you money. You don’t have to have a huge pot of money, but you will need to have at least £400 per month.

I’m not the most expensive, but I’m definitely not on the cheap end. If you don’t want to spend very much money then we’re not the right fit. Just beware that you run the real risk of getting something you don’t want to use, and having to pay out again to someone else to get it redone. You can see my prices on my Services webpage.

You don’t want to provide detail

I’ll need some of your time to get enough information to write about your business in the best way. If you can’t give me that time we won’t be able to work together, because I don’t want to take your money if you’re not going to get the best result.

Here’s an idea of the time you’d need to invest:

• 15 minutes on a free discovery call

• 1 hour completing the Project Briefing document

• 30 minutes sending me documentation (brand and tone of voice guidelines etc.)

• 1 hour reviewing the first draft and providing feedback

• 1 hour reviewing the second draft and providing feedback

The more information you can give me, the better the work will be.

I of course do all of the content magic, but there’s only so much I can talk about if I don’t know anything about your company history, why you’re doing what you’re doing, or what makes you different from everyone else etc.

You don’t want to provide feedback

You get two rounds of revisions included and, provided I’ve been given all the information talked about above, the first draft should be pretty good.

But, I want the work to be the best it can be and value constructive feedback.

If you don’t have time to review the drafts, or you don’t provide useful, actionable feedback*, we won’t be a good fit.

(*’It needs more pizazz’ or ‘I’m not sure about this’ etc. isn’t good feedback.)

You want quick results

If you want your blog posts or website ranking on the first page of Google in 3 days, we shouldn’t work together.

SEO is a long game, which includes hitting the right ranking factors consistently over time in order to build up authority and show Google that you’re giving people what they’re looking for. We’re talking weeks and months, definitely not days.

This is why my content packages run for 6- or 12-months. I’m not the right fit for you if you’re expecting results within days or one or two blog posts per year.

You don’t want to provide stats

If you don’t know how to view your metrics, or you don’t want to spend time feeding the data back to me, I won’t have the opportunity to see what is or isn’t working and adjust my strategy accordingly.

If I can see how much traffic the posts are bringing in or not bringing in, or how much time people are spending on the page or if they’re bouncing quickly, I can make adjustments and improvements.

Reacting to the data will give you the best result, which is what I strive for. So if you don’t want to provide me with the means to do that, I’m probably not the best fit for you.

You want me to be available to you on-demand

I’m available via Calendly for scheduled video calls as well as via email and direct message on LinkedIn during weekday work hours. I don’t give my phone number out and I don’t work outside of my working hours - Monday to Friday, 10am to 6pm.

My communication preference is text-based (email or direct message) because I have auditory processing disorder. I’m happy to have video calls because they’re easier than just audio for some reason, but it’s why I don’t do phone calls.

I’m not available 24/7 because I’ve learnt the hard way the effect that has on my mental health and capacity. It would make my work suffer which wouldn’t be good for either of us.

You’re expecting me to churn out content

If you’re expecting to have heaps of content, more than one person could write well even with the assistance of AI, then I’m not what you’re looking for.

My writing process, as detailed above, takes time but gives you the best results. I take pride in what I produce, and while I’m not the slowest I’m definitely not content-farm fast.

My packages consist of 2 or 4 blogs per month (with added things like social media posts and email newsletters), but if you’re wanting more content than that I’d recommend going to a bigger outfit than myself.

💁🏻 So, there you have the reasons to not work with me.

If you resonate with the way I do work then I’d love to hear from you! You can either fill in the contact form or send me an email at hello@webwriter.uk.