Keep coding. Punchy Prose will handle copywriting and editing for you.

by alexissantos • 13 years ago

9 16 13 years ago

Aloha, Hacker News. Just a few minutes ago, I launched Punchy Prose. Recently, I turned my full-time writing gig at a tech blog into a part-time stint so I could focus on honing my Python skills and whipping up web projects. I figured, however, that I could fuse my two interests and lend a hand with copyediting and copywriting. And lo, Punchy Prose was born.

PS If you're curious, I built the site with Django.

nicholasreed• 13 years ago

I love the concept, but I'm surprised at the (IMO) low pricing. How much time are you (or are you outsourcing too) spending on a $19 task?

alexissantos8• 13 years ago

Thanks! When it comes to pricing, I'm shooting from the hip. I'll be doing all the work myself. If it becomes too big of a beast to handle on my own... I'll figure something out.

uts_• 13 years ago

Typo on the homepage:

Spruce up exisintg documents.

Not really a good start for a copy editing business....

alexissantos8• 13 years ago

Ah, damn it. Alas, happens to the best of us.

jmduke• 13 years ago

Your lineheights are wonky on my browser (Mac Chrome): specifically, line-height is set to 20px and font-size is set to 32px so there's a fair amount of overlap.

Also, nothing scares me more than a typo on a site selling me a copyediting service. "Exisintg" should be "existing."

Add social proof as soon as possible; I'd also include something about a moneyback guarantee.

Good luck -- I can't wait to see how this evolves :).

alexissantos8• 13 years ago

Gracias! Just squashed the typo.

Hmm. Seems like I have some work to do on the line-height.

px19992• 13 years ago

This is a service that IMO is sorely needed for those who don't have the budget to hire an advertising company (who'd tend to get their interns to write copy for you, and at more than $175 for a landing page). That said, I'm a little hazy on what classified as a "landing page". I could see that one size fits all pricing coming back to bite you, as not all clients will have an equal opinion on what's a reasonable amount of copy, but I'm assuming that it's a calculated risk that you're taking there.

I could see it being quite a difficult service to get off the ground. The barrier to entry may be (comparatively) low, but I couldn't imagine clients being happy with you taking credit for the copy that they buy even on your own site - do you have a strategy to handle this and get people talking about the service you offer, or are you planning on relying on banner/text ads to bring in new clients (or is it something that's not entirely sorted out yet)?

Either way, all the best, and good luck, I hope it works out for you.

alexissantos8• 13 years ago

Indeed, it's a calculated risk. Generally, I consider "landing page(s)" anything that's public-facing and doesn't require a sign-up to be viewed. I aim to satisfy, so I'm more than happy to put in more time and meet a client's expectations even if it means a bit of bending over backwards on my part. If pricing needs to be adjusted in the future, it will.

In general, I won't take credit for any copy I write -- unless, of course, someone would like to provide a testimonial.

As for attracting clients, that remains to be seen. Hacker News is the first stop on the PR parade, the rest is uncharted territory. One thing that comes to mind is advertising on a few weekly podcasts. We'll see.

Thanks!

px19992• 13 years ago

Thanks for the response - I'm running into similar issues with a product that I'm building, and my planned approach pretty much mirrors yours, so the validation is very useful.

lwhalen• 13 years ago

Not to be 'that guy', but: "Knee deep in code?" -> "Knee-deep in code?"

"Need a document, long-form work or press release edited or written?" -> "Need a document, long-form work, or press release edited or written?"

I also am getting the occasional "Gondor is unable to route this request to a site." message when trying to load the site.

alexissantos8• 13 years ago

No problem! Someone has to be "that guy," and they typically keep me on my toes.

Hmm. Not sure what's up with Gondor. I love my hosting folks, but there may be something up.

Keep coding. Punchy Prose will handle copywriting and editing for you.

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