Author Archives: G75 Media

Why do hotels find it so hard to maintain standards?

Bad hospitality experiences are as much a part of British life as wet summer days and queuing. In my freelance role of mystery hotel reviewer, I work with national chains and boutique establishments, road-testing their facilities before producing in-depth reports of my findings.

I fully accept that it’s hard to maintain the highest standards of quality and service at all times, given the vagaries of suppliers, wear and tear, previous guests and staff shortages. However, some of the issues I’ve encountered could have been easily avoided – or addressed far more effectively once they’d actually happened…

Five cautionary tales

Some of the events below happened while I was conducting mystery hotel reviews, but others occurred as a business or leisure guest. While I could have named and shamed the chains and brands involved in this list, I haven’t done so, since discretion remains a cornerstone of being a mystery hotel reviewer long after you’ve wiped your feet on the way out…

Issue #1: Broken soap dispenser in room.

Cause: Lack of regular maintenance.

How the hotel responded: Someone went into my room while I was having dinner, concluded the dispenser was indeed broken, didn’t fix it and walked out without closing the door behind them (leaving my £1,300 laptop on view to anyone walking down the corridor). They marched into the restaurant, pointed at me and shouted “your soap dispenser’s broken, so you’ll have to lean over the bath and use that one”, while food fell off the fork of the astonished woman sitting at the next table.

How the hotel should have responded: Called a handyman to fit one of the spare soap dispensers they should have kept in stock as soon as housekeeping noticed it wasn’t filling properly. And then closed the room door behind them. And maybe left me a note, rather than bellowing at me across a restaurant and giving every other diner the mental image of me performing bizarre stretches across a bath.

Issue #2: Giant spider in shower.

Cause: Inadequate cleaning.

How the hotel responded: The receptionist shuddered and said there was nobody who could deal with it. I spent the night in a room with Schrodinger’s spider – either in the shower, or not in the shower. I didn’t use the shower. I never went back to this hotel. Maybe the spider’s still there, all these years later? Perhaps that room became its personal fiefdom, forever off-limits to bipeds?

How the hotel should have responded: Invested £10 in a spider catcher capable of reaching the high ceilings in this once-grand Victorian building, before training their cleaners (one of whom had just cleaned the bathroom) how to safely catch and release arachnids. An apology or the offer of a room change would have been welcome, while the spider might have appreciated a newspaper to read.

Issue #3: Unacceptable food preparation and presentation.

Cause: Inadequate training or supervision.

How the hotel responded: Despite a menu promising a “delicious pancake stack” served teetering on a fruit-laden plate, the chef sent out two small and overcooked pancakes without any fruit, coulis, sauces, decoration or accompaniments. The waiter didn’t even look embarrassed – perhaps this tragic sight was a common occurrence.

Neither delicious, fruit-laden nor a stack

How the hotel should have responded: Set minimum standards for food at the pass, ensuring every dish meets pre-determined size, presentation, cooking, temperature and hygiene requirements. I appreciate staffing issues are rife throughout the hospitality sector, but this was clearly the action of someone who turned up for work without a shred of interest, pride or commitment to their role.

Issue #4: Given the key to someone else’s room at check-in.

Cause: Staff not paying attention.

How the hotel responded: When I returned to reception and said, “the room key you’ve just given me is for the wrong room and I’ve just walked in on someone sleeping”, the receptionist’s response was indifferent at best. Grudging apologies and a replacement room card which…well, why don’t we try door number two and see what (or who) awaits?

How the hotel should have responded: Immediately called management to issue sincere apologies to all parties, before scheduling retraining for reception staff to ensure an occupied room cannot have extra keys allocated to new arrivals. I could have been anyone. To the sleeping woman in the bed, I was anyone. Certainly not someone she wanted walking in on her, though I’m great company.

Issue #5: No space in car park.

Cause: Constrained site boundaries.

How the hotel responded: Filled a car park originally intended for a dozen vehicles with two dozen vehicles, then employed one person to undertake a giant game of Tetris to extract my car from the centre of this solid mass of tightly packed metal. It took nearly an hour for me to get my car back after checkout – the accompanying photo was taken after several vehicles had already been disgorged. Pity the owners of the red Astra (far right), who were packing up ready to leave.

This was after two cars had already left

How the hotel should have responded: Either (a) sourced alternative space nearby, (b) made clear to guests that parking is limited to certain rooms or booking rates rather than trying to accommodate every single vehicle, (c) asked people to nominate an estimated checkout time and parked the cars in order of who was staying longest, or (d) employed more than one person to rescue vehicles. Waiting an hour for your car to be freed isn’t acceptable when people have appointments/flights/long drives home.

What are the underlying causes?

While issue 5 is arguably more to do with logistics and overpromising on available space, the first four come down to hotels not maintaining standards among their workforce. Staff sometimes do the bare minimum required of them – or even less than that – unless there are incentives to be more proactive or penalties for allowing standards to slip. The first four issues on my list all involve a lack of care – from housekeeping staff, maintenance teams, receptionists and chefs alike. I chose these particular issues because they span the breadth of hotel departments.

As a mystery hotel reviewer, I’m only allowed to report the facts as I find them. But when I do encounter soiled bedding, unhygienic food displays, mouldy grouting or broken appliances, I’m duty bound to report them. In this respect, mystery hotel reviews work well to generate feedback customers may be too polite/embarrassed/rushed to offer. Yet it’s a sad reflection on hospitality in the United Kingdom that mattress protectors remain optional, soundproofing is still patchy, service is frequently indifferent (at best) and three pieces of rind can be served as the sole dairy content of a cheeseboard. Until hotels dramatically improve their standards, mystery shoppers like me will remain essential in the quest for quality, consistency and basic decency.

Ten things any freelancer’s home office needs   

Every self-employed person goes on a journey, and one of the less heralded aspects of the freelancing journey involves the organic development of a more professional workspace. I started out with an antiquated old PC balanced on a glass display unit in my living room, with no storage or space for paperwork. It’s a far cry from today’s dedicated home office, where a six-foot oak desk packed with drawers and cupboards supports a high-end laptop and twin 27-inch monitors through a docking station.

I’ll come back to some of these efficiency-bolstering elements in a moment. First, let’s consider some of the benefits afforded by an appropriate and well-configured working environment:

  • – It’s ergonomic. Freelancing from a laptop at a dining table or on the sofa can induce numerous physical ailments, from RSI and tendonitis through to tech neck and eyestrain-related headaches.
  • – It’s professional. When a client calls, you need pads and pens, Dictaphones and documents to hand. Running around the house trying to find a Biro is tiring, unprofessional and unduly stressful.
  • – It’s distinct. The boundaries between work and home life are blurry for most freelancers. They’ll disappear entirely if you work where you eat or socialise – making it harder to switch off at night.
  • – It’s private. A dedicated workspace avoids unrelated clutter building up. It means children coming home from school don’t suddenly appear in video calls. It ensures you can work in relative peace.

Gone are the days when you could eke out a skinny latte in the local coffee emporium for an entire day while exploiting their free WiFi. Also gone are the days when employers or clients accepted people answering Zoom calls in onesies, with piles of laundry in the background or accompanied by unscheduled interruptions from other household members. In today’s ruthlessly competitive freelancing market, battered by generative AI and budgetary constraints, only the most professional freelancers will flourish. Doing so requires a dedicated place to work (even if that’s just a corner of a room) with the following ten essential attributes:

  1. Full spectrum lighting. These lamps cast a clear white light that’s easy to read by, great for designing in and capable of minimising the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder in the GMT seasons.
  2. An ergonomic chair. It may involve trial and error to find a chair deep enough to support your thighs and bolstered enough to offer lumbar support, but it’s a vital investment to avoid back or neck pain.
  3. A storage-equipped desk. Don’t try and work from a breakfast bar – you need drawers/cupboards/shelves for documents, brochures and post. Solid wooden furniture will last forever.
  4. Sound-cancelling microphone-equipped headphones. This ensures you can work in peace when the house is noisy, be clearly heard on video calls and listen to webinars without anyone eavesdropping.
  5. A docking station and laptop. Laptops are ideal for taking to meetings, pitches and presentations. Plugged into a docking station with hardwired peripherals, they’re also as practical as a desktop PC.
  6. An attractive backdrop. Blurring your background inevitably distracts with flickering, suggesting you’re hiding something. A nice picture is fine, as is a garden view; avoid clutter, clothes or mirrors.
  7. Full fibre broadband. Most UK households now have access to full fibre. ADSL lines of 10Mbps aren’t enough in today’s OneDrive and Zoom age – they’ll slow you up and result in stuttering streams.
  8. Privacy. It’s lovely freelancing from home with pets mooching around, but not during interviews or meetings. A door you can close (or a screen you can put up) is vital for appearing professional.
  9. Proximity to a window. A glance at trees or sunshine can provide inspiration, while daylight boosts our mood and simplifies reading. Position workstations beside or below windows wherever possible.
  10. Space to pace. A surprising addition, perhaps, but many people find it easier to talk on the phone or think while moving. A hallway will suffice, providing there’s nothing to bump into while you muse.

A professional approach

Having been founded back in the mid-Noughties, G75 Media is a paragon of professionalism, elevating freelancing to a fine art from a dedicated home office which ensures we’re able to deliver optimal work to every client. Get in touch to see how we can collaborate with working partnerships, marketing copy and content production for businesses in any industry.

How to manage the work-life balance as a freelancer

I hadn’t realised how burnt out I’d become until I drove into the back of a parked car at the traffic lights, one cold December evening. It was only later, pacing around the living room on the phone to my insurance company, that I realised I was partway through my fiftieth consecutive week of work. Apart from taking three days off to move house (even relocating to Carlisle couldn’t justify a full week off), I hadn’t had a break from the pressures of running a small business and freelancing for clients since the New Year.

The year was 2021, and it represented a turning point in my attitude to the work-life balance. Until then, I’d been a workaholic – always saying yes to clients, always meeting my deadlines, always afraid to ask for an extension or put back a proposed deadline in case it somehow caused offence. No wonder I was too tired to stop at the lights.

Striking a balance

The work-life balance is something many freelancers struggle with. When you’re a salaried employee, there’s usually a clear delineation between working hours and personal time, but company directors and the self-employed can’t draw that line as easily. Matters are compounded when you (a) work from home and (b) have your works phone number plastered all over the internet. In the past, I’ve had 3am phone calls from people wanting me to research state-led cover-ups, and 6am emails from people thinking I’d already be at my desk rather than asleep. Yes, you can put your phone on silent or Airplane mode, but then what if a friend or relative has an emergency and can’t contact you?

Based on 25 years as a professional, 17 years as the founder and chief copywriter of G75 Media, and almost 15 years working as a full-time freelancer, these are my recommendations on how to manage the work-life balance as a freelancer…

1. Have a dedicated home office.

I’ve previously written about how to create an optimal home office, which also brings benefits in terms of the work-life balance. If your ‘office’ is the sofa, it’s much harder to switch off at five o’clock. A home office is a distinct space, used for a specific purpose; when you close the door, it mentally segregates the working day. Your office doesn’t need to be spacious, or well-appointed, but it’ll feel more professional than using the dining table. It’ll also be quieter, more private for video calls, and better for storing paperwork, peripherals and a proper ergonomic desk/chair setup. 

2. Plan your annual holidays well in advance.

I now take two full weeks off each year – the minimum required to maintain my mental health, and the maximum I feel able to impose on my year-round clients. These breaks are organised before the start of each new year, which means scheduling time off many months in advance. However, I can then inform existing clients in the New Year about my forthcoming plans, and having those weeks blocked out in my diary ensures I’m aware of impending absences before entering into new contracts. And booking a trip away a year in advance tends to unlock bigger discounts…

3. Clear your desk before going on holiday.

Most freelance clients will respect you taking time off. It won’t materially affect their business if you aren’t around to submit content on weeks 23 and 44. Giving them plenty of notice also gives you time to prepare for your departure – stockpiling work if you want to hit the ground running on your return, for instance. Set Out Of Office autoreplies covering the weekends before and after any absences, promising to respond on your return, and record a similar voicemail message on your works mobile or landline. Holidays are vital for recharging, so don’t spend them working.

4. Keep weekends clear.

When your smartphone has push email notifications and your laptop is on the worktop, it’s very tempting to let your business encroach into personal time. Resist that temptation at weekends wherever possible, working on weekday evenings instead. A couple of mental rest days will reinvigorate you for the following week, whereas working 11 or 12 days out of 12 will result in fatigue, an increased likelihood of mistakes and an inevitable sense of resentment. Burnout – and car crashes – may ultimately ensue if you don’t get the work-life balance right.

5. Leave things until tomorrow.

Expanding on the last point, there’s always a temptation to deal with after-hours emails. They’ll keep. I have several clients in America, whose working day starts as mine draws to a close, but they’ve all accepted my GMT working hours with good grace. If I need to video call them, I schedule meetings in the morning Stateside time. If they email me towards the end of their working day, I don’t feel duty bound to respond, and neither should you. A next-day response to evening emails or calls is normally fine, unless your business provides crisis management or PR services.

If you’re struggling to achieve an optimal work-life balance,  outsourcing part of your (or your company’s) workload may be advisable. Contact us for more information on how G75 Media can assist you with anything from content production to bid writing, and from social media posts to company reports.

The importance of regular website updates

The last year has been a difficult one for many businesses reliant on search engines. Google is still the dominant force in UK search, despite a growing number of lawsuits and court rulings against it. Yet after years of relative stability, the mysterious algorithm which determines a website’s overall ranking in response to particular search terms has become volatile and unpredictable.

When it comes to creating and publishing original online content, a perfect storm is raging across cyberspace. Twice in the last year, Google arbitrarily downranked highly rated websites, usually with no warning or explanation for its actions. Consumers are increasingly rejecting cookies – the foundation stone of the business model which sustains many websites financially. Brands are struggling with subdued demand, spiralling costs and the inevitable consequences of economic stagnation. As a result, many are embracing generative AI content production to power their regular website updates, even though the results are sometimes inaccurate and always inferior to the output of professional writers.

Search and destroyed

The results of these interconnected phenomena have had a profound effect on content producers like G75 Media. Several well-established clients of ours have paused or cancelled work on their websites this year, in an attempt to save money and stave off closure. However, these decisions lead to an unwelcome knock-on effect – the absence of regular website updates. Over 80 per cent of all live websites are dormant and inactive. Creating a site is relatively easy – regularly updating it is much harder.

From social media posts and blogs through to news stories and the creation of new pages, regular website updates are vital to a site’s SEO performance. Search engines consider a variety of factors when deciding which websites to list on the first results page, including the domain’s history, traffic levels and inbound links from other reputable websites. Yet according to a report published in June 2024, the consistent publication of engaging content is the single most important factor in Google ranking – more valuable than keywords, backlinks, user engagement or page loading times.

Key takeaway: Over 20 per cent of the Google algorithm value is based on regular website updates, with a further six per cent dependent on a site’s content being fresh and topical.

Isn’t content production expensive?

Employing a freelance copywriter to create new content and regular website updates is certainly costlier than using generative AI, though the latter has too many drawbacks to be a serious alternative to employing a professional writer with industry experience. Generative tools which ‘borrow’ and regurgitate existing website data will incorporate all the inaccuracies and bias of the source material into their output, as a recent news story about ChatGPT inventing fake court cases demonstrates. AI could also generate near-identical data for your competitors (if it hasn’t already), and audiences are surprisingly adept at identifying text produced by an algorithm. Simply put, bots don’t produce compelling copy.

Key takeaway: Search engines hate plagiarism and low-quality content, and generative AI affords you no control over either of these metrics.

The cost of generating new content for your blog may not even extend to three figures, depending on its length and complexity. A simple blog or news story shows that the site remains active, even on a monthly publication rota, although weekly updates are optimal in terms of achieving superior ranking results. Your competitors won’t necessarily be able to manage regular website updates, but if they are, you need to keep up with them. If they aren’t, your brand or business will have a major advantage when search results are next recategorized and reordered – and when audiences next conduct a relevant search…

G75 Media is here to help

In the 17 years since G75 Media was founded, we’ve produced numerous pieces of website content for clients across the public, private and third sectors. We’ve written blogs and news articles, social media posts and infographics, opinion pieces and market commentary. White label copywriting comprises a large percentage of the regular website updates we supply, where our clients put their names to our work.

Key takeaway: Modesty prevents us from naming the clients we work with across the UK and America, but with around 11,000 items in our content archives, you’ve almost certainly read something we’ve written!

If your website isn’t appearing at the top of search results pages, regular website updates might be a vital weapon in boosting its SEO performance and bringing new visitors to your site. Contact us for more information on how G75 Media can suggest, create and even publish new content on your behalf, elevating your brand above its competitors.

Freelance writing in Carlisle

As any entrepreneur will tell you, businesses don’t always evolve in predictable ways. The founders of Morrisons probably didn’t envisage their egg and butter stall becoming one of the country’s biggest supermarkets – not least since supermarkets didn’t exist in 1899. YouTube started life as a dating website, Peugeot originally manufactured hand tools forged in their own steel foundry, and early LEGO toys were made out of wood. How times change.

From Lanarkshire to the Lake District

When G75 Media was founded in 2007, I expected my fledgling copywriting agency would be a local company for local people. I named it after the suburb of East Kilbride I lived in, to entice Lanarkshire-based businesses away from national agencies with little understanding of our local community. Yet things didn’t turn out that way. Today, G75 Media is a multidisciplinary content production agency, still handling copywriting but also producing journalism and digital content on a daily basis. A third of our clients are American, and only two companies on our books are based in Scotland – on the east and west coast respectively. We have no clients in Lanarkshire.

It was partly for this reason that the decision was made in 2021 to relocate G75 Media to England, where most of our clients are based. We’ve retained a physical office in Glasgow’s IFSD, but our day-to-day activities now revolve around the Great Border City. Our timing was perfect – Carlisle is midway through a multi-faceted investment masterplan which will see transformation in almost every sector. The 14th century Citadels will underpin a new university campus, while the neighbouring train station is being rebuilt from the inside out to cope with rising passenger numbers along the West Coast Mainline. The largest of England’s 14 approved Garden Villages will be built along the £220 million Carlisle Southern Link Road which is scheduled to complete next year, while recent investment-led takeovers are transforming the fortunes of Carlisle Airport and Carlisle United football club.

All clients great and small

In a buoyant local economy, G75 Media can offer our award-winning copywriting and journalism services to a growing number of local businesses. As well as established Carlisle employers like McVities, Pirelli, Story and Esken, there are numerous startups and small enterprises requiring freelance writing in Carlisle. From microbreweries to jewellers, the city’s Historic Quarter is packed with artisan businesses and boutique stores, while one of England’s largest industrial estates is home to innumerable logistics and manufacturing companies. While we don’t offer local discounts for freelance writing in Carlisle, our services have already been engaged by IT companies and publishers based in the city.

Whatever your industry, and irrespective of your content needs, G75 Media is here – in every sense – to provide freelance writing in Carlisle and across the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland. Local knowledge underpins much of the work we do, and we always welcome new opportunities to showcase our expertise. Get in touch with us for more information on how we can assist with content production, journalism and freelance writing in Carlisle.

How many clients should I have?

For freelancers, there’s a perennial balancing act between finding enough work and becoming overwhelmed. If you haven’t got enough clients on your books, the days can become frustrating and drawn-out in equal measure.  Attract too much work, and the only way to meet the constant barrage of approaching deadlines is to start working in the evenings and weekends – or let your quality control drop in the interests of getting work out of the door. Since these options will respectively lead to burnout and lost clients, it’s far better to seek the Goldilocks solution – just the right amount of work to keep you busy without precluding holidays or a good night’s sleep.

The problem many freelancers face is knowing how many clients to have on their books at any given time. It’s a tightrope act every self-employed creative or company director will wrestle with on a regular basis. To help people who want to be a freelance writer set realistic targets, and to benefit people already struggling with this thorny problem, we’ve shared our thoughts based on our own experiences. These are the key factors to bear in mind…

Frequency of work

Firstly, review your existing client portfolio (assuming you have one). How many of your accounts are regular, as opposed to sporadic or seasonal? G75 Media produces weekly blogs for a leading Ofcom-approved price comparison site, and a biannual newsletter for a national chain of opticians. The latter is more time-consuming, but the former requires several hours dedicating to it every week. Get a year-to-view planner and map out the level of work you can expect in the rest of 2024, which will highlight gaps in your schedule and indicate how many clients to have.

Existing commitments

Next, think about your own lifestyle. Do you need to finish at 3pm every day to do the school run, or take a few weeks off every summer for childcare? Do you go abroad every December to escape Christmas, or struggle to work regular hours due to unpredictable caring responsibilities? Many companies don’t care when or where freelance writers produce content providing it’s supplied by a certain deadline, but some firms might expect you to be available at set times. And that’s before we get into the thorny issue of whether you’re allowed to work from a home office or expected to attend client premises…

Complexity of assignments

Every client has varying expectations. We have clients who are happy to receive Word documents, and others who want articles uploaded into a CMS like Wix or WordPress. Some clients want copyright-free images supplying, while others expect pull-quotes and meta descriptions. This affects the amount of time each piece of work requires – in turn affecting how much free time you have. Spend a week compiling a timesheet at 15-minute intervals to get an idea of how busy you really are. This will reveal the proportion of your week being wasted on procrastination/social media/coffee breaks/chatting.

The risk of losing clients

In G75 Media’s first full year of trading, we had two clients who provided 75 per cent of our annual turnover. Today, we have a dozen clients, none of whom individually contribute more than 15 per cent of our income. Consequently, the loss of any one client wouldn’t be catastrophic. It’s easy to put all your eggs on one basket, especially early in your freelancing career, but always think about how you’d fill the working week (and pay the bills) if you suddenly lost your biggest source of income.

Your personality

This is far too diverse a factor to sum up in one paragraph, but essentially, it relates to how you cope under pressure. If you’re a single workaholic, burning the midnight oil enables you to increase turnover, whereas a fifty-something parent may be less keen on weekend working. Everyone copes differently with pressure, impending deadlines and project management. Being organised also makes it easier to juggle multiple projects; Trello boards are a great way of highlighting key deadlines and ensuring you don’t forget anything.

Although G75 Media has a healthy roster of freelance copywriting clients, we’re always happy to discuss new assignments and projects, from one-off commissions to regular work. Contact us to discuss how our award-winning copywriting services could benefit your brand or business.

How to source copyright-free photographs

Media degrees receive a lot of criticism in the press these days, and much of it is deserved. Yet it was a HND in Communications that first encouraged me to step outside the classroom and start taking photographs on a digital camera as a teenager, subsequently leading me to major in video production at university. I quickly became the unofficial custodianship of the company-owned digital camera in the two jobs I held between graduating and dedicating my career to G75 Media, which included a seven-year stint as a full-time property journalist.

Today, I have thirty years of photography experience, with an expert eye for framing and composition. This instinctive expertise was honed to perfection during the 11 years I ran G75 Images as a property photography sideline to G75 Media’s copywriting and content production business. I reluctantly closed G75 Images down following run-ins with clients who seemed to think paying for photography services was optional. And in one respect, they’re right – free images are widely available across the internet. You just need to know where to look.

Aren’t free images just a Google search away?

It’s a common misapprehension that pictures found through search engines are free to reuse. In fact, the penalties for infringing a copyrighted image (whether or not it shows up in normal results) may be punitive. If you want to source copyright-free photographs, there are specific avenues you’ll need to go down, some of which require delicate navigation. This is why I routinely offer to source and supply images to G75 Media’s copywriting and journalism clients, leveraging my expertise to simplify matters for them while ensuring the copy I write is accompanied by suitably dynamic visuals.

In many cases, the photographs I supply were taken by myself, sourced from my vast trove of digital photography. The photo accompanying this article was taken a few years ago during a travel journalism trip to the Netherlands. I could have subsequently provided a client with this quintessentially Dutch scene alongside an original piece of writing, though as yet I haven’t had the opportunity to write about Zaandam, clogs or bicycles. Alternatively, I could have simply searched for images in one of the curated collections of copyright-free photographs online.

Why would photography be free?

It’s a good question. Photography is an artform just like any other, and photographers have bills to pay just like the rest of us. These are some of the reasons why artists might share Creative Commons Zero (CC0) images online, effectively opting out of any right to royalties or accreditation:

  1. To build their reputation, in preparation for selling pictures later.
  2. They view taking photographs as a hobby rather than an income stream.
  3. They have a passion for a particular subject, which they’re keen to share with others.
  4. They don’t feel the images are sufficiently high-quality or high-resolution to be saleable.
  5. Their photographs complement another income stream (such as painting or graphic design).

How do I source copyright-free photographs?

Firstly, it’s advisable to look beyond search engines. There is a way to find CC0 licensed images on Bing or DuckDuckGo, but it’s not intuitive. Taking Google as an example, it involves going into the Images > Tools > Usage Rights submenu before choosing Creative Commons licenses. This tends to reveal visuals from a handful of sources such as Wikimedia, but it will also display photos with copyright details clearly displayed in the photo title and summary. In these instances, you can reproduce the photo without paying, but you’ll have to credit the photographer in whatever form they request every time you use the photo.

More unambiguous collections of CC0 images are hosted on websites which are specifically focused on helping people source copyright-free photographs. There are numerous examples of websites where the default setting involves images suitable for reproduction and republication with no attribution or acknowledgement, including FreeImages and Stockvault. Be aware that some sites (such as Unsplash) intersperse CC0 image results and their own paid shots, which require either a subscription or one-off fees. This replicates the model of paid photography websites including Getty Images and Shutterstock, which charge a fee for each reproduction or (in some cases) allow you to purchase exclusive copyright to individual shots.

If all this sounds too complicated (and it does take a while to master), you could always ask a freelance copywriter to source copyright-free photographs as part of their contract. It’s something G75 Media routinely does, and we’d be delighted to discuss this as part of any quote. Get in touch to discuss how we can meet your editorial and photography needs.

How to price freelance copywriting jobs

One of the most challenging aspects of any job interview has always been the moment when the interviewer looks across the desk and blandly asks what your salary expectations are. Presented in such a deliberately open-ended format, there’s rarely a perfect answer. Set your self-determined value too low, and you’re potentially agreeing to be underpaid for the foreseeable future. Set it too high, and you could come across as arrogant, or simply price yourself out of contention.

Many freelance copywriting jobs are advertised with set fees, based on what the employer is able (or feels willing) to pay. Yet some companies don’t really know what it costs to hire a freelance copywriter, or how much they should pay for professional freelance writing services. On the other side of the coin, it’s hard for an inexperienced freelancer to price freelance copywriting jobs accurately, especially when every vacancy (and project) requires differing skillsets. Some assignments are research-intensive, while others are more creative and freeform. Some require interviews and Zoom/Teams calls, while a few necessitate field-based research.

Having been a freelancer for over 20 years, I’ve become astute at valuing my own expertise and accurately gauging the potential complexity of assignments. These are my recommendations for any up-and-coming freelance marketing writers or freelance copywriters wanting to set competitive rates while ensuring they’re reasonably remunerated for potentially technical and time-consuming work.

Weigh up your existing knowledge

If a client asked me to write an article about a specific town or city, I could produce pages of copy almost instinctively, drawing on two decades as a property journalist. Yet if a client asked me to write about yachts, my limited knowledge of this specialist field would necessitate market research and competitor analysis. Topics you’re passionate about or familiar with are easier to write about authoritatively – reducing the time needed to complete assignments and enabling lower fees.

Add a ‘pest premium’

Some clients are engaging and accommodating, but others…aren’t. Although I’ve cultivated a roster of helpful and proactive clients, every freelance writer will encounter chaotic or unreasonable customers. You can usually tell from a first encounter whether they’re likely to want multiple rewrites or leave you chasing unpaid invoices. When it’s time to price freelance copywriting, a ten per cent premium on normal rates is a reasonable insurance policy, with a written contract formalising who’ll do what, and when.

Check what’s included

Building on the last point, submission processes vary enormously. Some clients are happy to receive a Word document, while others expect you to upload content through a CMS like WordPress. The latter is further complicated if you have to provide keywords, captions and copyright-free images. Are rewrites likely to be needed, and will they be demanded at no extra cost? Multiple people reviewing your work can hugely increase total editing time, so establish a chain of command at the outset.

Ask how they’d rather pay

Some clients price freelance copywriting projects with a lump sum on completion. The majority are advertised with a flat per-word fee, while a few involve an hourly rate. At an interview, it’s often advisable to let the client express a preference. If they want a per-word rate, you’ll need to factor in research and travel time; if there’s a fixed project fee, will the quoted sum justify the hours required to complete it? Also confirm whether they’ll be paying by BACS, Wise, etc – and when payments will be made.

Price freelance copywriting on a scale

Returning to our opening paragraph, if you’re pinned down mid-interview by a question about rates, provide your prospective new client/employer with a scale. Be honest and say you don’t know enough about the role to quote an exact fee, but you’d normally charge somewhere between X and Y for work of this nature, leaving a healthy gap between the two. That gives them room to negotiate, while providing you with scope to vary your fees once you know exactly what’s involved…

Finally, if you’re a small business owner reading this and wondering how to price freelance copywriting contracts, make life easier for yourself and contact G75 Media. We’ll sit down with you and discuss what’s needed before agreeing on a mutually satisfactory rate. Life’s easier when it’s kept simple.

Why businesses need mystery shoppers

Although G75 Media routinely works with clients as diverse as optometrists and DIY platforms, we list four core specialisms on our What We Do page. While we remain embedded in the property, automotive and technology sectors, our travel writing has waned in parallel with declining demand for professional travel journalists. Nowadays, vloggers like Shawn Sanbrooke have moved the dial away from written content, while print publications are more likely to publish paid-for advertorials than (potentially critical) travel journalism.

Yet one aspect of travel writing remains impervious to TikTok, generative AI and PR-led promotional content. Companies still need mystery shoppers – arguably more so now than ever, in an age where one negative review from a well-connected individual can cause significant reputational damage. Everyone’s a critic these days, and the best way of negating their criticism is to periodically ensure your customer-facing offerings are optimal. Staff will inevitably bring innate bias to the process of judging their own employers, while the general public can’t always be trusted to be objective; automated AI tools can’t help companies to discern public perceptions, either.

The golden standard

Objective reviews of customer-facing hospitality and leisure venues are produced by a small but dedicated army of mystery shoppers, including G75 Media’s founder, Neil Cumins. He’s recently been awarded Gold certification by one of the UK’s leading mystery guest platforms after reviewing hotels, bars and restaurants across north-west England and Scotland. This reflects Neil’s background as a seasoned travel writer, having previously written for tourism websites including 5pm.co.uk and YPlan, alongside travel publications from Food & Drink Guides to Group Leisure.

However, being a mystery reviewer involves far more than knowing when to use the fish fork, or how a pint of lager should be poured and served (at 45 degrees into a cold branded glass, served with the logo facing you). These are some of the skills required to succeed in an industry where you’re only ever as good as your last completed questionnaire…

1. Photography

A picture tells a thousand words, and it also offers pointers about where a venue might be going wrong. Food photography provides real-time snapshots of a venue’s catering staff, giving proprietors invaluable insights into what’s being served up to their customers. Mystery guests should supply visual evidence of whether pastry is well cooked, or whether pillows are encased in clean protectors. Neil’s twenty years of photojournalism experience has been invaluable in this regard.

2. Service

Many mystery dining/hospitality platforms issue lengthy surveys, potentially asking over a hundred different questions about a visit. Many of these relate to the service provided by staff – cordiality, efficiency, helpfulness, and so forth. Reviewers may be tasked with probing staff knowledge, taking notes of missed upselling opportunities and monitoring how quickly ad-hoc requests are actioned. This requires meticulous record-taking in a manner discreet enough to avoid anyone noticing.

3. Ambience

A hotel’s primary role is to provide comfortable overnight accommodation, while a restaurant’s is to serve tasty meals. Yet there’s so much more to consider regarding the overall experience. From parking to noise levels, from wait times to cleanliness, a mystery guest has to record every aspect of each venue. This means critiquing on-site toilets, testing the WiFi speed, judging temperatures and other nuanced elements that a less observant individual might not even consciously identify.

Alongside detective-like observation skills and the ability to record detailed notes without attracting anyone’s attention, mystery reviews tend to involve a great deal of open-ended reportage. This is where skills like brevity and eloquence battle for supremacy – painting a vivid picture in a limited number of words. An experienced travel writer can bring a two-dimensional review to life, but some mystery guest platforms require more exposition than others.

The personal touch

Finally, remember that mystery shopping reports and surveys can directly affect the staff members encountered in that visit. Critiquing discoloured grout in a hotel bathroom is very different to critiquing the efficiency of a waitress working a split shift while covering for an absent colleague. Reviewers need to be empathetic towards the people they encounter, especially when they’re asked to name employees in their reports. Anyone can have bad luck, or a bad day at the office.

If you have a venue that would benefit from mystery shopping, contact G75 Media to see how we can add value to your brand or business. If you work for a mystery review platform, we’d be delighted to discuss working together on ad hoc or ongoing assignments. Finally, budding writers seeking to break into the tightly knit community of mystery diners and freelance hotel reviewers should start by conducting their own analysis and writing up reports. As with many aspects of the hospitality sector itself, practice makes perfect…

Why your business needs an AI editor

It’s not often that an industry arrives as seemingly fully-fledged as generative AI. Within little more than a year, we’ve gone from the low-key beta unveiling of ChatGPT to a vast multi-billion-pound market segment populated with dozens of content generation startups and competitors. AI text generation is now built into the Bing search engine (which means it’s effectively built into Microsoft Edge), while the most recent McKinsey Global Survey indicates a third of corporate businesses are already using it regularly in at least some capacity.

Oh AI?

Yet this McKinsey study also revealed that most companies aren’t even considering the risk of inaccurate content being produced on their behalf. That’s a remarkable oversight. Companies are blithely trusting new and unproven technology, much of it from unknown startups and unaccountable foreign companies, to represent their own businesses. Worse, they have no plans in place if the content turns out to be wrong, outdated, misleading, libellous, offensive to competitors, offensive to the general public…

As is often the case, the explosive growth in generative AI is being driven by cost considerations. If companies can save a thousand pounds on freelance copywriting by using a chatbot to generate blogs and corporate materials, that thousand pounds can be paid to shareholders in dividends or given to their executives in bonuses. At this formative stage, generative AI platforms are still free (which offers the first clue about the quality of their output), and free is better than cheap. Isn’t it?

As any CEO or director will grudgingly admit, ‘free’ services tend to come with strings attached. And so it is with generative AI. Nothing new is being created here – these engines simply regurgitate existing online material with different wording. That means any inaccuracies, outdated information or source material bias (which will be legion, considering AI engines scrape the entire internet with all its fake news and flawed reportage) is repackaged. Companies who begin to rely on this technology are also in for a nasty shock when the companies who’ve paid small fortunes to develop this server-intensive new technology begin monetising it to pay back their debts. A lot of newly created blogs may wither on the vine when the generative AI taps are suddenly paywalled, sending websites tumbling down search results pages.

You’re Bard, mate

By this point, readers still ruminating on the use of the word ‘free’ two paragraphs back might be trying to justify using generative AI instead of employing freelance copywriters to produce high-quality output. It would be wrong of G75 Media to claim that Google Bard or Perplexity are dangerous – though the electronic origins of erroneous or misleading content won’t serve as any kind of defence in court. Instead, we’d suggest companies determined to publish material which is effectively recycled from existing third-party content need to apply close scrutiny to it. That’s something we can help with, using our award-winning talents to conduct AI editing on content before it’s published in your business’s name.

AI editors add human oversight to machine-generated content, correcting obvious errors and removing contentious statements. AI editing adds the comparisons, humour, anecdotes and cultural references which even the best AI content generators can’t comprehend. Human editing will identify and excise repetition, trim out superfluous content (often used to pad out AI content’s later paragraphs), and ensure formulaic text is smoothed into corporate house writing styles. Without running copy past an AI editor, computer-generated text is usually betrayed by its long paragraphs, drily factual content and robotic delivery. It’s only a matter of time before search engines begin downgrading this mass-produced low-grade content in the same way they’ve previously punished word clouds, link farms and other lazy attempts at gaming SEO algorithms.

How much does an AI editor charge?

AI editing is obviously quicker (and therefore more affordable) than generating new content from scratch, but it requires diligence and an innate understanding of your brand. G75 Media’s AI editing services aren’t free, but they are affordably priced. We ensure rapid turnaround times, helping to minimise the period between an AI engine churning out text and it being safe to upload onto your website. We modify every sentence, using decades of SEO know-how to ensure search engines rank it above anything published by competitors who haven’t invested in an AI editor.

To find out more about AI editing services, and to speak to us about the benefits of content production by humans, get in touch with G75 Media today. There are no chatbots here – just real people with proven skills in the timeless art of finding the right words for every scenario.