Copywriting, design and development are foreign fields to a lot of people. These FAQs will help you understand the basics, and make you a little more comfortable with the whole domain.
It all depends on the project. Some jobs are quick, some take a while. Without knowing a bit about what you require, it’s impossible to say.
What we can say, though, is if you want copy written for $5 per page, or a whole site designed and built for $200, you’re outta luck. We cost a lot more than that.
We usually work to fixed prices, but we can do hourly rate ($250 + GST), day rate, weekly rate, salary, retainer, or even rev-share if you prefer.
To quote accurately, we need to know a bit of detail. Learn more here…
We need you to supply a lot of information – particularly if you’re getting us to write copy. Only you know what makes your business unique – the details of how you do what you do, and why you’re better than your competitors.
Here’s a list of the typical questions we ask…
We include a 1-2 hour phone conversation as part of most of our fixed price quotes, and we also send a questionnaire to cover the finer details.
No. Only in rare cases is a face-to-face meeting required. All correspondence can be over the phone or via email.
That said, if it is necessary, or you’d just prefer it, we can certainly accommodate you. Just let us know, and we’ll factor it into our quote.
We generally need about 2 weeks’ lead time before we can start a new project. Sometimes less, sometimes more. All depends what we currently have on.
It all depends on the specifics of the job, how much information you can supply, and how long you take to review the work. A single page of copy, or a designed page, can be turned around in 1-2 days if you’re able to supply all the information we need, and you review promptly. Even less when we’ve been working together for a while.
Most of our fixed-price quotes include 2 rounds of review. That means you get first draft, second draft and final version.
We usually also include an early conceptual review, before we write all your copy / design all your pages. You get 2 rounds of review of that too.
Learn more about the copy review process or the design review process.
Yes! We’ve worked for clients all around the world, including the USA, Canada, UK, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Tanzania, South Africa and Botswana.
Probably not. Whether it’s a one-line ad, a single page website, a 200 page manual or an enterprise-wide collaboration and communication tool, we’d be happy to help.
Yes. Some clients find it more affordable to write their own copy and have us simply edit their work. This can be a good option, especially for clients on a tight budget.
Copywriting is writing that promotes your product or service. This includes brochures, websites, letters, print ads, Google AdWords, articles, scripts, etc.
Yes, we do technical writing too. We have a few technical writers on the team, and our owner, Glenn, worked as a professional technical writer for 9 years in the software industry before founding Silver Pistol.
No. Copyright is about legal ownership of something, and is totally unrelated to copywriting. For more information about copyright, visit the Australian Copyright Council’s website.
You do. We have a clause in every contract that explicitly signs ownership of all deliverables to the client upon completion and final payment.
This is very important because, by default, the creator of the work owns the copyright. The person or company that commissions the work does not. So if we didn’t explicitly sign copyright over to you, we’d retain total ownership of everything we create, and you’d simply get limited rights to use it.
If you’re thinking of engaging another copywriting, design or development company, be sure to ask if they explicitly sign over copyright upon completion.
