With A-level results published today, I realised it's ten years since I opened my own envelope and discovered I'd got 3 As, a B and an E (which was in Further Maths, and I'd been told I was going to fail).
That means it's also very nearly ten years since I moved to Manchester - and I've lived in south Manchester ever since. Granted, I've gradually migrated further southwards - from Victoria Park to Fallowfield, Withington, West Didsbury and now Didsbury Village - but Europe's busiest bus route, Oxford Road, has been my home for a decade.
In that time I've learned not just about the have-a-go creative types and businesses that line the route out of the city towards Stockport (see Short-Order Copywriting and Non-Search Sites), but also the companies helping them to succeed - in-house brand champions, PR agencies, web design and SEO firms, advertising agencies and all the other services needed to compete in the modern business environment.
For me, my role as a freelance copywriter in south Manchester places me perfectly to help businesses directly, or via one of those support services I've listed above. If you're a firm in need of web copy - or you need existing copy making more search-visible - I can help where agencies might turn you down for being unable to commit to a long-term contract.
If you are an agency, I can still help - web design companies in particular tell me over and over again that their clients come to them with no conrete web copy in place, making it difficult to design a page that shows off their text to its fullest potential. I can work with your (the agency's) layout, producing the right amount of copy to fill the space available without looking forced. Sell it on at a profit and you, I and your client are all happy.
I genuinely love the area I live in - south Manchester shows time and time again that it is one of the most well-balanced areas of the city, as well as having the best transport links to the south. The sense of community is strong and the people I have met along this stretch of Wilmslow Road are some of the finest I've ever encountered.
So don't sit there bemoaning your lack of content - whether you're the owner of a web-based company, or an agency with awkward clients. Do something about it and let me solve the problem in a way that works for us all!