I didn’t think she would HEAR me when I said that.

Like, I know I’m the one who chose to say it out loud, but — and this is the “sounds stupid” part — I don’t always remember that people are actually paying attention when I say the things I say.

When I really stop and think about it, of course I’m logically aware that, when you post something online, the people who follow you see it…

But, apparently, that’s not something I really think of in practice, because when I said “I hate working with photographers” it did not occur to me that perhaps a photographer might be privy to that statement.

Oops!

Luckily, I DID share that statement with some context.

The full sentence was:

“I hate working with photographers who want to say the same thing as everyone else, make the fact that their job is to ‘capture your love on camera’ their primary personality trait, and think ‘loving love stories’ counts as a differentiator.”

As Website Girl, something I tell my clients allll the time is that people will look at your website right next to someone else’s website.

Your tab will be open immediately next to theirs, while they price shop or compare offerings or stalk you and your competitors simultaneously.

In the photography industry, this is even more rampant than normal, because people are spending $$$ on their weddings / events, and they have TONS of photographers to choose from.

So, if you say the same damn thing as someone else, IT’S GONNA BE WICKED NOTICEABLE.

& also: I’m so sorry but “capture your love on camera” cringes me out because it’s on every photographer’s website ever.

…aaaaand that’s why I (normally) hate writing photographer websites, and why I’m (usually) okay with confidently saying that out loud.

UNTIL !!!!!

I got an inquiry from Maddy — this really cool photographer in my area that I’d been following since she started her business — and then started to worry she thought I might hate her.

“But of course she can’t think I *hate* her if she’s literally inquiring to work with me????” I thought. “I’ll just be extra nice in my response, so she knows I’m cool.”

I made it through the discovery-call-scheduling process marked safe from being a hater, and was excited to chat with her about potentially working together.

The first thing this chick says to me?

“I know you don’t normally like to work with photographers.”

OH !!!!!

Well, yeah. She’s right.

I had no other choice but to double down on my statement, telling her the same thing I just told you: I can’t with anyone who wants to model their site after someone else’s. Especially when that Someone Else has a basic ass site with generic copy and no reason why anyone should pick them over their competition!!!!

She was confident that she didn’t fit that profile (and I was, too, because I caught her vibe from following her for so long) and she booked a website copy project with me! Weee!

Fast forward several months — and several BOMB pages of website copy — and she asked me to come on her podcast to talk about marketing.

At the beginning of the interview, she was sharing the story of how she decided to work with me, and the funny little anecdote about me actually low key hating photographers but making an exception for her, when she included a detail I hadn’t known before:

“I knew I wanted to work with her before I even talked to her,” she said. “I didn’t look at any other copywriters, and I didn’t care how much it cost, Sara was the only person I wanted to work with.”

OK SHIT WELL NOW I’M FEELING FAMOUS !!!!

I was expecting her reason to be something about her liking my previous client work that she’d seen, or about her seeing my website copy resources, or about her resonating with my website copy, or about her resonating with my overall vibe, because that’s usually what all my other clients cite as their reasons for choosing me…

But her reason was totally different. 👀

One Marketing Tip, Once A Week

HOW TO KEEP YOUR BRAND VOICE CONSISTENT THROUGHOUT ALL OF YOUR MARKETING

“Sara’s the same exact person everywhere,” she said. “She’s the same on Instagram, on her website — everywhere!”

We went on to yap about how important it is to make sure you’re showing up the SAME (or, at least, as the same person!) in allll of your marketing, so people don’t feel like you’re inconsistent / catfishing them AND so people feel like they can actually get to know who YOU are.

When you act one way on Instagram, another way on Threads, another way on a call, and another way in your website copy…

NO ONE KNOWS WHAT YOUR VIBE IS.

Are you casual and conversational and chill? Or are you super professional and polished and strict? Or are you silly and irreverent and polarizing?

If no one can catch your vibe, you’re gonna catch the “X” out when it comes time to for them to choose someone to work with.

Here’s how you can make sure your brand voice is consistent in allll the places 👇

→ Don’t act like someone you’re not

If you’re putting on a facade because you think you have to act or speak or post a certain way to get clients, it’s gonna be veryyy hard for you to keep up with that personality + consistently code switch.

→ Treat all platforms equally

If you have something really powerful or vulnerable or honest or funny to say in your newsletter, but you’d never say it on social media… why not? Why is that only reserved for your subscribers? Why can’t your social media followers get the “real” you, too?

→ Let your website be YOU, not your storefront

I’m gonna throw a tantrum if I see one more person hiding their ACTUAL personality on their website because they think they have to. Like???? HELLO??? Your clients are gonna find out the real you when they get on a call with you anyway!!! WHATTT is the point of hiding?

Plus: don’t you WANT to work with people who like the real you? Why would you ever put on a Professional Face to attract a certain client, if it has to mean that you’re working with people who don’t know or like you??

This is rampant in this industry tbh and I DON’T GET IT !!! I promise you: cool people have money, too. You don’t have to stop swearing and start wearing pearls to attract “luxury clients” or “high quality leads.”

My clients choose and pay me BECAUSE I’m swearing!

& if you’re unsure exactly HOW to make your brand voice come through on all of your platforms, hit me up — I’d be more than happy to help you weave your personality into your copy and add some consistency to that cute ass brand of yours.

Author’s Note

& THAT’S ALL SHE WROTE !!!

If you’re new here, HI! I’m Sara Joelle & I’d love for you to stick around 🩵

Through sales-focused storytelling and the perfect combination of casual and convincing, I’ll make your ideal clients feel as comfortable with you as they do with the characters in their favorite novel — so you can book more dream projects, get more subscribers, make more money, and have more downtime to do what you want to do.

Like, crying laughing.

One girl wheezes so hard she snorts.

Another one throws her head back and cackles, slapping the friend to her right hard on the knee.

The girl to her left keeps trying to retell the story, and can’t even get through it without wheezing.

And you’re… just sitting there.

You’re smiling a little, looking around. Waiting for the part where it clicks, so you can start snort-laughing, too.

Waiting for the crumb of context that would help you understand why Sally is wheezing and Suzy is cackling and Sandra is peeing her pants.

…buuuut that context never comes.

You have no idea what they’re cracking up over, and they never explain it. They just move on with the conversation like nothing happened, with no idea that they’ve left you out.

Appetizers come and go, mimosa glasses are emptied and refilled, entrees are interrupted with more context-free laughter and inside jokes… and you’re still sitting there, half-participating, not fully in the loop.

Someone says one word and the whole table erupts again.

It seems like, with every sip and bite and second that passes, things keep getting funnier and funnier for everyone else… and further out of reach for you.

At a certain point, you stop trying to follow along, and start counting the minutes til the lunch is over, looking longingly toward the door and wondering if you should leave.

But they said they wanted you here! They invited you here! You thought that meant you’d be included if you came.

Unfortunately not, you suppose.

Oh, well.

You’re used to it.

You’re one of the 16.67% of people who often gets excluded — and whether that’s intentional or not, you’re still not sure…

One Marketing Tip, Once A Week

THE MAIN DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY OFFENSES AND HOW TO FIX THEM AS TOLD BY ACCESSIBLE DESIGNER CHLOE ARIELLE

I recently invited Chloe Arielle, an accessibility-focused website designer, onto my podcast to educate us all about the accessibility mistakes we might be making on our own sites — and she shared with me that it’s possible over 16.67% of your audience cannot use your site.

(or more, because diagnosis and reporting barriers are very real!)

SO many people write off website accessibility as an “issue” that “doesn’t have anything to do with them.”

...meanwhile, a FAT CHUNK of your audience can’t even SEE or USE your website (meaning they can’t buy from you even if they wanted to)!

It’s not something to ignore - and caring about it isn’t as scary or overwhelming as it sounds, either.

In the episode, we yap all about what digital accessibility is, which website builders are best for accessibility (the answer is prob gonna shock you!), and how to fix the most common accessibility mistakes.

I’ll give you a lil sneak preview of the 5 most common mistakes here, though, just in case you don’t have time to listen to (or read!) the full ep 👇🏻

1. Color Contrast

THE ISSUE: Not using enough contrast between colors (hello, pastel pink on white) that look cute but are nearly impossible to read for anyone with a visual impairment.

THE FIX: run your colors through a free color contrast checker online. If they’re too similar, either swap one out or adjust the shades — slightly darker on one end, slightly lighter on the other.

2. Alt Text & Image Descriptions

THE ISSUE: People who are blind or visually impaired use screen readers to navigate the web. Screen readers read the back-end code of your site — which means if your images don’t have alt text, those users are getting nothing. Or worse, a file name like “image_753.”

THE FIX: name all of your images, and add alt text to describe what’s most important in the image, not every single detail.

(I’ve shared a free alt text tool with you from my friend Mariah below! Side Character also writes alt text for my clients’ images on their sites if they choose to add it on, and I’m sure he’d be happy to do it for you, too, if you want! Just reply to this email for the info.)

3. Images of Text (my personal biggest nightmare)

If you’ve ever had a designer upload a Canva graphic to your website instead of actually coding in the text — this one’s for you.

THE ISSUE: Text that lives inside an image can’t be read by screen readers. It doesn’t resize properly when someone’s on a different device. It can’t be adjusted by accessibility browser extensions. And if the image doesn’t load (slow connection, email client that blocks images, etc.), your content just… disappears.

THE FIX: use live text — meaning text that’s actually coded into your site. As in: use the text block to write the text, do not upload a picture of the text. Please.

4. Long Blocks Of Centered Text

THE ISSUE: Centering anything longer than a sentence or two. Our brains are pattern-seeking machines. When text is left-aligned, it’s easy to find the beginning of each new line.

When everything is centered, the starting point shifts constantly, and the eye has to work harder to track. The result is that large blocks of centered text are genuinely harder to read — for everyone, not just people with disabilities.

THE FIX: Left-align your body copy. Save centering for short headlines or short paragraphs, and the occasional button.

5. Too Much Written In All Caps

THE ISSUE: When everything is in all caps, letters lose their shapes and start to blur together. The brain can’t differentiate as easily, and reading slows down.

THE FIX: Don’t do that.

If your website platform is converting your text to all caps through the styling (like an H3 eyebrow header), that’s actually better than manually typing everything in caps — because the screen reader will still read it as a normal sentence.

→ Want to learn how your site measures up accessibility-wise and how to make sure everyone can safely use your website?!

🎧 LISTEN TO (OR READ!) THE EPISODE 🎧

Acknowledgements

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And, actually, I don’t think this counts as complaining. If anything, I’m in awe of her! Jealous, even!

Before we get into it, though, let me make one thing ABUNDANTLY clear: if you’re the type of person to legit complain about your clients on the Internet, you should be chill with never getting any good clients ever again.

…because who in their right mind is going to work with someone who posts on Threads about some random brawl with their client??? Like hello??

I know I famously rebuke the concept of professionalism, but I’m not an animal.

(Plus, when I say that, I’m talking about writing conversational copy, or showing up on Instagram stories with your hair in a bun and pimple patches on your face, or swearing in your newsletter. I’m not talking about throwing all decorum out the window.)

Okay! Now that my disclaimer has been made, we can move on.

…and I can finally tell you about the time one of my clients made $204,000 with a fuck ass SHOWIT PREVIEW LINK AS HER LITERAL SALES PAGE. No actual website in sight.

Like she legit just launched her whole ass course without even having her own domain.

This is what happened:

It was back in my previous life, where I still had a husband and a garoffice and lived in Canada and worked 60 hours a week and thought I was living the dream.

And, actually, I WAS living my dream when I landed this client. It’s still one of the coolest things that has ever happened in my business, because, at my core, I am a YouTube girlie.

The client in question was one of my favorite YouTubers at the time — I’d been watching her since I was in high school.

So, when I saw her post about “something coming” on her Instagram story, and then tag a new account she’d made, I instantly knew:

She’s launching an online course, and there’s no one better for the Sales Page Copywriter job.

Enter: casual cold pitch DM.

(I was beyond cold pitching at this point in business, but I didn’t care. I wanted the project, even before she knew there was a project to be wanted.)

Actually, “casual” might be a lie.

I obviously had to explain how long I’d been watching her, and a decades-long one-sided parasocial relationship isn’t exactly casual. But whatever.

A few days later, she answered, complimenting my sleuthing skills, confirmed she was, in fact, launching a course (duh — it was 2021, prime girlboss course launch income diversifying era), and that, after reading my message, she does need a sales page.

Fast forward to the discovery call: I couldn’t believe I was seeing her in the flesh (on my screen)!!!

Fast forward to 1 hour after the discovery call: I couldn’t believed I was getting paid thousands and thousands of dollars to write her sales emails and her sales page!!!

Like, I actually lost my shit.

Her online course was about how to become a content creator, and as a ridiculously avid content creator consumer, this was my moment.

I wrote the hell out of that sales page. And the sales emails.

AND IT WAS SLAY AS FUCK.

…until she had her assistant “take care of the design.”

Now, let’s pause for a sec, so I can give you another disclaimer: there is absolutely N O T H I N G wrong with DIYing your website design.

It’s doable! It’s easy, even, depending on the template / website builder! It can be really fucking sick, actually! Not an issue!

…unless you just really can’t tell the difference between “good” and “fugly.”

Then, idk, I can’t save you.

I’m no stranger to seeing a just-okay website hit the Internet with less of a splash than a client was expecting — it’s the copywriter’s unspoken cross to bear.

Obviously we want every single client website to be a fucking 100/10 banger with the sickest design the world has ever seen, so the copy can shine and the client can make 20 million dollars within 1 day of the website being live.

But that’s not always a reality, because that shit’s expensive.

So, when my client told me her assistant was handling it, I was like “cool!”

Except, actually, it wasn’t cool, not even for one second.

The spacing was off. The font was wicked hard to read. The images were cropped wrong (like, head chopped off cropped wrong). There were caps lock, centered text, and bolded letters in all the wrong places.

Not to be a hater, but I think Wesley could’ve designed a better site.

And for SURE it was the least accessible site to ever grace the Internet. Screen readers probably self-combusted trying to dictate the content.

& I WAS PISSED AWFFFFF BECAUSE THIS WAS MY MOMENT 😫

But then I had to give myself a lil speech, and remind myself that “sometimes it’s for the portfolio, and sometimes it’s for the purse.”

…aka sometimes you get the luxury of a portfolio-worthy project, and sometimes you don’t. But, either way, your bills are paid, so you’re not allowed to complain.

BUT GUUUUURL 😫

When I saw that site I just about shat my pants because HOMEGIRL HAD DESIGNER MONEY OK!!!!!

And what was I gonna do? Email her assistant and tell her “hey, um, scrap everything, give me the password and 3.5 hours” so I could fix it myself???

I do include a final proofread as a necessary part of my process, but unfortunately, they skipped that part.

& if you’re wondering “but Sara, what do you mean… SKIPPED that part?”

I mean they fully launched the sales page with the preview link, no domain, not even a website at all.

And here I am, in my garoffice, blowing a gasket.

But at the end of the day, what’s a girl to do?

The client’s platform was so massive that she made $204,000 from that fuck ass preview link, and honestly, I have to hand it to her: that is impressive as hell.

I have to wonder, though…

Did her assistant just give up on all the “normal” website launch checklist items?

Because, if that’s the case, I don’t even blame the girl. It’s a LOT more work than anyone is expecting…

One Marketing Tip, Once A Week

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO ONCE YOUR COPY IS DONE

I wish I’d had this checklist way back when, so my lovely client’s assistant didn’t end up publishing her site with a fuck ass Showit preview link, but… can’t win ‘em all!

This weekend, I spend allll of Sunday writing (and designing!) Side Character’s website, and because I’m not humble about website copywriting, I KNOW I SLAYED.

(I sent it to my best friend and she confirmed by texting back immediately and saying: “copy is fire flames.”)

Despite slaying a minimal, boy-brand-voice website, though, I was thrown off by something:

HOW FREAKING LONG IT TOOK ME.

I know I’m spoiled — all I normally have to do is write website copy in a Google Doc and send it off to a designer — but damn.

Designing and writing at the same time almost took me out. A draft that size would normally take me 3 hours to write (his site is pretty chill & small) but the design piece added another fucking four hours!

Like??? Ok? There goes my Sunday???? Guess I’ll spend it with Squarespace instead of my family or my laundry or my Kindle??

ANYWAY.

While I was being the best girlfriend on the planet setting up his website for him, I was reminded of how much other shit really goes into actually getting your site LIVE.

So, I decided to make you a list, just in case you happen to be in website purgatory right now, “waiting” for the time to do all these final touches & get your site up…

(If you feel called out, yes, I AM talking to you.)

WHAT YOU HAVE DONE SO FAR (HOPEFULLY):

• Figure out who tf you’re talking to ✅

• Make sure you’re solid in who you are & what you do ✅

• Decide which website pages you need ✅

• Choose your target keyword for each page ✅

• Write your website copy ✅

• Design your website ✅

WHAT’S LEFT TO DO NOW:

• Write unique title tags & meta descriptions for all pages

• Make sure you have a 404 Error page

• Upload your blogs (launch with at least 6-10 to make your site look used and not brand new because no one wants to work with someone brand new and if you have 1 blog up, guess what, ya look brand new)

• Appropriately name all images and add alt text

• Publish your site (which means ensuring your domain is configured!)

• Submit your sitemap to Google (here’s a tutorial if you don’t know wtf I’m talking about)

• Make sure all the links work

• Make sure nothing looks fucking weird on mobile

• Set up Google Analytics & Google Search Console

• Test your forms

• Make sure you have your Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions, and Cookie policy notice on there

• Make sure you have a favicon and share previews set up

LIKE, SHIT. THAT’S A LONG FREAKING LIST.

Bless all of you DIYer souls out there. I’ll put a list of my designer recommendations below, just in case you’re reading this and thinking “ok fuck that” lmao <3

& if you’re curious about how to DIY your website copy — listen to my podcast episode about how I wrote 70+ pages of my own copy recently 👇

🎧LISTEN TO (OR READ!) THE EPISODE 🎧

Announcement!

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Remember that time you said 2026 was the year you’d finally grow your email list so you can stop selling to the same people all the time???

No?

Weird, I could’ve sworn you said that...

And I’m pretty sure you ALSO said you were going to actually stay consistent with your newsletter this year, right?

& that you were gonna remember to talk about your email list so new people actually get on it???

You DEF said that...

You remember now, don’t you?

GOOD!!!! ok here’s how to make it happen ↓

Join my 30-day subscriber challenge & use my 30 days’ worth of email-list-growing tasks to finally get new people on your list (without some fuck ass lead magnet PDF no one wants). We start on April 1st — and it’ll be the best $30 you spend this spring.

JOIN THE SUBSCRIBER CHALLENGE!

Acknowledgements

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Author’s Note

I’M GOING TO LONDON — AND I WANT YOU TO COME!

If you follow me on Instagram and happened to see my post about “31 things I want to do at 31” you’d know that I was very specific in asking the good Lord above for what I wanted this year, and two of those things are coming true in just 3 weeks…

I’m speaking at Brand Blitz in London with my bestie!!!

(You know her, for sure. You probably follow her for social media tips, considering she’s basically the leading expert on Instagram. If you don’t want to go to London to hear my talk, you def want to hear hers.)

Brand Blitz is essentially a bunch of fun speakers, lots of advice about being yourself in business, and networking with people on the same vibe as you. And I CANNOT WAITTTT - I hope you’ll be there, if you’re in the UK, or if you’re a masochist and love waiting in TSA lines!

You can use code “SARA” for a discount on your ticket <3 can’t wait to kiss Big Ben (and Xanthe) in person!

COME TO BRAND BLITZ!

Absolutely nothing.

Except, of course, for 17 brief days in the Fall of 2017, when I worked as a literal carnie.

Never in a million years did I think that my first professional role out of college would be to work at The Big E, but there I was, standing at entrance B, handing out branded maps, wearing a shirt that said “ask me about solar!”

(Spend $200K on not one, not two, but THREE AND A HALF Liberal Arts degrees, become a carnie. Makes sense.)

Now, let me back up, since I know you’re confused.

TBH, so am I. Still. Nine years later.

Here’s the story:

I’d just graduated college, and I’d decided to stay in Hartford to finish out the legislative session with the lobbying firm I’d been interning for.

Unfortunately for me, I’d decided a little too late that I actually really fucking hated attorneys, and that, despite being obsessed with becoming one since age 12, I never wanted to be one.

(…because, after working for them since age 18, I’d concluded that their lives are MISERABLE).

And, with that realization came, well… nothing. No more LSAT practice tests. No more law school dreams. No more purpose.

So I ran off and joined the circus!

Just kidding. I went to Cape Cod and decided to deal with my ‘real life’ at the end of summer.

Then, in the middle of August, when I was toying around with the idea of actually doing something with my life, the perfect excuse to put that off for a little bit longer fell into my lap via Facebook post.

A friend from my sorority posted and asked if anyone wanted to make $20/h in cash working for her parents’ company for 3 weeks.

Um, ME?! I’ll take the cash.

(Green Earth Energy’s future favorite employee, reporting for duty!)

Naturally, I texted her and said “hire me” and she said “okay, sure” and, before I knew it, I was standing inside a small booth at a very large EVENT — I know I called it a “fair” before but that feels like the biggest understatement of the century — with very little direction.

All I knew was that I had to pass out maps of the fairgrounds, and if anyone asked me about solar (because, of course, my shirt literally said “ask me about solar!”) that I was supposed to direct them to one of the many Green Earth Energy booths, where someone who actually knew something about solar could help them.

(Naturally, these booths were conveniently labeled on the map. Duh.)

And you know what? I was GREAT at this job.

It took me no time to get into a groove. I passed out maps like a PRO.

…until about hour 3 on the first day.

Aaaand then I thought I was going to PASS AWAY from boredom.

Like the true extrovert I am, staying inside a booth all day was actually, genuinely, seriously KILLING ME by the second.

I could practically feel all of the joy ooze out of my body with every second that passed without human interaction.

My booth felt like solitary confinement.

So, I escaped.

How was I supposed to be map girl without truly KNOWING the fairgrounds, anyway? I have to do some EXPLORING to serve my PEOPLE, don’t I?

And let me tell ya, there was a LOT of ground to cover — The Big E is made up of 175 acres. I wasn’t kidding when I said it was MASSIVE.

It’s a REALLY big deal. More than 1.6 million people attend the 17-day affair every Fall.

In addition to the typical fair things, like games, rides, prizes, etc… t

There are also full-blown agricultural competitions, an entire giant trade show, multiple petting zoos, a literal winery, 6 giant houses replicating all 6 states of New England complete with 20+ vendors inside of each, shopping plazas, craft fairs, three separate huge stages (with legit famous people performing real concerts).

My explorations, though, were focused on one thing:

Finding the best, weirdest options from the countless food vendors.

Pickle pizza, hot Cheeto corn on the cob, fried cannoli, beer in a boot, lobster bacon cheese nachos, Oreo cinnamon bun, pickle donut, apple crisp pie, wine flights, deep fried meatballs on a stick, the infamous Turducken sandwich, the BBQ sundae with cornbread, baked beans, coleslaw, brisket, mashed potatoes, and tomato… it’s a completely feral place.

(Safe to say I wasn’t treating my body the best during that phase of life.)

I could only logistically escape my booth for about 20 minutes at a time, and as I keep reminding you, this place is ENORMOUS.

So, I’d have to consult my handy map, pick one place to visit, and book it over there as fast as my little feet would hustle.

And, while on my mini travels, I learned a ridiculous amount of information about The Big E, the vendors, the fairgrounds, the history, and more.

…and, me being me, I made it my entire personality.

If I was going to be stuck in a booth for 3 weeks straight, for 12 hours a day, doing nothing but passing out maps of The Big E, I was going to be the best damn carnie on the planet.

The Big Enfluencer, if you will.

It worked out perfectly that my booth resembled an information booth — something I’m sure Green Earth Energy did on purpose, no doubt hoping people would approach it under false pretenses — so that when fairgoers from all over came up to me asking questions, I had the answers.

I knew where every single vendor was.

I knew how long the lines would be.

I knew the best time to watch the butter sculpting competition.

I knew when you could pet the pigs.

I knew when the Knife Guy would shut the fuck up so you could walk by him without him heckling you.

And, most importantly, I knew what these fairgoers needed to know before they even had to ask me.

With attendance numbers in the tens of thousands every single day, and a quarter of those people entering the fair and encountering me and my booth before anything else, I quickly gained a knack for anticipating their questions (aka reading their minds).

And, to my complete SHOCK nine years later, this experience as a carnie prepared me more than any of those 3.5 degrees ever could have for being a great copywriter.

This is the part where you probably thought I’d launch into a story about how to read your ideal client’s mind so you can write the best copy for them and inspire them to take action.

And you’d be right about that.

…if this were the first time I’d told you this story.

But you’ve already read this one.

Well, at least, if you were subscribed 135 newsletters ago, you would have.

Because this story was several years old, though, it needed some updating!

It’s a good ass story, if you ask me. Worth re-telling!

(…even though I’ve never-not-once repeated a story in my 274 straight weeks of newslettering.)

Before I could share it again, though, I had to remove some irrelevant details, update some dates, fix a spelling mistake, add some new information, add a few extra links that I didn’t have back then…

Juuuust like you’d do for an old blog you want to put back out into the world! 👀

One Marketing Tip, Once A Week

HOW TO UPDATE YOUR OLD BLOG POSTS TO GIVE THEM A NEW LIFE (AND TO GIVE YOU MORE SEO BENEFITS)

The following tips are from Eden at Maven Made Copy — she’s a blog strategist who writes and updates blogs for clients! She’s currently helping me update tons of my wicked old blogs to give them a new life & I’ve already seen such a massive improvement (as in: more clicks, more purchases, more inquiries).

Updating old blog posts is almost as valuable as posting an entirely new blog post.

Here’s why 👇

1. Google wants to see that you’re making an effort to keep your content up to date.

2. Google already knows that URL and trusts it.

3. Strategies that were relevant a few years ago (heck, a few months ago) have changed.

Even if a blog is ten years old, someone is clicking on it TODAY, which means it needs to be relevant to TODAY.

SO! When I’m updating old blog posts to bring them back to life, these are the steps I take — we’ll use Sara’s blogs as an example…

1. Read through the blog. I read through the whole blog to get a sense of what needs to be updated. I’m looking for:

• Outdated advice/tips/stats/experience to remove or update.

• Opportunities to expand on a topic or add more content (If it’s a list post, can I add one more thing to it? Was a jargon term breezed over that I could explain?)

• Big blocks of text to break up into smaller paragraphs or bullet point lists, or add a subheading.

• Images that aren’t loading or are outdated.

• Old examples (Mentioning a client project that was finished in 2023—there’s probably a more recent example to use.)

• Old dates (Saying stuff like “last year during the pandemic.” Or, in Sara’s case, saying “my husband” when we all know she’s divorced and has a new side character.)

2. Begin updating the content. Addressing anything I found from step 1! But honestly, I add content throughout the entire blog updating process as I think of ideas.

3. Update links. I click on every link in the blog to make sure it’s not broken. If it is, I remove or update it.

Then, I look through the blog to find areas I could add links to blogs / free resources / service pages / portfolio pieces / email list / Substack / social media posts or accounts / podcast episodes /courses / smaller paid offers likeworkshops, audits, templates, strategy calls, Swipe File, etc…

(Sara has a lot of stuff, guys. I’m putting in the work over here.)

Sometimes I even embed Instagram posts / Reels or podcast episodes in her blogs if they’re relevant!

4. Update the CTA. Sometimes the CTA at the end needs to be updated, because the old one could be going to a waitlist page for a service that’s launched or maybe a general service page that now has a more specific sales page.

Orrrrr maybe you used to end every blog with a CTA to join your email list and now you want to drive more traffic to your contact page.

Giving the CTA a little refresh is never a bad idea.

5. Run it through Grammarly. I use Grammarly to help me catch small spelling or grammatical errors that I might have missed, then update them in the blog.

6. Update the SEO metadata. I double check that the target keyword is still the best choice for this blog. If the old keyword got really competitive or I find one with better volume, I swap it out in the SEO title, meta description, and blog title.

I also read through the existing SEO title and meta description to make sure the character count isn’t too long or short and it accurately reflects the topic of the post.

Then, I take another look through the blog to see where I already naturally used the keyword and where else I can place it strategically.

7. Double-check alt text. I look to see if all the images in the post have alt text and if not, write new ones for them.

8. Update the publish date. I know there’s some hesitation with this step, but a new publish date signals to Google that there’s something new to review on your website. It also pushes it to the top of your blog home page, getting more eyes on the new content!

9. Request indexing. Just to be extra sure that Google sees the new content, I go into Google Search Console and ask it to index the page again.

Aaaaand I think that’s it! Obviously some blogs need more work than others, but if you have blogs that you haven’t touched in over a year, they probably deserve a quick read to see if anything can be improved.

WORK WITH EDEN TO UPDAE YOUR BLOGS!

Acknowledgements

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Author's Note

HAVE YOU BEEN TRYING TO GROW YOUR EMAIL LIST AND… STRUGGLING TO GET PEOPLE TO SUBSCRIBE?! 👀

My Success Story students bullied me into hosting a 30-day Subscriber Challenge and WHO WAS I TO SAY NO???

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(…and that’s after I just cleaned my list recently!)

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Yeah. I’m familiar with the feeling.

That was me yesterday morning when I looked this man square in his face and said:

“Oh, is that why she divorced you?”

I didn’t quite realize that wasn’t the right thing to say until he just… didn’t respond.

(No, there is no “U” missing from my ADHD diagnosis. At least, not to my knowledge. This interaction had me second guessing, though.)

From my side of the plane — did I mention this was a conversation between me and the random man in 4C on my flight home from New York? — the question seemed totally normal.

He was the one who mentioned his ex wife, after all.

He was the one who brought up his abysmal performance at the 5K they ran right before they broke up and she took all his money, his 6,000sq ft house, and $7,500/mo in child support.

(Yes, those are the exact details of his real life. Or at least his version of the story.)

(And yes, this entire conversation happened before the plane even took off. Also before I even knew his name.)

I don’t know how we got on the topic of running in the first place — something about how NYC is only one marathon away from Boston — but he told me he and his ex wife were supposed to run a 5K, 10K, and half marathon back to back, but he only made it through the first race.

Well, “barely” made it, according to his recount.

“Is that why she divorced you?” I said with a laugh.

Blank stare.

Blank stare.

More blank. More stare.

Sustained blank stare for an awkward amount of time.

Then: laugh.

Phew! That was a close one! Good thing social anxiety literally fears me! I almost experienced an uncomfortable social interaction for a sec!

Luckily for me — unluckily for Man In 4C — it was part of the reason she divorced him.

“Kinda,” he said. “Her boss was a better runner than me.”

My turn to laugh!

…except, unfortunately, he did not.

Blank stare. Again.

He did come around, though, once he either realized that A) I was hilarious or that B) he had no way of getting out of this conversation so he might as well participate — and he eventually ended up telling me all of his lore.

(There were TWO ex wives involved, to my surprise.)

Halfway through the flight — and halfway through him telling me about Ex Wife #2 (who he nicknamed “Hoe”) being the cousin-in-law of Ex Wife #1 (who he nicknamed “Devil”) — I mentioned something I saw on TikTok similar to his situation, and he told me he didn’t have social media.

“Don’t lie,” I said. “I saw those Facebook Dating notifications on your phone.”

Thankfully, we were past the Blank Stares at this point, and he actually did laugh right away.

He told me he wasn’t having much luck on there, so I offered to fix his profile for him.

(A totally normal thing to offer, by the way. Since clearly I’m an expert in knowing normal things to say to strangers.)

He declined, but I was kind of offended.

“I’ve literally had people PAY ME to fix their dating app profiles before!” I said. “I’m a dating app profile expert!”

Still nothing, though.

He said he was too embarrassed to show me, which I understand. He wasn’t exactly giving ~ good dating profile ~ energy… for lots of reasons.

I offered to give him some tips to implement on his own — “just some easy tweaks! it’ll take 3 mins TOPS!” —but he still said no, saying his profile is too far gone & there’s no way it would only take a few minutes.

Suit yourself, Man In 4C.

Not the first time someone didn’t believe me about how long (or how worth it!) some quick little updates would be…🙄

One Marketing Tip, Once A Week

3 EASY WEBSITE TWEAKS THAT TAKE 3 MINS OR LESS

Updating your website doesn’t take as long as you might think!

I know so0o0o many people who “want to” update their website, but never do because they think it’s gonna take them “forever” to do it.

So, I’m gonna prove to you it doesn’t take as long as you think by sharing what I did this week to update MY site (with the real times)…

#1 — Updated my availability!

TIME IT TOOK: 14 SECONDS

WHAT I DID: Changed the spot on my Contact page (right above my inquiry form) that says “Now Booking [Month]” to reflect my actual availability. It used to say March, now it says August.

WHY I DID IT: So no one will inquire and think I’m available to write their website right now! My next available start date is in August, so now anyone who wants to work with me knows that.

#2 — Swapped out my website banner!

TIME IT TOOK: 2 MINUTES

WHAT I DID: I used to have a banner promoting my newsletter content subscription, Swipe File, but I just swapped it out to instead promote my website copy template.

WHY I DID IT: I’m about to start promoting this template more (it just got a facelift and looks all cute and new now!) and I’ve been noticing a lot of people purchasing it, which tells me people are interested in it, and I figure I’d have a better shot of selling even MORE of them if I highlight it in my banner (at the top of each page on my site).

#3 — Switched out the featured product on my homepage!

TIME IT TOOK: 1.5 MINUTES

WHAT I DID: I used to showcase my “I’m Cool But My About Page Isn’t” workshop on my homepage, but I swapped it out for my website copy template.

WHY I DID IT: same reason I swapped out the banner!

It’s not hard AT ALLLLL to update your website — so you’re likely putting it off for no reason, or because you have a misconception that these things take WAY longer than they do.

Here are a few other things you could update:

• Old blog posts (we’re gonna talk about this next week, so make sure you stay tuned for next Tuesday’s newsletter!)

• Broken or old links on your pages

• Details no longer relevant on your About page

• The “what’s included” list on your Services page

• Pricing!!!!!!!!

• Your FAQs

• Add your availability to your Contact page

The list really does go on and on and on.

& if you want to make sure your site is performing as well as it can, I highly recommend starting with these little updates or tweaks!

…but if you want your website to be PERFECT, you might want to consider enlisting the big guns for support.

(To be clear: I am the big guns, and my support is a DIY website copy course that people LUVVVV + say is the easiest way to write your own website copy!)

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Acknowledgements

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And frankly, I was quite happy about that!

I never thought, at the esteemed age of 31, that I’d have to go back there.

That I’d have to resort to such drastic measures.

That I’d have to endure that kind of pain!

(And it IS pain, by the way. In a few sentences, you’ll find out what I’m talking about, and you may feel the need to call me dramatic. Roll your eyes, even. But let me assure you: it is actual, physical pain.)

I tried to avoid it, of course.

I shopped around. I looked at other potential places to go. I considered how far I’d be willing to travel to go somewhere else — anywhere else — but there.

Unfortunately, though, nowhere else would suffice. I was left with only one option:

Planet Fitness.

And, yeah, it IS that serious.

And, like I said, I DID feel physical pain.

…to my retinas, when I stepped foot through those glass doors for the first time since age 17, and the sight of the purple and yellow machines nearly blinded me.

…to my nose, when the smell of grandpa sweat wafted into my nostrils.

…and to my ego, when I realized my gym aesthetic would never be the same.

But alas, it’s my only option.

My hometown gym doesn’t have all of the machines I need.

The more aesthetically pleasing gyms are too far away.

The other chain gyms in my area are so crusty that they make Planet Fitness look like Equinox.

Avoiding the gym entirely isn’t an option, either, because my butt is so flat my pants fall down.

So, Planet Fitness it is.

And despite my disdain for the establishment — solely based on its color palette, by the way, because who the FUCK thought it was a good idea to pair purple with yellow, and then make it practically NEON, and then plaster it on every inch of the entire gym??? — I decided that I have no choice but to make the best of it.

For that to happen, though, Planet Fitness can no longer be Planet Fitness.

Instead, she will be ✨ The Purple And Yellow Palace ✨

And not only will she be loved — she will be CELEBRATED. She will be made the main character of my story. She will be made to sound so appealing, that everyone will join the Palace, and we’ll actually all start loving purple and yellow, and we’ll all have Kim Kardashian asses by summer.

Here’s how I’m rebranding the most fuck ass gym on the planet into something worth getting excited about + why that matters 👇

One Marketing Tip, Once A Week

GOOD MARKETING IS JUST GOOD STORYTELLING

I’m not sure if you know this about me, but I’m a huge neuroscience nerd. I often make it a point to share that your brain only follows the story YOU tell it.

It doesn’t know the difference between true and false; it only knows the narrative you consistently feed it.

(That’s why you see so much about affirmations online. But that’s a whole other story.)

Marketing is very similar. A good story is all you need.

Let’s take Planet Fitness, for example.

OLD STORY: Planet Fitness is the small, smelly gym I used to go to in high school, where I’d fry myself in a tanning bed and then incorrectly use the elliptical for 45 minutes. It’s where people who don’t know anything about lifting weights go.

NEW STORY: The Palace has a plethora of machines, plenty of open treadmills at any given hour, and is always sparkling clean. At the end of every workout, I get to go in the Black Card Spa and enjoy both an orgasmic massage chair and red light therapy. I make the most of my $25 membership, and I enjoy my visit every time.

If we kept the old narrative, Planet Fitness sounds horrible and disgusting.

If we go with the new narrative — which actually IS true! it really is very clean now! — The Palace sounds like a gym worth going to.

If you’re anything like me, you simply CANNOT when the vibes are off.

I have no better way to put it. If the vibes are wrong, my neurodivergence starts showing, and I have to get the fuck out of that establishment before I rip my skin off.

(To illustrate my level of “can’t” when it comes to vibes being wrong, let me just say this: I once — kindly, I swear — asked a stranger to move out of a chair at Starbucks because I was picturing myself sitting in that chair. That’s my level of social audacity when the vibes are off.)

Obviously, though, Planet Fitness will not be rebranding because my inner squirrel can’t handle their color palette, so I knew that if I was going to survive my new membership at PF, I’d have to mentally change the vibes myself by making the non-vibes a vibe.

AKA SWITCH THE NARRATIVE FROM BAD STORY TO GOOD STORY.

Instead of “ew, I go to a skid gym” my narrative became “I love going to The Palace.”

Within a few visits, I started to believe it! I started to genuinely love The Palace!

& what do you know! When I started posting about it in this new positive light, EVERYONE ELSE STARTED TO FEEL THE SAME.

Both in real life and via DM, I have heard from friends and strangers alike everything from “wait you’re kinda making me wanna try it now” to “omg that looks so fun” to “I didn’t know they had that machine!” to “ok you convinced me I’m getting a palace membership.”

All because I chose to give it a different story on social media.

Marketing is just storytelling because the facts about a business rarely change — but the interpretation of those facts can.

Planet Fitness didn’t suddenly invent their massage chairs, or add extra treadmills, or bring in red light therapy the second I started calling it “The Palace.”

All of those things were already there. What changed was the narrative I used to frame the experience.

Instead of focusing on the crusty high school gym energy I remembered from my previous experience, I started telling a story about convenience, clean machines, and a little post-workout spa moment.

That’s what good marketing does. It doesn’t fabricate a new reality — it simply tells a NEW story, highlighting the parts of the experience that create a better, more attractive story for the person hearing it.

When the story shifts, people start to see the exact same thing differently.

Acknowledgements

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Author's Note

Did you know Success Story is open for enrollment?! 👀

I don’t spend much time talking about my copywriter-only resources in this newsletter (because I have a whole separate newsletter just for my copywriters in the room!) but I would be remiss not to mention:

My 2026 group mentorship program for copywriters is OPEN for enrollment & there are a few spaces left to join! We’ll be together for the rest of the year, as I support you through group coaching calls, pre-recorded lessons, one-on-one strategy calls, copy edits and feedback, guest expert teachings, and more…

So! If you’re curious, check Success Story out here + maybe we’ll get to hang til December as we make 2026 your business’s most successful, sustainable chapter yet <3

This earned me yet another eye roll from both sides of the table.

“SEAGULLS!!!!” I screeched, allowing my snicker to turn into an evil laugh, as I snatched the card from the top of the pile.

Wesley put his head in his hands.

Side Character shrugged, clearly communicating “whatever” with his shoulders.

We were mid-Scattergories, of course. We’d just opened the new card game version, and I was absolutely crushing them.

(No surprise there. I crush them in regular Scattergories, too.)

(…even though I literally JUST learned the other day that there’s an “R” in Scattergories. I thought it was just called “scattagories” lmao)

If you’ve never played, let me explain. The rules are essential to this story.

There are three piles of cards: one with letters, one with categories, and one card that says “I know” on it.

At the beginning of the game, you flip over the decks, revealing the first letter and the first category.

Let’s say the first letter is “S” and the first category is “at the beach” — your objective is to be the first to think of something that starts with an “S” that can be found on the beach.

When you have your answer, you slap the “I know” card, yell ”I KNOW!” and then spit out your answer.

(Hence my “SEAGULLS!!!” at the beginning of this email.)

If you get it right, you take one of the cards from either deck. The player with the most cards at the end of the game (when they’re all gone) wins.

And let me freaking tell you…

I have never felt more grateful for my ADHD brain than I was last Wednesday night, because it was the only reason I was able to cinch my first-ever Game Night victory.

You may remember this from my last Game Night story, but I’ve been trying to secure a win for months. Side Character usually wins every single week.

Both boys were getting so frustrated with me, though, because I was screaming “I KNOW!” in their faces every two seconds.

Neither of them could come even close to trying on most rounds, because my 2x speed nogin was too quick for them.

Side Character was getting particularly frustrated with me, though, because not all of my answers were perfect, or thought-out.

I was moreso… blurting.

And there’s one key rule I need to mention, so you’ll understand his confusion with my blurting tactic: you’re not supposed to blurt.

If you slap the “I know” card and either a) don’t know, or b) say something that doesn’t count, you have to give back one of your cards.

He could not fathom how willing I was to take the risk of having to put a card back (which happened at least 10 times while playing, because I either said something out of pocket that didn’t even make sense, or screamed “I KNOW!!!” then said “uuhhhhh” as my answer lol).

Because he is basically a human spreadsheet with the most measured, well-adjusted adult brain on this planet, he would never open his mouth to speak before he was certain what he wanted to say.

He’s like that in all aspects of life. He does his research. He likes to be informed. He’s a Good Adult.

(Perfect example: we both needed new running shoes. I Googled ‘best running shoes for women’ and bought the first shoe from the first article. He researched ‘best running shoes for men’ for 6 months before making his choice, and bought the same shoes as me.)

I am not.

I am a Medium Adult With A Neurodivergent Brain And A Bias Toward Action.

Thinking is simply not part of my process. All I have is doing.

Then learning, trying, testing, acting, moving, making, spending, training, being…

And also blurting, apparently.

& yeah, that gets me into trouble sometimes. I had to put 9 cards back while we were playing.

…but by the end of our Scattergories game, I had 51 cards.

Side Character had 17.

I was willing to take a chance sixty times. I got 51 positive results, and 9 bad ones.

He was willing to take a chance seventeen times, ensuring him seventeen positive results.

But I had FIFTY ONE.

I won the game by a landslide, with my blurting.

And if that’s not a perfect metaphor for “messy action” then I don’t know what is…

One Marketing Tip, Once A Week

MESSY ACTION TAKERS MAKE MORE MONEY

My tip for you today isn’t a “how to” or a method to use or a formula to follow or a marketing mistake to fix or an email to write or a shiny new headline for your website copy.

Instead, it’s a simple piece of advice — and I really hope you take this tip to heart.

JUST FUCKING START!!!!

That’s it. That’s my tip.

Enough with the overthinking. Enough with the excessive planning. Enough with the research. Enough with the hemming and hawing. Enough with the waiting for things to be perfect.

“Ready” isn’t a feeling; it’s a decision. And YOU are the only one who can make it.

…and every day that YOU spend not not making the decision to START — whatever it is you’re wanting to start — someone else who is less qualified than you is making more of the progress toward what YOU want to do or have or be or achieve.

I recently interviewed a friend on my podcast all about the concept of “why not me?” and she said something that I knew I had to share with you:

“The only thing worse than a DNF is a DNS.”

If you’re an endurance athlete, you’re familiar with this phrase.

It means: the only thing worse than not finishing is NOT STARTING AT ALL.

And I’m no marathoner, but I’ll be damned if I get in my own way by not starting.

The most successful people don’t dilly dally over decisions. They take ACTION.

Sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn’t — but the only way to find out is by doing something.

You’ll either end up with 51 cards, or 17.

Acknowledgements

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Author's Note

MY 50% OFF EVERYTHING FLASH SALE ENDS TONIGHT!

Until midnight, almost every single thing I sell is 50% off!!!

(If you missed the story, just know it has to do with my fuck ass boiler costing me an arm and a leg. I might need a whole new heating system, and you might need better marketing. So. You’re welcome.)

You can shop all 20+ of my marketing resources right here and use code “GetSaraHeat” for 50% off everything except Site Series® hehe

The most popular item in the sale BY FAR has been my Wicked Easy Web Copy Guide! Everyone has been snatching it up and tbh I don’t blame them bc that is a noiiiice discount!

& YESSSS designers — this DOES include my commercial website copy template! You can buy this and add it to your services and raise your prices. Slay.

FOR MY GIRLIES WHO WANT TO TRY OUT META ADS

Did you know that Side Character offers a secret-menu-esque service suite as second-in-command here at Between The Lines?

Together, we have several Meta Ads clients! He manages the ads and I write the ad copy — and it’s a beautiful thing, if you ask me.

Like me, he’ll work with anyone who is nice to him and can afford it, and his Meta Ads Management packages start at $900/mo.

SO! If you’re interested in working with my mansss to help you get more subscribers, more sales, or more followers, hit reply to this email and I’ll send ya his Services Secret Menu hehe

It sounds kind of painful.

But you might have no choice.

Right now it’s Monday, at 12:51pm, and I want to make sure you have something to read tomorrow at 6:26am, when this email is supposed to hit your inbox.

I just finished teaching and supporting students inside my live website copywriting program, Write Your Site, and I’m waiting for my homemade parmesan crisps to be done baking.

It’s a snow day — 16 inches in Boston — and Wesley is watching the Minecraft movie. Jax is digging a hole inside his dog bed.

Side Character and I are sitting at the kitchen counter, both slurping our zero sugar strawberries and cream Dr. Peppers.

I’m responding to emails on my computer.

He’s reading a Reddit article about how the Commonwealth is forcing our town to choose a stretch of land to reserve for affordable multi-family housing, should a developer ever choose to build one here.

We’re both for it.

We agree that anyone who is against it is secretly classist, racist, selfish, or all three. Or maybe it’s not “secretly” at all.

I take the crisps out of the oven.

He gets up, presumably to procrastinate snowblowing by pretending like he has to use the bathroom.

“I don’t know what to write my newsletter about,” I say.

“Ripping your pinky nail off?” he suggests.

I laugh, and my brain immediately kicks into gear.

Okay, ripping my pinky nail off… what could that relate to?

I start mulling over the feelings that were evoked when this tragic incident happened: surprise, fear, shock, confusion, pain, discomfort…

Do I mention how it happened?

I start mentally crafting a story about going to the gym with Side Character so he could watch me run on the treadmill.

(He’s a track star, and I’m twinkle toes, apparently unable to run without exclusively landing on the very tips of my feet. I was hoping he’d be able to point out how I could fix this particular issue.)

I think of how I’ll word the moment it happened.

Something about how, in the middle of him beginning to tell me I’m wasting too much energy moving my arms, I smack my freshly manicured pinky finger on the treadmill, and rip the entire nail clean off. Not just the acrylic tip. The literal nail.

I debate including the especially gruesome detail about the gushing blood, or the even more disgusting detail about my cuticle still being attached, or the even more nauseating detail about the cavity that now exists where my nail used to be, raw and terrible.

I consider what the aforementioned feelings could relate to, and what makes sense to share in this week’s newsletter.

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about website copy lately, gearing up for the enrollment of my website copywriting course, so I decide to move on from that for now.

I think about whether or not there’s a way for me to weave in any tips about SEO, or growing your business, or email marketing. I know you like reading about that.

I question whether it’s too niche to mention Success Story enrolling again soon, or the new for-designers-only page I made for my site, or my Squirlie newsletter. It is.

I wrestle with the idea of scrapping the ripped-off-pinky-nail story altogether, in favor of the topic I was loosely considering, which had to do with an impressive Scattergories takeover and how my impressive win was a masterclass in messy action.

Ultimately, though, I decide the Scattergories story is too close to a recent Cards Against Humanity story, and determine that you deserve more variety.

(I’ll keep my family’s obsession with games out of my newsletter, for now. But if you’d like to hear this story eventually — or you want my best family-friendly game recommendations — hit “reply” and let me know.)

I guess I’m left with the pinky nail getting violently ripped off my finger.

Despite how vile the entire experience was, there actually is a lot to work with.

I could use it as an excuse to talk about band-aid solutions in business, or about how tiny disruptions or inconveniences can feel like massive ones, or about issues you don’t notice until they hurt, or about how I kept running anyway despite the pain…

At the end of the day, though, I don’t think you want to hear about the blood gushing from my finger, or about how much of my cuticle was ripped out and still attached to my acrylic nail.

So, instead, I guess I’ll just tell you what happens in my brain when I’m thinking about what to write in my newsletter.

Oh, wait. I suppose you just read that…

Well, you’re welcome.

I’ll give you some topic ideas for yours, now, so you don’t have to go through that whole mental exercise.

One Marketing Tip, Once A Week

WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT IN YOUR NEWSLETTER THIS WEEK

So sorry to take away this excuse from you, but — at least for the next 5 weeks — you’ll never be able to say “idk what to write about in my newsletter!” again.

#1 — An embarrassing event from high school, how it made you feel then, and how trivial it feels now

• Related topics: before/after of working with you, client transformations, business advice, positive perspectives/mindsets, growing up

#2 — An unfavorable interaction with a Karen

• Related topics: red flag clients, getting ghosted, dealing with anger, how other peoples’ actions aren’t a reflection of you, don’t be like Karens & do X instead

#3 — How you met your first-ever significant other

• Related topics: ideal clients, knowing if a service provider is a good fit, knowing when something feels right, getting new clients/customers

#4 — A confession about something weird you do that you know people will be able to relate to

• Related topics: content marketing, finding your target audience, impact of knowing you’re not alone, how to relate to your audience, About pages, community

#5 — A time you were gonna wicked scared of or nervous something but it turned out to be fine (and maybe even fun or beneficial)

• Related topics: business investments, hiring a coach/mentor, trusting your gut, personal development, self-help, benefits of services or offerings, decision making, inspiration to “go for it”

→ WANT ME TO DECIDE WHAT YOU CAN WRITE ABOUT IN YOUR NEWSLETTERS EVERY SINGLE WEEK?

Subscribe to my newsletter content subscription, Swipe File, and I will!

As a subscriber, you get FIVE newsletter topics every single month, and they each come with several individual angles, so you can make them your own. They all also come with a “how to write this” guide, making it even easier to add your own personal flair AND make them engaging.

Swipe File alsooo comes with a video tutorial about story-based newsletters + how to write the best newsletter copy that people actually want to read.

ANDDD it includes my special Pivot Line Library, helping you effortlessly connect the story portion of the newsletter to the tip, lesson, or call-to-action section.

It’s only $31/mo (or $300 for the year!) and I think you will absolutely LOVE her.

SUBSCRIBE TO SWIPE FILE

Acknowledgements

Calling all anti-hustle-culture, anti-bro-marketing girlies who want to make money! You’ll want to subscribe to Katie Proctor’s newsletter, Diary of a Sustainable Freelancer.

It reads like voice notes from a wise older sister who freelances for a living and refuses to destroy her health doing it. Katie writes about living abroad, navigating chronic illness, and how she’s made $600k+ on Upwork (including hiring freelancers herself) — with actionable tips woven into every story.

SUBSCRIBE

Author's Note

FOR MY DESIGNERS IN THE ROOM

You’re a biiiig focus of mine this year, did you know that?! 👀

I’m spending a lot of time (this month especially!) teaching in designer-focused group programs, speaking on designer-only podcasts, and creating resources for you, because as a website copywriter, you are my person.

I’ve actually created a whole page on my site JUST for you — and next month, I’m launching my designer-only newsletter, all about how you can better support your clients with copy + grow your business (and your bottom line!) as a designer.

→ Here’s the link to see the resources I have for you!

FOR MY COPYWRITERS IN THE ROOM

Designers aren’t the only ones I have a special newsletter for…

Open Loop is for copywriters ONLYYYY — and it’s about all the shit you just can’t Google.

From pricing and client experience to launching and creating new streams of income, this copywriter-specific newsletter covers everything you want to know about how to build a successful, sustainable business.

I send it every Thursday and it’s 100% free to subscribe to!

→ Here’s the link to subscribe!

FOR MY PEEPS WITH A FUCK ASS WEBSITE

It’s not too late to join my live 4-week done-with-you website copywriting program, Write Your Site!

We kicked off yesterday with our homepage lesson, but you can catch the recording of that, join Slack today, and be present for our 3 next calls to learn how to write your About page, Services page, and sales page copy!

You’ve literally only missed one day so far (out of the 60 we have together on Slack!) so it’s absolutely still worth it to join.

→ Here’s the link to write your site with me!

FOR MY GIRLIES WHO WANT TO TRY OUT META ADS

Did you know that Side Character offers a secret-menu-esque service suite as second-in-command here at Between The Lines?

Together, we have several Meta Ads clients! He manages the ads and I write the ad copy — and it’s a beautiful thing, if you ask me.

Like me, he’ll work with anyone who is nice to him and can afford it, and his Meta Ads Management packages start at $900/mo for one ad.

SO! If you’re interested in working with my mansss to help you get more subscribers, more sales, or more followers, hit reply to this email and I’ll send ya his Services Secret Menu hehe

…says everyone ever, all the time.

Especially lately, though.

“It’s just the season.”

“People are holding onto their money.”

“Everyone’s nervous.”

“It’s the economy.”

“It’s the algorithm.”

“It’s the orange monster in office. How is he still in office?”

“It’s Mercury in Gatorade.”

And sure, it’s possible (probable, even!) that people ARE holding on a little tighter to their money in this season — the world is on fire, taxes are almost due, eggs cost $97, and everyone’s pretending they understand tariffs at dinner parties — but here’s the part no one wants to say out loud:

People ARE still buying. They’re just not buying from YOU.

AND DON’T GET MAD I SWEAR I’M NOT BEING MEAN OK HEAR ME OUT!!!!

It’s not because your offer isn’t good.

It’s not because you’re untalented, or because you’re cursed, or because you suck, or because you’re not worth the investment…

IT’S BECAUSE THEY DON’T YET UNDERSTAND WHY YOUR OFFER IS WORTH IT.

And THATTT is a messaging problem. Not a market problem.

When people understand the value of your offer and how it can genuinely HELP them or improve their lives — by making them more $$$, giving them back time, reducing mental load, helping them feel competent again, giving them peace in an area that currently feels chaotic — it becomes worth it to them to buy or sign up even when their wallet is otherwise staying firmly closed.

Think about your own spending right now.

Are you buying less? Maybe!

Are you buying NOTHING? Absolutely not!

I know you saw those new Old Navy sweaters! I know you started using that Oura ring! I know you know Summer Fridays just dropped a new face wash! I know you’re part of the reason Rhode eye masks are sold out everywhere right now!

You’re not buying NOTHING. You’re being more selective.

More decisive! More aware!

You’re debating the WORTH of the thing before you BUY the thing.

Will this actually help? Is this going to move the needle or is it just another thing? Will this get me closer to my goals? Is this going to be a real FIX in my business or is this bullshit?

And your audience is doing the exact same thing.

When someone says “no one’s buying” what they’re really saying is:

“My offer feels optional.”

And OPTIONAL offers are the first to get CUT when budgets tighten…

So, if you want people to buy YOUR thing, then your thing can’t be a “nice to have.” It needs to be a “must-have.”

🍪 YOU DON’T WANT TO POSITION YOURSELF AS DESSERT 🍪

Forgive me — I may just have food noise — but nothing sounds better to me right now than a fresh-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookie with pink mini M&Ms.

I got a KitchenAid for my birthday (a gorgeous 7-quart mixer in BTL blue, thank you, Mom!) and I’ve been unstoppable in the baking department ever since. I’ll share my cookie recipe with you at the end of this email.

So, to me, dessert feels really enticing lately…

BUT IT’S NOT A NEED.

Other things are a lot more important to me in this stage of life, like protein!

I always eat 150g of protein every day, but I don’t always eat a cookie.

To me, protein is a nonnegotiable, because it keeps me full and makes me stronger. Healthy fats are also a nonnegotiable for me, because you and I both know I’m squirreling all over town with this ADHD brain and eating healthy fats supports brain function.

Cookies just support my happiness.

& while I DO absolutelyyyy indulge in my happiness very often, it’s not a NEED for me, making it OPTIONAL.

Just because it sounds good doesn’t mean it’s a choice I’m going to make.

If I’m making a choice to invest in something, it needs to BOTH sound good AND be good for me.

Dessert is delish! But not essential.

And in uncertain seasons, people cut dessert.

What they don’t cut? Things that feel NECESSARY. Things that feel like RELIEF. Things that support their GOALS. Things that feel like MOMENTUM.

So… not to get all diet culture on you…

But the cookie doesn’t always make the cut.

Hate that for me and my KitchenAid, but it’s the truth.

People cut dessert, whether we like it or not.

One Marketing Tip, Once A Week

IS YOUR OFFER WORTH SPENDING MONEY ON? OR IS IT AN OPTIONAL DESSERT?

Even if you’re the type to eat something sweet after every meal, you can pick up what I’m putting down:

When someone can’t tell WHY your offer is essential to their well-being, their goal-reaching, their survival, or their bank account… they don’t prioritize it.

SO, when someone deeply understands that your offer will…

• help them sign more clients

• reduce the 4-hour nightly spiral of “wtf am I doing”

• finally make their website convert

• stop the constant explaining in DMs

• give them a system instead of vibes

• bring in consistent revenue instead of hope marketing

…it stops feeling like a “maybe.”

It starts feeling like OXYGEN. And oxygen gets purchased — even in a tight economy.

Because when things feel uncertain, people crave stability.

When things feel chaotic, they crave clarity.

When revenue feels shaky, they crave predictability.

If your offer creates one of those things — but your copy is talking about “modules” and “access” and “community” and “templates” — you’re describing the container instead of the transformation.

THEN NO ONE’S BUYING HERRRRRR!!!

People buy the AFTER.

They buy the version of themselves who is no longer stressed about this thing! They buy the future where this problem isn’t sitting on their chest anymore! They buy the transformation!

So when sales slow down, instead of spiraling into “nobody’s buying,” ask yourself:

Have I made this feel essential?

Have I clearly shown what changes after they say yes?

Have I connected this to something that actually matters in their real life — money, time, confidence, peace, sanity?

…orrrr did I rely on the assumption that my reader already KNEW what my offer would bring them, even though I didn’t explicitly say it?

I’d HATE to see your really good offer underperform because of its “meh” messaging.

SO THIS IS YOUR SIGN TO BE SPECIFIC!!!

Next time you’re writing the words intended to sell something, consult this list:

• Why does this matter NOW?

• What will this DO for them?

• Why should they CARE?

• What’s the POINT?

• What about this can be more SPECIFIC?

• How can I SHOW them the transformation they’ll receive?

Don’t panic. Don’t slash your prices. Don’t assume the sky is falling and give up on your launch halfway through.

Take a deep breath, ask yourself whether you’ve made your offer dessert, and then adjust the plan to make her the whole damn meal.

& if you need help writing website copy that does exactly that — I’d love for you to join my 4-week LIVE website copywriting program kicking off on Monday, where I’ll write your website along with you (and you’re sure to have a site you LOVE in 4 weeks flat).

AND IF I WERE TRYING NOT TO MAKE THIS OFFER SOUND LIKE DESSERT…

I’d tell you 👇

Your website is the thing standing between you and consistent, aligned, high-quality clients… this is not a “nice little spring project.”

Your website is where your MONEY comes in.

A good website is the difference between crossing your fingers every time you open your inbox, and knowing your site is working 24/7 while you’re at your kid’s soccer practice, treadmill-dancing to Bad Bunny on repeat, or manic-cleaning the kitchen.

I’d tell you that in a season where people are more selective with their money, your website cannot afford to be vague.

It can’t be “fine” and it can’t just rely on VIBES…

Because when someone lands on your site and doesn’t immediately understand why hiring you is the smartest move they could make this quarter… they click away and go find someone who said it better.

So if I were positioning this as a “NEED” instead of a “MIGHT BE NICE”?

I’d tell you that this 4-week LIVE website copywriting program kicking off Monday is where we make your offer feel essential.

We’re not just casually “learning about copy” — we are writing your actual website! In real time! Together!

SO!!! If your inquiries feel inconsistent… and if you secretly hope people don’t judge you when they say they found you through your website…

This isn’t dessert. IT’S THE WHOOOLE MEAL BABY 🥗🥩🥔🍔🍤

& when your website is bomb — people buy from it.

WRITE YOUR SITE WITH ME!

Acknowledgements

BROUGHT TO YOU BY TIDAL & CO

As much as we say we do, we don’t actually need “more hours in the day” — we need more support behind the scenes, making it FEEEL like we have more hours in the day.

In this free guide, you’ll learn how to identify which back-end tasks are actually time sucks, how to do business without doing everythinggg yourself, AND what you can hand off to create that “give me my hours back” level of TIME to work on your biz or on yourself.

DOWNLOAD THE "MAKING SPACE" GUIDE

AND SPEAKING OF SPONSORS — YOU CAN NOW SPONSOR BOTH THIS NEWSLETTER & MY PODCAST!

If you’re wanting to get your offer in front of an engaged, loyal audience who LOVVVESSSS finding new brands + businesses to support (and buy from), sponsoring this newsletter is such a great way to do that…

BUT SPONSORING THE PODCAST MIGHT BE EVEN BETTER.

While your fellow loyal TOC readers love this newsletter, hearing your ad in their ears while they cook / clean / work / run / drive / rot is even more impactful.

SPONSOR THE PODCAST!!!!!!!

SPONSOR THE NEWSLETTER!

Author's Note

Is Write Your Site worth spending your money on?!

That’s ultimately up to you… because I think a 4-week LIVE done-with-you website copywriting program is a prettyyyy slay offer for someone who has been trying to DIY their website copy for months — maybe even years — but keeps avoiding it.

This program is what will get your website DONE, finally, so you can stop settling for less than you deserve and letting your competitors get your best leads.

We kick things off on February 23rd, and we’ll be together for 4 Mondays in a row, where I’ll be teaching you how to write Home, About, Services, and sales page copy WHILE ALSOOOO writing it WITH you, every step of the way.

→ Join Write Your Site & get access to 4 weeks of live lessons, 8 weeks of 1:1 Slack, my entire self-paced website copywriting course Site Series® Sprint, AND free website copy edits done by me!

As Promised…

MY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPE

In what is surely the most ADHDer format of recipe ever… I present to you the best chocolate chip cookies ever 🍪

YOU’LL NEED: 2 sticks of butter, ⅔ cup brown sugar, ⅔ cup white sugar, 1 egg, a tiny bit less than 2 cups flour, 1 ¼ tsp baking soda, salt (use your heart), 1 ½ tsp vanilla, chocolate chips (use your heart), mini m&m’s (use your heart)

THE PROCESS: mix wet, mix dry, add choc chips, add m&m’s, let sit in fridge for at least 30 mins, bake for 8-9 mins at 350 degrees Fahrenheit

YOU’RE GONNA WANT TO EAT THE DOUGH. I ENCOURAGE IT.

→ “omg, I need to update my website so bad - like, it’s fine, whatever, I get inquiries, I’m not starving, but… yeah. It’s been on my list to update for a while; I’m gonna get around to it one of these days for sure, just everything else always feels more important, and I can’t catch a break with all the work I have to do…”

I WOULD BE RICHER THAN THE RICHEST GIRL BO$$ ON THE INTERNET.

Because, let me tell you, this is THE MOST common issue to have:

A “just fine” website that you’re putting off updating — even though you know you need to — because it’s not BAD.

It’s not technically hurting you.

It’s not that horrible that you need to drop everything and fix it right now.

It’s not too outdated; it’s just missing a few things here and there…

It’s not the worst website ever, it just comes with a disclaimer every time someone asks you for your URL.

But… when IS it gonna be time?

What WILL be the catalyst for finally updating your website?

Because — and don’t shoot the messenger here — there is NEVER going to be a perfect time.

“Oh I’m just waiting til I have time off,” says the web designer booked 2 months out with VIP days she wish she was charging more for.

“I’m def gonna fix it in December!” says the copywriter who swore she’d take the week of Christmas to work on her own brand, but damn well knows she’s gonna end up in a web of client edits til the 24th.

“As soon as my client work dies down, it’s the first thing on my list,” says the virtual assistant whose client work has never died down, despite her only working with orange-flag clients lately.

“The second busy season is over, I’m on it!” says the wedding vendor who is straight up lying to herself, knowing she’s gonna collapse on the couch for 3 months after back-to-back weddings every weekend for 6 months.

We both know that “I’m gonna update it soon! Really! I know I need to!” is basically the same as a boy who never wants to see you again in his life saying “Yeah, I had a good time, I’ll call you!” after a date.

IT’S AN EMPTY PROMISE. But why?

Sorry, that was rhetorical — I know why.

(I’m Website Girl after all, of course I know why people don’t prioritize updating their “just fine” websites!)

It’s because you don’t see the value in it.

You don’t see the urgency in updating it, if it’s “just fine” for now. But just fine, actually ISN’T just fine for long, BECAUSE…

Fine websites COST you money. GOOD websites MAKE you money.

You deserve a website that WORKS.

You deserve a website that SELLS FOR YOU.

You deserve a website that YOU FEEL CONFIDENT IN.

But you already knew that. You just haven’t fixed it yet.

And you know what? I DON’T BLAME YOU ONE BIT.

You’ve been focusing on other things.

And writing your website copy is hard. It’s SO freaking hard, because you know how much is riding on it being a success.

It’s a LOT of pressure to sit down and bang out thousands of words that are supposed to…

• Magically convince your ideal clients to choose you over your competition

• Casually brag about how awesome you are without making you look too salesy or #girlboss

• Appropriately communicate all the reasons why you’re the best person for the job, with the best personality, the best offers, and the best, happiest, coolest clients

LIKE? HELP????

It’s no wonder you haven’t been able to stomach giving your site the update it deserves.

Sitting down to write something with that much importance, willing it to be *the thing* that sets you apart?

It feels like running a marathon you never trained for, alongside people who are way ahead of you.

BUT, GOOD NEWS: IT’S NOT A MARATHON ANYMORE.

It’s a SPRINT…

Specifically: a series of small, easy-to-understand sprints, designed by a seasoned Website Copywriter (hi, me!) to help you finally finish a new website copy draft you’re REALLY proud of, that effortlessly attracts AND CONVERTS ideal clients.

AND THIS TIME, THOSE “SPRINTS” COME WITH BOTH SUPPORT AND ACCOUNTABILITY AND A DESIGNATED TIME FOR YOU TO GET YOUR SHIT DONE.

MY LIVE 4-WEEK WEBSITE COPYWRITING PROGRAM IS OPEN FOR ENROLLMENT AGAIN!!!

Here’s everything you get when you join Write Your Site — my 4-week LIVE done-with-you website copywriting program:

• 4 weeks of LIVE 90-minute lessons + co-working to go over Home, About, Services, and Sales page

• Access to Site Series® Sprint, my self-paced website copy course, for extra support + website copy lessons

• 60 days of Slack access to me for questions, feedback, and copy reviews

• FULL website copy audit with edits right in your copy doc

Here’s the schedule:

✏️ Monday February 23rd at 9:30am EST — Home page lesson

✏️ Monday March 2nd at 9:30am EST — About page lesson

✏️ Monday March 9th at 9:30am EST — Services page lesson

✏️ Monday March 16th at 9:30am EST — Sales page lesson

& you’ll ALSOOO get 60 days of Slack access *AND* access to my self-paced website copywriting course, too.

Each workshop is 90 minutes long. I’ll spend the first 50 teaching you about a specific page of website copy, and the final 40 actually writing it with you, answering your questions + giving you feedback in real time.

So, if you’ve been waiting for SOMEDAY — but you’ve been procrastinating and pushing off that “someday” for too many days to count…

CONSIDER THIS YOUR SIGN THAT SOMEDAY IS ACTUALLY FEBRUARY 23RD.

And I can’t WAIT to write your site with you!

WRITE YOUR SITE WITH ME

There are 16 spots left as of this morning! When you join the program, you'll get IMMEDIATE access to Site Series® (my self-paced website copywriting course) and an invitation to add all 4 Monday calls to your calendar. Slack opens 2/19.

Acknowledgements

A LIL SOMETHING FOR THE WOO-CURIOUS GIRLIES

YOU DESERVE TO TRUST YOURSELF.

When you learn how to connect with your intuition, you learn how to invite in miracles.

In Akashic Records Teacher + Intiutive Guide Hilary Pearlson’s weekly newsletter, The Invitation, to learn how to explore what it looks like to co-create with your intuition.

Every week, she shares a question to explore through “self inquiry” (aka journaling, audio messaging yourself, meditating, pondering on a walk…) — so you can understand how to better connect with yourself, trust yourself, and start experiencing miracles.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE INVITATION

Author's Note

I cannot stress enough how impactful it is to have accountability and support when you’re doing anythinggg that feels hard (or, at least, hard to START) — and that’s why I chose to create Write Your Site.

If you’re considering joining, I highly recommend it. It’s my best option for website copywriting support, because it comes with my self-paced course AND in-depth copy edits.

→ Click here to check it out!

And if you have any questions about this live website copywriting program, seriously PLSSS email me and ask! I genuinely respond to every single email ever. Usually within the hour, lol.

LOVE U BYE

—S 🩵

Not because I think you’ll judge me (you would never!) but because I don’t want to admit to myself how long I’ve been needing to move said bins.

It’s possible that it’s been weeks.

…which, actually, now that I think about it isn’t really so bad when I remember how long my still-packed suitcase lived on my bedroom floor.

They’re HAUNTING me, though, these bins.

“Move me!” they cry, as I walk by them for the 389th time. “Moooove meeeee!”

I ignore them, obviously.

Just as I’ve done every day for the past however-many weeks.

It’s not that I don’t want to move them! They are in the way, after all.

It’s that I can’t move them.

I couldn’t possibly!

That would require my brain to actually decide to address the thing I want to do, and if you’ve ever experienced executive dysfunction, you know that is simply not an option.

Me? Start a task? Without money, an external pressure, a client deadline, or another person’s wellbeing involved? Not happening!

And, like I said, it’s not because I don’t want to move the bins. I very much want to move the bins. They’re in my fucking way.

But moving them would involve asking Side Character for help, and going up into the attic, and pulling down the creepy, creaky ladder from the ceiling, and potentially encountering squirrel poop, and lifting the awkwardly over-stuffed Christmas decor, and maybe even getting glitter on myself — or worse, my floor! — that I’d then have to clean up.

So, they cry.

“Moooove meeee!”

And they cry some more.

“MOVE ME!!!”

And, of course, they keep crying… but they get a little more convincing along the way.

“You know you hate seeing us here.”

“Remember when this hallway was clear enough to walk through without tripping?”

“You said you wanted to Marie Kondo your whole life, so… what are we doing on this floor?”

“It’s like you don’t even care that you need an uncluttered space to be productive! Look at you leaving us here, cluttering up your floor! Pathetic!”

“Get a fucking grip, girl. We’re just two bins, and the attic is RIGHT THERE.”

“Don’t think we didn’t hear you ask your boyfriend for help moving us ‘later’ only to never follow up with him about when ‘later’ is supposed to be.”

…until finally, I cracked.

I couldn’t look at the bins a single second longer.

And then, within seconds of deciding they needed to go or I was going to lose it, they were in the attic.

To absolutely no one’s surprise, the entire ordeal I’d been avoiding for Lord knows how long was OVER faster than I could even say the word procrastinate.

And I wish I could tell you I won’t do this again, but I will.

Of course I will.

It’s human (squirrel?) nature.

We all have things we avoid for no reason. If you say you don’t, you’re lying.

You have a bin in your hallway, too.

Or maybe it’s a pile of clothes waiting to be folded. Or a suitcase waiting to be unpacked. Or clean plates waiting to be let out of dishwasher purgatory. Or a text waiting for your reply, haunting your phone every time you open it.

Or maybe it’s something affecting your life a little more than you’d like to admit…

Something costing you business, perhaps? 👀

One Marketing Tip, Once A Week

HOW TO STOP PUTTING OFF YOUR WEBSITE COPY

Like I said: we all put off random little things we don’t wanna do.

Hell, we even put off the things we WANT to do!

Getting started is the HARDEST part, even if we know we need to do something. Oftentimes especially when we know we need to do something.

Earlier this weekend, someone tagged me in their Instagram story, saying they were wicked overwhelmed about updating their website copy because they thought they had to start from scratch…

And then they realized they didn’t have to start from scratch, once they with their website copy then they realized they didn’t when they listened to this podcast episode, where I explained exactly HOW to NOT start from zero!

I responded saying “thank God you found it at the right time, I’m glad it was helpful!” and this is what they said back ↓

SO LET’S FUCKING DO IT, SHALL WE?!

(You can skip ahead and literally do it with me starting February 23rd, if you want, but for now, I’m gonna tell you the first steps to updating your website copy.)

First things first: look at each page and pull out what you still like!

You probably haven’t actually read your copy in agessss and I bet there’s good stuff in there! Make sure you read each line of copy on each page. It might be easiest to open a blank Google Doc or Notion page & copy/paste the lines you like.

Second things second, since I know you’re gonna ask: here’s how to tell if it’s “good” or not 👇

• Does it still sound like you?

• Would you post it on Threads?

• Is it accurate?

• Would you want your ideal client reading it?

Third things third: be realistic about what actually needs updating, because it’s probably not literally the entire thing.

I bet your Contact page is probably fine, maybe just needs a headline update! And maybe you even love your Portfolio page. And maybe your calls to action are still great. And maybe you just need to add to your Services page instead of completely gutting it.

Fourth things fourth: read through your testimonials and look for common things people are saying about you!

This will help you build confidence and momentum when you’re sitting down to make website updates, because a) your clients are giving you the fuel you need to remember what you’re good at and why, and b) you can use their words so you don’t even have to think about “what to say”!

And finally: read this blog post OR listen to this podcast OR sign up for this workshop OR take this course OR use this template and WRITE YOUR SITE!

Just like I had no excuse to avoid bringing my bins up to the attic, YOU have no excuse not to make your website worthy of your ideal client’s money.

We both know not having it done is weighing on you, and you’re the only one in your way, so…

What’s stopping you?

(Seriously, hit “reply” and tell me what’s stopping you & I’ll set you straight!)

Acknowledgements

BROUGHT TO YOU BY “BEHIND THE EVENT”

Ever wondered what really happens when you host a summit?

In Michelle Pontvert’s free live workshop, Behind The Event, she’s sharing a debrief of the real, behind-the-scenes results of her recent audio summit and then she’ll workshop your own audio summit strategy with you on the call.

Attendees will walk away with an honest look at what it takes to pull off an event like this, what sorts of results they could get and start mapping out their own collaborative audio summit right there on the call!

The live workshop / debrief is happening on Tuesday, February 10th at 1pm CEST / 12pm GMT / 7am EST / 11pm AEST.

You won’t want to miss it if you’ve been thinking about hosting an audio summit this year!

RSP TO BEHIND THE EVENT

THAT'S ALL SHE WROTE

If you’re new here, HI! I’m Sara Joelle & I’d love for you to stick around 🩵

Through sales-focused storytelling and the perfect combination of casual and convincing, I’ll make your ideal clients feel as comfortable with you as they do with the characters in their favorite novel — so you can book more dream projects, get more subscribers, make more money, and have more downtime to do what you want to do.

You’re not the only one sick of seeing one bad thing after the next, popping up every fifteen seconds on the tiny rectangle glued to your hand.

You’re not the only one with a Threads timeline flooded with outrage about the current events of the world.

You’re not the only one feeling fucking weird about letting your business be business as usual when people — not “aliens” but people — are getting unlawfully snatched from their cars on their way to work, or from their jobs, or from the sidewalk in the middle of walking their dog.

You’re not the only one wondering whether or not people will unfollow or unsubscribe when you speak out about which side you’re on.

You’re not the only one wondering why we even have “sides” in the first place.

And you’re definitely not the only one who doesn’t know where to go from here, because, of course, you still have a business to run.

You can’t just stop marketing yourself, or stop caring about making sales, or stop putting in effort to grow your online presence. That’s how you make a living! You have to make a living!

I can’t make the country fix itself, but I CAN, at least, tell you how you can be a little less online while still getting clients and making money.

I’m going to tell you what it is, but first I want to say:

Showing up DOES feel a little weird right now. Selling DOES feel a little weird right now. “Business as usual” always feels so fucking strange when so many people just a few states away are living in turmoil.

Hell, not even states away. Neighborhoods away.

But what does staying silent do? Keeps money out of the hands of the people who might be able to make a change — or at least who will support people who the ‘other side’ won’t.

So, we’re trucking on.

Originally, I planned to write this week’s newsletter about the “forget I have a phone” trend.

I don’t know about you, but nothing makes me happier than forgetting I have a phone.

However, a girl’s still gotta stalk a TikTok recipe, so completely forgetting my phone often only happens when I’m at the beach with no service.

But, for the past several months, I’ve done my absolute best to completely ignore social media all weekend.

The Brick goes on, the phone stays in the kitchen, and I go about my glorious, whimsical life, trading technology for sudoku and perfecting my m&m cookies and playing Uno with my family.

If you’ve seen me post a Thread on a Sunday, just know that shit was scheduled in between sets at the gym five days prior.

So, when I saw all the girlies embracing the analog lifestyle, creating their “analog bags” (a concept developed by my absolute queen Siece Campbell), and talking about how they want to “forget they have a phone” I was SO INNNN IT’S NOT EVEN FUNNY.

I started thinking about how I completely ditch social media every weekend, and about how I never really post about my services on social ever, and how if my social media disappeared tomorrow, I’d be fine.

Andddd then I started thinking about the people who couldn’t say the same…

& realized there’s a clear reason WHY I’m able to forget I have a phone if I want to, even though I run a 100% online business:

My website does the work for me.

HOW, EXACTLY, YOUR WEBSITE WORKS FOR YOU

When your website is your 24/7 salesperson, these things are no longer your job ↓

• Answering questions about your services

• Searching for clients

• Convincing people to work with you

• Selling yourself all the time

• Navigating awkward money convos

• Justifying your pricing

• Explaining your unique process

• Building trust with your audience

• Screening out red flag clients

• Setting expectations

• Making a good first impression

• Constant back and forth about details

• Showcasing your expertise

• Showing off your work

• Explaining your availability

• Addressing common objections

…and I know you know I could go on!

When I talk about your website being THE 👏🏻 THING 👏🏻 you need as your foundation, I’m not just saying that because I’m a website copywriter and I’m hoping you’ll hire me.

I’m saying it because it’s TRUE.

Yes, people might find you on social media.

But people don’t want to BE on social media right now.

They can’t learn alllll the things they need to learn about you and your services from 3 little pinned posts.

They can be interested by your profile! They can be intrigued by your posts! Hell, they can even be convinced they like you enough to work with you from your social media…

But they can’t take ACTION from social media.

They take ACTION from your website.

& when your website isn’t set up for success, they can’t take that action.

…which is why a “just fine” website isn’t actually just fine at all.

A “JUST FINE” WEBSITE MEANS…

→ You get inquiries every once in a while, but sometimes you catch yourself wanting to just delete them because they’re not aligned — or, even worse, feeling like you have to settle for red flag clients because you’re unsure when your next lead will come in

→ You spend way too much time explaining your services in DMs or emails because your website doesn’t do the heavy lifting for you.

→ When someone says, “I found you through your website,” your first thought is, Ugh, please don’t judge me by that.

→ Potential clients ask questions that should be obvious from your site, but the information they need is either buried or missing altogether.

→ You feel like you’re constantly in “convincing mode,” trying to prove your worth instead of letting your website handle that for you.

→ You’re embarrassed to promote your website on social media because it feels outdated, misaligned, or just plain not “YOU.”

→ You’re stuck in a cycle of making small tweaks and hoping it’ll be good enough, but deep down, you know it’s not positioning you as the pro you are.

WHILE HAVING A GREAT WEBSITE MEANS… ALL of those things I listed above are no longer your responsibility, because your website’s got you!!!

Your website really IS your hardest-working salesperson — the one who never clocks out, and is always working like they’re 1 sale away from winning “employee of the month.”

You have the power to hire that 24/7 salesperson for your business. All you have to do is train them.

And I can help 😏 👇

LET'S WRITE YOUR SITE TOGETHER!

My Write Your Site workshop series is starting on February 23rd (just a few weeks from now!) and it’s a 4-week we’re-in-this-together style JOINT EFFORT to get your website live.

Over the course of 4 Monday morning sessions, I’m teaching you how to write your Home, About, Services, and sales page copy — AND I’m helping you actually write it.

The first half of our calls will be spent learning, and the second half will be spent co-writing, answering questions, and giving feedback on your drafts.

By the end of our 4 weeks together, you’ll have a ready-to-launch website you’re proud of.

I’m going to make SURE of it.

(Because every single attendee gets a website review from me! AND my self-paced copywriting course to accompany the live lessons! AND 60 days of Slack access for questions and feedback!)

All you have to do is show up and follow the roadmap I give you, and your website can FINALLY be your hardest working employee.

Acknowledgements

BROUGHT TO YOU BY CATRYCE SUTSON

Most founders say they want “more leads” — buuuut they can’t explain how many… or for what offer… or why.

In this free live webinar, Why “More Leads” Is Holding You Back, growth strategist Catryce Sutson breaks down why vague growth goals lead to unpredictable results, and what to focus on instead if you want steady momentum without being glued to your phone and laptop 24/7.

This short, practical training will take place live on February 11 at 10 a.m. PST, and it will be recorded with a replay available for those who can’t attend live.

Make sure you sign up if you’re ready to change how you think about growth!

SIGN UP FOR THE FREE TRAINING

& THAT'S ALL SHE WROTE!

If you’re new here, HI! I’m Sara Joelle & I’d love for you to stick around 🩵

Through sales-focused storytelling and the perfect combination of casual and convincing, I’ll make your ideal clients feel as comfortable with you as they do with the characters in their favorite novel — so you can book more dream projects, get more subscribers, make more money, and have more downtime to do what you want to do.

I’m a 31-year-old adult, and I’m throwing a full blown tantrum.

The only thing missing is an emphatic stomp of the foot.

Everything else is accounted for: the tears, the red, puffy eyes, the “why me?” attitude, the cursing, the rage, the eye rolls, the tears after the first tears were supposedly done falling…

And, of course, the key ingredient to every tantrum: all this drama for no fucking reason at all.

This morning, the tantrum was about snow.

Snow, of all things!

I live in Massachusetts! Obviously there’s gonna be snow! And this wasn’t even bad snow! It was fluffy, easy-to-shovel snow! No ice involved! It’s not even that cold out!

Yet here I am, crying in my balaclava, acting like a two-year-old who missed his nap and dropped his binky in the dirt.

As you may have guessed, though, it’s not really about the snow.

The snow was just the tiny thing that pushed me over the edge.

The real reason I’m throwing a tantrum is because I’m overstimulated and frantic and irritable.

And the real reason I’m overstimulated and frantic and irritable is because of all of my OPEN LOOPS.

The emails I have to respond to.

The feedback I have to give my students.

The edits I owe my client.

The podcast interviews I have to prep for.

Alllll of these things I have to do are looming over my head — on top of all the work I have to do for my own business, so that doesn’t get in the way of all the other work for the rest of the week — but, naturally, it’s a snow day.

So, a pivot is necessary.

None of the open loops are overwhelming to me on their own, so pushing one off by a day doesn’t feel too bad.

It’s gonna be fine if that email waits til tomorrow, or that newsletter doesn’t get done until the morning…

…but when all of those “I’ll just do it later, it’s no big deal” tasks all sit in your brain as OPEN LOOPS — aka tabs you can’t close — they’re still taking up your energy, even when they’re technically in the background.

Leaving all the lights on in your house might be fine with you, and you might not even notice them, but your electricity bill’s still gonna be higher.

Keeping 47 Chrome windows with 18 tabs each open on your laptop might not affect you because they’re all minimized, but your computer is running slower because of it.

When we don’t close our open loops, they keep running anyway, using up our energy, and decreasing our overall capacity — whether we notice it in the moment or not.

And then, before you know it, you’re a 31-year-old woman throwing a tantrum because your snow brush is 4 inches too short to reach the top of your car.

Consider this your sign to close your open loops — and to be honest with yourself about how much you’re pushing back, and WHY, because…

I’m willing to bet getting it done is actually the easiest part.

If I had to guess, you’re letting 🐿️ perfectionism 🐿️ get in your way.

And I hate to be so fucking loud in your inbox on a Tuesday morning, but perfectionism is actually just AVOIDANCE.

Perfectionism is also the enemy of DONE.

Any chance you’re feeling called out right now? 👀

WRITING YOUR WEBSITE ACTUALLY DOESN'T HAVE TO BE SO DAMN HARD. HERE'S HOW TO DO IT!

I have it on good authority that a LOT of you are keeping your “update my website” tab or your “write my website” tab or your “launch my website” tab WIIIIIDE FREAKING OPEN.

You’re pushing it from today’s to-do list to tomorrow’s to-do list.

…aaaand you’ve been doing that since 2022.

…aaaand you’re gonna keep doing that until 2029, if nothing changes.

…aaaand you’re gonna start losing business to your competitors because of it.

Because their website is great.

It answers all of their readers’ questions, it reflects who they are as a person (now! right now! here in the year of 2026!), it has updated pricing, it confidently speaks to how they’d solve their ideal clients’ problems, it has current social proof, it doesn’t come with a disclaimer…

But you already knew all that.

This isn’t news to you.

You know damn well how much you need to update your website.

You just keep putting it off anyway, because the task is overwhelming to you.

I get that! I absolutely do.

Even as a pro website copywriter, sometimes the blank Google doc feels daunting to me.

…but I don’t let that stop me from writing, because I HAVE A PLAN.

& I will happily share that plan with you:

📚 You can read the plan right here.

🎧 You can listen to the plan right here.

OR WE CAN EXECUTE THE PLAN TOGETHER!

(TW: Yelling.)

IF YOU NEED A LITTLE PUSH IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION + SOME SUPPORT TO FINALLY GET THE BEST VERSION OF YOUR WEBSITE OUT INTO THE WORLD…

Don’t make plans for February 23 at 9:30am EST.

Or March 2nd, or March 9th, or March 16th, either.

We’ll be busy writing your website, together.

That is… you’ll consent to WRITING YOUR SITE WITH ME?! 😏

The Write Your Site workshop series is a 4-week we’re-in-this-together style JOINT EFFORT to get your website live.

Over the course of 4 Monday morning sessions, I’m teaching you how to write your Home, About, Services, and sales page copy — AND I’m helping you actually write it.

The first half of our calls will be spent learning, and the second half will be spent co-writing, answering questions, and giving feedback on your drafts.

By the end of our 4 weeks together, you’ll have a ready-to-launch website you’re proud of.

I’m going to make SURE of it.

(Because every single attendee gets a website review from me! AND my self-paced copywriting course to accompany the live lessons! AND 60 days of Slack access for questions and feedback!)

All you have to do is show up and follow the roadmap I give you.

We’ll get it done, TOGETHER.

WRITE YOUR SITE WITH ME 🩵

Acknowledgements

ADVERTISING SPOTS ARE FILLING UP — YOU WANT IN?!

Starting next week, the ad spots are filling up here in the Tuesday Table of Contents! February is completely full, but there are still a few spaces available for March and April.

If you’re interested in advertising in this newsletter, it’s very simple: all you have to do is purchase your slot (for $150), choose your top 3 dates you want me to run your ad, and tell me what to promote.

My subscribers lovvvve to learn — duh, you know this, you're literally here learning right now — which means I have a wicked awesome audience to advertise to! Your ideal client is probably sitting right here with ya on this lovely Tuesday morning, scrolling their inbox on the toilet, too.

SPONSOR THIS NEWSLETTER!

THAT’S ALL SHE WROTE

If you’re new here, HI! I’m Sara Joelle & I’d love for you to stick around 🩵

Through sales-focused storytelling and the perfect combination of casual and convincing, I’ll make your ideal clients feel as comfortable with you as they do with the characters in their favorite novel — so you can book more dream projects, get more subscribers, make more money, and have more downtime to do what you want to do.

Every Wednesday night is game night in the Character household, and this week, we played Cards Against Humanity.

(No, not the wicked inappropriate one. We did use the family pack. We may be comfortable living on the edge of questionable parenting decisions, but we’re not animals.)

If you’ve never played, here’s the gist:

There’s a black card with a sentence or a fill-in-the-blank prompt.

One person plays the black card, and reads the prompt.

Everyone else plays a white card — you’re given a hand of 10 of them, each with a random subject, noun, or sentence fragment — that they think is the funniest possible answer.

The “Card Czar” picks the winning card.

Simple. Wholesome, even!

…and unexpectedly brutal, in my case.

I was the first Card Czar of the game, with a black card that read “I never understood ____ until I did it myself.”

The boys suggested some funny options — like “unintentional anal leakage” and “stealing bodies from the morgue” — and I selected the best one from the options they gave me, awarding the winner with the black card to add to their pile. The player with the most black cards at the end wins.

(In that particular case, I suppose there was no “best” but… I tried.)

Then, it was Wesley’s turn to be Card Czar.

I pulled out my best card, and expect victory.

Woo looked at it for a moment.

No reaction.

He looked at Side Character’s card.

Loses his mind laughing.

🙄

Round after round, I kept losing. Not because my cards aren’t funny — but because I’m playing to my sense of humor, not his.

Apparently Side Character caught on well before I did, considering he spent most of the game stacking up his pile of black cards he’d collected from his riveting suggestions of things like “poop in the sky” and “my brother’s booty crack” and “drinking bathtub water.”

I should have known.

Obviously, a six-year-old isn’t focused on what’s the funniest card in relation to the prompt; he only cares about toilet humor.

So, the next time he was the Card Czar, I switched my strategy, and chose the most butt-focused card I had.

Of course, he picked mine that time.

It didn’t matter how funny my cards were, or how well they fit with the prompt, or how my card would’ve had my friends #roflcopter, because he was the audience.

All I had to do was make sure Woo thought of the card. What *I* thought didn’t matter at all.

Once I changed my strategy, he started picking way more of my selections.

(Not enough to beat Side Character, though, unfortunately. Woo had already appointed him Favorite Parental Figure Of The Day well before game night even started, so the bias was baked in.)

(But still. Progress!)

Although I was a little salty that Woo didn’t pick as many of my cards as I thought he should have, I was okay with not winning the Game Night trophy, because it gave me the idea to tell you this… 😏👇🏻

FOCUS ON WHAT YOUR READERS NEED TO HEAR, NOT ON WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY.

The exact same thing happens when you write to sell.

Most people write like they’re playing the clever card.

They write what they want to say.

What sounds smart! What feels impressive! What showcases their industry-specific expertise!

Andddd then they wonder why their audience doesn’t pick their card.

While of course you want your readers to think you’re a smart, impressive expert — you first want them to feel confident that they’re in the right place, reading the right website, written by the right person who might be able to help them.

The goal isn’t to write what you want to say all the time; it’s to write what they need to hear in order to trust you (and feel confident investing in you).

The card that wins isn’t the smartest one in the deck. It’s the one the Card Czar is going to pick.

So, when you sit down to write your website copy (or even a caption, an email, a guest bio, a sales page, whatever!), ask yourself…

Am I playing the clever card for the sake of my ego? Or am I playing the card my reader is actually going to choose?

Because one makes you feel witty, but the other makes you MONEY.

One of the biggest mistakes business owners make when DIY-ing their own website copy is not considering what their target audience *actually* needs to know in order to feel confident in making the investment.

Your website isn’t a billboard, it’s a conversation.

(Hint: that involves listening to them and their unique desires / frustrations. Not just talking AT them, telling them whatever you want to showcase, instead of what they actually need - and want - to hear.)

While I’d love to tell you all about my degrees in political science, sociology, and criminal justice, and my minors in philosophy and paralegal studies, because I think it makes me sound smart and impressive… that has nothing to do with why I’m the best website copywriter for you.

There’s a fine line between sharing something about yourself to benefit your reader or relate to your reader, and simply sharing it because you want to or feel like you have to.

& if you feel like you’re not sure how good of a job your site is doing at saying what your readers want to hear, might I suggest getting some support?

Next month, I’m hosting a 4-week DONE WITH YOU website copywriting workshop series, where we’ll spend every Monday morning together learning about website copy and then actually writing it TOGETHER!

WRITE YOUR SITE WITH ME

Each call is 90 minutes long; the first 50 are for a live website copywriting lesson about a specific page, and the final 40 are for us to actually WRITE that page of your website copy right there on the call! You’ll be able to ask me (and the rest of the group) for feedback, and I’ll help you workshop it live.

You also get 60 days of Slack access AND my entire Site Series® Sprint self-paced website copywriting course when you join the program!

BY THE END OF WRITE YOUR SITE, YOU WILL HAVE:

• A strategic Home page

• A personality-packed About page

• A Services page that converts

• A sales page that SELLS OUT your thing!

& it will all feel EASY, because you have allll my support AND all my edits!

If you’re positive you want to join now — hell yeah, amazing choice — you can click this link and join the lovelyyy biz owners who have already signed up, for only 2 payments of $744.

If you’re not sure / need more time to think about it, that’s fine, too! You can join the waitlist right here. But I will tell you: the discount expires January 31st.

There are 15 spots left for the Write Your Site workshop series this round, and I won’t be teaching it again til mid September, soooo… if “update my website copy” has been shifted from to-do list to to-do list year after year…

I think it’s time you write your site, finally — with me this time 😏

THAT'S ALL SHE WROTE

If you're new here, HI! I'm Sara Joelle & I'd love for you to stick around 🩵

Through sales-focused storytelling and the perfect combination of casual and convincing, I’ll make your ideal clients feel as comfortable with you as they do with the characters in their favorite novel — so you can book more dream projects, get more subscribers, make more money, and have more downtime to do what you want to do.

I shouldn’t complain, because I did this to myself (alongside the algorithm gods) — but my entire feed was bullying me within 0.01 seconds of logging on.

Okay, maybe bullying is a strong word.

My feed was moreso… “inspiring” me, but in a way that made me feel like a piece of shit.

Maybe it was my mistake to log onto socials before checking back in on my email, or on Slack with my students, or in my Thrivecart account — somewhere safe, where I know who the fuck I am — but shit that Instagram algo had me feeling like I was supposed to post 5x on my feed, upload 14 story frames, engage with 20 accounts, post 467 trial reels, gain 10,000 new followers, repurpose every post into an email and a Thread and a TikTok, and create a course about it to sell and then get nominated to the Forbes 30 under 30 for it all by noon on January 1st.

Can a girl just have a peaceful scroll?!

If you’ve ever experienced this, I empathize with you.

I’m not typically much of a scroller — my style is more post and ghost, which isn’t great, either — so I don’t really spend much time looking through what’s actually showing up on my feed.

Spending too much time there started to make me feel inferior for a sec.

Especially when the algo started feeding me people that are doing what *I* want to be doing. Because, shit, they’re doing a damn good job.

I scrolled past this girl with hundreds of thousands of followers. She posts content about life with ADHD.

As you may know, one thing I’m working on this year is writing a book about life with ADHD.

And as you also may know, you need a massive following (or serious proof that people care about what you have to say + that you have people to sell to) for a publisher to even think about taking you seriously.

So, when I saw her account, I felt like a flop for a sec.

Ugh, I should be posting stuff like that.

What’s the point of sharing my ideas if other people already have it covered?

Should I just write that fiction book instead of this one?

Do I even have it in me to grow my following enough to get a publishing deal at all?

After about 70 seconds of rapid-fire self-pity, I realized what I needed to do:

I’m in charge of the narrative that becomes my reality.

If I continue to sit here with my womp-womp attitude, complaining about someone else being more successful than me, what’s going to happen?

She’s going to go about her successful life, and I’m going to create a miserable one for myself.

When my narrative is “who even cares?” THAT is what becomes my reality.

But when I CHANGE the narrative and remind myself why people care and what they care about, everything shifts.

“Ugh, I should be posting stuff like that” turns into let me write down my ideas about all the ADHD tips I have to share & make a plan to start posting them!

“What’s the point of sharing my ideas if other people already have it covered?” turns into I’m excited about my “for entrepreneurs” angle, because I haven’t seen any ADHD creators talk about this & that’s what my entire book is about.

“Should I just write that fiction book instead of this one?” turns into let me attempt this nonfiction book first — people keep asking for my recs for ADHD books specifically for business owners, and I don’t have a good one to share, so I’m gonna write it!

“Do I even have it in me to grow my following enough to get a publishing deal at all?” turns into you don’t know if you don’t try.

It only takes 70 seconds of spiraling to make a meaningful change, in one direction or another.

Am I going to spiral over some random tiny square I saw on Instagram, whose life story I don’t know anything about?

Or am I going to get a fucking grip and be who *I* am, now that I’ve remembered what makes me unique and worth listening to?

Of course, I’m choosing the second option every single time — and while it does have a bit to do with confidence, it has more to do with trust.

I trust that people will want to hear what I have to say, because the people that follow me and read my newsletters and listen to my podcast CHOSE to be in my orbit.

They hit subscribe on purpose.

It doesn’t matter how many people they follow or newsletters they read or podcasts they listen to; they chose to receive my content.

& even if they follow a zillion other people who do what I do, no one is saying what I can say, because no one has my lived experiences or my voice.

If I were to give up on writing my book about ADHD just because other people have written books about it, no one would get to read about actionable tips for neurodivergent business owners dealing with very niche situations.

Plus, just because someone said it already doesn’t mean whatever YOU want to say isn’t worth speaking on anymore.

That’s like saying “oh, I read a hockey smut book already, I don’t think I’ll read another” even though your favorite genre is romance, and your favorite type of book is about gay hockey players boning.

People LIKE having more of the things they like! We are natural collectors!

Hello?? Haven’t you seen all the New Years posts on Threads like “which podcasts should I listen to this year? I’m looking for new ones!” and “who should I follow to learn about email marketing? I want to learn more!”

🐿️ THE PEOPLE WANT THE CONTENT. LOTS OF IT! THEIR NEED FOR NEW CONTENT IS INSATIABLE! HAVE YOU SEEN OUR ATTENTION SPANS LATELY??? OR LACK THEREOF???

You read in last week’s newsletter that my love for collage journaling has been reignited, now that I have a sexy new Louise Carmen journal.

So, naturally, a lot of journaling videos are coming up on my For You Page.

Do you think I’ve chosen ONE account to follow?

No! I’m following them all! I want to see ALL of their journals!

Every single account could be posting their “2026 ins and outs” spread, and I’d want to see every single one — because they all have a different perspective.

I don’t care that “someone has done it before” because no two people are doing it the exact same.

(Unless one of y’all is a copycat… and if you’ve been around long enough to see my website copy get copy-pasted and verbatim-stolen multiple times… you know how I feel about those.)

Point of the story: YOU have something worth saying, even if.

Even if someone else has spoken about it before.

Even if you’re not 100% confident in your expertise yet.

Even if you don’t have the “perfect” words for it.

Even if you’re a beginner.

Even if you’ve said it 100 times.

Because, in 2026, you’re not letting your internal monologue be your biggest hater.

Table Of Contents

Permission to write about what you actually want to about!

How to have a balanced, burnout-free year

Get my best-selling newsletter planning method for $0

How to advertise in this newsletter

What to expect from me in 2026

A re-introduction for the new faces!

One Marketing Tip, Once A Week

WRITE WHAT YOU’RE EXCITED ABOUT

(No matter what!)

It gets to be that simple, if you want it to be!

If I had one blueberry chai latte for every time someone complained to me about not knowing what to write — in their newsletter, in their social content, on their About page, on Threads, in their website copy, in their blogs — I’d be forced to turn Bean Water Cafe into an actual coffee shop and start giving those chais away for free.

EVERYONE HAS WRITER’S BLOCK. ALL THE DAMN TIME.

And despite what they may think, it’s not actually because they “don’t know what to say.”

It’s because they’re…

• Waiting for permission to be themselves

• Nervous people won’t like what they have to say

• Self-conscious that their ideas are boring

• Not confident enough, or they feel like they’re not an “expert” yet, so they “can’t” speak on a certain topic

• Uncomfortable saying what they want to say

& to that I say…

WHY IS YOUR INTERNAL MONOLOGUE YOUR BIGGEST HATER?

No one else is telling you these things. You are the one perpetuating that narrative.

In fact, your followers and subscribers and readers and viewers would probably LOVE to hear what you want to say, as opposed to that “viral content hook” you saved or one of the 100 “hacks” that the random social media guru on your FYP told you to use.

There’s nothing wrong with those hooks or hacks, but 9 times out of 10, they’re not what you want to say, and people can tell.

Think about the last time you posted something vulnerable, or something that excited you, or something you were proud of, or something you were happy about, or something you were struggling with…

I bet you got a lot of engagement, didn’t you?!

YA PROBABLY! Because people saw the REAL YOU! And they LIKED IT!

My most-responded-to newsletters haven’t been the “hooks or hacks” — they’ve been the real life things.

Things like not knowing wtf to make for dinner and meeting my Side Character.

My readers would rather read my HONEST thoughts than my perfect, polished ones.

So, even though you don’t need it — consider this your permission to tell your inner monologue to STFU & start writing the things you WANT to write.

…because it’s also what people want to read!

When I created my newsletter content subscription, I didn’t want it to be just another bank of ideas, or boring list of prompts, or a list of a zillion hooks to use that ends up getting lost in your Notion or overwhelming you.

Every month, I send FIVE topics — one for each week — and I give you a few examples to help you make the content your own.

Instead of the resource being just another random hack, it’s a starting point to help you write what YOU want to write about.

(It gives you the support you need to write it in an engaging way, with a built-in “how to write this” guide for each topic and pre-written subject lines for you!)

When you try to force yourself into the weird girlboss bubble of sameness we’ve been conditioned to create and react to, you lose your steam eventually.

But when you write what YOU want to write, you’re excited to market your business, and other people are excited to engage with it!

SUBSCRIBE TO SWIPE FILE

Right now, you can join Swipe File for $300 for the ENTIRE YEAR - which gives you two months free! Here's the link 🎂

Bookmarked by BTL

Every year, I write a year-in-review style blog (The Epilogue) and a plans-and-predictions style blog (The Prologue) — and it has become such a lovely way to both reflect on the previous year and plan for the upcoming year. I liked the Epilogue for you above, and you'll be able to scroll through to the Prologue once you're done. I hope you like them!

Updating my portfolio is… not my strong suit. I don't know why, but it gets pushed to the back of the back burner tasks list every single month & before I know it, YEARS go by without me sharing some of the projects I'm most proud of. It's still not fully up to date — but one of my goals this year is to add more of my beautifully sexy, massive website copy projects for you to stalk!

Point of the Story

HOW TO HAVE A BALANCED, BURNOUT-FREE YEAR

Call it being chronically online, call it chaos, call it ADHD – if it’s not on the Google Calendar, it doesn’t exist. Like not only will I not be attending… I will not be remembering this event is even a thing if it doesn’t have a designated spot in one of my color-coded gcal blocks.

In this podcast episode, I’m recommending 7 themed days you can add to your calendar so you can finallyyyy get your life together in 2026 AND I’m also sharing my exact weekly schedule that keeps me from squirreling all over town.

🎧 LISTEN TO THE EPISODE 🎧

Acknowledgements

THIS TOC WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY

ENERGY SAVERS — THE FREE AUDIO SUMMIT!

My friend Michelle Pontvert has brought together 25 amazing entrepreneurs to share our behind-the-scenes stories about how we’re saving energy in our business in this limited-time private podcast event!

I’ll be sharing about how to plan 52 newsletters in MINUTES — aka the premise behind my best-selling Newsletter Strategy workshop 😏

We start on Monday, January 26th and once you sign up you’ll get instant access to the private podcast feed where our episodes will drip daily throughout the event. You’ll also get invited to join our summit Slack group to connect with speakers and attendees and work through these energy saving strategies together!

Plus, you’ll keep access to all episodes for 1 whole month - for free!

If I were you, I’d sign up just to learn the newsletter planning strategy alone… I’ve taught it too hundreds of people so far + always get feedback saying it’s the easiest method ever.

SIGN UP FOR ENERGY SAVERS FOR $0!

& NEXT WEEK'S NEWSLETTER IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY…

You, maybe?!

If you’d like to advertise in the Tuesday Table of Contents newsletter, I’d love to have you! All you have to do is sign up & pay via this link, fill out a quick form telling me what you want to share and when, and you’re golden!

Author’s Note

WHAT I’M WORKING ON IN 2026

I’m feeling so great about 2026 & I cannot wait to see what’s in store for me. I feel such a peace about this year — something I’ve never felt going into a new year before.

I’ve felt hopeful, sure. Excited, even! But true PEACE? No. I’ve been to burnt out or squirrelly or sad or distracted for that.

Now, though… this is MYYYY fucking YEAR.

I thought it would be fun to share what I’m working on, and I’d love to know what YOU are focused on this year, too! If you made it all the way to the bottom of this newsletter, hit “reply” and tell me — there’s nothing that makes me happier than a newsletter response!

🩵 Writing my book! I’m working on a nonfiction book about how to manage ADHD as a business owner, so you can stop squirreling all over town and start getting shit done.

🩵 Growing my community! I haven’t focused much on newsletter growth in a while because I’ve been content with the size of my audience — and, admittedly, I was focused on lots of other things — but I really love writing this weekly email (and my copywriter-only email, Open Loop) and I want my content to reach new people.

I also reallllyyyy care about growing my Substack this year, because it’s where all of my ADHD-focused content goes! I’ll likely start posting some of it on TikTok, too.

🩵 Embracing my Podcaster identity! Point of the Story is one of my most favorite things I get to do - but I often treat it like an “other” instead of a main event. This year, I want to improve my systems, get more awesome guests on the show, and see more conversions from it! I also have a goal of being on 31 podcasts this year.

🩵 Increase subscribership for Swipe File! Everyone who signs up for my newsletter content subscription LOVES IT and I want more people to experience how great it is! Like… it legit solves your newsletter writer’s block *and* helps you become a better writer. It’s a no-brainer.

& of course, there are plentyyy more things I’m working on — but you’ll have to go stalk The 2026 Prologue to find out what else is on my list!

xo,

—S

THAT’S ALL SHE WROTE!

GET TO KNOW ME 🐿️👀💻🌊📚🩵

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING!

But, unfortunately, I couldn’t possibly get it done.

And for that, we have Louise to blame.

See, Louise has completely taken over my life.

Rightfully so, considering how long I’ve been dreaming about her.

Before she got here, she consumed my thoughts for months.

I’d known girls like her before. I spent years of my life getting to know girls like her. But no one truly compared to Louise, so I kept on dreaming.

…until Christmas morning, when — to my complete surprise! — she appeared under the tree, with a small tag that said To Sara, From Josh.

I picked her up, having no idea she was inside, and initially assumed she was a sweater, or a workout set. Something cloth, maybe. It was hard to guess, because it wasn’t in a box. It was soft, and sort of oval shaped. What could be in here?

When I saw it was Louise, I squealed. Screeched, actually. I think the entire neighborhood heard me.

The love of my life bought me the love of my life!

I had no idea boyfriends were even allowed to know about Louise.

(Maybe mine would have thought twice about purchasing her for me if he knew how much time I’d be spending with her… but thank God he did, because I’m ridiculously passionate about our time together.)

Since Christmas morning, Louise and I have spent countless hours getting to know one another, and I’ve fallen more in love with her than I ever thought possible.

So, no, I couldn’t write you this morning’s newsletter.

I couldn’t finish my annual Epilogue year-in-review blog post in time to share it with you.

I couldn’t log onto social media.

I couldn’t send sales emails about my Write Your Site workshops, or my new Success Story early enrollment.

I was busy cutting and gluing and pasting and writing in my blue leather Louise Carmen journal engraved with my name on it, because I have the best boyfriend on the planet and a decades-long addiction to collage journaling.

And you know what?

Despite (maybe even in spite of?) all the blatantly ignored responsibilities, I don’t regret it for a second.

Let me tell you why…

Even when I'm as offline as offline gets, my business is still very much online, putting in the work for me.

It’s the most Website Girl line ever:

My business works for me even when I’m not working, because my website is set up like my own personal 24/7 employee.

She’s putting in the WORKKK (while I’m working on my collage journal, and playing Clue with my family, and participating in a reading-and-rotting marathon on the couch).

I got TWO perfectly aligned inquiries while I was out of office.

I made several sales from my shop.

Many people joined my email list.

And that all happened without me saying a PEEP!

I didn’t have any scheduled emails or posts go out. I didn’t publish anything new. My podcast went live but that episode had nothing to do with business at all.

IT WAS ALLLLL THANKS TO MY WEBSITE BABY.

…because my website answers every single question my readers could possibly have, like:

• Which services do you offer?

• What kind of copy do you specialize in?

• How much do your services cost?

• Do you have any DIY options?

• Can I have a custom package?

• When can I work with you?

• Do you offer payment plans?

• What kinds of other people have you worked with?

• Exactly what happens when I decide to work with you?

• Can you walk me through a project start to finish?

• What’s your copywriting style?

• What do your clients say about working with you?

• Can I see some of your work?

• Do I have to hire someone else to do the design stuff or do you do that?

• What if I can’t afford to hire you right now? Do you have other products I can check out? Free resources, maybe?

…and more, I’m sure. Definitely more. I’m probably forgetting some. But I can assure you my website is not, because she’s optimized for conversion!

(That’s Marketing Speak for my website encourages people to inquire and hire, rendering discovery calls a formality, just so people can verify I’m the same person in real life that I am online.)

(Which, of course, they can tell immediately, because my website sounds exactly like me.)

And if you’re reading this like “sick, easy for Website Girl to say, of course HER website is bomb, it’s her JOB… and she said it’s 70+ pages… like ok I can’t do that” IMMA STOP U RIGHT THERE.

Because YOUR website can absolutely be YOUR 24/7 salesperson, too. It has nothing to do with me being a website copywriter, and everything to do with me knowing what to say + where to put it.

And that, dear reader, is a wicked easy skill to learn.

It’s even easier when you have my help, in the form of a very specific, idiot proof step-by-step “do this, then this, then this” guide.

My website copywriting course — the easiest possible way to write your own website — is coming back next month, and this time around, I’m teaching the best parts of it LIVE in addition to sharing the entire self-paced course with you.

For everyone who joins the VIP version of the course (which you can do right here by securing your ticket to the Write Your Site workshops, starting in February!) you will *also* get 60 days of Slack, and a guaranteed website copy edit done by me (up to 7 pages, if you submit on time).

By the end of the live workshops, you will have…

• A strategic Home page

• A personality-packed About page

• A Services page that converts

• A sales page that SELLS OUT your thing!

& like I said, it will all feel EASY, because you have allll my support AND all my edits — in addition to the self-paced website copy course!

We’ll meet every Monday morning for 4 weeks, spending 90 minutes together learning about Home, About, Services, and sales pages for half the meeting, then spending the second half working on writing them + getting feedback / asking questions.

I taught Write Your Site back in October & I LOVED it (and so did all the students) because it was the perfect pace and it was so nice to build momentum with the support of copy edits from me.

When you join Site Series® VIP nowwww and get your ticket to the Write Your Site workshops for $300 off, you’ll get immediate access Site Series® Sprint!

GET YOUR VIP TICKET RIGHT HERE

Bookmarked by BTL

Happy Birthday!

No, that’s not a typo — I do mean happy birthday, not happy new year.

Well, I suppose they’re one and the same, actually, if you’re me.

I’m an insufferable New Years Eve baby, and I resent the attention being taken away from me.

So, fuck the new year for a sec — I’d rather discuss birthdays!

I know I’m technically the one who should be receiving presents this week (I’ll be 31 tomorrow! eep!) but you know I’m a slut for a Sara Claus moment, so I got YOU something instead.

From now until January 1, you can use code “GOLDENYEAR” for 31% off of anything in my shop!

This will be the last sale for the foreseeable future — so I recommend stocking up & using this as an excuse to get that taxable income down ;)

Happy birthday to YOU, baby.

USE CODE “GOLDENYEAR” FOR 31% OFF!

Okay, now I can wish you a…

Happy New Year!

Love, Sara Joelle

Dear friends, family, clients, loyal subscribers, and silent stalkers,

Season’s greetings from the Lines household! What a magical year it’s been — filled with major milestones, questionable decisions, and more squirreling than ever before.

Let’s begin, as all Christmas letters should, with Mommy: Main Character and Impressive Woman Keeping This Entire Family and Business Afloat.

After all, she’s the CEO of this chaos and the one spearheading this whole brag-fueled holiday recap, so it feels only right.

Mommy had a very eventful year between the lines of website copywriting, teaching, launching, writing Substacks, interviewing experts, networking, mentoring, guest podcasting, selling online, sending 100+ sales emails, and starting 2 new newsletters…

And she somehow still had time to take 6 weeks off for a beautiful Cape Cod summer, fall in love, get 5 new tattoos, host lots of Bean Water Cafe coffee dates, buy a bike, cheer on her friends at the Boston Marathon, speak at conferences, make countless new friends, acquire a pitbull, and travel to LA, Arizona (twice!), and even Paris, on a whim.

But enough about Mommy… her life is perfect and she doesn’t want to make you jealous!

Even though she’s pretty sure that’s the entire point of these Christmas letters! Considering they’re typically only sent by the most annoying cousins and neighbors you know! And why are they always going to Hawaii?

Anyway, in other news — the Lines family grew exponentially this year, by exactly 5 feet and 6 inches, 70 website pages, 46 podcast episodes, 6 workshops, and 3,000 followers.

SIDE CHARACTER MOVED IN

The Characters now cohabitate like real, mature adults, and it’s shaping up to be the best thing that has ever happened to the Lines household.

Being with our favorite person every day? Help wrangling the extra squirrely child? Having someone to kill the bugs and take the trash out? Falling asleep next to the love of her life every night? Mommy couldn’t imagine anything better.

→ Click here to read the most-replied-to newsletter about the Character love story

BTL LAUNCHED A MONSTROSITY OF A WEBSITE

Truly. That absolute beast was a digital manuscript. A novella. A doctoral dissertation disguised as a Showit site.

A choose-your-own-adventure for anyone who has ever thought “what would a website be like if it felt like a beach read had a baby with a fever dream authored by a mama squirrel?”

→ Stalk it right here!

“WRITE YOUR SITE” BECAME A WEBSITE COPYWRITING SENSATION

When Mommy had a conversation with her friend Chelsea about how hard actually sitting down and DOING your website copy is when you have no accountability, she decided to launch Write Your Site: a live 4-week website copywriting workshop series, where she taught students how to write their Home, About, Services, and sales pages for their site.

Each weekly lesson was half teaching, half co-writing and coaching, and it came with a Slack group for questions and regular feedback.

Mommy is so excited to teach the program again in February — and this time, it comes with the entire Site Series® Sprint course, 60 days of Slack support, and a guaranteed website copy audit.

→ Sign up here - spots are extremely limited!

THE POINT OF THE STORY PODCAST HIT THE AIRWAYS

The most ADHD-friendly business-and-lifestyle podcast officially launched in January of this year, and has since become a Top 10% Global Podcast! HELLO??? A worldwide sensation, in just 11 months?!!! We’re so proud of her.

She’s truly the perfect addition to the Lines household, second only to Side Character.

→ Listen to the podcast!

A NEW BEST-SELLING OFFER WAS ADDED TO THE MIX

Swipe File, the Lines family’s newest baby, has been a smashing success, and we could not be more proud. A weekly newsletter content subscription for business owners who want to deepen their connections with their readers by sharing personal stories that ACTUALLY SELL and AREN’T BORING.

With Swipe File, subscribers will never have to worry about which personal anecdotes to share in their content again (or whether or not they suck...) — they just choose from the newsletter topics Mommy developed for you, take a few minutes to add their own personal narrative, and schedule their content for the month.

→ Subscribe for only $31/mo!

A RIDICULOUS NUMBER OF LIVE WORKSHOPS WERE TAUGHT

Mommy taught an impressive amount of live workshops this year — on top of writing websites for clients, teaching several rounds of my group mentorship program, and taking six weeks off — including the infamous Newsletter Strategy Workshop… aka the one I accidentally gave myself only TEN DAYS to sell.

And because the universe loves drama, it became the most attended, most beloved, most “omg this was the best thing I’ve ever learned” workshop Mommy’s ever taught.

(We are considering the unexpected massive workshop registration a testament to Mommy’s genius, not an endorsement of her compulsive spontaneous manic-episode-launches.)

→ Get ALL of the workshops in this bundle!

& speaking of academic achievements…

Woo continues to thrive in first grade: reading, writing, and reminding Mommy nightly that I can no longer skip pages in bedtime books because “actually, Mommy, this page has dialogue.”

(The Lines household has not one but two gifted-and-talented neurodivergent queens: one is six years old and reads at a fifth grade level, and the other is one week away from turning thirty-one and reads, writes, types, and talks at 2x speed.)

IN OTHER LINES FAMILY NEWS:

Mommy continued raising dozens of copywriters through her group mentorship program, Success Story, and most of them have chosen not to fly the nest just yet (which is why, in 2026, she’s re-launching the program as a year-long copywriter mastermind — you can get 2 months’ support FREE when you sign up now!).

Side Character started running Meta Ads for BTL, which have brought in tons of Swipe File sales! He has 3 available spaces to manage other creatives’ ads, too — with Mommy writing the ad copy — and the Lines family is wicked excited about this new offer. (Hit “reply” to this email for details!)

Woo has the most impressive news of all, though: he has filled his star jar, just in time to go to Build-a-Bear workshop over Christmas break.

As we wrap up this year like the overstuffed, crinkled, tape-everywhere gift we insist is “rustic,” the Lines family wants to offer a fat, juicy THANK YOU.

Thank you for reading every email, listening to every podcast episode, coming to every workshop, supporting the chaos, replying to every IG story, commenting on every Thread, and giving Mommy a wildly fun and mildly ridiculous reason to write this over-the-top Christmas letter.

Here’s to a bigger, brighter, maybe-more-organized but-let’s-be-honest-probably-not 2026.

With love, gratitude, and a festively delusional amount of joy,

Sara, Woo, Side Character, and the entire Lines family

Bookmarked by BTL

Point of The Story

Did you know that every single episode of the Point of the Story podcast comes with a written version, so you can read instead of listen?

I am not an audio processor AT all, so when I’m listening to podcasts with lots of great information, it takes me hoursss because I have to pause + take notes if I want to retain anything.

So, when I launched my podcast, it was important to me to create a resource for my fellow in-one-ear-out-the-others!

Here are a few recent episodes, in the written form ↓

🐿️ How to pivot your business without burning it to the ground

🐿️ How to name literally anything, even if you’re overthinking

🐿️ Actually understanding your menstrual cycle

🐿️ Should you display pricing on your website or not?

🐿️ How to expand your capacity so you can hold more

🐿️ Client experience for squirrel brains

🐿️ How to remember to actually eat lunch: squirrel’s guide to feeding yourself

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

I hope you and yours have a lovely holiday season 🩵 The Character household will be spending time with family, friends, and loved ones, eating lots of cinnamon rolls, cookies, and chocolate oranges, opening zillions of presents because, as we know, Sara Claus can’t help herself.

Love you bye!

xo,

—S

(and W, J, and J)

P.S. The code “GOLDENYEAR” will get you 31% off of everything HERE through my 31st birthday, December 31st.

You read my website, thought I was funny, and decided I was the website girl for the job. Excellent choice!

Maybe you’ve been stalking all of my favorite portfolio pieces. Or reading (and rereading!) every blog post I’ve ever written. Or maybe you’ve even downloaded ALL of my freebies, but still feel like you need some more support.

Or maybe you literally just found me today when you Googled “website copywriter” and thought eh, good enough.

Either way, you’re ready to make your website copy project a reality, and I’m ready to make it happen.

Here’s exactly what happens when you decide to work with me ↓

Step #1 — You inquire via the Contact form on my site

This is where our love story begins!

You’ll fill out my inquiry form and tell me all about your business, your goals, and what you’re hoping to create together.

The purpose of the form is to not only tell me the logistics of your project, but give me a first look at your vibe, your voice, and whether we’ll be a good fit.

(And if you care enough to read this post, we probably will be.)

Side note: If you want to make sure your own inquiry form is working as hard as it SHOULD be, check out this blog post where I spill alllll the secrets about writing one that converts.

Step #2 — You land on my “thanks for Inquiring!” page

The moment you hit submit, you’re redirected to a “thank you” page, confirming that YESSSS I just got your inquiry!

On that page, you’ll get a quick rundown of what happens next and a reminder that I’ll be sliding into your inbox soon with all the details.

While you wait (if I didn’t IMMEDIATELY respond… which is highly unlikely, considering the only message I love receiving more than a “new lead!” email from Dubsado is the “I’m on my way home” text from Side Character), you can explore my favorite projects in my portfolio and start dreaming about how amazing YOUR new site or sales page will be.

Step #3 — You get THE email

Your inbox dings. It’s me.

I’m already smiling like a lil freak because I’m cooking up the perfect strategy for your copy already and I just KNOW from your inquiry form that we’re about to vibe.

Inside that initial email, you’ll find an invite to book a discovery call, alongside information about my starting rates and my availability. I do not PLAYYY about wasting your time (or mine) so I’m extremely upfront about pricing and capacity.

Once you decide that my pricing and timeline works for you, you’ll go ahead and click the link to schedule your call, choose the time that works best for you, and expect a calendar invite from me!

Step #4 — You choose a time that works for you to schedule a quick 30-minute chat with me

If you can’t find something on my calendar, I’ll open something up for you. Discovery calls, as you can imagine, take priority over pretty much everything.

(This is my livelihood we’re talking about here!)

(And also my passion!)

Step #5 — We have our first date discovery call

This is the time where you get to ask allllll the questions.

…and also the time where *I* get to give you my speech about exactly what happens when we work together & how I can write you the best draft ever.

I always start by asking what you’re looking for, so I can ensure that I’m the best fit for you. (I’ll be honest if I’m not!)

Once you share with me why you’re looking for help with your website copy, sales page, or launch copywriting project, that’s when I launch into my lil speech.

Andddd somewhere in the midst of all that chatting (and probably squirreling around), I’ll not-so-casually mention that I haven’t had a client make it to the second round of revisions in the last four years, and you’ll be so impressed, and we’ll fall happily in love (probably).

By the end of the call, you’ll know EXACTLY what we’re including in your project, how it’ll help you hit your goals, and where we go from here.

Step #6 — You Get Your Proposal, Contract, and Invoice

This is where it gets really good.

After our call, I’ll take everything we talked about and turn it into one good ass CUSTOM proposal.

When you open her up, you’ll find exactly what I recommend for your project to make it the MOST impactful and the MOST “you.”

You’ll be able to read through each suggested package and choose what feels right for you, what the process looks like, and other logistical details like timeline and specific pricing and potential add-ons, etc.

Then, it’s time for you to decide that you want to make things OFFICIAL with me!!!

Once you accept the proposal, you’ll sign your contract and pay the first installment of your invoice, and we’re 2gether 4ever.

…or, at least, 2gether until I’m done writing your copy.

Step #7 — You Get Your BTL Client Handbook

Now that you’ve officially signed on to work with me, you’ll get access to your welcome guide.

It includes everything (and I mean, everything!) you need to know and/or access before we kick things off.

You’ll find:

• A welcome note from me!

• The BTL project process

• How to access your client portal

• Your BTL homework (to be completed before your kickoff call)

Basically, it’s your step-by-step plan so you always know what’s happening and when.

When you work with me, you can forget frantically digging through your inbox, wondering what comes next, or thinking, “Wait … was I supposed to send something?” at 11pm on a Friday.

Step #8 — Fill Out Your Questionnaire

Here’s where I get all up in your business (in the best way, of course).

Your brand questionnaire digs DEEP into your story, your target audience, your biz goals, and what makes your business YOU. And I’m not fucking around when I say I want to know EVERYTHING.

Think of it like a complete brain dump (no filters allowed!) but strategic.

By the time you hit submit, I’ll know your business almost as well as you do.

Your most unhinged thoughts are what’s going to help me write on-brand copy so good you’ll question why you didn’t hire a copywriter sooner.

Step #9 — Kickoff Call

One of the BEST parts of the copywriting process is the kickoff call! This is when we take alllll the thoughts you just dumped into your questionnaire and turn it into a real plan.

I’ll have spent time reviewing your answers before hopping on Butter (my way-cooler-than-Zoom video chat service provider I always use), so by the time we’re face-to-face, I’ll have an idea of where your project is headed.

Together, we’ll talk through any lingering questions (on my end or yours), conspire about website copy strategy and how we’re going to position you as an industry leader, and probably get distracted by a tangent or two (because, well … squirrel).

By the end, we’ll both know that this copy is about to be GOOD.

Step #10 — Website or Sales Page Copy Drafting

This is where I throw my phone into a ditch and GET TO WORK.

I take everything I learned about you, your business, and your ideal audience from your questionnaire and kickoff call, combine it with my own research, and start drafting.

You won’t hear from me for a while (usually about 10-14 days!) but don’t fret!

I’ll be in full focus mode (I only take on a limited number of copy clients because I want to give you my BEST — I’m only ever writing one client’s draft at a time!), making sure your copy fulfills all the hopes and dreams riding on this project.

While I do that, you can do … literally whatever you want.

If you need me, I’ll be face first inside a Google Doc pretending like I’m you.

…if you were a copywriter, of course.

Step #11 — You Get Your Copy Doc

When your first draft is ready, you’ll get an email from me with a subject line that’s probably something like “IT’S HERE!!!!!!” because: excitemnet.

You’ll open an organized-as-fuck Google Doc complete with a tab for each page, and an easy-to-understand wireframe (that makes your doc look just like a fully-designed site, so you can actually picture what you’re reading).

Everything will be laid out in the exact order your copy is supposed to flow, so you can put on your dream-client-Goggles and experience it as they would.

Step #12 — Share Your Feedback

Once you’ve had a chance to come down from the high THISSSS sexy draft is YOUR new copy (you’re so fucking cool), it’s time to leave me some feedback.

You’ll drop your thoughts, comments, questions, and genuine reactions right inside the Google Doc using the “comment” feature — emojis and all caps are welcome, too.

And don’t worry about making your thoughts coherent. I THRIVE on honesty and chaos equally, so whatever jumps from your brain to your doc is perfect.

Step #13 — We Hop On Your Live Review Call

This is where we hop on Butter yet again to go through your feedback together.

We’ll chat through your comments, I’ll tweak whatever’s needed right in front of your very eyes, and we’ll make sure your website copy feels good to you before we hit end.

This is one of my favorite parts of the entire process because it’s collaborative.

I love talking through the specifics of what you love, why I chose to say a specific thing, and getting you one step closer to the finished product.

I’m also a verbal processor, so I’m able to write copy right there on the spot with you & get you from first draft to final draft QUICKLY.

Step #14 — You Sit Back While I Edit

BACK TO CHILLEN FOR YOU!

Since zero clients in the past four years have felt the need for a second round of revisions, this is typically the last stop before your website copy is final.

I’ll take everything we talked about during your review call and make those last micro edits to your site. Nothing major — inserting testimonials, implementing small wording changes here and there, adding a new freebie, etc.

And when your draft is FINAL final, I’ll (very excitedly) let you know.

Step #15 — Send Your Final Website Copy Doc to Your Designer

I’ll send your final copy doc to your designer and let them get to work. They’ll do what they do best and bring my words to life with a design that makes your brand one of one.

(And if you need some designer recs, I’ve got the best of the best).

Step #16 — I’ll Come Back to Proofread

After your designer has finished plugging everything in, I’ll come back for one last look before you hit publish.

Think of this as like my own personal typo scavenger hunt — and trust, if it’s there, I will find it.

There’s no way on this Earth I’ll let you launch with a fuck ass website.

(I take my Hoe For Italics title very seriously, and I’m on the lookout for anything out of place. To you, it might seem small or insignificant, but to me, it could be detrimental to a certain sentence! The horror!)

THENNN we launch, you give me a bomb testimonial bc you’re obsessed, I send you a lil present in the mail bc ILYSM, and I add your project to my portfolio bc your designer killed it and your copy is so fucking good.

The end!

How To Turn Blogs Into Newsletters

Bookmarked: Saving Your Brand’s Life in 2026

Author’s Notes

Acknowledgements brought to you by… YOU?!

How To Repurpose Your Blog Posts As Newsletters

Copy and paste them. That’s what I did today’s newsletter from this blog post.

LOL jk maybe be a bit more strategic… and do as I say not as I do — here’s just one way to repurpose a blog as a newsletter:

🩵 Pull out the story.
Start by grabbing the anecdote, example, or “why this matters” moment from the blog. Use that as your newsletter intro.

(Or literally just pull the same intro as the blog one!)

🩵 Choose one takeaway.
Your blog might have five points — your newsletter only needs one. Pick the strongest or most practical tip, and focus on that.

(I do this a lot if I’m repurposing blogs as newsletters; I’ll take a “9 things your About page needs” blog and turn it into a “1 thing to add to your About page” newsletter, with a CTA to read the rest in the blog.)

🩵 Add a fresh angle or note.
If you don’t want to directly copy the blog, include one new thought — an extra example, mistake, or observation — so subscribers feel they’re getting something exclusive, not just a copy/paste.

🩵 Tie it back to your offer.
End with a soft segue to plug your service, template, workshop, or blog CTA.

(My Swipe File has an entire “pivot line library” for navigating this transition from story to tip or story to CTA!)

🩵 Keep it short.
Blogs can be long, but… newsletters shouldn’t be. Do NOT send a newsletter as long as this one. I’m just a lil freak.

🩵 Link back to the full post, if you want.
Optional: add a CTA to read the full post / link to the blog itself.

Bookmarked by BTL

RESOURCES DESIGNED TO SAVE YOUR BRAND’S LIFE IN 2026

Author’s Notes

ON HOLIDAY-SPECIFIC MARKETING CONTENT

You don’t have to if you don’t want to. It’s not that serious. If it’s gonna burn you out, skip it. Watch Vlogmas instead.

ON ASKING FOR WHAT YOU WANT

Remember last week when I told you who my dream clients are and asked you to inquire if that’s you?! That worked, and now I’m booking April 2026. If you want to work with me in the new year, we’re already talking Q2…

ON MISTLETOE MISCHIEF

I’ll kiss you on the mouth if you respond to this newsletter and tell me a) your favorite thing you learned from me this year OR b) what you want to read about next year.

Acknowledgements

brought to you by…

YOU, MAYBE?!

If you’re wanting to get the word out about your offer in 2026… sponsoring a newsletter with thousands of subscribers is a great way to do it!

I accept sponsors for almost every edition of this weekly newsletter and my monthly roundup newsletter, the BTL Classifieds, and if you think my audience of creatives, service providers, and online business owners would like your thing — you’re more than welcome to sponsor!

→ Click here to snag your spot for 2026

Love you bye!

READ MORE ON… LINKEDIN?! LOL

Another week, another TOC! I’m thankful you welcome me into your inbox every week. ILYSM. I’m testing out posting on LinkedIn and I’d love for you to follow along with me there, too.

xo,

Sara Joelle

P.S. Wish you could send weekly newsletters like this but don’t know what to say?! Well, I do — and I’ll give you newsletter topics for a YEAR if you buy the Swipe File annual pass! It’s only $300 (which means you get 2 months free!) and you’re set for newsletters for ALL of 2026.

When my friend Chelsea asked me this the other day, I genuinely tried to think of something cute…

As a gifts-is-my-love-language person and shopping-induced-dopamine addict you’d think coming up with something would’ve been easy…

But no! My boring ass responded with:

“My mortgage to be paid off.”

WHERE DID THE MAGIC GO???

What a deeply boring, way-too-adult answer.

I immediately texted her again, talking shit about how lame my answer was… then I thought:

Wait a sec.

YOU KNOW WHAT??? HELL YEAH.

If Santa Claus could slide into my living room through my 1908 colonial’s chimney and ask me “Sara, do you want a fat check made out to your mortgage lender for $540,000, if it means you don’t get any Christmas gifts?”

Fuck yeah, Kris Kringle.

I ABSOLUTELY DO WANT THAT.

The last thing I want is more things.

Do you know how much clutter these squirrels are hoarding in this house? I go through Wesley’s room, my room, my closet, and my office at least once a quarter and some how every single time I have MINIMUM four bags to drop off at Savers.

I don’t want another cute object to maintain, dust, charge, refill, or pretend I’m going to use regularly, put away somewhere I’ll never remember, and forget about for eternity.

I want freedom. I want space. I want relief.

I want someone else — Saint Nick, the ghost of Christmas capitalism, whoever — to take ONE BIG THING off my plate so I can breathe.

The gift *I* want is not an object.

The gift I want is the removal of responsibility.

How nice would it be if someone else handled everything for you, for once in this life? How nice would it be if someone else paid that bill? Made that dinner? Cleaned that toy-ridden living room floor? Picked up the trash all over the floor that the dog tried to eat when he was mad at you for leaving?

YEAH. THAT SOUNDS REALLY FREAKING NICE.

It doesn’t sound sexy at all, though.

But do you care?

Of course not. You’d rather have some of your free time back, or a semblance of peace, or one relaxing day, or the feeling of being supported.

And it’s not because you don’t like or appreciate gifts, either — let me tell ya, I LOVE a gift (both giving and receiving) — but because you’re doing the most all the fucking time and you need a BREAK.

That’s how your clients feel, too.

So when you try to make your offers all shiny and sexy and packaged up all pretty…

That’s great!

…but it’s not HITTING like you want it to, because you’re more focused on the delivery than the impact.

You’re not focused on their TRUE want.

Instead, you’re yapping about how beautiful your Notion client portal is, when what they really want is their systems to finally work for them.

And, sure, all the parts of your offer are relevant — but the focus should be on what they really want.

People aren’t buying “exciting.” Not really.

They’re buying the emotional equivalent of “my mortgage is paid off.”

They’re buying ease.

Time. Certainty. Creativity. Support. Results.

They’re buying someone else taking the thing they cannot get themselves to do, and actually doing it.

Most marketing is built to make your offer sound impressive — not to make your offer feel relieving.

The way consumers are making their purchases has been shifting for a while, but I think we’ll really notice it in 2026.

You’re gonna have to focus MORE on the result you provide (and how it’ll make someone feel + what that means for their life) than on the sexy features.

You need to communicate, with zero ambiguity:

“This will take X off your plate. This will eliminate Y from your mental load. This will free up Z for you.”

And I’m gonna tell you how to do it.

Table Of Contents

How To Sell Your Offer Simply w/o Being BORING!!

Entrepreneur Christmas List

How To Send The Best Client Gifts

Website Designer Gift Guide

Blog Post Ideas for the Holiday Season

Point of the Story

Author’s Note

How To Make “Boring” Sexy

Just because you’re focusing on the tangible results doesn’t mean BORING can’t also be SEXY.

Paying attention to the stuff your clients really care about is ALL you have to do.

🤓 Name what your offer removes.

Before you talk about what’s included, ask yourself: what’s the “mortgage payoff” equivalent in my offer?

What’s the giant, annoying, mental-load-inducing thing they want off their plate?

Lead with that, not the bells and whistles. Then, translate every feature into a feeling.

A template isn’t a template. It’s clarity, relief, saved time, fewer decisions, confidence, momentum.

People want EASE! And shortcuts without shame and to stop overthinking and for someone to hold their hand without making them feel stupid…

Write to those desire — the quiet ones, not the obvious public ones.

🤓 Get painfully specific about the before and after.

Before: “I rewrite the same paragraph 12 times and hate all of them.”

After: “I sit down, follow the structure, and the copy gets done.”

Specificity is how you get the “holy shit, she gets me.”

Say the thing they’re embarrassed to admit.

Your clients aren’t always going to tell you their real desires.

WRITE ABOUT THEIR TRUE WANT.

Orrrr hire me to do it for you.

LET'S WORK TOGETHER

I’m now booking website copywriting, sales page copywriting, and sales email copywriting projects for April 2026! I’d love love love to work with you next year.

Bookmarked by BTL

Point of the Story

Never in my life did I think I’d be saying “cervical mucus” as much as I did in this podcast episode, but… here we are. And you know WHAT! I was actually so fucking excited to record this one — I told Cait, my lovely guest this week, that it was the episode I was most looking forward to this year — because we need to understand our cycles!!!

In this week’s episode of Point of the Story, I sat down with Cait from Consciously Cait (fertility awareness educator and cervical mucus expert) to break down the four phases of your cycle, why your luteal phase isn’t actually trying to ruin your life, and how tracking your cycle is so much more than just looking at the Flo app.

🎧 LISTEN TO THE EPISODE HERE

And speaking of the pod!!!! If I was in your Spotify Wrapped this year, THANK YOU! Respond to this email with a screenshot (or DM it to me on Instagram @btlcopy) and I have a lil gift for you!

Author’s Note

ON BECOMING WHO I LOVE TO WATCH

I’ve been watching Vlogmas — daily vlogging from December 1st to 25th — on YouTube since I was in high school.

Slowly, the trend is falling by the wayside… and I’M UPSET ABOUT IT!

So, I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands, and start vlogging myself.

👀 Watch Vlogmas On TikTok

👀 Watch Vlogmas On Instagram

ON PUTTING YOURSELF OUT THERE

If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. Consider this your sign to do so. I’ll go first.

Putting myself out there has gotten me everything good in this life, from my first real job to my boyfriend to podcast interviews to friends to clients to money to… well, like I said, everything.

Ask and you shall receive and baby I AM ASKINGGGG.

Specifically, I’m asking you to inquire to work with me if you’re a…

• online business manager

• personal stylist

• ADHD-specific business owner (coach, therapist, professional organizer, anything!)

• local Cape Cod business owner

• tattoo artist

• parenting expert or influencer (I’ve done lots of these and loved!)

• nutrition coach / dietitian (I’ve also done lots of these and loved!)

• professional speaker / podcaster / podcast coach

• personal brand / multi-hyphenate

• UCG creator

• neuroscience expert !!!!

• personal trainer or fitness coach (with a niche audience like post-partum moms or chronic illness or something)

• online educator slash service provider with a fucking massive website

• author or author coach

• platform-specific service provider (like Dubsado or Notion etc)

If that’s you — or if you’re simply a wicked cool brand who likes my vibe — I’d love to write your website copy in 2026!

👀 Let’s Work Together

ON THE ANTI-PROFESSIONALISM MOVEMENT

I’ve decided to finally become a LinkedIn girlie… but there was no way in hell I could possibly LinkedIn like the LinkedIn people LinkedIn. You know?

So, I changed all of my work experience to reflect what I actually experienced at those jobs — instead of the bullshit fluff we all put on our resumes. I figured I’d never need the profile to be Corporate-y for any reason ever again, so why not? And I have to SAYYY it’s hilarious. I was cackling writing it. I love choosing truth.

👀 See My Unhinged Profile

Love you bye!

COPYWRITING + MARKETING RESOURCES

I appreciate you consistently welcoming me into your inbox each week… I’m wicked excited to continue to come here every Tuesday morning in 2026 and beyond 🩵

xo,

Sara Joelle

I saw that my mom was wicked busy at work so I decided to take over her newsletter…

I usually only get to use her big blue computer when I’m watching Generation Genius or doing a drawing tutorial on YouTube…

But I don’t think she’ll notice if I write her email for her, right? (I really wanted a chance to play with my favorite emojis… Mom only lets me type them on her phone, like, once a month.)

I bet she doesn’t even know that *I* know that she sends these emails.

Like… gurl. You’ve been sending them pretty much all my life, of COURSE I know about these newsletters!

(OMG — that means “oh my God” which I just learned — speaking of “of course” … did you know Mommy and her boyfriend have “of course” tattooed on their arms because they’re each others “of course”? Well, I just learned that when I accidentally asked if Mommy’s ex boyfriend had an “of course” tattoo, too.)

I actually know a LOT about what my mom does for work.

She’s a copywriter!

All my friends at school know that, too, because when she comes to be the librarian for the day on Fridays, I remind them.

I also know she writes websites, and that she’s really good at it, because she makes lots of money, and buys me lots of toys.

(Sometimes, when I’m throwing an attitude, especially when she’s busy working, she asks me if I like having a mom who can afford cool toys, and reminds me that if I talk to her while she’s working, she won’t be able to afford cool toys.)

I don’t really know how she does what she does; I just know she types wicked fast and talks to a lot of people and even teaches sometimes!

I want to be an Art teacher and also a Scientist. Mom says I can definitely do that because lots of people have multiple jobs.

I got confused when she tried to tell me that she’s a copywriter but also a “mentor” (what is that?) and also a “podcaster” (I think that’s that thing we did together with the microphone? and I wished I could change my answer about my favorite song).

I said “Mommy, I’m only six. Why do you think I know what a mentor is?”

She told me she forgets that I’m six (actually, six-and-a-half!) sometimes because I’m so smart.

I read at a Fifth grade level. Everyone is always really impressed by this because I’m only in first grade. They’re also impressed by how well I can spell and how big my imagination is (that comes from my brain — Mom lets me watch videos about how the brain works, so I know a lot about it).

When I reminded her I was only six, she explained her other jobs in a different way so I would understand, and that was helpful.

Anyway! I think Mommy’s done writing in her notebook now. I think it’s time to go downstairs and find Chippi.

That’s my Elf on the Shelf — he reports back to Santa when I whine.

Mom told me once that she has pictures of him all over her Instagram story highlights. Hundreds of pictures. Go look!!!! He’s so funny.

Ok! Bye! LOVE!!!!!

(That’s what we say when we hang up or leave the house. We do it because Grampy always did it. Mommy has that tattooed on her arm, too.)

Table of Contents

How To Simplify Your Messaging

What’s Being Bookmarked by BTL

A Special Author’s Note

How To Explain What You Do Like You’re Talking To A 6-Year-Old

Simplicity is KEY in copywriting — and ALLLL Y’ALL ARE TRYNA OVERCOMPLICATE THINGS.

More often than not, the exact sentence you’re trying to “make better” or “make more professional” or “add more” to IS THE ONE THAT DESERVES TO BE SAID AS IS.

This is why, on every website copywriting kickoff call, I always ask my clients to explain to me what they do like they’re talking to Wesley.

What would you tell my 6-year-old son if he asked you what you did for work?

Then, I ask them to simply explain it to me.

Just give me the gyst, I say. It doesn’t have to be perfect; this isn’t set in stone & we don’t have to use this anywhere, so don’t feel like you have to be super polished with your answer; I just want the vibes.

That removes the pressure of it being perfect.

& once that pressure is removed, THE GOOD STUFF COMES TO THE SURFACE.

I see this with clients, mentees, friends, students, everyone — you know a hell of a lot more about how to talk about your offer than you’re giving yourself credit for.

The vast majority of the time I’m writing copy for someone, I’m taking several sentences VERBATIM off of their questionnaire because they already said something perfectly.

Overthinking is killing your copy.

So, instead, pretend you’re talking to Wesley when you’re writing.

THINK:

• What’s the simplest way I can say this?

• Does this need MORE — or is “more” actually just overcomplicating it?

• How can I say this with 20% less words?

• Does this make sense with NO other context?

• Which questions would people have for me after reading this?

& then picture my cute little Woo looking up at you, waiting for you to explain what you do for work.

Remove the pressure.

Let it be chill.

Recognize that IT’S NOT THAT SERIOUS.

Most people would PREFER your conversational copy! & if they don’t… do you even want to work with them at all?

These are all concepts I go over in serious depth inside the copywriting basics module of my website copywriting course, by the way 👀 I think you’d do well to check it out…

JOIN SITE SERIES® SPRINT FOR 25% OFF!

Today is your last day to join my website copywriting course until FEBRUARY — and when you join now, you’ll get 25% off (with code “BLACKFRIDAY”) as well as three of your most important headlines (Home, About, Services) written for you.

→ Click here to join Site Series® Sprint & finally make website copywriting a priority (and stop settling for your fuck ass “just fine” website).

Bookmarked by BTL

Author’s Wesley’s Note

Thanks so much for reading my mom’s newsletter! I really hope you liked my part. I think Mommy is gonna love it.

I wish I could have illustrated it for you, too.

(An illustrator is the one who draws the pictures in the books! Did you know Mommy is writing a book? It’s gonna be about being a squirrel. Like us!!!)

LOVE!!!!!

—Woo

P.S. Will you please buy something from Mommy’s Black Friday sale? I want a new Lego set. She says you have to use code “BLACKFRIDAY” if you want it to work.

(I know she works hard for her toy money, and she already spent a TON of that toy money on her Angel Tree kids, so… I feel like she’ll want some extra for me… and my Lego set.)

(She’s gonna be mad that I told you she spent all her money. I need to remember to stop fibbing. She didn’t spend it all. She just said she can buy even MORE for me and the Angel Tree kids if you get something from her shop.)