Men With Pens Review
Men with Pens is one of my favorite new blogs. It’s the successor to the Web Content Copywriting blog which I mentioned last year. Run by James Chartrand and Harry McCLeod, this is a writing blog with a difference. These guys really know how to write unique blog posts. It’s refreshing to read new perspectives on the issues we all face as freelancers and that’s why it’s one of the first blogs I read every day. Since moving to its new home, Men with Pens has kept up the quality that attracted me to the old blog, but the blog design is way, way better. It looks great, you can find lots of great posts from the home page, and the navigation is clear. The blog offers ‘web business tips for writers, freelancers and online entrepreneurs’ including:
‘PLR content drives down the market value of web content. Why buy pricier work when nearly-free (and sometimes free) is right there for the taking?’
‘One of the biggest problems perfectionists have is setting realistic goals. I never realized I set the bar too high for myself. Halfway through whatever I was working on achieving, when nothing went according to my vision, I would give up in frustration.’
Sorry, you’ll just have to read this one. No excerpt would do it justice.
There is so much good stuff in there it’s hard to give you a flavour of it. The blog focuses on blogging, business, design and writing, and currently has a great series on fiction writing. Just to round out the list, here are some posts with great titles that made me stop and look:
Over the past year, posts from this blog, and its predecessor, have turned up regularly in my links roundups, which shows how consistently readable it is. If you haven’t done so, check it out.
All posts in the Writing Blog Reviews series
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Aw, that’s the nicest review we’ve ever had, I think! (And our logo looks damned cool on your site, too.) I’m glad to have you as part of our community, Sharon, and I’m also glad that we seem to be making a big difference in blogging and online work.
You made my morning
I enjoy being part of your community, James, and I’m glad to have you in mine. Your comments on my posts are of the same high quality and always contribute something meaningful to the discussion.
Hi Sharon. Nice review you wrote of the guys. I just found their blog myself, and I’m loving it. It’s always nice to read a fresh perspective, which James and Harry definitely have!!
Sharon,
This was a pleasant surprise! Thank you so much for the great review. I’m very happy with the following MwP is generating these days and it’s all due to people like you and everyone else.
@ Amy: this was my best blog discovery last year and I haven’t been disappointed with anything they have written so far.
@Harry: the kudos are well deserved, and it proves that great content gets a great response.
Couldn’t agree with you more, Sharon. These guys are very insightful.
Great post and a great blog. I found their old blog last year through a bit of a flame war that started on a wahm forum and have been checking it several times a week ever since.
It’s also helped me find a few other great blogs as well through the MWP commenters. Great stuff and no fluff!
@Dana: Hey! Thanks for sticking around, we’re glad you enjoyed the blog enough to stay. “Great stuff and no fluff” - that would make a great tag line
@Bob: Insightful is my middle name. (Alright, it’s not really, it’s Connor, but that’s beside the point) Thanks for reading and hope to see you joining in on the conversations.
I have to agree with you, and I need to do a review of them as well for my resources section. MenWithPens is a keeper. That’s a nice theme they’ve tweaked, too, and at a good price.
Bloggers that fake it. I’ve started to review blogs because there are so many out there that are nothing more than ‘fake blogs’ Thanks for reviewing this site.