Copywriting portfolio

Since debbidoo’s launch in 2008 I’ve written hundreds of articles for clients in many different industries, including retail, property, hospitality, local authority business support, automotive, tourism and outdoor activities.

Before browsing my copywriting portfolio, please note that some of the examples I’ve provided were written for clients who may no longer be trading, or whose websites have been completely rebuilt and their old blog posts removed. In these cases, wherever possible I’ve used the Web Archive (also known as the ‘Wayback Machine’) to link to the articles in their original contexts. Where the wayback machine doesn’t have any captures of content I’ve written, I’ve printed my original Word documents to PDF.

Blog posts and article marketing for shinyshack.com

One of my favourite things about working for ShinyShack in 2008 and 2009 was how they loved to think outside the box with their web content.

A ShinyShack staff member wrote unique product descriptions that really stood out from the crowd. In addition, blog posts were written in-house and, on occasion, by me. At the same time, I wrote many articles for ShinyShack which were not published on their own blog but were instead syndicated via article submission sites like Ezine Articles – this was in the days when article marketing was considered a helpful part of the SEO strategy.

The posts I wrote for ShinyShack either provided opportunities to link to specific products, or were themed around top search trends or popular culture – or simply provided a bit of fun that visitors felt compelled to share, helping to build links to the website and increase visits.

Blog posts linking to products:

‘Just for fun’ blog posts:

Article directory posts

Although most of the article directories I used to submit articles to have long since disappeared, one or two still exist in some form or another – and I’ve been able to track down some of the articles I wrote in the name of Anna Clare, one of ShinyShack’s directors: https://www.articlesfactory.com/author/Anna+Clare.html

Blog posts and case studies for Gwynedd Council

Visit Snowdonia/Ymweld ag Eryri

My largest ongoing copywriting for blogs and online project was Visit Snowdonia, the official tourism brand for the Snowdonia Mountains and Coast marketing region of Wales. This brand is managed by my local authority, Cyngor Gwynedd.

For several years I managed the Visit Snowdonia blog (and its sister blog, in Welsh – Ymweld ag Eryri) at wordpress.com, where I wrote and published an average of two posts a month from 2010 to 2018.

I wrote all but two or three posts on these blogs, so I won’t list them all individually – please visit the blogs to browse individual articles.

The blog posts I wrote for Visit Snowdonia served several purposes: they’re informative, so they provide tourists and residents alike with useful information about the Snowdonia region; they contain links to relevant pages at the Visit Snowdonia website, helping visitors to discover even more useful information; and they were shared with Visit Snowdonia’s social media audiences, which encouraged discussion and sharing.

Having ceased use of the wordpress.com blog, in 2019 Visit Snowdonia commissioned an additional four articles for the newly-installed blog at their main website. Although the blog is not currently being used and is therefore not linked to via the site’s navigation menus, it is still possible to access the articles I wrote:

Cyngor Gwynedd business support services

During 2021-2022 I was commissioned to write several case studies for Cyngor Gwynedd showcasing business successes in the county, particularly those where the Council, the Welsh Government, or other official bodies had provided support.

The majority of these articles were based around telephone and email interviews with the business owners, but some were written with not much more than a couple of press releases to use as a starting point.

Although these articles are no longer on the Cyngor Gwynedd website, they have been archived by the Wayback Machine and you can read them at https://web.archive.org/web/20240302030057/https://www.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/en/Businesses/Help,-support-and-training/Case-Studies/Case-Studies.aspx

Prynu’n Lleol Gwynedd

Prynu’n Lleol Gwynedd (Buy Local Gwynedd) was a Cyngor Gwynedd project aiming to promote consumer and business spending within the local authority area. Starting in 2015, the project had its own website (also built by me, incidentally!) for which I wrote all website copy and most of the blog posts.

The website no longer exists. However, the Wayback Machine has captured some of it – see https://web.archive.org/web/20181203133215/http://www.prynunlleolgwynedd.co.uk/?lang=en

Unfortunately the blog was not one of the pages captured, so I have printed my original Word documents to PDF, which you can read by clicking here.

Website copy and blog posts for Snowdonia Pass

Snowdonia Pass was an innovative tourism promotion scheme, wherein customers could buy a special pass for £5 which entitled them to discounted entry, products or food and drink at a number of tourism attractions in the Snowdonia region.

Although the website was taken down a few years ago, it can still be read (albeit with the website’s design and layout now being very wonky!) via the Wayback Machine, at https://web.archive.org/web/20180619084019/http://www.snowdoniapass.co.uk/

My brief was to build the website, write the website copy, and provide ongoing blogging services for a few months after launch. Sadly, although the Wayback Machine captured the blog listings page, it doesn’t appear to have captured individual blog posts. I have therefore printed some of the original Word documents to PDF, which you can read by clicking here.

Blog posts and print articles for Dafydd Hardy Estate Agents

I worked with Dafydd Hardy between 2011 and 2016 on several different projects, including staff and customer newsletters (design, build and copywriting) and copywriting for blog posts and the company’s promotional newspaper, ProperTŷ, which was published between 2013 and 2015.

My copywriting tasks varied a lot; in any given month I might write half a dozen or more articles, with subjects ranging from staff changes and birthdays to features on individual properties, local places and property maintenance.

My blog posts for Dafydd Hardy included the following, but please note that some of these articles weren’t published until a year or two after we parted company, due to the website being rebuilt:

Interviews with artisans for We Love Llyn magazine

Although this was not a debbidoo project, I’m including the features I wrote for local print magazine We Love Llyn as a volunteer writer in 2017 and 2018. I interviewed four local artisans, and wrote English-language features which were published in the magazine in both English and Welsh:

Black Boy Inn blog

Through an arrangement with another local marketing company, I wrote several blog posts on their behalf for the historic Black Boy Inn in Caernarfon.

Eiddo Susan Jones Properties

I’ve been working with Susan Jones since she launched her estate agency in 2019.

My work for Susan includes proofing her property descriptions before they go live; occasionally writing property descriptions on her behalf; sharing the properties on her social media accounts; and writing the occasional advertorial or article, including this one: https://www.susanjones.cymru/news/373/Selling-your-property-Make-sure-its-market-ready

STAMP Caernarfon

STAMP was an Ideas People Places project, a partnership between Arts Council Wales, Gwynedd Council, Galeri and Cadw, working towards creating a greater sense of place in Caernarfon.

The project has long since ended and unfortunately the Wayback Machine hasn’t archived the website, so we’ve printed some of our original Word documents to PDF – click to download.

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