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Do Ad/Marketing Agencies use freelance writers?

O
Hi there,

Since lockdown I've been dabbling in 'copywriting', I use the term loosely as I seem to have solely secured content-writing gigs, I have quite a few years of experience in manufacturing and have been using that experience to write blog posts for manufacturing companies. A little bit technical, little bit persuasive, but mostly it's about keywords, links, and all that SEO stuff.

I'm happy with the niche I've carved, and I'm happy with the rate I'm getting, but all my work so far has been through UpWork. It seems being verified as a UK native helps a lot in winning work there.

I see many manufacturing companies that have blogs and 'news' sections on their website that I could help them with, but they're often very hard to contact, and usually, even the people in charge don't know what a copy/content writer is, as they use a marketing expert to handle it all.

So I tried contacting marketing agencies and have had little interest. Just wondering if I need to keep improving my approach (email copy and image) or if its just that these agencies are reluctant to hire the services of freelance writers?

Also, what margins are they typically working at? One of my long-term clients pays me £110 per article flat rate, typically 1,000 words (I don't charge per word don't worry!) and with a decent amount of information and relevancy, with the usual SEO focus. That said I've never actually got as far as discussing rates.

Anyone with experience of agencies that can shed light?

Thanks!
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I'm tired of 20min tutorials, so I'm building a "Duolingo for Creators". Thoughts on the MVP?

lildodo
Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some honest feedback on a tool I'm building.

I feel like nowadays, whether you run a business or want to build a personal brand, you are "forced" to create content. But the learning curve sucks:

  1. You either watch 20-minute YouTube tutorials full of fluff just to learn one basic concept.
  2. Or you buy expensive courses that are pure theory and boring as hell.
My idea is simple: Gamify content creation learning.

I'm designing Omnia, a tool for people who want to improve their online presence (Sales, Virality, or Authority) without spending hours studying. The goal is to train your "creator eye" with quick 5-minute daily challenges, so you instinctively know what makes a video work.
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I keep receiving DMARC email reports despite not sending any emails

ctrlbrk
For the past few days my domain has been receiving DMARC reports even though it has not sent any emails out.

My understanding of DMARC is that the various mail providers for thei recipients send you daily summary reports for any activity that has taken place for the previous day.

Example of my expectations:

Yesterday
  • 2 emails sent to @google.com addresses
  • 1 email sent to @comcast.net address
Today

But yesterday there were no outgoing emails from my domain, and yet those 2 providers sent me reports anyway. The reports' timestamps are indeed for yesterday.

Question: Is it possible these reports are generated because my email provider is attempting "retry" activity from my domain over past emails that may have not reached recipients?

Thanks
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  • Solved
Treatment of Purchased Software for tax purposes

A
My question is in relation to the treatment of purchased software in the accounts and how that might impact corporation tax.
The company bought the said software outright, including the IP and source code, and that software is now used as the backbone for our service offering.

My accountants have designated the software as an intangible asset and intend to amortise the cost over 10 years. However, when completing the tax return they have added the amortisation back so it has no impact on our corporation tax liability, claiming ths is due to it being an intangible asset.

My questions are:

  1. Can anyone confirm whether this expenditure should be treated as capital, like plant and machinery, and therefore subject to capital allowances, or as an intangible fixed asset?
  2. Depending on which of the treatments in question 1 is correct, what is the treatment for corporation tax purposes?
Thanks
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SEO help - landing pages

O
I'm launching a new website centered around tradesmen; plumbing, electrical etc. I'll spare the details but its basically a lead gen site for London with a USP.

My question is landing pages. I've previously run a local pluming business and SEO was fairly easy as we had one service. The home page focused on our immediate area and we had several landing pages covering adjacent neighbourhoods. On top of that, a couple of service specific pages e.g bathrooms, boilers and so on. This meant just a handful of landing pages, nice and easy. N.b. This was all pre AI LLM.

However, this new site covers multiple trade services and the whole of London. This could result in a vast combination of high traffic keywords with service names, areas and sub-areas in the city.

What is best practice here? Having a sea of landing pages doesn't seem the right move. Is it just a case of finding the best combo of high volume, low competition key words and focus on a handful of them?
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How to locate the best accountant for me.

M
I'm in Panama and I'm looking for someone to set up a UK company In order to use stripe to take payments from an app in the Android store.

As far as I can see, because I'm living abroad, there would be no tax payable in the UK. but I also understand that I need an accountant who knows how to write my general meetings And resolutions properly so that I don't shoot myself in the foot and end up paying UK tax.

If I understand it right, I should be looking for a chartered accountant? There must be tens of thousands of those in the UK. How would I go about finding someone who's going to do me the minimum effective job for a decent price?

I'm not really looking for tax advice. I understand my position fairly well. I just need someone to do the job without making a mistake.

I'm not sure of the rules of the forum here. I guess I'm probably not allowed to ask for a personal recommendation?

Are there any websites where I can compare accountants like I could compare apps or doctors and see what people think of them? Apart from Google Maps, of course. I don't think Google Maps is very useful because it's limited to one area. And I don't really care where the accountant lives because I don't live in the UK.
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Website vs social media: Which is enough for starting dropshipping or affiliate marketing?

accordtechbd
I’m planning to start a dropshipping/affiliate marketing business and wondering whether I really need a website. Can I just rely on social media platforms to generate traffic and sales, or is having a site essential for long-term growth and SEO?

Previously, I’ve tried small campaigns using just social media with some success, but now I want to scale. There are so many products and niches, and I’m not sure whether creating multiple landing pages for each product is necessary, or if I should focus on just a few key pages/posts.

Would love to hear what works best in 2025 for beginners vs scaling businesses.
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Should I sell my profitable company?

J
I’m getting to the age where I should be thinking of retirement so I am considering my options. I own a small company in the Northwest of England which manufactures it’s own unique product. This is a type of control valve used by many companies as part of their production/testing procedures.

With 20 years of sales there are several thousand of these products in use worldwide and they have a very good reputation for reliability and performance so we get many repeat orders. There is also a good spares and servicing market where they have no alternative but to come to us, which people are happy to do. With more effort the sales could be increased considerably, there are very few companies making this product and I believe we are the only UK manufacturer.

The product has a good profit margin and based on the last three years profits alone an online website came up with a value of £2 million but I believe with it’s own product it’s worth much more.

My options are to employ someone to do some or all of my work which means I would continue to receive a good income, but not be fully retired, or to sell it outright.

What are people’s suggestions and is there a reliable company who would sell it for me?
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What actually works to grow a new Fire & Security business in 2025?

KyleHides
Hi all,
I've recently set up a fire & security company in Lincolnshire (SafeSync Solutions), covering a wide selection of services including CCTV, Intruder Alarms, Fire Alarms, AOV Systems, Data and Networking, Smart Home, Emergency Lighting, and TV & Aerial.

I'm now looking to grow the business properly and would really appreciate advice from people who've built service based companies (especially trades or technical services).

What I would like to know is:
  • What actually worked for you in the early days?
  • What was the most effective way you found new domestic and commercial customers?
  • Are methods like cold calling and door-to-door sales still effective today?
  • What marketing channels gave you the best return (time or money)?
  • Anything you had wished you'd done sooner?
I'm not pitching or promoting anything, just looking to learn from people who've already walked this path and avoid common mistakes.

Any insights or experiences would be massively appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Kyle.
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How to send parcels to US from UK?

apricot
Hi,

We used to ship to the US, but stopped when the new tariff rules came in. Since then, we haven’t been able to figure out whether we can send goods to the US or how to handle the charges correctly

Does anyone know the correct process for shipping goods from the UK to the US after the recent tariff update?

We understand that customs duties need to be paid, but how and at what stage should they be paid?

Also, how do we calculate the tariff so we can adjust our pricing accordingly?

I’ve been searching for information, but I can’t find any clear guidance. I’d really appreciate it if anyone could advise or point me in the right direction.

Thank you in advance.
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Domestic cleaning expansion

E
Hi,

I started my business up in February this year, i am a cleaning services company, I am now almost full with just me and getting enquiries nearly everyday which I can't take on due to it only being me, now my next phase is to expand my business as my brand has really taken off! I just need some advice on whether it's best to have self employed cleaners I sub to or to take on a few people on PAYE, so many people are giving me different advice but I really want to have my company known for it's excellent domestic cleaners, just don't know which way to go...
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Tiktok shop HELP PLEASE

S
Hi! I was hoping to get some advice from anyone with experience selling on TikTok Shop, please. We’re struggling with the bookkeeping side of things.


We currently use Sage, so TikTok Shop isn’t connected to our accounting software — everything is entered manually. Every month, TikTok sends over their invoices showing the associated fees, etc. There’s also the finance summary available via Seller Central.


The fees listed there differ from those on the invoices, so I’m unsure whether we should be inputting both the invoices and the amounts on the finance summary, or just one of them.


I have, of course, contacted TikTok Shop support, but like most marketplaces they are ****.

Thank you for any help!
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Importing fruits from Mexico

D
Hello to everyone,my name is Dan,me and 2 friends we started a company called TerraFresh and we are importing fruits from Mexico.
This is new for us and trying to get some help and suggestion, we want to focus more on bananas and avocado.Any ideas where to look up for buyers, we are bringing like between to 1-5 containers of bananas.
Looking forward to see if anyone can point to right direction where I can find buyers.
Thank you
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Selling my business

C
I am looking for some advice on selling my business. I have never done this before and the more research I do the more of a mine field it seems to be.
How do I value the business correctly?
Best ways to advertise it?
Would using a business broker cost a lot of money?
Legal expenses?
Any other areas I should be looking at?
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Starting up Staffing agency to private care sector questions

L
I’m in the process of starting up an agency to supply to the private care sector (nursing homes, residential homes, learning disability services) based in the South west.

I’m wondering what smaller agencies are charging their staff out at. I’m looking at £23 hour of just weekday rate, but as a smaller not yet established agency, I don’t want to go in too high and put off potential clients and ruin the business before even starting.
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What’s a “good” conversion rate for websites in the UK/EU right now?

kevinle
There’s no magic number, but here are some rough ranges people are reporting in 2024/25:

  • General website average: around 2.5–3%
  • E-commerce: about 2–2.7%
  • Desktop usually beats mobile, but mobile traffic is higher, so it balances out
  • UK and Northern Europe often see slightly higher conversions than Southern EU, especially where delivery and trust signals are stronger
If you’re below ~2%, you probably have some big wins available (e.g., checkout friction, unclear delivery info, trust badges, slower mobile load times). If you’re closer to 5%+, you’re likely in “optimise revenue per visitor” rather than “fix broken funnel” territory.
What conversion rates are others seeing in the UK/EU right now, and what’s moved the needle most for you?
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VAT Reclaim Eligibility for Pre-Registration Period

A
Hello,

I own a UK-registered company selling on Amazon (FBA model) and I am a non-UK resident.
During 2023–2024, I paid VAT on Amazon service invoices (mainly advertising fees) while not VAT-registered. Amazon has now informed me that, as a Non-Established Taxable Person (NETP), I should have been VAT-registered from the start.
I am now VAT-registered effective January 2025.

Can I reclaim the VAT paid on Amazon invoices from 2023–2024, or offset it against VAT due on my past sales?
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What are your biggest challenges in marketing as a small business?

S
Hi everyone,

I'm working on a new product for small businesses in Europe to take the headache out of digital marketing.
Right now, we’re building the first version of the product and want to make sure we’re solving the right problems.

If you run a small business (or help someone who does), we’d be so grateful if you could take 10–15 minutes to fill out a short questionnaire. It’ll help us better understand biggest marketing challenges that small businesses face.
Let me know if you’re interested, and I’ll share the link to the questionnaire on Google Forms.

Thanks so much for your time and input! If you have any questions or thoughts, please let me know.

Svetlana
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Looking for UK Supplier – Nike & Under Armour Running (15–20 items per week)

Sn Running75
Hello I am a French dealer of pants and jacket Nike running and under armour I will explain to you what I am looking for and apparently in England there are suppliers: So, to clearly explain to you what I want to order from you. At first, I would like to place an order of 15 to 20 items of Nike running/ under armour than jackets and pants, for example, so that the Nike running future fast defines about 2 to 5 set, Nike division pants and jackets, black or gray hybrid pants under armour, Nike aeroswift pants Nike always a jacket then a dye jacket, Nike phenom elite pants (of course, I would be ready to put the right price). Then, if you think you won't be able to find these items or, for example, not have enough, it's quite understandable because I told you, I have WhatsApp and I could send you the items I want in photos. I'm a French merchant, that's why I order in a set
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