I’ve been a blogger for about three years now on www.Vagablond.com and today, I reached critical mass. The article below if from the October 26, 2007 Snap.com newsletter. Snap is a great Webtool that you can easily load to your site to show snapshots of any site you’re linking to with video audio, RSS and […]
Author Archive | Gil
A Do Tank :: Squid Labs Brochure
“Venture Technologists” is a new term for companies like Squid Labs that incubate technologies to drive high-growth opportunities. As a “Do Tank” rather than a Think Tank, they invent, they adapt, and they integrate emerging technologies into materials, components and systems for new and existing products. As venture technologists, they are committed to providing solutions […]
Hungry? City Guides :: Contributing Travel Writer
There are dozens of city dining guides for restaurants. The best-known is Zagat’s for major cities. Hungry? is now publishing city guides for Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and most recently, San Francisco. As a travel writer and editor-in-chief of Vagablond.com, I’m proud to be a contributor to the latter for a number of […]
Check Point Software :: Direct Response Copy
During 2006/2007, I wrote a variety of direct response projects for Check Point Software Technologies, an Israeli company with US headquarters in Redwood City, California. This company is a leader in securing the Internet with the worldwide enterprise firewall, personal firewall, data security and VPN markets. Here are some examples of their marketing toolkits, featuring […]
Travel Magazine Articles
I love writing about travel. It started and continues with the 25+ published articles in newspapers, dive magazines and online media shown below. I’ve also been the Editor-in-Chief of the upscale travel, food, wine and shopping blog at Vagablond.com, where I published nearly 1,500 articles… SF Chronicle Sunday Travel Section, September 13, 2009, Just Back […]
Advertising Magazine Articles
The Diary Of An Unemployed Ad Man September 25 & October 2, 1989 by Gil Zeimer I was suddenly laid off from my staff job as a Vice President / Associate Creative Director at a San Francisco advertising agency after working in the business for 17 years. I then started keeping a diary of my […]
PwC :: Sarbanes-Oxley Training Materials
PricewaterhouseCoopers wanted to train its regional U.S. managers on how to create the most effective Sarbanes-Oxley sales presentation for both its current and prospective clients. Since I was working as a Webmaster, project management and copywriting consultant with multiple practices of the company, including Internal Audit, Data Management, Government, Risk and Compliance, and Security & […]
More Radio Commercials
As a San Francisco copywriter, I’ve written, directed and produced over 750 radio commercials for packaged goods, services and technology clients. Here are a few of the “as produced” MP3s for my favorite radio scripts for clients as diverse as these — you can listen to each of the :60 radio commercial MP3s here: — […]
B of A Financial Ads, Banners & Radio
As a San Francisco copywriter, I’ve been an ad agency staff and freelance copywriter for virtually every financial institution in California, from Bank of America and Wells Fargo to Charles Schwab, Visa, and some dot coms, like Yodlee and Intuit. Here are my favorite ads, ad banners, and radio commercial that I created as a […]
Software Direct Response Copy
I’ve written direct response packages, promotional postcards, self-mailers, conference announcement mailers, and HTML emails for a wide variety of software clients, including Oracle, Symantec (Norton), PalmOne, Intuit, and more. Here are samples of some of my favorites: 1) Intuit QuickBooks Software Direct Response Package — I’m proud to say that I introduced QuickBooks software to […]
Treo 650 smartphone from PalmOne
This was a direct response letter sent to owners of previous models of PalmOne’s Treo smartphones, asking them to upgrade to the newest model that had more bells and whistles than anything Palm had ever created. As a freelance copywriter, I was hired by Carat Interactive, a leading San Francisco ad agency, to wordsmith this […]
Food Packaging Copy
Granny Goose was one of California’s oldest brands of snack foods. Based in Oakland, it was sold a few years ago to a company in Washington State after making great quality chips and pretzels for over 50 years. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still find some of their products around, like these Flavor Destinations […]
Software Packaging Copy
Software package copy. Hardware package copy. Food packaging copy. If you have a new or existing product that needs copy, I’m the freelance copywriter who can write it for you. Below are some samples of a variety of clients for whom I’ve written package copy as a freelance writer, including Intel, Palladium Software, and Granny […]
Email & Newsletter Copywriting
I’ve been hired for email copywriting and newsletter copywriting for dozens and dozens of online and PDF publications over my staff and freelance copywriting career. Some were monthly, some were quarterly, some were even translated from Japanese to English, then rewritten and edited by me. Below are some my favorite email copywriting and e-newsletter examples. […]
NewsCenter 4 Radio Commercials
For three of the seven years that I worked at Ketchum Advertising, San Francisco, I was a copywriter on the KRON-TV NewsCenter 4 account. For their news promotions, we would receive the news story scripts on a Monday each week. By Tuesday, we’d have created three newspaper ads with copy and layout, plus a radio […]
Lindsay Olives :: Magazine Ad & Radio Copy
One of my favorite clients when I was a young copywriter at Ketchum Advertising, San Francisco (now TWBA Chiat-Day) was also one of my first clients ever: Lindsay Olives. I’ve always believed that advertising copywriting should be entertaining with humorous headlines. So here are two I wrote that I still like, many years later. The […]
S.F. Bay Window :: Website Copy
When this site was being created by the San Francisco Association of Realtors, the very talented Web designers at Aerojet.com in Berkeley recommended me for Website copywriting, editing and proofreading for the content originally created by a SFAR employee. I first edited over 130 articles for this vast resource guide for San Francisco Property Owners. […]
PalmOne 2003 Catalog Copy
Palm printed 500,000 of this 24-page holiday 2003 “magalog” that blended traditional catalog copy with magazine-style articles. The goal was to sell the latest, greatest products – TREO smart phones, Palm Tungsten and Zire handhelds, plus software and accessories. Kuleana Design (formerly Landis Designs), SF provided the beautiful layouts for this 24-page piece for which […]
Book Bank USA :: Website & Annual Report
Book Bank USA, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 1966 by Sidney Kluger after he observed the desperate need of public and school libraries for educational materials — and especially — to fulfill a constant supply of English literature. After four decades, Book Bank USA has now established and resupplied public libraries, schools and community […]
Hooked on Phonics :: HTML Email Campaign
Besides the radio spot I wrote for Hooked on Phonics that you can hear here, I also wrote a few very successful HTML email blasts for them to test with very targeted messages through QuestUs, a San Francisco interactive ad agency. The first was to save $50 with an exclusive online offer. Read the HTML […]
Websites Written With SEO
Since 1995, I’ve written over 200 Websites. Many of them recently have required the expertise of copywriting with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) keywords and keyphrases to maximize a site’s rankings on the search engines. This requires careful writing and editing, so the SEO keyword writing appears frequently on each page and don’t appear to be […]
QuickBooks Catalog :: Intuit
During 2006, I wrote a dozen projects for the good people at Intuit, including this QuickBooks 32-page Catalog for Checks, Envelopes, Supplies and More. In fact, in 1994, I successfully introduced Quicken users to QuickBooks in the first direct mail piece ever written for this financial product that’s long been the leader in the business […]