One of the elite 101?
This morning, I received an intriguing email from Miles Galliford, who gave me a free one-year subscription to PhraseHQ, “the world’s largest phrase thesaurus,” by virtue of my being, in his words, “one of the top 100 copywriters in the world.”
Is it true? Does it matter? In any event, I’ll take pleasure in the compliment. Why the hell not?
I don’t know how Miles compiled the list or what standards he applied in exercising his judgment, but whatever else, I’m certainly in good company. Some of the 101 are legends, like Bob Bly, Dan Kennedy and Herschell Gordon Lewis. Some of them are friends or acquaintances, like Diana Huff, Mike Stelzner and Steve Slaunwhite. Others, frankly, I’ve never heard of but that doesn’t mean anything — I don’t know lots of terrific people.
Miles asked, in his email, for constructive criticism (for which I may be rewarded with lifetime access) and here are a few points:
- First of all, I think it’s a cool and necessary tool. Phrases can be confusing and/or ambiguous, so a helpful site/application like this is appreciated.
- I’d like to see more phrases from foreign languages (especially Latin) that English-speakers are likely to encounter in their reading. Few things are as frustrating as an untranslated phrase that the author just assumes we should understand.
- I’d also like to see special callouts or flags for nation-specific colloquialisms (U.S., U.K., Australia, etc.) that might be confusing to an English-speaker outside the country of the phrase’s origin.
Just my two-cents. (Do they say “two-pence” or “tuppence” in England?)