I am frequently asked, ?Who do you think is the best copywriter working today??

So what better place than my blog to answer that question?

Here, in no particular order, are the copywriters I think are the best in the business today:

1. Clayton Makepeace.
2. Jim Reutz.
3. Parris Lampropolous.
4. David Deutsch.
5. Gary Bencivenga.
6. Dick Sanders.
7. Arthur Johnson.
8. Don Mahoney.
9. Paul Hollingshead.
10. Jim Punkre.

To be included on the list, you have to be a copywriter as your primary job function.

Therefore, there are some great copywriters who didn?t make the list because they focus on other tasks, such as running successful businesses.

These include Michael Masterson and Bill Bonner, both of whom would top the list if they became full-time copywriters tomorrow.

But please jump in ? and give me YOUR opinion.

Which names on the list do you agree with?

Who do you think should be added?

No, says Richard Notorianni, Executive Creative Director of Media, Euro RSCG, MVBMS Partners in an interview with Circulation Management (8/05, 0. 10).

?Worldwide, information is ubiquitous,? says Notorianni. ?You can access it any time, any where. Magazines create perspective and knowledge and are enhanced by the chaos around them. The well-edited magazine is a force [in the market].?

What about you? Do you think the Internet makes magazines redundant? Do you turn to the Internet for all or most of your information needs?

Or do you still read magazines ? and find that they indeed add a perspective and knowledge that?s lacking in Web content?

By now almost everyone knows how Stephen King wrote his stories and novels while living in poverty in a trailer on a hill in Maine, with a typewriter propped up on his knees as he sat in the space next to the boiler.

According to Parade magazine, King earned $52.4 million last year.

But before you decide to get rich writing novels, talk to Lance Marcum, whose first novel, ?The Cottonmouth Club,? was recently published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

In an interview with Writer?s Digest (August 2005, p. 17), Marcum said: ?For nearly four years, I spent every available moment writing, sacrificing more than 4,000 hours of free time.?

Based on that labor, his earnings on the book so far come to a measly $1.50 per hour — far below minimum wage.

Only a few folks get rich writing novels. Most novelists can?t even make a living.

My kids are impressionable video game addicts and tech junkies, so you can imagine my dismay at the latest TV commercial from Hewlett Packard.

The spot shows college students in a classroom listening to a professor giving a science lecture.

Voice-over narration suggests that with an HP Pavillion Notebook, you can sit in class, but instead of paying attention to the teacher, listen to music or watch DVDs.

That?s good for HP, who will sell more notebooks to kids motivated to get them for this reason; not so good for the students or the parents footing the tuition bill.

Do any of you have a similar reaction to the HP commercial and its negative message? Or am I being too much of a crank here?

If you download copyrighted digital content without paying for it ? music, movies, books, articles ? you?re stealing from the creator of the material, pure and simple.

Now, according to an article in BusinessWeek (6/6/02), Google is planning to scan the complete texts of millions of books from major libraries around the world and make them searchable online.

?Problem No. 1 is that Google?s plan is a clear violation of copyright laws,? reports BusinessWeek.

The article quotes Peter Givler, executive director of the Association of American University Presses, who notes that the Google plan ?appears to involve systematic infringement of copyright on a massive scale.?

As an author, I am outraged. What Google is doing is not much different than raiding a farmer?s field at night, harvesting all the crops, and giving it away to hungry people ? without paying the farmer a dime.

Forget ?Citizen?s Publishing.? If you want to give away your work on the Internet for free, that?s your business.

But if you take my copyrighted work and post it on your site without my permission, you?re a thief ? and, like any thief, you should be punished if caught. Right?

An art director showed me a promotion she was designing — and it was all in reverse type (white lettering on a black background).

When I told her not to use it because reverse type is hard to read, she said, “You can’t prove it by me.”

So I’m asking for your opinion … and your help. Do you use or avoid reverse type? Why? Any results or proof to back up your opinions and preferences?

Are you too busy today to do your best work? Too pressured to enjoy what poet Billy Collins calls ?the still room of thought? ? a contemplative, quiet mode for thinking and writing?

Now modern science tells us that being too busy can actually make us less intelligent.

According to a study from the University of London, trying to work while constantly checking your e-mails and voice mail messages temporarily lowers your I.Q. by about 10 points.

Reason: the human brain did not evolve to handle the constant flow of communication and information that modern technology, essentially developed within a generation, now exposes it to.

The inescapable conclusion? If you don?t structure some quiet and alone time into your day ? admittedly difficult, especially in a corporate setting ? you may rob yourself of the opportunity to do your best work and thinking.

Do you find this already happening to you? And what can one do to alleviate the problem?

Does a citizen have the right to expect that certain basics be provided to him, such as health care, housing — and a job?

For many professionals, technology and obsolescence are increasingly robbing them of the opportunity to earn a living in their area of specialty. And no where is this more prevalent then in computers, once viewed as the most stable and fastest growing career in the U.S.

According to an article in InformationWeek (4/4/05), the Gartner Group reports that 30% of high-tech jobs in the United States are at risk from outsourcing to India and other nations.

?I?m just finishing my MIS degree, and when I see articles like this, it just makes me ask, what?s the point of getting an education if everything my family and I sacrified to get this degree is meaningless?? asks Bob Walz in a letter to the editor in InformationWeek.

My heart goes out to Bob. On the other hand, do companies have an obligation to provide Bob and other workers with well-paying employment? If a company can get IT services like Bob?s at a fraction of the cost by outsourcing to a programmer in India, don’t they have an obligation to their shareholders to do it?

Your thoughts?