Content Magician, Freelance web content writers

Archive for June, 2009

Can you think of one instance whereby you’re just staring at the keyboard and willing yourself to type something….ANYTHING out?! You’re just staring at it and wishing that there was something you could do about that empty page on the computer.

I know. It’s horrible, that feeling.

But here’s the secret to writing even when you’re stuck…just write anyway. Anything that comes to mind. Just think about a recent movie you’ve seen, the cup of coffee in front of you, your favorite actress, a man standing at the altar being abandoned by his bride-not-to-be….etc. The obstacle is you. You can’t get started because you’re facing something writers are most afraid of….writer’s block! Oh, how I hate that word too!

Over the years of being able to write despite facing devastating and career-destroying mind blocks, I’ll share something with you and that is to get yourself chugging anyway.

You know, November is my favorite month of the year because that’s the month whereby I have to force myself to write despite not knowing what to write. I participate in something called the National Novel Writing Month….in short, it’s affectionately called Nanowrimo. It’s an incredible process, I’m telling ya!!

The purpose is to force yourself to write a novel (or a really long short story – haha) of at least 50,000 words within that month. The reward….nothing. Yeah, you don’t anything from completing the process but you know what? That’s not true. At the end of the month, when you’ve finally succeeded in writing those 50,000 words, you’ve got half a novel finished and a story.

Sometimes the story is good, sometimes they suck – but you’ve got material to work on now, don’t you?

So, the essence of what I am trying to say today is this. Even if you’re stuck there staring at your keyboard, write anyway. Write about how you hate your hand lotion, how much laundry you have to do, write about world war II….just keep at it until the engine chugs to life.

Good luck!

p.s. If you’re still stuck, head on over here for some REALLY NEAT writing prompts! Have fun. No, seriously, HAVE FUN!!!

Most people concur that writing is not always easy – especially when you’re not wired that way. Most people would imagine TALKING a much better, more convenient form of communication. It takes effort to write. But for strange, weird people like me, writing is easier. That is….before this whole online social networking thing took it a few steps deeper.

Writing, for most writers today, is a form of promotion for ourselves. The more we write, the more we get out there, the more people we reach, the more people get to know about it. If you do a credible job, you invariably will attract a few fans and followers as time goes on.

With the online social networking phenomenon, it’s no longer the case.

Writing is the easy part….the physical part of typing the article out, editing and proofing them. And THEN comes the hard part. I know some people are thinking, ‘That’s it, right? You’re done! You get it published or send it out or something, right?’ WRONG.

I said ‘promotion’ up there and an article does not promote itself. You need to push it out there, hence, the work AFTER the writing is done. First, you’ll post it up, of course, then you put it up on your Facebook account to let all your friends and family members know that you’ve just written some masterpiece. And you get on Twitter and tweet about it to your followers so that they can get a read of it too. It’s not a prerequisite but some people repeat their tweets (RT – ReTweet) the same link with different write-up….just in case someone missed it. Some people do it up to 8, 9, 10 times a day. Sometimes they do it the next day, next week…well, it’s up to you how much you want to annoy your followers, really.

Done? No. Don’t forget to plug the story into article directories too and that’ll take a bit of time but you’ll chill while waiting. And of course, you’re going to have to place some links in your Facebook group walls and also in your blog to let readers know the article is there.

Done? No. Don’t forget the online bookmarking sites because lots of people go through them and an extra link can’t be a bad thing. So, you go into your digg.com, stumbleupon, Yahoo! buzz, propeller.com, delicious.com, furl.net…and stick the link up there with a short write-up to….yes, to let people know the article is there.

See? One article and tons of work after that. You see why writing is the easy part now? I might just start thinking that talking is way faster some day.

Some people are just really sticky about posting links to other sites just because it’s a requirement when you use their articles, videos or images on their blogs or websites. They’re thinking, ‘Why should I? Who’s to know? Why should I share the traffic with this guy….he can do his own marketing, can’t he? I’ve worked hard for my readers!’

Be nice.

That’s one of the unwritten rules about internet marketing and one of the nicest thing a publisher can do is to provide a link back – you earn extra brownie points for pointing to a link without it being a requirement but a favor. There are many benefits!

One, readers love you for it if they find it useful or entertaining. In the online world, it’s about developing a love for someone who leads you to stuff….maybe bigger things and more entertaining materials. They’ll love you for it, so play nice and you’ll win the hearts over.

Two, Google loves it, most major search engines loves it. Enough said?

Three, it works both ways. If the owner of the said blog/website finds out that you’ve linked to him/her without even asking for credit or a linkback, you get a new friend!

The trouble with some website/blog owners is that they’re so insecure about their own standing in cyberworld that they’re afraid of helping others with a simple link (in a new window if you so wish).

That’s sooooo not it.

The friendlier, nicer, and kinder you are, the more you stand out. Being nasty helps some bloggers but if you’re a business owner, I’m not sure if you want to head down in that direction.

“We will first evaluate the synergy between hosts, unanimously determine project aim and further pursue conclusion. This favorable course will combine instantaneous growth and achievement to gain traction to prosperity.”

This is an actual example of some copy I pulled from an online consulting company. Does anyone have any idea what they are presenting here? This could be an attempt to sell a service, product or a cup of coffee. It seems as if someone wrote a sentence and checked every word on an online thesaurus to make a fancier version of it. When taken from context, a statement should be able to stand by itself, on its own merit and remain understandable. In this article, I want to uncover the forbidden language of marketing and help bring copywriting to justice. Or in other words - I want to syngergize the synergy between the majestic biographies of other entities.

I am not an overly skilled copywriter and consider it to be one of the more difficult tasks in my line of work. When using copy to communicate a product or service, you have to first identify the reader. If you are a bank, don’t use large and complicated verbiage when attempting to coax customers into putting their money in a CD. If you are selling business coaching, professional but understandable text is acceptable. Regardless, construct your copy to be understandable and creative. Despite the popular “pictures are worth a thousand words” statement, you may not actually need a THOUSAND words when describing a product or service. Most of the time, it is the lack there of or secrecy that will generate more interest.

There are levels of information you should give a customer - consumer or business, so that you can snag their attention and get them to do something like request more information. It is very important to identify these levels before developing copy. What do you want someone to do after reading promotional material? Where are you placing the verbiage and how will it relate to your printed or web media?

I’ve found it best to always build a product, its attributes and descriptive language as if it was going to be sold or promoted online. A user website experience is a perfect example of how people read, retain and act upon the information fed to them. If you give to much information, the user is more likely to assume they already know enough and it isn’t necessary to request more information. However, if you tease them with just the right amount, they are more likely to be compelled to request additional information. That doesn’t mean one-line descriptions will elevate your success, it just means that you should tease the reader, wet their appetite and encourage them to contact you with a strong call to action.

So, now that you know how to formulate and design your copy with an idea of how much to use, let’s briefly discuss its contents. When working on descriptive text, avoid words like “synergy”. These words are what I like to call ‘default’ words and 62% more likely to be overlooked and ignored. There is a balance between enticing words and words that sound like you are the high school English teacher trying to be cool by dancing at prom - unsuccessful and very, very likely to fail.

Remember who you are attempting to communicate to and always assume ignorance. The worst thing you could do is make someone who you are trying to sell to feel inferior with big words. Try to be enticing, short and to the point. Here is an example of a distracting description of services and an example of one that may be just as effective without being obnoxious:

Bad: “Sample the soothing and immaculate taste of our natural selection of pastries and divine beverages while enjoying the tranquil reception experience complete with complementary Wi-Fi.”

Good: “Wake up and feel at home with continental breakfast served in our reception area while staying connected with fast, free Wi-Fi.”

Sometimes fancy works and sometimes it doesn’t. But, in this situation, just get to the point. The words in my first example don’t necessarily make me want to stay at that particular hotel. In fact, it makes me automatically assume that it is likely too expensive. Now more than ever, people don’t have time to appreciate the thought you put into descriptions that seem overly complicated, give them something simple, fun and memorable. Have fun with it, put something together that will catch their attention. Just remember, less is more and sometimes people just want you to get to the point.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joshua Hays is an aggressive marketing consultant with a strong background in design and nearly ten years of broad experience involving both B2B and B2C marketing techniques including print and online campaigns. He has advanced knowledge of both the Microsoft and Adobe software suites and is cross-platform, multi-operating system (MAC & PC) trained. Joshua specializes in product and campaign development. Joshua Hays can be reached at http://www.joshuahays.com.

There’s something really fantastic about what Dunkin Donuts is doing with their online social media marketing effort through Facebook; it totally threw me off. Don’t get me wrong, this is not the first time I’ve heard of such campaigns and I sometimes try to get my clients to go along with it but….well, skeptics abound. Somehow, there’s something really endearing about the way they’re going about it.

How are they going about it?

First, let me get this out of the way before I explode. For the life of me, I cannot understand why Starbucks is not catching on?! Don’t they know enough about online social networking to be in it already – or at least, do it the right way?! Starbucks, surprisingly, is still stuck in the middle of nowhere….literally….trying to combine their offline and online social media marketing thing together and achieving….not much. They SHOULD be frustrated.

They should fire the advertising company doing it for them. Sending cups of Starbucks coffee from friend to friend can only do so much knowing that most of us Facebook users are already quite tired of adding applications to our already mashed-up Facebook profile page.

Have you seen the Coolatta sweepstakes ran by the Big Donut recently on Facebook? They don’t have as many fans as the Twilight series (yet) but they’re quickly catching up with eight-hundred-thousand fans of their Facebook page and counting. Accordingly (I’ve not tried this for myself), you can upload a photo of yourself on the Donut’s Facebook wall with a Coolatta and then add a caption to it. After that, it will be a BINGO moment for you – wait for them to go around on a random-selection process and BINGO, it’s either you get it or you don’t.

The kind of prizes that they’re offering are stuff like TVs, iPhones, wardrobe, flights….etc. Really cool stuff, I have to admit…for a chance to win that all you have to do is to get one of those Coolattas and snap a picture of yourself with it? Man, you can even borrow it from the guy behind the counter and have your instant Coolatta picture taken, does it matter? Not really. Sale is the last on their minds at the moment although this side benefit would have been good. There’s bound to be a spike in sales.

Anyway, the main purpose is to get people to spread the message and encourage action….and it’s the perfect way to enhance branding compared to Starbucks’ meek effort in getting people to pass Starbucks coffee around. Most of the time, for your information, I ignore these cups of coffees (sorry friends, but I prefer REAL coffee) and sadly, it does nothing to people like me.

It’s not targeting the target market properly and not encouraging any form of active participation at all….and the keyword would be ACTIVE PARTICIPATION….and AHEM, it does not include spamming or asking fans of the Facebook page to circulate a message to as many of their friends as possible. That’s viral and in case you don’t already know, viral marketing is a big turn off, does NOT work on Facebook…or any other online media marketing sites available to us at the moment.

Good on Dunkin’ Donuts. Now I am off to see if I can photoshop a picture of me with that Coolatta thing and win myself an awesome holiday.