Content Magician, Freelance web content writers

Archive for July, 2009

It can be a tough trying to come up with dynamic blog posts that readers will find interesting and useful. Here are a few brainstorming ideas that may help you develop dynamic content that will add variety and personality to your blog while also inviting visitors to be interactive.

1. Post Other People’s Articles

You can find many interesting articles written by other authors and they are a great resource for generating blog content.  I will say that posting your own articles is ideal but in a pinch posting articles from other writers can add variety, particularly if it’s an article from an author with a creative writing style. Of course posting other people’s articles requires including their resource box with a link to the author’s website. If this concerns you here’s a suggestion.

Post articles that are useful to your readers but not in direct competition.  For example, a website about dating might post an article from a ‘money tips’ website that lists ways to save money on a date.   The article is useful to your dating readers but may not necessarily draw them to the money tips website as your reader is focused more on dating.

If you are posting articles from other authors be sure to preface the article with an introduction paragraph on why you like the article and why your viewers should read it.

Then follow the article with a personal comment and invite your viewers to offer their opinions and ideas as well.

2. Attend Webinars, Workshops or Live Seminars

Not everyone has the time or the cash to attend live Seminars or workshops, but if you do, they are well worth it when it comes to learning strategies and getting ideas for content.  In fact I’ll guarantee your head will be swimming with ideas and useful information when it’s over.

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You’ve got your content presented and ready for the market, and you’re marketing diligently. How do you know your content is being effective? That is the golden question, and one that’s very difficult to answer, simply because information marketing hits so many different places. Unless you ask your customers directly (which isn’t always practical), it’s hard to know how many times they were exposed to your content and from what directions. Your customers may not even know themselves.

So how can you tell if any one kind of content you’re using is as effective as it could be? The following tips may help:

Make a simple marketing chart

Your information content is meant to steer the market to buy what you’re providing. If you’ve communicated effectively, then purchases will happen. A simple chart with three columns can give you the general idea of whether or not you’re going in the right direction.

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written by Marsha Maung

It’s lucky for some of us who started out with the whole web content writing thing when it was still raw out of the fridge.We’re lucky because we see how NOT to do things now.

Back in those days, web content writers were rare and we didn’t really know how to capture the audience we wanted, so we wrote rubbish and planted them everywhere. Then we frantically plugged words together and combine them in random order with keywords we wanted to rank highly with. We sent them out and the spider-bots picked them up and thought dumbly, ‘Wow, lookie here….this page here, lots of ‘making money online’ keyword. Must be really important. Let’s rank it on first page.’

As if it’s of any surprise at all, people found out how dumb we were trying to do things and caught on. It’s easy to do, so, this is no-brainer stuff.

Soon, everyone was doing it and the search engines were buggered up.

It’s amazing because the search engines have gotten smarter – the sad part is, some folks have not. They’re still adopting the old-school SEO techniques and they’ve got to realize that the web content writing style is not only out-of-date, it’s disrespectful of the readers and the audience.

The audience have grown smarter now that even dogs have blogs. If they could bark their way to promote their blogs, they would. So, we need to evolve with that. The moment readers find out how you’re making use of them to get traffic from them, they’re never coming back. Once they realize you’re committed to publishing utter rubbish, they’ll keep their wallets as far away from you as possible.

Is THAT what you want?

If you want success in your business and you want to provide good web content for your readers so that they learn how to respect you, you need to add true value to the stuff that you publish for them. Otherwise, it’s simply adieus and they’re never coming back.

Whenever I fall for fake links and pages, bear in mind that I take a good, long look at the web URL. I try my best to remember the name (there are too many, however) so that I know where NOT to click the next time the link comes up. Feed the readers and fool the search engines with links that are merely filled with ads, publish rubbish reviews and something will happen….it’s only a matter of time.

In conclusion, I honestly wish that more people realize that the readers are getting far too smart for us to fool the way we used to fool them now.

But that’s just me.

Note: Photo credit

If you want to become a really good technical writer then you must be good at research. In most cases, the quality of your documents will be directly proportional to the time you invest researching the project. Being a good researcher is an acquired skill. And like all skills, you have to practice it to become good at it.

Research is an often overlooked component of technical writing. Generally, job descriptions for technical writers will not have “must be good at research” as a required skill. You may not be asked about your research abilities at job interviews. In reality, you might spend 50 to 70 percent of your time researching the project.

I remember my initiation into the world of research. It was my first day on the job in a major Fortune 500 company. The tech support guy was setting up my computer when my manager, Frank S, summoned me to his office.

“Here’s your first project,” he told me. He handed me a small piece of paper with the words “IPC Training” scrawled on it. “What do you want me to do?” I asked him. “Write a training program,” he replied. With that, he picked up his briefcase and went off to a meeting. I was confused and had no clue what to do. The words “IPC Training” meant nothing to me. Being timid, I was afraid to ask my manager for details. And I had heard that he had a short temper. So I grabbed a notepad and a pen and went off to get some answers to the thousands of questions I had swirling in my head.

Research Tip # 1 - Ask Questions

Don’t be shy when asking questions. The more you ask, the more facts you will uncover. You’ll find that your target audience, subject matter experts and those you interview will be happy to answer your questions. A good habit to develop is to make a list of questions before you interview someone. This saves time for both parties.

Research Tip # 2 - Read Existing Documents

That’s the second step I took in my IPC Training project. I read everything I could get my hands on about the subject. This may get tedious and boring, especially when you are digging through technical and engineering documents. One way to reduce the boredom is to write down the key points of your research. You could also set aside a certain part of your work day for research. Doing this will give you a goal to aim for as opposed to long day of research drudgery.

Research Tip # 3 - Keep a Separate Research Folder

Maintain a research folder to organize the information you collect. This could mean creating two folders - one for paper documents and the other for digital files. Being organized will help you retrieve information in the future without wasting time.

Research Tip # 4 - Think Like a Detective

Cover all angles when researching a project. Writing a user manual for a toaster oven may seem easy at first. But what about the safety and hazards involved? You’ll also have to write about cleaning, storage and maintenance.

Research Tip # 6 - Tap into the Internet

The internet has made it relatively easy to widen your research web. Google Scholar is a new tool by Google that helps you search thousands of books, abstracts, articles, academic publications, universities and professional societies.

Looking back on that first technical writing project - IPC Training - it was the best thing my manager could do for me. Later on, I asked him about why he gave me the project topic without any details. He told me that since it was first my project, he wanted to give me the freedom to learn every aspect of the business. He was right.

You may find that a lion’s share of your project time will be consumed by research. I like to think of is as the fun part of every project. It’s by researching you get to meet new people and find out how things work. You expand your knowledge and your mind.

If you can write a simple sentence and organize your thoughts then technical writing may be a rewarding field. Become a tech writer and quickly start an extra income stream.

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About The Author
To learn more go to http://www.techwritingcourse.com/bright_future

Author: Marsha Maung

For the longest time, I toiled day in and day out, pursuing the interest of others. As a business woman and as a freelance writer, there’s literally no other option. It’s either that or eat sand. I chose the former. I don’t like sand very much.

I tweeted this yesterday, I think (follow me on twitter if you want – www.twitter.com/marshamaung), and then it slammed into me. I tweeted: I need to write more for myself. In my organizer, the list of things to do for MYSELF is backlogged as far back as two weeks ago!

There are stuff that I should have done for myself that I should have done two whole weeks ago! Compare the list to the one I have for my clients – to the dot! Well, ALMOST to the dot. I had a bad Wednesday, ok?

I think it will do me good if I could just imagine myself as a client for once. If my clients were important to me, I should be just as important if not more important. Without me as a writer, there would be no….money. In this equation, the most important thing to my business right now is….yes, my computer, but more importantly, it’s me.
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