Developing a professional writing style is critical if you’re serious about making money from blogging. You can get so far by posting free flowing articles that discuss subjects in a conversational manner. Many such blogs are popular, but if you look at the really successful bloggers, they all use a distinct writing style.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to develop a professional writing style that can be used for blogging:

Introduce topic

In your first paragraph, introduce the subject. Tell the reader what you’re going to talk about and why they should continue to read the article. Give them a reason to read onwards. Emphasize your credentials, expertise, or research you’ve performed on the subject – you want to establish some rapport with the reader. Quickly!

Use headings

Avoid writing long blocks of text. Break your article into several chucks (i.e. units) of text. Give each chunk a heading. This helps the reader scan the article and zoom in on the sections they’re interested in. Web readers like to scan. So, write to be scanned!

Short sentences

Don’t write as you speak! Use short sentences that drive the reader forward. Talk to the reader as though you were explaining something to a good friend! Help the reader understand the subject better than before they visited your blog. Don’t show off. Remove affected or pretentious sounding words. No-one uses these in the real world. Use key words where necessary (if you want to attract search engines) but avoid writing in a ‘search-engine friendly’ style. Automated robots might like it but humans won’t!

List key points

Use lists to break up long paragraphs. If necessary, number the items in the list, especially if they signify levels of importance. Lists are another way to help readers scan text. Keep them short. One line max.

Add graphics

Balance the text to graphics ratio by using images, diagrams, screenshots to compliment the narrative. Don’t add images just for the sake of it. Use something that emphasizes the main points. If possible, keep the image colors in line with your blog’s color scheme. Remember that search engines index images. For this reason, use keywords when naming your images. Instead of 123.gif, name it google-gmail-screenshot.gif

Direct user to next article

When the reader gets to the end of your article, they should NEVER have this thought, “Where do I go next?”

Direct the reader to the next website that will interest them. This is a type of ‘customer service’ to the reader. You’re helping them enjoy their online web experience. Readers, being human, will appreciate this.

And No, don’t link only to your own blog. If your blog is good enough, they’ll bookmark it and return.

Golden rule

Always write with the reader’s interests in mind. Once you get this right, the rest falls into place.

About the Author: Read more from Gerry McGovern at  www.gerrymcgovern.com

PayPal offers Personal and Business accounts. Both are free but one offers better rates, better tools and lower fees. Want to know more?

photo credit: valdeklaur

As a small business owner you’re looking for ways to cut costs and stay competitive. I run several web businesses and PayPal has been a godsend. While I still use Clickbank and eJunkie, I’ve switched to the Business account and started to see the benefits already.

Getting a PayPal Business Account

It takes about 20 minutes.

• Create a new account on PayPal.
• Select Business (far right of the screen). This is for Merchants (i.e. business owners) who use a company name.
• Click Get Started.
• Enter in the Business Account details. Remember to have your company name and VAT details ready.

Why Choose a PayPal Business Account?

In addition to accepting and receiving payments, you get:

• Accept Credit and Debit cards. Personal accounts can’t accept Debit cards.
• Multi-user access. Your team can all access the same account.
• Lower Fees For Receiving Payments
• Standard rate for receiving payments for goods and services is 3.4% + €0.35 EUR.

If you receive more than €2,500.00 EUR per month, you’re eligible to apply for PayPal’s Merchant Rate – which lowers your fees as your sales volume increases. Your fees can be as low as 1.9% + €0.35 EUR, based on your previous month’s sales volume.

Merchant Rate Fees

Once you start to use PayPal more frequently – and the amount of sales increase – the fees per transactions goes down. This is one argument for centralizing your ecommerce activities through PayPal rather than eJunkie or Clickbank, neither of which offer sliding scales for payments, i.e. lower fees for higher transaction fees.

Criteria for Merchant Accounts

The Merchant rate criteria is as follows:

• Merchant rate pricing approval is reserved for members in good standing (whose accounts are not currently under investigation) who meet the following criteria:
• Received more than €2,500.00 EUR in PayPal payments in the previous calendar month.
• Maintaining your merchant rate: After qualifying for merchant rate pricing, all members are expected to keep their PayPal account in good standing. Members may be downgraded to the Standard rate if a payment volume of more than €2,500.00 EUR is not maintained in the previous calendar month, or if they have unresolved chargebacks.

Note: You do not need to reapply for merchant rate pricing if payment volume drops below €2,500.00 EUR, unless your account is downgraded or if there are unresolved chargebacks.

Other Advantages To a Business Account

I have two accounts with PayPal: one Personal and one Business. I keep the Personal account for buying things on Ebay and/or paying for small items online.

Business account I use for business-related transactions has a few benefits:

• Trust – Showing that this is a Verified account increases trust with buyers. Next week I‘ll show you how to get your account verified.
• Customer Service – When things go wrong with transactions, for example, I have a query with a payment, the Customer Service from PayPal is very fast, usually within a few hours.
• Tax Records – having a dedicated account makes it easier to me to track payments and calculate the amount of tax to pay every year. In the past, it took forever to separate personal and business related transactions, especially small payments. Now, I use the reports functions and print out all the transaction or simply paste them into Excel.
• eBay Tools – the Business account (and Premier accounts) offer more advanced tools for integrating your epayments to eBay. In later tutorials, I’ll show you how to do this.
• Merchant Services – as with the eBay tools this offers more sophisticated tools for sending, receiving and integrating payments.

Transaction Fees for Cross-Border Currencies

There are fees for Cross-border transactions, for example, payments made by a Spanish customer to an American website. Likewise, there may be cross-border fees between two countries in the same continent, such as between Iceland and Spain as they use different currencies.

Fees for receiving eCheck payments will not exceed $5.00 USD per transaction.

Next Steps

If you plan to sell goods online, take a good look at what PayPal, eJunkie and Clickbank offer. These are the three big players in the market. There is no cost to sign-up with each, so your only investment is your time.

I’d suggest that you give special attention to PayPal, for a few reasons:

• It’s a trusted brand name. There was issues in the past but these have been ironed out. This will increase transactions and sales over
  lesser known products. People are more comfortable with brands they know, even if the price is slightly higher.
• It integrates with eJunkie, Clickbank and other web merchants.
• From 2011 eBay will only accept payment through PayPal. We’ll look at how you can use eBay to sell goods in the coming weeks, so don’t close the door or think it’s not for you.
• The Invoice tools let you send out invoices to customers as orders come in.
• The Reporting tools let you break out sales figures and see which products are performing best.
• The Reminder tool let you send out an email to customer reminding them the payments are past due.

Ok, you get the idea, I guess. There are other features that, for me, put it head and shoulders above the competitions.

But what are the negatives about PayPal?

It does have drawbacks.

For example, you can setup a script to let customers download a digital product, such as an ebook. By setting up these scripts is not for
everyone. Again, I will show you how to do this. It’s not that hard and we’ll walk you thru the process.

This article outlined some of the reasons I use PayPal for my web businesses. I also use Clickbank and eJunkie. They all have their respective strengths and weaknesses.

What’s the main reason you use or DONT use PayPal?

Let us know below and we’ll discuss it in next week’s tutorial.

Wendy Marx of Marx Communications as a quality presentation titled "How to Improve the ROI of your New Product Launch". In this presentation, Wendy outlines the five important product launch steps product teams should execute ensure a successful product launch meets its objectives.

Product Launch Readiness: Get your brand ahead of the competition

She includes the following product launch action plan to increase a successful product launch ROI:

1. Acquiring a correct positioning and message
2. Defining the target audience
3. Developing Collateral in sync with your audience
4. Lining up and preparing spokespeople
5. Developing an announcement strategy

These steps are all good product launch essentials.  I would also recommend that any new product launch team consider these as a foundation to a sensible PR strategy.  However, if all your competitors are able to use the same strategies, where is the PR edge for a new product launch? Is there any way to increase the ROI on a new product launch?

If a brand team can articulate the main issue their new product addresses, then that team should seek an edge by initiating industry conversations, around their new market issues, much earlier than the product launch activities and PR events.

To accomplish this, a product team should collect all the relevant industry conversations around the issue their product addresses. They should curate these conversations around the discussions most important to their customers.  They should then publish these conversations and insights in an easy to access, branded presence that the industry may access.

Sampling, reviewing, and publishing insights from the industry delivers three advantages to the product launch team:

1. It introduces the team to the industry as leaders involved with critical issues in the market before any promotion or product-focused marketing efforts
2. It provides market intelligence on how the product team can improve its positioning and messaging for maximum relevance
3. It seeds the company brand as an industry leader and insider, giving it an edge during the eventual PR efforts for the product launch events.

Product teams that can curate and share the critical issues of the market in which they plan to engage a product launch conversations, will have an edge over other teams that only launch their industry conversations during their market introduction efforts.

I have a troll. Do you? We call him Spartacus. Trolls slither over the internet. They start as lurkers, then get brave, creep out and spit things at you. 10 out of 10 trolls feed on attention.

Negative or positive – they don’t care. Attention is the oxygen that keeps them going. Here’s the story of how I found my troll and what we may do next?

How did I get my troll?

I found him on LinkedIn. Or rather he found me. Then (this is true!) he popped up on my site. Odd, I thought, but ‘hey, it’s the web’. Then played peek-a-bo on Twitter (sad but true!) and back on my website again.

Little trolls fingers go click, click, click all day, looking for the next place to make a ‘stand’. Paradoxically, most trolls are highly-moral and like to sermonize. Middle-aged trolls especially. I guess the kids don’t listen to them at home, so they wander online.

Etymology of Trolls

Troll is possibly a truncation of the phrase trolling for suckers derived from the fishing technique of slowly dragging a baited hook from a moving boat, waiting for fish to strike, a technique known as trolling. The word also evokes the trolls portrayed in Scandinavian folklore and children’s tales, as they are often creatures bent on mischief and wickedness. The verb “troll” originates from Old French “troller”, a hunting term.

6 Signs of Trolls

1. Clinging to the high moral ground. They live there. Convenient, I guess.
2. Looking for a ‘fight’.
3. Having the last word. Trolls can’t rest unless they’ve had the final say thus…
4. Finishing tweets with the word PERIOD. Remember: it’s one-way traffic with these folks.
5. Warped pleasure in others misfortunes. Grammar police are often pseudo-trolls or apprentice trolls.
6. Quoting. Prepare to have biblical passages & Gandhi thrown at you. They’re better than you!

What to do with Trolls?

There are different ways to approach this:

1. Don’t correct them when they misquote passages.
2. Agree with them. This confuses the troll. What to do next?
3. Give them the last word and pray they go away.
4. ‘Even if this is true……’ and give your side
5. Although this is on-topic..’
6. Don’t DM your troll. Ever!
7. ‘Can you provide a source for this…’

We’ve nicknamed our troll Spartacus. He’s a bit of a joke at the table.

‘Any word from your Spartacus today?’

Over to you

Do you have a troll or trollette? How did you get rid of it? We’re hoping it will go away but sometimes I wonder what he’s doing now…

While most consumers tightened their real-world purse strings in 2009, but that did not seem to hurt sales of virtual goods. Users of virtual world Second Life spent $567 million buying virtual goods in 2009. 65% year-over-year increase in spending on user-generated virtual items for avatars. It’s marketplace saw virtual goods sales of $6.1 million. The economy is based on the Linden™ dollar (L$), Second Life’s virtual currency. You can buy and sell L$ on the LindeX™ the official virtual currency exchange of Second Life. In 2008 more than USD $100 million worth of L$ were bought and sold on the LindeX. While Facebook gets the media hype, Second Life generates real money – even though it starts as virtual money. Let’s look at the figures.

Second Life: Virtual Economies Continue To Rise

Second Life’s worldwide user base increased by 15% to 769 million, while the amount of time spent in the virtual world climbed even faster, by more than 21%, indicating increased engagement.

In 2009, Piper Jaffray predicted more than $2.2 billion in virtual goods revenues worldwide, including $621 million in the US. By 2013, more than $6 billion will be spent worldwide on virtual items.

It predicted that virtual worlds such as Second Life would fall behind in the virtual-goods economy while social network players like Facebook become more involved in the space.

Second Life Highlights of Q4 2009

• US$153 million in User-to-User Transactions, 53% growth over the same quarter last year
• All-time high and continuing rapid growth for the Xstreet SL online marketplace
• All-time high in Monthly Repeat Logins, at 769,000 in December 2009
• 3.1 billion Voice minutes, up 15% from the same quarter last year

Total user hours continued to trend downward in Q4 while peak concurrency remained flat. This decline stems from a decrease in user hours contributed by heavy usage accounts (300+ hours per months).

Second Life Economy – Financial Highlights

• User-to-User transactions in 2009 totaled US$567 million in 2009, growth of 65% over 2008.
• Virtual currency in circulation reached L$6.95 billion, growth of 23% over December 2008
• US Dollar value of L$ in circulation totaled US$26.5 million in December 2009
• Sales of User Generated virtual items on Xstreet SL, reached L$1.6 billion or US$6.1 million, growth of 74% over 2008
• Total US dollar value of all Linden dollars traded on the LindeX™ currency exchange in 2009 reached US$115 million in value,  7% growth over 2008
• Total US dollar value of all Linden dollars traded on the Xstreet SL™ currency exchange in 2009 reached US$1.5 million in value, 169% growth over 2008

Cary Rosenzweig, CEO of IMVU, another virtual world with extensive user-to-user virtual item offerings, described that service as “more like an e-commerce company … in the sense that we get our money from the purchase of these virtual credits that people use to buy virtual items.

“Virtual goods have value to people,” Mr. Rosenzweig told eMarketer. “People buy virtual goods usually for one of three reasons: to express themselves—so they’re buying virtual goods to make their avatar look terrific—or to build relationships with other people in the form of gifts. And [the] third reason, especially in gaming environments, is that virtual goods enhance your power to effect change, to win, to do what you would like to do in that area.”

Do you buy Virtual Goods?

Have you ever bought any Virtual Goods for your avatar? How much would you pay to bling your avatar or online user experience? What do you think are the main barriers for Second Life? Do people think it’s too weird? Do you use it?

I’ve started to use video to sell (and upsell!) my digital downloads and information products. Like most beginners, I’m making mistakes at every step. But I’ve learnt a few tricks this week,  mostly thanks for Christopher Ming Ryan. Here’s what I learnt.

Video Blogging: Mistakes to Avoid

There are three steps involved in making videos:

1. Planning
2. Recording and
3. Editing

Most of us are good at one, but not so hot at the others. For me, it’s editing. No patience. Want to start the next. But I need to slow down. Here’s why:

• Great videos will significantly increase sales on your site, sales pages, squeeze pages – call them what you will but
• Lousy videos will drive potential customers away, screaming, ‘did you see how bad that was – my god!’

Christopher makes these suggestions:

• Start to like editing. It’s part of the process.
• Play with Camtasia or Premiere. Really take it apart and see what it can do.
• Don’t think of yourself as an Editor;  you’re a Director. See the difference?
• Study the best. Watch Rachel here.
• Invest in high-quality transitions. Watch the TV transitions on Rachel’s vids. Cool or what?
• #1 Mistake to avoid: the most interesting thing in the video is the face. Focus on it.

Watch Seth here. Compelling isn’t it?

‘curiosity’ from Nic Askew on Vimeo.

and watch Rachel. Look at how the transitions work.

Ok, that’s me.

What tips do you have for making better videos?

Google’s Wonder Wheel is Search and Mind Mapping combined together. The Wonder Wheel was introduced in May 2009 and is one of Google’s best kept secrets. This search/mindmapper tool shows search results in a Wheel with different Spokes for each associated search result. Fantastic tool for brainstorming, studying trends, and idea generation.

Last week I showed you how to use Google’s Advanced search features. This lets you drill-down and laser focus your search. Today, we’ll look at Google’s Wonder Wheel. How does it work? It displays a visual wheel of results, with related search items on each spoke. It’s more than a fancy trick. Keep working with it and you’ll see how powerful it can be.

Tip – make Google’s advanced search page your default. It’s worth the small effort.

How to use Google’s Wonder Wheel

1. Enter your keyword into Google to start the search.

2. Click Show Options (top left of nav bar). This expands the nav bar down the left side of the screen.

3. Click Wonder Wheel under Standard View. This creates a starfish-shaped circle with spokes to the related searches.

4. Click on the spokes (i.e. associated searches) to find more relevant key words and phrases.

You can click on the spokes to research different topics or return to the wonder wheel.

How ProBlogger uses Google’s Wonder Wheel

Darren Rowse’s video, “How to Use Google’s Wonder Wheel to Find Topics to Write about” shows how he uses the Wonder Wheel for idea generation. For example, to see what queries people enter into Google that he may not have thought of or to catch up with new trends. This helps focus your writing so that your content is aligned with what people are searching for. Make sense? http://www.problogger.net

FYI – Darren Rowse’s blog is compulsive reading if you plan to make a living online.

Does Google’s Wonder Wheel Really Work?

Does this help you find the search item you were after or is the regular way better? I use it when I get writer’s block and want to look at things from a fresh perspective.

At first, I found it gimmicky. But, the more I use it, the more ideas it creates. The trick is see where it can help and avoid deviating into topics that are not on your radar.

How about you? What do you think?

PS – You can learn How to Use Radiant Thinking to Maximize Your Brain’s Untapped Potential here. An excellent introduction to mind mapping techniques.

What’s the one thing you enjoyed most in Avatar? For my Project Management friend it was the video logging. Did you notice that the team kept their reports not in Microsoft Word (i.e. on paper) but as video logs.

When trying it out, the protagonist in the movie couldn’t get a handle on it. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll soon get used to it’, was the reply.  Well, it worked for them, could it work for you? Here are some of the reasons you might want to consider using video for project management activities.

What Avatar Can Teach You About Project Management

Advantages of video logging

• Capture Emotions— Capture human elements missing from electronic reports, such as emotions or subtle suggestions made in the video logs that would not otherwise be noticed.
• Speed — Videos are faster to make. You just open your mouth and talk! Consider the effort in using Microsoft Word, applying styles, finding the right template, typing, fixing grammar horrors etc.
• Convenience — you can record videos almost anywhere. The recording device is smaller and easier to transport.
• Faster — For me, using a flip camera is now as easy as a telephone – just start talking! Consider this against the effort in using Microsoft Word, applying styles, finding the right template, typing in, fixing grammar horrors etc.

Disadvantages of video logging

• Structure — you need to train people how to deliver video reports, otherwise they’ll ramble defeating the purpose.
• Search — while you can search Word files on the network by keyword (i.e. metadata), how would you do this with video? Is it possible to tag/keyword videos as we do with Word docs and online reports?
• Edits — while videos are faster to make, if they need to be edited, then you lose the upside.
• Convenience — while you can record videos almost anywhere, this can be abused as employees file in reports pretending to be onsite with the client.
• Compliance – the number of laptops stolen each year (holding confidential data) continues to rise. This raises issues with unauthorized user video apps to submit, retrieve, share confidential data. Of course, this also applies to PC, iPhones etc.
• Storage — maybe this is no longer as problem as the cost of server space continues to fall and compression technologies improve. But would terabytes of data get expensive in the end? Not sure.

Should Project Manager use video for status reports?

It’s early days yet but I can see the attraction of using video to file in reports.  The difficulty may be in getting people to make the change. As it often the case, the problem is not in the processes or technological benefits, but the human issues that underpin these decisions.

What do you think?

Could it work? What do you think is the main barrier to using video more frequently in the work place?

If you want to see great web copy, read Andrew Chen. I’m going to show you his top 15 posts from last year. What do you see? The headlines are very compelling; smart little nuggets that draw you in. The secret is how he combines several copywriting techniques so well. It looks seamless. And that’s what makes it so great.

What Andrew Chen Can Teach You About Writing Killer Headlines

Let’s look at the first seven. Remember, Andrew writes about business models, design and metrics. Not very sexy. But, armed with the right attitude…

1. How to create a profitable Freemium startup (spreadsheet model included!)

Includes Freemium (good keyword) and adds the spreadsheet teaser. How many headlines have you seen include offers in brackets?

2. Built to Fail: How companies like Google, IDEO, and 37signals build failure-tolerant systems for anything!

Nice twist on Built to Last, the best-seller business book.

3. Free to Freemium: 5 lessons learned from YouSendIt.com

Squeezes two killer keywords, uses a number to grab attention, lessons learned implies that there will be some benefit for you the reader into the same headline

4. Product design debt versus Technical debt

Product design Technical debt. Four short words, nice and punchy.

5. Friends versus Followers: Twitter’s elegant design for grouping contacts

Do you see a pattern emerging here? Andrew counterbalances popular keywords (Twitter) against Friends and Followers. Also, ‘versus’ implies conflict or tension. A nice way to stir the reader’s emotions.

6. 5 warning signs: Does A/B testing lead to crappy products?

Crappy isn’t seen in too many headlines. When’s the last time you saw it?

7. Freemium business model case study: AdultFriendFinder ARPU, churn, and conversion rates

The 7^th most popular article has 13 words, including several acronyms, all flying in the face of convention wisdom.

FYI Andrew is here http://andrewchenblog.com/2010/01/03/top-posts-for-2009-freemium-design-and-metrics/

Those are the first seven on his list. Here’s the rest.

8. Which startup’s collapse will end the Web 2.0 era?

9. 2009 conference schedule for the digital media industry

10. Does every startup need a Steve Jobs?

My Fav!

11. Why low-fidelity prototyping kicks butt for customer-driven design

12. What if interviews poorly predict job performance? What if dating poorly predicts marital happiness?

13. How to calculate cost-per-acquisition for startups relying on freemium, subscription, or virtual items biz models

14. 5 crucial stages in designing your viral loop

15. Age (and ARPPU) ain’t nothing but a number: Data on how age impacts social gaming monetization

Over to you

What do you think of these headings? It’s not PC, it’s not the ‘correct’ way – but I think it works?

Does it work for you?

Gerry McGovern provides this week’s guest article. “You build a brand on the Web one click at a time. You destroy your brand by wasting your customers’ time. I am a customer of a number of banks. I judge these banks, at least partly, by the experience I have with them online. I used to really like the National Irish Bank experience. Then they ‘improved’ it, making it more secure. And this of course is the problem at the heart of security. You can make a process so secure that even the people for whom it is designed can’t use it without huge effort.”

Now, when I go to the National Irish Bank homepage I often get a ‘page not found’ error. Usually when I refresh the page that little Java icon appears. I enjoy spending time watching it swirl round and round. It reminds me of coffee. Then I get an ‘error on page’ message. I refresh again and I actually get to the homepage.

It used to be that it remembered my User ID. Not anymore. Now I have to go get it and paste it in, because it’s long and I can’t remember it. Then it requires my password, which I can remember.

Next I get to a page where I have to enter a special security number from a card they’ve sent me. It’s annoying and such a waste of time. It now takes me at least three times longer to get into my account. Once in, however, it’s a really excellent experience, well designed and intuitive.

Bank of Ireland, on the other hand, is easy to get into. However, the subsequent steps are really clunky. The National Irish Bank interface has a feeling that it was designed for human beings. The Bank of Ireland interface feels like it was designed for robots.

Whereas the National Irish Bank immediately shows me balance information for my main accounts (a top task), here’s what I have to do on Bank of Ireland to get such information: click on a link called ‘Accounts’; click on a link called ‘Select All Accounts’; select an account from a list; click on a different link called ‘Accounts’ (Yes, there are two links called ‘Accounts’); select ‘Transactions’. It’s a real pain, a big waste of time.

Halifax Ireland is positively primitive. You can’t even transfer money. This is a top task for sure and if in 2010 a bank won’t even allow you to transfer money online, then it loses a huge amount of credibility and trust. This isn’t usability. This isn’t interface design.

• This is branding.
• This is marketing.
• This is advertising.
• This is management.

And you know what?

I’ll bet senior management in all these banks could not care less about my online experience. In fact, I have rarely, if ever, met a senior manager with more than a passing interest in the Web. They think this stuff is technical – something you give to the IT department. Where customers spend their time is where you build your brand.

Organizations need to stop trying to use traditional advertising techniques to create false images. For an increasing number of customers, you are your website. It’s about time senior management woke up to that fact.

Gerry McGovern

Content management solutions: Gerry McGovern
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com

PS – Gerry raises some good points here, in particular how a company can destroy its own brand. Al Ries shows how you can avoid these mistakes by staying focused. It sounds simple, but it’s not easy. I rarely use the phrase ‘must read’ this if you haven’t read this book, get it now. Don’t take my word though, read the endorsement and you’ll see what I mean.

What’s the difference between men and women when they go online? eMarketer highlight that when women go online entertainment takes a backseat to utility and socializing, usually with people they already know. Men’s surfing habits are different.

5 Ways UK Women Use Social Media Different Than Men

The report shows that in the UK, women are much less likely than men to seek out entertainment or pass the time on the Internet or mobile phone.

1. Women typically share content and experiences with selected friends.
2. UK women are less numerous than men online; 79% penetration compared with men’s 84%, according to Eurostat.
3. Daily usage is high; data from Nielsen indicates engagement is increasing.
4. Involvement in the social media world, where women’s adoption is outpacing men’s, is rising.
5. Women Internet users were 8% more likely than males to have a social networking site profile.

“Social networks are a primary channel for women online to strengthen existing bonds with friends and family,” said Ms. von Abrams.

According to data from Universal McCann, women’s top activities on social networks in 2009 included managing their own profile and visiting blogs maintained by people they knew.

Men, by contrast, were more interested in making new contacts.

Do Women Use Social Media Different Than Men?

Do these finding surprise you?

What do you see as the main difference in how men and women use the internet? If you’re a man, do you use it to make new contacts or strengthen your existing friendships?

What to know how to type faster and get those blog post online quicker? I use the AutoCorrect feature in Word to speed things up. Most writers use it to correct typos and clean up your document AFTER it’s written. That’s fine but it’s more productive it you can correct the document AS YOU WRITE it. Here are some other tricks that help write docs faster.

How To Write Documents Faster & Save Your Fingers From Exhaustion

Most people don’t know what the AutoCorrect feature in Word really does.

Most people think it’s there to correct the odd typo and clean up your document AFTER you have written it.

That’s true but…

I use to correct the document AS I WRITE and to enter longs strings of text automatically.

Why bother?

When I write user guides, for example. I use a similar structure for the intro, bullet lists and instructions.

Instead of writing, ‘follow these steps’, I type onto the page in Word the letters fts.

Word then automatically writes, follow these steps: on the page.

Do you see how useful this can be?

You can also use it to o automatically detect and correct typos, misspelled words, and incorrect capitalization. It’s very powerful when you look into it and has saved me 100s of hours of manual typing.

Another example?

When I type ar1, AutoCorrect replaces it with “Annual Report.”

Or if you type ‘Teh Executrie summary states’ with a space, AutoCorrect replaces what you have typed with “The Executive Summary states.”

You can also use AutoCorrect to insert symbols, such as copyright symbols.

Note: Text included in hyperlinks is not automatically corrected.

So, how can I do this?

To autocorrect your Word Documents, follow these steps:

1.a In Word 2003, click Tools, AutoCorrect Options.

1.b In Word 2007, click Start, Word Options, Proofing and then the AutoCorrect Options.

2. In the Replace box, type a word or phrase that you often mistype or misspell – for example, type Micorsoft.

3. In the With box, type the correct spelling of the word – for example, type Microsoft.

4. Click Add.

Add a few more! Go on!

Spend 15 min here and add in shortcuts for words, sentence and strings (e.g. Please follow these steps: etc) you use regularly.

What other tips do you know to write documents faster?

I need your advice. Someone has left a fairly negative comment on my blog. What should I do? Approve or Delete? The reason I ask is this. I want people to give their opinion and, even if it offends me in some ways—let’s say they made some sarcastic remarks or found a typo—I’d still approve it. Feedback can be a great learning opportunity. But, where do you draw the line?

How do you Manage Extremely Negative Comments on your Blog?

• Avoid Flame wars – If I publish the comments, it may (i.e. will) offend those mentioned in the comments. They may then respond in kind and the whole thing ends in a nasty squabble.
• Legal eagles – There is also the possibility that someone may feel wounded by these remarks and take legal action. I don’t want this. Especially as the comments are not even mine.
• Ignore the comments & the person – I can delete the comment but this undermines (to a certain extent) my wishes for the site, i.e. to be an exchange of opinions.

• Give them attention & email them – I could do this bit feels like a ‘halfway house.’ I may also provoke the person in stronger (more unpleasant) remarks. They may also start ‘flaming’ on other sites.

Where do you draw the line?

What approach do you take when you get these comments?

Tom Peters says, “the value of services will continue to fall” and that the only way to survive is to differentiate yourself from the competition. Is this true? How do you as a technical writer make yourself stand out from the crowd? If you don’t, what impact could this have on your career?

How to Differentiate Yourself

Here are five suggestions to do this:

1. Video Blogging – use your Camtasia skills to create videos that show how products work. Cisco is doing a great job in this area. They gave flip cameras to the IT people and encouraged them to make short, snappy videos that show how to use their hardware, networks, and systems. Which would you prefer? To read 20 pages or watch a 3 minute video?
2. Screencasting Training – now that you know how to make the videos, why not use this to teach others to do this same. Position yourself as a screen-casting expert, setup the blog, get involved, and show others how this works. FWIW there is a very active video marketing group on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanwalsh) that you may want to join.
3. Web-based Training – if you’ve spent years writing guides, you must have developed an in-depth knowledge of 2 or 3 fields. See which of these are most in demand (Google searches and forums will be a starting point) and then develop training modules that you can present online. Lynda.com does a great job in offering training over the web. Sign up with them and see how it works.
4. Social Media Writing – you know how to write, right? Well, most people don’t. As Social Media continues to explode leverage your writing skills and show (“the benefit o f communicating well on Facebook is…”) others how to get their message across on these Social Network. Look at how Debbie Weil does it. http://www.debbieweil.com
5. Business English – the upside of all these jobs getting shipped to India, China, Brazil is that their Management teams want to do more business in the west. How can you help them write better reports, communicate more clearly, protect them from being misunderstood – you get the idea!

These are just five ways you can stand out from the crowd and position yourself as a specialist. My suggestion is to look at who is doing this right, e.g. Debbie Weil, and study them diligently. Then develop an action plan and start getting the rewards you deserve.

What other careers can you think of? Is it possible to differentiate yourself as a Technical Writer? How would you do it?

PS: Tom Peters is here: Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution and Debbie Weil The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right is here.

I’ve started to use my social networks more strategically rather than adopting a ‘shotgun approach’. In other words, I try to leverage each site by seeing the opportunities it offers and then using these. Recently, I’ve started to shift away from Facebook and moved to LinkedIn.

Ivan Walsh's Linkedin Profile page

5 Reasons You Should Leave Facebook and Join LinkedIn

What does LinkedIn offer that Facebook doesn’t? Here are five reasons to Leave Facebook and join LinkedIn instead.

1. Target Audience – the average age on Facebook is 20 something and female. It’s a great place to meet people, swap videos, and chat. But it’s not a business platform. LinkedIn’s average age is 41. Most everyone is a business professional trying to meet other business professionals. So, for me, this gives it a huge edge of Facebook.
2. Business Groups – LinkedIn is designed around business groups. You can join these and instantly connect with people with similar interest. On Facebook, there may be fan pages, but it’s often just that, fans! No real dialogue goes on.
3. Recommendations – you can build relationships with people on LinkedIn and once they know/trust/do business with you, will give you recommendations. These professional endorsements give you an element of credibility that you don’t get elsewhere. And while this can be abused (I recommend you if you recommend me) it does seem to work.
4. Integration with other platforms – you can connect to LinkedIn from multiple social media portals, such as BusinessWeek, AMEX Open Platform, and even from Facebook.
5. Knowledge Exchange – I’ve kept the best for last. The conversations I have on LinkedIn are with the best people in their fields. You can learn a huge amount just by listening. Ask questions and see what comes back. The quality is very high. And unlike other sites, the conversations rarely degenerate into slanging matches. You can also receive the comments by email every day or bundled into a single email every week.

I will highlight other business benefits in the coming weeks. These are the first that come to mind.

Your thoughts

What do you think of LinkedIn? How does it compare to other business sites you’ve used? What would you like to see changed in it? How could it be improved?

PS – You can view my profile here – http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanwalsh

If you have multiple Twitter accounts, want to schedule your tweets, want to see stats on your tweets, and want it all in a new user interface, then try Hootsuite. I used to use TweetDeck but have moved to Hootsuite as it offers better stats and integration with Facebook. Here are 10 tips to get the most out of this desktop twitter client.

1. How to add multiple Twitter accounts

To add multiple Twitter accounts (ie profiles), click Settings and then the Social Networks tab.

Enter your Twitter credentials and it will display in a new tab (usually to the right).

2. How to allow an Editor (e.g. friend) to access a Twitter profile?

Once you have added an editor to your account, click the Social Networks tab in Settings. Select the Twitter profiles an editor can have access to.

Click the box next to the editor(s) name in order to grant access to the Twitter profile.

3. How to monitor my brands?

Set up a search column or a keyword column.

Click Add Column and enter the keywords you want to track. This column is displayed to the right of the screen.

4. How to add tabs?

To add a tab, click the [+] Add Tab button next to your current tabs .

Name it and decide how often you’d like that tab to refresh.

Hootsuite gives you 20 tabs – should be enough!.

5. How to add columns to tabs?

Click Add Column and choose which type of feed you’d like to add.

6. How to configure column options?

The Profile Feed lets you add your Home feed, Mentions feed, Pending tweets, Sent tweets, and Favorite tweets.

7. How to use Keyword Tracking

Enter the keyword and then hit Add.

Hootsuite lets you create customized Twitter searches and perform searches like “from:username” or @username

8. How to change refresh frequency?

Click Edit Tab and select the frequency.

The default is 30 min.

9. How to change the user interface layout

You can drag and drop the tabs to change thee layout.You can also drag/drop the columns in each profile.10 How to create a List?

Create a new column and click Lists.

Enter an existing list or create a new one.

Here I’ve added a LinkedIn list. This let’s me see all the people I have ‘tagged’ as having useful links/info regarding LinkedIn.

Do you know any other good Hootsuite tricks? If you do, please add them below.

Thom Haller asks on TCW if ‘to be an effective leader, you need to learn how to write well’.

Do You Need to Write Well to Succeed?

Here’s how I see it.

If you can communicate clearly, then there is a greater chance that people will understand what you want to them.

They ‘may’ trust you more – I don’t know.

I worked in Fortune 500 companies, as I’m sure you folks did, but I didn’t necessarily trust the people or the wisdom of their strategies.

But I know what they expected of me and my team—so we did it.

The failing of most senior managers tend to be:

1. Mixed messages
2. Lack of ownership, and
3. Political correctness.

Some have these forced upon them, (i.e. social pressures) while for others it’s just a habit.

Warren Buffet’s annual reports, which are posted on the Berkshire site, are worth looking at.

Simple, easy to read, no waffle.

UPDATE:

Thom asked if I could give some examples.

The last company I worked for brought in a new CEO as we needed to turn things around fast.

Here’s what he did (among other things):

• Every communication you send has the move the task towards completion. In other words, communications (emails, reports, speeches) are to push the task to the next step/person/activity.
• If what you say/do slows the process or (as was the case with my line mgr) obscures what’s happening the he (as the main firefighter) can see what’s going on.
• Specifically he told us to:
• keep team mtgs to less than 20 min – if you can’t solve it by then, escalate. Most people will find a way to find resolution rather than escalate and look incompetent.
• keep one-2-one mtgs to 5 min – e.g. the pm mon mtg with head of dev. All you want to know is a) is it on track 2) can you fix it 3) when will it be fixed. The pms started to interview the team leads for 5 min. in and out. No messing around.
• Make the tech docs shorter. He wanted thin docs. No fluff. He personally reviewed all tech docs. We had his permission to cut out the waffle.
• Use traffic head lights on all status reports, e.g. red for critical etc.
• Status reports were printed out and put on the wall, i.e. everyone saw if your project was on/off schedule.

• Forbid us to use TLAs. Everything had to be worked correctly. Why? TLAs (to him) were short-hand for laziness. This drove people mad but he pushed it repeatedly.

His emails were a series of action points. E.g.

1. Ivan Walsh – tech docs – fri – status

There was no chitchat.

The combination of all this was that people were more direct, immediate and effective. It was a combined effort but it had a v positive effect on the workplace.

After a few months, it felt like we were communicating better.

Also, he praised people who got it right.

You can read the rest of this discussion on The Content Wrangler

What do you think?

Does your team lead, line manager or CEO really need to know how to write well?

Can you give an example of how you’ve seen this work or fail in your organization?

Want to be on the very first page of Digg.com? You’d be famous, right? Here’s how to do it.

Link Bait has one specific aim — get me to the top of Digg.com. The idea is that once you get there, others will click through to your site and you can reap the rewards once they arrive. Of  course, it’s not that simple but if understand the mechanics of how Digg works —and what interests Diggers—then you’re one step closer.

So, pull up a chair, grab your coffee and sit back.

1. Study Digg – this is the number 1 mistake people make. They don’t hang out on Digg, get a feel for what’s happening and learn to judge what will work or not. So, sign up, log in and engage.

Why bother?

Well, it’s like writing a travel guide on Italy without ever having pizza on the Step of Rome. Once you’re there, everything makes more sense. Digg, Delicious and the rest are all the same.

Tip — if you want to succeed with link bait, focus on one site. Don’t spread yourself too thin.

Ok, you’ve signed up. Use a real name if possible, not greenpig715.

People relate to real names; they are more likely to dig you if you sound human than use an avatar. But there are exceptions, I know.

2. Create a Swap File.

A what?

This is a file where you will keep links, snippets of text and other link bait that impresses you.

Told you it would take some time!

Now, this isn’t hard. You just need a text file and then copy/paste in whatever stands out.

Why is this so important?

Ans: headlines.

3. Headlines

Look at the DIGG homepage. What do you see?

Headlines. Lots of them.

Copy and paste the top 10 headlines into your swap file. Do this as often as you can.

Notice anything?

Most of them are lists.

• 5 ways to sleep while working
• 7 ways to wash your iPod
• 10 ways to alienate your children

People like lists. And what else do they like?

4. Benefits

Give your heading an extra boost by adding a nice, juicy benefit.

For example,

• 5 beers that get you drunk faster & make you smarter
• 7 ways to break your iPod & get an instant refund
• 10 ways to alienate your children & win an award

You get the idea.

All of these are slightly idiotic but—here’s the thing—you’re tempted to see what’s on the other side of the link.

5. Write to be scanned

No-one reads on the web, they all scan.

So, write to be scanned.

Write your article or blog post so that readers will scan down through the article — like you’re doing now — go, “yeah, I like this” and then, fingers crossed, hit the DIGG IT button and do us all a good deed.

Sounds to easy. It is. You need to also…

6. Add ‘off-beat’ images

Avoid PC junk. Add an image that captures the mood and will appeal to the reader. Something with an edge but not too risky.

Humor also works. Get it wrong and you look lame.

7. Credibility

It takes time but if you join other networks and comment on others post, guess what?

They’ll hang out with you and give you a few digs. This does work but it’s a really slow way to generate link bait. It does work, but, well, it’s not for me.

8 & 9  Test & Re-Test

Here’s something I do and it works.

Write a 300 word article. About anything. Doesn’t matter.

Spend 20 min and come up with 20 variation on the same headline. Have fun. Shuffle the words upside down, inside out and back to front.

It’s yours to play with. Enjoy it.

• Mon – submit the 1^st headline. On Wed, record the Diggs.
• Thurs – change the headline and submit it. Record the Diggs.
• Sat — change again and submit it. Record the Diggs.

And so on…

Then what happens?

Patterns begin to emerge. Some headings bomb.

No-one clicks on them.

Not even your Mom, kids or pet Labrador, Caesar.

Others take off!

Paste these into your swap file (remember him) and use this as a starting point.

Twitter is also another way to test headlines.

Remember – No-one bookmarks tweets.

It you know how to write, people will click thru.

And finally…

10. Practice

Like all things, the more you practice, the better you get.

Focus on writing amazing headlines, develop super-sharp content, and you’ll get the Diggs.

Want to know more?

Top Diggs of the year

7 Days – http://digg.com/all/popular/7days

365 Days – http://digg.com/all/popular/365days

Check these out and you can see what people are interested in. These are the big hitters.

Avoid news of the day type material. The web is saturated before you even get there.

Write, submit, Digg.

What do you think?

What’s the best example you’ve seen of link bait? Was it the words or the images?

Developing a Capacity Plan is vital if you want to understand how much capacity will be required to support your IT systems and, by extension, the infrastructure that supports it.

Think about it.

If you plan to install a new large-scale solution, for example, IBM WebSphere or SAP, you also need to consider the impact these will have on your existing systems.

1. Capacity Planning & Outsourcing

Another area where Capacity Plan is vital is outsourcing. Say you plan to outsource your Help Desk to a third party firm.

Well, for them to support the system technically (not from a business perspective) they need to prepare a Capacity Plan that details the technical requirements to support this solution.

2. Developing a Capacity Plan strategy

• Assess the current solution and component performance
• Identify constraints that may be imposed on the system
• Use this information to develop the Capacity Plan for component acquisition, configuration, and upgrade.
• Make recommendations on how the Capacity Plan should be maintained, monitored and updated as necessary.

3. Benefits of a Capacity Plan

Developing a Capacity Plan ensures that business and technical requirements can be supported by the infrastructure and application elements of the new solution. In this case, the Help Desk or the IBM back office solution.

4. Management Guidance

The Capacity Plan provides management with:

• Breakdown of the resource capabilities required to operate the solution
• Assessment of current capacities
• Estimates on the resources and services to be upgraded and acquired
• Projection of resource and services capacities that may be required by the solution
• Capacity Planning ensures that there is sufficient processing capacity to run these new applications and for some predetermined time into the future as your business expands.

A well-defined Capacity Plan takes into consideration the likelihood that your business will grow and provides the appropriate estimates so you can develop the systems in line with these projection and also budget accordingly.

5. Capacity Plan Risks

If your company runs out of system processing capacity at some point (for example, due to increased user numbers, higher business volumes), the system’s performance will begin to suffer and you may be faced to upgrade the system (and associated applications) or move to a different more powerful system/server to process these applications.

To ensure that these applications can process the application load at cutover, and for some period of time following this, develop and check your capacity plan.

Capacity Plan Template

The method and results of this study should then be captured in the Capacity Plan document.

Outsourcing is not going to go away. Our recent Technical Writers survey showed that US companies are now outsourcing technical documentation projects big-time to India, Poland and Portugal. This is not going to change. It’s just a business decision.

Feeling bad/sad/mad about it won’t change it.

But what you can do is make it work for you. Here’s how I did it.

3 Ways to Turn Outsourcing to Your Advantage & Travel the World

In 2005, my technical writing team in Ireland was told that there would be changes. Clouds on the horizon.

Over the next 6 months we trained a lovely group of writers in Bangalore to take over our technical writing duties, showed them the style guides, and held their hands while they took over the reins.

Then we were all let go.

Some found other work, a few struggled and moved into other less-paid fields — I moved to Asia.

Difficult but great.

Life-long dream to live in the Orient, learn a new language (getting there…) and escape the depression of life back home.

And yes, we have offspring. More on that later.

So here are three ways to make outsourcing work for you:

1. Learn a language.

It’s naïve (and lazy) to think that everyone has to learn English. Now it’s your turn to learn a language.

The boom areas are in the Middle East and Asia.

If you learn one of these languages, coupled with your current expertise, you stand a great chance of developing a great business — and moving away from the current dilemma you’re in.

I can’t do it!

This is just being lazy.

If millions of people can learn to speak Russian, Arabic, and Japanese — well, so can you!

2. Mentor technical writers in other counties

I work with companies in Asia that don’t have an experienced technical writer. They can’t afford me full-time, so we arrange conference calls and I guide their team through the larger projects.

I do it all from home.

No setup charges. We use Skype and Google Docs.

3. Setup a specialist online service

It has to be very precise and almost impossible to replicate.

For example:

1. Convert obscure file formats, e.g. PageMaker files into Microsoft Word
2. Translate technical documents into Arabic or another language where there is a shortage of these skill-sets
3. Perform technical edits on business critical documents, such as business proposals that must have perfect English

Outsourcing is not all going to India

What surprised me when I did the survey is that outsourcing is not going to India, which is what I’d expected, but Poland and other eastern-European countries, such as Latvia and Estonia.

Most of the writers there are English graduates and judging the samples that they have produced, can produce quite good documentation.

Some of the wording and phrasing is a little awkward— but on price they can’t be beat.

The trend towards outsourcing technical documentation is now a fact of life.

I’d be interested to hear from anyone in the field —that means you!—who is either working with offshore companies or has identified ways to protect their career.

What I’d like to know is how it’s affected your career prospects and how you can take ADVANTAGE of this situation.

Another thing

I think Programmers have more to fear that Tech Writers when it comes to outsourcing.