Karen from Sacramento emailed me and asked how to write more blog posts. I write between 1,000 and 3,000 words per day. The way I do this is to have a writing framework that lets me define the topic, write the post and publish it very quickly. Here’s how I do it.

How To Post Every Day On Your Blog

I was thinking about this at the weekend, more to see how I can get more impact and where to focus. A few things about how I write:

• I use Windows Live Writer to do the publishing, great time saver.
• I use an Editorial Calendar to plan what’s next. This keeps me focused and give more structure to what I do
• I use Google Reader to bring all the sites I like to me, rather than chasing them down. Also, I try to stay focused (loyal) to these.
• I do Emergency email first in the morning. The rest waits.
• I turn on Facebook for 20-30 min in the morning, do my stuff and then close it. Back to work.
• I write everything, including emails, in Microsoft Word. And then copy/paste into Outlook etc. I know Microsoft Word inside out and take advantage of things like the auto-correct features. Another timesaver.
• I don’t answer the phone at work. Ever! Except from my wife.
• I swim/run every second day to stay sane. This really helps. Otherwise, I get burnt out, cranky, depressed. Swimming helps the most as it gets the tension out of my neck, i.e. from all the PC work. Badminton also helps.

To the blogging…

So, I guess there are three things involved:

• Finding the time
• Doing the writing and
• Getting it published

How To Be More Prolific

Here are a few ‘scenarios’ that work for me. I guess I should structure it a little better, but I hope you get the idea.

When I’m washing the dishes…

When I’m washing the dishes, I think of what I want to write today for the blog. For example, ‘how to write 1000 words per day every day.’

Next, while doing other household stuff, I do this:

• Problem – what is it? 1 sentence
• Solution – how to fix it?
• Break out 5 bullet points

What next? What the reader should do next.

And that’s it. While doing the mundane stuff, I sketch out the article. Then, when I get 5 min, instead of reading the news, checking the sports etc, I get it into Word.

Back to household stuff….

When junior is gone to bed, I put my words around the material and try to get draft ready.

The next day, I spend 10 min on it, and get it into Live Writer. Publish.

I use the same technique when driving, on the metro, shopping, at the mall etc.

At the mall…

We were at a kids party today. 3 hours. The usual. I slipped away for 30 min or so. I have a notepad and did a quick outline in MacDs and also some photos, and a quick video with the camera. About 2 min. Then back to the party, pick up the kids etc.

So, I guess, I’m looking for ways to make 20-30 min here and there, get something started and then work towards completion.

Other things…

On LinkedIn, if I contribute something I usually write:

• 1 sentence only – but make it count. Something that makes the reader pay attention or
• 100 words — and then reuse this 100 words for an article elsewhere re: the topic on LinkedIn.

On blogs

• I do the same thing. I have all the technical writing blogs in Reader and then go thru them in 30 min, adding a sentence here and there.

BUT when commenting:

I almost NEVER give high fives. I try to add one observation that stands out. Just one sentence.

Actually, it’s an interesting exercise in brevity and after a while it become second nature.

The key for me is to do as much prep work as possible.

If I can do the outline while washing the dishes or sweeping the floor, then I just have to type it out on the PC. Without reason, of course. But I rarely sit down cold at the PC and start. It takes forever to get anything out.

Does that help?

Ever read an annual report from Warren Buffet. Try it. Easy, isn’t it? Few successful business-people write so clearly. There is no pretension, no haughty references to obscure allusions and no strange acronyms. It’s all there in black and white. Here’s what Buffet had to say about other business writers, though,

“For more than forty years, I’ve studied the documents that public companies file. Too often, I’ve been unable to decipher just what is being said or, worse yet, had to conclude that nothing was being said. If corporate lawyers and their clients follow the advice in this handbook, my life is going to become much easier.

In the late 90s, I found the Plain Language writing technique almost by accident. It’s also called Plain English, by the way. I was reading a lot about Warren Buffet a few years back and came across a nice, short document he wrote for the SEC. These are the folks who submit legal and business document to Wall Street when going on the stock exchanges. Buffet writes like he speaks. Direct, immediate and without pretension.

Audience Analysis worksheets.

From the handbook:

There are several possible explanations as to why I and others sometimes stumble over an accounting note or indenture description. Maybe we simply don’t have the technical knowledge to grasp what the writer wishes to convey. Or perhaps the writer doesn’t understand what he or she is talking about. In some cases, moreover, I suspect that a less-than scrupulous issuer doesn’t want us to understand a subject it feels legally obligated to touch upon. “

He adds that “Perhaps the most common problem, however, is that a well-intentioned and informed writer simply fails to get the message across to an intelligent, interested reader. In that case, stilted jargon and complex constructions are usually the villains.”

It’s a great read and you can download it here www.sec.gov/pdf/handbook.pdf in PDF.

Write Business Proposals in clear English

So, with this in mind, I wrote this short guide to help you write Business Proposals in clear English. It explains how to prepare an business documents that readers can digest in one reading. That’s the acid test. They shouldn’t have to read them twice and three times to get the meaning. It also covers how to use Plain Language writing techniques to win more business, accelerate your tender process, and encourage staff to contribute to the overall tender process.

1. Start Early

Developing a Plain English document takes time – the first time!. For your first Plain English proposal, allow extra time to write, edit, and revise. Add more time than you would expect to your usual schedule if possible. The next time it’s easier.

2. Study the principles of Plain English

Remember: you want your request for proposal to be understood in one reading. This means you need to:

• Identify your target audience i.e. Government departments.
• Consider what they need to know.
• Consider the technical terms they may, or may not, know.
• Develop plain English writing guidelines for your staff.
• Think about how to organize and format your Proposal.

3. Promote Plain English amongst your Staff

Once you’ve seen the benefits of plain English compared with other writing styles, you can promote its values to your own staff and senior management. You need to get your staff onside so that they will begin writing in this style. Likewise, you also need to convince your managers of its values and possibly funding for a training program. Explain to both camps how they will benefit. Outline a high-level roadmap with timelines for the overall program.

4. Contact an experienced proposal writer

The first time you write a plain English proposal, you may find it time-consuming and more difficult than you thought. If this is the case, you’re on the right track! Everything worthwhile is difficult the first time round – soon you will get the hang of it.

You can also approach a writing consultant, especially someone who has a proven track record of writing good, clear English.

5. Review previous Proposals and see where you can improve

Before you start writing, consider the following:

• Literacy level. What level of education is required to understand the Proposal? Use the Fog Index to test your proposal’s readability.
• Clarity. What parts of the Proposal are hard to understand? Are the sentences too long and complex? Does it use technical terms and acronyms that the target audience will not understand?
• Organization. How easy can you find relevant information? Would the Proposal be clearer if you reordered the main sections and possibly the sub-sections within it? Does the table of contents and index need sharpening? Are there too many/too few levels of information in the TOC.
• Repetition. Is the same information repeated in several sections? Does it have any real benefit?
• Headings. Should the headings be re-written in the form of questions that each section answers?
• Format. Do you need to add more bullet-point lists? Put keywords in bold? Use more white space?

6. Create an outline to help readers find information faster

One very effective writing style is to write headings as questions,which each section answers. If you include sub-sections, use a numbered outline format (e.g. 1.2, 1.3) for the section headings. This helps the reader find the main sections quickly and see the relationship among subsections.

7. Write the RFP, section by section, using plain language techniques

If some sections are hard to write, read them aloud and see where they are difficult to understand. Go through the document section by section.

Write the first draft of key sections first, and then work on the inside sections. Once you’ve written these, refine the text by editing each section tightly. However, make sure your text does not become too cold and dry. Write as if you were speaking to a colleague whom you respect; this often helps control the tone of the document.

8. Review and Revise

Once you’ve finished the first draft, get it reviewed internally by colleagues who can add value to the review process. Don’t choose colleagues who are too close to the Proposal, as they will not see errors. Instead, get a neutral reviewer if possible. After getting the feedback, make the required edits.

If possible, ask volunteers from the target population to review the draft Proposal. Ask them if they can locate information easily. When interviewing ask open questions and you will get a better response.

Avoid closed questions, such as, is this a great RFP? Most will say Yes, just to please you – and make you go away!

Ask how much they could read in one sitting. Again, revise as needed.

9. Create an easy-to-read format

Format the document to make it easy to read and attractive in presentation. If you have time, prepare a template that can be re-used for all future RFP’s. This will reduce the time spend on preparing the document.

• Leave a blank line between paragraphs
• Use bulleted lists
• Highlight main points with bold and italics
• Use boxes for examples
• Use white space generously
• Include margins of at least one inch all around the page
• Use two (2) columns to increase readability, if practical

Use several different type sizes for headings. In many documents, the headings are in San Serif font (i.e. Verdana) and the body is in a Serif font (e.g. Times New Roman). Use a contrast in style to add emphasis.

10. Get feedback – and share it

Lastly, see if the Proposal works! Ask the external reviewers how they felt using the ‘new’ plain English Proposal. Get feedback from personnel involved in the review process and collate it for distribution.

• Did they find that the plain English Proposal made a better application?
• Was it easier to write the application, and what made the most difference?
• What worked and what needs more refinement.

Summarize what you learned and share this information with colleagues. Encourage them to try writing plain English Proposals.

Track Your Proposal Wins

Keep a record of all the Proposals written in plain English and see if their success rate is higher than the previous styles of writing. There are more great writing resources are at: http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides Business Tips for Smart People on Klariti.com. His also runs the popular Business Planning Blog at http://www.ivanwalsh.com. Follow him on Twitter @ivanwalsh

PS: The Audience Analysis Template is here.

It’s hard working in the dark, isn’t it? I’ve been looking at Business Proposals for a client all week (I assess Business Plans and Proposals as part of my consultancy services) and have found it very difficult to make a recommendation. Here’s the problem. The proposals are fine. They’re well-written. They look good. They have (almost) no grammar or typing errors. Even the prices are fine. So, what’s the problem?

Business Requirements Excel Matrix

Why Most Proposals fail

The problem is that they are offering solutions to problems we don’t actually have.

Maybe someone else does but these documents don’t address our ‘pain points’. My guess is that they read the RFP we sent out and got started pronto. But…

• Did they read the RFP in detail?
• Did they read out annual reports?
• Did they ask to see any feasibility studies we did?

I’m not sure.

How to write from the client’s perspective

One way is to step back and see how you can link your client’s strategic needs – what holds their business together – and what you have on offer. By doing this, you’re putting yourself in their shoes and writing the document so that it answers the issues they have. This actually makes your life simpler. Instead of writing about features, specifications, and other functionality you can dovetail your product offerings to their exact needs.

But…

First you need to identify their strategic needs.

Indeed, the fastest way to lose business is to write business proposals/business plan from your perspective and not that of your clients.

The second is to overlook how the proposed solution actually meets the client’s requirements.

You’d think this would be obvious, right? But many proposals I review miss this point. The proposed solution and the actual business requirements are very far apart.

Identify Strategic Goals
Your business proposal should focus on the client’s needs and how your solution or service solve their problem. This means that before you write the proposal,

You need to read the Request For Proposal, Business Cases, Annual Reports and other collateral that gives you an insight into their business operations. Ask yourself: what it is the client really wants to accomplish.

In other words, does the Request For Proposal, your solution and their Strategic Plan all connect. If not, revise your Proposal and close the gaps between their needs and your offering. Indeed, the more knowledge you have of the client’s strategic goals, and how they impact their business, the more likely your proposal will align with their needs.

How to do this?

Examine their strategic goals from these four different angles:

• Business Strategy – how can you increase their market share; raise profitability; reduce overhead and marketing the product line.
• Technical Strategy – how does your product automate labor-intensive processes, enhance quality with automated machining.
• Social Strategy – in what way can you enhance employee morale, reduce turnover, increase brand recognition, and change consumer attitudes.
• Personal Strategy – and how can you improve career development opportunities and improve employee issues.

Look at the material you have gathered about the client and

1. Identify
2. List
3. Number and
4. Rank

the strategic goals.

Revise the Business Proposal so that it addresses each of these strategic goals.

How to Prioritize Strategic Goals

I use an Excel spreadsheet (matrix) to captures the requirements in one column and then cross-references it against our products key features. You can develop something similar that allows you to map your technical solution against their Request For Proposal or other business documents.

In next week’s article, I will look at how to identify the client’s strategic goals. Once you have identified these, you can fine-tune your Proposal to match these goals.

Conclusion

The cardinal mistake that many novice business writers make is to focus on their product – and assume that the reader will have the time, patience and interest to read their material. This is forgivable when someone is charged up and wants to get the message out. And it works  to a degree. The message is sent out but does anyone likes what they read? And will they be so patient the next time?

Over to you.

How can we improve this? Where do you see the connection between Request For Proposals and identifying Strategic Goals? Also, what other points should business writers bear in mind when developing their Business Proposals?

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides Business Tips for Smart People on Klariti.com. His also runs the Business Plan Blog at http://www.ivanwalsh.com. Follow him at http://twitter.com/ivanwalsh

PS: The Business Plan Template is here.

‘Simple and to the point is always the best way to get your point across.’ Guy Kawasaki

Does this sound familiar? You’ve started a business, built products, made some sales, and started to scale. But your cashflow has ground to a halt! You need funds to drive the business forward and also ensure it doesn’t slide backwards. Investment is the answer, right?

Why no-one wants to write a Business Plan?

Here’s the part no-one wants to hear.

It takes effort.

You didn’t get a degree in college by accident. You have to put in the hours, get the credits, and make the effort. We all understand this. Effort equals reward. And it’s the same if you want to get your business to graduate. It takes time, effort, and a little dedication.

So, to grow the business you need to develop a Business Plan to get the (significant) funding you need and also to clarify to yourself what direction the business should be heading in. I hear what you’re thinking. I know you can find articles that tell tall tales about companies setting up with no business plan and ‘following their passion’. And it’s true, some companies grow by the seat of their pants. But the exception doesn’t prove the rule.

Still not convinced you need a Business Plan?

Tim Berry shares this research findings which show that, ‘those who finished their Business Plans were about twice as likely to successfully grow their business, get investment, or land a loan than those who didn’t. You can see the numbers on the chart.

But, you’re not sure how to write a Business Plan. Anyway, many investors laugh at the idea of writing Business Plans. Seems a little dated, right?

What investors say on their twitter-feeds to look cool and what they do in the office are not always the same. They want to know who you are, what you’re selling, and what the profit margin is.

Where To Get Funding?

You can get funding in different ways, though.

You can get it from yourself (mortgage your house), your family (Dad, we don’t talk enough, I have this idea, maybe you’d be interested …), friends (look, you trust me, right? Well, I have this amazing idea, let me explain. maybe you’d be interested.)

Each of these has its own merit and somewhere on the web is a case study of a guy who built an million dollar company in his garage. Remember, the exception proves the rule!

Taking Investment From Friends?

One warning about taking investment from friends. If you lose the money, you may lose the friendship. I’d advise you to keep business and friends apart. If you need money, go to the Chamber of Commerce, Venture Capitalists, or explore other investment options, such as SBA or bank loans.

What Goes Into A Business Plan?

One school of thought is to develop a 1 Minute Investor Pitch also called an Elevator Pitch. For example, if you met Warren Buffet—and had just one minute—how would you pitch your idea?

I don’t know if this works in the real world. Somehow, I doubt if Warren Buffet or Guy Kawasaki invest in firms on the basis of an Elevator Pitch. They want detail. One way to get those details is to develop a Business Plan.

How To Develop A Business Plan

Guy Kawasaki says that it’s the people involved in the business that interest him first.

• Will they drive this business forward?
• Can he trust these them with his investment money?
• Will they stick with it through the difficult periods?
• What’s their track record?
• Have they don’t this before?
• What’s their biggest weakness?
• Do they know their own biggest weakness?
• If not, how will this impact the business?
• Investors invest in people.

Ok, what does this mean for your Business Plan?

The Biggest Mistake In Business Planning

Remember when I said that people invest in people. The number one mistake to avoid in Business Plans is not talking about your people. Or to put it another way, not weaving their story into your business plan.

• Talk about your team,
• What drives them?
• Why did they build this product?
• Why did they leave their former employer to create this product?
• Where did they come from? Both socially,
• How they got there? Discuss their qualifications and how they will drive the project onwards.
• What are their ambitions? Why do they believe in this project over a comfortable 9-5 job?
• Why do I need to do this?

Even if your business model is excellent, if the people involved are ‘perceived’ to be raw/weak/inexperienced, the project will most not get the funding it requires.

So, your story needs to be very compelling.

Most startups fail, not because of the product, but because those involved didn’t have the long-term commitment to the project.

So, when writing your Business Plan, develop each section to highlight how your team (and why it has to be your team!) will be the ones to make this happen. Why they will be the ones to ‘carry the can’ when things get rough.

How To Write A Business Plan?

Break it into eight sections.

1 – Business Concept

• Define your product or service – outline what you’re offering in its simplest terms.
• What problem does it address – describe the single most important problem is solves.
• This tells the reader what you’re offering and what problem you’re solving.

2 – Target Market & Potential Customers

Break out the target market and the number of customers you hope to attract.

• Who are your target customers?
• What is the market size?
• How large will this market be in the next 2,5,10 years?
• How do you plan to attract customers?
• What is your sales strategy?
• What is your marketing plan to promote your company?

All of this is speculation. You don’t know how many customers will actually buy. Maybe none! But, you have to future plan so you can attract the investment you need.

3 – Competitive Advantage

In this section of your Business Plan, describe what gives you a Competitive Advantage.

• What makes your business unique?
• What patent do you have (or will develop) that will generate royalties?
• What makes your product than others in ways you can quantify? For example, you can provide credit cards to teenagers. Most companies are not authorized to give credit cards to teenager. You can! That’s your competitive advantage.
• Identify the greatest obstacles to the success of your company and not just competitors. Maybe it’s legislation, drug trials, testing, compliance, IT platforms, or other issues such as lack of experience.

4 – Competitor Analysis

Next, counter-balance the claims made in your Competitive Advantage and identify the three ways your competitors may undermine your business. If you don’t know your competitors, you have looked hard enough!

• Who are your three main competitors?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses?
• Could you partner with them?

5 – Legal & Managerial Issues

In the next part of the Business Plan, look at the nitty-gritty of setting up a business from a legal perspective. While this may seem boring at first, hire the right lawyer and accountant to setup your company.

For example, setting up as a Limited company (LLC, LTD) gave me tax breaks that I didn’t have as a sole trader, single businessperson or partner. You can also set as a charity or religious organization and avail of tax breaks that way.

• How will you setup the company? Most likely as a limited company but you may also consider making it a partnership, corporation, or other business type.
• What other legal considerations need to be organized, for example, patent protection, and copyright?
• Identify the organizations, companies, groups you plan to build relationships with? For example, Chambers of Commerce, international trade organization, peer groups, industry bodies.

6 – Finances

Financials are the heart of the Business Plan. It’s where the investors will examine the numbers, run business model calculations, and see what profit margins can be made.

See this Cost Benefit Analysis Template for more details.

• Using tables or matrices may help present the financial data, especially for projections.
• How much will it cost to make your product?
• How much will it cost for recruitment?
• How much will it cost for marketing?
• How much will it cost for equipment, software, hardware etc?
• How much will it cost for operations, office, infrastructure etc?
• How much will it cost for salaries?
• How much total up-front investment is needed?
• How will your company generate revenue?
• When will your company break even?
• How will you use the profits you generate?

7 – Management Team

If the investors get past the Financials, they’ll want to see who’s involved.

• Describe each team member’s background.
• Describe the unique skills they bring to the project.
• Explain why this is a winning team? Why the investors should believe in the team.
• What other people/skills do you need to find?
• Add resumes to the appendix.

8 – Appendices

Include any supplementary information (graphs, charts, statistics, research etc) that would help you put your idea in context.

Conclusion

Provide the answers to the questions that the investors will most likely have. Let me put that in better English.

Write the Business Plan from the perspective of the investor. No investor wants to invest in a project unless it passes all the tests. From an investment perspective, put yourself in their shoes. What fears are they most likely to have? Then address these fears. What concerns will they have about your team? Describe the unique attributes that make your team special. Where will the profits come from? What contingencies do you have in place?

It’s classic FUD. Address their Fears, examine where they have Uncertainly, and why they might Doubt you. Then respond to each of these point by point.

Business Plan Excel Templates

Over to you.

If I were to help you write your next Business Plan, what would be the one area you’d want to do first. Let me know and we’ll discuss it here next week?

Please share your thoughts below.

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides Business Tips for Smart People on Klariti.com. His also runs the Business Plan Blog at http://www.ivanwalsh.com. Follow him at http://twitter.com/ivanwalsh

PS – you can download the Business Plan Template here

Post by Ivan Walsh. Follow me on Twitter.

Working in China means more business writing and less technical writing, especially proposal development, web marketing case studies and white papers. As a few of the folks I hang out with on LinkedIn are also moving into business writing, I thought I’d add a few tips for business writing. While there is some overlap with technical writing, it does require a different mindset, for example, to understand the emotional drivers that persuade customers to accept or reject business proposals.

37 Tips to Increase Your Business Writing Productivity

This article on business writing reminds us that our sales, marketing, business, and proposal development does not stand alone. It is part of a larger process that involves planning, research, writing, editing, proofing, submission and acceptance.

This list gives 37 ways to improve your next proposal. Scroll through it and tell me what I missed.

1. Show that your response is logical and organized
2. Make the information easy to find. Cross reference against the Request For Proposal
3. Include a table of contents for proposals over 10 pages in length
4. Ensure that your Proposal is in compliance with the RFP
5. Arrange material in order of priority to the reader
6. Arrange everything in the order that’s most important to the client
7. Arrange the response in accordance with their requirements
8. Number pages and sections consecutively; do not re-number each section
9. Use headings that make sense to your readers. See Audience Analysis template.
10. Each section title should stresses the main benefits
11. Each section title should help readers orient themselves
12. If possible, express the key point of the section in the headline, or immediately after it.
13. Highlight important points
14. You can emphasize the most positive points by using bold, underlining, different fonts, spacing, titles, bullets and summaries
15. Sell the Message.It needs to have an emotional element. This is not a technical document. You need to hit the pain points.
16. Respond completely. Don’t skip anything.
17. Answer every question in the RFP. Failure to respond correctly to the RFP may disqualify your proposal. The client put these questions in for a reason, and expect an answer.
18. Avoid banal headings and titles
19. Rather than say “Development Section,” say “Ten Ways to Improve Your Processes”
20. Use action verbs in heads, especially verbs that stress a benefit for the client
21. Avoid boilerplate
22. Don’t recycle resumes and corporate profiles from previous proposals; modify them in accordance for the proposal at hand. Using old, tired resumes will be perceived by the reader, and will count against you when they can making the final judgments.
23. Avoid hype, padding and other self-congratulatory drivel. Remember that the proposal is a legal document that becomes part of the contract if you win
24. Support your recommendations
25. By giving specific details and quantifying the benefits whenever possible
26. Don’t just say that you will comply with a requirement — say how we’ll do so
27. Don’t attack competitors. Refer to rival products if you must.
28. Point out the weaknesses of alternative solutions.
29. Use a strong closing statement
30. Ask for their business; tell the reader exactly what you want him or her to do
31. Remind the reader of the benefits of taking action
32. Avoid business cliché’s
33. Avoid hackneyed openings and closings that clients have read a thousand times. Avoid “I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for considering the enclosed . . .” Get to the point: “Here is your proposal.” Avoid “If you have any questions, please feel free to call.” That closing has been done to death, so avoid it and write something more genuine.
34. Make your proposal easy to understand
35. Use the same terms and jargon that appear in the RFP. Don’t try to impress the client with your own special brand of buzzwords or TLA (three-letter acronyms)
36. Use simple, direct language
37. Close your business documents on a high note. Don’t be too humble. A little confidence never hurt!

What did I miss?

About the Author: Ivan Walsh is a left-handed technical writer who writes business proposals for clients. He also gives business writing tips for smart people at Klariti

Guest article by Shannon Suetos from Resource Nation

Having a blog on your company’s website can help bring a personal tone to your company as well as bring in people who may not have originally gone to your site. Because of this it is important to have a blog that people enjoy reading, but still gets your message out.

5 Tips on Writing a Great Blog Post

1. Be Consistent

You don’t have to write in your blog every day for it to be effective.  The main goal should be to write it in a consistent manner.  Once you get people reading your blog, they will want you to be someone they can count on.  If you start writing every week and then stop, you could lose readership and make your company look inconsistent as well.

2. Relevant Topics

It doesn’t really matter what your company does, you need to have something relevant and interesting to say.  People read blogs to get information, so tell them something they need to know.  Try and tie in current events with what you do, it could be easier than you think.

Get creative and add a twist to a news story, doing this will make your blog unique and hopefully give it a tone that is engaging to your readers.  If everyone is writing about a newsworthy event, why should they read your post?  Put your own spin on things and make the post yours.

3. Skimability

Most people have the attention span of a fly, so it is up to you to make your post easy to read and help people skim your post.  Take a step back and think about how you read blogs and news articles? Do you skim the post first and then decide if you should read it word for word? Make the information available and easy to read at a glance.

Making your paragraphs shorter and using bullet points and bold text can really help.  Format your article so people don’t feel like they are reading an essay paper.

4. It’s not all about you

Don’t make all your blog posts about your company. You want people to come back and read again and again–writing just about your company can be repetitive and boring.  If you talk about industry news and even mention other companies, you will look more relevant and set yourself apart from being boring and mundane.

5. Link to other sites

This tactic is good for two reasons—one, it helps for SEO purposes, and two, it shows you read other people’s content.  Search engines like text that has links to different domains, and it can lead to higher rankings, which is always a good thing.  Also it lets your readers know you are conscious of other people’s thoughts and ideas.  Get in touch with people you link from, they may return the favor and link to your blog.

In the end, remember blogs help companies get information out to their clients as well as bring in information for their industry.  Being engaging is key, and having quality content that people will want to read can ensure successful readership.

Shannon Suetos is a writer based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for Resource Nation, an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing decisions and a comparison service for everything from credit card processing to VoIP phone systems.

What’s the right way to comment on other people’s blogs? Ari reckons that comments should be unique. Don’t write the same comment on every blog; don’t drone on if your point can be made quicker. Be unique, quick & current. I agree with the first two but not the third. How you comment on other blogs is noticed by others. If all you say is ‘great post’, you’re losing an opportunity to contribute and offer an opinion. You have opinions, right?

How To Be Current & Avoid Capturing the Zeitgeist

First, do you need to be current? Don’t think so. Being ‘current’ doesn’t apply to all sites. Yes, to news, media, chat, gossip, sports and other stories of the day. But others, not so sure. Look at Jakob Nielsen as an example.

• Take the Long View – Most of my articles are written with a long view. For example, I write about business planning. The material is more educational that capturing the zeitgeist. You could have read it 10 years ago (or in 10 years time) and it would still be relevant.
• Avoid the Zeitgeist – if you write about the news of the day, well, next week it’s old hat.
• What to say – If you don’t have something that adds to the conversation – or challenges the writer’s argument – then it’s not worth posting. That’s my take, anyway. I don’t agree with Ari all the time but I still read his site… and I let him know where/how our views differ.

I honestly believe this is what he wants. Not another fawning high five. 

How To Enhance Your Blog Comments

Here’s another example. I read Chris Brogan almost every day. A very smart puppy & hard not to like. 
But what interesting to see (at least for me) is that:

• Almost no-one ever challenges what he says.
• Most genuflect to his opinions, i.e. take for granted what he says as gospel
• Give the obligatory high five, another great post’ and
• Nothing else.

What Chris Brogan really Wants

Here is the problem.

Chris Brogan, Brian Clark, and Valeria Maltoni are all leaders in their fields.

• They’d like to have an alternative opinion. Not for the sake of people being contrary, obnoxious or difficult but to stimulate more discussion.
• This makes their blog more interesting. 
• They want you to interact.
• They want your (honest) opinion.
• They want you to step forward and share what you know.
• They’re learning too!

Do you agree with me?

If you don’t, let me know below.

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?

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?

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?

Do you want to update your blog every day?

Chris Brogan provides this framework for writing a blog post (almost) every day. He adds that while it’s not easy, once you develop the right habits, they stick with you. I’m writing quite regularly now, but it took me several years to get my groove down to a science.

Tips on How to Blog Every Day

1. Read something new every day. Try Alltop. (Hint: read something outside your particular circle to get new thoughts).
2. Talk with people every day. I get many of my topic ideas from questions people pose to me, or through conversations.
3. Write down titles and topic ideas in a notepad file. (I’ve given you 100 blog topics and another 20 blog topics just to get started.)
4. Maintain a healthy bookmarking and revisiting habit. Delicious.com
5. Find 20-40 minutes in every day to sit still and type.
6. Follow an easy framework. Here are 27 blogging secrets to start you on what I mean.
7. Get the post up fast, not perfect. You can edit if you have to, later. Perfectionism kills good habits.
8. Dissect other people’s posts to understand what makes them tick. The more you understand HOW they write, the more you can take the best parts of it into how you write. (hint, my 27 blogging secrets post gives you my patterns.)
9. Find useful and interesting pictures. I use Flickr photos licensed under Creative commons for most of my photos.
10. Think about what your customers and prospects need. I write from the perspective of the communities I serve. This focus takes some weight off my worries about what I should write about or not. I write about what my community needs.
11. My best advice about blogging.

How I Blog Every Day

I tend to use the inverted pyramid format when writing longer posts, i.e. as opposed to short snippets.
The “pyramid” is a triangle.

1. The top represents the most substantial, interesting, and important information you want to convey.

1. The middle section discusses the main points of your article, often as bullet points and

1. The tapered lower portion illustrates that other material should follow in order of diminishing importance.

Ken Blake, Ph.D. explains how it works on the Tennessee State University site: “Journalists use many different kinds of frameworks for organizing stories. Journalists may tell some stories chronologically. By far the simplest and most common story structure is one called the “inverted pyramid.”

http://mtsu32.mtsu.edu:11178/171/pyramid.htm and here on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid

Inverted Pyramids in Cyberspace

Jakob Nielsen adds that “On the Web, the inverted pyramid becomes even more important since we know from several user studies that users don’t scroll, so they will very frequently be left to read only the top part of an article. Very interested readers will scroll, and these few motivated souls will reach the foundation of the pyramid and get the full story in all its gory detail.”

References

Chris Brogan: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/how-to-blog-almost-every-day/

Chip Scanlan: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=38693

Jakob Nielsen http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9606.html

Having this model in mind helps me structure each article. I write a one sentence intro, break out the content in chunks, and then wrap up at the end with conclusion and/or questions.

Asking a question at the end can be a simple but effective way to encourage readers to post a comment.

What you think!

Ivan

Looking for a simple writing tool that automatically hides your desktop so you can concentrate on your writing? Anil Atluri on Digital Inspiration has this great tutorial on how to make Google Docs your perfect free writing tool.

Turn Google Docs into a Writing Tool

Follow these steps:

1: Create a new document in Google Docs and choose “Edit CSS” from the edit menu.

2: Paste the following code into the CSS Box and save.

body {

font: 16px “Courier New”;

color: #00ff00 !important;

background: #000 !important;

width: 800px;

margin: 10px auto;

}

3: Press Ctrl + Shift + F to remove the menu bar in Google Docs and then hit F11 to turn your browser into full-screen mode.

Read more at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/google-docs-for-distraction-free-writing/10538/

Free Google Docs writing template

You can get a nice writing template over here from the same team: http://docs.google.com/

Do you use Google Docs for writing your tech documents?

What’s the one thing that would make you give up using Microsoft Word?

Documents fail for many reasons. One common mistake is to adopt a ‘one size fits all’ approach to your audience. This works only when generic material, usually of a non-technical nature.

When discussing Audience Analysis, David McMurray points out that, “for most technical writers, this is the most important consideration in planning, writing, and reviewing a document. You “adapt” your writing to meet the needs, interests, and background of the readers who will be reading your writing.

Online Writing Lab makes the point that, “In order to compose persuasive, user-centered communication, you should gather as much information as possible about the people reading your document. Your audience may consist of different people who may have different needs and expectations. In other words, you may have a complex audience in all the stages of your document’s lifecycle—the development stage, the reading stage, and the action stage”

In other words, the audience of a technical document is the intended reader.

If you don’t know who you’re writing for, you need to stop and figure out why these people will read your document.

Other examples

In the same way that Disney creates movies for kids, ESPN target basketball programs at sporting types, and The Economist send their glossy magazine for executives, all of these products are targeted at a specific audience(s) and deliver accordingly.

Audience types

When you start to analyze an audience, try to identify its type. These tend to fall into four categories:

1. Executives who make decisions regarding product development and its role in the company’s overall success may have little technical knowledge but a firm grasp of how to position the product as a business asset.
2. Software developers, who are less concerned with sales and marketing activities, need to know other details, such as the specs and installation instructions.
3. Experts will have in-depth technical knowledge. They are most likely to have designed and developed the product in question. They’ll be interested in emerging trends and new technologies. How does it compare against the competition?
4. Users will have the least technical knowledge. They simply want the product to work and ‘do something’ for them. They have little interest in its business goals, marketing promises, or technical architecture. Does it help solve their problems?

For a professional writer, knowing your audience is critical. If you get this wrong, you’ll miss the mark.

Other considerations

In addition to the types discussed above, you also need to factor in their:

• Delivery – How will the document will be delivered (print, online, projection, PDA). Will it be read in the office, on the road, or in more stressful situations, for example, disaster recovery documents may be read in very hazardous conditions?
• Experience – knowledge of the application to date
• Needs – determine the reasons the reader needs to have this document and what they hope to accomplish with it.
• Preferred document type – for example, do they have a preference or a need for printed or online material.
• Training – likelihood that the person has had some (or no) training with the application. This may determine how much needs to get into the Getting Started Guide and/or the Introduction chapters.
• When the document will be accessed (work, home, travel)
• Where the document will be read
• Why the document will be accessed (reference, training)

Other factors to include:

• Age
• Culture
• Language
• Level of education
• Needs and interests
• Skills

All of those factors will contribute to how the document is written and delivered.

How to define an audience

Depending on what you’re writing, you may have just one audience or possibly several.

For example, different chapters in the TV guide will be targeted at users with simple, moderate, or advance levels of proficiency.

• How many audiences do you have? List them. Start by identifying their needs.
• What do they hope to achieve?
• What is most (and least) important to them?
• What should they do with the document?

Audience acronym

Wikihow provides this AUDIENCE acronym:

• Analysis – Who is the audience?
• Understanding – What is the audience’s knowledge of the subject?
• Demographics – What is their age, gender, education background etc.?
• Interest – Why are they reading your document?
• Environment – Where will this document be sent/viewed?
• Needs – What are the audience’s needs associated with your document topic?
• Customization – What specific needs/interests should you the writer address relating to the specific audience?
• Expectations – What does the audience expect to learn from your document? The audience should walk away having their initial questions answered and explained.

It adds that audience analysis is part of the beginning stages of producing a target document. Whereas audience analysis does help to start off the project and lead the writer in the right direction, it is only one step in the formation of a document. It is beneficial to consult other rhetorical strategies that may help guide the writing process even more so.

Advantages of audience analysis

Knowing your audience lets you refine the subject matter so that it matches the reader’s needs. If you don’t know who you’re writing to, then you can’t achieve this.

Understanding your audience is the first step towards creating a healthy document. Before you start writing, define what the audience expects from the document. Imagine how readers will use it.

For example, imagine you are writing a manual on how to tune a High Definition TV:

• What will your readers going to expect to find?
• Will there be graphics and diagrams? Maybe screenshots of how to install parts.
• What do they want to read? How to troubleshoot if they can’t find a channel.
• What do they not want to read about? Its technical architecture and business plans.
• Where are they going to read it? In their office, car, room, or even outdoors.

Here are some questions to consider when defining your audience:

• How knowledgeable is the audience?
• Before starting a project, I always ask my clients, “What do they already know?” The client should know his customer’s level of proficiency. If not, interview the target readers and determine their strengths and weaknesses.
• What do they already know? Saves you from re-writing material.
• What do they need to know? Allows you to focus on the gaps in their knowledge.
• What background material should you provide to bring them up to speed?

How to keep readers interested

Sometimes you’ll have to work hard to persuade your readers to even open the first page. Writing a grant proposal means persuading the reader that your project is worthy of investment. They’re under no obligation to read it and can stop at any time and move onto something else.

Your success as a writer depends on grabbing their attention, keeping it and then encouraging them to take action – calling the sales office, for example.

For other projects, you may have a more captive audience. Internal documentation, memos, circulars, and other such publications are all targeted at your colleagues. To a certain extent, they have read this.

But you still have to make sure they understand the material. If not, you’ll be held responsible for such poor communications. When you consider it like this, both your internal and external customers have to be taken very seriously. Just because you’re writing for your colleagues doesn’t mean you can step down a gear. Rather, you need to be vigilant and avoid complacency entering your material.

How to write different types of information

For example, if you’re updating a User Guide, you may have to highlight how it differs from previous publications. Many readers will look at the introduction only (where you’ve discussed the changes) and skip to the sections they know best rather than read the entire document.

However, if you’re writing a white paper for a conference, you’ll have different writing goals. Your aim is to get their attention and persuade them to keep turning the pages.

So, how you present different types of information really matters. Is it new or old? An appendix or update? Is it neutral (i.e. sharing information) or sales-orientated.

Here’s another angle: consider whether the publication is technical (admin guide), commercial (case study) or promotional (press release)?

When you think about it, each type of reader is very different. Knowing their expectations helps fine-tune your material. Imagine if you didn’t know who you were writing for? Where would you start?

How do readers see you?

You can’t write in a vacuum. So, how others see you will determine the tone and position you’ll adopt when ‘speaking’ to others – just as it does when speaking to people in real life.

For example: consider a business plan where you’re requesting funds.

• What’s your position to the Venture Capitalists?
• How do they see you? Inferior, superior or peer?
• What tone do they expect? Chatty, witty, and light-hearted? Maybe not!
• How about a series of Standard Operating Procedures for a Military unit?
• Again, what tone should you adopt?
• When the solders read the instructions, what attitude would you like them to adopt?
• Should they consider the SOPs politely, debate their meaning amongst colleagues, or accept it as a direct order from their superiors and act accordingly?

So, before starting, make a list of your target readers. Then, write a single paragraph outlining their needs. Prioritize their three main objectives and write your document around these. Later you can go back and refine the text to incorporate other topics that are close to their heart.

Understanding your audience is the first step in the writing process. Spend more time on this in your next writing project and you’ll see a considerable difference in the final publication.

Then go back and look at other documents where you did no audience analysis. The difference will be very obvious. Older documents will appear to be very coarse and immature; newer documents will have a more professional and solid feel to them. You know who you’re writing for and it shows.

Links:

David McMurray – Power Tools for Technical Communication

Online Writing Lab – http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/629/01/

Ten Audience Analysis Exercises http://www.tengrrl.com/tens/013.shtml

What are your thoughts on this area? Is it best to get something written up fast and circulated or is it better to be patient and go through the analysis phase?

Ben Parr (Mashable) asks: “Say your project manager comes to you with his proposal that will be going out to investors, business partners, and potential clients.

Then you find that your manager has used “4” instead of “four”, “r” instead of “are”, and abbreviations such as lol, atm, and idk.

How would you react? “How To Mind Your Grammar On The Web.

When is it appropriate to use this type of language shorthand?

Ben has come up with this short guide on grammar on the web for business:

Do: Understand your audience and understand your company’s personality, especially when communicating with customers.

Do: Utilize some forms of Internet shorthand while tweeting.  Occasionally abbreviating to fit within the limit is an acceptable practice

Do: Be Authentic. If you’re known as someone that uses shorthand and you’re comfortable with that, then you shouldn’t do a complete 360 in your communications.

Don’t: Use Internet shorthand in emails.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s a customer, an employee, or a potential business client.

Don’t: Use Internet shorthand in business-to-business communication. This includes Facebook, Twitter direct messages, and email.

Ben: http://www.openforum.com/grammar-on-the-web-some-rules-of-thumb-for-business-ben-parr

To this I would add:

• Think Local: don’t write localize (US) when it’s localise for those in the UK
• Jargon – avoid using insider speak that only you and your company use.
• TLA – cut out three-letter-acronyms. Sometimes it’s fine, but if you are going to use it, then make sure you spell it out somewhere in your report, preferably near the start. Otherwise, no-one will have clue when you’re ranting on about.
• Small words are fine. Don’t try to impress people with multi-syllable words and strange noun structures. Keep it simple.

What’s the most common grammar mistake you see on the web?

Before I start!

If you have any questions about how to develop a writing career online (which is more appropriate for me these days), technical writing or working as a consultant, just drop me a line.

Eric flicked me an email a few days back about Adsense and asked if it was worth the effort and what other alternative information products/services should he look at. Here’s an extract of the email I sent back. Hi Eric, thanks for the kind words. As you can imagine, it’s hard to know if you’re going in the right direction with a site like this, so every time I get a word of encouragement it gives me a little boost to continue.

I run a few other sites as well as this is/was designed to complement their offerings and also to act as a funnel for material that doesn’t suit elsewhere. www.wordtipsandtricks.com and www.klariti.com are the other two babies I take care of.

I noticed you use Google AdSense. I’ve been reading up on it this week and trying to separate the reality from the mire of get rich quick schemes. How’s it working for you? Has it been worthwhile? FWIW Tom Johnson is also worth reading www.idratherbewriting.com as is Seth Godin sethgodin.typepad.com <I noticed you use Google AdSense.

I’ve been reading up on it this week and trying to separate the reality from the mire of get rich quick schemes.

How’s it working for you?

Has it been worthwhile? Yes and No. Yes in the sense that it does work.

If you can get a nice stream of traffic to your site, it will bring in revenue. But, to keep it in perspective, I get over 200k page impressions per month on the sites.

This generates about 1k USD.

Now, 1k is fine but it takes a lot of effort to get 200k people to click around you sites every month. I should add that I haven’t really tried to ‘optimize’ the site for Adsense as some webmasters do. The adds are there and if you want to click them, then it’s a bonus.

But, here’s a tip! Looking at the stats, it’s the Search box that generates the most revenue, not the ads themselves.

You can create a Google Search box, link it to your Adsense account, and use this as a way to encourage visitors to surf around your site.

See  http://www.google.cn/webmasters/tour/tour1.html And here’s an even better tip! You can configure the Google Search box so that it searches specific sites only.

See  http://www.google.com/cse Google Custom Search in 30 second

You can setup Google Custom Search to create a customized search experience for your own website.

• Include one or more websites, or specific specific webpages
• Host the search box on your own website
• Host the results on your own website
• Customize the look and feel of the results to match your site
• Provide fast and relevant search results
• Make money with AdSense for Search
• Automatically search across links, bookmarks or blogrolls with Custom Search on the fly
• Control branding and enhance results presentation via XML results
• Provide quick indexing of your website via On-Demand indexing
• Embed a Custom Search Element into your website for a highly customized in-line search experience.

Sounds impressive, no?

In other words, you can limit the search to your site and other sites that you specifically want the visitor to go to, such as affiliate sites or partner sites (you could link up with a similar site and arrange cross-searching). With that said, it does take time to master Adsense, but if you have a long-term strategy, yes it is worthwhile.

I’d recommend using the Adsense plug-ins you can get for WordPress as these help automate the process. Real time-saver.  Why No? Because other areas are much more profitable! Such as? Method123 have been a winner for me for over 4 years. See: Method123 Project Management Templates There a lot of sites offering affiliate/partner programs but this is absolute gold dust! Their site is right when it says:

• Our Affiliate program differs from others because:
• We are a profitable company and only do business over the web
• We offer large affiliate commissions
• Our average sales amount is extremely high
• Our conversion rate is also high

So, if can write articles about project management or anything to do with running projects, then you can link to their site, drive traffic over and claim your commission. Things you could write about might be:

• 10 ways to improve your Business Case
• Learn how to write a Feasibility Study in 24 hours
• What you need a Project Charter
• 7 Ways to develop a Project Office Checklist

It’s pretty straightforward. I use other affiliates, such as GoDaddy, aWeber and Paypal.

They’re all fine but Methds123 has worked very well for me. FWIW – their head office is in New Zealand and you get that nice feeling that you’re working with a real company whereas with other programs you get an auto-responder back and then a relationship manager after a few days.

Darren Rowse has a great article if you’re thinking of getting into blogging. http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/06/10/successful-blogging/ 13 Things I’ve Learned about Successful Blogging [My 5000th Post on ProBlogger]

Before I forget, Amazon has been a total time-waster.

When I consider the effort v the results I got back – just avoid! I know others recommend it but if you apply yourself and find a 2 or 3 quality affiliate programs, you’ll do much better.

Regards, Ivan

Jakob Nielsen explains the different benefits that Short versus Long articles bring to your site, especially if you are running an online business. In his newsletter, he asks “should your website have concise or in-depth content?”

His conclusion is that:

a) If you want many readers, offer short content. This is ideal for advertising-driven sites or sites that sell impulse buys.

b) If your readers need a solution, offer comprehensive coverage. This is more suitable for solutions to complicated problems.

He recommends writing articles instead of blog postings as people who “really need something are the highest-value users because they’re more likely to turn into paying customers.”

Read more at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/content-strategy.html

We reviewed PerfectIt last month and were impressed with its ability to edit and test our documents.

Daniel Heuman, the founder of Intelligent Editing Ltd has prepared this tutorial that goes into more detail and show some of the ways you can get more out of this editing product. Here’s Daniel.

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PerfectIt does not require any kind of configuration. Once you install it, you can use it straight away to find mistakes in any MS Word document.

This article is for users who want to get even more out of PerfectIt by fine-tuning it to search for particular errors or to enforce a style guide.

Fine-tuning PerfectIt

You can set your rules for how PerfectIt checks:

• Hyphenation
• Common typos
• Numbers in sentences
• Spelling variations
• Keywords left in the body of text
• Use of capital letters
• Punctuation of bullets and lists
• Capitals in bullets and lists

There are two ways to build your rules into PerfectIt, you can add them organically when PerfectIt runs or you can use the configuration screen.

Common Errors in English Usage

Organic fine-tuning

The easiest way to add rules for checking is to teach PerfectIt your preferences as you use it. When PerfectIt finds an error, just click the “Customise Test” menu to either exclude that from future searches or build a rule for checking it.

For example, if PerfectIt states that an abbreviation appears in two forms: “NASA” and “N.A.S.A.”, you can use the menus to specify that “NASA” is always preferred. After that, PerfectIt will prompt for any instance of “N.A.S.A.” with any document you test.

You can specify an even wider set of rules by using the configuration screen. To load the configuration screen, select “Advanced…” from the “Customise Test” menu. This will provide options for setting your own checking rules. For example, to specify that semi-colons are the preferred punctuation for short bullet points, choose “Settings for Lists, Numbers and Compounds”, then choose “Punctuate Short Items”, then select “A Semi-Colon” from the drop down menu. Save your changes and PerfectIt will notify you if it finds any bullet points with other types of punctuation.

The advantage of customised versions of PerfectIt

It is possible to share configurations between computers – just copy the files ‘CustomExclusionLists’ and ‘CustomFindLists’ from one computer to another. However, for organisations, the best way to ensure that rules are standardised across computers is to have Intelligent Editing prepare a customised version for you. Intelligent Editing will scan your library for inconsistencies and review those with you. Then we’ll build a version of PerfectIt that is custom-designed for your organisation. We’ll include all of your preferences and supply you with a version that is built for the specifics of your style guide.

Conclusion

Style guides are important documents that all too often go ignored. With PerfectIt, you can quickly and easily check that reports, articles, contracts and proposals are all aligned with your style guide. You can build in the checking that is most important to you and ensure that documents are reviewed completely for the mistakes that matter most. To try PerfectIt for free, download it now.

About the Author

Daniel Heuman, Founder, Intelligent Editing Ltd.

Intelligent Editing Ltd specializes in software solutions that deliver faster, more accurate editing for professionals. http://intelligentediting.com

I write all my posts in Word, cut/paste into Notepad to remove Word’s tags, and then into WordPress. This morning I noticed that it (Notepad) is adding this line of code to the article.

When I cut and paste from Notepad I get these odd div tags. This never happened before. Usually when I cut/paste from NotePad it remove alls divs tags and what not from the Word docs I was writing in.

div id=”_mcePaste” style=”position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;”

It also means that when you paste into WordPress, the text doesn’t appear, unless you delete this tag.

Where is this coming from?

Any ideas?

Regards,

Ivan

PS – if you haven’t got enough to do already, you can follow me on Twitter @ivanwalsh

You can’t upgrade to the ‘all-new Yahoo! Mail’ if you’re PC setting are under 1024 x 768 pixels. At least that’s what happened this afternoon when I tried to upgrade. This is the error message you get from Yahoo.

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They give me a few options:

1. You can continue with your current settings, but you won’t be able to enjoy the full effect.

2. To continue to the all-new Yahoo! Mail anyway… [which sounds very lame, imho]

3. Go to Yahoo! Mail

4. Go to Yahoo! Mail Classic just this one time [read that again -just this one time! Am I back in high-school?]

5. Or better yet, try increasing your screen’s resolution.

Jerry Wang and co tells me, “If you’re running Windows, here’s how:
Click the Start button, and select Settings, then Control Panel. Next, double-click Display and click the Settings tab. Use the slider to set your monitor to a 1024 x 768 pixel resolution.

The problem is that these are my settings. See here:

Anyway, they’re pretty friendly about it and tell me to ‘Switch back to Yahoo! Mail Classic indefinitely — or at least until your system is ready.’

Until my system is ready…

and not until Yahoo gets its act together.

Could be a long time.

Question: Have you made the switch to Yahoo Mail yet? Let me know how it went or better still what it looks like.

From the outside, looking in.

Ivan

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In publishing and media companies, use of a style guide is the norm. However, style guides can also be useful for any organization that prepares documents for clients and the public. This article is for organizations outside of the publishing industry who can benefit from the introduction of a style guide.

A style guide is a reference point that sets standards for writing documents within your organization. The focus of the style guide is not usually a matter of “correct” or “incorrect” grammar or style, but rather it provides guidance for instances when many possibilities exist.

Style guides offer you the chance to present your brand in a consistent way. They help to ensure that multiple authors use one tone. And they help save time and resource by providing an instant answer when questions arise about preferred style.

How Your Guide Will Be Read (aka ‘The Facts Of Life’)

To write an effective style guide, it is important to keep in mind that most people in your company will barely read it. A keen, new recruit may read all the way through. But for most people, the style guide is there as a resource. It is there to answer questions and settle arguments. So it’s important that the structure is clear and a ‘table of contents’ is the first thing that readers find.

“Remember that style guides are references, consulted when a question or problem arises, rather than books to be read as a training tool.”— Jean Hollis Weber, Developing a Departmental Style Guide

Making Use Of Existing Style Guides

How do you decide what belongs in your style guide? Good industry-wide style guides are often hundreds of pages long. So the easiest way to write your style guide is to select one that covers your sector and then do not repeat anything that is in that guide. Instead, just note any additions or changes that apply to your organization.

How can you find out which style guide is right for your organization?

Check the list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_style.

By using an external guide as the point of reference, you can focus your reader on the key things to remember in your organization.

The Most Important Things For Your Reader To Remember

In many cases, the purpose of the style guide is to ensure that documents conform to corporate style and branding. For example, does your organization abbreviate its name?

If so, when and how is the abbreviated term used? Getting corporate style right is not just important for your own organization, key industry terms that can be presented in more than one way should also be included in the style guide. If your clients have a preferred style for their name then these should be included too.

Tip: Choosing the right Style Guide

After corporate style and branding, often the next most important use of the style guide is to answer internal questions about presentation. Your style guide should make clear how authors present:

• Headings (and how they are capitalized)
• Lists (whether they are capitalized and how they are punctuated
• Numbers (when they should be spelled in full)
• Rules for chapter, figure and table headings (including numbering)

Tools like PerfectIt can help to ensure that presentation is consistent. Intelligent Editing also prepare customised versions of PerfectIt that can build the exact specifications of your style guide into an electronic checker.

The key to determining what goes in the style guide is to find out how usage differs in your company. The best way to do that is to bring more people into the process of building the style guide. That process is reviewed below, but first this article looks at common mistakes in the preparation of style guides.

Things Not To Do

Almost everyone who writes has a pet peeve that he/she hates to see in print. Maybe you don’t like unnecessary use of quotation marks? Perhaps you cannot understand why grown-ups still don’t know the difference between “it’s” and “its”? You are right. But this is not the place for that. Whatever your bugbear is, you need to put it to one side and focus on the key message.

A good style guide is no more than four pages. Of course, some organizations may need it to be longer. However, outside of publishing, bear in mind that the goal is just to focus on points of style where there is no right answer but where one usage is preferred by the organization. It is not the place to teach your colleagues things that they should already know.

A style guide is also not a design guide. You should have in place templates that automate indentation, typefaces and styles within Word (If you do not have these already, email us for a recommendation info@intelligentediting.com). Graphics formats, logo presentation and other issues that relate to appearance also belong elsewhere.

If there are rules in your company about signing-off documents or procedures for checking and releasing then leave these out. Equally, instructions on using Word do not belong here. Reminding authors to use a spell check before passing on their document is not consistent with how a style guide will be read and is a sure-fire way to deter people from using it.

The Evolution Of A Good Style Guide

The best way to make sure that nobody uses your style guide is to write it and then tell everyone else to obey it. The purpose of a style guide is to make sure that multiple authors write in a clear and unified way that reflects the corporate style. So it’s best to bring other authors into the process as soon as possible. Run the draft past a select group of people and ask for comments. When the final version goes out, ask for feedback. If you have a company portal, set up a forum for users to discuss the guide. Plan on making revisions in light of feedback and the style guide will become something that all interested parties can participate in.

Conclusion

The key to a good style guide is brevity. Authors use a style guide as a resource, so it should be written as one. A style guide also does not sit on its own. It should be accompanied by a guide that is specific to your industry, separate guides for design and process issues, and tools like PerfectIt to ensure that corporate style is adopted.

Bibliography

Developing a Departmental Style Guide, Jean Hollis Weber

About the Author

Daniel Heuman, Founder, Intelligent Editing Ltd.

Intelligent Editing Ltd specializes in software solutions that deliver faster, more accurate editing for professionals. http://intelligentediting.com