Stupid writing mistakes to be avoided

Oct 16, 2009 Comments

Language, I believe, is not as inflexible as it is made out to be by the so-called purists and impurists. Anything forced sounds unnatural. A sentence can be interpreted in thousands of ways, and you can convey the same thing in thousands of different sentences. So unless there are some glaring grammatical or spelling mistakes, I don’t think there is right writing or wrong writing — the underlying objective is to convey in the most compelling and comprehensive manner.

Here is a nice blog post on stupidest writing mistakes. I won’t say that all the mistakes listed there are stupidest, but you can certainly learn a few things in this blog post. Take for instance the difference between affect and effect. It amazes me that there are many people who don’t know the difference between the two. The writer aptly explains that an effect is a noun and an affect is a verb: your dramatics don’t affect me; your dramatics have no effect on me.

In some instances the writer plainly seems to have a difference of opinion and seems to stupidize (my word) people for having a different view. I’m not very snooty about using commas before "and" because it does not depend on the rule, but the voice and the feeling. I know it’s difficult to understand, but that’s why some people are writers ;-).

Do read the post though, some good pointers.

Twitter Lists: list to follow

Oct 15, 2009 Comments

Twitter has added a features that allows you to create a list of your favorite people you’re following and would let others follow them with a single click. Currently, as this Mashable blog post states, this feature is available to a select few, but gradually it’ll be available to all Twitter users.

This I think is a nice way of recommending people and this will help you gain more followers. Also, as it happens in almost every sphere in life, this features is firstmost being offered to well-known Twitter users, but the good thing is, if they recommend you in their list, it’s much more beneficial.

Initiating a positive climate change while operating your freelance business

Oct 15, 2009 Comments

Today’s post is about Climate Change (an initiative by BlogActionDay.org — Blog Action Day ).

Climate change is not just the problem of those who think about it and want to take some proactive action. It is a problem we all face, whether we accept it or act like an ostrich. When the polar ice melts and costal cities get submerged the impact is all pervasive. When our kids develop asthma and other pollution-related illnesses it no longer remains an "activism" issue. When the marine life starts withering it affects the entire food chain. When there are flash draughts, flash cyclones and sudden pest attacks we all bear the brunt. So it’s an issue that concerns us all.

Do you know that just by working as a freelancer, from home, you contribute so much towards keeping the climate of the planet healthier? How? Easy. By not commuting on a daily basis.

60% of the pollution we have today comes from automobiles, if I’m not mistaken. Not all pollution is generated by the office going travelers, but with millions of people going to offices at least 5-days-a-week you can very well imagine the kind of strain they put on the fragile environment. No, I don’t mean to say that we should all stop going to offices and go back to the village economies (they’re not actually bad, but not feasible in the contemporary sense), but there are some organizations that are just trapped in the old rut. Many employees can telecommute, many can work from home and they can go to offices when extremely necessary.

So the moment you start freelancing from home you start contributing towards a cleaner environment.

Other than the not-traveling-to-work-factor, there are many proactive steps you can take to make your freelance business more environment friendly.

Reduce your energy consumption

Consuming more energy while working doesn’t just mean paying higher electricity bills, it also means increasing the use of natural resources needed to produce that energy. Even if you can easily afford the bill of using extra energy, imagine how much oil or other fuels are being used to produce that extra energy you are using, and could have avoided using.

You can economize the use of power by taking small steps:

• Switch off your computer when not in use: There is a misconception that it harms your computer if you switch it on and off repeatedly. On an average a computer can be safely switched on and off 40,000 times. So if you’re not going to use your computer or laptop for a couple of hours and it is just lying there in the room, switch it off. Even in hibernation your computer uses power. Your computer uses lots of power even if your screen saver is running.
• Use equipments that use less power: Laser printer uses more power than an inkjet printer. A bigger monitor uses more energy than a smaller one. A flat screen monitor is more efficient than a regular monitor.
• Use natural light as much as possible: Do you have a nice window in your room and do you work when it’s normally bright outside? You can save electricity by using that natural light, instead of using lamps and bulbs, and even if you have to use bulbs, there are many options available these days that give more light and use less power.
• Maintain your hardware properly: If your computer or laptop is generating too much heat it puts extra strain on your cooling system and consequently, you end up using more power.
• Work faster: Improve your overall work efficiency. This way you’ll use less time in front of your computer. You’ll need less light because you’ll finish your work while it’s naturally bright around you.
• Use solar or wind power if you can manage: If you have lots of open space around your house and you live in a sunny or a windy area, and if you can afford, you can tap these renewable resources to meet your energy needs. The affordability, unfortunately, right now, is a big factor, as these technologies, being still in various development stages, are quite expensive to implement.

Use less paper

Papers are actually destroying the forests of the world and this is unleashing unprecedented global warming. These days you can generate practically every document digitally. You can send electronic invoices to your clients. You can completely computerize your accounting. There are many tools available that let you take down notes online or on your desktop (in fact they are more efficient and easier to maintain and retrieve). You can read every major newspaper or magazine under the sun online. There are 1000s of ebooks available (both free and commercial) that you can easily download and read.

Use public transport for longer distances and cycle for shorter ones

If you have a decent public transportation system in your city then use that to cover longer distances, instead of using your vehicle (are you still using one of those fuel guzzlers, by the way?). Using your cycle to visit the neighborhood store not only makes you healthy, it also helps you reduce your carbon footprint.

Raise awareness around you and educate your kids

One of the most wonderful things about freelancing from your home is that you are always in the community. You are there when your kids are home. It’s not easy to run a business from home and it takes up lots of time and effort, nonetheless, compared to an office going person, you get to spend more time with your kids and spouse. Educate them about a positive climate change and what habits they can inculcate to improve our environment. Involve them in the activities. Encourage them to get the community involved and inform people.

Volunteer your skills, talent and knowledge

There are many NGOs actively working towards a cleaner environment and they can definitely use your abilities. Take some time out of your busy schedule and explore the possibilities of working with them as a volunteer.

Participate in online activities that spread awareness

Like the one currently happening at BlogActionDay.org. 100s of 1000s of blogs right now are writing about the issue and if the perception of just a few hundred individuals can be changed with this activity it’s all so worth it. It doesn’t have to be something very length. Just post a few paragraphs, create a sketch or a video or an animation and put it on your website. In fact, this gives me a great idea. Once in a month I’m going to write about Climate Change on this blog. Kindly drop in your ideas on what all I should write about.

Is it really the end of email?

Oct 12, 2009 Comments

According to this Wall Street Journal article it is. It says people are becoming so used to communicating through Twitter and FaceBook (soon to be joined by Google Wave), but I think it is like the proverbial "jumping the gun". Of course I’m not denying that you can communicate faster using Twitter and FaceBook and some things you don’t even have to communicate through emails because you have already posted an update, there is nothing like "we’re always connected". I, for example, am not. Today I haven’t checked my Twitter and FaceBook streams simply because I was too busy working and replying to important email messages. If you are always connected one thing or the other keeps disturbing you and you cannot focus on work. It’s BS when people say they’re more productive when they are constantly checking Twitter and FaceBook updates and posting responses.

Of course you can get constant email updates if you’re using some sort of notifier (I sometimes use Gmail notifier or GoogleTalk to get instant email notifications) but it’s not like Twitter and FaceBook. When I’m in work mode and when I’m waiting for client response I’m not interested in knowing what sort of coffee you’re having or what’s the latest political gaffe the government is committing (I’m not saying these things are unimportant).

People immediately started discounting blogs when Twitter and FaceBook caught on but such a trend was obvious. It is so easy to post small messages and amusing links on social networking websites but writing a blog post on a continuous basis is difficult. The popularity of blogs hasn’t diminished, it’s just that fewer people are trying their hands at blogging because it’s easier to share thoughts on Twitter and FaceBook.

The problem with Twitter and FaceBook is that they are not as personal as an email. Things that you used to share with a select few are shared by everybody following you or befreinding you unless you take extra pains to exclude some people. In fact, this is the big difference in email and social networking apps: in email you have to include people if you want to communicate with them. On Twitter and FaceBook you have to exclude them — physically — if you don’t want to communicate with them. They’re more public. Email is private, and it is not going to go away easily. May be the form will change, but it’s here to stay for at least a few more years.

Whom are you trying to please with your content?

Oct 08, 2009 Comments

By this I mean, whom are you trying to target, influence and consequently, engage, with your content publishing and marketing strategy? This needs to be clearly defined and this is so important that I don’t mind repeating it again and again.

Whenever you’re publishing a new web page or a new blog post, just sit back and think about whom it’s going to impact the maximum, or whether it’s going to impact at all. Sometimes we publish content simply because we like it. This is not a totally bad thing to do and you should often let your individuality show through, what eventually matters is what your content gives to your visitors. Do they feel enriched? More than that, do they do what you want them to do after consuming your conten, in whatever form it exists?

A good list of killer headline creating formulas

Oct 07, 2009 Comments

You have won half the battle if you’ve created a good headline for your website or blog post. It’s all the more important in the times of social media and social bookmarking where your well-prepared headlines can attract lots of attention. Having said that, do pay close attention to the following when you are creating your next killer headline:

Don’t create a headline just to create attention

This proves counter-productive and incites lots of WTFs if your headline doesn’t match your content. Make sure your headline truly represent the message of your blog post or web page.

Use your main keywords in the headline

It not only helps your search engine rankings but also helps you better represent your message. Take for example the headline of this blog post — it clearly tells you that the post intends to tell you some good ways of creating highly effective headlines.

Enough of my ruminations, head to this excellent post on Copyblogger titled 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work.

Does your content engage your readers?

Oct 07, 2009 Comments

The most important job of your content strategy is to engage your readers in a continuous manner. This is how they remember you. This is how they become familiar with you, and what you can offer them.

In order to engage your readers, you need to talk and listen and respond, instead of just talking at them from your lonely, isolated part of the universe. Ask them questions, and give them answers, or even probable answers, when they ask questions. Don’t just focus on establishing your authority — although that is important if you want people to listen to you — but along with that also talk in their language and be approachable.

In order to engage your readers in conversations,

Encourage them to interact on the comment section of your blog

The best way of letting people interact on your comment section is to let them share their thoughts. If you have, say, 10 points to discuss on a particular topic, publish just 7 and let the remaining 3 come from your readers. Does this leave your post unfinished? Wait for a couple of weeks, and if nobody talks about the points that can make your post complete, you can always update it.

Publish sometimes things that are relevant to your users even if they’re not directly related to your product or service

Is there some public debate going on on your part of the world and you would like to know what your readers think about it and how it impacts them? Take for instance global warming and rapidly melting polar ice caps. It may not help you sell more network security devices or get you more web hosting customers immediately but it will certainly provide you with an opportunity to reach out to your readers and convey to them that you are not merely interested in promoting your business. Varied topics also encourages those people to come forward and express themselves that are though interested in your field but have got nothing much to say.

Highlight suggestions made by your readers

Sometimes readers/visitors raise very important issues and they need to be highlighted. Talk about them by updating your existing blog post or writing a new one. Give full credit to the reader who gave you the idea and if he or she has a website, link to it. This will give an incentive to your other readers too.

Make good use of social media

Some of your readers may be active social media users. They may like to share their thoughts on Twitter and FaceBook rather than posting them on your blog. If you find it difficult to express what you have to say in the limited number of characters, write a small post on your blog and then just mention the link on your stream.

What more can you suggest?

How to use your business blog content to promote your business

Oct 06, 2009 Comments

The greatest benefit of your business blog is that it increases repeat traffic to your website — that’s why I advise my clients to host their business blogs under their main domain rather than using a separate, dedicated domain (even if the dedicated domain contains their keywords). If you regularly update your business blog with useful and relevant content you automatically cover the keywords you require to get targeted traffic from major search engines.

The key to turning your casual visitors into loyal customers and clients is, make them familiar with you, your product or service, and provide them all the information they require in order to want to do business with you, and you can easily achieve this through your blog. Although there is nothing particularly wrong or offensive if you occasionally publish your marketing or promotional messages on your blog (after all it’s a business blog), restrict them to one or two in a month. Don’t also make it highly personal unless people have become familiar with you and respect your knowledge and play close attention to your thoughts.

The basic purpose of your business blog content is to inform your visitors what you can do, convey to them how much you know about the product or service you are offering, and create a comfort level. Your business blog also creates opportunities for you on social media websites. If you want people from these websites (Twitter, FaceBook, Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit…) to visit your website on a regular basis, you can’t just go on posting the same old links again and again; your followers and friends will grow tired of them and start ignoring if in the interesting stuff you may post occasionally. Post something fresh on your blog regularly, and then promote those new links using social media and social networking websites.

Engaging business blog content also encourages conversation and herein lies the true power of your content. If people talk about what you publish on your blog and share your links with each other, your business blog has crossed a major milestone. After this you simply have to maintain the momentum and keep feeding them with new thoughts. That’s the human side.

On the search engine side, maintain a certain frequency so that the search engine crawlers know when your blog should be crawled and new content indexed. I’ve personally observed that your website or blog gets crawled and indexed depending upon your frequency. When I publish on a particular blog multiple times a day for a couple of weeks the blog posts begin to appear in search engine results within 40-50 minutes of posting.

Quality business blog content encourages other bloggers, social bookmarkers and online publishers to link to your blog if they find something worth linking to. This doesn’t happen the moment you start publishing your business blog; it takes time because you need a certain level of presence for topics concerning your field. People in the first place should know that they can find good, reliable content on your blog if they want to link to it. If they are looking on the search engines they should be able to find your relevant blog posts for the related search terms. If they are sifting through social media and networking websites then your links should be present under appropriate categories.

Maintaining a business blog and generating quality content for it on an ongoing basis of course takes up lots of time. But when you see the results, it’s worth the effort.

Make an offer your customer or client cannot refuse

Oct 04, 2009 Comments

The blog post I just read calls it The Godfather Guide to Direct Marketing: Make Me an Offer I can’t Refuse. Although I’ve neither read the book nor seen the movie (I know, I know) but I can totally relate to the expression and this should be consistently kept in mind while preparing promotional literature. Offer something great and highlight it. It should be bigger than your company name. It should be the first thing your customer or client see as soon as he or she comes to your website or unfolds your brochure.

Not everybody is dying to do business with you or awed at the marvelous things you’ve done with your products or services, but how do you solve my problem? For instance, I’ve been thinking of buying a slightly higher-end digital camera for a couple of months, I don’t want to buy a cheap brand and I don’t at the moment have the needed cash to buy a reputed brand like Canon, Sony, Nikon or Panasonic. This is my problem and I’ll immediately buy the camera if a vendor offers me a good solution. There must be thousands of customers like me and if the vendors are not addressing this problem I think they are losing a big chunk of sales. The answer to my problem would be being able to pay in easy, multiple installments and that would be an irresistible offer for me.

But what if you don’t have an immediate offer?

An offer doesn’t always mean giving something tangible. If it is not a direct consumable then it can be some emotional benefit. The point is, your message should answer the question “What is in it for me?” immediately. We’re all besieged with problems and consciously or unconsciously we’re looking for solutions. I’ll revisit my problem again with a new angle. Diwali, one of the greatest Indian festivals, is approaching fast and such festivals bring lots of moments that you would like to capture with your camera and you won’t miss them for the world. It’s a time when families get together and since we live in different cities and even countries, such gatherings are all the more special. Personally, I’d like to click my daughter enjoying a phooljhadi (a tiny firecracker you can hold in hand). An ability to click such moments can also be an irresistible offer for me. Make it so genuine and enticing that I buy the camera at the cost of another expense.

Of course this means you cannot target every customer or client under the sun with that single offer. There might be many who can spend the money but are not crazy about buying a camera although once they have it they can make good use of it. Then there might be some who despite having the ability, and a flicker of desire to buy the camera, are going to spend the festival alone or are not particularly attached to their families and friends. This is where targeting comes. Narrow down your target and you’ll sell more. Don’t worry about losing sales by not offering everybody something; you’ll compensate that by narrow targeting.

A good thing about online copywriting is that you can always perform split-tests. Prepare different pages for different targets and observe how they perform. With pay-per-click advertising it is even easier to see the results quickly.

Content strategy before social media strategy

Oct 01, 2009 Comments

A major part of social media interactions involves promoting interesting and valuable content. Whether it’s blogging, Twittering, Facebook updates, Digging, Stumbling or simply forwarding email messages with engaging links, people are basically promoting content. That content can be in any format: videos, images, animations or text. If it’s interesting and useful, it is valuable.

In this post titled Social media starts with a content strategy the author has rightly stated that on social media nobody cares about you; they care about the content you can provide. People will promote your content if they find it interesting, relevant, topical or useful. So if you thinking about launching your social media campaign you better have some solid content production and content marketing strategy in place.

How do you formulate an advantageous content generation and marketing strategy?

Identify your market and recognize what it is exactly looking for. Does you content meet their requirement? Does it convey the right message? Do you promote your content in front of the right audience? Selling combs to bald people may be an accomplishment but in the long run it neither benefits your customers or clients nor it benefits you.

A successful content generation and marketing strategy involves three fundamental questions:

• What?
• Why?
• Where?
• How?

What sort of content should your website or blog have? What purpose does it solve and why you should publish it? Where should you promote your content – in front of whom? And what strategy and methodology you should follow in order to promote your content in front of the right audience.

Once you’ve answered these question, you can kick start your social media strategy.

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