Posts from — August 2008

Certainly the first "writers" were storytellers who "spoke" their stories. From there, written language developed, and practically since the very birth of writing we have had ad copy writers around, haven't we? That's probably an exaggeration. I don't honestly know when the first recorded ad copy was created, but I know from studying history that every civilization from which we have any sort of written records has left behind ad copy.

That alone should convince you that written words have power. They can produce everything from invention to emotion. Written words inform us and persuade us. They help us share our thoughts, hopes, and dreams with others. We can use them to manipulate the thoughts, hopes, and dreams of others. Written words, combined with carefully spoken words, can sell Fenphedra diet pills and they can elect presidents. Ancient kingdoms and modern pharmaceutical companies alike have risen and have fallen based on written words.

Think carefully, as a writer, about words and the power of written words. Use that power for good and not for evil. Or, if you choose to use it for evil, hey, at least sharpen your basic grammar skills and do it right!

Technorati Tags: advice for new writers, power of written words, writing tips at garyspeer.com

I've mentioned some time back that I spent about three years at a job that involved transcribing about 30-50 dictated letters a day. It was for an insurance company. It was fun learning to listen, type, and edit lightly all at the same time, while combining that with a required minimum keyboarding speed of 50 correct words per minute. (The real "downer" about the job is that most of the letters were denying clients' home and car insurance claims. Depressing.) I went into the job with a very naive, almost arrogant ignorance: "Hey, it's just typing. Who in the world couldn't do a job like this?" It was a real learning experience for me and a real eyeopener.

Which brings me to the topic of this post: Specialized forms of writing take special sets of skills, learning, and experience. I was watching CNN a couple of days ago when Shirley and I were eating at a Chinese food buffet, and I noticed that the restaurant owners had closed captioning turned on for their big screen wall mounted TVs. As I sat their munching on my General Chicken chunks, it occurred to me that someone was far, far, far better than I at live transcription. Closed captioning people gained my immediate respect.

I would think that doing closed captioning would demand incredible multitasking abilities, wouldn't it? You have to hear what's being said, keyboard at breakneck speed, and do a certain amount of editing and rewriting all at the same time. That seems amazing to me.

SO -- any of you reading this work at closed captioning? Any of you done closed captioning in the past? Tell us about it, please. I would love to learn how it's done. It would be good for us all.

Technorati Tags: special writing skills, closed captioning, writing as a business, writing tips at garyspeer.com

What can you do to benefit from keywords if you already have a website and want to add a blog? You already have a name for your website, you already have a domain name, so how can you use keywords in the new blog in ways that will draw traffic?

You can set up a subdomain or simply a subdirectory on your website to put the blog in -- and make the name of that subdomain or subdirectory some relevant keywords, instead of just "blog."

You've seen websites with blogs I'm sure, and almost always the website navigation simply had a sidebar link or navigation menu link that says "blog." Why not say something like, "Product News and Reviews" instead of "blog"? Chances are, if you are adding a blog to a website, you are going to use it for information or news related to the main blog. As a personal example, I have two or three affiliate marketing websites that display various merchants' products and try to "entice" or encourage people to click product links on my website, go to the merchant's website, and buy that product.

Since blogs are a good way to draw search engine "bots" to your website, I have set up blogs on some of my affiliate marketing sites. In one case, I named the blog "Newest Merchandise," and I use it to post product reviews and links on individual merchandise I add regularly to the site. In another case, I named the blog "News & Reviews" and I do something similar there.

Of course, the full name of the blog isn't just "News & Reviews" it's "News & Reviews About xxxx," but the link to the subdirectory I have the blog in shows on the main site as "News & Reviews."

No, this stuff isn't rocket science. (My son is a bona fide "rocket scientist" with an aerospace engineering degree, and he assures me it isn't rocket science.) There are no rules that you must follow to set up a blog or a website. There are no guarantees that anyone will ever come to your blog or your website.

But if your writing life involves blogging and/or website content, you might want to consider some of these ideas and modify them to fit your particular interests and skills set. You'll probably find ways to do far more and do it better than I if you just work at it.

Technorati Tags: Internet writing, blogging, keyword blog titles, writing tips at garyspeer.com

The annual Alzheimer's Memory Walk is drawing near and I cannot ignore the opportunity to call it to your attention and encourage any of you willing and able to take part in a walk wherever you live.

If you aren't familiar with this, it's the nation's largest effort to call attention to this awful disease as well as raise funding to support research and help with care for those families suffering through Alzheimer's.

It is, indeed, a family disease. There is research to suggest that at least part of the awful thing is genetic, but beyond that every family struck by the disease suffers -- not just the person or people who are afflicted with it. In my case, my father-in-law suffered advanced Alzheimer's in the closing months of his life and my wife was devastated by the experience. Some years later, her mother went through some very difficult battles with dementia in the last year or so of life, though it was never specifically diagnosed as Alzheimer's. Quite frankly, to this day I go through brief bouts of worry any time she or I (we are both in our 60s) experience those "senior moments" of forgetfulness we all kid about.

I encourage you to go to the Alzheimer's Association website I have linked to above and get the details about a walk in your area, or even find information about starting a walk. According to the information at the Association's site, Alzheimer's Walks typically are 2-3 miles long and are done on a weekend morning in the fall. There are more than 600 communities nationwide holding such wonderful fundraisers, and the site even has a ZIP Code form you can use to quickly locate a walk near you.

Take the time to find out about this and "do the right thing," whatever that may be for you and your particular situation. What a wonderful blessing it would be for millions if the disease could be cured. And what a wonderful blessing YOU may be to someone by doing your part in this, no matter how big or how small.

When you create a blog or website, try to use a name that people might search for in Google and it could pay off for you in free search engine traffic.

This is sort of related to the post I made last week regarding "long tail keywords" and their use to generate search engine traffic to your blog or website. The example I used there was creating keyword phrases of three or four words that are likely to be searched for in Google, Yahoo, MSN, or other Internet search engines. I used the example of picture frames. I won't post that all over again, you can read it here.

Another useful way to draw search engine traffic to a blog or website is to use a name that people might readily search for if they are looking for a product to buy online, or if they are searching for specific information that you will provide. Here's an example from my own online efforts:

I recently started a blog on something I am interested in, feel a passion for, and have some expertise with -- the history of the American West. When I decided to start the blog, I thought about what someone might search for if they were looking for stories or information about the history of the "Old West," that period running from around the time of the Civil War or a decade or two before to about 1900, when the "Old West" was more or less populated and becoming tame. I wanted to cover legends, real-life history, information about the daily life in the American West, and even throw in some links to relevant merchandise I might make some commissions on.

The next thing I did, before starting the blog itself, was think about a name for the blog that people might think of if they had similar interests. After kicking some ideas around with my wife, Shirley, we settled on "Life in the Old West." Then I went to the company where I register domain names for my blogs and websites and did a search. I REALLY lucked out. The domain name "lifeintheoldwest.com" was available, so I grabbed it.

The results? I have had that blog going for about three months exactly. If you type "Life in the Old West" (without the quote marks) into Google, you'll get a list of "1 - 10 of about 21,700,000," according to the stats at the top of the Google results page. My blog front page is number six. As a result, I get several dozen visitors a day, and I've made just a few bucks selling affiliate merchandise for a company that sells supplies and books for gold prospecting and "rockhounding." (Disclosure: My "earnings" have been less than $20, and it costs me money to host the blog and time to write the posts, so it isn't a big deal -- yet.)

How do you choose your blog names? How do you go about naming your websites? Don't be too cute or try to be too clever. If your site name is something clever it may be fun for you, but will people ever search for it? Why not research some keywords related to your blog/website and try to get those words into the site/blog name and the domain name you register to host it?

Technorati Tags: Internet writing, keyword site names, writing tips at garyspeer.com

How often to you get to write what you want to write? Are you often forced to write what your job requires instead of writing what you want to write? Most of us find most of our writing time devoted to a job or a project that we must do for our "day job," and have to fit the writing we really want to do into the day when and if we can.

I spent most of today working on an affiliate marketing website devoted to rustic furniture and decor. I had the opportunity to write about moose rugs, bear cub dishes, baby cradles, crib bedding, various high-ticket leather sofas and even some antler chandeliers. Not really exciting stuff. But I at least have the opportunity to get the site up on the Internet and possibly earn some money. I have had many, many "day jobs" worse than building my own websites, and I'm sure many of you have, too.

I spent too many years of my life wallowing in a sort of "I can never write a novel because I just never will have the combination of energy and time to get one done." Then I read of people who fire off best-selling novels while commuting to work, or after putting the tots down for a nap, or after doing dishes, three loads of laundry, cooking meals, and spending quality time with a spouse.

So "not enough time and energy," is really nothing more than a bad excuse in my case, and probably in most cases. I simply have to want to write something badly enough to, as the cliche ad slogan goes, "Just Do It."

How are the "wanna writes" working out for you in relation to your "gotta writes"? Let's make ourselves a promise to do better.

Technorati Tags: types of writing, time for writing, writing as a business, Internet writing, writing tips at garyspeer.com

Sometimes I assume, since I write a lot of content for my affiliate marketing websites and I write several blogs, that most people reading my writing understand and use concepts like "long tail keywords," and wouldn't be interested in what I have to say.

Then I remember that we all start -- started -- somewhere and probably some reading this don't have the slightest idea about how the concept works or how it might help their online writing efforts.

If you want to draw traffic to your website through the various big-time, free Internet search engines (yes, Google, I'm talking mostly about YOU), you need to have some understanding of long tail keywords. "Keywords" as used in relation to people coming to an Internet site means those words related to your blog or website for which people search -- usually a phrase rather than a single word. For example, if you have a website selling handcrafted picture frames, a primary keyword for your site would be "picture frames." Another would be "pictures" another "frames" and another probably "handcrafted."

The problem with your keywords there is: There are probably MILLIONS of searches done every day on the Internet for such common keywords as "picture frames" and even "handcrafted picture frames," so it's unlikely writing articles or other web content crafted around those keywords will draw you any of that traffic.

Now here's where the concept of "long tail" comes into play. A "long tail keyword" is a phrase closely related to the website or web page or article you want people to find that is, ideally, THREE OR FOUR words long. Hence the label "long tail." By writing web content for your blog or website that contains relevant long tail keywords, you can draw search traffic that others might overlook. For example, "handcrafted picture frames," though it's three words long, would not be a good long tail keywords because it's not really very unique. But "find handcrafted wooden picture frames" would probably be a better -- maybe even not too bad -- long tail keyword.

Enough of the keywords for now. It's an important concept you need to know at least a little about if you are writing for the Internet. I hope to do some follow-up posts in the next week or so suggesting other important things to know about using keywords and using long tail keywords, although it's probably pretty basic stuff for many of you.

Technorati Tags: using keywords, long tail keywords, Internet writing, writing tips at garyspeer.com

When I was a kid, it was always fun when my grandmother -- with whom I lived after my mother died -- allowed me to eat at friends' homes who had televisions, because I often got to sit in front of the friends' television and eat off a TV tray.

Is "TV tray" still a commonly used term? I haven't read or heard about TV trays for years, have you? But I see that many people still use the term: I just did a search on Google and came up with more than half a million search results. I'm surprised.

I also discovered through a Google search that many people think of what, to me, is a new category of furniture -- TV furniture. Looking around some home furnishings and furniture sites shows me that you can find everything from TV mounts to TV "lifts" and many other furnishings and furniture pieces designed for your television. I would have thought that a TV lift would be some sort of cart, perhaps a bracket. Nope, the TV lifts I saw were very nicely made, nice looking pieces of furniture I would have called a "bureau" or "dresser." Or perhaps just a TV "stand" with drawers in it.

I hope you're getting my point: Language and word usage is a sure way to "date" yourself. If you say "neat" or "nifty," you probably grew up in America in the pre-1960s, maybe even pre-1950. If you say "way cool," you probably grew up in the 1980s or 1990s. Quite honestly, I don't know an equivalent expression for teens and pre-teens these days.

Use your dated language and word uses -- they are called "archaisms" when they are way out of use -- to your advantage as a writer. If you're creating a character or setting a story in a particular time period, find some good dictionaries and word usage resources to make sure you get the language right. Unless you're trying for humor or writing fantasy, you would not have someone living in America in 1839 saying, "Hey, cool. That's way cool, dude."

Watch for archaisms, anachronisms, and other "glitches" in your dialog and story details. Get rid of them, or use them to your advantage.

Technorati Tags: archaic language, language usage, word usage, writing tips at garyspeer.com

According to a government funded scientific study released recently, if present trends in American health and lifestyle continue, "86 percent of American adults will be overweight by 2030, with an obesity rate of 51 percent. By 2048, all U.S. adults could be at least mildly overweight."

Which means the study is now projecting anorexia in adults will be 100% eradicated by 2048. If "all U.S. adults" are mildly overweight, then none of them can be anorexic, can they?

The study claims regarding obese and overweight adults are accurate as I've discussed them; I made up the part about anorexia. To be honest, the anorexia was a crack my son made when he found the report online and read it to me.

I intentionally titled this post the way I did and wrote the first two paragraphs the way I did to make a point about the power of writing in general and about copy writing and public relations writing in particular: Words can be used and misused to do amazing things.

Good writers learn how to do remarkable things with words -- and the better writers are wise enough and careful enough to use this power for good and not for evil. (Unless you write copy for politicians. In that case, you're just scum. Kidding, just kidding.)

Using reports, studies, statistics, etc., can be especially dangerous. And using medical studies, drug reviews, diet pill reviews, etc., for ad campaigns can carry its own set of risks. Think about the television commercials you see dozens of times a day for prescription drugs. The copywriter faces the challenge of wooing your business for the pharmaceutical company while adding the necessary warnings and disclaimers to protect various corporate behinds from lawsuits. If you watch and listen to such commercials carefully, you'll note that the warnings and disclaimers generally take more commercial time than the benefits and sales pitch itself.

Be crafty with your words when you write. Be careful with your words. Use your writing for good and not for evil. And, if you succumb to the evil, negotiate a big contract.

Technorati Tags: word usage, power of writing, copy writing, writing tips at garyspeer.com

I'm reminded of that Bible passage in Ecclesiastes: "To everything there is a season." One of the basic facts of writing, whether online or offline, is that readers enjoy seasonal stories/articles -- and so do editors. Those general seasons of the year, autumn, winter, spring, and summer, are a great background for anything you're writing. And specific, widely observed seasonal holidays, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas, etc., especially attract readers and often provide a good slant to use when approaching editors.

If you're blogging or especially if you are creating affiliate marketing websites, you want to pay special attention to seasons and seasonal deadlines. For example, any affiliate marketing you do -- whether you're merchant partners sell shoes or pet food or popcorn machines -- you need to put the Christmas shopping season at the top of your list of deadlines. In the case of online marketing, that means you'll need to have your websites pretty well put ready and in product-update mode by as early as September 1, and certainly no later than October 1. Otherwise, you can't hope to draw enough web traffic to take advantage of all the online holiday shoppers.

If you're submitting seasonal articles or fiction to print publishers -- magazines or books -- you must remember that most editors and publishers work as far ahead as a year or more. It may not be easy to "think snow" in mid-April or late-May where you live. But if you want to offer a snowstorm story to a magazine or book editor, you probably won't get the interest in November you would get in April.

Take advantage of editors' and publishers' seasonal needs. Take advantage of seasonal online shopping patterns. Enjoy writing for all seasons, no matter the season (or weather) where you live.

Now get busy and write something today to make us all proud.

Technorati Tags: advice for new writers, writing as a business, online writing, editing and publishing deadlines, writing tips at garyspeer.com