Posts from — October 2008

The title of this post really isn't all that profound, but it's easy to miss the obvious, so consider this a little review of the obvious.

Whether your writing copy to market a service for web masters or personalized gifts to Christmas shoppers, never forget that the focus of your writing MUST be the customer, not the browser, and certainly not the merchants you may be working with or for in your writing. Everything you say and the way you say it must be aimed at people who want to buy or need to buy the product or service. Your job is to speak to them in a way that will make them WANT what you or your merchant is offering.

Simple enough, isn't it? You look at the product or service you're marketing, then think about what you'd like to know or do with that product if you were a customer. Then write accordingly.

I'll admit that ad copy writing is not my strong suite, but I know some of you are very successful copy writers. Leave a comment and share some tips with us.

If your writing involves writing content for a website, and especially if it involves writing content for an affiliate marketing website, I assume you understand the need for early planning and preparation related to the annual shopping holiday -- I mean, related to Christmas.

Seriously, if you haven't got your websites in order for pre-Christmas shoppers, you're going to miss out.

It's never too late, as an affiliate marketer, to add to the selection of merchants and merchandise you feature on your website. You must plan for year-around shoppers if you are going to make affiliate marketing a "real" business. But if you haven't gotten things pretty well tuned up by the end of October, you'll probably miss a lot of the holiday shoppers. Do you understand why?

Obviously, not everyone shops by or before the end of October. Although online shoppers do tend to shop earlier than those in the "real world," in order to factor in shipping, returns, etc., and still have stuff ready for holiday giving.

BUT -- here's the punchline, so to speak: As an affiliate marketer, you know your shopping website needs to be polished up and ready to be found by Google, Yahoo, MSN, and the other search engines for you to get the most traffic you possibly can. And that generally takes 2-6 weeks even if you've built your sites well and optimized them for the search engines.

So get out there and build some pages for your shoppers today.

Your character walks into a room, takes a look around, goes over to the counter, and sits down. He looks quickly along the counter, evaluating the people sitting in the room, apparently looking for something or someone.

Is the counter just a counter, or is it a bar? When he sat down, did he plant himself on one of the bar stools in the room -- or were they just counter stools?

Why on earth am I asking? Why is that important?

It's important because precise usage of terms here makes all the difference between a story about a teenager meeting buddies at a local ice cream store or an off-duty cop meeting shady characters in a smoky bar. Establishing every physical detail in your mind when you're writing a scene enables you to make that scene rich and interesting to your readers.

Don't write general "stuff," write detailed scenes, scenes as vivid as you can possibly write so that your readers are drawn to your characters and drawn into the places and events of your story.

I'm pretty good at following directions, I think. My wife could probably judge that better than I, but I really don't believe I fit that old stereotype of men who are unwilling to ask for or follow directions. In fact, when we're traveling I generally love to have a map or road atlas along and check it frequently.

But when it comes to writing out directions or step-by-step instructions for anything, I'm a bit more challenged. How about you?

I ask because I know some of you make part of your livelihood as technical writers. I've not been trained for technical writing and wouldn't want to try it as a profession -- although I'm open to trying freelance technical writing should it cross my path.

I would assume the ability to think in clear, logical sequence and write out step-by-step directions for a process is crucial to success as a technical writer. As I understand it, most technical writers make the bulk of their living doing just that -- simplifying some process and making it "doable" for non-technical people.

Any of you technical writers out there care to leave some comments and explain this to us? I appreciate your comments. We can all learn together.

I know some of you have been far more successful at freelance writing than I, and I suspect an important part of your ongoing success has to do with the "branding" you've done.

I'm using the term "branding" simply to mean that you have an audience or a basic list of regular clients who recognize your name or your business name or in some other way know you're the one to turn to for the services you offer and they need. That's pretty wordy, isn't it? You understand what I mean, I'm sure.

There was a time when "suitcases" or "luggage" were almost synonymous in most people's minds with "Samsonite luggage," or perhaps "American Tourister," though really, mostly, just "Samsonite." The Samsonite products were "cutting edge" technology, and for awhile they had some great commercials on television highlighting their sturdy durability. You remember those commercials? Think "gorilla." They had commercials where their luggage was tossed into a gorilla cage and took considerable beating and battering around by the gorilla -- apparently without damage to the luggage.

You may have absolutely nothing to do with writing about luggage or gorillas, but if you've done consistently well as a freelance writer, you've probably "branded" yourself in some fashion so that people turn to you and pay the price you are asking.

What are you known for as a writer? Have you had success? What part has branding paid in your ongoing success as a writer? Leave a comment and tell us about your experience with branding.

As I sit here watching political speeches and ralliess on various cable channels, I am reminded again of the challenges of learning to speak, read, and write the English language effectively. (I also feel a great deal of thanksgiving that I learned it "naturally" as a native speaker -- and that the U.S. elections are almost over.)

Elections give us a perfect illustration of some of the challenges of the English language. I've referenced it in the title of this post: polls, polls, poles, and polling. Think about how confusing that usage and even spelling would be if you didn't know American English.

Polls are those opinion surveys political organizations follow closely as they consider their candidate's chances of election.

Polls are those locations voters go to when they cast their votes.

Poles are those long slender objects from which all candidates who wish to be elected proudly fly the flag. (Poles are also residents of Poland.)

Polling is the process of gathering those opinions in a survey.

Polling is also used as the process of taking or counting votes that were cast at the polls.

Are you confused enough yet? You may not be confused by all this, but think of how easy this is for you if you're a native English speaker. Then just imagine how challenging it is for someone from a non-European language group trying to gain fluency in the English language.

I love words, and I love thinking about the history and usage of words. I'm limited by really only knowing one language, American English, but I do try to have fun with it.

How about you? What word fun have you got going on today?

Oh, yes, one more thing: Be sure to get out and vote if you are qualified and able. That'll be the most political I'll get here. (I have another blog where I do tend to get more political if you're interested.)

When you see or hear the word "hardcore," do you think of bricks or p*rn?

This is one of those words which fascinate me, both in it's origin and in it's changes in meaning. If you "Google" the word or trace the word's etymology in a dictionary, you may be surprised the origin goes back to stone masonry, brick laying, etc. The "hardcore" was a layer of broken stones or bricks which could be compressed into a sub-foundation or footing for a building project. I gather "hardcore" wasn't preferred to solid rock, but was considered a reliable alternative if done carefully.

Today's use of the word seems to center mostly around two concepts: 1) meaning strongly committed or dedicated to something, or, 2) sexually explicit. I'm sure there are other uses of "hardcore" (I even found a nutritional product marketed as a fat burner primarily used by body builders named "Hydroxycut hardcore.")

There's a logical progression, if you think about it, behind this expansion in meaning from sturdy building foundations to dedicated, strong commitments. I suppose I can even see the same progression to the sexual use of the word.

What are some word histories that you find interesting? Leave a comment and share your favorites.

If you do any Internet writing, I'm sure you've heard about Squidoo -- which I mentioned in a post a few days ago and encouraged you to visit.

But perhaps a lesser known website which lets you write about your interests and put that writing on the Internet is Hub Pages at hubpages.com. Have you looked at Hub Pages? Do you write for Hub Pages?

Like Squidoo, Hub Pages provides a means for you to earn some income with your Internet writing. More importantly, Hub Pages and Squidoo both provide free, easy ways for you to launch a serious online writing career. Even if you already have a blog or other website, Squidoo and Hub Pages both can bring more notice to your writing and even draw traffic to your existing website/blog.

I have joined both sites, although I haven't yet written anything on a Hub Page. Have you?

If any of you are already using Hub Pages -- post a comment and share your experiences with us. I encourage you also, as I did in the earlier Squidoo post, to tell us any tips you've got for Squidoo.

Squidoo. Hub Pages. Both interesting -- and free -- places where you can get your writing on the Internet. Check them out. Then tell us what you think.

Speaking of Internet writing and putting together websites -- here's a useful company with affordable, valuable services you may want to check into -- APICoders.com.

Among other services, this company, headquartered in India, offers api widget and mashup programming for social networking sites. More simply put, APICoders.com helps websites take advantage of the "API" services freely available from many of the Internet's major companies, companies such as Flickr, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and others. The acronym "API," which you may have seen often on the Internet, stands for "Application Programming Interface." It refers to the special coding tools these companies offer -- very often as a free service -- which allow you as a coder (if you ARE a coder) to create online programs, software, etc., for people who come to your website to be able to take advantage of these software/Internet "giants" from your website.

Does that make sense? If you're more of a writer than a "coder," it probably doesn't mean too much to you -- it really doesn't mean a lot to me. But it means much and is perfectly understandable to the folks at APICoder.com. Their website explains what they do and how they may be of help to you much better than I can. In fact, they even have some articles and a case study or two of how they've helped customers.

If you're running a website and/or planning to do a website, go to APICoders.com and take a look at who they are, what they do, etc. They even have a free quote service if you've got an online project in mind and would be happy to advise you.

Go check out APICoders.com and see what they may be able to do for you!

Do you Squidoo?

Has a funny sound to it, I know. But if you use or visit Squidoo, you'll know how interesting the place can be. They have "experts" and would-be experts on just about anything you might want to know. And the beauty of Squidoo is that anyone can go there and create a really nice web page FOR FREE.

You don't even need to know any sort of "coding" or programming to create a Squidoo "lens" -- their odd name for a page. It's all done with modules that allow you to sort of copy-and-paste what you want, then add content about your subject and -- you've got a web page.

I would highly recommend that you look at Squidoo (just put "squidoo.com" into your browser and it'll get you there) if you want to get involved with writing on the Internet.

Here's a bit of a "preview" of things to come in my life and with this blog: I'm learning some ways to use Squidoo for my writing career. Go there, take a look around, and if you like what you see, within the next month or so I expect to be creating Squidoo "lenses" for sale.

What is your plan for "NaNoWriMo" this year?

I'm in a position where I have both the motivation and some extra hours available to try the November challenge this year, and I'm determined to reach their one-month 50,000+ words goal.

Have you signed on yet? Give it a shot.

Which brings me to the point of this post: How are you, literally, "gearing up" for the challenge? Do you prefer using a desktop computer, a laptop computer, both -- or perhaps something more basic like good old paper and pens or pencils?

As my carpel tunnel syndrome symptoms will attest, I spend far too much time pounding on a keyboard. I'm thinking of breaking out some dusty spiral bound notebooks I have laying around this clutter and trying my hand at pen or pencils. As far as pens, I prefer something of the "gel pen" nature because it writes more smoothly and generally more clearly than an old-fashioned "ball point" pen (is that term even used these days?) does. Regarding pencils, I really like some of those simple, cheap plastic mechanical pencils out there. My wife uses one for her constant crossword puzzling and she's almost converted me. Still, there's a nice craftsman-like feeling about sharpening a regular No. 2 pencil, too.

What are you doing for NaNoWriMo? Care to tell us?

Be specific when you pick a domain name for affiliate marketing. Try not to use a domain for an affiliate marketing website that which is too broad, too general.

One of the affiliate marketing sites I run is related to baby stuff and general stuff for kids. And the real problem I have trying to write content for this site is exactly reflected in that statement: baby stuff and general stuff for kids. It is so widely defined that it really isn't a niche site at all -- it's a general sort of online shopping mall.

Unfortunately, online shopping malls are not a great choice these days if you want to try to make money doing affiliate marketing. Unless you've got a loyal following of visitors already looking to shop at your "mall," it's difficult to draw traffic away from so many big-name "offline" merchants who have websites, such as Target and Wal Mart to name the biggest. I would be better served, I suppose, to set up a site for baby carriers, baby strollers, kids' outdoor play sets, children's back packs, or something more specific.

But, having bought the domains that are pretty general rather than specific niche names, I feel I should develop what I have.

I mention all this as a sort of object lesson for any of you who want to do affiliate marketing online -- look for domain names that are pretty specific, pretty tightly targeted to a specific niche of products and services people are seeking online.

Of course, I can't suggest a domain name for your niche website. It must be something you want to work with based on your interests and ideas. But when you're looking for a niche in which to do affiliate marketing and/or sales of any sort, try to be as specific and unique as you can.

Wow, "NaNoWriMo info" -- I love speaking "acronym-ese," don't you? The title of this post really isn't intended to be jumble or jargon, it just sort of worked out that way, I guess.

I mentioned NaNoWriMo in my last post and wanted to update you on my adventure with this year's upcoming installment, coming your way on November 1, the annual launch date. I did go there and I did sign on to give it a shot. If you want to look for me hanging around the forums there (and I won't often be there, but I WILL be there), just look for "gaspeer," my username there. Not all that clever as a username, I know. My middle initial is "A," so it's easy for me to remember. I often join writing and online marketing forums as "writerguy," but it seems to be taken at the NaNoWriMo site.

I mention all that to get to the subject of this post's title -- if you sign up to take the NaNoWriMo challenge this year, how about leaving a comment to let us know your username and what you hope to try to do. We could sort of hang out or look for one another at the site's forums during November.

Happy writing to all of you this week. May your fingers be nimble and your mind alert, or whatever.

Every year as November approaches, I'm excited by the concept of National Novel Writing Month -- otherwise known as "NaNoWriMo," and something I bring up each year.

Last year was the second time I took the plunge and signed on (it's absolutely free and completely voluntary). It was also the second time I failed to write the goal of 50,000 words of a novel between November 1 and November 30. But I press on and maintain high hopes again this year. I'm going to sign up one more time, and this time, by golly, I intend to do it. I even have done some rough initial plotting on a novel I'd like to write for the project (it involves Eskimos, puffin birds, a little old lady in a wheelchair, and a pawn shop).

Why not go on over to the NaNoWriMo site while you're thinking about it and sign up? I dare ya.

I confess that my education is sadly lacking in any language besides English. I took a couple of years of Spanish in high school, but that was long ago and far away. So I don't even know if other languages have something like a "homophone" -- but I'm aware of them in English. I suspect homographs are just one more challenge for those who seek to learn spoken and written English.

A homophone is a type of homonym (look it up). Specifically, a homophone is a word which is spelled exactly like another word and pronounced exactly like that word, but has a different meaning, often because the two words had separate origins.

For example, take the word "club." It can mean an object used to strike a golf ball, as in "golf clubs," and it can be used to denote a group of people who meet around a common interest, as in "dance clubs." In both cases, it seems to be the same word, "clubs," but it really is different. (To make matters more difficult in the example I chose, "golf clubs" can be BOTH.)

A couple of other quick examples of homophones are "address" and "tire."

Think for a moment about the challenge, if English is your second or third language, which homophones add to the difficulty of learning to speak and write English well. Then, if you've grown up in an English speaking nation and culture -- be thankful of one more advantage you have.

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