Word Constructions

I found a post  about developing your skills at blogging which I thought worth mentioning. It is also relevant on the whole for newsletter writing.

It doesn’t mention ‘be yourself’ directly, but I think that is the only major point I would add to the list.

In summary, Chris Garrett gives 10 points that lead to successful blogging:

1. blog by example
2. blog with passion
3. be organised (well, I can’t always get 10 out of 10!)
4. delegate
5. take ownership & responsibility
6. communicate effectively (hopefully, that’s where my tips come in handy!)
7. be brave & honest
8. listen
9. know your readers
10. be a reader

I found number 7 interesting - I am always honest in my blog but don’t feel I am particularly brave as communications isn’t usually very controversial But then I read Chris’ comments about this to find him saying pretty much the same thing and suggesting there is bravery in choosing and presenting topics.

Which of the above points do you find most challenging in your blog writing?

What is outsourcing and why should you care?

Outsourcing is simply getting someone else to do a task or tasks for you. It can be a simple task (e.g. getting someone to stuff envelopes or do a letterbox drop for you) or a skilled task (e.g. hiring a professional web designer, accountant, writer or photographer)

Some of the benefits to you if you outsource are:

• save time as someone else does some of the work
• you gain expert knowledge in many cases
• you can potentially learn from the supplier
• you can gain an outside perspective (great as a sole trader)
• you may get a more professional result which will attract more customers
• the project is likely to be finished sooner than you could do it on top of the other tasks you are performing

Although there is a cost to outsourcing, that is often paid for with the advantages above - for example, Brad designed his own website and it took 9 months before it was ready to launch. Later he realised that he could have paid Jim to design it and it would have been launched within a month, giving Brad an extra 8 months of sales to help pay for Jim’s service.

So if you are feeling overwhelmed in your business or are desperate for another day every week, I would recommend considering outsourcing.

I would write about the advantages of blogs, but I found this great post by Kenton Newby so I thought I’d link to that instead Kenton wrote ‘Why every business owner should have a blog’ If you are running a business and don’t have a blog, this is a post worth reading and thinking about.

 If you do decide to start a blog, you may find the audio and notes from the blogging for beginners talk I did last week useful, as well as my posts on blogging.

Not many people actually ask me outright, but you can almost see the thought cross their mind - “why would I pay someone to write stuff for me? I know how to write a sentence.”

One very important reason some people choose to hire a writer is simply to save time. It is a task to be outsourced so you can spend more time doing what you’re best at. This is especially true for people who struggle over every word and find writing very time consuming.

Another reason is distance - a professional writer is not so close to your business so will have a clearer perspective of what needs to be said. When you are close to the business, it is easy to get caught in details that aren’t necessary in a marketing document for instance. And when it comes to something like an about us page on a website, many people find it hard to write about themselves anyway.

A professional writer (or editor) may just review what you have done - finding those little errors you can’t easily find in your own work. It is handy if you work alone and don’t have anyone else who can proof read for you.

Of course, a major reason for using a professional writer is to get words that work well, are easy to read and are grammatically correct. For some people this is easy to achieve, others have to work hard at it and some people just can’t get it no matter what they do. Even if you can write fairly well, if you aren’t experienced at writing in a certain way it may be worth getting a professional to do it for you. You can always use their work as a model for future projects.

I think of it this way - I can hold a pencil or paint brush and make marks on a page but I would pay someone else to actually paint something to hang on my walls. We all have our talents and I’d prefer to outsource to experts than try to find time to do everything myself. Which of course leaves me with more time for writing…

I have seen some ads lately that just don’t do justice to the product/service they are supposed to be promoting. Some are poorly designed so I won’t touch them, but others look great but the words let it down.

The key is knowing the purpsoe of the ad - is it to get website traffic, explain a new product, attract a certain type of person, increase sales, or …

Once you know the purpose, you can make the headline, graphics and text suit that purpose.

Next is knowing your audience - using terms like ‘lol’, ‘RAM’, ‘html’, ‘ftp’ and ‘ppc’ will work if you are attracting IT specialists but not so well if you are after people in their 80s.

The hard part is then adding enough information to meet your purpose but not so much you overwhelm or bore people. This is definitely the stage where it is valuable to write it, leave it and then review it a few days later.

As well as the above points, you need the basic writing rules, too - good spelling, correct grammar and an easy-to-read format and style. Put it all together and your ads will be much more effective than the ones I mentioned earlier.

Word Constructions ~ for all your business writing needs

This carnival was opened over night and it looks really good. I haven’t read all the articles yet (I don’t get up that early!) but they cover a range of topics and I intend reading them over the next few days.

My blog post about polite emails is also included by the way
So for some small business tips and ideas, visit the Carnival of small business issues when you have some time to read a couple of articles.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the use of style sheets to help you keep your writing consistent. The next step is a style guide.

What’s the difference?

A style sheet is short (usually only one page) and lists very specific items, such as preferred spellings of particular words.

A style guide is a comprehensive set of rules to keep everything consistent. A full style guide can list the logo colours, spelling style, formatting, design and more, and would include everything in the style sheet as well.

Often, a style sheet is a summary of frequently used details from the style guide.

Which is better?

A style sheet can be on your desk or wall as a quick reference you can refer to as you work. So it is great for everyday items.

A style guide is important to maintain your brand. It can be used by your suppliers as well as by staff to ensure that everyone uses the same rules to keep consistency regardless of who does the work.

If you are a sole trader, you may not think a style guide is worth the effort as you control everything. But as your business grows or if you leave someone else in charge when you take a break, a style guide can keep your control in place. It can also be a very useful tool to offer potential buyers if you later to choose to sell your business.

For a professional appearance, a style sheet is a great start, but I would recommend a style guide as something to aim for over time.

Writing is always ‘writing’, yet it is amazing how many times I get asked to do some ‘copyrighting’ or asked ‘who owns the copywrite?’ So here’s a quick explanation of these common terms…

 copyright - protection of materials (e.g. articles, books, songs, photos, designs) by giving only the owner the right to copy the materials

copywrite - the act of writing text for a brochure, article, website, ad, etc (copy being a common term for the text in these items)

So I own the copyright of entries in this blog and I can call myself a professional copywriter.

Along with some other Business Mums, I accepted a challenge of doing one post every day this week - and I did it I wrote some of them in a group and just predated them to publish one day at a time, but it wasn’t always easy to think of topics to write about on demand.

However, I met the challenge, so maybe this is a challenge you could set for your blog, too.

Some of the other blogs in the challenge were:

http://preciouswater.com.au/blog/
www.mydayoff.com.au
www.melissakhalinsky.com/blog
http://marakye.blogspot.com/
http://smallbusinessdiva.wordpress.com
http://buffmineralcosmetics.blogspot.com/
http://home.exetel.com.au/huysing/wordpress/
http://kidsmusiccompany.wordpress.com

I have just discovered blog carnivals. Essentially, someone hosts a ‘carnival’ and includes links to various blog entries that are relevant to the carnival topic.

There are apparently hundreds of carnivals happening so you’ll probably find one you like, or at least one on a topic you like!

It seems like a great way to find new blogs on interesting topics, and just to learn about a particular topic. Most carnival hosts review the blogs first so the blogs listed in a carnival should be relevant, good and spam-free.

So far, my blog is included in two carnivals:

The She Blogs carnival

 Mothers in business carnival

What carnivals have you read and enjoyed?