TashWord

Refer to older posts…

Tash is a professional writer who loves helping people communicate clearly and effectively.

An interesting campaign by comments

Published 25 October, 2012 | By TashWord

Like most bloggers, I get spam comments – boring and annoying but that’s the way it is. Luckily, I have plugins so don’t often see all the spam that comes in.

Occasionally I do glance through what has been filtered as spam to check things are on track. Recently, a found a number of comments in the spam filter that were a bit different.

Using comments to get a message spread

Leaving comments in a blog can of course be one way to share your message, and attract traffic back to your site to really explain what is important to you.

But this is the first time I have seen someone set up bulk comments (and I assume it was automated so probably has been sent to many blogs) in order to make their point of view heard.

This isn’t a commercial message, either (although their site could be monetised of course) so it really stood out to me.

Imagine if do-it-in-a-dress, World Vision, Kiva, Greenpeace or any other charity or community group used this tactic – see why I thought this was unusual?

Sharing negative messages

The comments I noticed were criticisms of a writing site

The commenter’s name was even entered as derogative terms against that service so they were definitely keen to ruin the company’s name.

I didn’t click on the link provided as I have no desire to read a diatribe against another service, plus I don’t trust links in spammy comments!

Personally, I have not looked at the named site but I have heard of it. I know some people have found it useful for finding writing projects while the details I have heard concern me and others (the pay rate is apparently ridiculously low so clients can’t assume they are getting quality results and it is not respecting the writers’ time and effort).

I don’t like what I know about that service and similar ones but I have never heard they are dishonest about the pay rates so each to their own.

I agree that the uninformed may be influenced by such sites to work for well under reasonable pay rates because they don’t know any different. It is fair to let new writer’s understand the industry.

It isn’t right to spam the internet with claims of scam and fraud about another company.

So what’s the middle ground?

How can you share a warning with people without crossing legal boundaries and without damaging your own reputation?

Posted in blogging | Tagged blog, comments, negative, writers | 4 Comments

Do you tweet for business or pleasure?

Published 22 October, 2012 | By TashWord

I like Twitter and have made it part of my business.

Having to be concise means that the information presented via Twitter is quick to read (although it can take a fair bit of time to read all the associated links!). I only follow people who are providing business information so I don’t get a lot of personal things coming through which is the complaint I most often hear from people who don’t like twitter.

Study of Twitter users

Recently, results of ‘an exhaustive study of Twitter users around the world’ were released.

And apparently my use and perception of Twitter is not shown by the results.

Here are some of the statistics…

36 million twitter profiles exist – 25% of which have never actually tweeted anything
I’m in the 75% as I’ve tweeted many times!

70% of tweeters don’t have anything in their profile
That is an incredible number to me – although if the 25% who never tweet is included it makes more sense. Certainly for any business using Twitter for marketing, you have to add a bio to get the maximum benefits.

53% of users are female
Yes, I am in that 53% and without actually counting them, I would think the people I follow and am followed by do fall into roughly 50% male/female.

74% of users are between 15 and 25
This time I am in the minority apparently. Interesting though as everyone I have met via Twitter is certainly out of their teens, and most would be over 30 – and my teen daughter and her friends don’t Tweet (they use other social media platforms obsessively but don’t like Twitter. My daughter has sent one tweet – actually a retweet of something I wrote as I was testing something!)

4.09% of users are in Australia – 50.99% the USA and 17.09% in the UK
I contribute to Australia being the third most prolific country for twitter use – I wonder how we’d rank if the statistics were done per capita rather than just number of users…

81.1% of users have less than 50 followers
I actually fit into the 9.2% with 101 – 500 followers but I found this statistic interesting.With so many people appearing to be keen on having many followers, I am surprised so many have less than 50 although if the 25% of non active users were included in the results it completely skews the meaning. If over 80% of active users have so few followers I am pleased – social media should be about relationships, not numbers, even in a business setting (50 followers who engage with me, retweet me and potentially buy from or help me is much better than 500 who don’t read my tweets at all).

22% of female twitter users have a purple background
I don’t have a purple background (I want blue to match my logo and brand) and generally find this sort of statistic somewhat superficial but I find it interesting because there has been an increase lately in purple as ‘the girl’s colour’ including the introduction of ‘women’s pens’ which are purple (although I appreciate this for the hilarious reviews made of this pen!)

Females are generally younger
By age group, females to number males while under 25, while the genders are pretty even for 26 – 35 year olds and males outnumber females after age 35. Men outnumber women by approximately a third in the management category and by about 50% in the entrepreneur category.

22.7% of tweets are sent by third party apps, not directly from Twitter
I also fit into this category as I use tweetdeck most of the time – it gives me access to multiple accounts and platforms at the same time (although not as well as it used to unfortunately since Twitter took it over).

On average, the more followers you have, the more often you tweet.

So obviously a lot more people do use Twitter for ‘social chats’ than I thought. However, the fact I don’t see that stuff shows you can select your Twitter experience by choosing who you follow – Twitter is definitely a business tool for me but I also make connections and have friendly conversations with people – it’s not all business.

So how does Twitter feature in your business and life?

Do the above statistics put you in the average or doing your own thing?

Posted in business info & tools | Tagged business, statistics, twitter | 3 Comments

Little PB Event tips to create big things for you

Published 19 October, 2012 | By TashWord

My first word of advice – if going to what is likely to be a great event with lots to process afterwards, book out the following days so you can process it!

Attending the PB event last week (yes, this time last week I was sitting in a room to hear Shayne Tilley in the second sessions of the day) was great and I came away with lots of ideas, inspiration and information, plus some great new friendships and relationships.

However, it was back to work as usual on Monday morning. Well, I say as usual but I’ve had some urgent client projects come up this week so it has, in fact, been more hectic than usual.

So I haven’t had the time to sit and read through all my notes or listen to the recordings of the sessions I didn’t attend. Or relisten to the great ones I want to get more out of.

Nor share a lot of those tips and insights with others.

From little actions big things happen

Right from the start, Darren set the theme of the weekend to be from little things big things come.

Even the biggest trees started as small seedlings

{I have to say that I was often distracted by the song ‘from little things big things grow’ used in an ad promoting a group of industry super funds! Distracting similarity but the message is accurate and valuable in both instances.}

It then followed that all the speakers gave practical information so we could pick up little details and see how to apply them to our own blogs. With everyone repeating that taking things step by step and doing lots of little things you can build a success (however you define success).

Major take home message: make 15 minutes a day to work on something important.

Think about it – 15 minutes a day isn’t that hard to find but adds up to 75 minutes a working week or 60 hours (which is 7.5 working days) a year – with 4 weeks annual leave allowed for 🙂

How many new designs could you create or words could you put to paper or sales calls you could make in 60 hours? That may just be the ‘extra day in the week’ many people wish for.

If you want me to write a post on ways to use that 15 minutes, let me know as a comment or email me – or send me a tweet for that matter!

Provide quality and value for your readers

The event was aimed at bloggers so the message was to give readers quality – but the concept is just as valid for any aspect of your business.

Some points on this:

Make posts and information products useful and informative
Find your voice (or brand) and stay with it
Monitor what your readers like and give them more of that
If accepting money for a sponsored post or ad, ask ‘what’s in it for my readers?’ You get paid, obviously, but make the post valuable to your readers above all
add opinions as well as information or share a learning experience so people feel they get an answer (paraphrased quote from Chris Guillebeau)

Make a connection

Various speakers over the conference touched on the importance of engaging and connecting with your audience and with other bloggers.

Here are some of their quotes (written as they spoke so these are close to word-perfect but may be slightly different to their exact words):

Look after and engage your readers – engaged readers will do more for making money than having lots of readers ~ Darren Rowse

Involvement begets commitment ~ James Tuckerman

A focus on building relationships and providing value to people will lead to success ~ Chris Guillebeau

[within your blog have a ] hidden message of ‘you’re not alone’ coming through as everyone needs to feel connection and belonging ~ Chris Guillebeau

Final words

I think Darren had some important words to say in his opening and closing talks.

The theme was little things add to big things, but also to realise everyone starts small so don’t feel inferior to others. Again, based on my notes, he said:

Comparing yourself to other bloggers makes you feel small and is not constructive – focus on good things happening on your own blog. Look at other blogs for inspiration not comparison.

If you have questions or simply want to learn more from the great speakers at PB Event, you could…

leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer you
grab a virtual ticket to PB Event and hear all the speakers (and see their slides). {Yes, this is an affiliate link so I would get a commission for referring you.}
use the #pbevent tag in Twitter – there are still a lot of tips being shared
read blog posts from people who were there – try posts from Belinda, Rita, Helena, Alison and Chantelle to get you started

And with that said, I am off to read more pb event posts myself and do 15 minutes for my subscribers – you can subscribe to get updates of new posts by ticking the box as you leave a comment or fill in the form in the sidebar.

How do you feel as a blogger or small business owner – do you feel small compared to others with more readers or a bigger income? Do you compare yourself to others rather than acknowledging your own progress and successes?

Posted in Business Communications, business info & tools | Tagged blog, community, little things, PB event, value | 2 Comments

Bloggers together have power

Published 15 October, 2012 | By TashWord

Today is Blog Action Day 2012 (BAD12). That means over the next 24 or so hours many bloggers will be publishing a post about the power of we, showing that diverse people can come together to make a difference.

For me, the timing makes this post easy – I just spent most of the weekend with 3oo fantastic people at the problogger event so have a better sense of the power of we within blogging.

The power of we at a conference?

At one level, we were just a group of people sitting in the same room listening the same speakers.

But it was way more than that.

People were talking, mingling and supporting each other – not just for those 48 hours but building relationships that can move us forward in the days and months to come. The organisers and speakers not only encouraged us to mingle (one speaker, I think it was James Tuckerman of Anthill, told anyone sitting next to a person they came to pbevent with to sit somewhere else in the next session) but had made it easy to do so with generous breaks between sessions and a cocktail party on Friday night.

Amongst many other topics, we discussed payment for our work, such as being paid by a brand to promote them within our blogs. While there was an understanding that someone with more traffic and influence can probably charge more than a new blogger, there was a consensus that bloggers should bot accept free or very cheap ‘work’.

The point was that we all deserve to have our time recognised and paid for. And by accepting lower rates we can cheapen the work and efforts of other bloggers as well.

It’s also one reason I hate those content mills where people can buy webcopy, blog posts, articles, etc for a fraction of the price professionals like me charge – it makes it harder for us to earn decent pay rates for our time and expertise if clients think they can get it done much cheaper (especially those clients who don’t understand how to judge quality writing).

Working together and setting some industry standards helps all bloggers and writers.

Discussing those standards at PB Event gave us not only a framework but the confidence to stick to it for a reason beyond ourselves.

The power of we at work.

What we can achieve

Leading up the PB Event, problogger (Darren Rowse) himself set a challenge.

Problogger does it in a dress PB Event 2012

Problogger in a dress, PB Event 2012

If we could fundraise $240, he would attend the final session on Friday in a school dress. A few more targets were added when the $240 was reached in one donation, with the final level being $2,400.

It was fun, but the point was to raise money to help girls in Sierra Leone go to school – $240 sends one girl to school for a year.

I was sick to the stomach to find out a girl is more likely to be sexually assaulted than go to school in Sierra Leone.

Think about what that means. It’s awful.

I’m pleased to be part of PB event where we raised enough to send 10 girls to school.

It isn’t enough, but it is a start and shows we care. Sending 10 girls to school will make a difference to them, their families and presumably their communities.

Darren challenged us to all do the same, to see how much money 300 bloggers’ communities could raise, how many more girls go to school.

Given it is blog action day, I wonder what would happen if all bloggers around the world tried raising some money by doing it in a dress – could we get every girl in Sierra Leone to school?

Could we make it so school is more likely than assault for a nation of girls?

The power of we is strong. Let’s use it for good.

Posted in bit off track, business info & tools, Uncategorized, writing | Tagged BAD, conference, dress, power of we | 8 Comments

An amazing conference is well worth the effort

Published 12 October, 2012 | By TashWord

Day one is just about over for Problogger 2012 – the formal sessions have finished and we just have a networking even to go before we head for bed (and we’re all going to need a sleep I think!)

For the attendees

Based on conversations I have had, tweets I have read and my own assessment, the event has been fantastic and provided a lot of information and inspiration for a lot of people.

And given the amount of tweets flying around, I think it is inspiring and informing people who aren’t even here!

And it isn’t just about the learning. The speakers have been great, don’t get me wrong, but there is more to a great conference.

You meet people and learn from their stories and experiences.

You feel part of something – and in this case feeling part of a blogging community that can make a difference is empowering.

Listening to other people and other people’s questions can give you a new perspective, too.

Personally, I have a lot of ideas for myself and to share with others from today. I’m excited about implementing them from Monday onwards.

For the organisers

Aside from any financial gain they get, what does a great event do for the organisers?

There must be a lot of satisfaction from helping so many people and having the day flow so nicely.

Obviously, they build their reputation as an authority with credibility.

For the problogger team, I think they also can finish today knowing they have made a difference and are leading us to make a difference, too – and I think that’s something they would be proud of.

So what have we learned today?

The focus has been on monetisation and building communities.

Over the coming weeks I will share ideas and lessons I have learned, and aim to do a summary post early in the week.

For the mean time, the best ways to gain from our experiences today are to search #PBEvent and #PBEvent2 on twitter – hard not to as they were trending terms today apparently!

And grab a virtual ticket to hear the recordings and see the slide shows – you won’t regret the purchase.

And now I am off for a walk to clear my head before the networking.

Posted in Business Communications, business info & tools | Tagged conference, difference, learn, PBEVENT | 7 Comments

Attending blogging events, live or recorded

Published 11 October, 2012 | By TashWord

This Friday and Saturday, about 300 bloggers will descend upon Melbourne to learn more about blogging at PBEvent with Problogger Darren Rowse.

And I’m pleased to say I will be one of them.

Why go to a blogging event?

Learning the basics of blogging – and more

I can’t speak for everyone, but I know I am going because

it’s great to learn new things and conferences and seminars are a good learning experience (well, good ones are anyway!)
it’s good to get away from my desk occasionally
blogging is an important part of my business, and part that I really enjoy, so learning more about it is a good investment for me
I like the idea of meeting other bloggers

Really, it’s just like going to any conference – the topic just happens to be blogging.

And PBEvent happens to be hosted by one of the best known bloggers in Australia. And is offering some great speakers and topics (you can see the schedule here if you’re interested).

How I learn from events

When I go to any business event, one of my aims is to learn.

I think being open to new ideas and expecting to learn is a good starting point. Sometimes the best value from an event is the ideas it sparks so you need to be open to listening and learning.

Taking notes is one way I cement the information I hear. Traditionally that has meant writing notes in a notepad but obviously people have more options these days – I’m still inclined to write notes by hand as it works better at getting information into my mind.

To be honest, I often don’t read those notes again, and certainly not often. However, just the act of writing notes helps me retain the information better.

I also find that tweeting snippets of information is a great learning tool. By deciding something is valuable enough to share and putting into few words (I try for less than the allowed 140 characters) makes that point stronger for me. And hopefully it is providing value to my followers as well.

Tweeting information during a webinar is easy. I haven’t yet tried it at a live event but may give it a go during PBEvent.

If nothing else, I can reread my tweets afterwards as a reminder of some key information.

Live or recorded?

There are distinct advantages to live and recorded information sessions, I think.

Going to a live event obviously has the advantages of a new environment and networking with other people. It also means you can potentially interact with the speaker(s), ask questions and participate in the atmosphere. Sometimes you get additional opportunities, too, such as handouts, ‘conference only’ discounts and yummy food!

Listening to a recording of an event gives you more flexibility – you can hear it at whatever time suits you – and saves travelling time and expense. For information packed sessions, a recording also means you can pause and rewind the recording to catch important bits and make sure you understand things. For a poor sessions, it is also very easy to turn it off and get on with other things!

Which do you prefer? Have you tried both options?

I attend more webinars because of the convenience, but I like to attend some live events every year as well to interact with people.

Problogger Event

With the Problogger event, I get both as all sessions are being recorded so I can listen to them after the weekend. Which means I can relisten to important bits I missed but more importantly, I can hear the sessions I don’t attend (part of the weekend has two sessions running at the same time). And slide presentations will be included with the recordings, too.

The recordings are also available for non-attendees via a virtual ticket (which are being sold at a 25% discount until mid afternoon today Melbourne time I believe). You can grab a virtual ticket and get access to over 21 hours of blogging information plus a live Q and A sessions with Problogger next week (it is an affiliate link but I honestly think it is good value – and much cheaper than what I’ve paid to attend!)

And if you are going to Problogger event, or a similar event, you may enjoy the following preparation posts, too:

Blogging conferences and training events
10 things to do to prepare for PB Event
Hot tips for Problogger ‘virgins’

Have you ever attended a blogging event? What did you get from it? And what tips have you got to share for those going to their first blogging conference?

Updated September 2013: The 2013 Problogger conference is on again this month and you can choose to attend in person in Queensland (if you got a ticket fast enough!) or virtually (2013 recordings will available a short time after each sessions is run so you can listen on the conference weekend.) plus watching interactions on Twitter during sessions.

Posted in blogging, business info & tools | Tagged Blogging, conference, learning, PBEVENT | 9 Comments

Determine the quality of your life – today!

Published 8 October, 2012 | By TashWord

The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives.
~ Tony Robbins

Do you agree with Tony Robins – do we determine our own lives by how we communicate?

Communications impact our lives

I included that quote in my June newsletter* (which was themed on quality) because I think we can control our lives to a certain extent by how we communicate.

If you are always sad and complaining, you’re unlikely to be inundated with invitations to parties and fun events – and you’re therefore likely to feel sadder.

If you are friendly and polite, showing respect for others no matter the circumstances, people will respect you and be more likely to help you. Never underestimate the power of a smile or a thank you…

If you complain and can’t see the silver lining anywhere, you may stop yourself from being creative and finding a solution or an innovation to change (your) world.

If you take no care in how your business communicates in writing, some potential clients will judge you poorly and go elsewhere for a professional service. Thus the effort (or lack thereof) determines how many clients you have and your business income and overall success.

If you always frame things in a positive way and take care what you communicate about (eg avoid gossip and criticisms), the odds are you will feel better and attract interested and interesting people. You will also have a positive mindset and spot more opportunities.

These are simplistic examples, but no less true for that.

It is a choice how we communicate. And how we communicate does influence our lives.

Should communications replace 42 as the answer?

Effective communications above 42 as the answer

Which way do you weight effective communications?

Well, it’s hard to implement 42 so communications is certainly a more actionable answer to life, the universe and everything!

We can choose to communicate better – by learning new words, more about expressing words (from grammar to using ‘you’ more than ‘me’), developing our listening skills and practising our writing skills as good starting points.

However, I don’t think communications alone makes a great life. There’s also hard work, learning and being a good person.

What do you think are the important factors in ensuring you have the best life you can?

Do you have any examples from your business on how communications directly affected the outcome or quality of an outcome?

* If you like reading inspirational and/or thought-provoking quotes, I include one every month when I write my newsletter, business writing ideas. To keep the quote company, I also write some tips on business communications and improve a real life example of bad writing. Subscribing is simple – just fill in the form on my site.

Posted in business info & tools | Tagged communicate, newsletter, quality, tony robins | Leave a comment

Why reject people, not ignore them

Published 4 October, 2012 | By TashWord

Sometimes in business you need to not accept someone. You can choose to actually reject them or you can just ignore them until they effectively go away.

Whether it’s someone who has applied for a job, sent you a guest blog post or given you a proposal, that person has put some time and energy into contacting you. And quite possibly has some emotional involvement, too.

Of course, I am not counting the obvious spam offers you get – spam doesn’t deserve much in the way of respect and certainly shouldn’t get a response (as tempting as it is often may be!)

Choosing your response

I think those people deserve the respect of being answered. No one likes to hear ‘no thanks’ but it’s better than hearing nothing and waiting for a response.

Do you remember applying for jobs and not getting a response? I hated putting in all that effort and then not being sure they had actually read my application if it wasn’t acknowledged.

Saying no can be done quickly and harshly without any thought for the other person’s feelings. Or with a little more effort you can be respectful and assertive, leaving the other person with their self-respect. Either way, it doesn’t really take that much to give an answer.

You can even have a stock rejection response on file to save time, if you must.

I prefered getting a standard letter than nothing back when I applied for jobs.

Rejecting does have a payoff

Aside from being the humane and decent thing to do, actually rejecting someone’s approach can benefit you as well.

For one thing, you aren’t damaging your own reputation. Offend enough people, or convince enough people are you too lazy to reply, and you may just find fewer people respect you and want to offer you guest posts or their time and expertise.

Sending a nice rejection maintains relationships. Just because you don’t want to use this guest post or don’t think Mary suits your current job position doesn’t mean those people can’t offer you something of value later on. Burning bridges by ignoring people just doesn’t seem like a wise move to me.

What other reasons are there for taking the time to say ‘no thanks’ to people?

Have you had good things come out of a ‘no thanks’ response?

Posted in Business Communications | Tagged ignore, reject, response | 8 Comments

Choosing a side of the story

Published 2 October, 2012 | By TashWord

Every story has (at least) two sides. As a writer, you can choose which side you are going to tell, or focus on – and that choice can have consequences.

A business can focus on the message ‘our product has these great features’ and sell a few products.

Or that business could focus on ‘our product can help you these ways’ and make more sales.

You can choose what to communicate, even on a simple topic

Yesterday, tens of thousands of people gathered together in Melbourne in memory of Jill Meagher, and for a better world.

For over a week, many people have discussed Jill’s disappearance and the discovery of her body – in blogs, tweets, Facebook updates, and more, as well as in mainstream media.

People are upset at what’s happened. What happened was awful and the person responsible must be stopped. Jill and her family deserve that, and respect and sympathy. As do all the other people, and their families, who have been raped and murdered.

I read a related tweet yesterday which clearly showed two sides to the story around Jill Meagher. Notunimportant tweeted “So frustrated by talk of protecting women instead of ending violence.”

Protect or prevent?

We have a choice as a society – a choice of what to focus on and a choice of how to act.

We can protect our women, children and elderly.

Or we can work at creating a safer environment where they don’t have to be protected (at least not from other people).

Do we add more police, more security cameras and stop the vulnerable walking alone?

Or we do teach our children to respect and never hurt others, that violence isn’t a good way of life, to “use their words”?

A month or so ago, the gun debate heated up again in the USA.

I was really pleased at that time to read how our anti-gun laws and the buy back scheme in 1996 have made a difference – the reduced guns in our country had a positive impact.

What we communicate influences our world

I don’t want to teach my daughters to be scared and never go places alone out of fear. I prefer to teach children (my own and those I interact with) care and respect, along with anti-violent messages.

If we focus on protecting women, what are we teaching our daughters? What are we teaching that group of men who don’t respect women, and who think hurting women is okay?

If we focus on a ‘we won’t accept violence’ message, how will that impact on our daughters? What will that teach our sons?

Which side of the story will you choose?

Posted in bit off track, writing | Tagged choice, consequences, message, voilence | 6 Comments

Reading efficiently saves money

Published 30 September, 2012 | By TashWord

Last September I wrote about a report that showed efficient writing can save money for businesses. Obviously, the second part of that is reading…

So as well as writing efficiently and avoiding unnecessary words, you can save money by making it easier for people to read the words.

Making reading easier

You may want to get all your team to do a speed reading course, but I think there are probably better ways to help people read your business materials 🙂

So here are some simple to implement tips for making documents easier to read:

split long paragraphs into shorter ones whenever possible – long chunks of text are harder to read and absorb, plus they look more intimidating
keep decent margins on the page so the text is not overwhelming
be generous with headings and subheadings – not only do they make the text easier to digest, they make the page more visually appealing
use the layout and images to make the page inviting – the same information will be read more if it looks interesting and easy to read
work to avoid paragraphs and lists being divided across pages – it is distracting to turn a page part way through a sentence or idea

Thinking about documents you find easy to read, what features do you find helpful?

If you haven’t thought much about the look of your writing, why not try adjusting the appearance of a page of your existing text and see if you can see a difference – or test different looks on different people. I’d love to hear your results!

Posted in Business Communications | Tagged appearance, read, reading, writing | 7 Comments

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