WritingThoughts

10 More Words to Cut from Your Writing

By Shanna Mallon

“In the digital age, short writing is king,”

says Roy Peter Clark, president of journalism think tank the Poynter Institute and author of How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times.

People don’t have attention spans for fluff. They don’t want to read language that’s verbose. That’s why, today more than ever, concise online writing is key.

Why Original Ideas Often Fail

Clients want them. The search engines want them. Social media wants them. The Internet is all about original ideas, or so it would seem.

Yet often, the most popular articles and blog posts are not those with unique ideas. What gives? Why don’t original ideas generate more shares?

In this post, I’ll discuss my thoughts and experiences on why posts and articles with original ideas are not more popular.

FAQ: What Voice Should I Use?

Clients are often confused about voice. I often get the question “what voice should I use on my web pages and blog?”

Like the answer to so many questions, the answer to this question is…it depends. It depends on who your intended audience is.

It seems that there’s a lot of confusion about voice. The voice you use on your web pages and blog should be the voice that your intended audience is most comfortable reading.

Book Review: Promote Yourself

Marketing your freelancing business is important. I’ve been writing posts that stress the importance of marketing for over five years now. Perhaps that’s why I was given the chance to review Dan Schawbel’s new book, Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success.

Dan is also the author of Me 2.0 and the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book, but was not paid to write this post. I am not an affiliate for either of Dan’s books.

Book Review: Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul

Writing can be a thankless job. Often, your immediate family doesn’t get it. Even if you do a fantastic job, no one seems to notice. It can feel like you’re all alone.

Really, that’s what Chicken Soup for the Soul, Inspiration for Writers (not an affiliate link) is all about. It lists common challenges many writers face.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book, but was not paid to write this post. I am not an affiliate for this book.

How to Reach the Right Audience for Your Content

Good content isn’t good content unless it reaches the right people.

Audience relevance, along with quality web content and social media engagement, is an important part of an effective content marketing strategy.

The best content out there is like a finely tuned instrument–it hits all of the right notes with its target audience.

What Is Quality Web Content? 7 Characteristics that Indicate Quality

Along with social media engagement, quality web content is one of the vital elements of effective content marketing. Yet many small businesses get content wrong.

Most small businesses think that just because they publish often or publish extra long pieces, it’s enough. They’re wrong and that mistake could be costing them clients.

In this post, we’ll explore what really makes quality web content.

Do You Make These 5 Careless Small Business Social Media Mistakes?

Recently I shared the three vital elements of content marketing. Leave out one of these elements, and your content marketing strategy is likely to fail.

In the next few weeks, I’ll examine each element separately for the needs of a small business–starting with social media engagement.

Are you a small business owner? Are you using social media to promote your business? If not, you could be missing a vital opportunity.

The 3 Vital Elements of Content Marketing

Content marketing is one of the latest catch phrases–as well it should be. Content is vitally important if you do business online.

As a result of the new interest in content marketing, there are many folks out there doing content marketing. Unfortunately, many of those new content marketers are also doing it wrong.

In this post, I’ll identify three vital elements of content marketing–elements that many people miss.

A Banana’s a Banana, but Not All Web Content Writers Are the Same

As I was buying our weekly groceries last week, it struck me (again) how much writers vary.

You see, I always buy a bunch of bananas during our weekly shopping trip. In fact, the store I go to really only offers two different kinds of bananas: organic and non-organic. (Once in a great while, they also offer plantains.)

Bananas are pretty much the same wherever you get them. But that’s certainly not the case with web content.