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I hope you find my writing and business tips and observations useful. My business and blog are dedicated to helping businesses communicate clearly and reach their potential. Read, and enjoy!Tash

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TashWord

Tash is a professional writer who loves helping people communicate clearly and effectively.
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Making your blog quality

Published 12 June, 2011 | By TashWord

Often, I read about the importance of quantity for blog posts – that is, there is a message to write frequently in your blog to make it successful. And I have to disagree with that message.

Oh, there is no argument that a certain number of posts and some regularity is necessary to get traffic to your blog and search engines ranking you. And for regular readers it does help to have a pattern to posting or at least multiple posts a week.

But having five or more posts a week that are boring or trashy is not going to get you a lot of repeat visitors either.

Good quality blog posts that engage people is what will bring people back to your blog. That can be done in many ways (informative, descriptive, entertaining and so on) as long as people are interested in what you are writing. Quality posts may or may not generate a lot of conversation (ie comments), but they will achieve the usual aims of a blog – sharing ideas, showing expertise and communicating with real people.

I would much rather read an informative blog post once a month than visit a blog every day to read some drivel churned out – how about you?

How does this affect your blogging time? Well in reality writing one good post shouldn’t take much longer than three or five short, nonsense posts so don’t assume quality means more of your precious time. Remember a quality post can also be short…

Posted in blogging, writing | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Finding quirky blog content ideas

Published 10 June, 2011 | By TashWord

Did I convince you that using quirky ideas (or quirky sources of ideas) can make some interesting blog posts?

braille writing on a laptop screen

Braille writing on a screen – quirky inspiration?

Keeping your blog fresh and interesting can take a lot of thought and effort so why not make it fun at least some of the time?

So where can you find quirky blog post ideas?

Well the real answer is anywhere and everywhere! Just look for what is happening around you and you may be surprised at how much silliness and quirkiness there really is!

However, for specific inspiration of a quirky nature, here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • find a favourite recipe site and visit it every few weeks. You can post about how delicious something sounds or how complicated a recipe is, the name of a dish may inspire laughter or memories, the layout of the site may spark a post on website navigation or colours, you could get philosophical about food and eating, or you may post about a different type of diet each month.
  • get yourself a collection of useful sites that you can share. For example, a site that converts metric into imperial, a blog directory, a recipe site that gives you meals to suit certain ingredients, a list of paper and envelope sizes, or a budget-helper like simple savings. You can post these as helpful tips or use them for inspiration – maybe the site is an example of something good or bad in your field, you can post about pricing of website information or you can ask for suggestions for a specific site you need
  • get a regular dose of a funny site – you can blog about specific stories/jokes/images or the site itself, or use it to get creative or maybe use the content to explain a concept (for instance, a joke about miscommunication is something I could use in a post about the importance of clear communications in a workplace). A couple of examples are damnyouautocorrect, thinkbeforeyousend and the Darwin Awards
  • really look at the signs you pass – it may be the sign looks great or doesn’t make sense, it may be hung in a silly place or be easily misinterpreted, it may make you laugh or grimace, but signs can give you ideas if you don’t take them for granted
  • grab an old reference book and note the differences with modern expectations. Think about a plane company posting about the world being flat or a surgeon posting about the latest hair styles for gentlemen, then see what changes could apply to your industry or humour
  • read some kids’ books, especially something like Dr Seuss or Roald Dahl, or something quirky like a Terry Pratchett novel. Even if you don’t get direct ideas for your blog, they are sure to get you thinking quirky and creative things!

What other quirky idea generators do you use?

Posted in blogging, writing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Add the little touches

Published 9 June, 2011 | By TashWord

This week I have come across two very different examples of customer service.

First, I went to a website and found a problem so wanted to contact them. Finding their contact page was easy enough but it had four compulsory field titles (name, email, subject and message) but only three text boxes so there was nowhere for me to actually type a message. Worse, there was no ‘submit’ button either so I couldn’t send a message to them.

Yes, their focus is on getting online sales rather than answering specific queries but the lack of care about letting me contact them left a sour taste in my mouth.

Separately, I have unsubscribed from two ezines this week (yes, my emails are mounting up so I’ve been sorting and unsubscribing this week) where I was pleasantly surprised by the final unsubscribe page. In different ways, both sites gave me the opportunity to report the people sending me the ezine as spam – in other words, they were asking if I was unsubscribing because I never asked for their ezine.

To me, that is honest and upfront. It gave me the impression that they care about doing the right thing and not wanting to spam people. Many people don’t care about someone who unsubscribes as they are gone, but by treating me nicely they have left me with a good feeling about them.

Have you tried using your contact form and unsubscribing from your own newsletter or blog subscription? If not, perhaps it’s time you give it a go…

Those little touches to your website and customer service leave a lasting impression on people. What sort of lasting impression does your website leave?

Posted in writing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Using quirky blog content ideas

Published 7 June, 2011 | By TashWord

Sometimes it is interesting to use a totally different idea to create your blog post. Instead of using case studies, hot news items or client work, for example, you can write a post based on a movie or TV show, something you ate, an overheard conversation or even a product name.

Why use something quirky?

  • it’s more fun for you to think outside the box occasionally
  • it gives you a broader topic range to work with
  • you may just show a little more personality than usual, or a different aspect of your personality, that will help people feel they know the person behind the blog and business
  • using real life situations and examples is a great teaching tool

You may use a quirky source but write a straight blog post, of course, or you can introduce your post with “Hey I saw a movie last night and was reminded…” or “My friend was telling me about … and I had to share…” or “I know I usually only write about the latest news but today I’m going to share a story…”

What quirky ideas have you blogged about? How did it work? Share the links to your posts in the comments – you may just inspire someone else’s quirky ideas, too!

Posted in blogging, writing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Telling people is a key step

Published 6 June, 2011 | By TashWord

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, if I don’t tell you something how can I expect you to know about it let alone share the information?

image source: 123rf

Have you heard the expression ‘build the website and people will come to you’? It isn’t the entire story as no matter how great your website is, if no one knows it exists you will not get many visitors to the site.

There are many ways to increase your business profile, and various people will tell you that you MUST do certain things to further your business. Having a blog, joining Twitter and Facebook, putting videos on YouTube and having a LinkedIn profile can help a business, although to varying degrees for each business.

However, what is often not mentioned is that you have to promote those things in order to get the benefit of them. It’s great to tweet about new products and share valuable information but if no one follow you and your clients don’t know you are on Twitter, it’s pretty much a waste of time. Likewise for all those other social media options.

So remember to let people know about your blog, website, twitter account, Facebook profile and so on if you want them to build your business profile and website traffic.

How have you told people about your social media presence? What has been the most effective for you?

PS If you don’t already know, my twitter name is TashWord and Word Constructions is on Facebook.

Posted in blogging, business info & tools | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Keeping you updated…

Published 5 June, 2011 | By TashWord

Over recent weeks, I have been doing various things in the background for Word Constructions. I’m quite pleased with my progress, although it is still a fair way from finished, but if I don’t tell you what I’ve done you may never know!

Before that distracts me onto a new blog post, let me tell you some of what has been happening at Word Constructions…

I have released two eBooks for sale, both of which are aimed at business people interested in learning about writing to further their business. A style guide template will be added soon and I have another eBook or two underway so keep an eye on the eBook page of my site plus the top menu to the right of all blog posts.

I have joined Twitter and started tweeting – this is a great way to know when I post something new here in the blog. It will also have occasional bits and peices about writing and business. If you’re on Twitter, drop in and say hi!

Posted in About Word Constructions | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Highlight the important information

Published 3 June, 2011 | By TashWord

Let me guess – you’re busy. You don’t have time to read everything you ‘should’ or want to read. You often skim read things to decide if you will bother reading it in full.

Guess what? Many (if not all) of your clients are also busy and tend to skim read anything you send them, no matter how much effort you have put into every tiny detail.

Solution? Make sure the important information, and key attractors, are prominent and easy to find.

How can you make the important things stand out?

  1. make use of sub-headings
  2. put important things first – and by important I partially mean what people will be looking for. You can put things first by having those words at the top of the page or just more prominently. For example, putting tickets in larger font for a notice stating ‘Buy your tickets from the left cashier’ or write ‘tickets available this way’ will be more effective than ‘the left cashier is the only place to buy tickets’
  3. use white space around key points (for instance, in an invitation, leave the date, time and address lines short and uncluttered)
  4. use a bold font for critical information for people to skim across

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Remember the flood levy…

Published 1 June, 2011 | By TashWord

For the coming financial year (and only that year we are told), a flood levy will apply to many Australians. The levy is to help rebuild the infrastructure for the communities hurt in the floods, fires and Yassi earlier this year.

Everyone with a taxable income over $50,000 will pay the levy – unless you are exempt because you are receiving a Government Disaster Recovery Payment for a 2010-11 natural disaster. You can find out how much the levy will be for you on the Treasury’s flood rebuilding site.

If you are self-employed, you probably pay tax via the PAYG system rather than regular deductions from your pay. Your annual letter outlining your PAYG instalments for the year will include the levy in those calculations. If you are an employee then your employer will deduct the levy along with your normal tax. You need to inform your employer or the ATO if you are exempt but earning over the threshold.

If you also employ people, you will need to add the levy to your usual deduction schedule. That is, for employees earning over $50,000, you will need to deduct an extra 0.5% or 1.0% with their tax – starting with the first pay after 1 July 2011. Businesses do not pay the levy, it is only for individuals.

So are you prepared for this levy? CE2DTMFHHKHT

Posted in bit off track, business info & tools | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Calling all customers!

Published 31 May, 2011 | By TashWord

Have you heard of a call to action? Have you got any idea what marketers and the like are talking about when the use this term?

While many people find marketing a bit wishy-washy or over-the-top at times, things like a call to action are important to understand for anyone trying to promote something ( a business, a blog, an event, and so on).

So, what is a call to action? It’s simply where you tell people what you want them to do. Examples are ‘buy now’, ‘call us for a quote’, ‘visit our website for details’, ‘visit us on the day’, ‘book here’ and ‘enter your email to subscribe’.

Adding a call to action generally gets much better results than just giving information. A call to action reminds interested people to actually do something and makes it easy for them in that you have told them what the next step is.

For simplicity, one call to action is enough in most ads and emails although a secondary (unspoken) call may be included such as ‘call us on 1234’ being followed by a URL.

Does all your marketing material include a call to action?

Posted in marketing | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Spelling premier

Published 30 May, 2011 | By TashWord

premier (adjective): first, especially for rank, time and importance
They supply only the premier business resources.

premier (noun): a political leader of prominence
Each Australian state has a Premier.

premiere (noun): the first public performance, usually relating to a play, music or movie
He was very excited to be invited to the premiere last week.

While premiere is very specific, the word premier can be used a number of ways – the adjective premier could even be use to describe the first performance although accepted usage indicates premiere as the preferred option.

Posted in Monday Meanings | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment
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