Posted by JulieD, 10:23 amOctober 21, 2009 under Publishing | 
Barnes and Noble have released a new eReader, which looks suspiciously like the Kindle with a few “Look I’m Different” features.
(I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. Not at all. I just wonder why it has to be white and rectangular and look like a clone. Surely there are other designs?)
Here’s a side-by-side comparison, based on B&N’s site comparison and a Kindle user’s experiences (mine!).
I’m glad there’s competition, because it means that Amazon will have to improve the Kindle and someone else might invent something that breaks the mold and is wonderful. Of course, as an early adopter I’m rolling my eyes at the prospect of that, but I went into this with my eyes open!).
As a reader, I think it’s a good thing, because it probably means that more books will be available in ebook format and in multiple ebook formats. There seems to be a move towards making ebooks multi-platform and maybe more hardware will encourage that.
I’m also not sure if I should be concerned that the booksellers are now also the manufacturers of the device that holds the books AND, in many cases, the publisher of the content as well.
Posted by JulieD, 7:38 amSeptember 30, 2009 under Marketing, Uncategorized, Writing |
This week I was listening to a gathering of (probably) excellent minds from “Great Universities” talking about one of my favourite subjects: the history of History. The program’s audience was the general public.
I tried — twice — to get through the whole podcast, but couldn’t do it.
I refuse to admit that the professors were cleverer than I am, but I had difficulty following their discussion, and more importantly, they didn’t make me care to.
(How many industry presentations have you been to, or websites have you read where you felt the same way?)
- Each speaker’s points were supported with obscure references from his very tight niche of historical study
- They spoke almost apologetically tone, that said, “My fellow historians are probably going ready to leap in and hack me to pieces for using this example in a way they disagree with, so I’d better be ready to go on the defensive.”
In other words, they used jargon, they droned, and they aimed their words at their colleagues, not at the audience.
I turned them off and have no idea what their names were.
In contrast, last week I listened to a talk by Simon Schama, a popular historian who fled the Oxford-Cambridge position he once held and has gone on to become a huge popularizer of the study of history. He talks simply, to everyday people; you can almost hear him bouncing with enthusiasm; and he clearly doesn’t care if someone criticizes him: he’s ready to engage them.
That talk left me energized, inspired and ready to sign up as a Simon Schama groupie.
Are You Engaging Your Audience
Today, take a fresh look at your documents and your company’s presentations.
- Are you using jargon (is it explained? Can you say what you mean in ‘real world’ words?)
- Are you talking to your customer, your colleagues or your competition? Make sure you are talking to your customer!
- Are you excited? Are you getting them excited? Are you showing them how your product or service can have an impact? Why they need it?
Tomorrow: The Secrets To Becoming Your Customer’s New Best Friend
Posted by JulieD, 4:05 pmJuly 26, 2009 under Publishing |
If you’re lucky enough to have a Kindle or a Kindle 2
, there is no need to go spending good money to put your own content on there.
If you have PDFs, HTML docs, word processor documents that you’d like to carry around on your Kindle, you can either pay 10c a doc to have Amazon convert and email them to your Kindle OR you can use this handy, free method.
STEP 1
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Posted by JulieD, 7:46 amMay 28, 2009 under Advertising, Marketing, Writing, online |
Recently, I was building a new Twitter persona for a business and trying to figure out how to gain exposure.
I started by using Twitter’s search function to find people who were tweeting about the same topic. Then I followed as many as I could find. (I’m continuing to add to the list each day.)
Why?
Well, a lot of Tweeple (that’s Twitter People, in case you haven’t heard) like to follow anyone who follows them. Sure, it makes keeping up with tweets hard, but from a business point of view it makes sense: the more people you follow and are followed by, the more chance there is of someone reading your tweets. If you are targeting your followers through keyword searches, then you have found your audience. And — because of the auto-follow etiquette — they have found you.
After monitoring the profile for a while and manually following people who followed me I quickly realized I needed to automate the process and focus my energies on creating great content.
Dave Taylor has posted an excellent tutorial (with screenshots, hoorah!) taught me how to use TweetLater to handle the automation. TweetLater has other useful tools too, but for now I’m using it to
- auto-follow, and
- send a ‘welcome’ message when people follow the profile, linking back to the business’s website.
I’m scanning tweets and jumping in to conversations, and tweeting whenever the business has some news or a new blog post. I”m also engaging with people who write back to thank me for the welcome message, and many have.
I have started to see increased traffic on the business website with this unobtrusive and, frankly fun form of marketing. It feels collaborative and light-hearted and nothing like “sales”!
Posted by JulieD, 5:30 amFebruary 23, 2009 under How-To, Publishing |
On Tuesday, Feb 24, Amazon will release the Kindle 2, the second version of its Kindle ebook reader, and the media are already full of stories about ebooks. The time has never been better to release your content digitally and, to capitalize on the news, to release your content in a Kindle-ready format.
What Is The Kindle | Who Are Kindle Readers | How Do I Do This?
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Posted by admin, 8:55 pmOctober 15, 2008 under How-To, Writing |
Do you hate to write business letters? Do you spend a lot of time on each email only to receive slow or no responses? Use these six tips to develop a writing style that gets results.
One Letter One Subject
Each letter or email should address one issue only. You can always send another email to talk about a second subject. Keeping to one topic helps the reader absorb your point, and act.
Openers and Enders
Direct Marketing studies show that the most-read sentences in any letter are the first and last sentences (especially if that last sentence is a ‘P.S.’).
Make your purpose clear in the first sentence: “I am writing to share details about the Jones project”.
After that you can introduce background information, but do not start there. People are busy. Tell them what they are going to read about, in the first sentence.
Recap your purpose at the end of the letter, and use the last sentence to ask for an action: “Please let me know by Friday…”.
Bullet Points
Use bullet points to catch the reader’s eye as she is skimming down the page (between the first and last sentences).
- Bullet points catch the eye
- They summarize the details
- Use sentence fragments to keep them brief
- Use only 3-5 bullet points
Be Informal
Unless you are writing for a scientific journal or your industry has a very formal style (i.e. law), keep your style informal. Use ‘you’ and ‘I’ instead of writing in the passive voice. For example, say “We decided at last week’s meeting to push forward with…” instead of “A meeting was held and it was decided that…”. Conversational language keeps a document livelier-and readers awake.
Keep It Brief
Try to keep documents to one page (or one screen, if email). People will read a short document immediately but put a long one in a ‘to read’ pile. Short communications also force you to keep to the point.
Edit out unnecessary words and repetition.
Don’t repeat yourself (like I just did).
Edit
Always leave time for editing. Re-read every piece of writing before you send it out, even quick emails. Edit out half your words if possible. Seriously.
Don’t rely on your spell-checker. I almost proposed giving a talk on “Sex Tips For Better Business Writing” to my local Chamber of Commerce. Luckily that is one of those errors that leaps off the page, but the spell checker didn’t catch it!
Find someone else to proofread your work or use these copyeditor’s tips: slowly read your work aloud once to make sure there are no missing or incorrect words. Then read the work backwards to look for spelling errors. Reading backwards helps you see typos.
Always carefully check these typo hot-spots check:
- telephone numbers
- zip codes
- names
Also check for ‘smart quotes’ that are turned around the wrong way, and missing punctuation.
—
Use these six tips to develop a clear, concise and correct business writing style. You will endear yourself to busy colleagues, and start to see improved response rates to your communications.
P.S. Contact me if you need a copy editor. (See what I mean about the P.S.?)
Posted by admin, 8:50 pm under How-To, Writing |
IF A DOCUMENT is worth writing, it’s worth writing twice.
Although science fiction author Robert Heinlein famously claimed never to rewrite anything, he must be the only successful writer who can make that claim.
If you find it difficult to write well, remember that a first draft is just that. The trick to good writing is to dash off a fast first draft that captures the spirit of what you want to say. Don’t worry about spelling, structure or even perfect grammar. Now leave the piece for as long as possible. Then come back and re-read it.
Is the purpose of the communication clear? Write a sentence at the top that expresses that purpose, then rearrange the meat of your first draft below it. Cut out any repetition and tighten up long sentences. Summarize the main points in a final sentence, then tell the reader what you want them to do (e.g. “Call me with your opinions on this issue”).
If capturing a first draft on paper causes you trouble, try some different ways of marshalling your thoughts: draw a mind-map; make a list of bullet points; dictate your ideas into a voice recorder.
But always try to give yourself time to step away from your first draft and come back to it later. Good writing (and re-writing) takes time. As Pascal said, “This letter is long, because I did not have time to write a short one.”
