Writing, marketing and technology
Sometimes a headline needs to be serious: ‘Iran accuses journalist of spying’ and sometimes it needs to be fun: ‘Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster. But in every case it needs to be good. BBC News’ headlines are the best in the world according to web-usability guru Jakob Nielsen. Nielsen’s guidelines state that web headlines must [...]
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My iPhone has become more than a phone; it’s become an indispensible part of my life. The main reason is the number of apps that I use. I have 178 in iTunes and about half that number actually on the phone. They help me navigate, check the weather, book restaurants, learn Dutch, play, communicate etc. [...]
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Online applications give me a competitive edge. I want to be a ‘big little company’ with the same (or better) IT capabilities as the biggest of my clients. I try to make the maximum use of online applications because they let me deploy new capabilities quickly without adding to my IT or admin burdens. This [...]
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There are two words that every writer needs to know: lede and kicker. A ‘lede’ is the opening sentence of an article. A ‘kicker’ is the last. If you can get them right, you can lift what you write to a whole new level. Five tips for a great lede: Open with a quote. As [...]
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Does this ever happen to you? Your client calls and says ‘we need this done immediately – right now – like, yesterday!’ And you’re up to your eyeballs in other work. You don’t want to let your client down because the relationship is important and you don’t want to say yes because you’re really manic. [...]
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I have written a book – 30 Days to Better Business Writing – and I’m publishing it as a FREE eBook to ensure that it can help as many people as possible. You can read it online or download a PDF here on this blog. There’s no catch. The book is completely free. If you [...]
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I’m studying Dutch. It’s my father’s language but I never learned it as a child and now I’m trying to go back to my roots. I just got back from a four day trip to Amsterdam and 16 hours of intensive one-to-one training. It made me think about how learning another language has helped me [...]
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A few weeks ago I visited Oban, Scotland. On a tour of the whisky distillery there, the tour guide asked (rhetorically) ‘What’s the best way to drink whisky?’ and answered immediately ‘Any way you like it.’ It’s the same for writing. The best time for writing is whenever you are able to write productively. That [...]
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To be a great writer, you have to be able to concentrate. Not only that but you have to be able to maintain focus for sustained periods. It’s not the only thing you’ll need but it’s a good start. Psychologists describe a powerful form of concentration called ‘flow’. It happens when someone concentrates fully engaged [...]
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BBC technology correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, reported yesterday that SpinVox was using call centres in South Africa and the Philippines to do much of the work of transcribing voicemail messages instead of the company’s much-vaunted D2 voice-recognition software. The complaint rests on two charges: that the company wasn’t doing what it said it was doing and [...]
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Matthew Stibbe is CEO of Articulate Marketing and Turbine, the easy, online way to deal with office paperwork. He edits Golf Hotel Whiskey and writes the Forbes Aviator column.
Check out my new, free eBook, 30 Days to Better Business Writing, 71 pages of expert tips and advice to make you a better writer. Available on Kindle, paper and free online.