Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

June is Effective Communications Month!

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In honor of this official holiday I’ve teamed up with Felicia Slattery, communication coach, and more than 15 other experts to celebrate. 

We’re all putting together some special gifts for you, especially designed to help you communicate effectively with your target market, niche, ideal clients, or audience. 

Everything is under wraps for another two day until Thursday, June 5. THEN, watch for an invitation to discover how to:

• organize your small business and office
• write articles for list-building and profit
• podcast
• write and publish a book to market your business
• use search engine optimization
• use public speaking to market your business
• and so much more! 

There will even be a little something from me, about how to make your writing more readable.  Everything in this fabulous package is completely free and won’t cost you a penny!

I’ll send you the link this Thursday so you can get in on all the fun goodies.

Have you been to the library lately?

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In the post Want to write more? Read more – RSS can help, I focused on reading newsletters, websites and blogs. Because I have an Internet-based business and do 98% of my work on the computer, that's naturally the first place I go to do some reading.

But, do you remember books?

There's always a book on my nightstand that I read for pleasure, though it can take me months to get through one, at only a few pages a night.

When it comes to business books, because I know that I simply don't have a lot of time offline that I want to spend reading, I tend not to want to invest in buying my own copies.

So when someone recommends a book, the first thing I do is head over to the Toronto Public Library website.

From there, I can browse books, then log in and reserve the ones I want. They ship the books to my nearest branch and call me when they arrive. Then I have a week to go pick them up before they put them back into circulation.

When I do get my hands on the book, I tend to skim, not read. Usually I find at least one golden nugget that I can write about here and/or apply immediately to my business.

I've used the library a lot as I've been working on the Customizable Style Guide for Coaches who Write. Not too long ago, I was walking out of the library on a sunny Saturday afternoon. I'd just picked up two resource books for the style guide, and I had a huge rush of gratitude that the library is there for me and others who have a passion for knowledge and reading.

Writing Prompt: Writing book reviews is a great way to stay on top of the issues facing your prospective clients. Consult websites, blogs and trade magazines that attract members of your target market, to see what books they're talking about. And when you get the book, check out who the authors list as references and key influences. You don't have to write a formal review, you can just share your impressions of the book, summarize the main lessons you took away, or tell a story about how the book influenced your business or your life.

P.S. Of course, another way for busy people to access business books is to listen to them. My sister is a big fan of audio books, though I haven't really explored those yet. Away from the computer, my life is surpisingly low-tech. I finally have a CD player in the car, but still no .MP3 player 😉

More about storytelling

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In her article, Telling a Good Story, blogger Michelle Miller (of Wonder Branding: Marketing to Women), tells us how three big companies have used authentic and consistent storytelling as a marketing strategy, and describes the positive results they've gotten.

People love to hear stories, and Miller also makes the point that as consumers we love to feel "in the know" about what's behind the brand, company or service professional we're dealing with.

In another post at GrokDotCom, Michelle shares her own hilarious story about going into the garage for a hammer (and later pulling the hammer out of the fridge) to illustrate a key reason that female shoppers sometimes abandon an online purchase before they're finished (read the story).

In my blog post, Look Around and Make Connections, there are a few other examples of how a quirky personal story can help make your point and keep readers coming back.

Writing Prompt: Your readers want to hear more about what goes on behind-the-scenes of your business. Let them in by sharing a story.

The Confidence to Write and Write and Write

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Mary Wollard is an attorney/mediator, and we met following a tele-class series I did for the members of Dina Lynch’s ADR Practice Builder community in the summer of 2007. Now a long-term editing client, Mary tells me that since we’ve been working together, she has so much more confidence and enthusiasm about writing.

She loves to write and has no shortage of great ideas, but in the past she’s always been held up by worries about the quality of her writing.

Now, she just writes (and writes, and writes), with the confidence and reassurance that another set of eyes will go over her blog posts before she publishes them.

Mary specializes in co-parenting issues following divorce, and her articles are amazing! Her blog is at http://cofamilysolutions.blogspot.com/. Have a look, and please pass it along to anyone who could benefit from her sage wisdom.

When I asked Mary about the difference it makes having me as her editor, she had this to say:

"It is such a relief to know that I can concentrate on getting my ideas down and not on perfecting the final product. Linda’s edits are always so thoughtful and make everything I write more readable without changing the original intent or flavor. Having Linda on my team is an essential part of my business plan."

Seth Godin on How to Write Like a Blogger

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Last month, Seth Godin offered up some writing gems from the blogging world in his post, "Write Like a Blogger."

I especially like point #3, "Drip, drip, drip," about how we can introduce a theme or idea in pieces, over time. It gets back to when I asked if you're "trying the write the article of a lifetime?"

Point #4, "It's ok if you leave," challenges my practice of setting up outside links from my blog posts to open in a new window. He suggests that if my writing is interesting enough, you'll come back – no matter how many other interesting places I send you.

What do you think about that? What do you do in your own blog? Does having links open up in a new window keep you reading my blog longer? Do you appreciate not losing your place and having to find your way back, or does it simply annoy you and clutter up your desktop? Please submit your comments below!

Writing Prompt: Take out a recent piece of writing, or even better, something you're finishing up right now. How could writing like a blogger improve it?