Careful Writers Make Good Bedfellows (or at Least Good Housemates)

Careful Writers Make Good Bedfellows (or at Least Good Housemates) Careful Writers Make Good Bedfellows (or at Least Good Housemates) Careful Writers Make Good Bedfellows (or at Least Good Housemates) By Mark Nichol I was interested to read about a recent University of Michigan study that concluded that people who are highly judgmental about writing errors tend to be more introverted and have less pleasant personalities than those who are more forgiving about people’s flawed writing skills. The tools of the study were a questionnaire that, when answered by research subjects, enabled researchers to identify the people as introverted or extroverted and to rate them as having easygoing or difficult personalities, along with a set of fake responses to housemate ads. The study concluded that introverts and difficult people were less likely to respond to people who had sent error-ridden replies than extroverts and people with more appealing personalities. Overall, both introverts and difficult people were more likely than extroverts and people who rated higher on healthy personality qualities to be judgmental about errors. However, the study made a distinction between two types of writing errors: typos, or typographical errors (such as typing mkae instead of make), and grammos, or grammatical errors (such as confusing your and you’re). The study did not pertain to more substantial errors of grammar and syntax such as dangling or misplaced modifiers (or to usage or style errors), but it found that typos were more likely to irk those whose questionnaire responses identified them as introverts, while people determined to have negative personality traits tended to be bothered more by grammos. Would you be less likely to respond to an email by a prospective housemate whose message was full of errors? I certainly would, which apparently identifies me as an introverted jerk- or as an editor, which is perhaps the same thing. Why? Because typographical errors indicate carelessness (I make them, too, but I generally identify and correct them before I publish), and I don’t want a careless housemate. I am more forgiving of grammatical errors, because I know that writing skill does not necessarily correlate with intelligence, though I would be concerned about a lack of compatibility with someone who does not know the difference between your and you’re. Careful writing is important in business communication, and a response to a housemate ad is, in one respect, a business communication, because it involves financial transactions (sharing the costs of rent, utilities, and at least some household supplies). A potential housemate who does not bother to run spell-check before sending me an email is failing to demonstrate diligence. And though I strive not to let grammatical errors annoy me (otherwise, I would have to forgo reading for leisure), I can’t help judging those who do not exercise care in writing. If you bother to write a job application carefully or to proofread an email before you send it to a colleague, you are likely careful about your correspondence when you seek to be chosen as a housemate (which is, in a sense, like being hired). Whether you choose to be diligent when sending a text message or an email to a friend or posting to social media is up to you (though I assume subscribers to these posts are more likely than the general population to do so). My role as an editor is to help a writer communicate. Communication is, of course, also the writer’s key objective, whether one is writing a book or an email message. The same degree of diligence is not required for one as for another, but demonstrating some level of effort to clearly convey one’s message, regardless of the message, is one’s primary duty as a writer. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:60 Synonyms for â€Å"Walk†7 Patterns of Sentence Structure

5 Breakthrough Techniques For Running A High-Traffic Blog

5 Breakthrough Techniques For Running A High-Traffic Blog When you jump out of an airplane,  you  better have a plan ready. Step one is a parachute, and step two is learning how to hit the  ground. Paratroopers have a  technique for this that allows them to  land safely. They call it a PLF (parachute landing fall). It goes like this: US Department of the Army manual, Public domain Balls of the feet Heels of the feet Side of the thigh Side of the hip, or buttocks Back of the shoulder blades Make sense right? Theres nothing like easing into it. Now, what about your blog? A blog launch is a lot like the initial jump out of an airplane. It is exhilarating, fast paced, and comes with an amazing view, but what happens after the free fall? Eventually, as a blogger or content marketing pro, you need a good plan in order to breakthrough the initial launch and begin running  high-traffic blog. Are you  really getting the traffic and attention you hoped for? Does your content have an ROI? Are you  going to be able stick the  landing without breaking your legs? Just like parajumpers, bloggers need a 5-point plan for sticking the free fall. Maybe you just launched a new blog, or maybe you are looking to revitalize a long-held content marketing plan. Either way, you need to have a process ready and that is what I have tried to compile in this post. I am calling it,  The 5 Point Plan For Running A Breakthrough Blog, and its actually pretty doable. This guide is  designed to take your blog from launch to high-end breakthrough traffic. The following five steps are what it takes. 1. Develop A Super-Human Understanding Of Your Audience We have been spending the entire month of August blogging  about  finding, growing, creating, and (most importantly) understanding your blog audience, and weve been doing it for good reason – it is the cornerstone of any breakthrough blog. Your blog exists for the pleasure of your audience. If you dont understand them, then how will you ever reach them? Too often, we take the Field of Dreams approach to content creation. We believe that if we write it, they will come.  Wrong. We need to have purpose in what we publish. One of the things that we talk about often is learning to expand your content core.  The purpose of this exercise  is to understand the difference between what you do, and what you need to talk about. This is where you start to understand your audience. The key is finding the content that your audience really cares about, and using those topics to reach them directly. It is a crucial component for any breakthrough blog. Further Reading: How To Find Your Target Audience In Content Marketing Are You Making These 5 Assumptions About Your Audience? How To Write For Two Audiences At Once 3 Hidden Google Analytics Reports To Help You Understand Your Audience 2. Find A Truly Unique Voice Lets face it. Youre arent the first person in the world to launch a blog in your niche, industry, or even on your city block. When it comes to blogs and content marketing there are few new ideas. Been there, done that. Dont let this dismal take on blogging stop you from trying though. The reality is that you dont have to be doing something new to be doing something great. Truthfully, most blogs are simply doing the same thing as everyone else. Theyre not that great. The key is to figure out how youre different. At , we call this a  Blue Ocean Strategy,  and it works because it is strategy without real competition. So, what is your Blue Ocean Strategy? The main quality of a Blue Ocean Strategy is that it is completely unique. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. You will need to come up with something on your own, but done correctly, it should provide you will a clear path to creating a blog that your audience loves to read. Further Reading:   Want To Make Your Blog Stand Out? Use The Blue Ocean Strategy How Pixar’s Creative Process Will Help You Produce More Innovative Content 3 Memory Techniques That Get People To Remember Your Content Is Familiarity Killing Your Project Before You Even Launch? 3.  Create An Achievable Publishing Schedule You have to set a schedule detailing how often you will  blog. If you dont, you  will fail. Its as simple as that. For early bloggers, I like to suggest that they start posting content as much as five times per week. This is a great way to start learning the ropes and get used to pressing that daunting publish button. As good as that may sound, though, it wont always be achievable, and thats really the most important part about setting a blogging schedule: You need to find something that you can set, and achieve. Once you know how often you will post, you need to develop an editorial calendar and process for planning our your content before you start to write. Here at , we provide a free set of editorial calendar templates that make this process easy. These free templates are designed to break your content down into three tools: An annual overview to rough-out your content plan for the entire year. An idea zone to plan out individual posts and content ideas. A one-month calendar to plan out specific posts for each day of the month. Download Free Content Marketing Editorial Calendar Templates You can download these free templates and an easy step-by-step guide on how to implement them into your daily workflow from our website. Just follow the link above. The best part about using a  paper editorial calendar is that it can help you start the habit of using one to plan your content marketing. Eventually you will need bigger and better tools like itself, but this is a great way to ease-in without a major financial investment. Further Reading: Get Our Free Editorial Calendar Templates The Ultimate Guide To Writing A Consistent Blog With A Content Marketing Editorial Calendar Try This Breakthrough Content Marketing Workflow For Your Team   4. Write Amazing  Content That Is Undeniably Sticky This is a biggy: To break through with your blog, you need to create better, and more original, content than everyone else. This can come in many unique forms. It could be longer (long-form content). It could be more visual. It could be better at telling a story. It could excel at SEO. Really, it could be anything. Even in a time with  Google, bots, and SEO, quality content is still the line that we need to measure  ourselves by, and it isnt always that easy. Sometimes content flows from our fingertips like lightning, and other times it drips like a painful leak in an old faucet. This is may require an adjustment to your process, but you must  find a better way. One of  first places to start writing sticky  content is with a great  headline. Before you even start to create your content, headline generation is a good way to think through your post before words meet the page. We like recommend writing at least 25 different headlines  during your early brainstorming process. This will get things flowing, and help you frame your content properly before going too far. You can also measure the emotional value of your headlines to ensure proper reach. Further Reading: Proof That Emotional Headlines Get Shared More On Social Media 25 Scientifically Proven Ways To Write Better Headlines For Your Blog 4-Step System For Writing A Great Blog Post, Even If You Have Writers Block The Perfect Blog Post: Simpler Is Better 5. Learn  How To Promote Your Content Like A P.R. Wizard One of the saddest stories in the world is the blog post that is published and never heard from again. After pouring all of your effort into an outstanding and insightful post, it will be up to you to make sure that it is heard around the world. In order to run a breakthrough blog, you are going to need to have a promotion plan in place. There are two big things that you need to be doing.