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Ten Steps to Mastering New Technical Terms

Ritu — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:10:49 +0000

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Keith Johnson from Great Documents.

As a Technical Writer, I consistently work with technical words that are new and that require my understanding. Here are ten steps you can take, as I have, that will help you to assimilate the words and make them part of your everyday vocabulary, especially at work:

1. Physically write out the word - like they say, “seeing is believing”

2. Look-up the term in Wikipedia and see what the general public has to say.

3. Look-up the term in a regular dictionary to get an academic interpretation of the word.

4. Compare these two definitions, and see where they align, as definitions.

5. Discuss the term with others at work, especially those who use the word daily.

6. Write a few meaningful sentences using the new word.

7. Have others review your sentences to see if you have correctly understood its usage.

8. Begin to use this word as part of your daily experience, especially if work requires it.

9. Try to assimilate an image or picture to better connect the word with experiences in general.

10. Make sure you use the word in your technical documents as you are writing, if possible.

Keith Johnson is a blogger who shares 10 years worth of experience on technical writing at his blog Great Documents. He is also the author of 365 Great Affirmations.

50 Simple Tips To Avoid Blog Suicide

Ritu — Sun, 04 May 2008 09:54:26 +0000

Hundreds and thousands of blogs take birth each day, but the number of blogs that die are equally high as well. They say you need to give at least 5 years for a business to survive and in the blogosphere we say, give it 3 months for a blog to pick up the pace. Most of the bloggers get so frustrated within such a short period of time that they kill their blog too early. This is exactly what “ Blog Suicide “ is – the death of a blog before it even had enough time to mature!

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Weekday SEO Tip: Using Multiple Domains To Increase Website Usability

Jason — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:33:54 +0000

I have been domaining for a long time. For those of you who don’t know - domaining is buying and selling domain names, building them out, etc. It’s a very nice, profitable, niche business. Some people can’t stand it because they think of domaining as cybersquatting - others don’t mind it. Often, the people that don’t mind it are the ones doing it!

Why redirect users with a domain name?

Using domain names to direct people through a website is a very effective way of navigating and focusing a user’s attention. For example, eBizITPA is a local economic development agency that has a lot in terms of classes, grants, seminars and other things. One of their grant programs is called “IT Kickstart.” It’s a $5,000 grant available to small businesses looking to implement some form of IT development (in Pennsylvania). But since it is a popular program, rather than navigating through the jumbled site, you can access the page by simply typing in ITkickstart.com!

You’ll notice that once you type ITkickstart.com into the browser, it immediately takes you to http://www.ebizitpa.org/programs/itkickstart/index.asp - which is a subpage off of the main site. You can get to it the long way by going through ebizitpa.org, but who has the time?

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Five Simple Ways To Keep Your Reader’s Attention

Ritu — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:29:55 +0000

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Keith Johnson from Great Documents.

In today’s world of evolving blogs and on-line newsletters, readers are swamped with so much information that they become more sensitive to the quality of articles that they are reading. I highly recommend that you follow these five steps to keeping your reader’s attention while at your site, blog, or article:

1. Be Clear. It is always refreshing to use clear language and understandable terms that keep the reader “in the know”.

2. Be Brief. I know it is great to write articles like “100 Ways To” but these articles can tire the reader. Brevity is a real blessing sometimes.

3. Humor is always nice. As much as you might be saying something serious, still, an appropriate use of humor is always refreshing.

4. Be Honest. When the reader can see into your sincerity and candor, that is a real great trick to keeping the reader at your article.

5. Be Unique. This is why websites and articles really make it - uniqueness. This one I will let you interpret for yourself. This is a surefire method to get readers to return to your articles, website, and/or blog with frequency.

Keith Johnson is a blogger who shares 10 years worth of experience on technical writing at his blog Great Documents. He is also the author of 365 Great Affirmations.

Weekday SEO Tip: A Picture ISN’T Worth A Thousand Words

Jason — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:34:37 +0000

Image via WikipediaWe love images. In fact, the less we have to read - the better! Why do you think reality TV is so popular and has been for years now. It’s easier to watch someone else make decisions and think than it is to do it yourself..

In thinking of using images on the Internet, you have to be careful. How much is too much? Is there adequate content on the page so that search engines know what you’re talking about? Or are the pictures taking up to much room?

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Feed Your Twitter Curiosity - 25 Unmissable Posts On Twitter

Ritu — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:56:22 +0000

A couple days ago I sent out a “tweet” asking why they use Twitter . Here are some answers from some twitter die hard fans,

Fun! Twitter is a blast. - Remarkablogger

The opportunity to chime in (relevantly) to conversations with people you wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to interact with. - Dave Navarro

Twitter is a worldwide virtual watercooler for one-man/woman biz-people. It feeds the interaction zones. - Jonathan Fields

Stream of consciousness shared by you and all of your friends. Almost like IM, but can be as focused or unfocused as you want - DavidCubed

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Weekend Blogging Tip #3: Determine The Purpose of Your Post

Ritu — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:15:47 +0000

It’s time for a quick weekend tip:

In order to write an effective post that will be looked upon by readers as something valuable, you must have a clear purpose in mind. Your aim as a blogger / writer should be to fulfill a purpose by achieving a desired response. In blogging world, your success in informing, entertaining and persuading is usually measured in terms of comments / responses your readers give to your posts / messages.

Before you decide to write a post, take a moment and think. What exactly is the purpose of your post - to inform, to entertain or to persuade?

Who Tipped it : Ritu ( GhostBlogging ) (more…)

20 Reasons To Blog and Expand Your Reach

Ritu — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:53:14 +0000

A new blog today on the internet is like a needle in a haystack, nowhere to be found. But, you can either let your blog be the needle that’s hard to find or the hay that’s everywhere. So, why exactly should you blog when there are millions of blogs floating on the internet? Why should you be another one of those jumping in the blogging bandwagon? The answer is simple : because you want to maximize your opportunities.

Well, the answer above alone might not motivate all to start a blog but I have tried and come up with a few more that might show you why starting a blog might be benefecial. Although all the reasons listed below are facts and have been proven, the results from your blog depends on you. If you put your heart into it and do it diligently your blog will provide all these for you and much more, you can take my word for it. (more…)

The Ultimate Outcome of Networking

Ritu — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:58:23 +0000

I agree that these are really good methods to get “noticed”. But what is the end goal of sending emails to bloggers?If I post for a few weeks and then send them an email, do you think they will feature my blog? Or, will they just put a link to my blog in their blog?You said that you have been “noticed” by some high profile bloggers. What was the outcome you experienced?

The above quote is a comment left by one of the readers on a previous post. At first I was a little shocked but then again I remembered my thoughts and idea of networking when I first started blogging. To be honest, at first my sole intention with getting in touch was to get blogger’s attention to get link backs and of course the traffic that might come from them mentioning my blog. The thought and the idea has now changed. The mindset most new bloggers have ( including me when I started ) while still new in the game, is to get immediate exposure and attention while ignoring the future.

In this post I will outline the benefits of networking and being recognized, which in the short run might not be as beneficial as you would like, but will certainly help you in future as a blogger and web entrepreneur. (more…)

Weekend Blogging Tip #2 - 10 Affirmations For Improved Writing

Ritu — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:41:28 +0000

I have worked as a Computer Software Technical Writer for about ten (10) years now, and strangely enough, it is the affirmation process within my mind that allows me to keep on top of myself and maintain optimal performance. Here are some affirmation-suggestions for you to stay fresh as you write day to day, whether for work, school or for your blog. (more…)