I’ve spent a couple weeks ranting about the importance of writing for an audience. (See One Question to Ask Before You Write.) But here’s the thing that I’ve neglected to mention: Writing for a specific audience can be really tough. Even when you’ve chosen an ideal audience, you may struggle to write stories or content that resonates […]
To Expand Your Reach, Narrow Your Focus
Finding your audience, as a writer, is critical. But narrowing down on a specific audience can be quite painful. That’s because as writers, we suffer from Fear of Missing a Reader (FOMaR). FOMaR is closely related to Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), except that I just made up the term and it’s not a documented […]
One Question to Ask Before You Write
Want a quick, easy-to-implement strategy for improving your writing? Before you sit down to write anything (a blog post, a report, a book), ask yourself this simple question: Who will read this? Who are you writing for? Can you envision an ideal reader? Why would they want to read this piece of content, and what will […]
Lazy But Efficient Content Marketing [Book Review]
A Review of Master Content Marketing by Pamela Wilson Partway into the prolog of Pamela Wilson’s Master Content Marketing, there’s a section with the following heading: “My Lazy (But Efficient!) Approach to Content Marketing” As soon as I read that heading, I knew that I’d found a content marketing and writing soulmate. My life goal is […]
Are You a One-Size-Fits-All Writer?
Early in my career, I worked in a small startup. As the only writer in the company, I wrote nearly everything for the business, from data sheets and white papers to direct response ad copy, emails, user manuals (back when companies shipped printed manuals), and invitations to the holiday party. In retrospect, I’m pretty confident that […]
Sticking to the Writing Habit on the Road
I intended to have this blog post drafted before leaving town for a short family visit, but didn’t manage it. Then I planned to write it during the visit. Again, didn’t happen. So here I sit on the plane home, composing a post about the virtues of writing while traveling. The irony is of the […]