Extreme Writing Now » content http://extremewritingnow.com Thu, 09 Sep 2010 22:50:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Remembering Happiness http://extremewritingnow.com/authors/kim/remembering-happiness/ http://extremewritingnow.com/authors/kim/remembering-happiness/#comments Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:12:49 +0000 kimmanleyort http://extremewritingnow.com/?p=1695
HappinessIs happiness as compelling as fear? That’s what I wondered after last week’s exercise on remembering fear.

Like fear, happiness for me is best remembered in moments. It’s often fleeting, but oh so delicious. Contentment tends to be longer lasting, but happiness? That is when you experience a joy so profound that you suddenly realize that this moment is perfect. The heart swells, the stomach flutters, the eyes crinkle and you think, this is what life is for, these moments.

I had one of those moments recently. All three of my kids are home together for about a month, and soon they will all be dispersing. They were in the family room laughing and talking, remembering stories. I was in the kitchen and the sound of their laughter, their familiar voices, gave me a sudden explosion of happiness. All we have been through together, the ups and the downs, has led to this point and, for that moment, it was all good.

Maybe you disagree. Happiness is longer lasting for you. Happiness is a choice. You remember periods in your life when you were just really happy. Tell us about it.

When was the last time you were happy, really happy?

© 2010, kimmanleyort. All rights reserved.

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    Years ago I started writing Flash Fiction for just the sheer enjoyment of writing. Something happened between now…

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]]> http://extremewritingnow.com/site-map/feed/ 0 Call to Action ~ The Freelancer’s Work http://extremewritingnow.com/writing/freelance/call-to-action-the-freelancers-work/ http://extremewritingnow.com/writing/freelance/call-to-action-the-freelancers-work/#comments Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:00:42 +0000 Alex Crabtree http://extremewritingnow.com/?p=871

One sure way to get repeat work from a client is to him/her feel good.  With most clients who are hiring freelance writers to provide web content, making them feel good means making them some cash.

That IS the reason they hired us in the first place, is it not?

Let’s face it, whatever we write for the Internet is sales copy, because sales copy is not just about selling a product; no we are trying to motivate readers’ emotions towards a positive movement in one direction. Whenever content attempts to be authoritative,  it is pitching.

As  hired guns, the freelancers’ job sometimes means that we are to provide content that will not only draw potential buyers into the marketing vehicle, but we need to direct them to the checkout lane. We could create a title that is just the right hook and content that builds an emotional crescendo in the reader, but we could still fail by blowing the trigger, or  Call To Action (CTA).

We’ve all seen those big neon yellow and/or orange banners that scream  words such as ‘Buy Now!‘ or ‘Don’t Miss Out!‘, those are CTA’s. In web content a CTA is most often ‘click here‘. But after writing content that is loaded with emotional benefit that greaes the potential buyer up so they can slide into the cart easier, why do we blow it with a typical ‘click here‘ or ‘act now‘?

We can increase the conversion rate of our content if we put just a wee bit of thought into our CTA. Think about this; content is typically talked about as having three distinct sections, Title, Content, and Call To Action. We are always trying to target a particular audience with the bait of the title, reel them in with content, and net them with the CTA. But, we often think that if the content is solid, the net is a mere after thought and we settle for any conversion rate.

We need to target the prospects with our CTA as well.

I own and operate an ecommerce retail store that sells biker leather apparel and accessories. My helmet pages were getting a lot of looks that were delivered from one of the store’s blogs, but the conversion rate was dismal.

To change this, I rewrote product reviews so that instead of the CTA being ‘Check out our fine selection of helmets here‘ to ‘Be legal and be free ~  strap on one of our radical DOT  half-helmets‘.  Knowing that most bikers have a thing about being free and rebellious towards helmets. So, half helmets are huge in states that require helmets, and all helt states require the lids to be DOT approved.

The conversion rate from those articles climbed 5 points. Huge! Especially when you consider that the effort spent was less than thirty minutes.

Imagine if we can make something like that happen for our clients. What would happen if we sold them content that out of the box outperformed what they already had published?

Open your mind and the possibilities will glow like fireflies in a jar.

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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]]> http://extremewritingnow.com/writing/freelance/call-to-action-the-freelancers-work/feed/ 2 55 Word Fiction ~ This Masochist Loves It http://extremewritingnow.com/writing/55-word-fiction/ http://extremewritingnow.com/writing/55-word-fiction/#comments Sat, 17 Apr 2010 17:54:32 +0000 Alex Crabtree http://extremewritingnow.com/?p=404

Of all the writing I do, I look forward to writing 55 word fiction most. Writing those short and restricted tales are a great challenge which often causes me to sweat, curse, and throw stuff until I get them to the point I feel satiated.

Add masochist to the things you have learned about me.

I mean, let’s be real, who else would find complete and utter pleasure in trying to write a complete story by using exactly 55 words, no more, no less? Could only be a pain for pleasure idiot like myself.

The 55 word story was conceived by the founder of the New Times newspaper of San Luis Obispo, California. Steve Moss ran a short story contest in 1987 based on the following restrictions:

  • The story content had to total 55 words, not including the title
  • The title could not exceed 7 words
  • One or more characters
  • Conflict
  • Resolution
  • Setting

My introduction of the format came in 2002 shortly after I joined a Flash Fiction workshop. All of my attempts at writing seemed to run on and on and on, so I joined the workshop in hopes to discipline myself in ways to trim trim the fat.

The format was suggested to me as my submissions were getting shorter with each exercise. So, I did a little research and started writing primarily 55 worders for the workshop.

I became an addict.

They are a blast to write because of the challenge. I’ll often take one, two, and even three days to perfect the story to my own liking. Imagine spending all that time writing, unwriting, scratching out, smiling, frowning, only to sit back to say “ahhhhhhhhh…”

There are benefits, other than the self gratifying pleasure, of writing in the micro-format. I can use the characters as foundations to flesh out for my character bank for one. The entire story gives me a ‘feel’ for my character and I can start asking deeper questions about them. Questions like “Why did he turn to opium?” and “What events in her life made her live where she does?”

Another really cool thing about 55 word fiction is that a 55 word story can be made into a 110 word story, then a 220 word story and so forth.  Before long, there is a fleshed out short story, novella, or even a novel.

By the way, I have yet to try that double the word count trick, but I’m itching to.

So tell me, have you tried the micro format of 55 word fiction? Did you like it?

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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]]> http://extremewritingnow.com/writing/55-word-fiction/feed/ 11 Are You Worth Listening To? http://extremewritingnow.com/writing/are-you-worth-listening-to/ http://extremewritingnow.com/writing/are-you-worth-listening-to/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:09:43 +0000 Alex Crabtree http://extremewritingnow.com/?p=341

The last few weeks I’ve been horsing around with a new project which led me to write a lot of  SEO tutorials, only because SEO is a requirement to survive this tangled mess we have gotten ourselves into.

The Internet is crowded and we’re all yelling to be heard but the only ones that hear us when we yell are the ones who are close; our friends. Yet, we have something to say and we want thousands to hear it, damnit!

To be heard, we pay the concierge with keywords, back links, and link wheels to get our words to the booths that sit high above the dance floor. We hope those that sit in those lofty booths will give us a nod and a mention, because one word from those dudes and people will give us a look.

We can use every trick in the book to get thousands of visitors to our blogs, but can we deliver? Seriously, the simple truth about success on the Internet, or anywhere in life, is that we must satisfy a need. We must deliver the goods or we will lose all that we spent.

What is it we must deliver? A solution. We are all marketers trying to service a niche were people are clamoring for relief from some problem. Products, ideas, knowledge, or good old fashioned entertainment, we are all selling something. If we’re good, we get repeat customers. If not, we’ll be kicked to the curb quicker than a homeless chick after a date.

That is the measure of success in life. When we advertise and try to deliver, do people come back on their own? Do they bring a friend the next time?

Sound SEO  practice will deliver sheep, but good solid content will always feed them the sweetest of meals. It is a difficult juggling act, but if we take a good look at a lot of the SEO tools as not part of a separate task of blogging, but as agents of freedom, we can find that writing content is getting to be more like writing than advertising.

If you’re not familiar with some of the tools available to you in your blogs, look around, dig into them. But don’t look at them from the pure Internet geek angle, look at them with your writing heart in mind. If you can do this, you’ll get ears delivered to you AND get them to come back time and time again.

© 2009, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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]]> http://extremewritingnow.com/writing/are-you-worth-listening-to/feed/ 2 Things To Consider Before Asking Me To Fix My Platform http://extremewritingnow.com/a-raving-lunatic/things-to-consider-before-asking-me-to-fix-my-platform/ http://extremewritingnow.com/a-raving-lunatic/things-to-consider-before-asking-me-to-fix-my-platform/#comments Sat, 19 Sep 2009 14:31:22 +0000 Alex Crabtree http://extremewritingnow.com/?p=326

SquidooI don’t run a huge publishing platform, but that doesn’t stop me from not caring when people plead for resolution of continuing issues. The most common plea is, “Can’t we get the platform stable, even if for a day?”

The second most often annoying plea I hear is,  “Please, I’ll even settle for an hour of stability.”

I think these are possibly the tenth and eleventh pleas that I really don’t want to have to deal with, and really, why would I even want to hear ANY in the first place? If you take your writing somewhere else, someone will step up and give my platform more content.  So, I really don’t give a damn. Here’s my list of difficult and important questions I have to answer before I can justify any of your sniveling  my site administers bout the constant bugs and your time spent for the paltry few bucks and ego stroking  “Atta Boys”:

  • What is the goal of MY site and why should I care if it is constantly limping?
  • In other words, if you ever catch it working 100%, what specific income will I incur (that’s ME, not YOU)?
  • Who are I trying to please? If it’s the content provider, what the hell more do they want? They get all the ego stroking they need in the ranking drug the platform feeds them.
  • How many people  do I need on MY team? Can I get away with fewer, say at the overpaid and under-worked engineering level?
  • Whose pockets am I trying to fill? Can I stuff more in all of them? Do I need to wear two pairs of pants, you know…..more pockets?
  • What groups inside my platform can my team get to blindly publish content while the damn thing is broken?
  • Are we really trying to fix it, or can we fool the sheep with smoke and mirrors?
  • Are we telling a convincing enough story?
  • Are we earning respect as the nuts and bolts rattle out?
  • Are we trying to get folks to watch one hand while the other is hiding the brass ring?
  • Do I actually want someone to post a chart that shows an amazing increase of visitors from outside, while we keep the payout to content providers the same or on the decrease? Well, maybe it doesn’t matter to sheep.
  • Are we building a flock of sheep  who will use the platform even if it is constantly broken?
  • Do people find the platform souring in their mouth and should I really care?
  • Is there an ongoing propaganda program?
  • Is the platform part of a larger scheme to fill the pockets of the pants hanging in my closet?
  • Do we want sheep to be able to bleat at us?
  • How much content can we trick into our system and keep all the juice for ourselves?
  • Who needs to fix the platform? Why?
  • Do we ever really need to spend some of my pocket change to fix the platform?
  • Why would we push showing up in the search engines? That just means my content providers will be spending time doing keyword research when they could be providing more content for the good of my platform.
  • Do I really need to spend cash to fix the damn thing? Won’t the propaganda help with this?

And finally,

  • Do the content providers really need to understand what this is all about, or is it good enough for them to be swallowed up by the popularity contest?

(Please note that is a complete satire wrought out of increasing frustration)

© 2009, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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]]> http://extremewritingnow.com/a-raving-lunatic/things-to-consider-before-asking-me-to-fix-my-platform/feed/ 5 Leashing the Blogs of War http://extremewritingnow.com/news/leashing-the-blogs-of-war/ http://extremewritingnow.com/news/leashing-the-blogs-of-war/#comments Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:19:03 +0000 Alex Crabtree http://extremewritingnow.com/?p=301

From The New York Times

By James Dao

The Pentagon may have helped invent the Internet, but these days it is vigorously debating just how to use the Web.

In the coming month, the Defense Department, citing growing concerns about cybersecurity, plans to issue a new policy on social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

People familiar with the department’s review expect it will set limits on who can access networking sites from their unsecure military computers. A public information officer, for instance, probably could; a cook on an aircraft carrier might not.

(The Defense Department also maintains a secure network for classified documents that does not use the public Internet.)

The debate is fueled by the increasing number of grunts who use blogs and social media to communicate with friends, family and the world beyond their wire. But it comes, paradoxically, at a time when the Defense Department itself is increasingly using social media for official purposes, including public relations, recruiting and policymaking.

Some examples can be found here, here, here, here and here.

The military has long had a complicated relationship with the Web, in all its freewheeling, nonhierarchical glory. Blogs since the start of the Iraq war have been censored or shut down by commanders worried about security leaks, or poor decorum.

Last year, a popular blog called Kaboom: A Soldier’s War Journal was taken offline after the author satirized a commanding officer’s attempts to pressure him into taking an unwanted promotion. And in 2007, the Army issued rules requiring troops to submit blog posts and other Web writings for review, a move that was widely viewed as an onerous clampdown on front-line bloggers.

But some bloggers, like Jean Paul Borda, a reservist who has done tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, said that scrutiny varies widely from commander to commander and that troops who avoid discussing sensitive material are usually left alone.

“I had the full support of my chain of command,” said Mr. Borda, who created a Web site called milblogging.com that includes an index to more than 2,400 military-related blogs.

In Vietnam, letters home were often censored. But in the Civil War, they typically were not, and many of those letters were printed in hometown newspapers, providing front-line correspondence for papers that could not afford to send reporters into battle.

Military blogs and other social media serve much the same purpose today, said Terry L. Beckenbaugh, who teaches history at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Matthew Currier Burden, a former Army intelligence officer who started one of the earliest military blogs, BlackFive.net said that military blogs have expanded and diversified, with sites by and for almost every group: parents and spouses, veterans, analysts and troops with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Blogs by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to come and go, thriving and withering with each deployment. Examples can be found here, here and here.

“It’s been a long fight to convince” commanders of the usefulness of the Web, said Mr. Burden, who wrote a book on military blogs titled, “The Blog of War.” “My tenet is: If you restrict it to much, the only ones blogging will be the ones who don’t care about the rules.”

© 2009, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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]]> http://extremewritingnow.com/news/leashing-the-blogs-of-war/feed/ 1 Lucky’s Day http://extremewritingnow.com/fiction/lucky%e2%80%99s-day/ http://extremewritingnow.com/fiction/lucky%e2%80%99s-day/#comments Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:55:35 +0000 Alex Crabtree http://extremewritingnow.com/?p=180

LuckyLucky’s green cap and jacket helped him blend into the canopy as he scanned the forest with his binoculars. A menacing smile played across his face when he spied the iron pot.

Snap! He looked in the direction of the sound.

He saw the urchins. Good, he thought.

He watched as they jumped at the pot of yellow moons, pink hearts, and green clovers. He saw the earth swallow them and the pot.

Lucky shimmied down the tree and scurried to the edge of the pit. Looking to the bottom of the hole, he saw two sets of frightened eyes that seemed to be pleading for help.

“You two ne’r do wells had better get yer fill of me Lucky Charms. My friends seem a bit frisky.” He sneered as he pointed a crooked finger towards five vipers that were making their way towards the children.

With an evil laugh he turned and skipped through the forest, seeking the Silly Rabbit to boast about his triumph.

© 2009, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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]]> http://extremewritingnow.com/fiction/lucky%e2%80%99s-day/feed/ 5 Ten Things Freelance Writers Do During The Down Time http://extremewritingnow.com/writing/freelance/ten-things-freelance-writers-do-during-the-down-time/ http://extremewritingnow.com/writing/freelance/ten-things-freelance-writers-do-during-the-down-time/#comments Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:14:31 +0000 Alex Crabtree http://extremewritingnow.com/?p=146

writer's downtimeAll righty now. That last list, Ten Things A Freelance Writer Doesn’t Need, was so much fun, I thought I’d come back with another. Only this time, I am r-e-a-l-l-l-l-l-y gonna try your sense of humor.

Freelance writers live an pathetic existence in that we really don’t get much free time. Myself, I find the biggest diversion of the day by going around the island in the kitchen to get to the coffee pot, as opposed to making that straight path. Why just the other day, I found a missing poker chip, or I thought it was until I bit into it pretending it was a cucumber slice. It may as well have been that poker chip; it tasted like it had been AWOL as long as the poker chip, which was about four months.

Where was I? Oh yeah….diversions. What is it we freelancers do with all of our free time? I know you’re dieing to find out, so without further delay, I give you the top ten things writers do in the spare time:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

We DO party hard, don’t we?

© 2009, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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]]> http://extremewritingnow.com/writing/freelance/ten-things-freelance-writers-do-during-the-down-time/feed/ 4 Blogging From The Couch http://extremewritingnow.com/writing/blogging/blogging-from-the-couch/ http://extremewritingnow.com/writing/blogging/blogging-from-the-couch/#comments Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:21:31 +0000 Alex Crabtree http://extremewritingnow.com/?p=130

potato blogging

Do the Couch Potatoes have to dominate everything?

Written by Jennifer Martinez
Posted Friday, August 28, 2009 at 1:58 PM PT

Here’s some good news for couch potatoes: IBM is developing a remote control that lets you blog and tweet while you’re watching TV, according to the Baltimore Sun. Big Blue filed a patent for the remote control back in April.

It’s just the latest example of how TV is becoming more social. Verizon FiOS subscribers can now view Facebook and Twitter widgets on their TVs, and earlier this summer, Vizio said people will be able to access the two social sites through its new televisions. As Liz Gannes explains on GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

The best technology solution for those solitary couch potatoes isn’t particularly wacky or paradigm-changing, but that’s kind of the charm. Put simply, it’s text chat. It’s not a difficult concept for either users and providers. We all know how to IM with friends, and TVs and computer monitors are quickly becoming one and the same. Now it’s just a question of when and how your conversations with friends will overlay your TV watching.

With IBM’s device, whenever you want to share comments about what you’re watching, you’ll have the option of choosing from a list of pre-loaded comments or writing your own. The remote control will also let you take a picture of the program you’re watching and insert it into the post.

Once the patent is finally approved (a process that isn’t known for its speed), we’ll have an alternative to today’s “two-screen solutions” — or chatting on your laptop while watching TV.

© 2009, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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