RSS FeedsThe sad and positive sides of life
Dec 27, 2004 No Comments »
It was sad to see the TV images of tsunami and earthquake victims. The unpredictability of life looms large all the time but we don’t value the precious moments we have. All this while when I’ve been sick, I’ve been missing those days when I’m healthy. Every healthy and safe day is invaluably precious…we should use it in the best possible way.
Down With Flue
Dec 22, 2004 No Comments »
I’m down with flue :-(. I had decided this winter I’d be very careful but alas! It’s not that bad actually. My bouts of cold, cough and fever generally flush at least two weeks down the drain but this time it hasn’t been so. I caught it yesterday evening and today (it’s the next evening) I’m writing this, and by tomorrow I should be working.
I’ve been sleeping most of the time since yesterday and having strange dreams due to the strong medication. I try not to take strong medications but this time there’s lots of work and I have just begun to streamline everything and expand my client-base.
A Little Setback
Dec 21, 2004 No Comments »
Yesterday the whole night I worked on an assignment. Somewhat satisfied with my work, I emailed the document to the client at 5:15 in the morning and went to sleep. The next time when I logged in, I received a reply from the client that my writing suggested we won’t be able to work together and he had decided to hire another writer. He offered me a small portion of the fee, which I refused of course.
This was out of the blues and for a little while I was really stumped. At the most the client could have wanted it re-written or suggested changes. He had visited my website. He had mentioned I write a bit differently (I’m not a “hard-seller”, he had noticed) and that’s why he had written to me. We chatted for quite a long time and I thought we both understood each other well. And then this.
I asked him to at least tell me what was so wrong in the copy that he had rejected it downright, and this is what he wrote:
Basically I started going through the text and I was having problems with most of it. To me it didn’t seem like you have the experience writing the kind of copy that I was looking for. I decided that it would take so many rewrites and so much of my time to do this that it isn’t worth it.
I have a different opinion, but I respect his opinion. It wouldn’t have taken as many re-writes as he estimated. I had done the following before actually settling down to write his copy:- Visit websites with similar themes
- Note down the kind of language used
- Note down the terminologies used
- Read about the customers who would like to deal with the client
- Read comments in various user groups to get an idea of what is in demand and what is not
Well, as my philosophy is, Every experience is a learning experience.
Writing Content for Different Subjects
Dec 20, 2004 No Comments »
It’s very challenging (OK, boring sometimes, but mostly exciting) to get to write web content on various topics. Every week I write content on at least three different topics. I spend my time reading about the subject, drawing my own conclusions, consolidating my thoughts and then expressing them in an interesting, readable manner.
Whenever I start writing on a new subject, I feel I won’t be able to do it. Please believe it, it happens all the time. It feels like as if I have been blindfolded and then left on an alien terrain and when I uncover my eyes, everything is so strange and unfamiliar. The first instinct is to shut my eyes back and pretend as if there is nothing I need to do. Sometimes I even shut down my laptop and go outside to watch squirrels feasting on the crumbs we leave them everyday, or watch cheap flicks on TV. Visiting different weblogs is also one of my favorite escapist manoeuvres. Sadly (fortunately!) I cannot afford to do that for long periods. There is always this deadly thing called “the deadline” that gradually begins to tighten its grip around my neck if I don’t start my text editor (yes, I do all my content writing work on a no-frills text editor — EditPad Light) and begin typing the words that eventually must lead me to the culmination of the current assignment.
Enough with the melodrama. There are some things that I do that always help me streamline my focus. I take the help of the following points whenever the sticky, gooey mental blocks cling to my soles and stop me from moving forward.
Read the whole article…
Messengers and Business
Dec 16, 2004 No Comments »
I’ve been thinking…what an important role online chat messengers have been playing in my business. Just had a long chat with a client on the Yahoo! messenger and got the project. I almost chat daily with my various clients using either Yahoo! messenger or MSN. I also use Skype but this way I cannot save important conversations.
Most of my clients are independent entrepreneurs and hence, are flexible about using freely available tools to communicate. These tools make us available to each other all the time…at least as long as we are in front of the computer. Without these tools, it would have been almost impossible (read, very costly) to conduct business. We chat for hours sometimes, discussing work, budgets, schedules, and even future plans. A client recently sent me the text of a chat we had had a-year-and-a-half ago because I couldn’t recall the logic he had explained for his program.
Not only I, I have come across many individuals who conduct their businesses using these free messengers. A few days ago we had a conference chat: the client was in the US, the web designer was in Brazil, and I, the contentg writer and the PHP prgrammer was here, in India.
Now I’m thinking of installing live chat software on my website so that I can chat with prospective clients in realtime. This way I’ll end up with more and more clients and it’ll be easier for me to answer their queries when they are visiting the website.
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