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The Guide to Writing Online

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Re: The Guide to Writing Online

#21

Post by johnchristopher »

itronitron wrote: post #19
camillomiller wrote: post #2

Quick guide to Americans writing for a European public (or who want to make business with Europe, especially Germany). Writing something like this: >“I’ve interviewed more than 70 of the world’s most interesting people on my North Star Podcast, built a weekly email newsletter with almost 10,000 subscribers, and my most popular articles, such as What the Hell is Going On?, have been read more than 100,000 times. I’ve…

That sort of thing also puts off many Americans, but is expected from job applicants. Do those same rules apply to writing cover letters for job applications?

It depends on the sector or the industry but so far all cover letters I saw were more about the applicant's qualities and personality than work achievements.

Re: The Guide to Writing Online

#22

Post by unwind »

friggeri wrote: post #3

One of the things I've been struggling with is that once I've mastered a topic enough to feel comfortable writing about it, everything I write sounds obvious to me, and from there there is an easy leap to "it's probably obvious to everyone", and I start questioning whether I should write at all. Anyone has dealt with this? Tips would be appreciated.

It's a rather limited form of writing, but if you have some topic that is also covered by Stack Overflow, you can answer questions.

That has the (big, in this context) benefit of directly and immediately showing that a) there is interest in the answer, since someone posted the question; and b) feedback about the quality of your answer, with the option to edit and improve it.

Sure it's bite-sized for the most part, but it is writing in some form. And yes I'm biased, it's easily my number one form of writing (but I don't go around wanting to be a writer, I don't think).

Re: The Guide to Writing Online

#23

Post by notahacker »

itronitron wrote: post #19
camillomiller wrote: post #2

Quick guide to Americans writing for a European public (or who want to make business with Europe, especially Germany). Writing something like this: >“I’ve interviewed more than 70 of the world’s most interesting people on my North Star Podcast, built a weekly email newsletter with almost 10,000 subscribers, and my most popular articles, such as What the Hell is Going On?, have been read more than 100,000 times. I’ve…

That sort of thing also puts off many Americans, but is expected from job applicants. Do those same rules apply to writing cover letters for job applications?

Job applicants might be expected to list relevant achievements, but there are ways to do that which convey the message "I can substantiate that I get shit done, and think I could do more in your organization" rather than "I think my blog is amazing, and now I'm going to show you how you could hit those heights".

To be fair to the author, he's writing a content piece for clicks through to a $699+ course rather than a cover letter for a job so he probably wants the hyperbolic "I've done all this in just two years. And now I'm going to teach you" tone rather than the "Over two years I've built...which is relevant because...". People that are put off by hyperbole generally aren't going to buy his course anyway.

Re: The Guide to Writing Online

#24

Post by koonsolo »

camillomiller wrote: post #2

Quick guide to Americans writing for a European public (or who want to make business with Europe, especially Germany). Writing something like this: >“I’ve interviewed more than 70 of the world’s most interesting people on my North Star Podcast, built a weekly email newsletter with almost 10,000 subscribers, and my most popular articles, such as What the Hell is Going On?, have been read more than 100,000 times. I’ve…

Hi, Belgian here. Normally I also don't like people boasting. But in such articles, I like to have a background about the person.

I'm not going to waste my time reading advice from someone who posted 5 articles and has 10 subscribers.". And if they don't tell me why I have to listen to them, I won't.

Re: The Guide to Writing Online

#25

Post by papaf »

Toine wrote: post #16
camillomiller wrote: post #2

Quick guide to Americans writing for a European public (or who want to make business with Europe, especially Germany). Writing something like this: >“I’ve interviewed more than 70 of the world’s most interesting people on my North Star Podcast, built a weekly email newsletter with almost 10,000 subscribers, and my most popular articles, such as What the Hell is Going On?, have been read more than 100,000 times. I’ve…

European here, you nailed it. I stopped reading because of this, unfortunately. Americans, why does everything have to sound like a cheap TV commercial from the 90s ?

Its a shame that you stopped reading -- it is an excellent article.

Re: The Guide to Writing Online

#26

Post by bachmeier »

luckylion wrote: post #17
bachmeier wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the problem with writing something obvious? Honest question. I don't see why that should matter. (I mean, sure, you don't want to write 1000 words about how you should blink your eyes so they don't dry out.) Try to think of one person you know that wouldn't already know what you're writing. Even if it's obvious, it's not literally something everyone in the world already knows or shares your perspective on.

> What's the problem with writing something obvious? You're not contributing something useful if you're just pointing out the obvious. Yeah, you can write the ten millionth article on how to change the default slogan in WordPress, but unless that's the maximum extent of your knowledge, you're wasting your potential and everybody else's time. That's how I feel about it at least, and why I don't write stuff that's too…

"ten millionth" is a duplication problem, not an obvious problem.

Re: The Guide to Writing Online

#27

Post by codetrotter »

cutler wrote: post #18
mikro2nd wrote: post #12

I confess to having my confidence in the writer shaken when I read, "That’s when they’ll pour through the archives". No, they won't. They might pore through your archives, though. Offering a course in "Online Writing" and then making such a basic usage error did not inspire much confidence. Perhaps another pair of editorial eyes might help? For any writer (myself especially included!) editors and proofreaders are you…

No, they won't. They might pore over your archives, though.

Seems that both “pore through” and “pore over” are correct but the latter is much more common.

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/pore+over+or+through

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/46624/do-you-use...

Re: The Guide to Writing Online

#28

Post by luckylion »

koonsolo wrote: post #24
camillomiller wrote: post #2

Quick guide to Americans writing for a European public (or who want to make business with Europe, especially Germany). Writing something like this: >“I’ve interviewed more than 70 of the world’s most interesting people on my North Star Podcast, built a weekly email newsletter with almost 10,000 subscribers, and my most popular articles, such as What the Hell is Going On?, have been read more than 100,000 times. I’ve…

Hi, Belgian here. Normally I also don't like people boasting. But in such articles, I like to have a background about the person. I'm not going to waste my time reading advice from someone who posted 5 articles and has 10 subscribers.". And if they don't tell me why I have to listen to them, I won't.

> And if they don't tell me why I have to listen to them, I won't.

They might just be lying. "But they wrote in their intro that they are an expert" isn't a good way to determine whether they are an expert on the topic imho.

Re: The Guide to Writing Online

#29

Post by luckylion »

papaf wrote: post #25
Toine wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

European here, you nailed it. I stopped reading because of this, unfortunately. Americans, why does everything have to sound like a cheap TV commercial from the 90s ?

Its a shame that you stopped reading -- it is an excellent article.

> it is an excellent article

About self/online marketing, not so much about writing.

Re: The Guide to Writing Online

#30

Post by luckylion »

bachmeier wrote: post #26
luckylion wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's the problem with writing something obvious? You're not contributing something useful if you're just pointing out the obvious. Yeah, you can write the ten millionth article on how to change the default slogan in WordPress, but unless that's the maximum extent of your knowledge, you're wasting your potential and everybody else's time. That's how I feel about it at least, and why I don't write stuff that's too…

"ten millionth" is a duplication problem, not an obvious problem.

There isn't a lot of a difference to me: the obvious has been stated by nearly everyone. You're right that there will always be some that can benefit from what one might consider obvious, but the amount of people depends on the level of what you're writing about. There are people that don't know how to change the default slogan on a WP site after all.

But don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that nobody should write about that, I'm offering my perspective on why I probably wouldn't.

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