Tasha and Others

Archive for the ‘Working Words’ Category

I have a website, and I have a blog. I’ve often wondered if I should combine them or leave them separate to serve their own purpose.

There’s a difference between a static website and a blog. A website is like a calling card for your product, service, or idea. It contains all that you want readers to know about what you’re trying to sell. A blog is updated regularly with fresh content, which can be challenging, but can also make it an easier selling tool.

A blog on a website creates more traffic because of its interactive nature (comments from visitors and responses from you) and its increased SEO. Search engines don’t give the same weight to a brochure-style or e-commerce website because the content is primarily promotional and static, rather than helpful and relevant to people who are looking for current information and solutions.

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Keeping a freelance business going without income is like exercising without seeing any results. You keep at it because it’s good for you, but after a while it can seem pointless, certainly frustrating.

Since I left Microsoft four years ago and started Working Words, I haven’t had much of an income. It’s been tough to keep freelancing, but during this time I have learned invaluable web skills.

At Dogspired, I learned about blog writing and editing, web publishing and design, and site management. With these skills, I thought it would be easy to find good web writing jobs.

I spend hours every morning searching through job boards, applying to likely jobs, and trying to network. In between these efforts, I keep writing. I also spend time keeping up with technology and writing trends by following websites that inspire me.

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I read something the other day that went like this: “Being human is the new black.” I think it’s true. With all of the social experience we’re sharing online these days, communicating in a human way is almost the expectation.

This human-like approach made me think of Siri, the human-like voice that came with my new iPhone. Siri tries to answer whatever question I might have. Before she responds, she considers my voice query with a thoughtful phrase, such as “Let me check on that” or “Let me think about that”–something to give me confidence. If she can’t dig up an answer, Siri admits it by saying, “I can’t answer that,” and then dumps me into my browser so I can do my own searching. Technically, I know she’s relying on a huge database to help me out, but her friendly tone doesn’t give that away, and I appreciate the effort.

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My recent interest in cloud computing has generated pages and pages of notes. As I spent days researching it, I looked for good examples of what the cloud does and will mean to me.

Cloud computing has actually been around in some shape or form since about 2006 (or longer), but it is now at the point where it has become part of our common vocabulary. I see advertisements for cloud companies all over the web.

When I got my new iPhone, I found the iCloud option right out of the box. The  iCloud stores my music, photos, documents, and more, and wirelessly pushes them to all my devices. Rather than storing this information on local servers and on specific devices, it is stored in a way that I can access it from anywhere.

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I just created the website for my new company, Working Words. The domain name is myworkingwords.com. The tagline for the company is Words that work for you. Working Words offers compelling content for websites and blogs, readable technical documentation, and resumes for all professions.

Here are some highlights of my site:

Welcome – You have a website that needs some compelling content, or you have a new product and need documentation to go along with it, or maybe you need a resume for an upcoming interview. If you hire me for any of these projects, I will make sure the text is tight and just right.

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