Search results for: quick tips
Quick tip: When a promotion is working, do more of it [checklist]
And when it isn’t, do less of it. That’s a pretty good rule of thumb for how to promote your white papers. People often ask me, “How do I get anyone to notice my white paper?” Well, you have to promote it. Here’s my checklist of the 18 must-do promotions. Beyond those, you can start…
Read MoreQuick tip: Use AI to make a Mini-Me
Remember the Austin Powers spy spoof movies? And the ones where supervillain Dr. Evil had a miniature clone of himself, called Mini-Me? Mini-Me dressed the same, talked the same, and shared many of the same silly tics as Dr. Evil. But he was a whole lot shorter. This is how to think about the executive…
Read MoreQuick tip: Use AI for tech support
Quick tip: Use AI for tech support Do you ever have software headaches? Or some new gadget you’re trying to figure out? I know I do. But any writer working from a home office doesn’t have any IT team to call. When we need tech support, we’re often stuck. We can try: Combing through online…
Read MoreQuick tip: Get to the point
Did you hesitate before clicking on this tip? Even though it’s labeled “quick”? Then you know just how your white paper readers feel. No one is waiting on the edge of their chair for your white paper to arrive. B2B prospects are busy! They have: Too much to read Too much to think about Too…
Read MoreQuick tip: Excise the IZEs! [guest tip from Bob Bly]
The tendency to add IZE to nouns is an old story in English. The practice has been going on for centuries. Apologize was born before 1600, and criticize appeared in Shakespeare’s day. Revolutionize came along before 1800; burglarize first appeared in the 1870s. Edwin Newman, in his book A Civil Tongue, suggests that by adding…
Read MoreQuick tip: Shun the TIONs!
2.5 minute read. 3.5 minute listen. I see them all across the nation, to my total consternation: puffed-up words that end in TION. Too many people play this game of word puffery. You just add TION to any verb, and “poof!” it turns into a noun. But in my book, that’s going in the wrong…
Read MoreQuick tip: Here’s how to handle LSD
No, this isn’t advice on avoiding bad trips. This is about writing numbers clearly, using the notion of the Least Significant Digit (LSD). 3 minute read. Y minute listen. One of my pet peeves is false precision: numbers that suggest more accuracy than they can possibly convey. For example, say you drive to a…
Read MoreQuick tip: 3 steps to a stronger title [with example]
The title is the single most important line in your white paper. A good title gets your paper noticed. A poor title gets it ignored. That’s why much of the success of a white paper depends on your title. But many writers struggle with titles. So here’s a step-by-step process that makes writing your title…
Read MoreQuick tip: Don’t say “once every xx seconds…”
I’ve been researching suicide lately. Don’t worry; I’m not thinking about doing myself in. It’s for a fictional story I’m working on. In my research, I encountered a statistic that always bugs me. Here it is, from no less than the World Health Organization: Suicide: one person dies every 40 seconds1 What a shocker, right?…
Read MoreQuick tip: Here’s a great little book on statistics
So far, I’ve posted two quick tips on how to avoid shoddy statistics. Both articles included examples from the real world. You can see those here: Don’t use numbers out of context Don’t say “once every xx seconds…” So how about some positive tips on how to use numbers properly? If you’re interested in how…
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