http://www.michaelsellars.com en-gb michaelsellars.com 2010-6-14T00:00:00Z michaelsellars.com http://www.michaelsellars.com/page7.htm#67911 2010-6-14T00:00:00Z http://www.michaelsellars.com/page7.htm#67910 Well its been a while but Im back.Just to fill you in on what Ive been doing the past few months Ive been creating producing and marketing my own proofreading course.This was something I sort of felt dutybound to do after a brother of a friend was stung for 163200 for a proofreading course that was by and large a waste of time effort and money. The proofreading course in question wasnt entirely useless and I couldnt in all honesty refer to it as a scam but there was a huge amount of unnecessary padding that seemed to be there purely to justify the ludicrous price tag.In response to my shooting my mouth off at length about the courses shortcomings my friend challenged me to do better.Thats what I get for shooting my mouth off.Anyway the course is published in eBook format and is currently selling quite well. Im particularly pleased with the content of the website see how I brought things back on topic there. If youre interested its called The NoNonsense Proofreading Course its available... 2010-6-14T00:00:00Z http://www.michaelsellars.com/page7.htm#58054 I havent blogged in a while. Apologies. Theres no excuse.Ive been working on a large writing project and a heap of associated web activity. Its something of a side project of mine thats been percolating nicely for a while but has finally reached an all or nothing phase in its development.Ive managed to keep up with my copywriting content writing and thirdparty blogging activities but something had to give and my own blog was it. As Homer said to Marge when she suggested the field they were farming required more fertiliser Im only one manYes I know excuses excuses...But normal services will resume as soon as humanly possible.As I said my contractual obligations are uneffected so if youre looking for someone to help you out with a little content creation copywriting or proofreading just let me know.Michael 2010-2-9T00:00:00Z http://www.michaelsellars.com/page7.htm#57037 Ive recently added a forum of sorts onto this website. Its open to anyone who has any questions regarding content writing copywriting SEO or anything else they may feel I can help them with.Its off to a good start with people as far away as India posing questions. Actually according to Google Analytics my website recieves quite a few visits from people in India not to mention the USA Canada Portugal Mexico Italy and Singapore.Questions Ive provided answers for to date include Do Images Count as Content How Can You Fool Google How Long Should My Blog Posts Be and Wheres the Best Place to Put My Keywords in My ContentIve provided helpful hopefully answers to all of these questions. Please feel free to post your own. Try to keep them ontopic content writing copywriting SEO proofreading and web content in general but if you want to throw me a bit of a curveball Ill do my best to help you out just so long as the answer to your question isnt something along the lines of When a man and woman... 2010-1-26T00:00:00Z http://www.michaelsellars.com/page7.htm#56405 Following the terrible events in Haiti a number of Liverpool and Merseyside artists are coming together under the Love Haiti banner to put on a benefit gig at the Cavern Club on Friday 29th January.So far the lineup includes such luminaries as Alun Parry Darren Poyzer Nigel Clarke of Dodgy fame and Merseysides finest resident lyricist and songwriter Ian Prowse of Amsterdam and previously Pele.By all accounts this event is gaining momentum all the time and the artists mentioned promise to be just the tip of the iceberg. Im personally hoping for the trulyoutstanding Shack to make an appearance.At the time of writing this blog entry the tragedy in Haiti is estimated to have claimed as many as 200000 lives a figure which is almost certain to grow.To participate in any way whatsoever go to httpwww.lovehaiti.org where youll find contact details.Thank you. 2010-1-18T00:00:00Z http://www.michaelsellars.com/page7.htm#55646 Im feeling a little bit pleased with myself. Ive invented a three letter acronym. Well I did say a little bit pleased not inordinately proud.My contribution to the everexpanding world of TLAs Three Letter Acronyms is APE and it stands for Amusing Practical or Enlightening which is what all truly effective online content should be. And by truly effective online content I mean the kind of online content that will provide visitors to your website with a good experience the kind of online content that will make them want to bookmark your website and return to it again and again the kind of online content that they will want to blog and tweet about.The fact is the vast majority of people online at any given moment arent shopping. Theyre not looking to purchase a product or pay for a service. If your website is nothing but an online salespitch no matter how eloquent or persuasive there are vast hordes of web users passing you by. The vast majority of internet users are looking to be entertai... 2010-1-7T00:00:00Z http://www.michaelsellars.com/page7.htm#54623 I love buses.He said zipping his anorak up to his chin.But I do. I love buses. And trains. That said Ive never been tempted to stand on a platform in the middle of November with a notepad and pen jotting down serial numbers and what have you.I like sitting on buses and trains. Because I can write. Thanks to my little PDA. Its a challenge the keyboards no bigger than a credit card and the individual keys are about the size of a voles nipple but I manage.I do own a car but I rarely use it during the working day. If I visit a client to take a brief or help out with a presentation I always hop on the bus. It adds about 15 minutes or so to the commute but at least its 15 productive minutes. The average bus journey to my clients in Liverpool city centre takes about 40 minutes. I can produce 400 words of highlyeffective content in 40 minutes when Im firing on all cylinders.Okay sometimes but not often I get nothing done. Last week a little old lady sat next to me and without any preamble what... 2009-12-16T00:00:00Z http://www.michaelsellars.com/page7.htm#54556 Ive just completed a free web content assessment for somebody who enquired via my mailing list optin form. Someone who is now my latest client Im pleased to say.I think what clinched it was a little piece of advice I gave them that will enable them to triple the value of their web content without them actually having to do very much. I thought Id share that nugget of content writer wisdom with you.Imagine youve just written a 400word article a Top Ten Tips fact sheet say. Now you could just drop this onto your website as a great piece of content. But what if you submitted your fact sheet to one of the major online article sites like EzineArticles Now youve got a backlink to your website. And what if you were to send your fact sheet to your mailing list as a free eShot Now youve reconnected with your customers given them a positive experience and pushed your brand to the forefront of their minds. And what if you were to make your fact sheet available as a downloadable pdf on your site a... 2009-12-15T00:00:00Z http://www.michaelsellars.com/page7.htm#54493 At a meeting this morning I was introduced to one of my clients clients in the following mannerAnd this is Mike Sellars. Hes our Content Provider.I let it go. It wouldnt do to cause a scene. Even in the face of actionable slander.The remainder of the meeting passed without incident. In fact it went rather well. Once I was alone with my client however I said Content Provider Really What did I do to deserve thatWell you are arent you was the dispassionate response.No. Im not. Im not a content provider. Im a content writer.Well yeah that as well.No. Not as well. Im a content writer. I dont provide anything. Utility companies provide. Distant bodies. The uninvolved.I found myself on the receiving end of a here we go again look.But you source video for us as well dont youYes I suppose...Well thats not writing is itNo I suppose...And you source widgets and other interesting online bits and pieces. You even copy the html and email it to us. Thats not writing is it And what about all the publi... 2009-12-13T00:00:00Z http://www.michaelsellars.com/page7.htm#54295 ... who received a Plain English Award on 8th December for their leaflet The Menopause. The judges praised its straightforward language and good use of lists short sentences and good design.It isnt the first time a Liverpoolbased organisation has won such an award either. Were starting to make a habit of it. Hardly surprising though. Liverpool has always been the home of... well not so much plain speaking as poeticallyexpressed plain speaking.I was on a bus recently and accidentally overheard a conversation between two recently acquainted work colleagues one a veteran the other a relative newcomer to shaving. The longerserving of the two was running through a list of coworkers to be wary of. Hes an alright fella like but hardly lifts a finger... Shell help you out but shell never let you forget it... That sort of thing. At the bottom of the list was an individual we should probably call John Smith for legal reasons. When the new recruit was asked if hed had any dealings with Mr Smith h... 2009-12-10T00:00:00Z http://www.michaelsellars.com/page7.htm#54203 I dont know if youve tried Wordle yet the word cloud creation tool. Its free online here. I cant recommend it highly enough. For one thing the little pieces of typographical art it randomly creates are really fantastic a joy to behold. It can be quite addictive too so keep an eye on the time.But Wordle is also a very useful tool for giving you an accurate and uniquelyvivid snapshot of the content of a particular web page or blog.Take a look at the one I created from my own rss feed belowAs you can see the word content jumps right out at you followed by amongst others the words website copy and writers. From my point of view that means I must be doing something right and this blog isnt just an accumulation of the inane ramblings of a hopeless logorrhoeic.On which note I think thats enough from me. 2009-12-9T00:00:00Z http://www.michaelsellars.com/page7.htm#54070 Ive never actually had writers block. Thankfully. Ive never once found myself staring at a blank piece of paper or a winking cursor thinking What to write What to writeWhats my secret To be honest Im not entirely sure. Maybe Im just lucky. Or maybe Ive just been lucky so far. Maybe Ill wake up tomorrow sans nouns verbs adjectives...I say Ive never experienced writers block but I suppose that isnt completely true. I do occasionally experience a vague sense that Im running out of momentum and that if I lose said momentum I could find myself in a bit of trouble. And I do have a tried and tested strategy which helps me retain my momentum and more often than not gain a little more into the bargain.So here it is my writers block inoculation. It wont hurt a bit.My default writing method is straight onto the screen of my trusty laptop or if Im out and about my lesstrusty but reasonablydependable PDA. Its quick easy and you get a very immediate feel for how the work is going to look which is s... 2009-12-7T00:00:00Z http://www.michaelsellars.com/page7.htm#53975 Recently I had a discussion with a very bright and techsavvy web developer associate of mine about the definition of content.He maintained that anything that appears on a website is content. And hes right... technically.Photographs are content graphics are content your product descriptions are content even the little hit counter at the bottom of the page that used to be worn as a badge of honour but nobody takes any notice of anymore is content. If you login to any worthitssalt Content Management System youll be able to edit every element of your website with very little difficulty. And if a Content Management System allows you to edit every element of your website then it stands to reason that content is well practically everything.But a definition that encompasses practically everything is no definition at all.So heres my definition of content. Content is anything on your website that adds value from the customers perspective.From the customers perspective.If you have eighteen paragr... 2009-12-5T00:00:00Z http://www.michaelsellars.com/page7.htm#53960 Just thought Id share a piece entitled Olives Dont Taste Pretty which I wrote for last years Stories from the City anthology still in print ISBN Number 978095605573. The book was intended as a kind of reaction to the understandablyexcessive hype surrounding the European Capital of Culture bandwagon.Awardwinning Liverpoolborn author Niall Griffiths said Stories from the City is an antidote to the avalanche of selfcongratulatory crap that the city has produced in its Capital of Culture year. The writers within are interested in the only questions that matter how we got to be here in this place at this time and what it means to be alive in this city on this earth. Read think support. Liverpool needs work like this it always has and always will. That there are people willing even eager to take such risks is to be praised.And Paul Du Noyer Associate Editor of The Word former editor of Q and Mojo said A great book and a celebration of Liverpools greatest natural asset namely language. This c... 2009-12-4T00:00:00Z http://www.michaelsellars.com/page7.htm#53886 A recent study by the Nielson Norman Group has indicated that internet users read web copy extremely quickly and in an Fshaped pattern two horizontal bars followed by a single downward stripe. Before I go into the specifics lets just take a moment to consider the implications of this for the copywriter. Firstly people do not read online information in the same way that they read printed information. Therefore as a copywriter you cannot approach web copy in the same way as you would approach copy for other media. Secondly and perhaps most importantly the internet user does not read all of your copy but a specific portion of it. The implication here is obvious you cant place your important information just anywhere on the page if you do theres a very real danger that it wont be read at all and all your otherwisedazzling copywriting will be left floating ineffectually through the depths of cyberspace.The Neilson Norman study used cameras and infrared emitters to track the eye movements of... 2009-12-3T00:00:00Z