What If I’m Not a Good Writer?

Episode 3 September 17, 2021 00:06:50
What If I’m Not a Good Writer?
Launch With Words
What If I’m Not a Good Writer?

Sep 17 2021 | 00:06:50

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Hosted By

Bridget Willard

Show Notes

Not everyone has to be a great writer. We’re not all Ernest Hemingway. That’s fine. There are plenty of tools and tricks that you -- the business owner -- can employ in order to get started. From voice typing in Google Docs (or Siri in Apple’s Notes) to paying for Jarvis.ai or Bertha.ai, you have options. You can even write the technical and hire an editor. What you are isn’t a writer -- you’re the industry expert. This is the point of business blogging. 

 

(00:02):
Welcome to the Launch With Words podcast with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things, content, blogging, articles, videos. Whatever has words and goes on your website.

(00:21):
Hey, thanks for joining me for another episode of the Launch With Words podcast. What if I'm not a good writer? What if I'm not a good writer? Well, most likely you're not a good writer. You're also probably not a good singer, which is why we have karaoke and showers and privacy of your own vehicle.

(00:41):
Business blogging isn't about being Ernest Hemingway. It's not about being a good writer. Business blogging is about elevating yourself as the industry expert, as a person who knows what you're talking about as somebody who is approachable and friendly. Um, business blogging. Isn't about being a good writer.

(01:03):
"But, Bridget," you say, "I had a hard time with high school." That's okay. High school was 30 years ago for me and I'm learning every day, but we have tools. We have so many tools. It's 2021, and there is no reason why you should not be blogging for your business.

(01:25):
Let's get started with some tools. Okay? First of all, if you don't like typing, we have Siri, Alexa, and Google. And all of them are very happy to take notes for you. Within Google Docs, voice typing is a command in tools. It's native. Open up your Chromebook, your laptop, your phone, click on voice typing. And, uh, you, you have to imagine yourself as the boss talking to a secretary. That's the only trick, right? So you'll have to say what if I'm not a new writer question mark, new paragraph. It's okay. If you're not a writer, semi-colon none of us are period. It's fine. If you have to say it that way, or you could just vomit it out and say, Hey, Siri, start a note. And she will say, what would you like your note to say. You can say, I just want to talk about why epoxy injection is so important for standing up for, um, tilt up construction and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

(02:33):
Hand it to, uh, an editor, give it to a friend, have your partner look at it, um, secretary somebody in your office. There, there's options, right?

(02:45):
So you're aiming for 300 to 500 words. This is basically the same amount of words. That's your typical five paragraph essay, um, content marketing, um, blogging, which has always also called content marketing for business. Content marketing or blogging for business is about giving answers, being helpful, being clear, being witty, being funny, showing your personality. Okay? So what you're gonna do is, um, think about, and I talk about this in my book and in the plugin.

(03:22):
What are some questions that your customers always ask you? I challenge you as a business owner, keep a journal, a notebook, that sits on your desk or Evernote or whichever tool you like in order to keep, uh, in order to, um, keep in one spot ideas for blogs. Because the customer's always asking you, for example, how do I distribute a podcast on castos.com? Um, it's hosting, but how do I distribute that? So that is a question that comes from a customer, which means that is something you can answer in a blog post. All right, Then do you have an internal sales library, but that's another episode. All right.

(04:08):
So more tools, jarvis.ai, bertha.ai just released that works within WordPress. Um, you can also hire an editor and as far as grammar goes, Google docs, Microsoft Word, they have grammar checkers, but also the Grammarly Chrome extension is free. Um, Grammarly has free options that we'll make suggestions for you based upon tonality even. Maybe you don't want to be in for formal for your blog, right? That's fine. Um, so you have options with grammar, spelling, and tonality, which is what a great writer would be considered. Right?

(04:58):
So for example, one of the tools I love is Hemingwayapp.com. Now Hemingway is, is known for short sentences, but upon just reading "The Old Man And The Sea," it's not just short sentences, it's a cadence. They're short. There'slong. They're short. They're long. There's a rhythm to it, it keeps you reading. You want to know what is happening with this old man, and will he make it back? Will he make it back with even some of the fish left, right? You're in that suspense because of the way the writing is.

(05:35):
So business blogging, isn't prose, but it's also, it also just can have those kinds of tools. Now, if you're writing within WordPress itself, Yoast SEO and Rank Math also have readability and, uh, keyword helpers. So with all of those tools, there's no reason why you can't set aside two minutes once a month. I mean, two hours once a month to write your blog posts, you don't have to be a good writer. You have to be good at your job, which is why you started your business. Right? [laughs] I think it is.

(06:17):
Thanks for listening to Launch With Words, a podcast by BridgetWillard.com. If you liked this podcast, why go ahead and share it with your friends, small business owners, peers, your brother. [laughs] Oh, I really appreciate your attention. If you have any ideas, contact me on my website. Follow me at Bridget@MWillard on Twitter. And I hope to see you on the next episode or the next season.

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