To quote Van Halen, ‘everybody wants some.’ And what you want is traffic. Why write a blog if no-one visits, right? I have 17 technical writers’ blogs in my Google Reader & RSS feeds. Most are fine but… if they used some of the following tactics, they’d get more traffic, comments, money and Nobel prizes. Well, three out of four, anyway.

How To Get More Traffic To Your Technical Writing Blog

Apply five of these tactics and your traffic will double. No kidding, it will!

How To Get More Traffic #1: Add Your Photos

Look at your favorite technical writing blogs. How many faces do you see? Why are they all hiding? I dunno. Stick your mugshot on the page so we can see what you look like! Go on! None of us are Brad Pitt or Paris Hilton, so add a picture. Don’t be shy. People like to read about people they know. If they can’t see you…

How To Get More Traffic #2: Video

I’m no spring chicken, so if I can do it, you can. All of these video were taken on a Canon powershot.

Videos let people hear you, see your expression, feel what you’re trying to say in ways that words cannot. Making videos is easier that you think. I use Camtasia 6 for all its sins. (read my frustrated Camtasia 6 review here.)

How To Get More Traffic #3: Social Media Outposts

Use Social Media for maximum impact. With web content publishing tools like Posterous you can get the message out to all these channels with almost no effort. Posterous lets you post once, publish everywhere. Try it.

• Ivan: http://www.ivanwalsh.com
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ivanwalsh
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ivanwalsh
• Business Week http://bx.businessweek.com/profile/ivan-walsh/iwalsh905/
• And also on Disqus, Flickr, LinkedIn, Delicious and Google Reader

How To Get More Traffic #4: Quizzes

We all get tired of checking for split infinitives and looking for typos, so lighten things up. Add quizzes to get people involved… and try to be a little different.

• Did you ever download software illegally?
• What’s your manager’s most annoying habit?
• Would you let your boss friend you on Facebook?
• Do you know any technical writing who can reverse park? (I was going to say Women but then turned on my brain! That was so close!)
• Do you know any men who ask for directions when lost? One for the girls, no doubt.

How To Get More Traffic #5: Comics

May not work for all sites but comics are a nice break from technical documents and other heavy reading. Why do you think they are so popular? Every serious newspaper has them, why not you?

How To Get More Traffic #6: Reviews

If they come to your site, it’s your opinion they are after. So, why don’t you give it?

#1 cardinal sin of most blogs is that they have no opinion!

Don’t be scared! I’m with you! Give your honest opinion (try not to rant or swear) and you’ll see people will respond very quickly.

#2 cardinal sin of most blogs… bland!

If your blog echoes the rest of the crowd, well, why should I come back? Stick your neck out, even a little. Some people were upset that I dissed Camtasia but y’know I’d be lying if I said it worked!

How To Get More Traffic #7: Trends

Pssst! Did you know that… everyone wants to be in the know. Keep your readers up to date. Use graphs, charts and diagrams. See Brain Solis and Information in Beautiful for inspiration.

How To Get More Traffic #8: Lists

It doesn’t have to stop at 10. Here are a few list of get started:

• 21 Left Handed Technical Writers
• 7 Reasons Why Adobe FrameMaker Sucks But You Still Need to Buy It
• 12 Honest Ways to Get a Pay Rise
• 5 Ways To Give An Honest Appraisal
• 28 Ways to Proofred a Technical Documant
• 1 Good Reason to Join the STC
• 18 Mistakes Technical Writers Make Before Breakfast
• 9 Ways to Evaluate a Help Authoring Tool

How To Get More Traffic #9: How-to guides

Ok, the technical stuff comes last. If you’re going to offer technical advice (and you should!) identify the problem, explain how to fix it, and then ask for questions or comments.

#3 cardinal sin of blogging is… blogger doesn’t interact with readers. Ask for comments. If you have a Facebook page, give them the link and connect there. Use Twitter? Create lists for technical writers and add them. Like these lists I created for technical writers and creativity.

• Adobe FrameMaker list http://twitter.com/ihearttechdocs/adobeframemaker
• Creativity list http://twitter.com/ihearttechdocs/creativity
• Technical writing software http://twitter.com/ihearttechdocs/technicalwritingsoftware

Share, share, share!

What ya think! Fire away below.

You’ve just been fired. The Technical Writing Dept is closed. What do you do?  This is a fact of life for many people today. Indeed, there is now a real fear that US technical writers will continue to lose their jobs to offshore companies, e.g. India & Poland. And it’s true; it’s the shape of things to come, I’m afraid. But rather than moan about it, let’s look at what you can do to re-invent yourself and find new, lucrative opportunities.

Ivan Walsh's page on Linkedin

I use LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanwalsh) to keep my finger on the pulse with other tech writers. One of the discussions that keeps coming up (in different threads) is the future role of technical writing, especially how they need to ‘re-invent themselves’ or risk getting left behind.

7 Steps to Reinventing Yourself

The first thing is that you have to change your perception of yourself. You’re not a name tag – stop thinking of yourself as a technical writer.

You’re a person who makes a living by developing technical documentation. Stop looking at your job description. Honest, let it go. What services can you offer that others can’t? If you’ve worked in tech comms for 10 years, you must know something that a graduate doesn’t, right? What is it?

1. Define your core strengths – what’s the one skill you have about all others that you can really sell. It may not be writing. For me, it’s creating videos with Camtasia.
2. Develop a social network plan – create base-camps on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other media channels. But work especially hard on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanwalsh). This is where the real action is, especially if you want to network. I can’t push this enough. You have to be on LinkedIn.
3. Identify three people you trust – create a small team and go hunting for work. It’s easier to combine your strengths than go alone. This is the single biggest mistakes that people make. Don’t go it alone. Find people that you trust (or can learn to trust) and start a dialogue with them. Baby steps.
4. Endorsements – use these to build credibility and attract new clients. Remember LinkedIn, well these go a long way here. Use these recommendations to build trust. There are 3 of you so it should be easier to swap/exchange contacts and make things happen.
5. Differentiate – if everyone is doing social media, you can be sure there is a gap elsewhere. Here are some ideas.
   1. Adobe PageMaker templates development
   2. PDF to Word conversion
   3. Structured Authoring classes (valuable to business analysts)
   4. Visio diagramming (very popular with consultancy firms as they do lots of business process engineering)
6. Find a project – don’t worry about the money. The key is to get a real live project that you can work together as a team. Use this to land future work.
7. Start now – even if you are fully employed now, you can start today. Get networking. See who you can work with and how you can work together.

Opportunities I see in Asia today

I was asked recently if technical writers today are ‘no more than a commodity’? I know what the person meant; they felt they were being treated like one.

My response was that (said in a very gentle way…) they need to redefine their position as a technical writer or they will fall further and further down the food chain. Not nice, but true.

I did some consultancy with for a large US home appliance-maker here (fridges etc) in Beijing to help them knock their docs into shape. Most were written by Chinese university graduates, smart kids, but who’d never lived in an English-speaking country. The docs, reports, & (some marketing) material all reflected this. There was a lot of rework involved.

Despite the poor quality of these docs, the company has committed to this strategy and will continue to invest here. In the end, the documentation will improve.

Why?

Because western tech writers are coming here, learning some Chinese and working in the trenches. What they’ve learnt will be passed to the Chinese writers in time.

But, for US writers (and those in wealthy western countries) , they need to find ways to move out of the services/commodity area fast — otherwise their salary will continue to fall/stagnate and the opportunities will continue to dry up.

Takeaways

Don’t follow the crowds. Find an area where you can specialize and then dominate it. If possible, extend this into your social media network but keep some things to yourself as others may try to come in and steal your thunder.

3 often works quite well, e.g. a designer, coder and writer. Of course, you can always scale up later.

For me it’s all down to where and how you can ‘add value’.

If you don’t make daily efforts to push forward, you’ll fall behind.

Twitter.com/ihearttechdocs | Facebook.com | Flickr | LinkedIn | Delicious | Google Reader

Many IT professionals, technical writers included, have seen their salaries frozen or reduced over the past 18 months. Contractors are suffering the same fate as short-term projects dry up.

However, several of my colleagues have managed to move out of technical writing and into other, better paid lines of work. Here’s a roundup.

How to Get Out of Technical Writing and into Better Paid Jobs

1. Proposal Writer

I’ve worked in this area in the UK and it can be very well-paid. To get involved in proposal development, read up on procurement and government funding. This area requires writers with strong editing skills as you’ll often need to blend contributions from different authors into the proposal document. It also requires the ability to trace requirements (i.e. to ensure that your proposal matches the requirements in the request for proposal.) Proposal writers are found in a wide range of organizations, such as central and local government, health service, education, financial and legal sectors and NGOs (non-governmental organizations).

• Seven Steps toward a customer-centric proposal – [Read More]
• Are you proposing a solution or a product? Which one never sells? [Read More]
• Golden Rules before starting your proposal [Read More]

2. Web Content Manager

This role suits technical writers who’ve been exposed to markup languages, content management software, and Web 2.0 applications. To capitalize on what you already know, get some books on content management policies, practices and systems so that you have a deeper of the principles, theories, concepts, and standards in content management.

Note: The median expected salary for a typical Content Manager in the United States is $77,048.

• Get Published To Get Ahead – Websites will achieve maximum value when they focus on the tasks of their customers, not the technology or content. [Read More]
• Write to be Scanned – Users Don’t Read On the Web – Recent research identified that users don’t read on the web, they tend to scan. This means that when you are converting documents to the web, you need to make them as scannable as possible. [Read More]
• Web Writing Tips – Keeping content fresh is a major challenge for every web publisher. In addition to managing the technical, business, marketing, administration aspects of the web business, you still have to find time to update your web content on a regular basis. [Read More]

3. Information Architect

Again, this role suits writers who have crossed over into web technologies and want a more specialized career. Job opening for this type of work is limited as it is very specialized. However, those who do manage to establish themselves can expect very attractive contract/consultancy work. The web is hardly going to go away. Investing in Information Architecture is worth considering. Skills in defining business/technical specifications, defining metadata, and developing workflows and mappings will get you an interview.

• Role of the Information Architect The Information Architect often doubles up as the Project Manager; capture the sites design goals; communicate the business objectives, such as the sites sales targets, audience, and language requirements. Role of the Information Architect
• Difference between Usability and Information Architecture – Though the terms Usability and Information Architecture are often understood to be the same thing, this is not true. On the web, this involves reading text, labelling items, creating navigation systems, searching for data, using content and so forth.” Usability and Information Architecture
• Creating User-Focused Site Designs – For your site to succeed, arrange the content around the users needs. Before any coding starts, gather, sort and organize your content. The more time spent on this, the more success visitors will have on your site.” User-Focused Site Designs
• What is Information Architecture? This emerging field has become more prominent in recent years as websites have grown increasing complex and users demand more friendly navigation systems. Information Architects organize content, such as text, labels, graphics, and shopping carts, so that users can understand the sites content and do things faster on the site. What is Information Architecture?

4. White Paper Writer

Michael Stelzner has probably done more than anyone to raise the profile of white papers in the last 10 years. His site is a huge success and offers many tips for those considering moving into this area.

Likewise, his bestsellers on writing white papers are an essential investment if you want to fast-track your career. Perry Marshal (http://www.perrymarshall.com/whitepapers/) is another gold-mine of information.

• Grow Your Business by Writing White Papers – Recently we discussed the effectiveness of white papers in generating business. You might be interested in the following statistics, as they illustrate the returns you can generate from a well-crafted white paper.”
• How to Structure Your White Paper - In the IT industry, the white paper has become a popular tool for promoting a product or service. It is frequently used in tandem with case studies, and other sales collateral, to promote a company’s respective product of services. In this brief article, we will outline a suggested format to use when writing your white paper.
• Tips for Writing White Papers – Klariti show you how to write an effective white paper that gets your company noticed – and the pitfalls to avoid if you’re new to this areas. [Read More]
  

5. Medical Writer

This area will suit writers who have worked for pharmas or in the medical industry. There are many overlaps with technical writing, though knowledge of procedures, policies, and the R&D cycle for drug development are all a bonus.

Where do I start?

If you want to move out of technical writing, or even consider it, then it’s time to start doing the groundwork. This means reading up on the specialist areas, doing a course if possible, and also seeing where your skills match these areas.

For example, I know that there are many roles for medical writers in Europe, especially France, Ireland, UK and Switzerland, as the pharma companies have large R&D firms there.

So, technical writers in this corner of the world, might focus here.

In the US, there is more web work. Nonetheless, those who develop a track record in online editing and/or web content management will, I believe, earn more than technical writers in the long run.

Why?

Technical writing is started to get outsourced more frequently to India, Poland and other offshore companies. Once those jobs get out-sourced, they don’t come back.

Those are my thoughts. Here are some books I’ve bought regarding these areas.

Books Worth Reading

• Writing Winning Business Proposals
• Request for Proposal: A Guide to Effective RFP Development
• Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web
• Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged
• Secrets of a Freelance Writer, Third Edition: How to Make 100,000 a Year or More

Writing roles in RFP development, grant writing, and medical writing all require local/national knowledge. This type of knowledge is harder to out-source, especially the government projects.

Maybe I’m wrong.

What do you think?