How can you share a personal story, yet still draw in readers?
I’m a big fan of showing personality in your blog posts. Sharing your stories helps you do that. But if you start off with “I,” you risk seeming self-absorbed. I like how a Vanguard blog post tackled this challenge. It opened with “Do you remember when you first encountered the World Wide Web?” That’s a […]
Content marketing: Why the heck am I doing this?
I don’t need a blog or social media to earn my living as a financial writer. Heck, I don’t even need a website. I have friends who earn nice incomes through one-on-one networking and other traditional marketing. I see how I could have achieved something similar. Yet, here I am, spending hours on unpaid content […]
Free and low-cost data visualization tools from an online editor
Data visualization tools were on my mind after hearing Wesley Grubbs, a data visualizer with Pitch Interactive, speak on “Meaningfully Communicating Data with Visualizations” at the CFA Institute’s GIPS conference in Boston on Sept. 19, 2013. Grubbs provided inspiring examples of creativity, but skimped on practical tips. This is why I was delighted to attend […]
Quote of the day on keeping it simple
I’m a big fan of writers using plain English. I urge people to keep their blog posts, articles, and white papers as short as possible. However, I agree with the following quote from Michael Maslansky’s The Language of Trust. Simple does not always mean short. As Maslansky explains, “It is always better to use five […]
Plain English and good writing
Have you ever struggled to get your colleagues, bosses, or clients to accept plain English and good writing? You have lots of company. It’s not easy to win over people who are used to a different style of communication. This is what spurred me to write “Seven Ways to Talk Your Financial Execs Out of […]