I Hate to Repeat Myself

I was named after my mother’s  father who died at 82 years old when I was in grade three. Like most Filipino youth, I once dreamt of becoming a doctor. So I studied hard and had honors until grade four. In grade five I got a 75 in home economics class for not having learnt to stitch well enough. The grade not only proved a sorry sight on my report card. It also tore through my secret ambition. A surgeon must know how to stitch things back. Good bye, med school.

I never wanted to be a writer. But you thought I totally abandoned my wish to get into medical school? No. after high school I studied medical technology, the best preparatory course for medicine, they say. I had a great time with general education subjects, especially English because it proved very easy to me. Or, perhaps the teachers themselves were all too easy.

But I took Algebra and Quantitative Chemistry twice and was poised to take Physics a second time. Then I realized I’d had enough. The semester before that the College Dean had warned me: “One more, and out you go.” So I went as I was told. I was on the brink of quitting college altogether out of shame and  remorse toward my parents. But a Blakean vision of sorts showed me a life on the lam like my cousins. I forgave myself and resolved to turn my life around.

A cursory look at my class cards showed that English was the only course I excelled in. So I made up my mind to take the line of least resistance: I studied English.

Then I met Leoncio Deriada, who came over to lecture at my college. He infected me with a disease from which I’ll never recover. Looking back on that fateful poetry workshop episode I don’t know whether to love or hate him for setting me up to a life that is least remembered. Leoncio Deriada made me a writer.

Why I write

I write to survive.  I may be one of the few writers in the country today who obstinately write for a living. Most writers in the Philippines lead double lives, writing being the other life. We’ve heard of bloggers earning three times as much as print journalists, but that’s from a specialized kind of writing meant for search engine popularity. The best poem and novel in 2010 may not land on page 1 of Google if these aren’t written by a SEO expert.

Reality check: Printers that put out literary titles run no more than a thousand copies per author. Royalty from sales is 1 peso a copy, that’s what I’m told. Unless you write a reviewer, inspirational or a textbook, second edition and bestsellers are unheard of in the Philippines. And, you have to content with a non-reading public.

But I continue to write in spite of this. To adopt to the demands of the times, I educate myself on what kind of writing sells. So I find myself writing customized content for specialized websites. The glitch is, you have to abandon creative writing altogether to be able to do this. This is dummy down writing for Internet readers who want information fast and correct. You can forget about figures of speech. This piece is proof of that.

I continue to write because it’s the only thing I can do relatively well. Even this is debatable. I write in English and my work is read by native speakers. And there are times they can see my Filipino hand showing up in my sentences. They’d say, “This is English, all right. But not North American English.”  They don’t mean grammar. Most times the rules escape them. In fact, we’re more grammar conscious than many Americans. It’s the way we put words together, the way we mean our sentences that betray us. For the chance to gauge my register in the English ear, I love my newfound job.

If anything’s going to stress me and push me around without me complaining, it has to be writing. Other than that, you have to pay me big time, if I like the work at all. I’ve met young and aspiring writers who debate about writing for the audience or writing for one’s self. The subject once appealed to me. As for me, I just write for money.

What I write about

I have a soft spot for the outsider, for things on the periphery, the ignored, the unrecognized. I champion the cause of second fiddles. When everyone writes about the same stuff and says pretty much the same thing, I’d rather not bother writing about it. Cirilo Bautista  gave up writing poetry in 2000 saying we live in a prosaic world. I tend to agree so far as our predictable lives go. But a poet should be able to see through appearances. Let me clear up what I men by poet or artist here: You don’t need to create poems to be a real poet or artist. How you live your life makes you so. Those who go against the grain, those who dream empires on an empty stomach, those who abandon their families in exchange for love and lust, those who sing in the throes of tragedy, are the true poets.

On a related note,  I’ve read somewhere that security of tenure is the lowest form of existence.

I amplify awkwardness, alienation, resentment, loathing, desire and failure. I trivialize the hypocritically serious and structured. Pardon my negative vibe, but I was taught skepticism is the beginning of knowledge.

How I write

Unlike many self-styled poet-philosophers, I have no pre-writing and post-writing rituals. By my own reckoning, however, I seem to write more cautiously (thus better) when I write with a pencil. I’m not very good at taking down notes. Or, I may be too lazy to keep up with what’s unfolding. Instead I depend on my  mind, which most times acts as my subjective camcorder. My mind is a hybrid audio-visual machine on DoPE.

Writing on DoPE

This is step 1 of my writing process. I describe DoPE as Depth of Perception and Emotion. Not all events and things my mind records and replays turn into my material, though. My mind closes in on an episode and gets to the bottom. It chooses the line of most resistance because my mind takes a confrontational stance. During my post-workshop phase, I taught my mind to think in metaphors to catch the poetic as my mentors would have me believe. Mommy Edith Tiempo would call these fleeting moments “reverberations”; her own impression of T S Eliot’s “juxtaposition of disparate ideas”—her objective correlative. My issue with this is, the poem stays on the page and is far from being able to speak directly to the reader-audience.

I wrote the poem below a year after I attended my first major workshop and reading it now you can easily tell I’m not speaking in my own voice. I wrote this using the traditional process: canned subject going ahead of actual writing. Results?  A cut-and-dried work that miserably fails in delivering urgency, spontaneity, angularity, sincerity and resonance. Anybody could have written a poem like this.

Spectral

I am an open window in an empty house;
human to the touch of flailing curtains,
steel and glass to the wind.
It is raining.
The lights are out, what with the looming dark
and forked lightning.
The sound of rain against tin,
rain against concrete and rain against itself
lifts a thousand verses from the Book of Revelation
and fans across a sea of roofs.

The door, the clock, the Arabian rug,
they’re here and nowhere.
I see through them and come face to face with the
wall.
But even this is only an idea.
There is a storm, all right,
but I take a walk outside.
That much holds up in the mean time.

Before writing my first word on the page, I ask myself: Has this been said by anyone before? If the answer is yes, I tell myself: Well, I’ll say it like it’s I who said it first.

Post-workshops circa 1995, I went craft-shopping. I tried out (and thought it worked well) various poetry writing techniques: surrealism, fluxus, beatnik, Black Mountain School, Avant Pop, New York School. Of the latter I believe Mark Strand and Charles Simic are the best and therefore worth emulating.

Jose Rizal Before The  Fall

Between the bullet and the bone
is the last word pale like the gunmen’s skin.
Its sharp tongue breaks syntax and translation
and hits where it’s aimed at.
The sky dries up like blood;
the sun turns upside down.
It’s as simple as a crack”
The sand cracks under the soldiers’ boots, too;
or it could be the mind rapping
in the doomed man’s ears.
But there are birds in whose sudden flight
the word bores into the chest
and stirs a ripple in its chambers.
It’s like butterflies in one’s stomach.

This man’s fall is as good as a clear day:
bent trees take root in shadow and light.

How To Tell Your Friend Is A Fool

When he dumps his girl in favor of my books and beer
the hinge has hung loose.
The frame he’s in, however small and seamless,
squares up with the shape of the world,
and he’s hard put to stretch his limits to make another.

He is sharp with names and mouths off with flourish
rhymes of inner ruin and bliss in whining gospel soul.
In the street of concrete knowledge
he seeks the escape to speed as an excuse to reason,
his boyish defense not to mean anything but our  father’s death.

At the flyovers of our search for God, he takes beggars
for bearded philosophers whose lungs pump solely on  solitude
and such wisdom as the logic of murky water.
In my midnight watch of the immortal hour he turns up
with a piece on an aunt’s mad seclusion.

There he stands over his head going up on a puff of
rant and candy clouds.
Rising out of reach, he is blessed first and loved last.

Until I came across Robert Peters’ “The Great American Poetry Bake-off” in 2003. I was back in Iloilo and teaching English for a pittance. I spared no chance in stealing the book from the library. Robert Peters is an unknown poet-critic who takes pot shots at the literary greats and can stand up to it. He sets the works of the privileged and famous side by side with those of the unheard of and the ignored. And lo, the bias and merits are clearly blinding.

Robert Peters re-introduced me to Charles Olson and projective verse—writing with the rhythm and spontaneity of everyday speech. It was how I found my poetic platform, once more with feelings. That’s what you see at work in the poems below. But how I fish for images isn’t anchored on projective verse poetics. It’s purely my own. I’ll let you in on a secret: I hate to repeat myself. That’s why I shout with Ezra Pound: “Make it new! Make it new!”

Forest Lake Phantom

There should be a forest and a lake somewhere here
if we take the grass for water, headstones for trees.
But the dead don’t buy our shallow humor.
They lay stiff all their lives.

The ground aspires to rise to the afterlife.
It lets us see what is not there: the serpent hanging
from the Tree of Knowledge; the chambers of the heart on fire.
I have no doubt I can go that far
even while the here and now is all of your hair and a handful of sky.

That’s what this place will come to stand for.
When we close ourselves to light
love makes us invisible.

To An Uncle Who’s A Cyclist at 71 And An Invalid A Year Later

I watched you do an arcane breathing pattern
lifted from Bruce Lee’s book.
You assumed the stance of fowls and reptiles
in your white underwear.
The Master’s much-rumored one-inch punch
and his eight-foot kick were well guarded shows
only for my eyes.
I was six and a big fan of Kung Fu movies, but uncle,
your hand combat heroes wrenched my Jet Lis and Samo Hungs
into pants-pissing losers.

Sundays you tore the country road in full biking gear.
You were mainly alone save for a clove of garlic
and a piece of God in all of this.
The humps and holes didn’t scare you, nor the heat
that could fry your soles into rubber patties.
I cheered you on as every septuagenarian
from our gene pool did.
When aunt’s sugar-coated blood failed her kidney
and puffed her cheeks to a photograph,
you pedaled into our afternoon naps
and rolled race tracks out of them.

On an evening bath a telex from deep space
bleeped in your ears.
It droned on and pulled at your face:
Groove out, grave in, groove out, grave in…

What I think of writing

I view writing in the most practical terms. I do it because I want to earn from it. If I could do something better I’d abandon writing. But I’m not good at most other things.  I can teach English but the return investment I get is a few moments of swelling self- worth and genuine pride. Cash can make these feeling last a lot longer. Like I said earlier,  creative writing in the Philippines is more like a hobby than a career.

Until my dream college lounge rises and opens for business, I’ll keep writing and doing odd jobs.

There are a few sincere and well-meaning writers I know of. They are here today and we’ve stuck it out through thick and thin. Thank you for coming here and putting up with us.

Leoncio Deriada had infected us with the writing disease. God knows what I can infect you with.

2010
05/25
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Unknown Iloilo
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Web Copywriting

Writing for the web is writing that works wonders. People don’t read websites as they read newspapers or magazines. Web readers have a short attention span. Not that they don’t like long words and long sentences. Web readers are very active they want to get to the gist right away. In that case writing online should affect readers instantly. If you can get them to react in a certain way sooner, the better. Every web reader is a potential consumer. So you can imagine your online words as products inside glass shelf. Okay, web readers don’t read at once: They skim and skip. Skim if they find your stuff interesting, skip to the next if it appears bland. Web readers don’t buy hype. They may be are hard to please, but they make the best patrons.

2010
01/29
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How to Write for Searchability

You think yourself a diligent and creative writer. You have a blog and site running for months, but so far all you get is a handful of comments and visitors, most of whom came  across your blog by accident. What’s wrong? Before you burn your books and blame your English teacher, think about whether you have done any of these steps or not to get traffic going into your site:

1. Tweak your topic. How catchy and current is your topic? The Internet is a massive rumor mill where everyone wants to catch up on the hottest stuff. So if you’ve been writing about a thing only your closest friends know about, it’s about time you came out of the cave. Every single time you click on a search engine, new and fresh topics pop up—that’s how fast news goes around on the web. So to stay relevant and get easily found, join in the fray—write about the rumor of the day, and check whether your topic catches up with the drift or not. It shouldn’t go the way of a screaming tabloid headline, but it does help to be a bit “loud” and “aggressive.” Careful with your wordplay, though: be very cautious that you don’t touch on a highly sensitive subject that other people take offense at such as topics on race, gender, religion, cultural values, and family. Your topic should be short, snappy, and sassy.

Highly recommended topics are: tourist spots, shopping, gadgets, Hollywood, sports, food, health, and Internet marketing.

2. Short and smartly sectioned. Remember that most Internet readers can’t stand reading an online article for long. They’re not in hurry, they just want to get to the bottom as fast as they can so they can move on and read some more. Imagine an article with a hot title and an equally hot content—your reader will spare no time in gobbling it all up. And your article is a lot easier to gobble when it’s the length and size of your hand, literally: maybe about 5 to 6 paragraphs, with roughly between 400- 800 words. Anything longer than that may cause your readers to yawn.

If you have no choice but to write longer content, out of necessity, be sure to break down your article to bite-size chunks with sub headings in boldface. This way your  readers can jump to sections where they’re interested most without missing out on other important parts.

3. Using numbers and bullets. Internet readers want facts first and fiction last. They’re hungry for fresh information, and the last thing they need is to keep guessing what you’re driving at. You save yourself and your article from certain oblivion by “highlighting” the important stuff with numbers and bullets: they make your articles so much easier to read and recall. Spare no detail by using numbers and bullets in writing how-tos, steps, and tips. But keep the listing to a minimum (the ideal is below 7)—anything more than that may bore your reader.

4. Starting up a popularity blitz, best and worst surveys, or personality tests. This takes a real creative imagination. Surely, there are hundreds of personally tests that people take on the web today, and you’re well advised not to repeat them if you want to get attention for your blog or site. The reason why these personality or popularity surveys are making a killing is that people want to know how other people look at them. So they take quizzes on friendship, dating, compatibility, family, school, preferences, and so on. You can make a spin off on any of these topics but be sure it’s purely your own.

5. Leave space for comments. Chances are even the most boring Internet article may get a response as long as there’s a comment space at the end. Internet readers are like average newspaper and magazine readers in many respects: they want to send letters to the editor too, and all the more timely when there’s a commend feed on your blog or site. However trite their opinions may be,  Internet readers what to be “heard” and read by others.  Leaving a comment space serves as your invitation.

6. Write tips and how-to articles. People browse the web to get information and a bit of fun. They learn better and faster when you tell them Dos and Donts. Gone are the days of laborious library research. Especially for everyday living, people look to the Internet to be able to do things themselves following short and exact instructions.  And the shorter and clearer your steps, the more readers it will get.   Good online writers have a way of making difficult things sound and read easy such as assembling a computer monitor or uploading music and video on your website.     This may sound all too simple, but one misleading step crumbles your articles to pieces. So pay acute attention to the littlest details, including word use and vocabulary.

7. Getting guest writers. Well, if you can’t pull of a trick alone maybe someone else can. Perhaps from your circle of friends somebody is good or knowledgeable at something. Get him to write an article for your blog or site. Dress him up like a pro by writing a short catchy bio about his expertise.

8. Update your site and blog daily. There’s no substitute to diligence even in web writing. You compete with hundreds and thousands of other writers and all of you fight for space on the web. How you make a difference largely depends on how you manage your site. Keeping it fresh and updated is one of the time-tested secrets that works. Remember, content is king: Your chance of increasing traffic to your site more than doubles as you change subject everyday. The more frequent you update your site, the more topics you cover.

.

So sit down, relax, and write that first unforgettable line. Your word-starved readers await you.

2010
01/29
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Headlines that Put a Hold on Your Readers

Your headline screams at your readers. If it’s good it gets a second or third look. If it’s not, it’s lost in afterthought. Depending on how you put words together, a screaming headline may or may not reach your audience. Or, if it does get to your audience, it rubs them the wrong way. You’ve read all manner of catchy headlines and you can actually recall them with your eyes closed and a smile. But how do you write a headline that works?

What does a headline do

First, the basics:

Your headline can very well be your story’s shout out. It’s the first thing that your readers see, so it’s supposed to grab attention. You may say all headlines are the same—but, website headlines are much more compressed and compelling than a newspaper headline. In other words, the writing process may be the same but the method may not be.

Second:

A well written headline can drive traffic. Because of the massive effect of social media networking sites on Internet users today,  a good headline spells a big difference. Whenever your headline attacks readers, Internet users will read your post. If they find it helpful or interesting, they will recommend it to other users. On Digg and Delicious, for  instance, there’s hot competition over catchy headlines.

When you write content for the Internet, you’re not talking about writing a good headline—you’re talking about what makes a great headline. If it sounds too tough, it is so because web content writing is tough.  And web content writers agree the following are the hallmarks of a powerful headline:

1. Calling attention to itself. It’s in the way words are put together that you’ll be able to grab attention. This is not achieved by using boldfaced words with a lot of exclamation points. For web content purposes, your headline should say as much with so little words but in a way that hits your target readers between the eyes. The headline, moreover, serves as a bait—it’s a lure that leads your readers to read the rest of the story.

2. Shows the action. A great headline uses the active voice of the verb, thus showing you what’s going on as though it’s happening before your very eyes.  Other than that, concrete verbs are favored over the abstract ones. For example, “ Obama goes for the presidency”  is better said with “Obama guns for the presidency”.

3. Sells a capital value. As opposed to newspaper stories, your web content headline promises a benefit of some kind for your readers. Keep in mind that you readers have practically thousands of headlines to choose from, and the fact that one has chosen to read yours means he has found something of value in there somewhere. The thing of value should be made clear in your headline right way, without sacrificing the facts, of course. Internet readers are wary about flashy headlines that disappoint in the end.

4. Written for your site’s target subscribers. Internet readers can’t stay on a headline too long, especially if it doesn’t interest them. You’re actually competing with hundreds of other well written headlines on the Internet, so what’s your chance of hacking it?  If you write with your target readers in mind, you can read their emotional and mental reaction. You would not have a hard time driving the point. Furthermore, keep in mind that your headline is seen in your subscribers news feeds.

Kinds of headline

There are not too many of them, but mainly for web content writing purposes, these are the most commonly used:

1. Indirect headline. Obviously it doesn’t go straight to the point—instead it merely suggests and thrives on your reader’s curiosity.  You can say it raises a few informed questions on your readers minds. For one thing, an indirect headline makes use of double  talk. An example would be: “Whey milk that’s light on your budget out now” (Notice the wordplay on whey and weigh.)

2. Direct headline. Nothing is straighter than this. This is very typical of newspaper headlines that can’t afford to put on a show. But while everything is told directly, you can’t compromise with facts and the truth about the product.  The rule of thumb should be, the headline must be kept as simpler and shorter as possible. Ideally, there should be no more than seven words. Everything must be told in the active sense, specifically the active voice of the verb.

3. Question headline. More than asking a interesting question, the question should be  dramatic or rhetorical. Meaning it’s something that primarily concerns your reader’s here and now. It’s also something that calls for an answer right away.  In this case you should know a bit about pop psychology.  For example, “ When do you want to earn your first million dollars?”

4. Command headline. This headline teaches your readers what to do about a certain situation. The first verb of the headline should  be an action verb that calls for an immediate action. For example: “Change your search engine and surf  smoothly over the Internet.”

5. How-to headline. It’s simply telling your audience an instruction. In this case you can’t make a mistake about catching attention as a How-to headline easily puts a hold on your readers, especially if it’s about a current subject. For example: “How to earn without capital on the Internet.”

6. Reason headline. It’s a catalogue of compelling reasons why your product or service matters to your target audience. As such the list should either be numbered or bulleted for easy reading. This is the most pervasive headline over the Internet today as it sits easily with all kinds of Internet readers. For example: “Top 10 Ways of Increasing web Traffic for your Website.”

7. Testimonials. This is the most common headline in print and TV advertisements in which an endorser (or persona, in that case) narrates his or her brush with the product and how it has changed her life for the better. For web copywriting purposes the endorser’s words are all in quotes.

A web content writer is a word manipulator. It all begins with the headline. And it certainly doesn’t end there.

2010
01/29
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The Power of Press Release

Your press release can now be read by millions around the world– not just your friends at the local barber shop. Thanks to the Internet. Today, not only journalists can write pres releases but practically anyone who has a blog and has an active membership in any of these popular social networking sites. You can keep everyone posted without landing you press release in your local paper’s society page. Your press release can also appear in Google news, Yahoo news, and a host of others.

But first, a word about the traditional press release.  In the old days a pres release was a write-up that announced an upcoming event: this event could be a personal, corporate, or social occasion that needed response and respondents. A press release was written to generate interest, to make sales, and for a whole lot of other purposes. The standard press release format is basically like that of the news.  While it seems to be easy in theory many press releases are written in a rush, without care for important things such as:

1. Showing details. A press release can’t afford to miss out on the littlest detail– the smallest fact spells the biggest difference between a good press release writer and a lousy one.  Facts such as time, date, address, names of people involved shouldn’t be glossed over. You’d be surprised at how nitpicky are the readers out there.   If you’re writing about a night of social dancing, you can’t miss out on the dress code. If you’re making a sales pitch illustrate the idea of your product by talking about its benefits for the consumers. Most products actually focus on the benefits and follow up with real life testimonies of satisfied users. Just think of the Cause and Effect model, and you wouldn’t get lost.

2.Facts. Today readers have become sharper and wiser, so they can read through bluffs and lies. You actually show your hand if you pad your press release with sugar-coated words. They’re usually adjective and adverbs than can be taken off the sentence without any visible effect except the few words left. The sentence can stand on its own. With all the tall tales that Internet readers get from spam mails to false TV advertisements, your readers know fact from fiction. Think about this: Truth is always simpler to tell.

3. Watch your angle.     You may have noticed that every time a press release comes out, it is tied with a social or corporate event. It’s called a media blitz. Coming out with a press release makes the event larger than life. In your case you have to be sharp with choosing which feature of your press release best fits what theme. You can choose from so many angles depending on what easily catches on with your target audience.

4. Action words. The classic rule is show not ell, and its nowhere more applicable than in press release writing. Active verbs show you action but concrete verbs see to it the action takes place    right before our very eyes.  Abstract and passive verbs can’t do this. For example, instead of saying “The company held a benefit concert for typhoon victims” you can say “The company staged a rock concert for typhoon victims”.

5. Short is better. Yes, even in press release writing, length and size do matter. But the length that spells the difference is the short one—short words, short sentences. They’re easier to read and remember. Plus, an extra long sentence may get you somewhere but definitely nowhere near the thing that your readers care about. With short words and sentences, you don’t keep your audience guessing, most especially over the Internet.

What to avoid in your press release

The list above contains the things your press release should have. Below are the things your press release shouldn’t have.

1. Technical words. Techy words have their uses, that’s for sure. But your Internet readers care nothing about your deep vocabulary. So enough of jargon and flashy Isms, please. Keep your words simple at the level of, say, a middle school vocabulary. The simpler the words are, the further they and deeper they reach your target. Everybody loves an easy read.

2. Hold back the hype. You’d now if it’s all fluff when you see a lot of exclamation points, boldfaced words, and italicized phrases. Sure, we understand you want to generate interest but can’t you just do it the regular way? An appropriate analogy would be dressing up right for the occasion: When you have too many exclamation points and boldfaced words, you’re practically overdressing your press release.

On matters of style

Next thing you need to take care is the style issue. How you write a press release that doesn’t get treated like an ordinary press release?

1. Handle the headline well. The headline is supposedly your shout out. A good headline doesn’t go beyond seven words, all in the active voice, ideally.  Your headline should start with a verb. No shortcuts are allowed unless you have 4 syllable word in it. On second thought, why use long words in the first place?

2. The story goes… Use a narrative lead.  Tell a story. The most effective way of beginning a press release is by telling a story. Everybody loves drama. So use this and win your readers over. As you write your press release, place yourself in front of your target audience and address your words directly to them.

3. Write as you speak. This is the mark of a real good writer. When you are able to write like you speak, you practically erase the page and paragraph between you and your reader. Reading your work makes them feel like listening to your voice. Keep in mind that your choice of words is actually your own “voice” in that these are your favored expression. Thus, a reflection of your own mind as well.

Experts say the easiest way to prove whether your press release puts a hold on your readers or not is to read it out to yourself. If it sounds like a person talking sincerely, you’ve nailed it.

2010
01/29
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Stories that Lead to Sales

Every one can tell a story, all right, but not everyone can tell a story well. A copywriter is not only a good sales letter writer—he’s also a good story teller.    And the thing about a well written story in web copy writing is that it works wonders—it converts words into sales.

Like traditional storytelling, narrative copywriting follows a formula. But this isn’t the textbook formula that we know from English lit class. Ok, it’s actually that and something else. It’s because unlike Aristotle’s times, your readers today don’t care much about tragic and heroic characters. They read not so much to have fun but to buy things and keep themselves informed. Moreover your readers don’t have the luxury of time to lie down and linger over a magical paragraph or two.   A copywriter can’t afford to waste words on the page like James Joyce did.

Stories that sell

Copies that tell a story are written not only for pleasure but also for profit. In that case they need to be written in a special way as all good writing must be. Whatever technique or formula you may use, you’re after one effect: to turn your readers into customers. To achieve that your web copy story should have substance over style. Unlike creative writing, a web copy narrative doesn’t compromise meaning over manipulation. What you say and what it wants to achieve is clearly said in your copy. As it is, there is little or no use for fancy words and verbal acrobatics at all: which is why the best models here should be Hemingway and not William T Vollmann or Mark Leyner. Preferred sentences are short and straight, with the selling points strategically placed in the copy. Web copy writing is writing for influence, not to for remembrance of things past.

Common web copy stories

Copywriters are not big on formulas, but they are rather keen on writing models. So, for lack of a better term, we’ll call the following story models for web copy writing:

1. Attention seekers. These are stories with a bit of dramatic hype, but they are directed at getting your reader’s attention. Here you focus on the bizarre, outlandish or on little known features or details about your product or service.

2. Get to know us. It’s an introductory story that introduces who you are and what you offer. Here you lay it on too thick about what makes you and your product special. When your readers get to know you, they’d feel comfortable who you are and eventually they’ll try out your product.

3. Cure-all. This is a story that offers a solution to the fear or anxiety your readers are feeling today. You place yourself in the shoes of your readers and tell them that you went through the same thing yourself, and that there’s nothing to worry because the product you’re offering will solve the issue at hand.

4. Good news. This is the most common of all web copy stories. The story brings hope and salvation. It underscores the best features of your product or service. But more than that your copy highlights one person’s success story in using your product or service. Your satisfied customer recounts how the product has helped him greatly and thus changed his life for the better. In conclusion he makes a recommendation.

How to make the story models work

While good writing results in conversion, no formula is ever stable and fixed that it works to all audiences all the time. The operational phrase is what works for your audience. Now what?

1. Consider your target readers. Think about audience variables such as their needs, fears, concerns, issues. While you think about what they want, you also take into account what they resent, so you can take the opposite direction as point of entry.

2. Write a Before and After story. This way you will be able to see the difference when you write a story without a specific set of readers in mind, and writing one with a target audience in mind. You will notice that with an imagined target audience, your story brings off the result and response that you want it to have.

3. Create a persona in your story. This is the person that speaks for your product and service. A persona is a character that thinks and speaks in the language of your target audience. With someone to voice out your product and service, someone whom your readers can easily identify with and consider as one of their own, it’s a lot easier to get your message across.

If you think length is not a major issue in web copy writing, it actually is. Space is precious on websites, so every single word is vital. Short is the new span in web content writing.

2010
01/29
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How Offshore Staff Leasing Can Benefit Your Business in Times of Crisis

As much of the western world is reeling from the first great economic crisis of the 21st century, the Philippines is holding forth. It is, in fact, taking advantage of the situation thanks to the strong business process outsourcing (BPO) and staff leasing industry in the country.

Although America is often marked as responsible for spreading the economic crisis virus globally, she ironically holds the secret cure. The anti-virus lies in America’s outsourcing, back office, and staff leasing companies. How this is going to help your business is  best explained below.

In dire times you can turn to offshore staff leasing to cut costs. Outsourcing and staff leasing prove to be the next logical step to closing shop. With a leased staff, your company can concentrate intensely on core company operations without focusing so much on the peripherals. While it might mean letting go of some people, off shoring and staff leasing polishes and fine-tunes your operations. Under pressure of cost-cutting, you can maximize every buck of your capital.

Offshore and staff leased work rival and often outperform on-site work. While your costs have been cut by close to half, you still get the same quality — and at times better — output than having an on-site staff do it, so you still get a grip on quality control. Off shore and staff leasing keeps your operations going with little or no supervision. Then again, if you’re not quite happy with the outcome you can switch off staff leasing services any time without going beyond your means. Since the offshore and staff leasing industry is very competitive, you can take advantage of this by being able to choose from so many excellent service providers. It’s a win-win cycle: you benefit from them, and they benefit from you.

Offshore and staff leasing services work best for small and medium companies like yours. During difficult times and with limited resources, small- to medium-size companies turn to outsourcing and staff leasing to cushion a possible financial backlash. This system allows medium companies to run like regular companies without the risk of getting into deep financial losses. With a lower labor cost but equally good service, medium-size companies can avoid overshooting their investments.

Offshore and staff leasing gives you the upper hand. As a client of an offshore and staff leasing company, you essentially call the shots. Short of demanding absolute perfection, you can exert pressure on the offshore and leased staff to produce high quality work. In reality you and your offshore company work in sync to keep track of the project at hand starting from day one, so the margin of error is kept to a minimum or is erased altogether.

More importantly, you don’t get your hands “dirty.” It’s your offshore and staff leasing company that will take care of such things as quality control, cost analysis, management, and so on. You just expect to get the finished product.

Offshore and staff leasing create more jobs. At the height of the economic crisis the number of workers who are engaged in outsourcing and staff leasing in the Philippines has grown by 40 % (300, 000 workers to date). Because of the economic crisis, American companies turn to offshore and staff lease work to maximize productivity and efficiency. So while the number of on-site workers thin out, that of offshore and leased staff balloons. This cycle takes on a poetic meaning when you examine it closely.  The more offshore and leased staff deals get underway, the more windows of opportunity open at the on-shore counterpart.

Offshore and staff leasing companies are indirectly hit by the economic crisis. The one thing that keeps the outsourcing and staff leasing industry going strong is that it is not directly hit by the economic crisis. Insiders even say off shore and staff leasing operations are not effected by it in the least. The other side of the equation shows you that as huge companies cut costs,  offshore and staff leasing companies expand services to answer cost cutting needs. Offshore and staff leasing companies are only too glad to work for you.

Competitive offshore and staff leasing industry results in high quality, area-specific work. Because there’s a bigger need for more specialized functions, offshore and staff leasing companies view the economic crisis as an opportunity to offer area-specific services from which you can benefit. New lines of work and new infrastructure crop up to address these needs, so you end up getting high quality work for a very affordable rate.

Little by little the American economy is inching away from the deep economic ditch it has been stalled in while the whole world is watches. Meanwhile, offshore and staff leasing-driven economies remain stable and in good shape.

2010
01/29
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What Offshore Leased Agents Can’t Do that Local Employees Can

To conservative employers the advantages of offshoring and staff leasing may be an exaggeration. How can an amorphous, third-party team work well for someone who’s thousands of miles away?  In all honesty, this question holds within it a grain of truth. Many issues arise between an offshore or leased staff and the client. And it’s now valid to ask: What can’t offshore leased agents do that on-site employees can?

  • Some offshore and leased agents may be working for other clients, while your  on-site employees work only for you. Offshore and leased agents know even before working that they’ll be working for someone they don’t personally know and will never be able to know throughout the duration of the project until it’s completed. To most of these leased agents, their boss is merely a “voice” from the headset or some words in their email, so there’s no need to treat him on a personal level. On-site or local employees, meanwhile, work directly with and for the boss. They share the same office building and may even share the same kitchen or break time, so each one has a chance to talk about work during light moments. It is these unguarded times that bring insight to erstwhile un-thought of solutions. These times offer employer and employee a glance at each other’s “human” side, so it’s a lot easier to gain trust from both ends, thus enriching the employer-employee relationship. And when employer-employee relationships are deep and strong, it results in higher productivity.
  • Offshore and leased agents have short term goals, while local on-site employees want to grow with the employer. Commitment is not always a top-priority concept in an offshore and leased staff’s vocabulary. While he will dedicate himself to the work at hand, he is always aware that this working relationship will conclude and be followed by another with a different company. A local employee may not be as zealous and as fast as your offshore and leased staff because he knows he’s got another day to work on a project, but he works because he wants to keep his job for as long the company is alive. The local employee is committed because he considers his job as an extension of himself. When a local employee hears something from his boss, it’s not merely taken as an instruction; rather, it is a commentary on his work. This can have an ambiguous effect on the local employee—either he gets inspired or dismayed by it. But this sensitivity is just what’s absent when an employer works with an offshore and leased team.

  • There’s fast turn over with an offshore and leased staff set up, while local employees can stand rejection. Since employers want quick and close-to-perfect results, any offshore and leased staff work that’s not up to par is changed, along with the agent.  A local agent can stand up to an employer’s complaints, and since he’s merely a wall or a table away from the boss he can fix the issue right away. So even while the project gets stalled, the on-site employee can work on it again and again under the personal supervision of the boss. The financial setback that a fast turn over could have caused is therefore cushioned by retaining a teachable on-site employee. Moreover, this touches on human psychology: the more you remind your local employee to do a good job, the more he thinks you care about him.
  • Some things are “lost in translation” with an offshore and leased staff, but a local employee can ask for your comment any time. Since time is of the essence when an offshore and staff leasing specialist partners with you, many things are presumed to be self-explanatory. Sometimes even a trivial thing like an instruction is taken for granted. Your local employee, on the other hand, is within easy reach, so you can take things up with him  then and there and then talk it out.  No time (or money) is wasted on making a call, setting up a chat, or creating a visual example on the computer.

  • Offshore and leased staff  keep their specialty and expertise to themselves, while your local employees can share theirs with the team. Imagine working with a local team of experts. How privileged would your company be with this set up? Unfortunately, you won’t be able to experience this phenomenal situation if you hire an offshore and leased staff specialist. After all, that’s how they compete with other service providers, so they don’t trade secrets like that. When your local team is able to transfer their skills and knowledge, that’s great personnel value.
  • Offshore and lead staff’s cultural values may clash with your own, while a local team’s won’t. Your offshore and leased staff may be working from a place you know very little about. But you probably go to the same church or shop at the same mall as your local employees. You share many things in common with your on-site workers that you won’t have with an offshore and staff leased team.

Certainly, offshoring and staff leasing has its uses. Hiring a local team serves its purpose, too. Given your resources, you should know which one works best.

2010
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What to Expect from Your Offshore Leased Agent Mel Turao | October 15, 2009 | 0 Comments

The current buzz about offshoring and staff leasing is that your leased staff is just as good as its vendor. True or not, many issues usually come up over the course of a leased staff project, and many of these issues are smartly resolved in due time. But these issues are real and they’re happening, so if you’re thinking of getting an offshore and leased staff, prepare to deal with scenarios like the following:

  • You get what you pay for, which is usually low. Getting an offshore and leased project means you want to make every buck work. That’s just what you get for an offshore and leased agent. Established vendors suggest would-be clients exercise caution in choosing the right offshore and staff leasing company because there are certain risks involved.  For example, one concern might be about maintaining excellent product quality. A leased agent cannot get too far with innovation because he is under order to conform to set instructions.
  • An offshore leased agent has his own specialty. An offshoring client has no way of knowing whether his leased agent is doing what he likes and what he specializes in, so at times it’s difficult to maintain quality control because the quality of work might change with the project. Some leased teams are very good at one project and can be poor at another. As a  client, you have to know which offshore and leased team meets your needs.
  • An offshore and leased agent needs hands-on management for maximum results. You have a project manager who’s in charge of overseeing the assignment, but you need to be “there” at the time you’re needed by your leased team the most. Keep in mind that a number of offshore staff leasing companies work for many clients at once. So to avoid glitches, let them know you’re constantly monitoring their work so they’re aware that you’re on top of things, too.
  • Offshore and leased agents know nothing about you– well, almost. This happens because most offshore and staff leasing specialists don’t see a need (and they’re avoiding unlikely things like “pirating” and “under the table” transactions). So while they may be turning out excellent work, they are left guessing as to who you are. This may work in your favor in that they may be intimidated, but studies show that workers who know who they’re working for fare better than those who don’t.   It’s a lot easier to give and receive instructions when you know where they’re coming from.
  • Expect occasional cultural and language issues with an offshore and leased agent. Since you don’t share the same geography, values, and language, there will be times you’ll have a verbal disconnect. An agent may take your words in a different context (And vice-versa!) given the linguistic and cultural barrier between the two of you. To avoid this, you should have as much background information about your offshore and leased agent as possible. Research the offshore and staff leasing company’s location, geography, culture, values, etc. If that doesn’t resolve your issues, go back to an offshore and staff leasing company you’ve worked with before.

Whatever the issue, offshore and staff leasing is a lucrative business these days, and staff leasing is the panacea to the ongoing economic crisis. Offshore or staff leasing continues to impress clients because it’s smart and sassy.

2010
01/29
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How to Handle Language and Cultural Issues in an Offshore and Leased Staff Workplace

Just like with any business located anywhere in any environment, issues are bound to occasionally arise in an offshore and leased staff work environment. Opinions on the topic as it relates to offshore and leased staff are divided: some favor offshoring, while some dismiss the idea altogether. Other than cost matters, the one undying issue is about communication; more specifically, it’s related to language and culture disconnect.  The vendor has a vision for his company; it’s this vision that gets stuck when language and culture issues are not smoothly ironed out.

How can you efficiently run a team that doesn’t speak your own language? Would you have talking points with people you have never met? On closer inspection, these are hard questions that require easy answers.

  • Include language and culture issues in the hiring process. Before you hire an offshore and leased staff specialist, ask them how familiar their team is with foreign culture. It’s not your job to screen applicants, but as a client you have the final say on who’s in or who’s out. The offshore and staff leasing specialist should do the same. Requiring a personal essay on Hollywood, American English, or American pop music, should show how acquainted with American culture your prospective worker is.
  • Set up a project overview. This allows you to discuss with the leased team what you want done and how. The project overview serves as your feedback loop in which the offshore and leased team can ask you and the project manager questions directly. Before the lead team even begins working they get the whole picture of their expected tasks and the direction they’re going. Here you can tell them to take note of what’s at hand. Keeping track of their work’s progress is a lot easier because it works both ways–from your end and theirs.
  • Set up an interactive forum. This forum naturally should focus on project-related issues, but don’t discount the power of stray comments now and then. Remember that you’re working with a leased team whose cultural upbringing may not be so straightforward as yours, so you may be able to pick up something from the forum comments, however off topic.
  • Have a virtual site visit. You hire an offshore and leased staff specialist because you want to save on cash, so doing an on-site visit is almost certainly out of the question. But you and your team can have a virtual tour of each other’ s “workplaces.” The ideal time for this should be before the project starts. It works wonders when you have a picture of who you’re working with, especially if you’re hiring an Asian offshore and leased team. Asians value a client’s personal touch on the project.
  • Crash course on the target language and culture. You can’t compel the client to do this, and it’s certainly the job of the offshore and staff leasing company. There may, however, be times  when a grammar quiz or elocution is possible. Take that chance to “educate” your leased staff. It’s not obviously on the scale of revisiting the rules and history of the English language, but touching on the basics of subject-verb agreement, verb tenses, vowel and aspirated sounds, will do.

All of these suggestions work both ways; that is, you should do your homework, too. When you and your leased staff stand on the same ground, you can see eye to eye.

2010
01/29
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