Heather Johnson's Blog, page 6
May 2, 2018
Marketing dictionary for writers who don’t speak marketing
Many content marketing writers (like me) don’t come from a marketing background. But when you’re part of a content marketing project, you’ll likely find yourself on calls and in email threads with experienced marketers.
They speak a different language than you and me.
Hubspot Academy’s excellent Inbound Certification helped me learn some of the lingo, but I still find myself stumped—and sometimes amused—by some of the lingo. CX? Isn’t that cyclocross bike racing? Isn’t a pain point what happ...
Marketing dictionary for writers that don’t speak marketing
Many content marketing writers (like me) don’t come from a marketing background. But when you’re part of a content marketing project, you’ll likely find yourself on calls and in email threads with experienced marketers.
They speak a different language than you and me.
Hubspot Academy’s excellent Inbound Certification helped me learn some of the lingo, but I still find myself stumped—and sometimes amused—by some of the lingo. CX? Isn’t that cyclocross bike racing? Isn’t a pain point what happ...
March 3, 2018
7 filler words that you just don’t need. Really.
Beginning writers do it. Experienced writers do it—pack their sentences with unnecessary “filler words,” making a perfectly clear five-word sentence sound weak, dull and vague. With a discerning red pen (or delete key), eliminate filler words for more powerful copy.
Here are 7 common filler words we use all the time and how to get rid of them. (Pop Quiz: How many filler words did I use in the headline?)
1. That“That” is the most overly used filler word. Writers use it in between phrases whe...
December 9, 2017
How to Engage Readers
I’m reading Elizabeth Strout’s Anything is Possible, which is, in a nutshell, about regular people in a small Illinois town coping with dysfunctional childhoods, dysfunctional parents, dysfunctional marriages…stuff pretty much everyone goes through to some extent.
Strout hooked me in the first paragraph. How does she do that? I reread the first page to see if I could unlock her secret. The words, the phrases, are so simple. They don’t say much, but they say enough to want me to keep reading.
...On engaging readers
I’m reading Elizabeth Strout’s Anything is Possible, which is, in a nutshell, about regular people in a small Illinois town coping with dysfunctional childhoods, dysfunctional parents, dysfunctional marriages…stuff pretty much everyone goes through to some extent.
Strout hooked me in the first paragraph. How does she do that? I reread the first page to see if I could unlock her secret. The words, the phrases, are so simple. They don’t say much, but they say enough to want me to keep reading.
...March 3, 2017
Reblog: Your writing conference checklist
Hi there,
It’s been a million years since I’ve posted anything (Really! That long!). In blog time, a year and a half is an eternity, isn’t it?
I’m re-appearing to share Megan Sharma’s review on the San Francisco Writer’s Conference. She also offers some good tips on how to get the most out of a conference. The pictures are good too. Check it out here.
Do you have any tips to add to her list? What are your favorite writer’s conferences? Let us know in the comments below!
Happy Friday, weekend,...
June 5, 2016
Bay Area Book Festival: Tough Love and More
Yesterday I BART’d myself to Berkeley to attend the Bay Area Book Festival, a weekend-long event filled with author discussions, book signings, film screenings, and an expo featuring book publishers, authors, and writer resources. Books, writers, more books…sounds like my kinda place!
I arrived just in time to hear United States Senator Barbara Boxer(retiring this year) share stories from her new book, The Art of Tough. Writing much of the text during long flights,during a decades-long politi...
December 11, 2015
WHAT WOULD IT TAKE?
Not optimistic, but a very realistic account of the state of the sport of running. Thank you Letsrun.com for putting this on your home page.
As the 2015 running year comes to its rather sad conclusion we find a sport existing, barely, on life-support, reeling from the toxic shock of massive internal corruption at the governance level, and widespread performance enhancing drug use at the sporting level.
But let’s not feel too aggrieved. The self-inflicted wounds suffered by the sp...
November 12, 2015
The Best Christmas Gift Ever
One of my most memorable Christmases ever was in 1995. I was 24 years old and had what was, and likely will always be, the worst year ever. My friends kept me (somewhat) sane, and pitched in on a gift that I will never forget. Fast forward 20 holiday seasons:Live Happy magazine includedmy story in their December 2015 issue as part of its “The Gift that Changed My Life” feature. If you’re in Whole Foods or some other establishment that sells healthy living-type magazines, pick up a copy. Look...
October 27, 2015
3 Freelance Horror Stories
A colleague of mine put a call out on a writer’s forum we both belong to looking for “freelance horror stories.” She needed stories for an article to come out just in time for Halloween. I sent her one of my most memorable stories, and lo and behold it made the cut! When a horror story involves a band like Dead Kennedys, it must be shoe-in. Getting yelled at by an aging punk musician pales in comparison to the firststory in the series though.
Read all about the nightmares here. It’s pretty ne...
