Tag: technical writer

New York Technical Writer Tells You the Top 10 Things Not to Do at an Information Interview!

As an established technical writer, I occasionally receive requests to grant information interviews to people who are interested in entering the field of technical writing. Teachers in the various technical writing programs around town (Vancouver and environs, including the fantastic program at BCIT in Burnaby) advise their students to seek out these interviews, and I think it’s a great idea.

I recently had the most remarkable experience at an information interview, which has inspired me to write this top ten list of things not to do at an information interview!

  1. Show up at the interview location extremely hung-over, wearing your best wild animal t-shirt.
  2. When you first meet the professional technical writer (that would be me) you have asked to interview, who is probably in a position to hire you or recommend you for a job, say “I’m sorry I look like this, I’ve had hardly any sleep, I’m hung-over, and I can barely talk.” That will make her glad she took a precious half hour out of her Saturday to come and meet with you.
  3. Don’t offer to pay for the writer’s coffee and biscotti. I know you’re probably a starving student and spent all your money on drinks the night before.
  4. Ask in a smarmy voice, “Who else do I need to talk to to get into this field, besides you, of course?”
  5. When advised to join the technical writers’ professional organization, or at least come to their meetings, which cost $5 for students, say you’ve gone to a meeting and didn’t find it that interesting.
  6. When advised to create writing samples for your portfolio, perhaps volunteering for a non-profit organization in order to get some experience, say you don’t want to volunteer because you want to spend all your time playing guitar.
  7. Ask if the professional writer knows Bob Rock. (Just kidding, I made that up.)
  8. Present a copy of your resume, totally covered with ink from someone else’s hand-written comments, and ask the professional writer to look at it.
  9. Remain seated when the professional writer stands to leave. I know, you can barely move.
  10. Be sure to put a typo in the thank-you email you send to the writer six days later.

I hope this will help all you aspiring technical writers feel confident to seek out and conduct information interviews, knowing that the bar is not that high!

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New York Technical Writer’s Tips on Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

For technical writers

It seems that no matter how good our technical writing services are, these days we have to rank well in search engines for our clients to find us. I had a recent exchange with fellow Vancouver-based technical writer Stephen Arthur about the value of being searchable. While potential clients may be more inclined to look for technical writers on a site such as LinkedIn, monster.ca, or workopolis.com, and also in the Contractors Directory of the local chapter of the Society for Technical Communication, I think that it’s also imperative to ensure that clients can find our lovingly crafted websites through conventional search engines.

For technical writing clients

What I say here applies equally well to anyone who has a website and wants people to find your site on the internet. You must be searchable! And findable! So this article gives a few tips.

I tend to focus my efforts on Google, but there are many other search engines that people use. So here is a list to consider checking your site on:

For an unbelievable list of search engines, see the Search Engine Guide.

If your site is new, you’ll have to be patient, as it can take up to 3 weeks for the “robots,” “web bots,” or “crawlers” of the search engines to find your site and glean what’s on it. Google offers Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics to assist you. These free tools help you track what Google is finding on your site and get statistics about visitors to your site.

Try this simple trick:

In the Google search box, type site:yourwebsitename.com

This will show you whether Google has indexed your site yet. Indexing means it has found your site and made a list of keyword terms. Webmaster Tools will show you what terms it has found.

Another trick:

In the Google search box, type link:yourwebsitename.com

This will show you the links to your site that Google has found on other websites. This is the number one way to increase your website ranking in search engines. The more sites that link to your site, the more important Google thinks your site must be.

For a final tip, make sure you frequently use terms on your site that you think your clients will search for. The more times a term is used, the more relevant Google will think your site is and the higher it will rank your site if someone searches for those terms.

Happy searching!

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