How To Deal With Writer’s Block?

It’s A Lot Like What Calvin Says

When you write 10k to 12k words in a day, you are bound to hit writer’s block in no time. We have all faced it at some point in time.. No matter what you write, the client is simply not happy with it! Then comes the dejection and self-doubt.

Writer’s block is not a difficult situation to deal with and you can correct it through a simple process.

1. Cut yourself off completely from the issue at hand. If nothing you do seems to please your boss, ask for some time off or a new project to work on. No matter how menial, switching over to some other task or not doing anything is a good way to rest your mind. It helps your grey cells recollect the ability to churn out great content that you were once known for.

2. Be back to the basics

Sometimes, revamping your style of writing helps you overcome writer’s block. When you don’t see the same words flashing in front of your eyes, you can be sure of the clear road ahead.

You can revamp your writing style by reading a few good tutorials. The points discussed may seem rudimentary, but sometimes, going back to the basics is the best thing to do.

Here are a few links that you can check out should you feel the need to remodel your style of writing.

https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/Style.html

https://twp.duke.edu/uploads/assets/style_ccc.pdf

As they say in the Duke University handbook,

CONCISENESS, COHESION, COHERENCE

3. Start with Rewriting

When you think you have refreshed the basics, start small by rewriting a piece you had written previously. Try using fewer words to convey the meaning of sentences. Take your time as this is a practice exercise. If need be, you can try rewriting the same piece for 3-4 times. Compare the different versions and you will see how different they are. The more you practice, precision shall be within your grasp.

4*. Peer Review

If you have great colleagues and seniors, you can rope in one of them to review your write ups and give you feedback. Choose someone who you know can be harsh when the need arises but is not downright cruel. A fresh pair of eyes can work wonders at times!

* Only if you have REALLY SUPPORTIVE Colleagues.

Once you are done with the exercise, you will bounce back into the writing scene in no time, fresher, crisper and better!

A little from behind the scenes- March 2015

Hi All,

Every other post of ours talks of visits to Delhi NCR to meet our clients. This collage gives a little sneak peak in to the offices we visit.

This photo is from March 2015 to Gurgaon, Noida and Delhi. The offices shown in the frame are those of www.proptiger.com, www.indiahomes.com and www.jabong.com, three of our clients.

Swanky, isn’t it? 😉

Why is content important for your website?

Before the advent of social media marketing, content was not paid much heed to. A company’s advertising budget was divided mostly into 50% on different avenues of advertising and 30% on content. However, ever since internet marketing boomed, the budget allotted to content rose to almost 50%!

Companies nowadays regularly refresh the content on their website, (at least every 2-3 months), to keep visitors/buyers coming back. E-commerce websites too update contents of products that they have been stocking for eons, to channel a fresh approach for attracting new/old buyers. Most websites have started a blog page, where the company speaks of the latest trends and developments in the company or industry.

Sites prefer putting up content which is crisp, free from grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors and tickles the funny bone or awakens the inner soul of readers. Informative, interactive and directional- the three pillars on which content stands today. What you put up on your website must have the potential to keep readers hanging on till the last word and eager to come back for more.

No wonder companies are focusing much on content writing over images and flash graphics. The penmen are indeed mightier than the others. 😀

Company Updates Till October 2014

Hi Readers!

We hope you had a wonderful Dussehra/Navratri/Durga Puja and gearing up for Diwali.

Every company loves saying, they are snowed under work, and we are no different. Between March 2014 and October 2014, we have visited Delhi for servicing our relationship with our existing clients and cementing the same with new ones. Currently, we are juggling myriad projects, from product descriptions to feature articles, job descriptions, property reviews and descriptions, blogs, brand write ups and the usual SEO articles. Our small yet dynamic, hardworking and efficient team churns out close to 25,000 words in a day, thinking up ways to attract more eyeballs to what our clients have to offer.

The coming months are going to be even more hectic, with us visiting Bangalore in November and Delhi (yes, again!) in December, for better pastures. We may be hiring new and experienced talents in the coming few weeks (watch this space for more). We are also in the process of setting up our website and Linkedin.com company page to make us more reachable.

If all goes well, you shall be able to read this blog and much more on a full fledged website and follow us on Linkedin. Godspeed.

Basics of Content Writing

A lot of people who believe that they write well or have a moderate grasp on English, think they can become content writers. And they do become! However, to become a good content writer, it takes a little more than that.

Before getting into how to be a good content writer, let us define what is content writing (for the newbies who are not very familiar with it). Content Writing requires you to research adequately into a topic and come up with a well written, precise and crisp article about it. The parameters of writing the article are different. The word length, style of writing, objectivity of the article etc. determine what and how you write it.

Length of the Article- Articles can be published on websites as SEO articles, press releases, blog posts and much more. The article length will be determined by the purpose of the article. Some of the common kinds of article write ups have been mentioned here:

• A press release is meant to provide a gist of an event or project and hence it does not exceed 300-400 words.
• An SEO article which is meant to inform readers about a certain topic or product go on for 500-600 words.
• Blog posts which provide in-depth details and analysis can be between 900-1000 words. Product reviews usually discuss the features of a product at length. Hence, they can be between 1000 to 1500 words.
• Product descriptions are usually shown beside a particular product on an e-commerce website and hence they are at best 60-70 words.

The length of the articles can vary under these categories though. This is just a rough guideline.

Style of Content Writing

Usually content published on the internet need to be crisp and to the point (If someone was interested in reading pages after pages about a certain topic, they would not look up the internet for quick reference, right? 😉 ) Proper English with punctuation, spelling and grammar is needed in an article. Some websites specifically cater to the US or UK and hence may want the writing style that pertains to those audiences.

It would be wrong to say that content writing can be done only in English. English is the most common method of writing online content although other languages that are fairly popular include Spanish, Italian and French.

Objective of the Article

Each article targets its own audience. A product description which pitches a particular product to a consumer needs to be well researched- its features need to be adequately explained so that a customer is convinced about buying the product. Similarly, product reviews need to be clear cut so that a consume can make up his/her mind about buying a product based on the review. Press releases need to be written in a manner that offers maximum information about a product or project to be launched so that it generates interest among consumers.

In general, you need to pack in information into your articles so that people find it useful and generate the results desired from it. The language also needs to be tweaked to suit the purpose.

Initially you might find researching and streamlining material for your articles difficult. However with practice comes perfection!

At Write Turn Services, we handle not only press releases, blog articles, SEO articles, product descriptions, product reviews, user manuals, home and landing page write ups, brochures and much more. We are adept at providing content that is tailored to provide an entrepreneur the results that s/he desires from it.

 

 

The Need to Socialize for Business Houses

One of our partners, Sohini, got the opportunity to attend a seminar on higher education in India organized by FICCI, Kolkata, Genpact, Talisma Corporation and IMT,Ghaziabad. It was a good experience all in all, but what caught her attention was a line in the program schedule handed out to each guest. “Networking Lunch”. These two words got us thinking about the need for business networking through conferences and here we are, penning a piece on it.

To grow a business, bring in clients and let others know about your company, it is very important to network with other business houses. With the advent of social media and websites such as Crunchbase, where companies can list themselves for other corporate houses to see, the need to interact in person has somewhat diminished.

Earlier, in Calcutta, the rich and elite held memberships in clubs such as Calcutta Club and Saturday Club because they were good avenues for networking with other businessmen apart from offering opportunities to relax. Even though some businessmen still hold memberships to these clubs, the trend of joining the clubs afresh is declining.

Networking face to face is very important. An email, invitation request, Whatsapp or Video presentation may be ignored by a company you are targeting to make your client. Such ignorance would be hard to feign if such a proposal was being laid out in front of an executive’s eyes. Moreover, when you meet someone and they offer you some information, it tends to stay with you. The penetration of information imparted through emails is limited because a corporate executive receives hundreds of emails daily and probably goes through only 20% of it. 

For the expansion of business, a business meet should certainly be organized. Most importantly, it should be open for all companies, irrespective of their sizes, to attend. What happens mostly, especially in Calcutta, is that business networking meetings are organized but only the top companies get to attend them. The small businesses, start ups and other ventures are strategically cut off from meeting potential clients. 

To give everyone a fair chance at expanding commerce, what can be done is an open meet where an enterprise can register, pay a token registration fee and attend the event. The registration fee should be a modest some which can be afforded by all. That way, the new companies also get to showcase their portfolio of work to others. To manage the crowd, a first come first serve basis for registration may be employed. Such a meet, if nothing, it could at least fetch some recognition and publicity for attendants!

Gearing up for the New Financial Year

The month of April marks the new financial year for all Indians. This is the time when businessmen set up a new account book and perform a Puja for prosperity. Bengalis marks this time as Poila Boisakh and it leads to a lot of festivity.

Based in Kolkata, we too believe in the fresh accounting system, come every April. We too have a lot of commitments to fulfill in the month. A lot of old projects are set to be revived and new ones rolled out. Hopefully, we will be able to show good entrepreneurship and decision making skill. 

Second Business Trip to Delhi and Gurgaon

Every quarter, we try to visit a city for meeting our existing clients and making potential contacts. These meetings are helpful in maintaining transparency between us and clients and writers. This time around, we decided to visit Delhi and Gurgaon. Sourav and Sohini left for the trip on 15th March by train. Even though they arrived on the 16th, nothing more was possible for the next 2 days as Delhi was busy celebrating Holi.

On the 19th, trips to client offices and meetings with writers were carried out. In a span of 12 hours, our representatives traveled a distance of close to 100kms (from Rohini to MG Road Gurgaon!). The hectic journey ended with munching on kebabs and revelry at Fatehpuri, Chandni Chowk, which is famous for its Mughal cuisine establishments.

On 20th, Sourav and Sohini boarded the train for Kolkata to rejoin work.

The trip was quite fruitful despite being cut short by 2 days. It is always a pleasure to meet with existing clients and writers to sort out various issues. This was our second trip to Delhi, the first one being in January 2014.

The next trip being planned is to Chennai and Bangalore sometime mid-2014.

Do read this space for more updates.

Write Turn Services- An Introduction

Write Turn Services was started on 29th February,  2012 by a group of friends- Sourav Sengupta, Anuvab Chattopadhyay, Sohini Sarkar and Tiyasha Sengupta with an email address, a fan page on Facebook, an account on Freelancer.com and no clients at hand.

From there, the company went from strength to strength due to the efforts put in by each member. Today, it has worked with several honchos in the online business and strives to work with more.

The core team of the company comprises of:-

Sourav Sengupta- Managing Partner and CEO, Legal and Business Head and HR Manager

Anuvab Chattopadhyay- Managing Partner and Content Head

Sohini Sarkar- Managing Partner and Social Media Manager

The employee strength of the company is 10+. All the employees work on a home based module. Employees are handpicked after a careful scrutiny of their samples and clearance of an in-house test.

Write Turn Services specializes in providing online content solutions. The domains that it has worked in so far are:

• SEO Writing
• Blog Posts
• Product descriptions and Review
• Press Releases
• E-Books
• Copywriting etc.

The strength of the company lies in its strive to deliver excellent content in a time bound manner. The rates offered and charged are competitive.

For business enquiries or job opportunities, please contact:

Sourav Sengupta

Mobile: +919874113370

Email: souravs.wts@gmail.com

Skype: sourav.sengupta89

Anuvab Chattopadhyay

Mobile: +919051116814

Email: anuvab.wts@gmail.com

Sohini Sarkar

Mobile: +919831699455

Email: sohini.wts@gmail.com

Skype: sohini.sarkar91

We hope to help your business take the “Write” Turn!