writing good content: wordcamp milwaukee 2014

Writing Good Content with WordPress

Foundation Friday

Michael McCallister

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Who am I?

• Senior Document Architect, PKWARE

• Co-Author, WordPress in Depth, with Bud Smith (QUE, 2010-11)

• Notes from the Metaverse (metaverse.wordpress com)

• Past President, Wisconsin Society for Technical Communication (www.stc-wi.org)

© Michael McCallister WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Coming in May 2014

Ask questions any time!

© Michael McCallister WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

•GRAMMAR

What We’re Covering

• Defining your audience

• Banning Jargon

• Banning Passive Voice

• WordPress Tools That Can Help

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Defining Your Audience

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Secret #1

Nobody connects with

everybody overnight.

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Identifying Audience

• Basic Demographics• Age

• Gender

• Location

• Education Level

• Language(s)

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Identifying Audience

• Other characteristics• Life Status:

Married/Single/Parent/Just graduated

• Profession/Job

• Favorite Author(s)

• Other interests

From Rochelle Melander, Write-a-Thon

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Persona Resources

• A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences by Whitney Quesenbery

• http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/personas.html

Exercise

Tell me about your audience

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Secret #2: It’s always about meeting readers’ needs!

Quality content = relevant material, presented in a way I can understand

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Quick Quiz

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

JargonEvil Scourge #1

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Can you scan this quickly?

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Passive VoiceEvil Scourge #2

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

To Be or Not To Be?

Is

Was

Has

Were

Been

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

WordPress to the Rescue!Some tools to help create quality content

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

5 Tools

• Editing Tools and Plugins• After the Deadline (WP.com

+ Jetpack

• Yoast WordPress SEO (plugin)

• FD Word Statistics (plugin)

• Human Help• WordPress Daily Post

• Request Feedback (WP.com)

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

After the Deadline

• Created by Automattic, 2011

• Default spell checker in WordPress.com

• Included with Jetpack

• Browser plugins: Firefox/Chrome

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Yoast WordPress SEO

• Created and maintained by Joost deValk

• Plugin

• Readability statistics

• Many other goodies

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

FD Word Statistics

• Created by John Watson

• Plugin

• Readability statistics: Gunning-Fog, Flesch & Flesch-Kincaid

• Old, but functional

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Request Feedback

• Help from humans you know

• WordPress.com only (form)

• Me

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

WordPress Blogging University

• Informal writing courses

• Daily prompts

• Inspiration

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Secret #3Practice, Practice, Practice

Want Some Writing Help?

• I’ll be in the building the rest of the day, all day tomorrow

• Write me (or Request Feedback) at Michael@michaelmccallister.com

• Visit me at www.michaelmccallister.com

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Free Webinar Wednesday

• Your Author Platform: Why You Need One and How to Get Started

• Wednesday, July 30 1-2PM Central Time

• Registration URL: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3447338748608137730Webinar ID: 124-619-819

In this 60-minute webinar, Carole Jelen shows you how to create the basic framework of your author platform as a starting point to growing it over time. Once your author platform is built, it takes on a life of its own. This seminar also explains the 12 underlying New Rules that are foundations for your writer platform.

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014

Questions?Have a great WordCamp!

Michael McCallister, WordCamp Milwaukee 2014