1. Manufacturer’s description.  If you don’t create the product yourself, then the manufacturer will probably have pre-made text describing it.  Get a copy of that and include that on the page, properly labeled as the “manufacturer’s description.”
2. Your site’s description.  If you don’t feel the manufacturer’s description does the product justice, you can write your own.  The more detailed, the better.  Remember: this isn’t a sales letter.  The customer is now on your order page, likely wanting to know as much as they can before hitting the “BUY” button.
3. Product documentation.  Obtain permission from your supplier first.  One you get a thumbs up, offer these documents as PDF downloads from the product page.
4. FAQ.  If prospects visit the page and send in questions, you may want to collect those that come up multiple times.  Once you have three or more questions, list them in a separate section on the page in a question-and-answer format.

What kinds of jobs can you do for local companies?

Internal documents.  Every organization maintains internal documents, such as operating procedures and employee manuals, that they could use some help fixing up.   Ask around if any of these types of jobs are available.  And make sure they get your contact details even when they have no current editing needs.  You never know when those same documents will need to be updated — you could be their go-to guy when that happens.

Marketing materials.  Many small local companies will run ads in local publications and classifieds websites, apart from producing flyers, pamphlets and other marketing materials.  If they’re not outsourcing to a third party, there’s a good chance that they’re handling stuff in-house and need a contractor to help edit the text.

1. Keep it short and informative.  Don’t use the press release to promote fluff about your company or your products.  Instead, maximize every paragraph, filling it with relevant information about the subject.  The shorter and more concise the release, the easier it will be for publications to cover your material.
2. Use a news style.  The standard news structure, which answers all the immediate questions on top, works best for press releases.  Not only does it immediately let the recipient know what the release is about, it also makes it easy to cut-and-paste the actual press release to fill up space in a publication (since it’s already in a standard news format).
3. Don’t be a pesky spammer.  Take the time to put together a proper mailing list — choose publications that actually feature products like yours and put just one person from that publication in your list.
4. Call the recipient.  If you want to increase your chances of getting coverage, give the recipient a call before sending the press release.  This will ensure they don’t just pass it over it while reading through their email headers.
5. Include photos.  Either append high-def photos as part of the email or point them to a website where they can easily download them.  The less hoops publications have to go through to feature you, the more likely they are to give you coverage.

If you’re looking at a career in technical writing, you should familiarize yourself with these types of documents, just as you do with more identified technical material.   What types of documents will you be writing under this category?  A lot, actually, including client proposals, service-level agreements, white papers, standard operating procedures, policies, legal disclaimers and many others.

Technical writing encompasses both procedural (instruction manuals, troubleshooting guides) and persuasive (white papers, product catalogs), so you need to brush up your skills in both.  It’s important for technical writers to be well-versed  not just in the technical aspects of the company’s products and services, but in the technical language of business and marketing, as well.

What if you want to specialize?  There are definitely opportunities.  If you’re starting, though, you’ll find it difficult to pick and choose your projects.  As you advance in your technical writing career, your background in a particular type of documentation might make you attractive to hire as a specialized freelancer.

When many writers think about selling, the first thing that pops in their head are the bad examples they’ve seen.  You know the type: the pesky telemarketers, shady car salesmen and exaggerated hype men using underhanded tactics to part you with your money.  Well, that’s not what you should be doing with your copy.

The key to selling as a copywriter is to cultivate your ability to empathize with the prospect.   Walk in their shoes and see things from their point of view.  When you can understand your readers’ problems, needs and desires, you can tailor what you write to address all of those things.

One of the biggest mistakes novice copywriters make is using strong-arm tactics like real-life salesmen do.  While hype and pressure can work face-to-face, it’s not quite that easy to do in print.   With written copy, the prospect can walk anytime he pleases.  Just say the wrong thing once and they can turn their attention to something else.

Short Versus Long

In truth, long paragraphs are just as good as short paragraphs for sales letters.    What you should focus on is writing good paragraphs.  That means:

1. It focuses on one main idea.
2. It’s as concise as possible.

Sometimes, achieving those two things will require nothing more than a short three-sentence paragraph.  Other times, though, it could take ten sentences or more to accomplish.   Whichever the case, the “long paragraph” isn’t necessarily a devil to be shunned.

Aim For Tight Paragraphs

Sometimes, writers can end up falling over themselves trying to shorten a paragraph that discusses a topic deserving of adequate exploration.   As a result, they end up with a paragraph whose subject isn’t fully fleshed out.

Instead of going for short, aim for tight.  While it’s smart to avoid overly long paragraphs, don’t avoid it when necessary.   Write as much as you need to sufficiently make your point clearly and persuasively, but keep it to as short as you can manage.

Learning to put together white papers can prove a useful skill for anyone aspiring to a career in technical writing.  If you’re getting started on the path, here are five things to get used to avoiding when writing your own white papers.

• Proper writing structure.  When you write a white paper, make sure to provide adequate background information before delving into the details.  Also, give each concept adequate elaboration (e.g. don’t jump from one implementation to another in a jerky manner the way many white papers online seem to).
• Getting too technical.  While white papers are technical documents, a good portion of your audience will be non-technical folks.  Provide adequate explanation for technical elements that you suspect might go over some of your readers’ heads.
• Using unclear terms.  Acronyms, terminology and jargon can be useful for simplifying communication among peers, but it can lead to confusion if not properly defined and explained.  Make sure you do.
• Being visually unappealing.  Stop thinking of a white paper as a report people will read for their content alone.  Make it visually interesting, with pictures, diagrams and spacious formatting.  Basically, make it easier to read.
• No summary.   Always have a summary.  That way, busy professionals will have a quick place to check key points before reading your piece in detail.

Why benefits?  Because a list of features is rarely enough to compel people to make a purchase.  Unless someone knows exactly how different one fabric is from another, they won’t know that the blanket you’re selling will feel especially warm during cold evenings and last longer even with regular use.  You have to point those benefits out.

Think of benefits like stories.  They’re what go through people’s minds when they think about using a product.  When a guy signs up for a subscription-based web tool, for instance, he won’t do so because they have 110 features that competing tools don’t have.  Chances are, they’ll usually sign up because this particular service makes their lives easier.

When you write, it’s important to bring these benefits to life.  That means, writing them using colorful language and creating scenes that show how the prospect can enjoy those benefits.   You must demonstrate, in no uncertain terms, the effect a product can have on the prospect’s life.

If you’re writing a music press release, here are some tips to get it done right:

1. Define your goal.  Before doing anything else, define what you want the press release to achieve.   Whether you want to create buzz about a band’s new album or alert people of a club tour by new dance act, knowing what you want to get out of the press release will focus your attention while you write it.
2. Identify your hook.  What special element of the topic can you use to interest the reader?  A label signing a new rap act or a five-piece country band releasing a new single isn’t particularly newsworthy, so you’ll need to find an angle to make the subject more interesting.  What makes this story more notable than others?  Find that and you’ll come up with a more enticing press release.
3. Break up the writing into three parts.  Write an introductory paragraph that answers the journalistic questions (who, what, when, where, why, how) concisely, as well as introduces the hook of the subject.  Follow that with the body (it could be one or more paragraph) that fills in the various details surrounding the subject.  In the final paragraph, let the reader know how they can find more information, get in touch with contact persons, obtain promotional copies and other details that will allow them to find out more about the subject.
4. Keep it short.   The best press releases keep the content to one page.  Doing so keeps it easy to read, increasing the chances that busy editors and reporters will actually give it the time of day.
5. Be straightforward.  Some amount of creativity in a press release never hurts.  However, press releases always work better when they’re written like a news story — with attention focused on facts and pertinent information.

Getting Creative

There’s not a lot of room for wielding your creative wand when putting together press releases.   The more you veer away from the standard format, the more difficult you make it for reporters, bloggers and editors to get the meat of your message.    If your press release doesn’t look like a press release, it’s more likely to be passed over.

Formatting Guidelines

• Release Details. Put the company name and address on the top left-hand side, with the date of the press release on the right.   Write “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” or “EMBARGO FOR RELEASE UNTIL…” on the same right-hand area as well.
• Headline.  Put the headline of your press release immediately after that.  Make sure it reads like a news headline, cramming as much immediate information as possible.  You can elaborate on the title by adding a subtitle right below it.
• Dateline.  Appearing right below the headline, at the start of the first sentence of the first paragraph, this just repeats the date and place where the press release originated.  It’s unnecessary these days, but consider it tradition.
• Copy.  Follow the standard news reporting format here, following an inverted pyramid approach to development.  Try to get the journalistic questions (5 W’s and 1 H) answered early on, even if it parrots some items from the headline.
• Closing paragraphs.  You can tack on one or more closing paragraphs.  Usually, these consist of boilerplate descriptions for the companies or entities doing the press release.
• Ending.  End it with “###” or “END.”  Again, it’s unnecessary, but it follows the standard traditions (and it doesn’t hurt).