I much prefer the word metamorphosis.  It conjures up such nice things such as the transformation of a caterpillar into abutterfly.

My metamorphosis from a freelance web content writer into a NIA Dance teacher in Staffordshire/Derbyshire is certainly taking its time, particularly as I find I’ve metamorphisised back into freelance working in Brighton...

NIA Dance practice has helped to kept me calm, grounded, energised, alert, supple, happy, focused and aware.

And, best of all, my body literally shouts at me when I’ve been sitting at my desk for far too long!

It won’t be long before I’m back starting up my NIA classes at John Taylor School in Barton under Needwood …..

Many thanks to Nia with Rosie for helping me along the way.

So I thought I’d create a ‘word of the week’ blog spot focusing on ‘words ’that we just don’t seem to use much in our everyday language.

And then I’m going to try and use these ‘words’ as much as I can so they become part of my life.
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Word of the Week: BALK

What does ‘Balk’ mean to me?

• not a very pretty word
• I could ‘balk’ at something, i.e. be nervous about doing it
• Geography lessons and ‘The Balkan mountains’

So I thought I’d create a ‘word of the week’ blog spot focusing on ‘words ’that we just don’t seem to use much in our everyday language.

And then I’m going to try and use these ‘words’ as much as I can so they become part of my life.

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Word(s) of the Week: ‘MANSE’ and ‘JINNY’

I’ve fallen behind a bit with my ‘words of the week’.  So, this week, it’s 2for1!

I’ve discovered these two words since I’ve been living in Tutbury, so I’ll call them my Tutbury words.

Everyday I pass a house called The Old Manse.  It’s up by the castle and I was sure this word had medieval connections.  Having looked it up it does in fact mean ‘rectory’ or mansion house.  And now I find that I’m seeing it on the name plates of quite a few of the older houses in nearby villages.

Jinny proved more difficult.  We’ve got a Tutbury Jinny (model shop), and a Jinny Inn, and also a Jinny Trail.  But no reference to ‘Jinny’ in the dictionary.   And then I found out that it was the affectionate name for a steam train service that used to run between Tutbury and Burton….and it all made sense.

So I linked to my blog and here’s the result.  Love it!

I thought about it again yesterday whilst chatting to a family friend who works for a global power engineering company. I was trying to get my head round exactly what the organisation offered and my brain started to lose it when I realised it was a lot to do with the manufacture and supply of electrical components to huge utility organisations such as ‘eon’, ‘npower’ and ‘powergen’.

Thankfully we didn’t get on to whether or not their website needed a re-write.  And I had to remind myself of the parameters within which I will say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a writing job.  Here’s what I’ve come up with:

• It’s a definite yes if I can relate to, visualise, and understand the subject matter
• It’s a definite yes if I’m given a rough outline and asked to re-jig the content for maximum optimisation
• It’s a definite no if I’m asked to write from scratch anything that relates to ‘physics’ and that brings back horrendous O’level memories of words such as: volts, particles, electrons, components, frequency, ions, etc, etc.

I’ve only ever had to turn down one web content writing job due to its subject matter.  It was all about those tiny tiny electronic circuit boards that go into making the tiny tiny memory chips that go into our ever tinier and tinier mobile phones…..help!!

Happy New Year to all my followers.

So I thought I’d create a ‘word of the week’ blog spot focusing on ‘words ’that we just don’t seem to use much in our everyday language.

And then I’m going to try and use these ‘words’ as much as I can so they become part of my life.

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This week’s word – HOTCHPOTCH

This word must seem very strange to people who are learning English.

And yet, for English speakers, its meaning is immediately obvious.  Why?  You just have to say it and it makes you feel slightly ‘odd’ – and so we have its meaning:

an odd mix, all sorts, a job lot, a mishmash (another good word!), a jumble

What does it mean to me?

• a fun word
• means what it says
• reminds me of playing ‘hopscotch’

What does it mean to you?

So I thought I’d create a ‘word of the week’ blog spot focusing on ‘words ’that we just don’t seem to use much in our everyday language.

And then I’m going to try and use these ‘words’ as much as I can so they become part of my life.

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This week’s word – ANORAK

I don’t think I’ve ever used this word in any of my copywriting projects. And yet it’s one of my favourite words, simply because it’s evolved so far from its original meaning.

Who would have guessed that an ‘inuit’ word from Alaska for a ‘protective item of clothing’ would have become one of the best ways in the English language to describe someone who’s a bit of a ‘geek’.  I love it!

What does it mean to me?:

• a ‘sensible’ piece of clothing
• an inoffensive way of describing an ‘enthusiast’
• a ‘geek’

What does it mean to you?

So I thought I’d create a ‘word of the week’ blog spot focusing on ‘words’that we just don’t seem to use much in our everyday language.

And then I’m going to try and use these ‘words’ as much as I can so they become part of my life.

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This week’s word – DISCOMBOBULATE

What does it mean?

v.t. feeling disconnected or unbalanced

What does it mean to me?

• a really good way to describe feeling not quite ‘with it’
• an unusual word for the English language
• something that maybe a ‘dalek’ would say

What does it mean to you?

Ultimately, we all want customers to find our sites and to stay on them. And we want them to stay long enough to realise that our products and services are just what they’ve been looking for.

How can we achieve this? Firstly, we have to assume that they don’t arrive on our sites by accident but that they are here for a reason, that they are actively looking for our particular product, service, advice, ideas, help etc, and that they have probably been helped by Google and the effectiveness of our search engine optimisation programme within Google.

Next, we want to make sure that, once they have found our site, our prospective customers STAY on our sites long enough to be inspired, to be engaged, to browse, to bookmark for later, to buy, to email, to pick up the phone, to do whatever it takes to make that next important step and interact with YOUR business.

How do we do this? Good, effective web design of course, but ultimately, it’s the words that matter most. Its the web content writing that can really get into the heads of your customers, that makes them realise that YOU can give them what they want, your product is a ‘must have’, that they will ‘miss out’ if they don’t do what you want them to do.

So now I come back to my original question. Can anyone write this kind of persuasive content? In a nutshell, no. Some people may think they can, but the key to a successful website is to hire a web content copywriter who can empathise with customers, who can get into their heads and understand them, who can communicate with them rather than to them. It’s almost as if we’re talking face-to-face.

What else is important? Of course spelling and grammar are important too, but the web is different. It needs an informal and friendly tone, a persuasive voice, and short, punchy sentences and paragraphs that keep the customer engaged and interested.

So what’s so special about me? It helps that I’m naturally empathetic and enthusiastic and this shines through in the words I use and how I put them together. I also stick to 6 principle rules when I write web content:

I work out why the product or service can really benefit the customer
I get the customers’ attention
I capture their interest
I show them why they want the product or service
I show them how and when to buy

Can I help you with your web content? I hope so.

Contact me at http://www.sarah-gibbs.co.uk ]]>