TechFold - Bold tech & web commentary

Anyone else doing NaNoWriMo?

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) kicked off last night; I managed to bang out 1121 words in a half-stupified, slumping-over-drowsy state - no small accomplishment, let me tell you. For those not in the know, NaNoWriMo is a participatory competition: anyone can enter, and everyone who can write 50,000 words in the month of November (in a single, semi-coherent novel format) is considered a winner - and an author (cool!).

If you’re an author or a nano participant, good on ya! If you’re not, I strongly recommend it: its an extremely liberating and entertaining experience. Creating people, lives, and a story arc out of thin air is more fun than I thought it would be, and is an entirely different experience than blogging or the short form writing (emails, reports and the like) that dominates our day-to-day communications. I’m hoping the experience will improve my writing skills overall, too - so there is a pragmatic reason to participate; think of it as a “mental boot camp.”

Of course, I’m still in the honeymoon phase: ask me again in two weeks how much I’m enjoying the nightly push to crank something out.

Anyway, if you’re into it too, drop me a line in comments!

nanowrimo writing

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A Suggestion for Startups: PRESS/BLOGGER KIT

Here’s a suggestion for startups, based on two months of writing reviews. Provide a “Press Kit” for bloggers, MSM, whoever. In it include:

1. A succinct description of each section/function of your site/application in a clearly organized, bulleted form, with links.
2. Clearly link to the press/blogger kit from your front page.
3. A blog post sized version of your logo (200px wide max) in a transparent PNG format. You have no idea how much photoshopping this would save bloggers…
4. Screenshots of core functionality and actual usage of the site/app.

This list is intended to provide a starting point for reviewers in exploring your site. There’s few things I find as frustrating as spending a bunch of time trying to figure out what a given site offers or what the key points of its value proposition are; just tell me up front what you (as the builder of the site) intend audiences to be looking at.

I’d like to reinforce the “starting point” element of this: however much of the site you describe in the above format, its a good reviewer’s mandate to go beyond your bullet list and plumb the depths of your site - providing a list just helps the reviewer get through the core stuff so they can focus on digging and providing insight. As a reviewer, I’ll start with what you tell me I should see, and report on what I actually see.

Similarly, a good review will involve taking screenshots as the writer actually uses your site/app. The “canned” screenshots in your Press Kit provide guidance, however, and let you display your achievement how you hope it will come across.

Final Notes:

1. In an ideal world, a well-designed site shouldn’t need a bulleted list; hopefully the contents of your site present themselves well enough that the can be parsed out without spoon-feeding bloggers. If you’re in alpha or beta, however, your presentation may not be as refined as it might be. Writing the list may help crystalize your design as well. Even if your past beta, you may have non-obvious (for whatever reason) functionality that you want to highlight.
2. A Press-Kit is subtly different than what you may have there for users - i.e.: welcome pages, demo videos, etc. A critical blogger writing a review is a fundamentally different audience than the general public: speak to each audience in their language and tell them your story contextually.
3. This shouldn’t be a big deal to put together. One page, a few paragraphs of copy, a few graphics and screenshots. Done.

reviewing, reviews, startups, suggestions writing

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