An interesting thing happened while collaborating on some sales letter work recently. While sitting in on the initial client interviews, I found myself going back to Mike’s white paper interview template to “fill in” some gaps while we were talking to the client.
Mike’s white paper process is much more interview-heavy than other types of marketing writing, but it’s also much more comprehensive. The “Stelzner method” is more of a guided discussion than an in-depth creative brief filled out over the phone, and I’ve found it much more efficient for gathering information than your typical client discovery questionnaire. This is especially true when talking to technical experts, as they can tend to run off on tangents or even miss the point of a question entirely unless it is asked of them in several different ways.
Let’s say the idea vault is looking pretty empty. No one at your company has really contributed any new thoughts in ages. Does it ever make sense to ask your key players to contribute white papers, outlining new ideas for corporate growth?
This is the essence of a question submitted by Jason, working for an international organization:
I am working for a international high tech company and they have planned a management meeting with the 80 top managers (R&D, Engineers, Sales, Marketing, Finance). They will spend a week together, working on different issues. The outcome of the week must be that everybody has the same mindset and the same goals.
There will be presentations of the CFO, CEO etc. and there will be discussion about how and what technologies the company must develop. To structure the discussion we want to set up a workshop.
Is it a proven technique to give everybody the assignment to write a white paper for the company? From their point of view, and with clear guidelines of how to write it of course.
There’s some serious gold here folks! With literally hundreds of nominations pouring in, this year’s 4th annual competition was intense.
The 27 finalists have been carefully examined, with the greatest weight on the quality of their content. What follows are the top 10 blogs for writers for 2009/2010.
If you’re a writer, you’ll find daily doses of inspiration and discovery at these excellent blogs: Read the rest of this article »
I think you know which position I’m coming down on as a white paper writer.
Are you a specialist or a generalist? Is the need for more work forcing you to reconsider your writing focus?Are you contemplating developing a writing niche?Or maybe you’ve decided it’s time to be a generalist again?
Come hear the debate and make an informed decision.
By the way, the tickets to this online event are totally free.But we can only accommodate 1,000 people.And by the looks of it, we’ll fill up in the next few days.
By the way, I have a confession… It’s been more than 20 years since I’ve debated anyone.Unlike my college debate days, this is going to be a lot more fun (Peter and I are actually good friends)!Be sure to join me.Just go here: http://www.whitepapersource.com/debate/
Successful writers share one common trait — they market themselves using very easy-to-implement tactics. Yet even as demand for writers is skyrocketing, many freelancers would rather spend their time walking the dog or washing the dishes.
“What we’ve got here is a major disconnect. Never before in the history of words has the demand for freelance writers been so high. Yet I constantly hear from copywriters, journalists, technical writers and copyeditors that ‘marketing’ is a four-letter word,” says Michael A. Stelzner, one of America’s top-paid freelance writers.
There’s plenty of work for the taking. According to a recent Junta42 study, 6 in 10 businesses are spending more for content production. The need for case studies, ebooks, newsletters, articles, websites, white papers and press releases is growing at an unprecedented rate. For the writer who applies a few simple techniques, work is plentiful and money is good.
To land more work from higher-paying clients, Stelzner and nine other top-billing freelancers suggest the following easy-to-employ tactics: Read the rest of this article »
It’s time to open up nominations for our 4th annual Top 10 Blogs for Writers contest—the blogosphere’s biggest contest for writing blogs.
Since we first began this contest four years ago, blogs for writers have really taken off. Many of last years winners have gone on to build very successful blogs.
How to Nominate Your Favorite Writing Blog:
Reply to this message with your nomination
You have only one vote (only your first will be counted)
Please include the web address of the blog
Explain why you think the blog is worthy of winning this year’s award?
To make the cut, a blog must be nominated more than once.
The winners will be announced here and also in our 25,000 reader newsletter.
Nominations must be received by September 11, 2009.
For those who have not attended one of Michael Stelzner’s in-person workshops, you missed a real treat at the White Paper Boot Camp in San Diego last week. The weather was perfect (a balmy 75°), the lush, tropical surroundings at the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay were gorgeous, and the workshop was intense!
People flew in from all over the country (and Canada), including freelance writers, marketing managers and business executives—a great mix. Some had been following Mike for a while, and others found out about him more recently or were referred by business associates. However, everyone there expected to learn a lot about the art of writing and marketing white papers, and Mike certainly didn’t disappoint.
Do you have a white paper that needs a little more attention? What follows are four “not so obvious places” to promote your white papers.
1. Your Email Signature: Why not include a title, short description and link to your white papers in your email signature. This will ensure that your white paper is prominently displayed in all of your email communications. Be sure to include it in auto-responder emails, such as newsletter registration confirmations.
2. On Twitter: Create a custom background on Twitter with a thumbnail of the cover of your white paper. Include a very prominent visual URL. Remember that Twitter backgrounds are graphics, so you won’t be able to hotlink the white paper. However, when folks want to learn more about you, they’ll see your white paper.
3. On Facebook: Try including a link to you white paper in your personal profile in Facebook OR on your Facebook fan page. In addition, you can use the Notes feature in Facebook to paste in HTML formatted content, such as your white paper landing pages.
4. On Your Blog: If your company has a blog, the sidebar is an excellent place to promote your white paper. Simply include a small thumbnail image and a link or basic form to gain access to the paper.
Should you use video and twitter together? Well it just so happens that a very cool new tool was just announced called TwitCam.com.
What follows is my review of the service based on an actual live video stream I conducted today (and the recording).
First let me say I think this service totally rocks! I don’t think I could have expected an easier user interface or experience. So let me share with you how it works.
Step one: Visit TwitCam.com and sign in using your Twitter ID (if you don’t use Twitter you can set up an account with TwitCam).
Step two: Select your video and audio source from intelligent drop-down menu.
Step three: Press the “broadcast and Tweet” button.
It’s really that easy.
Here are my own experiences using TwitCam and some of the pitfalls you should be aware of.
Michael Stelzner is the author of Writing White Papers and has written more than 130 white papers for recognized companies, including Dow Jones, Microsoft, FedEx, Motorola, Monster, HP and SAP.
How to Nominate Your Favorite Writing Blog: 
Step one: Visit 
