My Content Creation Issues

Rarely, a day goes by when I'm not creating a new page of content on one of my sites or blogs, and that's usually swiftly followed by emails from the team correcting all my spelling and grammar errors. It's become part of the culture "Chris Publishes content" followed by "Chris corrects content" and then "Chris corrects content again". Mostly, it's not due to me being awful at spelling, but that typing quickly leads to lots of errors, and sometimes my thoughts get ahead of my fingers.

Copying and pasting to word to spell check, or using web based spell checkers isn't always ideal , especially copying from word as so much hidden junk code is also copied which can cause havoc in a blog. The average spell checker also does only that "spell check" and doesn't add much value beyond doing the job. In today's "value add" Internet I believe we all demand that a product do what it's designed to do and add more value beyond.

On top of my own content issue, the fact is that well written copy is an important factor of any affiliate or bloggers content. Spelling and grammar errors can ruin a well put together pre sales pitch. So investing time, or money into preventing these issues is a good investment.

Anyway, I have for a couple of years come across the name WhiteSmoke here and there and constantly ignored it. Last month I was nudged into grabbing a copy to try out by one the team who decided he better things to do than spell check for me.

So, 3 weeks later, of testing the WhiteSmoke software I've been pretty happy with what I get for my money, a spell checker that can be used on any kind of document, software, web site or blog, pretty much anywhere. Select the copy I want to check (or allow WhiteSmoke to select it all) click F2, check copy and job done! In addition to that there's the value add bits. The system offers recommendations on how to improve the copy, checks the grammar and helps me to put together better content with no errors. It also offers various levels of copy improvement, from general and business through to medical. While primarily built to plug in to IE, the software does work with FireFox.

The only issue I've had with the software is that it when you run the spell check on copy, any formating or links that I've embedded into the content are removed when the copy is reloaded after being corrected. A minor pain, but it just means adding the links and formating after the copy has been corrected and improved.

Wonder what the team will do with all that extra time they've got now they don't need to check my spelling for me :)

Maybe I'm the odd one out?

Twitter... I have to say, that I'm still in "what's the fuss", and "who cares if I woke up at 9:15 this morning and had 3 rashers of bacon, beans and two eggs (sunny side up) for breakfast", then at 9:27 AM "had a shower a cup of coffee and cleaned my teeth", though maybe I should break that down into multiple twitts, twerps, posts or what ever they are called to ensure no one thinks I did all three at the same time, maybe I did, I can't remember, perhaps I need Twitter to help me remember what I did each day!

However it seems the rest of the world can't get enough, and yes I admit, I do have an account, which gets update once every month when Google Chat says "Hey you haven't posted on Twitter for ages bud!", though it's not nudged me for some time (perhaps it gave up on me) , worse I do have people who are fans, followers, tweetie birds, etc and follow my every move, I bet most of them believe I'm in traction!

I know Dave here at AMWSO (big Twitter Fan) did post some time back about the joys of communicating with affiliates via Twitter and the like, and I'm not one to bash any method of getting a message out, but heck, is anyone really sitting, watching and waiting for the next tweet message. Do they want business messages mixed in with "Woke up and have a headache after last nights pubcon!" Me no, I'm not a believer. Though perhaps if I was following the development of say, a piece of software, it would be useful to get updates via twitter. Or better yet if I can't get to the football match, then someone can sms to their tweet account all the action for me to follow at home. Could always check the developer blog / web site, or watch the football on TV though, for far better results.

Anyway what brought me around to chatting about Twitter is some new tools around that make it easier to manage and track both your own and other people's messages. As I'm a novice user and totally clueless as to which are any good I'll not blather on any further, but suggest popping over to Sukosak's blog and see what he has to say and recommend for those of you who are keen Twitter Users.