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5 Ways to Build and Improve Your Vocabulary

5 Ways to Build and Improve Your Vocabulary

Knowing how to harness the power of words for your benefit can make for a much smoother career path – be it in interviews, meetings, emails, presentations, conversations and more. If you can express yourself clearly, you have a huge advantage over most. Having a good vocabulary is crucial for written as well as spoken communication. It benefits you not just professionally but also personally. Working on your vocabulary helps you articulate yourself in a specific and precise manner, and is one of the most underrated skills. In fact, the researcher Johnson O’Connor conducted a study over 20 years, and showed that

“No matter which area he looked at, and no matter how he analyzed the data: a person’s vocabulary level is the best single predictor of occupational success.”

Read on to find out about the five simple practices which will help build and improve your vocabulary.

Improve your Vocabulary by Reading

This is one habit that will boost your vocabulary like nothing else can. Set aside at least thirty minutes of your day for some mindful reading. Read business magazines or online business journals, reading newspapers daily is a must – at least the editorials, and of course, if you enjoy fiction, nothing like it. But remember that it is not enough to just read and know the story, the whole point is to build your word power, so when you come across a word and do not know what it means, be sure to look it up. Keep a pocket dictionary handy or an online dictionary on your bookmarks menu. We would also suggest noting it down on a sticky note and putting it somewhere you can see it every day, until it becomes a part of your vocabulary!

Improve your Vocabulary by Playing

Yes, building a vocabulary can be a rather fun thing to do. Make crosswords and word games an obsession and before you know it, you will have gained fabulous language skills. It can be hard in the beginning, but the key is to keep practicing. Most newspapers have a word games section that you can try. There are several mobile apps you can play in which you can also choose to start from a basic level and move up gradually. Our favourites are Wordament, Words Words Words and Text Twist. You can also check out the FreeRice.com website which donates 10 grains of rice through the World Food program for every answer that you get right in their vocabulary quiz.

Improve your Vocabulary One Word A Day

Yes, one of the secrets to a powerful vocabulary – learn one word at a time, everyday. Subscribe to “word of the day” emails. Don’t just sign up for it, make sure you read the emails every day and don’t end up marking them as spam. While it may take you only a few minutes to read it, the benefits will truly be long-term. You can use this link to sign up for one of these programs – Wordsmith.org or Word Of The Day

Improve your Vocabulary by Listening

You might have noticed by now, the amount of stress we lay on this one point in all our communication related posts. Listening intently and carefully is a great way to improve your vocabulary and communication. If you like the way the speaker is speaking, make a note of what you like. When you listen carefully, you will also come across new words and will learn the context in which to use them. If you write the word down and use it immediately in a sentence, your brain will remember the word better. It is also very important to listen to someone who does not seem to be making a lot of sense while speaking, because that is a lesson on the mistakes you have to avoid yourself.

Improve your Vocabulary by Writing

Even though this may sound tedious, it will take you a long way in improving your vocabulary. Writing helps you form coherent sentences and is a true measure of reflecting how your vocabulary has improved. It need not be tedious, all you need to do is maintain a journal and write as little as half a page a day, even about simple things like how your day was! This habit can be really helpful if you pursue it in a disciplined and persistent manner. We can assure you that two weeks into keeping a journal, you will really start enjoying it! Start today!

Remember that practice makes for perfect. You may follow all of the above advice, however, if you don’t put into use what you learn, it doesn’t matter how hard you have been working. Incorporate into your daily vocabulary the words you have been learning. Express yourself regardless of the anxiety that you may fumble and make mistakes. Make mistakes and then learn from them, and slowly with practice, you will be perfect!

5 Simple Life Hacks to Help You Write Better

5 Simple Life Hacks to Help You Write Better

Being a writer is a full time job. You are not on vacation even when you are on vacation because you are constantly thinking about what to write next! Being creative 24*7 is quite a challenge and a very difficult one to live up to. We, at Oorja Biz Ops have been brainstorming about changes we can bring about in our daily life, to help refuel the creativity. Here are five hacks that will work for you to write better (they certainly did, for us !):

Write Better Hack #1 – Start your day early

Being an early riser has a lot more advantages than you think. This is the best way to give your day a head start. Schedule the first 45 minutes of your day to write five hundred words of anything you can think about. With consistent practice you will see your writing skills improve significantly in just a matter of weeks. Accomplishing a task right at the beginning of the day is also a great confident booster and keeps you pumped up all through the day.

Write Better Hack #2 – Replace the caffeine

Did we hear a collective gasp? We know what coffee means to writers. For many, it can be impossible to start a day without a cup. However, it is a proven fact that a regular dose of caffeine is not a very healthy thing for your body. Caffeine also causes anxiety and restlessness which may not be what you need when you are already on the edge due to work stress. Try and replace caffeine with healthier options like green tea or even regular tea or some other healthy beverage. Might be worth it to give it a shot and notice the difference!

Write Better Hack #3 – Find ‘me time’ 

Gifting yourself some time is the healthiest thing you can do for yourself and the best hack to trigger your writing creativity. Set aside about 45 minutes of your day, every day, to recharge your soul simply by indulging yourself. Cook, bake, garden, sing, dance, paint – whatever helps you connect with your inner self and makes you happy. Finding ‘me time’ can be a tall order given the lifestyles we lead. This problem may be solved by going back to what we said about waking up early. That way, you will have more time than you usually do. Even if it’s just an hour earlier, it still gives you some space to fit ‘me time’ into your otherwise cramped day.

Write Better Hack #4 – Read Often, Read More

Read as much as, or more than you write. Reading helps recharge your intellectual resources and keeps those brainy ideas flowing. Reading fires your imagination – the stuff writers are made of.  As Stephen King wrote in “On Writing”:

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut. . . .

It’s hard for me to believe that people who read very little (or not at all in some cases) should presume to write and expect people to like what they have written, but I know it’s true. If I had a nickel for every person who ever told me he/she wanted to become a writer but didn’t have time to read, I could buy myself a pretty good steak dinner. Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.

Just like a balanced diet is essential for a healthy body, balanced reading is crucial for a healthy mind and will make you think in different directions. Make sure your reading list consists of a mixed dose of current affairs, fiction and non-fiction. What you read, reflects in what and how you write.

Write Better Hack #5 – Be Honest with Yourself

While it is crucial to have expectations from oneself, at the same time, it is important to have goals which are practical and achievable. Setting long term targets on a high-on-red-bull day, probably isn’t a good idea. What we mean is, enthusiasm is vital, however, a lot of times we tend to become over enthusiastic with our goals and go on over drive trying to achieve them. Being honest with yourself about what you can and cannot achieve in a given period of time does not mean tardiness, it means being practical. But then, a little pressure now and then does help to shoo the devil called Procrastination away!

And finally, after putting our neck on the line, we leave you with the words from our idol and mentor, Seth Godin :

The biggest takeaway for anyone seeking to write is this: don’t go looking for the way other authors do their work. You won’t find many who are consistent enough to copy, and there are enough variations in approach that it’s obvious that it’s not like hitting home runs or swinging a golf club. There isn’t a standard approach, there’s only what works for you (and what doesn’t).

We hope you enjoyed our post. We would love to hear from you on what you do to help you write more and write better!

A Quick Guide to Writing Compelling Ecommerce Content

A Quick Guide to Writing Compelling Ecommerce Content

You are staring at an image of this plain white tee on an ecommerce website, wondering if you really need it.  Beside the image, the word ‘versatile’ catches your eye and you decide to read. Here is how it goes – ‘This versatile, white t-shirt is a must-have in your wardrobe. An everyday essential, this simple round-neck t-shirt is cut from the finest cotton with an extra-soft feel. A straight fit, it has a ribbed round neckline, short sleeves and neat stitched edges. Wear it under a casual shirt or pair it with denim shorts and loafers, the possibilities are endless.’ Sold.

Content and content marketing is all about offering value to your customers, keeping them engaged and giving them all the necessary information they need to make an informed buying decision. Ecommerce content is every form of write-up that goes into building an engaging ecommerce website. It includes Home page content, keyword optimized category and sub-category descriptions, SEO blurbs, product descriptions and blogs, newsletters and editorials about the latest trends. The content needs to be creative, crisp, original and engaging because compelling content is always a competitive advantage. It is important to capture the customer’s attention and hold it just long enough to convince them to take the buying decision. In fact, content marketing generates 3 times as many leads as traditional outbound marketing, but costs 62% less (see infographic below).

To be able to sell your product, you need to first have SEO friendly descriptions that will target the right kind of customers for the right kind of products. Next, your description must convince the buyer that he/she “needs” the product and that it would be a worthy buy.

Here are some tips and tricks, dos and don’ts to help you write great ecommerce content:

  1. Be Simple and Relevant – Always keep your sentences simple and short, and your grammar impeccable. Assume the reader has very little time and patience, and keep your writing crisp and fluff-free. Sell style, sell quality, sell trust.
  2. Do Keyword Research – Learn the basics of SEO. Use properly targeted words. Think about the consumer that you would like to convince to buy. Decide what you would want them to feel.
  3. Think USPs – What makes the product special? When writing about this, follow an order, macro to micro and top to bottom. This allows for easy and quick reading by the buyers.
  4. Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes – Why would he/she want to buy this product? Emphasize on how this product will add/improve the buyer’s lifestyle. If you’re describing household items like bedsheets, for example, mention how well it would go with that bedside table and the wooden finishing of the bed.
  5. Don’t exaggerate – Remember, it is all about trust. Your words should match the product image and be consistent. If any feature isn’t matching, the buyer will get confused and just go buy something else or end up buying something that he or she didn’t want or expect.

To sum it all up, good content will engage the right audience and boost sales by making the products more appealing. The content on your website is your voice – authoritative and confident. It should list high up on your marketing and sales strategy.

Thoughts? Questions? If we have missed anything, do let us know!

Bonus: To learn more about what content marketing is, how it can benefit your organization and how to get started using this technique to promote your company, check out the great infographic from Demand Metric :

Top 6 Must-Read Leadership Books of All Time (Part 1)

Top 6 Must-Read Leadership Books of All Time (Part 1)

Oorja Biz Ops has gone a bit literary this week. We are all passionate readers here and thought it would be a great idea to do some blog posts on must-reads, and here is the first of those. In the next two posts we talk about what we think are the six best leadership books of all time written by true visionaries who have shared their secrets on what it takes to be a true leader, with the world. A lot of us might be off the genre of self-help books, or books which preach about the greatness other men have achieved, simply because of our previous bad experiences with the somewhat prudish and pompous tone and content that a few books of this genre have. We would, however, urge you to let go of that fear, and pick up any of these five books that will develop the leader in you and experience the magic!

1. Meditations, Marcus Aurelius – A book which speaks about the art of leadership, “Meditations: Living, Dying and the Good Life” is one of the masterpieces by Marcus Aurelius, which has stood the test of time. Literally. Even though the exact year of publication is not known, it was written between A.D. 140 to 180. Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor (A.D 121- 180), who wrote “Meditations” in twelve parts, most of which were notes to himself for self-guidance and improvement. He speaks of his experiences as an emperor, his difficulties and his triumphs both as an emperor trusted to mobilize and motivate his empire and of personal musings about life. To cite an extract from the review by Guardian on Meditations at this point, would be apt – “In Marcus’s universe, everything has a purpose, from horses to vine shoots. Man’s purpose, as a thinking animal, is to clear his mind of junk – to rid himself of illusions. The acclaim of peers is one illusion. The acclaim of posterity – “people you’ve never met and never will” – is another: “To be remembered is worthless. Like fame. Like everything.” Discard your vain ambitions, accept that you’re “minuscule, transitory, insignificant”, and you can begin to play your little part in the interconnected whole: “Things push and pull on each other, and breathe together, and are one.”” Hooked?

2. Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankel – Yet another timeless classic, the book is psychiatrist Viktor Frankel’s memoir. Frankel writes about his past in Nazi Germany – Hitler and his minions took away everything that was ever dear to him, including his parents, brother and pregnant wife. The amount of literature on the holocaust is huge, however, what sets this memoir apart is the simple truth it establishes – “our primary drive in life is not pleasure, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.” He not only survived the holocaust, he went on to achieve remarkable success in the field of psychiatry. Frankel’s memoir, first published in 1946, continues to inspire lives through the decades.

3. The Power of Positive Thinking, Norman Vincent Peale – A classic yet again. This book has been on the shelf of bestsellers since 1952! The book is a compilation of the author’s experiments with principles to a happy life written in an easy and interactive language. The form of narration was a conscious choice by the author, to make the book readable for different groups of readers. The introduction to his book has the following stated objective – “It is written with the sole objective of helping the reader achieve a happy, satisfying, and worthwhile life.” Being a good leader requires one to have the skill of motivating people. Peale surely did a great job at that, and maybe you can learn a thing or two from him, if you aspire to lead!

Have you read any or all of these three books? Share your review and help our readers decide which leadership book to read next. For those who are still undecided, we have three more recommendations coming up in our next post on this topic.

Content Writing: A Short Career Guide

Content Writing: A Short Career Guide

If you have been mulling over a career in content writing, we have some inputs for you. As content writers ourselves and as a content writing company, take it from the horse’s mouth :). A career in content writing is a  challenging, fulfilling, and a joyous experience.

Who is a content writer? A content writer is someone who creates and curates content for use in the traditional and new business media sphere. A content writer essentially creates engaging content for public consumption. This content may have to do with editorial or commercial use. Let us take a look into the various domains where content writing is a professional reality:

–              Copy: Doing ads and coming up with one liners. If one liners are your thing, then digital marketing agencies are the way to go. You can approach them and work on a project wise basis or a full time basis as an employee. The perks are great in terms of creative satisfaction and the brain storming sessions will leave you asking for more.

–              Blogging: Popularity in this sphere has led to great competition. A good blogger can make a killing every year. If your blog becomes popular, you can take on brands and mention them for a small fee. Also, an Affiliate program with Google or Amazon will help you monetise with the help of advertisements and click throughs. For a successful blogging stint, regularity and ingenuity are both pre requisites. The best thing to do is to find yourself a niche or an area you are good at, and couple your ideas with latest trends, or happenings in that field.

–              White Papers: Content writers for white papers are also a huge requirement in this field. Corporates are on the constant look out to unravel, and assimilate all that big data into creatively done reports and industry centric white papers that can be peddled as not so direct, brand material. The pay out for this field is good. But you can get gigs depending on your networking skills, and also your competency in that area or industry. Research skills are a premium here.

–              E Books: Got a skill or body of knowledge that people can learn from? Well, dip in and create an ebook for public consumption. Not only will this fetch you good revenues, but if marketed well, it could be a good author platform to gain further assignments and projects to write for that niche or industry. The best way to publish and market your ebook is to use the social media, as well as other forums like Amazon Kindle Direct (for self publishing). A mammoth marketing effort will have go in for any success, but the end result will be hugely satisfying.

–              E Commerce writing: If buying guide and e commerce descriptions are your thing, then you may start off with writing e commerce descriptions, copy for buying guides, and even website content for the e commerce market. Again, this an area that requires networking and you will do best to start off with a digital marketing agency that gets these kinds of contracts and projects from the e commerce website itself.

–              Editorial content: There are many online blogs and e-zines where you can start writing articles. These are usually niche oriented and require original photos and experiences. Travel, food, fashion, décor and so much more thrive in this sphere. So get your notebook out and start making a list of all your interesting experiences. Make a pitch for submission and get started. The initial pay may be nothing or even next to nothing, but as your work gains an audience, the pay as well as the fame will be well worth it.

–              Education: Writing for the academic field can be challenging, yet satisfying. You can create question banks, course material and get into instructional design and writing. The pay is good, but the hours can be long. But if you love teaching AND writing, this is the perfect place to be.

For serious content writers, a course in creative writing is recommended so that your work stands out on the foundation of good ideas and creatively put, engaging thoughts. The pay depends on a per project basis or per word basis. So invest your time and effort in a satisfying and well paying career, today.

Whichever field you choose – passion, persistence and hard work are tools you will always need. All the best!