The Grasshopper on Writing Sunday Edition: Tech
Writing Tech and Writing about Tech
The tech tool stack I use to write is as minimal as I can get it to be. I write in Google Docs, the free and wonderfully basic word processor from the search giant. I hate MS Word with its insane pile of features, none of which I need. It’s a clumsy mess.
Docs is in the cloud, so it’s on all my devices simultaneously regardless of where I am. It can be used when offline and auto updates when you reconnect. All of the formatting I use, heads, subheads, italics, links, etc., transfers to the two platforms I write for, Medium and Substack (more about them in a minute). It’s the best solution out there and it is free.
I write mainly on an older iPad Air 2 and typically use my MacBook to publish to the platforms, as copy/paste is more reliable on the laptop. The apps for both Medium and Substack are pretty crappy for composition, but the browser versions work reasonably well. I typically use Safari.
All of these things exist in the cloud so I have not purchased software in years and hope I never have to. My only gripe is why the developers always try to steer you to apps when they simply don’t work all that well. I guess that’s what they have been programmed to do.
Or maybe I’m just old school.
So now, let’s shift gears and talk about writing about tech, an entirely different can of worms but potentially lucrative.
Tech companies have money and complex writing needs
I spent nearly twenty years at B2B early revenue software companies in the role of Marketing Director or a similar title. These were small venture funded companies and I was often the only marketing person. My main role was writing and managing content, long before Content Marketing was the predominant marketing tactic for complex sales.
One of the skills you need to acquire if you do this kind of freelancing is the ability to get up to speed on a complex topic and then be able to explain it to a buyer, who may not be a subject matter expert (SME). I would argue this is the essential skill for successful freelancing these days.
It’s important to note that this advice is based on my experience working with high end software designed for business, i.e. business to business or B2B sales. Consumer product sales or B2C are a very different kind of writing, closer to writing ad copy. Both can be very lucrative. If you can help a company sell and grow, you are worth money to them.
This is where the key to successful freelancing lies. Once you become a SME in a market segment, you can leverage that expertise to build a client base and make better money. If you are a proven expert you eliminate much of the handholding required to get a writer up to speed.
Believe me, from a marketing POV, this is a big deal.
Which brings me to this content marketing thing. What is it? A freelance goldmine if you work it right. The basic premise is that potential customers need clear, useful information, free of hype, to help them make big buying decisions. Content marketing offers them a library of information designed to help them through every stage of the buying process from initial product search to product/customer fit, and on to financial justifications or rate of return on investment.
Imagine you are giving a researcher the stuff they need to convince their boss that this is worth the investment.
Sounds complex, doesn’t it? Add in the fact that your content consumers are likely not techy. Instead, they tend to be management/decision-makers. That’s why being concise, to the point, and in a voice that does not assume knowledge on the part of the reader is critical. There is a sort of art to this and the secret is good writing.
The best way to approach this is to work with a content manager on the client end who has a plan that includes multiple forms of content. As a content expert, your preferable mode is to work as a partner to help them build that content library, generating a lot of steady work in the process.
This might include a website rewrite, developing a library of blog posts, helping with sales emails, doing relevant social media, etc. I’ve also done explainer video scripts and written podcasts that were basically infomercials designed to get the buyer up to speed quickly.
How do you get in the door? If you can leverage previous job contacts it can be a good start. Writing tech articles on a platform like Medium can help build a portfolio. That may seem an odd idea if you think Medium is mainly a self-help platform, but two of the top tags readers follow are Science and Technology. Software is right up there too.
If you think about it, developers need self-help stuff too, but it takes the form of writing that helps them improve as a professional. There are many other ways to get in the door and identifying a market niche that helps you lever existing knowledge is your best bet.
How lucrative is this? After leaving the office world just before the pandemic, I used my expertise to add two relatively small software companies in Europe to my client list. Those two companies provided all my income in 2020 from ten to twenty hours of work a week. Not bad.
During that time I began work to develop my own following and income streams on Medium and, eventually, here on Substack so I could move on to writing only things I am passionate about. That was my plan, but I know I could go back to freelancing if I wanted to. I get queries every month or so.
That’s my basic roadmap to that kind of writing niche. You should be able to apply it to other markets beyond tech. Go for it!
A note about moving on
As I reread the words above, I had to think about whether I would ever go back to any of the work I did in the past. At this point in life the answer is probably not. My nature as a writer is to learn a certain aspect of writing until I feel like I have a basic grasp of it, then look ahead.
It’s a fickle thing and not for everyone. I do routinely get requests to do tech marketing stuff and I am always hesitant to get back into it. That’s just my nature.
These days my writing is much more personal and I feel a more direct connection to my readers. It’s harder to put energy into doing work that goes out there and basically disappears from my experience, even when the money is very good. It may not be the most practical way of doing things. But maybe my practice has moved on.
I’ll be writing about this and the challenge of going back to writing novels in the near future. And actually deciding to try and sell the two novels I’ve written.
To me, that is the big challenge ahead. It’s daunting, but…
M
“Simenon’s subject is how people who are pushed to the edge push themselves over it; the force of the sleuthing is that of psychoanalysis, not police interrogation.”
Adam Gopnik in a New Yorker piece on the prolific French crime writer (500 books!).
A very good essay like this, on a very interesting writer, is a great way to learn more about the art form. The structure of the quoted sentence by Gopnik demonstrates perfect parallel construction. And correct use of a semi-colon!
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