- Susan Weiner Investment Writing

My posts that attracted the most views during 2020’s first quarter

Financial communications during the coronavirus crisis
How to achieve continuity in your writing
MISTAKE MONDAY for January 27: Can YOU spot what’s wrong?
Tips for managing author approvals—Managing author approvals can challenge the patience of financial writers and marketers. The process can be equally distressing for authors, if it’s not done well.
Everything old is new again in advisor communications

My posts that attracted the most views during 2019’s fourth quarter

Insecure about blogging? Write a letter

October 22, 2019/in blog/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Some people feel they shouldn’t blog. They hesitate because they don’t have novel topics, or they feel their writing isn’t good enough.

Letter exercise

If you’re hesitating, you might benefit from an exercise called “Exploring Self-Compassion Through Letter Writing” in Kristin Neff’s Self-Compassion; The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself.

As part of the exercise, Neff suggests you write a letter from the perspective of “an imaginary friend who is unconditionally loving, accepting, kind, and compassionate. Imagine that this friend can see all your strengths and all your weaknesses, including the aspect of yourself you have just been thinking about.”

The next step is to “Write a letter to yourself from the perspective of this imaginary friend—focusing on the perceived inadequacy you tend to judge yourself for.”

Your friend’s response to your letter

What would this friend say about your:

Writing skills
Blog topics
Other weaknesses and strengths

Here are some of the points this friend might make:

Writing is a skill that can be improved through study or working with an editor. Your writing doesn’t have to be perfect.
It’s okay to discuss topics that others have already discussed. This is because they are perennial concerns of your prospects. You can use your insights and personality, as discussed in “How to add personality and warmth to your writing,” to make an impression on your readers.
Blogging can be a great way for advisers to clarify their thoughts on important topics, regardless of whether it brings new clients. It also improves your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) on topics you care about.
There may be fixes for other weaknesses that you perceive.

Sure, sometimes your imaginary friend will sometimes tell you to give up on blogging. For example, if you’re an incredibly busy advisor with a steady flow of new clients, and you’re a terrible writer, then that might be a valid reason not to blog.

However, in many cases, your friend will say “Please blog.” Listen to your friend.

Disclosure: If you click on the Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I link only to books in which I find some value for my blog’s readers.

Ask questions

October 15, 2019/in blog/by Susan Weiner, CFA

This line in O magazine struck me as relevant to financial bloggers:

The wisest people have more questions than answers.

That’s according to wisdom researcher Monika Ardelt in “What Wise People Do Differently.”

Ask questions, even if you lack answers

Reading that line inspires me to suggest that bloggers ask more questions when they write. You don’t need to have all the answers.

If you’re a blogger who’s good at sparking online discussion, you might start an interesting discussion by asking, for example, whether it’s worth spending to attend an Ivy League college.

You could go beyond a one-line question to suggest some factors to consider. In the Ivy League example, those factors might include the income and savings of the college student’s family, the availability of financial aid, the strengths and weaknesses of the specific school the student is considering, and the student’s personality.

Questions to ask

Another article in the same issue of O, “Inquire within” (Jan. 2018, not available online), suggested some questions that I think might work for financial bloggers. For example,

Is there a day in your life you really regret? Is there a day you would like to revisit?
What is one lesson you would teach your children? How did you learn it?
Who is an important teacher in your life?
Is the life you’re living today aligned with the most important things you’ve learned?

These questions could easily be tilted toward financial topics.

You can’t answer these questions for your blog’s audience. In fact, it’s presumptuous of you to say that you can.

However, you can answer these questions for yourself in a blog post. That may help your readers find their answers. Their answers could help them to lead better lives.

My posts that attracted the most views during 2019’s third quarter

Lemonade from lemons for your writing

September 3, 2019/in blog/by Susan Weiner, CFA

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” That’s a well-known expression attributed to writer Elbert Hubbard, as well as to writer Dale Carnegie and businessman Julius Rosenwald. As you know, it means that you should make the most of adversity. You can even turn it into an opportunity. You can apply this message to your blogging.

When you experience misfortune or troubles in a field relevant to your blog, write about it! I’ve done this many times, as in “Watch out for WordPress 5, especially if you compose in Word!”

For example, did you make a mistake in paying off your student loans, preparing to buy a house, or judging your tolerance for investment risk? Those are topics that your prospects can relate to.

As I said in “Shakespeare lesson for bloggers,” sharing a story of your personal struggle can make your content more powerful.

My posts that attracted the most views during 2019’s second quarter

6 tips to keep your compliance officers happy—This post drew on contributions from many of my colleagues in the fields of writing and marketing.
Stay the same or evolve?
Change your writing for the better
MISTAKE MONDAY for May 6: Can YOU spot what’s wrong?
Professional writers vs. amateur writers
Marketer’s perspective on investment marketing compliance—This guest post was written in reaction to my compliance post in the #1 spot.
Top posts from 2019’s first quarter
Must you be inspired to write?—All of the respondents to the poll in this article said that they don’t need to be inspired to write. I suspect that most of them are professional writers or have writing as an important component of their jobs. Here are a couple of comments: “If I waited for inspiration, I might never meet a deadline!” and “I’m a content creator who has to write daily, whether I’m inspired or not.”
Limit your use of the progressive tense
Pick your e-newsletter sender name carefully

Why should institutional investment managers blog?

July 10, 2019/in blog/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Why should institutional investment managers blog? And, what’s your best tip for those who blog?

Please answer my two-question survey.

I’d love to share the results of this survey with you, but to do that I’ll need to collect enough responses to make it interesting. Please participate and encourage your colleagues and friends to participate.

Watch out for WordPress 5, especially if you compose in Word!

June 25, 2019/in blog/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Think carefully before you upgrade to WordPress 5. I upgraded, and I’m sorry I did.

The new interface is clunky. It takes a block approach to blog post composition. It also seems to make it impossible to copy-paste blog post drafts from Microsoft Word to WordPress. It lumped everything I copy-pasted into one ugly block. Both I and my more tech-savvy virtual assistant were frustrated by composing, copying, and editing in WordPress 5.

Restore old style with Classic Editor

Luckily, WordPress offers the Classic Editor plugin, which restores the editing functionality of WordPress 4. With the Classic Editor installed, you can use either the familiar Classic Editor or the clunky Block Editor. I imagine the Block Editor has some virtues, perhaps for visually-oriented posts.

Copy-pasting with Classic Editor

If you want to compose in Word, and then retain formatting when you copy-paste into WordPress, follow these steps:

Format your Word document using Word’s styles. For example, don’t bold headings. Instead, select the right heading from the style menu (see image below). I use Heading 2.

In your Word document, select all (Ctrl+A) and copy (Ctrl+C) the text of your document. However, don’t include the title, which you’ll need to type separately into your new post.
Open a new post in WordPress, click on the Visual tab, and then Ctrl+V to paste your Word document into the Visual editor. If you’re working on a post that you’ve already started, open it using the Classic Editor, and then press Ctrl+V in the Visual tab.

Good luck with WordPress 5!

I hope this tip spares you some of the pain that my assistant and I experienced with this so-called “upgrade.”

Bloggers, value your thoughts

April 9, 2019/in blog/by Susan Weiner, CFA

You matter. One of the best ways for writers to distinguish themselves is by sharing their thoughts. That’s why the following line from Theo Pauline Nestor’s Writing is My Drink resonated with me.

One of the essential characteristics of a writer is the willingness and ability to see the stories in our lives and to believe that our observations, thoughts, and obsessions are worth following to the page.

The stories in our lives are particularly important for bloggers. I’ve discussed this in posts like the following:

“How to add personality and warmth to your financial writing” (and a related infographic)
“6 ways financial advisors can differentiate themselves“
“Financial blog topic: write a letter“
“Don’t give up on being different“
“Use personal stories in your communications“

Pay attention to your thoughts, discover the stories in them, and use them to make your writing stand out.

Disclosure: If you click on an Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I link only to books in which I find some value for my blog’s readers.

Top posts from 2020’s first quarter