How to Make Money as a Technical Writer. 89. Branch Out into Other Areas of For example, if you want to make interactive Web pages or allow …
Turn your writing skills into a profitable, money-making profession
Write Your Way to Riches: How to Make Money as a Technical Writer
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Write Your Way to Riches How to Make Money as a Technical Writer
Branch Out Into Other Areas 89
Branch Out into Other Areas of Information Design and Make More Money
As you become more experienced as a technical writer, youll notice that you need to do more than writing to stay employable and make more money If you want to become successful, you have to branch out into other areas of information design But dont worry, a lot of these areas are extensions of technical writing, and are therefore easy to pick up Its just a matter of learning the skills Some areas you should consider include: Online help Web design Graphical User Interface GUI design Marketing Software testing Programming Multimedia Book writing Teaching
Design Online Help Systems
Online help is an electronic form of documentation that is incorporated into a software application or stands alone as a separate application
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Write Your Way to Riches How to Make Money as a Technical Writer
Online help shows people how to learn and use a product, much like hard-copy documentation does Online help presents more issues than hard-copy documentation because information is being presented on screen Users dont like to read a lot of text on screen, and they need to be able to navigate to different areas of the help document So, while its easy to learn online help, it takes a while to master it How do you learn online help? There are a few ways: Learn it on the job Most companies today develop online help systems, so they usually have an online help software package already picked out If you dont know the package, you can take the tutorial and learn most of the features in about an hour Buy books on designing help Surprisingly, there are no books on the individual help packages, such as RoboHelp, HelpBreeze, and Doc-to-Help There are, however, books on designing usable help systems The best one is Designing Windows 95 Help by Mary Deaton and Cheryl Lockett Zuback Buy it at your favorite bookstore Go to a seminar Many training companies offer classes in
designing online help These seminars are expensive usually several hundred dollars, so try to get your employer to pay for you If youre a contractor, learn the packages yourself; otherwise, youll be shelling out big bucks though you can deduct the classes on your taxes as an education expense Contact the following companies:
Pubsnet Training WinWriters http://wwwpubsnetcom http://wwwwinwriterscom
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Design Web Pages
More and more companies are designing Internet or intranet sites An Internet site is available to the world An intranet site is available to people within the company Outsiders cannot access it Designing Web pages is like an extension of designing online help In fact, more and more companies are moving to HTML help-based systems HTML is the underlying language of the Web Browsers read the HTML tags to determine how to present information on screen How do you learn to design Web pages? Like online help, there are a few ways: Learn it on the job New versions of Microsoft Word now let you save documents as
HTML files Some companies may also use HTML applications like FrontPage or Dreamweaver Buy books on Web design Unlike online help, there are tons of books on Web design and software Go to the bookstore and buy books on Dreamweaver or FrontPage You may also want to buy books on HTML, XHTML, XML, JavaScript, Java, Perl, CGI The last four are programming languages that enable you to make interactive Web pages Perl and CGI let you make pages that write user input to a server which you can access This is how companies enable people to order products on the Web Appendix D: Finding Information Resources Needed by Technical Writers contains some Internet books Go to a seminar Many training companies also offer classes in designing Web pages Again, because these seminars are expensive, try to get your employer to pay for you If youre a contractor, learn the packages yourself; otherwise, youll be shelling out big bucks though you can deduct the classes on your taxes as an education expense Contact the following company:
Pubsnet Training http://wwwpubsnetcom
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Write Your Way to Riches How to
Make Money as a Technical Writer
Contact local colleges and universities Call them and ask for a course catalog See if they offer classes in Web design or Web programming
Learn Interface or Usable Design
As a technical writer, you know how to present information in a clear and precise manner You also know how to layout a page so that the information is easy to read Well, you can apply these page-design techniques to the screen and design GUIs This area of technical writing is often called human interface design HID To learn about interface design, you should get training Some companies offering training include:
Pubsnet Training Information Mapping, Inc Seminars in Usable Design http://wwwpubsnetcom http://wwwinfomapcom http://wwwusabledesigncom
Again, check out colleges and universities in your area If you live in or near Massachusetts, you may be interested in the Bentley College Information Design Certificate Program
Learn Marketing Writing
As a technical writer, you have to learn everything about the product youre documenting You have more knowledge than anyone else on the development team, including the sales and marketing personnel You can transfer your writing skills
and product knowledge into marketing writing However, marketing writing is a different animal its more flowery than technical writing and you have to know how to motivate people with words To learn marketing writing:
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Call your local college or university and see if they offer marketing classes Buy marketing books Get Cash Copy and Money Making Marketing buy Dr Jeffrey Lant Appendix D: Finding Information Resources Needed by Technical Writers lists more information on these books
Test Software
When you document a software product, you have to use it so you know what you are talking about As you use the product, you may find bugs, which you should dutifully report to the engineers In essence, by using the application, youre informally testing it Why not branch out and do more formal testing? Some companies have a small and strained Quality Assurance QA department; some have none at all If you offer to test the application, your manager will love you and should reward you financially as well The best way to get
experience is on the job If you can program or read code, you may want to try software testing I have done testing for four of the contracts Ive been on On three contracts, I read through C and C code and wrote up test cases that covered 80 or more of the code The testers developed UNIX shell scripts that ran the test cases automatically On another contract, I learned QA Partner, which is an automated testing program for GUI applications It tests the interface and underlying code With QA Partner, you write scripts using its 4 Test language You then run the scripts against the interface Some of the more popular software testing packages include QA Partner, Silk Test, Rational, and WinRunner
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Learn Programming
For a lot of areas, it helps if you can code or at least read code For example, if you want to make interactive Web pages or allow people to order products over the Web, you should learn JavaScript, VBScript, Java, CGI, and Perl If you are designing a GUI, why not learn how to write the code underneath the GUI? For
example, you can design a window in Visual C If you know C, you can then write the code underneath the window Technical writers who can code are a rare breed If you can code, you can demand more money because youll be more valuable to the company To learn how to code: Take a class at a local university or college Call the school and get its catalog Youll have the best luck with technical colleges, as they offer the widest range of programming classes Buy books on coding Bookstores are teeming with computer books Its not a question of finding a book on a certain programming language, but which book to buy Appendix D: Finding Information Resources Needed by Technical Writers lists some programming books you may be interested in Take a seminar Some universities offer short, but intensive, courses on computer programming For example, in my area the Boston University Corporate Education Center offers courses in C, C, Visual Basic, and Java You can visit them at http://wwwbutrainbuedu
Design Multimedia Systems
Multimedia incorporates text, sound, and graphics to create animated applications Computer games represent the best examples of
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multimedia in action Some companies also make computer-based training applications that teach their employees about particular systems or procedures Because theyre so large, most multimedia applications are distributed on CD-ROM You can learn to write scripts for multimedia movies or learn how to make the actual movies Good software programs to learn include MacroMedia Director and MacroMedia Flash You can buy them at computer stores or call your local university or college to see if it offers courses in multimedia A good multimedia book is Writing for Multimedia by Timothy Garand If you live in or near Massachusetts, you can enroll in the Certificate in Multimedia Applications program at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell For more information visit their Web site at http://wwwumledu
Write Computer Books
You spend your days writing computer manuals, so why would you want to write them at night as well? Well, in a word, money You can make good money writing computer books; 20,000 a year isnt unheard of 20,000 may not sound like much, but you have to write
most books in a couple of months Otherwise, theyll become obsolete before theyre printed So, 20,000 for a couple of months work doesnt sound bad If you publish a book, youll also increase your reputation That may translate into more money for you in your regular job If you dont want to write a book, you can write articles for computer magazines The Intercom, published by the STC, is always looking for writers You get this magazine free when you become a member of the STC
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Many STC chapters publish their own newsletter For example, the Boston chapter publishes the Boston Broadside Its editors are always looking for writers to submit articles You get this newsletter free when you become a Boston member of the STC You can also write articles for mainstream computer magazines Good sources of these magazines are Writers Market by Writers Digest Books and The Writers Handbook published by The Writer, Inc To find computer book publishers, go to the computer book section of your local bookstore There, youll see the names of a
dozen or so publishers A lot of them have contact information on the inside cover A good book on how to write computer books and articles is Making Money in Technical Writing by Peter Kent He has written over 30 computer books, so he knows his stuff Other prolific writers are Eric and Deborah Ray Theyve recently written 1350 pages in three months And I thought Isaac Asimov pumped the words out Check out their website at http://wwwraycommcom/mainhtml
Teach a Class
If youre a good speaker, you may consider contacting your local community college or university and seeing if you can teach an adult education class If youre a technical writing contractor, teaching a class is a great way to promote your business For both contractors and full-timers, its a great way to supplement your income As you become more experienced in teaching, you may consider becoming a trainer at Pubsnet, WinWriters, or at any other training company in your area A great book on how to break into this market is Money Talks by Dr Jeffrey Lant
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Turn your writing skills into a profitable, money-making profession
Write Your Way to Riches: How to Make
Money as a Technical Writer
Buy The Complete Version of This Book at Booklockercom:
http://wwwbooklockercom/p/books/1293html?spdf
