I have been writing about connected cars for some time, but not as long as they have been around. The history of connected cars is fascinating and started in 1996 with Motorola and OnStar. The whole idea was to get help to people who are in car accidents. Last year, I was commissioned by a company in Germany to write a brief history of connected cars. It has taken a while to get the design and software to work but the result is lovely and fascinating.
Category Archives: Professional Writer
The most important features of good automotive feature writing
There has been a recent trend in writing for everything to be a mashup of something previously written. I have seen articles supposedly by important sources that don’t reference where they got the information from. How do I know that the information is correct if I don’t know where it came from?
Feature writing requires the many features including citing of expert sources and fresh comprehensive information which is an art that few writers can do anymore.
Just because something is written and looks nice, doesn’t mean that it is true. Without citing sources news and even feature articles can be fake. Continue reading
How this freelance writer meets every deadline even impossible ones
Freelance Writer Now has the word “now” in the title because many people don’t realize they need a writer until the last-minute and then they want one “NOW!” It takes a talent, planning, skill and professionalism to deliver great writing on time. I am proud that I was asked to meet what I thought were impossible deadlines and create articles that withstand the test of time. Continue reading
Why native advertising branded content will disrupt publishing and help writers
A few weeks ago, I received an email from a major media publishing company, asking if I would write branded content native advertising. The first thing I did was to look up a definition of branded content and native advertising online. There is mention of BuzzFeed starting this phenomena and then the major publishers such as the New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today. In these cases the advertiser and the publication work together to create content about the advertiser.
I understand why this happened, I have been a publisher since 2007 and have over two decades of experience writing. The trend has been for people to increasingly read content on devices in which you cannot see the advertisements and it is difficult to click on the ads. On top of that, there is a trend for search engines like Google to not even send searchers to content that has too much advertising on it. Ad blocking software can remove ads from the web reading audience completely. Continue reading
Why you should hire a writer with over 10,000 hours writing expirence
Malcolm Gladwell noted that you need 10,000 hours to be a phenom or freakishly awesome. He wrote about elitee performers (violinists) who each totaled ten thousand hours of practice. I noticed that after my first 10,000 hours of writing, my writing improved exponentally. Hiring someone with that level of experience is the best way to get writing done. Continue reading
How to write a good review without being bad, hateful or wrong
Writing a review is an art and it is not easy to do if you want to do it well. Reviews require testing, knowledge of the product, knowledge of the reader and patience. Continue reading
Tech vs Automotive – Why you need a connected car writer
At the LA Auto Show, it became clear that the tech media industry is trying to infiltrate the automotive industry. They are trying to change the rules and it could be very costly to car-oriented websites and media. Let’s see why. CNET a website which started reviewing technology was at the show in full force. Starting off at the Connected Car Expo, CNET had a big media presence with live-streaming the car announcements like they live stream Apple announcements. Car-oriented websites and automakers should beware. Continue reading
How People are Hard-wired for Wireless Connections, Like Bluetooth
As technology advances does the trend change the people or do the people create the trends? How important is wireless connectivity for human beings? It seems that we are programmed to do less physical connections and more wireless connections and we are hard-wired to do so.
The case in point is the recent Bluetooth bungle and Apple’s iOS 8-8.2 (iPhone 4S/5/5C/5S/6/6+) that is causing problems with connections with in-car systems, since September. Continue reading
Call for Votes for Tech CARS Awards
Freelance writers can write more than just articles. I was able to take an entire year of car technology and turn it into awards with live online voting. The writing embodied trends in the industry while the voting application required a few HTML CSS tweaks. So far, the news of the awards and the voting have increased web traffic by 20%. I’ll let you how it helps with web traffic and notoriety on Freelancewriternow.com Electric Car Insider co-sponsored the awards and embed links for the voting are offered to the media. Continue reading
New Automotive IT News Article – Safety Alert Seat from GM
I enjoyed writing an article about the Safety Alert Seat in GM cars such as the Cadillac and several models. Continue reading