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Extreme blog & article writing.

by Ed on 12th June 2008

If you’re working vigorously at getting more result from your web marketing, you’ll already know that prolific writing is one of the key elements to success.

  • Reports.
  • Whitepapers.
  • Product descriptions.
  • Articles.
  • Sales letters.
  • Emails.
  • News.
  • Updates.
  • Press releases.
  • Etc.

Prolific writing is important for anyone wanting to increase online revenues.

Posting informative content to your site give you another reason to email your list and increase your ‘return visitor’ web statistics.

And it’s well known the quantity of unique content that appears on your site can also increase how much ‘free traffic’ arrives from the search engines.

But of course writing can take up a lot of time, so anything that increases productivity is welcomed with open arms.

Enter the Darkroom.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been using a new text editor called DarkRoom, which has one simple concept — to facilitate productive writing by removing all of the usual clutter on Windows desktops.

DarkRoom is so called because it inverts the writing area — you end up with light text on a black background.

Nothing else remains on the computer desktop. Just you, the keyboard, and a blinking cursor.

And by reducing the screen to little more than a blinking cursor, you feel strangely compelled to type, and I guess therein lies one of the secrets of why it’s so effective — if you’re suffering writer’s block, just start typing (anything) and it soon goes away. Worry about editing later.

How effective is DarkRoom?

Maybe it’s just because it’s still relatively new to me, but since I started using DarkRoom, I can see my writing speed has more than doubled. In fact in less than a week, I may not have written much for my blog, but I’ve just written a small book which I’ll be releasing soon. I know that would have taken me a lot longer without the ‘darkroom effect’.

Did I mention it’s FREE?

I’ll give you the link in a moment, but first a disclaimer…

I don’t know whether your computer is compatible or not. I downloaded and installed Darkroom without any problems, but if after downloading and installing it your computer turns pale and starts smoking, please revert to the DarkRoom web site, not this one. Thanks.

Check it out here ==> http://they.misled.us/dark-room

-Ed.

  • http://www.thekissbusiness.co.uk Karin H.

    Hi Ed

    Reminds me a bit of the first computer terminals we had to work on (only they had orange letters, which was prone to give you a headache if you worked too long behind it)

    But, I’ll give it a try, could do with some focussed writing, uninterrupted hopefully (well, of course I won’t turn away any visitors in my showroom ;-) ) but I do need to write a lot in the coming weeks for a new project I’m working on.

    Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

  • http://www.thekissbusiness.co.uk Karin H.

    Downloaded it, seems to work a treat and is kind of rather ‘relaxing’ in a strange way. Green is better on the eyes than the old orange I must say.

    Now, off to write some more ;-) but than for my project

    Karin H

  • http://fhaloanadvice.com Carl Pruitt

    Very interesting. It does look like the terminals I used 20 years ago, but I often do a lot of research and quoting while writing so I need to switch between programs frequently – which loses the concentrating effect.

  • http://www.copywriting4b2b.com Carol Bentley

    Hi Ed,

    anything that helps the creative writing flow is always welcome. And, like Karin, I remember those old screen displays too. For me the green text was the computer programmers screen, whilst the orange text was frequently used for the original word-processors – aah the joys of IBM, mini-cassette tapes and… oh, sorry must stop reminiscing ;)

    Another tip your readers might like to try, that I shared on my blog a little while ago, is to simply turn your screen off!

    Not being able to see what you are actually typing also speeds the process up because it takes away the temptation to stop and edit what you’ve entered. Simply do all your editing when your creative flow has ceased.

    Carol B

  • http://www.thekissbusiness.co.uk Karin H.

    Carol, hi, not being able to have an spell checker on the darkroom does help me anyway (for me that’s like typing blind ;-) )

    Karin H

  • http://www.sumatrix.com Ed

    @Karin – Congratulations you just won my A.T.I.A. award. (Always Takes Immediate Action).

    @Carol – Turn the screen OFF entirely? …now that IS extreme! Interesting tip for everyone thank you.

  • http://www.thekissbusiness.co.uk Karin H.

    LOL

    (Was working with the Darkroom the very minute my email whistle went off ;-) )
    do you have a nice award button with that?

    It really works a treat Ed, no distraction from other program icons that remind you of other things you should/would do, no distraction of underlined words of the spell checker etc.
    Just a nice black screen that fills up with relaxing green words.
    Back to the darkroom now

    Karin H

  • DOX

    Thanks for the tip Ed – RE: Darkroom

    I posted the following on
    http://they.misled.us/archives/751#comment-47078
    # 16
    DOX on Darkroom Update
    Posted 15 June 2008 at 12:04 am | Permalink

    Is it me?
    I’ve been playing with/programming PCs since before 1982. Yes- I had a Timex Sinclair, a Commodore 64, the second model designed and manufactured for IBM (256k on motherboard with an expansion card for a total of 640k of ram – no hard drives back then). Software was challenging to write for successful operation in small storage areas like that and programming tools (such as the Norton Editor for DOS) were considered groundbreaking advances and premium tools for programmers back then. We had some real fun and Darkroom sounds so much like those days that I just had to have a copy and let you know that it really brings back some memories of the old days. eeehaaaaa!

  • http://www.integral-networks.co.uk Interactive Whiteboard

    Hi Ed,

    I was wondering if the gravatar i just set up will link back with the key word entered (Interactive Whiteboard) in the name field as anchor text to my main web site (entered).

    I will only be able to see when I post and check the link.

    Can you give me a little advice if this is the best way of offering anchor text from blog / forum comments please.

    Regards,

    Paul Taylor.

  • dashwood

    I have heard if this before – i.e. using this technique you’re not unclined to edit or second-guess yourself every 5 minutes, just write loads of stuff without the distractions. It takes me back to the old Word Perfect days. I will definately have a look as I intend to do more writing for myself and my clients. Cheers Ed! Thanks for the tip

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