If you’re a technical communicator of any standing, you’ve probably heard of the longstanding TechWr-L (short for Tech Writer) mailing list. With a pair of new owners, the already-lively list has just a bit more life.

One of the signs of that new life is TechWhirl.com, the list’s newly relaunched website. It runs on WordPress (I’m happy to say), and not only looks good, but is generating a ton of new content, dubbed Tech Writer Today magazine.

Another thing I’m happy about is my new membership in the site’s Special Writers Unit. This means I’ll be writing articles regularly about tech comm and related topics for the site.  My second piece ran today, and should be of interest to anyone interested in freelance work, small business types and even just folks looking for work in these tough times.

Six Tools to Build Relationships on LinkedIn

Find all my TechWhirl articles on this page.

Now if you are a technical communicator, or manage one (or a team) of them, you’ll want to check out next month’s LavaCon conference on digital media and content strategy in The Live Music Capital of the World: Austin, Texas. The cool thing is that TechWhirl needs some help covering the conference, and two lucky and hard-working folks will get a free conference registration in compensation. Now it’s true, you still have to get there, find a place to stay and the occasional bite to eat, but it’s still a pretty good deal.

One more thing to scare you away: You have to do some of the social-media (Twitter and Facebook) dance to get one of these gigs, but that’ll be easy. All the details are over at TechWhirl.com. You have till this Friday, October 21, 2011 to enter. Good luck!