Writing Inrochester

If you are on an online article writer and using informational selling to attract customers then the strategy is simple. Produce articles that are well written, informative and contain information or a specific view point that the reader either didn’t know or had not thought of. Sounds simple right? Well it is not as easy as you might think.

Often authors or writers are paid to write about things they know nothing about and thus they have to learn the subject really quick and do lots of research and then produce an informative article. Are they experts or authorities in the field? Certainly not, but they are good writers, can produce a well-written article that is viewed as informative by the reader and thus they are often perceived as an expert.

There is a huge difference between an authority in the field and a writer who looks like they are an authority by the viewing of their article. A real authority in the subject matter would be one that you could read their article and then ask them any question about that domain of science, industry or subject and they could go into a 30 minute speech on that sub-topic.

You can write from a position of authority without being an authority. Some folks believe that this is disingenuous. I am one of those individuals that believes this. Nevertheless, not everyone who is an authority at doing or at a give subject is also a good writer. Writing in itself is a skill that must be learned, thus those who are an authority and can write from a place of authority are actually superstars in multiple domains.

L. Winslow is an Economic Advisor to the Online Think Tank, a Futurist and retired entrepreneur. Currently he is planning a bicycle ride across the US to raise money for charity and is sponsored by Calling-Plans.com Calling-Plans.com and all the proceeds will go to various charities who sign up.

Slaving away at the keyboard to write online articles is not easy, yet after you bang out a few hundred you think to yourself, well I may as well simply write a book? Yes, perhaps an eBook is in your future and you certainly have enough content if you have already written 300 articles on a given subject? But I must warn you to be careful when compiling your online articles into eBooks, to make sure you are not covering the same topic over and over again.

Recently, when planning to write an eBook on a specific subject, I noted I had some 276 articles on the topic and thus told my editor in chief who then gave me this advice;

"276 articles is more than enough for a book. I’m sure some of them probably have duplicate content so that might have to be edited out. Otherwise, you’ll be repeating yourself throughout the book, which isn’t necessarily bad if done in the right way. But you don’t want it to sound like you said something before then forgot about it and repeated it."

Smart thinking indeed and he is correct too. I completely agree with the duplication issues of ideas and concepts and this is why if I categorize the articles prior and then put them into chapters along themes. Perhaps, I can cut and paste from the articles the best foot forward on the thought and touch on the other side thoughts, mix and match, combine, mostly. Pretty much how it has to be, as you say cannot duplicate and or look like you are rambling through a 100 page book.

So, put those online articles to good use to bulk up the content of your eBook, but think about how you are doing it too. I certainly hope this article is of interest and that is has propelled thought. The goal is simple; to help you in your quest to be the best in 2007. I thank you for reading my many articles on diverse subjects, which interest you.

“Lance Winslow” - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; WorldThinkTank.net/ WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for ourspokanemagazine.com/ Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

There are some quick, simple rules of spelling and word usage everyone learned and few were allowed to forget when I was a kid. Somehow, I think those rules are now missing in action these days.

I mean simple rules such as this spelling ditty: “Use “i” before “e,” except after “c” and when sounding as “ei” as in “neighbor” and “weigh.” That became a very practical way to get it right with one very troublesome vowel combo most of the time.

A simple usage type rule was this: “It’s” is the contraction for “it is.” “Its” is the possessive meaning “belonging to it.”

I’m not sure, but nowadays I fear most people are never taught such simple, basic ideas about the English language. Or if they are so taught, they’re too busy watching the latest “reality” TV show or cheering on their favorite non-talent singer in the American You-Know-What competition.

Grumble, grumble, grumble.

I admit learning to use the English language and to do it well is a daunting task. But I work at a “day job” where adult men and women are hired for their ability at “communications skills” — and many of them misspell “recieve” and misuse “it’s/its” in their business letters every day.

Please, my friends, make an effort to get it right. I’m reminded of a saying attributed to both President Harry Truman and Mark Twain: “Always do right. It will please many people and astonish the rest.”

A few simple grammar rules, easy ways to remember spelling tricks and usage tips, can go a long way toward “doing right” with the language.

Gary Speer is a former newspaper copywriter and former news editor of a major weekly church magazine. He has published regularly and done freelance editing and writing for more than 30 years. He publishes a “Writing Tips″ blog at:
garyspeer.com garyspeer.com

The whole reason for submitting articles to article directories is to get “backlinks” to whatever site you want boosted up in the search engine results. But you also get immediate traffic from folks following these backlinks directly to your website…Where they will arrive in the perfect mindset to buy your product or affiliate product (if you’ve done a little keyword research beforehand.)

But the links need to be crafted a certain way. So you need to get this right. They need to be “text links,” otherwise known as “anchor text.” We’ll cover exactly how to do this in a moment.

These backlinks are simply links back to your site from your “author’s resource box,” like the one at the end of this article. Your author’s resource box is where you get to do some self-promotion. Usually, you’re not allowed to promote your product or website in the main body of the article. After all, articles are supposed to be just that–articles; otherwise they′d be called advertisements!

Look at the author resource box at the bottom of this article. There’s two important things you need to know about the first blue link in the author’s resource box:

1. “article marketing tutorial” is a “text link,” a.k.a. “anchor text” instead of honestysellsbest.com/How_to_Make_Money_Online.html#Article_tutorial (which is the actual link URL). The search engines, especially the biggest one–Google–reward you for text links and not URLs…

The article directories will “parse” the html code into normal, “readable” text, making it look like the resource “box” you see at the end of this article.

(The html code you need to use to make a text link is covered in the Article Marketing Tutorial section of my website–click the text link in the resource “box” at the end of this article. Creating text links is only a matter of a couple clicks when using your html editor, however, you have to “hand code” the html into the author’s resource box.)

2. “article marketing tutorial″ is a researched keyword phrase and is the title of the webpage that it links to.

If you take a little time to research a keyword phrase to use as your link text, you will be rewarded with many more visitors to your website than if you used anchor text that is not a searched-for keyword phrase.

Tired of writing articles that don’t get visitors back to your site? Make sure you’re doing the right things by reading the honestysellsbest.com/How_to_Make_Money_Online.html#Article_tutorial article marketing tutorial in the “How to Make Money Online” section of honestysellsbest.com honestysellsbest.com

Opinions are dangerous things. They can damage feelings, break relationships, even start wars.

As an article writer, one of the most important things you do in your articles is share your opinions. You have important things to write about. Your reader really does want to know what you think, so long as you give him or her the freedom to disagree with you.

The first article I wrote was many years ago in a journalism class. At the time, I also worked in the hospitality industry. A perfect blending, I thought. I would use my new-found journalism skills to teach travelers how behave themselves while they stayed in hotels.

I interviewed my co-workers to learn their list of pet-peeves. I included detailed examples of inappropriate hotel guest behavior. I titled it “How Not to Be Stupid When You Stay in a Hotel” or something insightful like that. My article was going to change how people treated hotel staff forever.

My instructor thought otherwise. He believed my article would alienate the same people I wanted to educate.

He was right. Article readers, however wrong they may be in their business practices or life choices, don’t like being told they’re wrong. In fact, they dislike it as much as you and I do.

As a writer, you can manipulate the words you use to share your ideas without offending your readers. You have the power to write about whatever is really bugging you and lead people to agree with you or see your side of things, without ever telling them they were wrong in the first place.

A good writer has a responsibility to be unselfish in his or her writing. In every article you write, you share your thoughts with others. It’s easy to take advantage of this privilege and dump whatever is on your mind into your article, but that’s selfish writing. You might feel better, but your reader won’t benefit from reading it. My hotel article was selfish.

An unselfish article puts your reader’s interests first. It shares your opinions but not your criticisms. It teaches your reader how to do something beneficial, but doesn’t lecture them on why they’re wrong.

An unselfish article gives your reader room to disagree with you. You might be smarter than your reader, have more experience and training, but your reader is just as entitled to his or her opinions as you are.

A statement such as “If you engage in this action, you’re wrong” will likely alienate a reader who does engage in that behavior and does believe it’s a good idea. Instead, give reasons why your ideas are better.

Turn your list of “don’ts” into a list of “dos” or even “whys.” My hotel article would have been much more effective if I had written a list of ways to make your hotel stay more pleasant, or reasons why certain behaviors don’t get you the results you want. I could have included the same information with a different twist and I would have gotten very different results. Readers would have found my article helpful instead of critical.

If you’re writing articles to promote your business, it’s even more important that you be gracious in your writing. Your clients and potential clients are going to read your article. If your article criticizes their practices or choices, they might not remain your clients for long. It’s more effective to write about how they could do something better than criticize what they’re currently doing.

The best article writers have strong opinions and write about them openly. That’s how readers get to know them and learn to trust them. Some of my favorite writers have extreme opinions that I strongly disagree with. They remain my favorites because they show me new ways to think about things, but they don’t ever come out and tell me I’m wrong for not taking their advice.

Denise Willms is co-owner of WAHM-Articles.com WAHM-Articles.com and author of the eBook, Uncovering the Secrets of WAHM Article Marketing. Visit wahm-articles.com wahm-articles.com to get your copy and to submit your own WAHM articles.

Have you ever been on a “Training Day”?

When I used to work for a local government department, we often used to get sent on Training Days.

They weren’t quite the same as “courses”. The idea was usually for management to get staff discussing their proposed policies (yawn…). Almost invariably, they consisted of an introductory session, followed by everyone being split up into groups, each with an assigned topic for discussion.

The group sat round an easel with a flip-chart attached to it. An eager leader stood by the easel with a marker, waiting for contributions.

Silence.

Everone was paralysed. Most people’s minds went a complete blank. Even if people did have an idea, they were afraid to express it, for fear it would sound silly.

But just now and again, instead of just standing there, the group leader would say, “Now we are going to brainstorm.”

In a brainstorming session, everyone said THE FIRST THING THAT CAME INTO THEIR HEAD. Everything went on the flip-chart whatever it was. Never mind if it sounded silly, or obvious, or naïve, or ridiculous. It all went down.

What a difference! Instead of a stony silence, everyone was loosened up, and their mental juices started flowing. And the remarkable thing was, that amidst all the debris of useless ideas, more and more nuggets of excellence started appearing. Most of these ideas would never have emerged by the normal method.

You’re a copywriter – or you want to be. If you tell me that you have never sat in front of a blank sheet of paper, or a blank computer screen, and felt completely paralysed, I won’t believe you. It happens to everyone.

It happens because you are scared that what you write down will be silly or that it won’t be appropriate or good enough. You are waiting for inspiration, for the great idea, which you will then express in perfect well-honed prose. Well, in most cases you will wait for ever.

When this happens to me, I find one solution works every time. I brainstorm MYSELF!

Don’t sit and chew your pen. JUST START WRITING.

If it seems silly, or obvious, or a load of cliches, NEVER MIND. Just write and keep on writing. Think of the topic you are supposed to be writing about and write whatever comes into your head, whether it seems immediately relevant or not. Believe me, you will soon find ideas start to flow.
And it doesn’t have to be in perfect sentences. The sentences can come afterwards. Note form will do for now. You will soon find the ideas are coming so fast that you have to scribble to get them down.

Of course, you will end up with a lot of rubbish or even gibberish. But in the midst of it there will be good stuff – I promise you! Naturally you will have to rewrite, but now you actually HAVE something to rewrite, instead of a blank sheet of paper. And you will find rewriting itself brings up even more ideas!

It’s called “brainstorming” because the ideas are there, all the time, in your brain! You just need to loosen up to get them out.

Get into the brainstorming habit and just see how your productivity rockets!

Elaine Berry is the owner of Bizwrite, the only one-stop-shop for writing services. Bizwrite provides copywriting, ghostwriting, article writing and proofreading services, and also provides help and tuition in all aspects of writing. Visit bizwrite.co.uk bizwrite.co.uk for a FREE e-course on copywriting.

Writers are a special group. They work to draw up large, tottering buckets from their creative wells and pour out new characters, ideas, situations, and images to delight, inspire, and transform their readers. But what happens to the well when the environment doesn’t support writers? It dries up. Or, worse still, only provides just enough creativity to make the writer confused and uncertain about where to go next.

When it comes to writing, the writing space is not merely an office, it is a writing environment, and the old saying that you are a product of your environment is especially true. Therefore, if your environment is cramped, dusty, and cluttered, how can you write your best? Can you create brilliant articles when you are uncomfortable and ill at-ease because your back is to the door? Is it enjoyable to work on your book when your desk is poorly arranged and you have to strain to see the computer screen?

Further, will you be inspired to keep writing when your desk is such that you are forced to reach high for a mouse, making for a sore arm sore after only a few minutes at the computer? If this is the case then, what are the products (articles, poetry, or book) of your environment? Inspired or insipid? Brilliant or dull?

If you enjoy writing and want to boost your creativity, then make your writing environment support you. A comfortable, harmonious environment directly impacts your efficiency, productivity — and creativity. So it makes sense to first create a suitable environment before you can truly write your best. Feng shui can help you because it provides the ground rules that create just this kind of environment.

1. Never sit with your back to the door.

This is rule No. 1 in office feng shui. If you can’t see what’s going on, you – and your work – will suffer. Instead, face the door and have a solid wall behind your back so that you feel supported and protected – and so that you are in a position of power.

2. Create a clean environment.
A cluttered, messy, or dusty workspace is a detraction and distraction from your work. Clear your desk, corral loose papers and pens, and organize books and materials. Make your office work so you can find what you need when you need it. This goes a long way toward enhancing your efficiency.

3. Add a small plant, aquarium, or fountain in the southeast corner of your office.
The southeast is the corner of “creation” and writing in feng shui. Adding a plant here will help you grow as a writer by infusing this area with elements that are harmonious with the southeast, such as plants, water fountains, or aquariums. The southeast is also the wealth sector, and by enhancing this area with, say, tabletop fountain, you might just also earn more from your writing.

4. Use a crystal for concentration.

Place a quartz crystal in the northeast corner of your desk to help your concentration and focus. The northeast is the direction of study and wisdom. Feng shui masters often advise students to use quartz crystals to help them concentrate when they are taking an exam.

5. Boost the south wall of your office for fame and recognition.
If you are trying to catch the eye of a publisher or market your articles or book, then boost the south portion of your office. Place articles you’ve sold, prizes or awards you’ve won, diplomas, certificates, or pictures or letters from famous people on the south wall.

Be sure to have a light positioned to shine on this wall and the accolades hanging there. Boosting the south wall this way will help enhance your recognition to other people. Who knows? Maybe that all-elusive agent will finally call you.

6. Keep open space on and around your desk.
Good feng shui is like creativity: It must be flowing. But, creativity and good energy cannot flow if your desktop is overly crowded or you can’t walk around your desk easily. Therefore, it’s important to keep an open space at the front of your desk so good energy can accumulate here, and around your work area so that good energy — and creativity — can flow easily around your desk.

Work to make sure you can walk around your desk; (yes, I know computer cords can make it difficult, but cord covers are inexpensive and can be purchased from office supply centers easily). If you must stack up your work, stack it up behind you or to your left rather than in front of you on your desk where it will appear as something insurmountable. Lastly, L-shaped desks are very inauspicious (they look like a cleaver), so avoid these desk configurations.

Now, before you set fingers to the keyboard to edit your latest article, take a look around and see if your office could use some careful editing, too. Use these guidelines here to pull your office together. With your improved environment, you might just find that you are more comfortable, and consequently, more productive and creative.

Kathryn Weber is the publisher of the Red Lotus Letter feng shui e-zine and is dedicated to helping her readers develop successful, prosperous, and supportive environments with feng shui. To subscribe, logon to redlotusletter.com/ www.redlotusletter.com and receive this special report Fr*ee “16 Feng Shui Secrets for Greater Prosperity.”

mailto:kweber@redlotusconsulting.com kweber@redlotusconsulting.com

This is a growing trend that is catapulting unknown authors to known experts. The idea is simple: write an article about a chosen topic, submit it through the multitude of article submission sites and presto – your message and content is delivered to people who are looking for exactly what you are “selling.”

The article isn’t a sales pitch however. When you write the article, keep in mind that people really do want to know about the topic you’ve chosen and they want to learn something. Teach them something about what it is you’ve chosen and the idea is to come across as an expert or at least highly knowledgeable in that area so people can trust your information and visit your website to learn more about you and what it is you do.

Here are just a few of the benefits of article marketing:

1. It’s FREE! That’s right, totally 100% free and it is so powerful. Submitting articles through directories does not take up more than ten minutes of your time (excluding actually writing the article) and once submitted it becomes searchable on all search engines and if posted on your website as well, helps with search engine optimization.

2. It promotes your website. Even though writing an article is not a sales pitch, you always enclose an “About the Author” at the end of the article which is great for you! You can add your URL, a short blurb about what you do, a note about your e-zine; whatever you feel is necessary to have in that area.

3. They are used over and over again. If I am doing a search on a particular topic for my latest blog entry and I come across your article, I am going to copy and paste it (including the disclaimer and about the author section of course) and put it on my website which in turn gets you exposure for free. If someone sees it on my blog, they may copy and paste it for their blog which gives you that much more free advertising and publicity. Never underestimate the power of viral marketing.

One hint with using article submission sites: download the free program RoboForm. Some of the submission sites have a lot of information to enter each and every time so you can cut your time in half (or more than half!) with the use of a downloadable program like RoboForm which is a “form filler.”

Resources We Recommend

RoboForm.com – An automated form filler and password keeper for your computer’s internet browser. Cuts down your time spent on repetitive form filling.

EzineArticles.com – One of the biggest and best article submission sites on the web. You can setup an account and post as many articles as you like. Also provides you with great statistics on the number of views you’ve received, how many times your link has been followed and if it has been e-mailed out.

– About the Author –

Erin Blaskie is the founder and president of Business Services, ETC ( bsetc.ca bsetc.ca) an administrative support company located within Canada. Erin works one on one with clients to assist them in meeting their goals by taking over the “small stuff.”

– For More Information –

Erin also has a free e-zine called “101 Things That I Discovered as a VA”, which will help you with all areas of your business, that you can subscribe to at bsetc.ca bsetc.ca as well as a blog with the same title where she shares even more tips.

If you want to know more please contact Erin at erin.blaskie@bsetc.ca.

– Copyright Information –

All rights reserved. This publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system or otherwise, unless this notification of copyright is retained.

FORWARD

The 188 stage Hero’s Journey (Monomyth) is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the hundreds of Hollywood movies we have deconstructed (see URL below) are based on this 188 stage template.

Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters. This is the template you must master if you are to succeed in the craft.

[The terminology is most often metaphoric and applies to all successful stories and screenplays, from The Godfather (1972) to Brokeback Mountain (2006) to Annie Hall (1977) to Lord of the Rings (2003) to Drugstore Cowboy (1989) to Thelma and Louise (1991) to Apocaplyse Now (1979)].

THERE IS ONLY ONE STORY

THE 188 STAGE HERO’S JOURNEY:

a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

c) Gives you a tangible process for building and releasing dissonance (establishing and achieving catharses, of which there are usually four).

d) Tells you what to write. For example, at a certain stage of the story, the focus should be on the Call to Adventure and the micro elements within.

ABRIDGED TIPS, EXCERPTS AND EXAMPLES:

(simply go to heros-journey.info/ heros-journey.info/ for full details)

*****Magic Flight*****

The magic flight, supernatural in nature [In Straw Dogs (1971), Henry runs in the fog], is often, but not necessarily centred around escape. In Straw Dogs (1971), Henry runs from Tom et al.

*****No Going Back*****

The beginning of the Road of Trials often sees the Hero’s path backwards closed off. In Brokeback Mountain (2005), Jack Twist wants to get a job on Brokeback again, but Joe doesn′t let him.

Learn more…

WRITE THAT SCREENPLAY!

The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and other story structure templates can be found at monomyth.info/ monomyth.info/

188 stages of the Hero’s Journey can also be reached from story-structure.org/ story-structure.org/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

**********************************

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made, the author’s name is retained and the link to our site URL remains active.

There are many ways for someone to promote their online business or website and one is by writing and then submitting an article to the many article directories that can be found on the internet. People who write articles that are relevant to their site or the product they are selling have found this an inexpensive but extremely effective method of driving traffic to their sites. All it needs is for one well written article that they have submitted to be published and they find that over a period of time the traffic increases to their site. However, by writing more articles then the person is more than likely to gain even more exposure for their site.

Also many people have found that the article directories that they submit to are usually free for submission purposes and when starting an online business any savings you can make in the first few weeks or months will benefit the business.

Plus by submitting an article to an article directory you allowing other site uses to use your information, but they must only use original articles and at all times they must retain the authors resource box. By having your article placed on other peoples sites the potential for additional customers actually visiting your own site is increased.

It should be remembered that any article that you write should be informative, well written and included as many keywords relating to your site as possible. You will see from this article alone, just how many times I have included article in a paragraph or sentence. Also please ensure that you write an article on the subject that relates to your site and that you are familiar with as you will find that this helps to make the article writing process much easier.

Any articles of yours that are chosen and used by a publisher one accepted by an article directory will help to increase your sites presence on the net and will provide you with that all important back link back to your site. As stated previously any article of yours that is used by another site owner or publisher must be kept in its original form and must include the authors resource box with that all important back link back to your own site.

A resource box should just provide the reader with an introduction to yourself and include the back link back to your own site. I usually write one or two lines such as “Allison Thompson, a work from home mum, now living in Spain and who has become extremely interested in writing articles for a living and has now gained expert knowledge in this field. If you would like to know anything on the subject above, please visit my site ………………”.

Any article that has been well written and informative will usually capture a large audience rather than one that is long and tedious and with very little information contained within it about the subject matter. But remembered that any article you write must be an original and must not have been produced anywhere else as the all important search engines of the net only look at those with original content and are easy to spot those that have been duplicated.
Eventually, after you have written a number of articles on your chosen subject you will find that your credibility as an expert has built and people are more willing to read what you are producing.

So as you can see by writing your own articles you are more likely to impress those people that are interested in the service or the product that you are offering and because submission to many article directories is free the cost implications are minimal.

Finally, with the abundance of article directories that are available on the internet you will find that you will be able to reach a larger audience of potential customers, rather if you just set the site up and hope that the search engines find it.

Allison Thompson webmaster of this and several other sites after becoming a work at home mum who now lives in Spain. If you should require any further information please go to give-me-articles.com give-me-articles.com