Writing Inrochester

It can be difficult for new authors to create the kind of publicity needed for book sales, though, not impossible. The most effective ways to market a book is to follow these simple tips.

1. Promote daily.

There are number of ways to market your book, and whether you are sending a book for review, lining up an interview with your local papers, or submitting articles to magazines, authors should make daily contacts. Author-Promotion (www.author-promotion.com) is a resource directory for authors — comprised of articles, marketing tips, and resources on book promotion. It is great way to get started. You’ll be surprised at how much you can accomplish if you make a goal to promote each day.

2. Contact small and major publications.

Authors should also contact national newspapers, reviewers, magazines, or other forms of media. Though all forms of marketing have value, the larger your audience or exposure, the easier it is to generate demand for your books. For example: Reader Views - an online book reviewer, publicity and editing service, is a great place for authors to have their books reviewed, but authors should also request book reviews from well-established reviewers such as Publisher Weekly, Boston Globe, Kirkus Reviews, The Denver Post… these are merely samples used to illustrate a point. The same example could also be used when referring to submitting articles, getting interviews, etc.

3. It is essential for authors to promote their web sites.

You must market your web site in order to increase traffic. The best way to promote a web site is by having it ranked among the top of major search engines. When submitting a site for inclusion to search engines, authors may want to try the web optimization feature. Be sure to create meta tags and list the proper keywords that fit your product-related web site. Authors can go to (www.submitexpress.com/) to learn more about meta tags, keywords, and web optimization. In addition, authors can use Google AdSense or have their sites listed on business directories (www.directoriezsubmission.com/). Other ways to increase web traffic is through various advertising methods such as flyers, business cards, or having your content listed on vendor sites. You can also submit your site to the Open Directory Project, and promote your site through writing-related forums and groups.

4. Target organizations for book purchases.

The best way to sell large quantities of authors’ books is by having organizations like libraries, schools, universities, churches… buy them. You can find U.S. public libraries listed here:
sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/Public_main.html, or do an Internet search to find other organizations of your interest. Do not send unsolicited books. Query first, by either phone or email. Suggest your book’s title for possible purchase and request the appropriate address and department where you can send a sample review copy of your book along with the descriptive publicity materials, including price and relevant purchasing information. To increase sales, it is best not to contact individual libraries or schools, and instead contact the regional library or county school system of that particular area. By following these marketing tips, you will greatly enhance your ability to effectively market your book.

Nadia Brown is an American poet, freelance writer, and author of the award-winning book, Unscrambled Eggs. Her poetry and articles have appeared in national and international magazines and literary journals. She is also the founder of author-promotion.com. For more information about her, visit her website at nadiabrown.com nadiabrown.com

You’ve always dreamed of getting published

You have an idea for a book.

Great!

Where do you start?
Here’s your answer.

Start with an article.

You′ve heard the expression: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

The “elephant” is the book. The “bites” are the series of articles that will eventually make up the book—each article a piece of a chapter.

You can assure yourself of finishing the book if you just tell yourself you will work on one little piece—one article, with one thought—at a time.

Set a realistic goal. If an article a week isn’t realistic, then try an article every two weeks, or one a month. Either way, you’ll be making progress.

The Hidden Treasure in Your Articles

Once one article is written, don’t just move on to the next one. Whether you know it or not, your article contains a hidden treasure. There is extremely valuable information about your audience locked up in that article.

You can unlock the treasure and put that article to work for you to actually shape your book into something you know people will want to read.

How?

By publishing it online, and using the feedback that’s available to learn more about your audience.

When you publish an article in an online ezine directory such as ezinearticles.com, the directory keeps track of how times people have viewed your article, how many times it’s been published in other places or emailed to people. People are also allowed to vote on your article, and to comment.

As you write your book, article by article, chapter by chapter, you can get a feel for which topics are most interesting to other people. You may find out that some articles receive a lot of votes and comments, others get none. This will help you reshape your book so that you give people more of what they want, and don’t bore them with what they don’t want.

This really gets me excited. Never before has something like this been available to writers. Before, it’s always been a crapshoot as to what people really will want to read. The Internet tools available now have changed all that—to writers’ everlasting advantage.

You just have to know how to use the tools.

What to Do with Your Article

Once written, submit your article to ezine directories. Start with ezinearticles.com, the biggest and best directory. Look through the categories and find the one that most closely fits your audience’s needs. Go as far as you can.

For instance, this article could go in the “Writing and Speaking” category, but it’s best if I go further and put it in the “Writing and Speaking—Writing” category. Now, I could put it in “Writing and Speaking—Writing Articles” category—but I won’t. Why not?

Because you, the reader, are probably most interested in this point in writing a book, right? I’m telling you the best way to do that is to start by writing articles, but that’s not what’s on your mind at first. See how it works? You always start with your audience. It’s all about them—not you!

People will find online articles through keying in words or phrases in the search box, so you will want to figure out what kind of keywords people will use to find the information in your article. All ezine directories will ask you to submit keywords. Make your title and your first paragraph, especially, rich with keywords.

In addition to keywords, you need to submit a summary of your article. This is like a little ad to get people to read it, so you want to make sure it summarizes well what you want to say, while enticing them to read more.

The next unique thing about an ezine article is that you can include an author’s bio box, also called a resource box. Here is where you can put something in about yourself. Here is where you can also ask them to take some action—sign up for your newsletter if you have one, or your blog, or go to your website to read an excerpt from another book you have, etc.

I suggest you put up a simple blog where you can post your other articles, and say in the resource box, “To read more articles on this topic, visit yourblogurl.com.” Blogs are great because they’re free, quick and easy to put up and maintain, search engines like them, and people can comment on them as well. Just make sure that the articles on your blog and the ones in the ezine directories are at least 20 percent different.

Use the information you’re learning about your audience to rethink your book’s content as necessary.

Caution

One caution about using this technique: Do not submit the content of every single chapter to online directories!

Two reasons for this.

One, a chapter is probably too long for an article anyway. One chapter may end up being the equivalent of several articles. You’ll want to submit only 500-900 words tops as an ezine article. Use something that’s representative of the chapter. All you need is a sense of how people like your content.

Second reason you can’t submit all of what will eventually be your book’s content is—no publisher will touch it if it’s already been published.

However, if you can approach a publisher and say, “pieces of several of these chapters have gotten 10,000 views, been picked up by 2000 other ezines, and received 300 comments”—well, let’s just say a publisher is likely to be convinced you have an audience, even if you’re trying to sell your first book.

For more articles like this on writing, publishing and making money with books and other information products, visit wordstoprofit.com wordstoprofit.com and sign up for the free newsletter. And if you’re ready to start your book today, check out the downloadable coaching session called Jump Start Your Book: 12 Questions You Must Answer to Write a Book that Sells at wordstoprofit.com/JumpStartYourBook.html wordstoprofit.com/JumpStartYourBook.html From Diane Eble, yourbookpublishingcoach.com “Your Book Publishing Coach”.

With the right title, your book can fly off the bookstore shelves, clog the internet wires and stuff your bank account full. But with the wrong title, it can languish untouched, unpurchased and unfulfilled. To create a best-selling title you must follow these guidelines.

Book buyers are a fickle lot. And while we all agree we can’t tell a book by its cover, we’re equally convinced that we can find out all we need to know by the title.

The title for your book my be precise, exact, even dynamic, but if it doesn’t ignite an emotional flame within the reader, no one will want to open the cover (or press the download button).

While we’re briefly discussing the two species of books, traditional paper and ink and electronically delivered ebook, you should be aware that the importance of the title is imperative to both. So, no matter what the final form will take, your selection of a winning title is essential.

I’ve seen truly outstanding books, that were poorly titled, fail miserably. While mediocre offerings with tremendous titles, gain notoriety, fame and financial success that they really didn’t deserve—based on their content.

Now, that’s not fair. But that’s the way things are. You can argue the fact all you want—and frankly I’d agree that you were right—but that’s doesn’t change the reality of the situation: two identical books, with different titles, will have different sales numbers.

Your job is to ensure that the title you develop is the title that will do you the most good!

So, let’s get started. The first thing you’ve got to do is stop being so emotional about the title of your book. Ever since you began writing it, you had the title in mind. If not the precise wording, then a very close estimate. Week after week you told friends and family about your book, the progress you were making and when they asked you what it was about, the first words out of your mouth were, “Well, it’s called, ‘(whatever title you had decided on)’ and it’s about…”

Over time, the title began to sound more and more real to you. It began to take on a life of it’s own, until finally, you reached the point where you couldn’t see it being called anything else. I mean, that title was so obvious, so explanatory, so near and dear to your heart. If I know you, you were the person who came up with it, right?

That’s what I mean by becoming emotional about the title. If someone, anyone, suggested a different title, you’d become defensive, even argumentative.

Stop that!

You want your book to be read by the largest number of people, don’t you. You want your book to be a work that many people are talking about (positively) don’t you? You want that book to be, at least a marginal, profit center for you, don’t you?

Well it ain’t going to happen if you use a title that is less effective than another title.

Let me put you in the proper frame of mind right now. The title you’ve created probably isn’t the best title for that book of yours. Sorry, but it’s true. In fact, I’ll bet money that it isn’t and I’ll be winning just about every time.

So, how do we get the right title for your book? It shouldn’t take long and it should cost you a lot of money, either.

On a piece of paper, write down the title you’ve chosen for your book. Now, let your mind wander and write down at least 10 other titles for your book. I don’t care how wacky or crazy they are, just write them down. After about the fifth one, you’ll have run out of wackiness and the titles will actually start to sound good.

Ten or 11, got it? Good!

Now, take the list around to as many friends as you can find. If you don’t have many friends, you can literally approach strangers. Say exactly the same thing to them as you show them the sheet with the title candidates.

“I’ve written a book and now I have to decide on a title. Based solely on the words which of these books would you most want to buy and read?

After you’ve asked about 100 people, a clear winner will start to emerge. Certainly you’ll know the top three.

Sorry, your pet title will probably not be among them.

And, no, it doesn’t matter that your book is a technical manual, or a gothic romance, or a guide for redecorating your kitchen. You’re asking these folks to select the title they prefer.

If you give lectures, it becomes really easy. Take the title candidates, show them to the audience on an overhead or a power point frame, and ask the audience the same question. Then count the hands for each title.

Now, if you want to get really good take the top three and create seven new titles. Actually design the new titles with the idea of beating the old champions. Run them all through the old opinion mill again.

A clear winner will emerge. That’s the title you should go with.

Is there a faster way of doing it? Sure but it will cost a few dollars. Go to Google.com, set up an adwords account and place the 10 titles into 10 ads that you will rotate equally. Don’t worry, Google Ad Words will show you how to do this. You’ll have your answer in just a few days, a week tops.

Steve Manning is a master writer showing thousands of people how they can write their book faster than they ever thought possible. Here’s your free Special Report, WriteABookNow.com/ez1.html WriteABookNow.com/ez1.html

Screenwriting is often performed by the single individual or a pair. And sometimes other people become involved.

Once in the production phase, a multitude of competencies and groups must necessarily collaborate to successfully commercialise that screenplay.

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation and innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. This definition goes some way in illustrating the multiple layers and granularity of the process.

Team structures must be manged effectively at each stage for optimum results.

There are essentially four possible structures:

a) The single individual - many single individuals have been known to make significant contributions in their fields - Einstein etc. But can you separate the idea from its influences? Individuals also suffer a high degree of path dependency.

b) The pair. This structure goes some way to overcoming path dependencies but does not benefit from the intellectual cross pollination of large groups.

c) The small group. Intellectual cross pollination increases but so do core and peripheral information pathways, creating hierarchies and restricting information flow.

d) The large group. Very high levels of intellectual cross pollination but an increase in group think, a decline in individual performance, higher evaluation apprehension, an increase in political behaviour and more.

It seems that a pair and small group combinations are most effective overall. But different combinations geared for the specific endeavour produce the best results overall.

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

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

The MBA research project, 188 stage Hero’s Journey and other creativity and innovation tools can be found at managing-creativity.com/ managing-creativity.com/

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

Kal Bishop, MBA

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at managing-creativity.com/ managing-creativity.com/

Every writer can benefit from a study of the effectiveness of their individual writing process. You can write more and you can write better by making some adjustments in your writing strategy.

Recently one of my writer friends complained about their declining word output.

“I spend more time at the computer than I ever did before and I’m just not producing like I used to,” she griped.

After spending a day in writing conferences coaching my struggling novice writers, my response came without conscious thought on my part: “Tell me about your writing process.”

“My what?” She asked.

Ah-ha!

I regularly coach my beginning writers about how to develop their own personal writing strategy or process and as a teacher of writing I think about mine quite often, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that experienced, professional writers rarely spend time talking about this critical element.

What a mistake!

It is easy to understand why. Many of us are simply too busy writing to think too much about the actual process. We have deadlines to meet, assignments to pursue, and pitches to create. When we do spend time with other writers our interactions typically fall into three categories–seeking admiration for our success, input for our end product, or escape from writing.

Many writers also take their writing process for granted and simply follow the old adage–if it ain′t broke, don′t fix it. But what happens when it does break down as it did with my friend? If you don′t understand your own writing process then you can′t fix it. And just like many of the machines in your life, regular maintenance checks just might prevent a major breakdown in the future.

My friend’s problem was easily identified and solved once we actually studied her writing process and writing life. Yes she was spending more time in front of the computer but she had lost a big chunk of her prewriting time due to changes in her home life. Once she understood that problem she was able to make adjustments to her schedule and she is seeing her daily word count rising back to her old levels.

So how is your writing process?

Many writers shy away from the term as it brings back fearful memories of a rigid structure forced on them in school. That is not what I want to talk about at all. Frankly, I always teach my students that there is no such as thing as the writing process.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe we each have our own individual writing process, I just don’t believe in the one-size-fits-all type strategy that many writers were force-fed. Just think about it. How could there be just one writing process–every writer I know is an individual with various strengths and weaknesses and personality traits. Every writer is wired differently from every other writer. That is one of the things that makes reading such a pleasure. It follows very logically then that every writing process should differ just as every writer differs.

Having said that I should point out that although the actual shape and form of each writing process is individual to the unique writer there are certain constants:

~ Generating ideas and choosing a focus
~ Organizing those ideas
~ Writing
~ Revising
~ Editing

The amount of time you spend on each stage of the writing process varies according to the writer and the task and this is especially true for me. Many writing tasks are so familiar to me that I spend very little time choosing a focus or organizing my ideas so I can leap write into writing. On the other hand I often generate four or more pages of fiction in about an hour at the computer because I spend a lot of time generating and organizing my ideas before I sit down.

I have spent years honing my personal writing process and know that the step I actually spend the least amount of time is writing. I have learned to let my creative juices flow and not to worry about such petty concerns as grammar, sentence structure, and word choice. I rarely waste a moment on organization or paragraphing. I just let the words flow through my fingerstips until I have emptied my budget. Then I hit save and print, tidy up my papers and set them aside.

Revision is usually the lion’s share of my writing process. It may take me two or three drafts to reorganize and shape a piece until I am willing to share it with others. Depending on how difficult and/or complex the subject then I may need to loop back through brainstorming, organizing and writing to improve my project. I may make a few minor adjustments to grammar or spelling or sentence structure, but primarily I concentrate on the larger issues of focus and development and organization.

When I am finally satisfied my article, chapter, or essay is working as a whole then I begin the actual editing process of cleaning up word choice and sentence structure and any other stray problems that have been overlooked. I usually spend only one draft on this actual process.

If you are serious about improving your writing quality and productivity then you need to spend time analyzing your personal writing process. You might be surprised by what you learn–and I know you can put the knowledge to good use.

deannamascle.com Deanna Mascle is the publisher of the writing newsletter wordcraftonline.com Word Craft Online and the writing resource answersaboutwriting.com Answers About Writing. She has published three novels; written and edited numerous newspapers, magazines, books, and online publications; and teaches writing at Morehead State University.

I love to read and like to try out new authors. I do have a few favourites whose books I tend to buy whenever a new one has been published. Most of the time, I will enjoy these new releases. But sometimes I’ll find myself unable to get into the story.

This is okay, and understandable. I think that every writer tries out new things, and will learn and grow and experiment. There are books by Stephen King that I don’t really like, and some I’ve never finished reading, even after several attempts. But I do think he’s a great author. The same with Anne Rice, and even Terry Pratchett.

The reasons for not being able to get into a book vary, but the one I will discuss in this article is the matter of description – too much or too little.

There’s a certain book by one of my favourite authors that gave me trouble. I usually love her novels, but I struggled with this particular one because her detailed descriptions were so, well, detailed and lengthy that I found myself skipping entire pages just to check where and when the story actually continued. There’s a whole section in that book explaining the intricacies of iconic egg painting, and whilst I am sure that that is extremely interesting to some, I wanted to know what was going to happen next.

Too much detail can cause me to skip pages, but it’s all the more difficult to get the feel of a book and get hooked when it occurs at the very beginning. I have nothing against some detail that places us in a particular setting, but I do not need five or seven pages of detailed description before I’m actually introduced to a character and/or get a hint of what the story is all about.

In my experience, it’s best to learn bits and pieces about, for example, the setting, where and when it’s relevant. I, as the reader, can fill in the details myself and paint a picture in my mind when the basics have been provided.

On the other hand, there have been stories that left me guessing about details that I wanted to know. I′ve been known to flick back through a book to see if I missed something, which is not great for a smooth read either.

For example, I like to know the age, or at least approximate age, of the main characters, and to have a rough idea about their looks. This helps me visualise them and play their little part in the cinema of my mind.

I like to learn these details as the story progresses, though preferably near the beginning of the novel. Though I do not like it when characters are introduced like this:

Jenny was a 20-year-old woman. She had long, blonde hair, blue eyes, was of medium built and was wearing (etc…). She was talking to her best friend Melissa, who was 20 years old as well, had shoulder-length brown hair… and so on.

Another one I do not really like is the “mirror scene” on the first couple of pages - Jenny looks in the mirror and what she sees is…

I think the best way to illustrate my ideas on too much and too little description is to give a couple of brief examples. Picture our hero, Michael, being chased by a bad guy of your choosing. It is a tense scene. Ahead is a big building. Michael is running towards it and dashes inside…

In situation A, we are then treated to a detailed description of the building, what it was used for since it was built, perhaps a few more personal notes about its previous owners and how it came to be in the state of decline it is in today. By the time the bad guy arrives, the scene would not feel quite so tense any more.

In situation B, Michael dashes inside, looks around him and, say, almost falls into the big vat of boiling liquid on the floor below but luckily survives. How he manages to almost fall into the big vat when the big vat is a floor below is not really explained, nor are we given any indication of his reactions to almost landing in it.

A balance would be nice. Some idea of what the building is like, enough to set the scene. Insight into how our hero is experiencing the scene we are reading is crucial. A skilled author will give us enough to keep reading and to have us yearning to find out what happens next.

Isn′t that far better than feeling we missed something, or to have to skip entire pages to see what happens when the story finally continues?

If you are writing a novel, or a story, it could be worthwhile to ponder these matters. Have a read of your work, and perhaps ask the opinions of friends. Are there parts of your story that do not hold a reader’s attention as much as they could? Are you tempted to skip paragraphs? Are there situations that are unclear? If so, a tiny bit of editing could do wonders, without affecting the story as a whole.

If you manage to keep your readers hooked, congratulations! I am sure they will return to your works again and again.

Kit Marsters is an author on Writing.Com/ Writing.Com/
which is a site for Writing.Com/ Writers.

There are several online article marketing submission websites on the Internet and some critics say these sites do not have very good articles on them. Specifically those with the most articles, these critics say are “very poor” or suck. Recently the big debate heated up when gentleman who may have been a research analysts noted that on most online article submission sites the; “Top authors by volume are poor writers.”

Whereas one could hardly argue that there are a good number of fly-by-night article submission sites where the articles are not screened very well there is one online article submission site, which is a cut above the norm, EzineArticles.com, which reviews each article coming in and have strict editorial guidelines and therefore does in fact have better authors.

Is it really fair to say that all online article authors suck on all online article submission websites? Especially those who submit a lot of articles? Well on the surface it may seem to be a little naïve of the critic, yet is an innocent enough statement and obviously a pure perception based comment. Myself as the top submitting author do not take offense to this attack on the online article submission website format if in fact if the critic is referring to me, since I happen to be the largest online article submitter on the Internet currently.

I do not consider myself a “great writer” but I consider what I have to say to the world worthy and my objectives noble; “to make people think” therefore if this critic read my articles and came up with this argument to propel his lone debate in the cause to criticize online article submission sites then “I Win” because I did make him think and he wrote a huge email and statement of critique. Why does someone have to be a “great writer” to have something important to say. And is someone who has important things to say but is not a top journalist a “poor” writer, if their sentence structure is often lacking?

You see, I made him think and that was my objective and thus my article marketing and purpose wins. Thus I am an “effective” rather than a “poor” writer and accomplished my goal. And therefore that stands as proof right there that article internet submission sites work and that the writers who write are not “poor” at all, but indeed, they are very effective even if their writing skills are not “popular magazine” quality. And to that point is a great writer one who has the best spelling, grammar and sentence structure or is it one who enlightens others thru their writing? Virginia Wolfe, a great writer, obviously had run-on sentences, was she a bad writer?

Since I am the top writer on the Premier Online Article Submission Site in the World EzineArticles.com by a multiple of 7 times and have read many articles by the number two author (The Article Guy), who by the way along with the number three Carrie Reeder, who both kick ass. I of course do not take offense to the detractor of “poor writer” by the critic because it simply is not so. Think on this.

“Lance Winslow” - Online WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/ Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance in the Online Think Tank and solve the problems of the World WorldThinkTank.net www.WorldThinkTank.net/

When writing an article, always have your reader in mind. Look at your article with a critical eye and think how your reader would interpret it. Don’t think of it as an article, think of it as a sales piece.

Before writing an article, write down your goals for the article. Do you merely want to provide information and let people know you are knowledgeable in the field? Do you want to generate web traffic or would you prefer it if readers click on your links? It is imperative that you develop a goal for each article you write.

1. If your goal is to entice the viewer to click on your links, make sure you give them enough information to pique their curiosity and offer them more detailed information by clicking the link in your Resource Box.

2. Make a list of the main features of the item or service you are promoting in your article. If you are writing about autoresponders, list the features of autoresponders. For each of these features, write how it would benefit the user.
For example:
Feature - It can send out thousands of sales presentations simultaneously.
Benefit - Earn thousands of dollars at the push of a button.

3. Paint a picture with your benefits. Make an emotional appeal so the viewers can actually see themselves. In the example above you can change the benefit to:
Earn thousands of dollars while you bask in the warm sunshine of a Caribbean beach sipping a cool drink.

4. Select two or three of your strongest features and benefits and write them into your article. Start with the items that would be most attractive to your reader. It is not necessary to go into great detail you will do that after they click on your link.

5. Write an attention grabbing title that compels the viewer to read further. People tend to skim over the available titles when they are looking for information. Your article has to jump out at them. Your title is the most important part of your article. If you write a great article and give it a boring title, no one will read it. All of your hard work will have been for nothing.

Using these five techniques, you will substantially increase you success rate with articles. I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go now. You see the tide is coming in and the waves are approaching my beach chair. Anyway, I can use another drink. I’ll see you on the beach!

Download our

Is a dream come true for the Internet marketer.

At the same time so many of the new students, members, and mentees whom I work with, get frightened of the word marketing when we get to the topic of marketing and they are articles.

I’m here to tell you that there really is no reason to get scared. I’m going to give you three definitions of marketing that apply to the article marketer that will calm your nerves about this whole idea of article marketing.

Definition 1 - Marketing and therefore of marketing your articles is simply applied human psychology. Find out what people want to read and give it to them in the form they would most like to read it in. It’s as simple and powerful as that.

Definition 2 - Marketing and therefore marketing your articles is simply letting other people know what you do. Gone are the days when you could just hang up a shingle announcing your business influx of people would just come. As a matter of fact I′m not sure that it stays ever existed. He simply letting other people know what you do and letting them know through the use of your articles.

Definition 3 - This is my favorite definition of article marketing. And therefore marketing your articles is simply getting your articles in front of as many eyes as possible and as a nanny consumable formats as possible. That’s all there is to it. Whether it’s on an article directory, in an e-book, in a newspaper, or own a tele-seminar, is simply getting your articles in front of as many eyes as possible in as many consumable formats as possible.

Would you like free access to two of my Article Writing Templates? You can download them by going to TheArticleGuy.com/bonustemplates.htm TheArticleGuy.com/bonustemplates.htm

Would you like to get in on our free weekly Article Guy TeleSeminars? Visit TheArticleGuyTeleSeminars.com TheArticleGuyTeleSeminars.com to get started today!

From Jeff Herring - The Article Guy

Your product or service may be the best of its kind, but it will not sell without the proper marketing and promotion strategies. Whether you are selling statement t-shirts, luxury cars, or discount tickets for a vacation to Europe, you will need to get word out on your product and service so that you can stand out in the global market. You may wish to hand out pamphlets if you are on a strict budget, or you may splurge on a television commercial to reach out to as wide an audience as possible. Both marketing methods, however, can be impersonal, not to mention annoying, to customers who want a product or service that caters exclusively to their needs.

One marketing technique you may want to explore is the sales letter. A sales letter is simply a letter promoting your product or service, discounts on your newest offerings, or even a share in your company. A sales letter, however, is more personal, as it addresses individual members of your prospective market.

This special trait of sales letters makes them difficult to write. Many of your prospective customers will have been saturated with hard sell, mass marketing methods. A sales letter, if overdone, can be irritating; if underdone, it can be ignored. Before you sit down and write your letter, take note of the following characteristics of a sales letter, and heed the tips on basic sales letter writing.

Sales letters, like any other letters, begin with a salutation to the recipient. The sales letter, however, will address a customer directly. How do you obtain the names and addresses of your recipients, and how can you catch their attention?

• You will need to identify the market of your product or service. Is your product something that will appeal to teens or adults? Who can afford it? Who might need it the most? If you know who exactly your market is, you will know who you should address your letters to.

You may be tempted, however, to simply pick up the nearest phone book and select names at random. This method, derogatively referred to as “shotgun sending,” is counterproductive, and can waste your time and money. Shotgun sending, moreover, will make you appear even more careless, as you seem not to care about what your customers think and need.

A good method to narrow your market down is to do a search of your customers online. There are directories available for free on the Internet, although you must be sure that the online merchant is legal, and has gathered the names and addresses of the people in the directory with their consent. For instance, if you are selling textbooks on physics, you may want to search for directories of college professors, high school teachers, or even alumni of schools who might want to donate books to their alma mater.

• Make your letter attractive. If you are sending the sales letter through snail mail, you can have a colored envelope with an eye-catching slogan or catchphrase on the front. Such sentences as “Do you want to know how to get great discounts on your grocery shopping?” or “Know how to invest your money and get great returns” can make prospective customers open the envelope.

Making an email attractive can be challenging. Simply writing an attractive phrase in the subject line can sometimes land your email in the spam folder, or worse, in the trash. If you must send a sales letter through email, make your subject line simple, but your contents attractive. Go easy on the graphics; heavy emails can take longer to load, and you may end up annoying rather than attracting the recipient.

• The best sales letters are worded simply, but with force enough to jump out at the reader. How can a sales letter be forceful? It should address the reader directly, and must clearly show how the marketed product or service can directly benefit the reader. The best sales letters are not even cute or clever. They are simply convincing and innovative. For instance, if you are selling car parts, you can include a section on the top ten tips for proper car care.

A sales letter should make people read, and then purchase your product or service. If you are simple but convincing, you will certainly widen your market base and reach out to new customers. All you need to do is know your
market and your strengths, and you can find positive responses to your sales letter before long.

Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information on