Writing Inrochester

1. Humor brightens the written word. That’s no surprise. The good news is that the ability to create humor is a learned skill. There are ways of thinking and there are certain writing structures that make the funny lines resonate with your readers.

2. A great place to start is by focusing your humor radar and learning to think funny. Expose yourself to humor books, tapes, movies. Visit toy stores. Hang around funny friends.

3. Keep a journal of funny things that happen to you. Your best source of humor is your personal stories. Stories are the best way to touch your readers and the easiest way to create humor.

4. When creating humor for a written piece, keep in mind that coming up with a funny line is a numbers game. If you want two funny lines for a piece, write 20 lines. Or maybe 40. Just when you think you’ve burned out on funny ideas, you’ll write your best line.

5. At the core of nearly every joke (especially true for written jokes which do not have the physical delivery factor that enhances spoken humor) is a relationship between two things or ideas. The relationship usually connects two previously unrelated items. For example, Gary Larson cartoons often relate animals with human characteristics. In one cartoon, all the patrons in a restaurant are snakes. One of the snakes at the table in the background is twisted and in an unusual position. Two snakes at a table in the foreground and talking about the unusual body language of the snake at the other table. “Oh, honey, he’s just signing.” He is referring to using sign language for the deaf. The technique: Making a link with human characteristic which you would not normally associate with snakes.

6. To make humorous connections, use the laundry-list technique. If you’re writing a piece on how nurses have a challenging job, you might start with the premise that working in a hospital is like working in a combat zone. Then you create two lists. One list for hospital-related things. Another list for military-related things. And then you look for similarities and contrasts between the two lists. You might come up with a line like: “After an upper GI exam, you get the GI Bill.” Or, “When completing a shift report you sometimes resort to Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell.”

7. Keep in mind that the element of surprise, one of the key elements that make humor tick, demands that you keep the punchline and punchword (the word that triggers the joke) at the end of the joke. If you fail to place the punchword at the very end, you run the risk of smothering it and hiding the humor.

8. Use punctuation for the pacing and timing of your humor. If you were speaking the humor line, you would use a pause. When writing, use a dash to accentuate the punch word. Or use the ellipsis. For example, the classic Henny Youngman line would look like: “Take my wife…please!”

9. Practice writing jokes to a theme. For example, what if Hillary Clinton were elected President. Or ten reasons why Las Vegas is like Disneyland. Or by writing captions for cartoons. The practice is like going to the gym. The more you write, your writing skills become stronger. That applies to humor writing too. Jest wishes for fun writing and many laughs.

Copyright 2005 John Kinde

John Kinde is a humor specialist who has been in the training and speaking business for over 30 years specializing in teambuilding, customer service and stress management. Special reports available: Show Me The Funny — Tips for Adding Humor to Your Presentations and When They Don’t Laugh — What To Do When the Laughter Doesn’t Come. Humor Power Tips newsletter and articles are available at HumorPower.com HumorPower.com.

Yep, Here We Go Again

I know you are probably tired of hearing this. I know you can pick up almost any e-book, marketing, or business publication and somewhere therein will be words about this subject. It is redundantly expounded upon in countless articles that many others and myself have penned.

Just the other day while I was on my way to an appointment, in the lush quietness of my mobile office, (aka my car) I slipped in an audio cassette and there it was again…The presenter spent not a second less than 17 minutes of a 42 minute presentation on Direct Response Marketing, preaching fervently why anyone interested in successfully marketing their product or service could not afford to make an error nor consider anything less than sheer perfection in their selection of this ingredient of the marketing mix.

This aspect of your attempt to sell your product or service, without face-to-face contact, carries a lot of weight. It’s importance, has been estimated as high as 90% in determining whether you will or will not get your prospect to act favorably.

You are all familiar with the cliché “you never get a second chance to make a good first impression,” aren’t you? Well as far as this subject is concerned, “no truer words were ever spoken.”

So what is it that I am talking about here? What could be so necessary that it is given such importance to have millions and millions of words penned about it?

What one element in the marketing of your product or service has such a major affect on your prospects conversion to a customer?

I know you are thinking, the marketing of my products or service involves a combination of components that work collectively together. Which ingredient of the mix is the glue that holds everything together? What is it?

It is the HEADLINE!

Albert Lasker, an early advertising pioneer said, “the headline in the end, today as 25 years ago is 90 percent of all there is to an ad. Why do I say 90%? Because if you don stop them with the headline, they won’t read the rest.”

And Tom (Big Al) Schreiter reminds us “the headline is not only the first line of your marketing flyer or letter. It is also the first thing you say when asked about your product or service and the opening line in any speech you give about your product or service, also the title of your book.” It determines whether the hearer will continue listening or the reader will venture further.

Does your headline grab the readers’ attention? Is your headline interesting?

You do not know with accuracy what is on your prospects mind. You do not know what will appeal to them. You feel your headline, the body content of your message and the P.S. describes the benefits of your specially designed doohickey, or expounds on the necessity of your service with great splendor. Who could possibly refuse?

How could anyone not want what you are offering?

Am I right?

Well the truth is, you are bias.

Why?

Could it be that your offer, your headline, and your P.S. broadcast your wants, not your prospects? Is it possible that you and your prospect have opposing views?

You don’t know for sure and your prospect will not know unless they read your message. Your message is one of the other components of the marketing mix to get the prospect to make a favorable response.

Only by attracting the attention of your prospect “first″ with your headline, which in turn pulls them into the body copy of your message, can this like mind transformation (or as Mr. Spock would cause, a Vulcan Mind Melt) occur.

This will only happen when, if, and after your headline has gripped your reader’s attention.

Does your product or service lend itself in such a way that would allow you to make benefit claims in your headline? How about asking a potent leading question?

Can you state a fact about a pain which your product or service fixes?

A universal principle of human nature is that your prospect will always do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure.

How about a contest or sweepstake lead in?
Can you make a Free Gift Offer?

Another approach could be a headline like this “If you answer these questions correctly, we will send you….” To find out what the questions are they must read further. You could include the questions on your order form or in the opening of your message.

The answer to the questions should be contained within the body copy of your message. This forces the prospect to read further.

Remember, your goal is to get the prospect into the body of your message. There you will sell them into taking the next step which is to buy your product or service, or go to your web site, or to call your special 800 number, or to request more information, or to…..

To design an effective headline, you must select your words, (generally verbs, action words) with great care.

Write, rewrite and rewrite again and again and again. I have rewritten a headline as many as fifty times before I hit upon what I felt to be the right combination of words for a headline. I have read of others whom have rewritten their headlines up to a hundred times.

It’s that important! Do not take this lightly. You can only earn serious money with your product or service after you have attracted your prospects attention and get them to read your message.

Your prospect is selfish. They all have their personal radios tuned to WII-FM (What’s In It For Me). That is why to capture their attention you must announce what hurt you can repair, what benefit (not what your product or service features) they will receive, what truths can you prove or dis-prove, what’s in it for them.

Again, your headline can be compared to the lead story headline in the daily newspaper. It must pull the prospect in to the body.

Your headline is the title of your book, or your opening statement of your speech, or the first words you use to describe your product or service to another individual, or the first line of your article or marketing message. It’s what is said first and it carries the weight of the rest of your presentation.

So you have written what you feel to be a killer headline. How do you determine if your headline will work?

You Test It!

Your prospect is motivated by wants not needs. Does your headline broadcast that your product or service satisfies your prospect wants?

Earlier in this article it was suggested that you write down your headline. Then you rewrite it and rewrite it again and again until you come up with the best possible headline. Select the best of the best and test these headlines to determine which works best.

Testing allows you to lower your cost and often pays off in big dividends. How does it lower your cost? By testing different headlines to see which pulls the greatest response you avoid the mistake of selecting what you feel is the best headline.

You know which headlines works best because you have actual numbers. Therefore, you can roll out the winning headline with confidence that you will receive a return.

Later on you will test the other different parts of your mailing package. The body copy, the use of coupons, order fulfillment methods, paper color, envelope size, colored ink, etc.

Testing gives you a measurable means to determine how well your message gets across to the prospect.

Mail separate offers each with different headlines to a sample portion of your list. See which headline pulls the best. The headline that pulls best is the one you should use to roll out to the remainder of the list.

But don′t stop there. Test, Test and Test again. Always be testing.
The true indicator of the success of your headline and offer is the response. Even when you have a known winner, rewrite, revamp, improve and test it more to see if you can improve its response.

Be aware that the market is constantly changing.

Your headline, your body copy, your marketing package and your product or service fulfillment methods must adapt to this changing market in order to stay relevant.

Your headline is one of the most important parts of your marketing message. You must put in the efforts to make your headline an attention grabber. This is accomplished by answering the prospects number one question with your headline.

What is that question…..?

What’s In It For Me?

Your headline is one of the most important parts of your marketing message. You must put in the efforts to make your headline an attention grabber. This is accomplished by answering the prospects number one question with your headline.

G Harold is webmaster of The Noun Project, infogine.com infogine.com, a compilation of American Nouns defined “internet style″ with over 200,000 articles, nouns, and computer term entries.

Once in awhile I get it right — even 100% on target at that. What am I talking about? Anticipating a client’s needs to the point where I am able to convey to them what they are unable to state in words to me.

For example, a few week’s back I had a small project to work on, a series of automotive articles, and the customer wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted but he knew that there was something that he needed: fresh web content. I sensed that his budget was limited and I could almost hear him say as much, but I did not press the issue with him. Instead, after looking over his website, I decided that writing several tightly focused articles of about 400 words in length would do. No, it wasn’t the traditional copy I would have recommended but for his particular site it would be a good fit. At least that is what I had surmised.

When I pitched my proposal to the client he seemed cautiously interested, but he gave to me his go ahead despite whatever reservations he may have had. A few days later I managed to deliver the completed work to him and he accepted the project without demanding any changes. Instead, he remarked, “you knew exactly what I wanted without me being able to tell you what I wanted. How did you know?” Well, I mentioned to him that I had a lot of practice: years of working with people who were in a similar situation as he was. I added: “once you get a sense for what someone wants, then you go with it.”

No, I am no mind reader. However, anticipating a client’s needs comes with the territory. It has taken years of hard work to get to this place, but the payoffs for client and writer are very obvious.

Copyright 2006 – For additional information regarding Matthew C. Keegan,

Write Articles to Position Yourself as an Expert (And Gain Traffic at the Same Time)

Writing articles is an incredibly effective method of creating the expert attitude. You see, when you write about what you know, you begin to develop an attitude that simply indicates you know what you are talking about.

No matter how well you know something, if you write about it, you become smoother. If you have written articles for awhile, you will be able to crank out return letters and posts to forums much faster, because you are writing something you feel comfortable writing about. And the only way you can do that is to write a lot.

Start with areas you fully understand. Possibly your first 25 articles will be on the basics of your topic. Just write what you know. After the first 25 or so articles, then begin to go in more depth. Once you have covered all the basics, you can go deep.

Do not feel as though you need to cover every detail in your article. You see, when someone is reading your articles, they may not have the time to read a small book–so keep it short and to the point. If the reader wants to learn more, they can contact you.

This allows you to simultaneously develop contacts as your are establishing yourself as an expert. After you have written 100 articles, you will not only be perceived as an expert, but you will also have created some good contacts.

This has been an excerpt from “How to Create Your Very Own Online Money Making Empire”, a step by step report on achieving remarkable success online. To read more by this author, simply follow this link:

An Article is a short explanation, discussion or analysis of a specific topic. Normally they are 200 to 3000 words long. They are written on almost any topic one can think of, from recipes, current events, business, movie and product reviews and more. They are short enough to be read quickly and most are only one page long, hence very good for reading on a web page on the internet.

The main reason why people write articles is to share information in return for for inserting a couple of links back to their website. Normally at the end of the article is a short copyright clause and the links to their websites. It is one of the best FREE ways on the internet to generate website traffic.

You can find articles all over the internet, in blogs, websites, but mainly they are in article directories. There are literally hundreds of article directories on the internet. Most are on a number of topics, however some are in special niche areas or topics. Some cost money to submit or join but the vast majority are free. Free article directories make their money from advertising using google adsense or affiliate programs.

Article directories normally have their own rules regarding minimum word length, number of links and amount of advertising or sales pitch. A good article provides INFORMATION or CONTENT - it is not just a sales page.

The main reason why articles are SO popular is that the search engine spiders love them. Spiders feed on content, not graphics, sound or other multimedia, hence why they love articles.

Writing an article is not difficult. Everyone has some topic that they are an expert on whether it be model trains, a sports, politics or other personal interest. If you have a website do yourself a favor - write an article.

Looking for great articles visit article-gems.com article-gems.com

This article is the property of Alastair HARRIS and his immediate family. It may be freely republished over the internet but must include original links.

Alastair HARRIS is the main promoter for article-gems.com article directory (visit article-gems.com article-gems.com) and the getfinancialfreedom4u family of websites, blogs and projects (visit getfinancialfreedom4u.ws getfinancialfreedom4u.ws) specializing in online business opportunities and education, income being generated by affiliate marketing, google, GDI, eBay, ebooks, clip flipping and more. Alastair is rated as an expert author on numerous article directories and is very open to assisting others on the internet

Take a look around the Web and you’ll find thousands upon thousand of articles, every one of them appearing on any number of websites. These are known as ‘free re-print articles’. Free articles are used to promote business, whether the writer’s own business, or the business of the website on which they’re used.

Whether or not free articles work depends entirely on which angle you’re coming at them from.

Within the question of whether or not free articles work are two individual questions. The first is:

Do Free Articles Work For Writers?

By writer, I mean the person whose name appears in the ‘by line’. In some cases, the free article will have actually been written by a ghost-writer, although please don’t believe that’s necessarily a bad thing.

If a person has expert knowledge but no writing skills, he hires somebody else to put his noesis into words rather than publish a badly crafted article. The authority is still there and as a free article will be valuable to others.

So, the question actually being asked is “Do free re-print articles work for the person sharing his or her knowledge?”

The answer, quite simply, is “yes”.

Let’s say I perform a Google search for ‘Giclée Prints’ that brings up a free article by a photographic print expert. I enjoy the article—find it riveting, in fact—and by the time I get to the author’s resource box at the bottom, I’m certain this guy knows exactly what he’s talking about.

Then I notice he sells photographic prints that are produced using the giclée method. The URL of his website is given in his resource box so I pop over and take a look. If I find a print I like, I buy it. After all, it’s better to buy from somebody who knows the business well rather than someone whose simply cashing in on the market, isn’t it?

For the ‘author’ of the free article, having it posted on as many sites as possible means lots of free advertising so I’d definitely recommend you keep writing and posting free re-print articles as often as you can. For ‘writers’, the work, and they work well!

Do Free Articles Work For Web Business Owners?

When it comes to those using free re-print articles as content for websites, there’s a fine line that Web business owners looking for quality content need to stay on the right side of.

1. Is The Article Well Written?

Unfortunately, a considerable percentage of free re-print articles aren’t written by professional—or even talented—writers. If you value you business, it’s important you choose only well-written articles that reflect the standard of professionalism your visitors will expect.

2. Is The Content Valuable To Your Visitors?

All too often I’ve seen irrelevant articles on websites and have wondered “what’s the point?”

My guess is that Web business owners are—by using free articles—hoping to attract anybody looking for anything in the hope that once on their site, they’ll buy their product or service. It doesn’t work that way, though. Those searching for ‘reebok trainers” are hardly likely to want to buy a framed giclée print.

Make sure that the content you post is relevant to what you’re promoting and that the free article is actually interesting enough for your visitors to want to read. 300 words explaining the evolution of the ‘Giclée printing process’ are far more interesting than 1000 words about nothing much at all. Just because it’s a free article, there’s nothing to say you have to use it. If content is king, then quality is queen!

Having evaluated the free re-print articles you have available and decided which to use, the next questions you need to ask is:

How many free articles will I need?

This is a very important question, but one Web business owners rarely consider.

More than being a matter of how many free articles you should have on your site at any given time, what you should be considering is how often you should re-new your content.

If you post a free re-print article that’s fresh—one that hasn’t been doing the rounds for more than a couple of weeks—you’ll probably get a month or so out of it before it no longer pulls its weight as you’d like it to. Why? Because while the search engines—and Google especially—love content, they will reduce the number of ‘points’ your content’s given if it’s duplicated elsewhere—which free articles obviously will be. The more often it’s duplicated, the less likelihood of it bringing you onto the first page of the search results.

You have two options open to you. Either:

Replace your free article content regularly—at least once a month

Buy original content that won’t be found elsewhere

The second option means that you pay a writer to provide your site with articles that are written specifically for your use only. Copyright is transferred to you and even if the article stays on your site for years, it will still be original content and therefore be given higher value amongst the search engines than any amount of free articles will.

Four or five well-written articles that are highly relevant to your business will bring you more traffic than twenty free re-print articles. Why? Because the keywords will be targetted specifically to your business and the content will relate directly to what you have to offer. Also, a professional writer knows exactly the right density of keywords to maximise search engine potential, and where in the article they should be used. Web writing is a specialised business, after all.

Conclusion

For writers, posting free re-print articles work well. There’s absolutely no doubt about that.

For Web business owners, free articles can work well if the webmaster is willing to work at keeping the content updated and fresh.

All in all, free articles are a good thing, but for Web business owners, while posting free re-print articles can be a good way of building content, nothing can ever beat quality, original content.

Sharon Jacobsen is a professional freelance writer specialising in Web articles. For a competitive fee she’ll happily populate your website with compelling, keyword rich articles on the subject of your choice.

To contact Sharon, or to find out more about her work, please visit: sharon-jacobsen.co.uk/ sharon-jacobsen.co.uk

Symptoms:
· Cutting costs by eating ketchup soup (one tablespoon ketchup to one cup hot water)
· Listening to people who insist writers can’t prosper financially
· Believing that no sane person would ever pay you for your writing
· Desperate attempts to sell your writing in all the wrong ways and places…because that’s “what other writers do”
· Boxes of rejection slips
· Slaving away at a job you don′t like while you long to be a full-time writer
· Willingness to write “on spec” (when a client says, “I’ll pay you if I like what you write for me.”)
· Trusting people who say they will pay you more for their next writing project, if you will just do this first one for next to nothing
· Eagerness to work very hard for very little money
· Thinking that the only way to make a good living as a writer is by penning the next breakthrough novel, selling out or writing schlock
· Frustration because you know you can write but you don’t know how to make it pay
· Frequently hearing clients say an immediate and enthusiastic “Yes!” when you quote your fee (because they′re relieved it’s so low)

Complications:
· Poverty
· Angst
· Pain without gain
· Getting stuck in a boring job…forever
· Grumpiness
· Lack of joy, enthusiasm, pleasure, passion and purpose–not only in your work life but in other areas, too
· Chronic wishful thinking with nothing to show for it
· Finding yourself in an a life you don’t want, because you’re not doing what you really want to do
· Unfulfilled dreams

Treatment — The Prosperous Writer Prescription:
· Regular COACHING sessions to help you conquer your fears, overcome your struggles and guide you on the path to prosperity
· Private ONLINE WRITER’S RETREAT to rejuvenate your creativity and support your growing sense of abundance
· Consumption of Prosperous Writer ARTICLES to strengthen and inspire your writing process
· A dose of the “GET UNBLOCKED NOW!” E-WORKSHOP as needed for Writer’s Block, creativity jams and similar sticky situations

· One tablet per month of Poole’s Prosperous Writer E-NEWSLETTER

How to tell if you’re cured:
· You have a renewed zest for life because you’re finally following your heart’s desire
· You get serious about your writing talent and how to turn it into cash
· You know and use the best ways to make your writing pay
· You stop selling yourself short and settling for less than you deserve
· You join the ranks of other Prosperous Writers who make a good full- or part-time living from their writing (and eat real soup)
· You discover the joy of prospering from something you love to do…writing!

Starving Writer Syndrome causes needless suffering. The treatment is painless and fun. The results are life-changing. To start your customized treatment program, contact Kathy Poole, the original Prosperous Writer, for a free coaching session or more information.

© 2004 by Kathleen Poole & Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Kathy Poole has had a highly profitable freelance writing business since 1985. As a Writer’s Coach, she helps other writers prosper financially, create freely and live passionately.
For more information, resources and inspiration, visit prosperouswriter.com prosperouswriter.com, or e-mail her at mailto:clarity@iag.net clarity@iag.net.
This article may be copied and distributed in its entirety and without alteration, if accompanied by this paragraph.

Essay writing is a commonly used tool that checks your creative skills. Whether it is a five-paragraph text for your high school essay writing or a story about yourself for college essays, you need one thing that keeps everything together – a thesis.

Thesis writing can turn into a real problem. Students often start wandering around the topic while writing an essay. A thesis has to be focused and specific enough to be “proven” within the boundaries of your essay paper. In order to fulfill successful thesis writing, focus on your topic. Do some researches on it and ask yourself whether your theme is worthy of your efforts.
Next step in thesis writing is deciding, what is the main idea. Stating the main idea is essential in essay writing. If you don’t have it, you are lost in you own text. As a result, your essay writing lacks unity, and your readers don’t understand you.

On the other hand, a clearly defined thesis can also be of little help in writing an essay. Why? Because when you are writing a thesis, you are narrowing your topic down to a bearable amount of work. If a thesis is too broad, you end up lost in confusion.

When you are writing a thesis, think about the evidence to back it up. In your essay writing always think about critical readers. They will not be satisfied with only one or two facts. An essay paper must have a strong construction. All of your proofs must support your main idea.
When you start writing an essay, make sure to put your thesis at the end of the Introduction (if you are doing high school essay writing), or state it in the first two sentences (as you do in writing college essays). It is important to place it in the beginning of your text to make your position clear to the readers.

A thesis falls into three categories: statements of facts, statements about facts, and statements about statements. In thesis writing make sure you avoid the first category. Writing an essay is impossible if you have only a statement of a fact. Essay writing means thinking out loud. Try to do it by drawing a conclusion from your fact and you will get something that is already worth working on. But if in your thesis writing you chose to go further, you can end up with a provocative essay. And being provocative is quite important in essay writing.

Your thesis can also be analytical, explanatory, or argumentative.

In an analytical essay paper, you are breaking down an issue or an idea into its component parts, evaluating them, and presenting this breakdown and evaluation to your audience.

Explanatory thesis writing shows your idea and the methods you are using to draw a conclusion.
An argumentative thesis is similar to provocative thesis writing. Whatever you are stating, – a proposal, an opinion, provoking statistics etc – your essay writing shows that you want other people to disagree with you.

Don’t be surprised if your thesis changes a little while writing an essay. I’m meaning not major changes from one thesis writing to another. When you become more acquainted with the topic, your controlling idea can obtain even a more specific shape. Some scholars call this process of thesis writing “a switch from tentative to definitive thesis”.

If in your essay writings you are still not satisfied with the controlling idea, put it aside for a couple of days. Thesis writing is not a quick process. The idea can pop up a little later. Go over your essay papers; maybe, you missed out something important.

The last important thing about the essay writing: don’t go over the evidence in the Conclusion part. You gave it your best shot in the Body paragraph. It is better to remind the readers about your thesis and finish up by sharing your thoughts on the investigated topic.

Jennifer Burns is the head of customer care center at Custom-Writing.org, custom-writing.org” target=”_blank essays writing service. Having completed a number of academic assignments himself, Jennifer uses her knowledge to provide individualized customer support to students, who order custom-writing.org/thesis-writing” target=”_blank thesis writing and custom-writing.org/writing-annotated-bibliography″ target=”_blank annotated bibliography writing

You fall into bed, exhausted from the week’s worth of activities you crammed into your nineteen-hour day. Your head gently nestles into goose down, a hearty sigh expels the demons of the day and your mind begins to explore the far reaches of your personal universe of favorite dreams. The tension drains away and… Argh! You bolt upright in a panic. Your heart pounds erratically, beads of sweat racing across your forehead, as you come to a stark realization: “I missed my deadline!”

Ah, deadlines. Whether it’s a speculative work in progress, or a firm commitment to a publisher, deadlines often seem to deny the laws of physics, traveling toward you in a maniacal hyper-speed world of doom. It doesn’t have to be this way. The next time you have a project to complete, try these five easy steps to tame the dastardly deadline:

1. Write it down. This first step is your connection to the real world. When you attempt to keep your schedule, and your commitments, locked safely away in the deep recesses of your mind you ask for trouble. The mind, in its inscrutable manner, often ignores or even redefines reality. The I-can’t-miss-it Wednesday deadline bearing down on you somehow becomes the maybe-I’ll-give-it-a-look Friday second thought.

Writing your deadline down is the only defense. Write it in a bold scrawl and place it somewhere you simply can’t avoid. A wall calendar, dedicated to work and deadlines, is ideal. Place it above your workspace and make a habit of checking it first thing each morning and last thing each night. In the battle against the delusional persuasions of your brain, the calendar is your comrade.

2. Calculate your time requirements. Don’t set yourself up for failure by failing to appropriately assess your needs on the front-end of a project. Unless you enjoy the challenge of maintaining sanity amidst the sleep-deprived race to complete a longer than expected piece, this step in the process is crucial. Make sure to include all aspects of the project when estimating your time. Include research, both online and any that may be required at the library or among special collections. Do you need to schedule time for interviews with expert sources? If so, allow some additional time for missed calls, schedule conflicts and phone-tag. Finally, be realistic with the time allocation for both the initial draft and the revisions. Don’t short change yourself - ample time budgeted at this step is a far better tonic than late night stale coffee and doughnuts. Did someone say doughnuts?

3. Schedule your writing time. This is the cousin of the “write it down” step. Yes, writing it down was a good first step to basing one’s intentions in reality. However, there is still the issue of the hyper-speeding deadline with which to contend. Now that you’ve established your goal in step one, and budgeted your time requirements in step two, it’s necessary to set your literary ship assail. For that, it’s back to the calendar.

Be realistic. As you survey your upcoming schedule use a critical eye. This is no time to be squeezing or rushing because, in the end, it’s always going to be you who gets squeezed and rushed. Carve out a realistic schedule for your project, not overly extravagant, but one that allows ample time for playing with a word here or there, or experimenting with a new sentence structure when the whim strikes. Scheduling your writing time, and blocking it out on your calendar, is a step toward freedom in this deadline-crazed world.

4. Plan an escape route. This is the failsafe step of the process. While technically having little to do with writing, and everything to do with the capricious nature of life, it is a vital step nonetheless. The most judicious planning and execution of the first three steps can quickly crumble in the face of the unforeseen. The water heater goes out and, with the first frost of the season upon you, hosing down the kids in the backyard is no longer a viable option. The roof, newly replaced last week, springs a series of leaks that, if you look closely enough, seem to drip the word “DEAD-line” across your living room ceiling. The bathroom faucet… You get the picture. It’s all about the waters of life running amok and ruining your well-constructed plan.

Consider what will happen if you lose a few hours, or a complete day, due to a minor emergency. Where will you find the time to make it up? The same principles of writing, calculating and scheduling apply here. Calculate an estimated “disaster catch up” time, asses your schedule to see where it will fit and write it in as a firm commitment. Then relax. If disaster strikes, you’ve already got your backup plan established. If things go smoothly, you’ve just discovered an oasis of free, uncommitted time in the midst of your daily nineteen-hour marathon. Enjoy it.

5. Tell someone. This is the pushing and shoving step in the process. Unfortunately, for it to have its full impact, you must volunteer to be both pushee and shovee. The first steps above rooted you in reality. However, it is still very much a personal, private reality. The key to ultimate success in the above process involves expanding your horizon and inviting others to gaze at the nakedness of your literary, and literal, intentions. It’s painful, but necessary.

Have coffee with a friend, or join a weekly writer’s group, and tell them about your projects. The more detail you provide the better. People have an innate sense of curiosity that, once engaged, will put to shame even the most rigorous of self-imposed disciplines. After you let them in on your secret, your friends and fellow-writers will gladly grill you on your progress each time your paths cross. You’ll find yourself surprised at the proficiency of their third-degree, the insistence with which they extract details. You’ll scamper home, chastened, and belt out your piece at a warp-speed befitting the age of the deadline.

The next time you have a project deadline to meet, put these steps to work. You’ll find you breath easier with each step you take and, by the time you’ve completed step five, you’ll feel absolutely giddy. You’ll stare down that once menacing deadline, giving it no quarter, and head happily off to bed. After all, you have goose down to nestle and dreams to tend.

Tim Anderson is a freelance writer who has a special interest in medical topics. Visit his blog at

Article ghost writers can make you money by taking a fresh look at your niche. If your website is getting a bit flat, and your visitors dwindling a bit, then you may need a bit more zing and pizzazz in your writing. Something to attract visitors and keep them there when they arrive. This is what a good ghost writer could give you.

Free Articles Are Not Free

Many web owners try to bulk up their websites with free articles from the internet. The trouble is, nothing is free on the internet. There is always a price, and the price for free article content is generally that you cannot put your name to the content. Free articles normally require you to keep the writer’s name at the top and resource page at the bottom. This does three things.

Firstly it is apparent that you are not the article writer. If not, why not? Don’t you know enough about your subject to write about it? If not, why should I visit your site? I’m not going to learn much from you if you can’t even write your own articles. I think I’ll leave and look for somebody who knows a bit about the subject. . . wait a bit. Who did write this article?

Free Articles Have Expert Writers – Are You An Expert Writer?

That’s when you get the second consequence: your visitor notices the article writer’s resource page, which has a URL on it. Why not click on that – this writer seems to know a bit about what he is writing about. Let’s try him. So you lose your visitor to the guy that wrote the article. An article ghost writer adds no resource page. The third ‘bad thing’ that such an article brings you is a link away from your site. The writer’s URL is actually a one-way link from your site which can harm your search engine ranking.

Use an article ghost writer, on the other hand, and your name appears under the article. You are the one that appears to be the authority on the topic of your webpage – just as it should be. You keep your visitor who thinks you know a lot about the topic and that you may be able to solve his or her problem. Also, there is no resource box! No bleed off from your site and no competitor in view to attract your visitors from your site.

Not only that, but you get exactly the content you want. Somebody else’s article might be just a bit off topic for you, but due to copyright restrictions you can’t change it. You have to keep the article as it is. Bad news! With a ghostwritten article, you can have it modified until it is perfect for you.

Ghost Writers Bring You Authority

If you need content and can’t. or don’t have the time, to write it yourself, use a ghost writer. OK it costs, but it’s way better than using a free article that could bring the opposite effect to what you want. How much is your traffic worth to you? And think of that publicity if you also use an amended version for the article directories. All these lovely back-links will do your rankings a world of good. All due to using the services of an article ghost writer.

Do What You Do Best – Pay For The Rest

It’s the ‘fresh look’ that’s the main advantage though. If you’ve been writing your own content, you can get stuck in a rut and your site will become stale. To get good rankings it has to be dynamic, with frequent changes in content. A pair of fresh eyes can do just that. An article ghost writer can also save you a lot of time: let him spend his time writing while you do what you are best at, sorting out the joint ventures, arranging the deals and handling any affiliates you have. Leave the content to a professional who knows just what you need.

A Fresh Pair of Eyes Knows Content Is King

It has been said that the writer is as important as the article. This might be possible if search engine results are unimportant. A search engine cares not if the writer is you and I or Stephen King - in fact it might prefer you or I! The content counts. ‘Content is King′ as they say. It’s not the writer, it’s the article, and a fresh pair of eyes can frequently provide that article content with a difference.

That’s where your ghost writer enters the scene. A ‘fresh pair of eyes′. The word ‘competition′ frequently comes up in discussion about web page content. This is balderdash. No matter how good your product is, the more unique web page content will win the day in the eyes of search engine spiders. Article ghost writers are trained to produce this unique content. Leave it to them!

Peter is a professional freelance writer, currently specializing in website articles which are much in demand. He operates from