Writing

Professional copywriters are well-familiar with what’s commonly referred to as “the voice.” What is this exactly, and why do you need to master it in your writing?

If writing is icecream, then “the voice” is the flavor in your scoop. You may be slurping on mellow vanilla, while I’m over here crunching Rocky Road. Sure, we’re bothing having a cold and creamy treat, but our waffle cones are packing two entirely different tastes. So it is with the “voice” that carries your message in writing.

Another way to say this: the voice is the personality that comes across by way of your written message. When you set pen to paper or get those keys clicking, what comes out is your own voice or chosen style of expression.

The words and intonation you choose may be very different than what I’d use. That’s the variance in the voice. You must nab this for your copywriting clientele if you want to impress people!

Questions to Ask When Writing Web Copy:

1. Who am I speaking to?”

How Author Royalties Are Calculated
 by: Stephen L. Nelson, CPA

If you’re going to make a living by writing books, you need to understand how a book royalty gets calculated. That’s how the author gets paid, ultimately, if the book becomes a successful bestseller. What’s more, the royalties the publisher expects the book to earn determine the advance the publisher will pay the writer up front.

Royalty Accounting Only Starts Off Simple

Royalty calculations start out pretty simple. Royalties get calculated by multiplying the price of a book by the royalty percentage. Sometimes, the price used in the calculation is the retail price that the customer pays for the book in some bookstore.

Assume that you’ve written a book that retails for $20. Further assume that the royalty percentage is five percent. To calculate the royalty you earn per book sold you multiply five percent, or .05, times $20. The result equals $1. So that’s the royalty you earn for every book the publisher sells.

Many authors and agents prefer royalties based on retail prices. The calculation is simple to understand. It’s simple to compute. And there are limited opportunities for argument about whether the calculations are correct.

Many online internet marketers tell us "its all in the list" and many people lap up stories of guru’s emailing thousands in their online list and making a huge profit in the process. Actually you too can start your own email list and make money from it as well. This article will highlight six tips on how you can make more money from your own email list.

1.Have a paragraph to disclose something personal so as to create trust between yourself and your newsletter reader

Most people fail to realize that the reader of a newsletter is very much a person like you and me and they have emotions and feelings and are not reading your newsletter purely for the topic at hand but they need to trust you before they can purchase stuff you recommend. A good way to create trust in your newsletters is to add a personal touch to your emails with some personal revelation that can connect you with your readers. The greater your readers trust you, the more likely they will purchase the stuff that you recommend thus earning you a commission in the process.

Every webmaster knows that to gain ranking positions in search engines you need to build links. This usually means hours at a computer submitting your site to directories and emailing other webmasters requesting reciprocal links. There is another way of getting links which often overlooked and complements your current link building strategy, writing articles.

Content is the life blood of the Internet every webmaster needs it and every website needs fresh content to keep Google and the other Search engines coming back regularly. By writing articles you can provide this content and at the same time get yourself permanent backlinks to your website. This article will attempt to answer some common questions asked by first time article writers.

What should I write about?

Write about what you know and make it relevant to the content of your website this will ensure that the links back to your site are also relevant and enhance the links value in the search engines.

How do webmasters find my articles?

How To Write A Problem Solving Article
 by: Richard Cussons

If you are like me then topics and ideas for writing articles about my product, service or niche can be tricky and getting started even worse.

You will probably know the problems people have in your industry. If you don’t then you should find out by asking your customers or searching on the internet. Forums can be a great source for finding problems people in your market suffer.

Over time I have found that writing to a formula works well as it gives you something to hang your words on and breaks up the writing into manageable chunks.

The problem solving article works so well because you have the opportunity to show that you know what you are talking about and help the reader at the same time. You build a relationship and they are more receptive to purchasing your services or products as a result.

Here is a simple formula that breaks up the task of writing your article into simple chunks that will make writing your next article a breeze.

Generally there are two main types of problem solving article:

Marketing your book whether you went the POD, e-book, or traditional route can be a daunting process. Figuring out what works and what doesn’t can take time, energy, and if you’re not careful a lot of money. When I first self-published my science fiction novel GETTING OUT ALIVE, I had already done quite a bit of research into ways to market my novel that didn’t eat into my pocket book.

Here are the top 8 ways I’ve marketed my book and seen results:

*Create a presence on the web. There are many ways to do this, but having your own website to promote your writing is the best way. There are lots of places that have free webpages, but Bravenet.com has everything you could ever want (webjournals, tell-a-friend service, guestbook, and mailing lists to name a few) and this includes free hosting.

*Sign other author’s guestbooks. The author is not the only one who reads the entries, and make sure you add your website address even if they don’t give you a spot to put it. Put it beneath your name when you sign your entry.

Writing Help for College Students
 by: Tamara Owen

Your literature professor has asked you to write a 7-page essay comparing Medieval and Renaissance poetry; your economics professor wants 15 pages on how globalization is affecting the economy in three different countries; and your mathematics professor has forgotten this is a mathematics class, and wants 5 pages on the quadratic formula. And you have been staring at the computer screen for over an hour wondering how on earth you are going to do all of this in the next four days.

This is an all-too-familiar scene to many students. Many students learn of these large assignments at the beginning of the semester when they receive their class syllabi, and immediately forget about them because November seems like years away. Other students are busy with extracurricular sports, trying to adjust to being away from home for the first time, and other events and issues. Still other students are quite frankly terrified of the writing process, believing the blank page to be worse than their worst nightmare, and so these assignments get shoved aside to remain untouched until the last minute.

Writing Twenty Novels (In Ten Easy Steps!)
 by: Steven Barnes

During a recent telephone conversation, I mentioned having sent off the last revisions for my twentieth novel, “Great Sky Woman.” There was a silence on the other side of the phone, followed by the question “How in the world do you do that? Twenty novels!”

The truth is that I know many writers who have written far more than twenty novels. It is not that unusual. In fact, if you are a working writer, the “perfect” output is very close to a book a year. Less often than this, and the readers stop anticipating your next book, and wander to another writer’s literary pasture.

There is a commonality to the behavior patterns of successful writers, and a commonality to the behavior patterns of writers who just can’t get started, can’t get finished, or stall out at their first or third book.

Successful, prolific writers:

1) Write every day. That’s EVERY day. They sit down, open their veins, and bleed into their computers. Yes, it can be painful, but if you don’t maintain this kind of regularity, rust creeps in. The connection between heart, mind and fingers is broken. And we mistake the struggle for our natural state.

Most of us have seen a heckler at a baseball game. Sure, he’s likely to draw attention, both positive and negative. The louder he hollers, the more attention he gets.

But do you and I want that kind of attention? Probably not. What most of us want to do ? especially with our writing ? is to make a positive impression that stays with the reader.

That’s the reason I wrote the little book "Words That Stick"?to help writers create impressions that stick to a reader’s memory like duct tape.

So, here are five ideas to help you attract attention:

1. Begin with a unique headline. Some of my favorite headlines are slightly incongruous, or create curiosity. That’s what forces me to read more. Example: "Cold wave linked to temperature."

2. A second headline technique: ask a question. Example: "Do you have these symptoms of work fatigue?"

3. In the first sentence, offer the reader some benefit for reading the article. Example: "While biking through the woods last month, I made a discovery that changed my life."

4. Another way to begin: ask why. Example: "Why do I always remember where I left the keys, but never remember where I left the car?"

In today’s busy world, whether your business is large or small, it is easy to become over whelmed with day-to-day tasks. Suddenly you realize that you need to update your web presence content or you need to have a processes and procedures manual on-hand in case of key personnel being out. It just becomes too much to handle! Or perhaps you need to produce articles to promote your business, but writing simply isn’t your forte. What do you do? It’s simple; hire a ghost writer to assist you in performing your writing tasks.

Professional, well-qualified ghost writers can be contacted via any number of freelance project posting sites such as www.guru.com or www.elance.com , and others. These freelance project posting sites permit a buyer who needs writing projects completed, while maintaining all rights to the material upon payment, to post a project description and allow "Work for Hire" freelance writers to bid on your project. You can set the time length during which bidding is permitted and even request samples of the writers’ work for review.

When posting a freelance writing project for bid on any project posting site, you should strive to communicate facts clearly so that service providers can bid accurately on your project.