Writing

It’s all the rage. It’s what everyone is talking about. It is unquestionably the most effective form of marketing available to home based business owners. It costs almost nothing, it takes about 30 minutes a week, and it makes your business stand out above the competition.

What is this thing that everyone is talking about? The buzz is about "article marketing" ? the practice of providing royalty free content to websites, e-zines and newsletters.

It works like this: You write a simple article that is interesting to a particular group of people. It doesn’t have to be The Great American Novel, just about 500 words on the topic of your choice. Then you submit your article all over the web to ezine publishers, newsletter editors and content-laden websites.

When they publish your article (and they almost always do) your target market reads your words, sees you as an expert (after all, you’re a published author!) and they click on a link to your website that you conveniently provided at the end of the article. Viola! Instant, qualified traffic.

Screenwriting With Impact
 by: Don Bledsoe

The screenplay you’ve pounded out on your trusty word processor is finished at last! Before the reader even looks at the title of your script, it must pass the “rifle test.” The rifle test tells a professional in seconds whether the script is professionally written or not. Is the screenplay in the right format? Does it look like it was written by a professional screenwriter? Is the script vertical?

The Rifle Test

Hollywood screenwriters know that a reader, agent or producer can tell instantly by fanning the pages back to front if your script is professionally written and in the proper format. Your script will not even get a read at an agency or get studio coverage if it doesn’t look right. The typical development executive reads 35-50 scripts a week on their own time, away from the office. After reading hundreds and hundreds of scripts, they can see at a glance if it looks right. If it’s not right, it’s dumped. It’s that simple. If you use a good screenwriting program, then this is an area you won’t have to worry about. If you don’t have one, at least follow the rules. They’re relatively simple. They’re also hard and fast and not meant to be deviated from, so don’t “improve” upon the formula, just use it. You can get the layout details at ScriptNurse.com for free.

Turn Writer’s Blocks Into Stepping Stones!
 by: Steven Barnes

Years ago at a presentation at the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program, I promised an audience to teach them to conquer this beast once and for all. Later, another instructor approached me and said “why did you say that to those people? It’s not possible.”

Poor woman. All she was saying is that SHE cannot break writer’s block, which told me all I need to know about her career. In all likelihood a promising beginning, perhaps an award-winning poem or bookand then pain.

It is not only possible to end writer’s block forever, but you can actually use it to your advantage!

First, let us define it in some useful way: Writer’s block is the inability to

1) Produce new text.

2) Edit and polish existing text

3) Finish projects on a reasonable schedule

4) Send those projects out for editorial judgment.

5) Continue sending them out until they are sold.

Accepting the above, I’m going to give you a definition of the root cause of Writer’s Block that will actually help you in every arena of your life.

Publishing an Ezine can be scary to the newbie. But you can do it. Your Ezine helps you keep in contact with your list which will build a relationship of trust with your readers and is one of the best ways to promote your business.

To those who are newbies…an Ezine is an electronic Newsletter normally mailed periodically to a list of opt-in subscribers. This means subscribers who have voluntarily signed up to receive your publication.

Make sure that you comply with the recent Can Spam Laws by having your name, email address and mailing address in all of the mailings you send out. Be sure that you do not use subject lines that may be misleading to people hoping to get them to open you emails. Do not send email to someone who has not asked for it. If you do, you can be accused of spamming.

Don’t send your publication to someone who has not asked to receive it. You must be sure that your subscribers are double opt-in. This is really very simple. They subscribe and you send them a confirmation email asking them to reply to make sure that they are the ones who subscribed. This will help keep you from being accused of being a spammer.

How to Write Search Relevant Ezine Articles That Gets Published
 by: David Petrich

A good ezine writer can become a star in their field when widely published. Those who provide great content and who make it easy to publish can escalate their writing careers. Organizations who publish quality content in trade for publicity can achieve maximum exposure if they follow some simple guidelines.

As an ezine editor, my job is to filter and present interesting and compelling content to our visitors. I frequently visit the free article web sites and find a wide variety of article ideas. Often, I am disappointed. - Many articles have sound merits, but are either poorly written or formatted in a manner that is not compatible with our page layout.” The latter is the most frustrating reason to reject articles. - “It may have been a great piece of writing, but the author chose to clutter it up with excessive self-serving ad copy and URLs.”

Why do so many internet marketers waste their time on ineffective practices and outmoded techniques that stopped working before the start of the new millennium?

There is one thing that matters (and one thing only) in the realm of internet marketing: Converting the random web surfer into a pre-qualified, pre-sold visitor to your website.

Does Google Adwords pre-sell your visitors? No, not really.

Does your banner on an affiliate website pre-qualify your visitors? No, not really.

There is a way to drive a stream of targeted, pre-sold, pre-qualified traffic to your website. Write a few articles that are interesting, helpful and unique. It’s that simple, really. Take a look at how getting a few articles published makes a world of difference in your actual conversion to subscriptions and sales.

A FREE SAMPLE

When you give someone some very good information in your article, they become familiar with your work. Think of your article like the “free sample” you get at the grocery store. You try the bit of pizza or the latest cheese spread, and then you buy some to take home for later. Your article introduces your expertise and gives the reader a look at the quality of your work. They become familiar with you, with your point of view, with your “take” on things.

Monsters And Other Creatures
 by: Kenneth J. McCormick

What was it, that legend states, that was killed by two cowboys in Arizona in 1890? According to the local stories, a creature was in the desert in Arizona when a couple of cow pokes happened to come across it. At first they were frozen with fear because the creature was like nothing they had ever seen before. It was a huge creature and it could fly. It’s body looked more like a snake than a bird and it had fearsome claws. The face of the creature looked like that of an alligator or crocodile and it’s wings were huge. This was definitely a case of shoot first and ask what it was later. To give you an idea of the size of the creature, it is said that the wingspan was over 160 ft. I am sure that this measurement grew as the years passed as these things often do.

If you made it this far, the headline for this story has caught your attention. Hot headlines are a hit with readers because they stick out, grab attention and urge them to read the rest of the story.

We’re all experiencing information overload and have made it a habit to skim pages. According to David Ogilvy, a successful advertising writer, “Five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy.” Sounds like we need to treat those headlines like trying to get our foot in the door.

It doesn’t matter if you’re writing a sales letter, Web page content, email, or an article. Pulling together a handful of powerful words and putting them ahead of the content is more likely to grab eyeballs than just going right into the story, letter, or content.

Despite our success with newsletters, we continue to learn how to add more punch when writing headlines. Here are the tips we have learned and try to apply:

A Publisher’s Rant - Why I Hate Your Articles
 by: Halstatt Pires

I’m a publisher for numerous sites. I HATE many of your articles. Here’s my rant and what you can do to change my mind.

Don’t Send Me Your Articles

First of all, don’t send me articles. I only take them from directories. The purpose of this article is to give you a better idea of what I’m looking for in articles. It is not to create an assault on my email account.

You’re Killing Me

Okay, “hate” is strong word and I probably shouldn’t use it. It is, however, the word that comes to mind when I blow an hour in an article directory trying to find usable articles!

As an Internet marketing firm, we beef up client sites by adding article content. This means I handle the article sections of more sites than I wish to admit. Because of this, I spend most of my time hunting for good articles. By “good articles,” I am talking about articles that are formatted and arranged in a manner that makes them ready for publishing. I am NOT talking about what you write, just how you organize and format it.

Newsletters, or ezines, can be extremely effective marketing tools for your business. They put your name in front of your potential clients, regular clients, and peers while showing your expertise and professionalism. They are an excellent means to both market and grow your business and also show your existing clients your creative abilities. Now the only drawback is to ensure your newsletter is worthy of being read. I subscribe to a lot of newsletters, but find I regularly only read a few upon their arrival. When I decided to create my own newsletter, one of the first things I did was to look at those newsletters I regularly read and determine what it was about them that made me want to read them. What sets them apart from the rest?

One of the most important things I discovered was that they provided me with valuable information to help me in my business and which in turn helped me make a greater profit. They often provided information I didn’t already know. For example, some newsletters provided tips on search engine optimization, new affiliate programs, PR resources, or software shortcuts. Since I’m always looking to grow my business, this information is valuable to me. You normally have knowledge in a given field that others don’t. When preparing your newsletter, think about what expert knowledge you have or can obtain that would interest your targeted market. Now that’s what you want to add to your newsletter.