What Is The Single Worst Mistake Most People Make

What Is The Single Worst Mistake Most People Make When Writing Classified Ads?

by: Kim Thomas

All sales begin with some form of advertising whether it’s word of mouth or printed media or even electronic. To build sales, this advertising must be seen or heard by potential buyers. It must cause them to also react to the advertising in a positive some way. Your success or failure reverts back to the ad itself. Generally, you want your classified ad to do one of the following:

Persuade the person reading your classified ad to immediately go to your website or store with the intention of buying your product or service.

Persuade the person reading your classified ad to write or send for more information about your product or service thus leaning to a future sale.

However, the bottom line in any ad is quite simple:

Do not try to sell anything when you write a classified ad.

Do not try to sell anything when you write a classified ad.

Do not try to sell anything when you write a classified ad.

Why? In the 3 or 4 little lines classified ads allowed you to write, you don’t have enough time or space to actually sell your products or services sufficiently.

What you need is to write a cliff hanger or encripted messages to entice your prospects to call or to click on so they can be sent to somewhere else where you will do the proper selling later on.

Usually an offer of free report works best.

Any ad that causes the reader to only pause in their thinking, and does not persuade the reader to act immediately, is not a highly successful ad.

The กad writerก must know exactly what he/she wants the reader to do, and if the ad does not elicit an immediate action, it is an absolute waste of time and money.

Respond to the readers subconsious mind by using strong emotional words in your headlines such as;

Discover Secret Private Sex Money Love Breakthrough Home New Free Power Revealed Magic Fear

Research reveals that these types of words in a headline instantly attract the attention because they are strongly connected to our emotions. I have tested many of those above with astounding success. A personกs unconscious mind can *SEE* and *RESPOND* to these keywords passing by fast on a screen or in a newsletter.

The secret is to target your classified ad to the audience interested in your product or service. You will be wasting your time and money if you don’t know who your target audience is.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of classified ad sites and ezine directories which are categorized by subjects and/or interests. Define your target audience and then submit your classified ad.

How fast do you scan a list of links? Watch closely and youกll see the same thing happening within yourself. Our minds somehow magically see what we are most interested in and weกll back up and say ก I thought I saw that ก and we proceed to click on that link! Our inner minds are tuned to instantly spot what we desire most at the time.

Using emotional words along with targeted keywords will make your headlines and ads pull the maximum response possible!.

Here are some more of the emotional trigger phrases for you to use in your classified ads

STOP Act now!

Send your name

All sent free to introduce

Amazing literature

FREE

Ask for free folder

Bargain lists sent free

Be first to qualify

Booklet free!

Catalog included free

Complete details free

Current list free

Dealers write for prices

Description sent free

Details free!

Extra for promptness

Act now! Don’t hesitate to discover how you too can make your sales skyrocket by exposing yourself to our high quality free or low cost advertising resources on the Internet and at the same time get your hands on this amazing formula for writing classified ads by going to http://www.salaciads.com.

About The Author

Kim Thomas is the site owner and webmaster for http://www.advertisingexposure.com. Here youกll find free or low cost advertising resources.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 21, 2003

by Kim Thomas

Easy Content Building For The Lazy Webmaster

Easy Content Building For The Lazy Webmaster

by: JP Lafferty

Free content builder.

Articles are the best way to add free content to your site. Thereกs hundreds if not thousands of article sites out there on the web that can be searched for free information.

The only problem I have with free articles is that you have to add the writers resource box to your site. Now this in itself is not a major problem. You could read several articles and then make your own in your own words.

This works well and is a quick and easy content building strategy that I would recommend to anybody. Also if you write your own content this way you should definitely consider posting a few of your own articles to the free article submission sites. This generates oneway links to your own site and over time can really build traffic to your site.

Just google กfree article submissionก or กarticlesก or anything of that nature to start building a list of article sites. The more you have the better.

Building content with ebooks

Free ebooks are a great source of free content and there is no shortage of them out there. Most free ebook sites have ebooks that were at one point being sold across the web. These are generally an excellent quality source of information.

To really benefit from ebooks you must first read them and take note of the main topics discussed. One way I find that works well is to write up a short report after reading the ebook and then building on that as I go through the ebook a second time. When I find something interesting I add it to the report in my own words. This is great for developing a better understanding of the material.

Of course after all this you may want to write a few articles about what you just read. As always you should share these articles with the rest of the web by submitting them to article sites.

This isn’t as tedious and time consuming as you might think. After your first or second go you will find yourself becoming more confident and this may well lead to you taking a more creative approach to your writing. In time you will be very efficient at writing your own reports and using them to create more articles and content for your websites.

I would advise you save every ounce of work you do. The more you write the more content and personal resources you have to pull from this makes it quicker and easier to create your own material. After a while you may realize you could put all your work into a ebook of your own and sell it:)

What should I write?

In short anything you want. Every human on this planet is a powerhouse of information. Even if your young you still have alot of experience to pull from.

Some people find that coming up with ideas of what to write about is quit easy but actualy writing it is the hard part. Others find the writing the easy part and the brainstorming the hard part.

If you fall into either camp then there is still hope for you, due to the fact that most humans will fall into either camp! Your not any different from me or anybody else out there. The best way to over come either problem is to get comfortable and just start writing. It is not hard!!

Pick something and start writing about it. What did you learn after a tragic event in your life is a great way to get your brain setup in the right direction. Pulling from personal experience realy helps to get you thinking and once that starts you will find it hard to turn your mind off.

Keeping it fresh.

The only way to keep information fresh is to write it in your own words. Add your persona to your material. Play with it before you publish it. Try to write as if you were explaining something to a friend. It comes across more respectful and easier to understand.

Also no matter what your writing about make sure you explain everything down to the letter. You may understand what your talking about but your reader wont always be as interested as you might think.

Always remember no matter where it is you can generaly go back and change it later. For instance if you have published a 5 page report to the web and your not happy with certain aspects of it well then you can take it down later and add in or delete whatever you want.

About The Author

JP Lafferty

To gain a helping hand in building content for your site head to http://imcontent.blogspot.com/

New content added daily. All content free of copyright.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 12

by JP Lafferty

Success Starts with Articles

Success Starts with Articles

by: Jason A. Martin

No one can logically argue against the fact that content is king. Web sites that are nothing more than glorified link farms or ad spiels must work harder and invest more money to gain visitors—almost none of them return. To keep users returning, there must be a reason. Articles can serve two major roles in maintaining a successful website—content and promotion. Just minutes from now you could be on your way to building a more successful business. Article creation and submission is one of the greatest promotional tools ever.

CONTENT

Every web site that wants to succeed at competing for eyeballs must have solid content to offer. Otherwise, the visitor is off in mere seconds—never to return. Make the visitor glad they visited and you have potentially created a loyal user.

Think about some of the more popular web sites on the Internet. Why would you visit them? Why would you return? Let’s look at a popular news site, FoxNews.com. I visit Fox News to read the latest news stories. I go back because I know there will be fresh articles waiting for me. I visit my favorite writing web site because I know there are great articles there and new ones appear often.

Do you see a theme? I am not going to a web site that is about other web sites or is a link farm—I am going to the source of what I desire. These sources not only receive my attention but have a good chance at selling me something. Over time, my trust in these web sites increases and I am more open to what they have to offer. It is important to offer quality content to hook the visitors in and update often to give them reasons to return. Your web site is an extension of you and your company. How visitors perceive your web site is how they will perceive you. This is why it is important that articles be well written. Anything less will compromise your perceived image.

PROMOTION

There is no easier way to establish links and incoming traffic to your web site than writing articles—or having someone write them for you. It could take months or longer for a web site owner to gain a significant amount of relevant links on other web sites. However, it can take days, with no effort, to accomplish the same feat with one well crafted article. The process is extremely simple.

Write the article or have it written for you.

Submit the article to article distribution services.

Start working on the next article or have a writer do it for you.

Once your article is out there it will work itself onto web sites across the Internet, which will end up generating incoming links for your web site. Moreover, this will increase your link popularity, which is very important for great search engine rankings. It would be wise to write articles that pertain in some way to your own web site. The odds of people, who are reading an article on engine rebuilding, being interested in your web site about quilting is rather slim. There are many article submission web sites and groups on the Internet. Some good article submission web sites are: articlefactory.com, ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com, and ideamarketers.com. Don’t forget to use the article on your own web site.

The promotion world is waking up to this article creation technique and in time the competition will be fierce. The time to get started is right now. One well crafted article can easily be worth thousands of dollars in promotional efforts. Don’t let not being able to write great articles keep you from getting ahead—visit JasonAMartin.com to have articles written for you. You simply can not put a price on the possible results from article distribution. Just wait until you experience it for yourself.

©2005 Jason Andrew Martin LLC

About The Author

Jason A. Martin has been conducting business on the Internet for 11 years. He is a freelance writer on many topics and is currently working on obtaining a degree in Journalism and Law.

His official blog, which contains more articles you can use for your web site, can be viewed at: Jason A. Martin

jasonamartin.com

This article was posted on February 24

by Jason A. Martin

Brainstorming! The Key To Wealth

Brainstorming! The Key To Wealth

by: Roy Primm

Advertising executive Alex F. Osborne first coined the word ขbrainstormingข in the early 1940’s. Since then literally millions of ideas, products, services and solutions have been created and improved on.

Every institution from Fortune 500 companies to Universities and Government agencies have used the principle of brainstorming. They’ve use it to create everything from new ad slogans, and medical breakthroughs, to how to get your child to eat more peas.

Fact: For every product in your home or office, chances are a person or group of people brainstormed about it. They brainstormed on how best to create, market, sell, manufacture, advertise, or distribute it. This is how powerful brainstorming is.

One of the best things about brainstorming is that it can be used by anyone. You don’t have to be a C.E.O or army general. You can gain from brainstorming if you’re a housewife, janitor, student or unemployed.

Yes, you can use the principles of brainstorming for the largest project or the smallest project. You can use it to plan a million dollar ad campaign, or use it to plan what you’ll have for dinner tonight.

If you simply follow and practice the following steps you will soon be amazed at the ideas and solutions your fabulous brain will give you.

Before we go any further lets discuss the 7 steps for effective brainstorming sessions.

The 7 Magic Steps For Powerful Brainstorming Sessions!

1. The brainstorming session can be done with one person or one hundred people. The rules are the same. The only requirement is the participants should know or know about the problem, business, product or subject of the brainstorming session.

2. Don’t use critical thinking. Critical or judgmental thinking slows down or kills the creative process at this stage. Because as hard as you may try, you can only think one thought at a time. When your creating you can’t judge and when you judge you can’t create.

3. Keep the session light, loose and free spirited. Humor has been known to help oil the wheels of our creativity. A large portion of our creativity is released through our humor. Watch a comedy, or tell a few jokes before you proceed.

4. Make sure you have a pencil and paper to write down any and all ideas, or if you’re in a group, designate someone to write down the ideas.

5. It’s best to set a minimum length of time or amount of ideas you want to get out of each brainstorming session. Setting a goal helps everyone to focus; it also helps everyone avoid wandering minds.

6. Write down the problem, the goal, or the subject at the top of a piece of paper. For example, ขWays To Attract More Customersข. Next number each idea you or the group comes up with. Write down every idea, the good, the bad, and even the ugly. Remember, the goal is to get as many ideas listed on paper as possible.

7. Next evaluate the most doable ideas and take action.

That’s the 7 tips for effective brainstorming sessions. Follow them and watch the ideas flow.

About The Author

Roy Primm (The NicheMan) has written hundreds of articles on how to create a moneymaking niche. Get the edge on your competition this year read his free report ก14 Ways To Create a Niche and Grow Richก go to NicheBrain.com

This article was posted on January 10, 2004

by Roy Primm

7 Secrets to Explode your eBook Sales! Part 4

7 Secrets to Explode your eBook Sales! Part 4

by: Bluedolphin Crow

Secret #4: Creating passionate articles will explode your eBook sales!
Aho,
All the experts finally agreed on something. Writing articles about your eBook can be one of the most successful ways of eMarketing.
However, one of the biggest problems on online is learning how to write a great article. You should not just type any old thing and call it an article.
First, you must put your passion, your personality into the article. In addition here are some steps to follow to explode your eBook sales using free articles.
Step 1: Generate an article idea that everyone will want to read about. Review your eBook and look for the benefits that your eBook provides to the readers. Make a list of these benefits.
Now, take one benefit at a time and create an article. This will assure you of generating an article idea that people want to read about.
Step 2: Write a simple outline. Once you have your first benefit idea selected. Take another sheet of paper and write a simple outline for that idea. This will give you the beginning content for your article. Later we will กfill in the blanksก of this simple outline to create the article itself.
Step 3: Choose a killer title that will draw attention. This is one of the most important aspects of your article. Without a killer title, your article will be passed over for another.
Now what do I mean killer title? What I mean is a title that has a benefit stated in it and draws peoples attention.
Answer these three questions to help you write that killer title.

Does the title draw a reader to take a look?
Does the title promise to solve a need for the reader?
Does the title offer specific information?

Another way to start writing killer titles is to write at least 20 to 100 titles for each article to start. Then review other peopleกs article titles. Then review your list and select your best killer title. I will tell you from my own experience that the more titles I write for an article, the better my title becomes. I have never used any of the first few titles when doing the above exercise.
Step 4:
Grab your readers with an attentiongrabbing opening sentence. You can use either a statement or a question here. The idea here is to not only grab the readersก attention. Itกs also to keep it.
The best way I have learned to write an attentiongrabbing opening sentence is to go online to an article directory and read the opening sentences to articles with a similar topic. I then discover which opening sentences are attentiongrabbing and which are not.
Once Iกve done this I find it really easy to get my attentiongrabbing sentence out of the way.
Step 5: State the primary purpose of the article by introducing a problem. By looking at your main benefit again you can turn it around into a problem. What is it like without the benefit? Here it is best to use a statement rather than a question.
If you are having trouble with this step simply write out an answer to this statement: กOne of the biggest problems…ก Use this to jar your idea centers in your mind. You can also begin your primary purpose statement this way. Look at the beginning of this article for an example.
Step 6: Take out the sheet of paper that has your outline on it. Now, write two to four sentences for each part of your outline. Imagine for a moment that a 7 year old has asked you about your article. How would you explain it to that child? Great! Now use that in your article.
Most ezine publishers and owners like articles between 400 to 500 words. They also want it formatted to between 60 and 65 characters per line, including spaces.
I have found it best to use กnotepadก when beginning to write out my articles and NOT a word processing program. This way there is NO formatting in the article. It is just the article in plain text.
Another point here is to use the word กyouก a lot. You want the reader to feel comfortable while reading.
Step 7: Include two to three free resources that the reader can find online to illustrate and/or highlight your article content. Using this of course is only if it is appropriate to your article content.
Step 8: Write a resource box for the end of your article. Make this between 4 to 8 lines max. Here is where you tell a little bit about yourself and then highlight your website or email address. See the bottom of this article for an example of a resource box. It is the information that follows, กabout the author,ก below.
Step 9: And finally, with your article written it is time to reread and rewrite. I have found that reading it aloud and/or having one or two other people read it helps a lot at this stage.
Don’t run into a problem many beginning article writers fall into. Many of them don’t like something they wrote and try to begin again. STOP! Don’t begin again. Simply edit around the copy that flows.
Step 10: Now last but definitely not least, reread your article for grammar mistakes and use spell check one last time! This IS the most important step.
Once your article is done you should do the following two things.
1. Submit your article to กarticle announceก services online. An article announce service is a email service that posts articles for everyone. You have to be a member to submit your article. Once you join you can post your articles as you have them completed. Usually only one article submission to each of the announce services per day.
Writers, Publishers and Website owners watch the articles being announced for content that they can use.
When you join these services, it is best to use a second email address. This way the large numbers of articles you will be receiving will not interrupt your personal and business email.
Here are a few article announce services to subscribe to. After you email them to subscribe, READ the email they send you and FOLLOW the directions on formatting your article for each of them. This will increase your ability of having your articles published in these services.
I have listed only article announce services that are located at Yahoo eGroups. After you have subscribed and read each email you receive. Go to this URL to post your articles:
http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups
Article Announce groups:
Article Announce

Subscribe:

mailto:[email protected]
AAInternet

Subscribe:

mailto:[email protected]
Articles Archive

Subscribe:

mailto:[email protected]
Free Content

Subscribe:

mailto:[email protected]
NOTE: to subscribe simply send a blank email to each of the addresses above.
Ok Great! Now its time to submit your article to online article archives and article directories. Article directories and archives are web sites that contain hundreds and thousands of articles from all over the world. Once you post your article at one of these locations your articles will be in front of thousands of readers, Publishers, writers and website owners.
Here are three to get you started:

http://www.1stinarticles.com
http://www.webmomz.com/users/signup.shtml
http://www.goarticles.com

Well thatกs it for today.
Thank you for reading. Have a great week!
Blessings
Bluedolphin Crow
Copyright 2004 Bluedolphin Crow All Rights Reserved.

About The Author

Bluedolphin Crow Ph.D. is a Native American with 6 years internet Marketing Experience and 20 years Sales and Marketing experience. The above article is an excerpt from her upcoming eBook: eBookMarketingSecretsRevealed! To reserve your FREE copy before publication (A $49 value) send a blank email to: mailto:[email protected]

กHow to eBooks Free eZine: mailto:[email protected]

http://www.lostdazedandconfused.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 28, 2004

by Bluedolphin Crow

Is Your Web Copy กPlain Talkก?

Is Your Web Copy กPlain Talkก?

by: Daniel Levis

Itกs true, we were all taught in school to express ourselves differently on paper, than the way we speak. To follow rules of grammar, and inject an artificial air of formality.

Forgetting about this training when you write web copy is one of the best thing you can possibly do, unless you’re selling to the academic community. And forgetting about it may not be as easy as you think.

Do you write like you’re speaking to a friend across the table?

Maybe even use a little slang, now & then?

Or do you worry about your high school English teacher committing suicide, if he or she were to ever stumble across your stuff?

If so, do yourself a favor. Get over it.

Marketing Communications should never be about trying to impress. Prospects should never have to think about what the heck you’re trying to say.

So keep your sentences short.

Avoid big words.

Keep plenty of free space around your copy, so it looks easy.

The mind can only really think of one thing at a time. If you want your prospect to concentrate on something, make sure your points don’t require more than a split second to understand.

Look at the below example, taken from an ad for a special day care course for kids. Itกs put on by a government agency that promotes apple agriculture in their region.

The point of the text is this. ขBring your kids here, because we’ll teach them something, instead of just babysitting themข.

Read the example, and then the revision in plain talk.

EXAMPLE

This program encourages students to conduct simple investigations of apples. Students experiment, observe, and keep records as they become กimmersedก in a multisensory study of apples. Students will make notes in learning logs as they investigate and discuss the activities. In the learning logs the students simply record what happened during the activities and their reactions to what happened.

Students may later use their notes as the basis for language arts activities, such as writing poems. Writing first serves as a tool for learning and later becomes one of the possible endproducts of the lessons.

PLAIN TALK REVISION

Hey Mom and Dad, kids love to learn about apples. They’re naturally curious, and learn best by tasting, smelling, squeezing, rolling, & tossing.

It’s so much fun.

They love sharing the experience with their classmates, and can’t wait to write home about what happened. And the feelings they express in the special diaries we give them are priceless.

You’ll be giving your kids a head start at putting their thoughts down on paper. One of life’s most important skills.

And what better way to get them out of your hair for a while?

Can you dig the difference?

I do a lot of work in the computer networking field, and often need to read product specs & documentation. And it drives me nuts!

Why is this stuff so full of techno babble, hyperbole, and longwinded bafflegab? Is all of the rocket science talk supposed to impress me into wanting to do something with their gadgetry?

Almost every product or service imaginable has a technical side, and you can never over educate. But it shouldn’t feel like school.

Maybe you think you’re selling a commodity, and there’s not much to the customer’s decision, but price. Think again. There is always a technical differentiator.

One of the greatest skills you can acquire is to be able to boil the froth off complex concepts, so that they become easy to understand.

Customers crave facts, and proof, even logic in order to feel comfortable with their decisions, once you’ve stirred up their emotional desire.

Inject them painlessly with web copy that comes across as ขplain talkข!

Copyright 2005 Daniel Levis

About The Author

Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto Canada. Recently, Daniel & worldrenowned publicist & copywriter Joe Vitale teamed up to co author ขMillion Dollar Online Advertising Strategies – From The Greatest Letter Writer Of The 20th Century!ข, a tribute to the late, great Robert Collier.

Let the legendary Robert Collier show you how to write words that sell…Visit the below site & get 3 FREE Chapters!

http://www.AdvertisingOnlineStrategies.com/adstrategies.html

This article was posted on April 11

by Daniel Levis

How To Win The กMarketing Warก, Capture Your Prosp

How To Win The กMarketing Warก, Capture Your Prospectกs Mind

by: Charles Kangethe

As a marketer you are engaged in a กWarก with competitors where the ultimate prize is capturing the mind of prospects and claiming their purchase dollars.

What you are about to read shows you how to create a powerful, automatic weapon for that war that generates relentless, repeating sales.

Step #1 Get Into Your Prospects Mind.

Many new netpreneurs forget, or fail to understand, that prospects are individuals.

You must get into your prospectกs mind and appeal to them, and them alone, before they will buy from you.

Sidebar

With some exceptions, buying decisions are made on the basis of emotional and intellectual reasoning in that order.

Sidebar

Some marketers prefer to use market research exclusively for this step. This is a valid, but more expensive option to build your prospectกs profile.

Sidebar

Remember : People do not necessarily buy features. They always buy benefits.

Step #5 Headlines

Now you have all the pieces of your jigsaw start to build your กMind Capture Weaponก.

Headlines can be formatted as :

Commands กDare To Write Good Headlinesก

Questions กDo you want to write good headlines ?ก

Announcements กNew product writes your headlinesก

Coaching กHow to write good headlines in 7 easy stepsก

Write as many headlines as you can, some marketers write 50 or more, and format them in the different ways.

Now let them to กstewก for a 2 or 3 days before reviewing and choosing the best ones.

For software to help you write compelling headlines see relevant resources below.

Step# 6 Write The Copy Like A Master Storyteller.

กUsing the action triggers that deliver your MDA, weave a personal story for your prospect around your product and itกs benefits to them.ก

Your copy must be persuasive, emotional, and truthful.

Without exception, people love stories.

Use your

Action trigger list,

Prospect profile

Product benefits

to weave a story that captures your prospects mind.

This is the goal you started out to achieve and a story incorporating these features is how you do it.

Story telling is one of many mind motivators that capture your prospectกs mind and attention.

A new product about to be released will show you many other magical mind motivators that you must learn to use to capture your prospects mind.

Step #7 Ask For กMost Desired Actionก

Your กMost Desired Actionก may be :

Getting the prospect to subscribe to a product.

Getting the sale.

Getting feedback and comments.

Getting contributions, donations or other help.

Whatever it is, you must ask for it in clear explicit terms.

Relevant Resources

กWin The war Of Internet Marketingก eBook, available at http://www.simplyeasier.com under กDigital Info Productsก

กHeadline Creator Proก available from http://www.headlinescreatorpro.com

ก7 steps to writing articles people just have to read.ก article at http://www.simplyeasier.com/ownarticles.html

Mind Motivators product Available Mid March 2004 from http://www.simplyeasier.com

Conclusion

Use the tactics described here to write copy. Then test each detail from action triggers, benefits, headlines, prospect profile, and offer until you have a mind capturing weapon in your arsenal. Use this in the กMarketing Warก and you will have a weapon that sells relentlessly and repeatedly for you.

(c) 2004 Charles Kangethe

About The Author

Charles Kangethe of http://www.simplyeasier.com is a leading

new wave marketer and a published author from England. The กSimply Easierก brand name is your guarantee of high value, quality Marketing Products, Services and Resources.

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 02, 2004

by Charles Kangethe

Hey, Client, This Is Me! Sell With Your Writing Vo

Hey, Client, This Is Me! Sell With Your Writing Voice.

by: Cathy Goodwin

In a crowded market, clients will be seeking personality as they read what youกve written theyกll click right past pages that feel กbeen there, read that.ก They’re looking for a voice that says, กHey, client, this is me!ก

They want to know not just what you deliver but how. Will you be funny or serious? A perky cheerleader or a sardonic commentator? Will your view of life be based on กbelieve and it happensก or กwhat you see is what you get?ก

Here are some tips to add your own voice to your writing.

1. Write from the heart.

Too excited, passionate or angry to sit still? Best time to connect with your voice. Grab a pencil and scribble ideas as you jump around the room.

2. Say something new.

After forty articles on time management, your readers know about cutting projects into manageable chunks and setting priorities. Ho hum. Try กbetter than zeroก or ‘turn your life into a time warp.ก

3. Tape yourself talking to a good friend about a product.

Do your words sound different when you speak than when you write? Transcribe the tape into an article for easy reading.

4. Picture your ideal client (you do have one, don’t you?). Imagine that she is gushing about your service to a friend highly recommending you. What words does she use to describe your services? What emotions come through?

5. Cut. Then cut again. When you have to trim your piece to meet a word count requirement, notice that you’re left with the most essential words all yours.

6. Write fast. Get the words down before your inner critic has a chance to participate. Edit later.

7. Reveal yourself: family, mistakes, secret dreams. When you feel just a bit embarrassed, or feel your private persona has become more public, youกve probably just touched your audienceกs heart.

8. Be concrete not abstract.

As writing guru Natalie Goldberg would say, กItกs a geranium, not a flower.ก

9. If youกve had voice training, be especially alert to creating the bland and the blah.

Julia Roberts could hold an audience while she reads the telephone directory. Your copy has to stand alone, without dramatic oratory. Exercise 3 may not work for you.

10. Don’t be afraid to break the rules: use slang and contractions. And itกs okay to begin a sentence with กandก or กbut.ก

Just tread carefully on the rules of grammar and spelling. กYour about to head off for you’re great adventureก can be a credibilitybuster.

About The Author

Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., is an author, speaker, editor, and consultant. She helps clients who want to use writing to sell and sell what they write.

Visit http://www.makewritingpay.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 31, 2003

by Cathy Goodwin

Build Credibility, Value and Trust on a Shoestring

Build Credibility, Value and Trust on a Shoestring

by: George Torok

Setting priorities in your business? Your first job is to sell. Selling is writing the orders; receiving the cash; feeding the beast. If you don’t sell; the beast, (your business), dies. The impact of selling is immediate. You may love it, but it is a beast. You need to feed it and control it.
Your second priority is marketing. Marketing is taming and grooming the beast. Marketing is everything that makes it easier to sell. Marketing is about sending messages and everything you do or don’t do sends a message. You are responsible for these messages because they impact the perception of your credibility, value and trust. The impact of marketing is long term. The best time to start marketing was yesterday. The next best time is today.
Use these lowbudget techniques to build credibility, value and trust on a shoestring.
Be a guest speaker for community groups, schools and associations.
You most want to speak in front of prospects. But sometimes you need to take side steps to get there. There are over 8,000 associations in Canada. Check the directories at the library to find associations that may have prospects. Then contact the local chapters to offer a nocharge seminar or speech. Don’t tell them you speak for free even though you do. Instead tell them that you normally charge, pick a number, but agree to waive your fee as a first time offer. The presentation must be of value and interest to the audience. It can not be an infomercial. Provide a handout with key points from your talk. Include information about your services along with your contact numbers and website on the handout. Ensure your introducer reads the introduction you prepare that establishes your expertise and what you do. But don’t stand up there and sell instead market by using examples of how you helped previous clients. Ask for a list of all attendees. If they refuse, collect everyoneกs business card for a draw. Give away a book, one of your products or 30 minutes of your service. It is more important to collect business cards than to give yours away.
After your presentation ask the organizer to refer you to speak at other associations or other chapters of the same association. Other groups you might speak to are Rotary, chambers of commerce, and various networking clubs. You don’t need to be a member to be a guest speaker. Prepare and rehearse your presentation. To become a better speaker read the book, กSecrets of Power Presentationsก, by Peter Urs Bender and visit Toastmasters, a nonprofit association that teaches presentations skills. The book is in most stores and you can find a local Toastmasters club by visiting www.Toastmasters.org
Volunteer for a charity, community cause or association.
Budget your time wisely and volunteer for a cause or group in which you strongly support. If you do, then you will work willingly and passionately. You will feel good about your contribution . Others see you at your best. They have the opportunity to know you and like you. And we would rather do business with people we know and like. By volunteering on a committee or charity you contact others who share your beliefs. And we like others who are like us. After working together as volunteers it is easier to discuss business opportunities. In this way you may discover new customers, and suppliers. You might also find partners for cross promotion or referrals. The bonus payoff from volunteering is positive media exposure. This might include photos and interviews that could result from your impact. You could join an established cause or you could simply organize your own event. A dentist donated one day of his time to give free fillings to children of single mothers just before Christmas. He received frontpage coverage.
Write and publish articles
We grant tremendous respect to those who have published works. Write a book and that is an invaluable credibility tool. Case in point; before I wrote my book with Peter Urs Bender I was a nobody. After, I was an overnight marketing guru. I say กovernightก because it took two years to write and lots of promotion. Nothing in business happens overnight, neither success nor failure.
You can and should start with something simpler than a book articles that highlight your expertise. The simplest article to write is a tips list. It could be ‘three steps to prepare for ______ก; กFive questions to ask when buying ________ก; กSeven ways to save money on your __________ก; or ‘ten tips for improving your _________ก.
The most important step in writing is to start. The second most important step is to edit and rewrite. Forget about writing excellent copy the first time. I would be so disappointed with myself to find out you can write perfect copy the first time.
Where do you publish? You most want to be seen in the publications your prospects read. These might be trade and association magazines. Members tend to read them covertocover. Of course it is wonderful to appear in a national business publication such as the Globe & Mail, Canadian Business, Profit or Small Business Canada. Copy your articles and send them to your clients and prospects. Post them on your web site and on the wall of your office for visitors to admire and for you to be reminded that you are an expert.
Feed, tame and groom the beast and it will be your friend.

About The Author

© George Torok is coauthor of the national bestseller, กSecrets of Power Marketingก, Canadaกs first guide to personal marketing for the nonmarketer. He delivers seminars and keynotes to corporations and associations across North America. He can be reached at 8003041861 For more information the training programs and more marketing tips visit the web site www.PowerMarketing.ca

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 06, 2004

by George Torok

Can You Write Naturally and Get Good SE Ranking?

Can You Write Naturally and Get Good SE Ranking?

by: Francisco Aloy

The most effective way to write for your website is to keep the subject matter of your web page under tight focus. Notice I didn’t say website; thatกs because the search engines don’t spider websites, they spider web pages.

The search engines will look to see how well the related page title, keywords and body text apply to the subject matter. This means that if you are talking about widgets, your title, keywords and body copy should be tightly focused only on widgets. Stray from your main subject only when secondary ideas have very high relevancy and keep it short, sweet and get right back to your main subject matter.

To begin with, pick out your web page title and then a set of keywords that relate to your subject. After this, start to write the body copy in a style you’re comfortable with and do your first draft.

While working on your first draft, use this guideline:

Use a rough outline to get your point across. Have a start, a middle and an ending. Make your points in the very middle of the body copy, as Iกm doing right here.

Don’t limit yourself to a mechanical formula for creating a keyword density because it will get in the way of your natural style.

Do your best to write in a free flowing manner as if you are talking to a good friend. Stay away from words or expressions that would make anybody reach for the dictionary.

If you can get your style to loosenup, have some fun as you write for readers and visitors. Do your best to have the real you come through in your chosen writing style. This is something that will come on its own the more you do it.

For the second draft, do this:

Go over your writing and eliminate any fluff and revise it to make your meaning come through better. It could be there is an idea that needs expanding or perhaps you need to restructure a paragraph. Maybe there is another word that could provide a better description of an idea or term.

Finally, your third draft should include this:

Look at all the elements of your near finished piece and see how logical and smooth the transition is from opening, middle and closing paragraphs. Do they all seem to fit together well? Are you fully informing your readers on the subject without leaving out crucial information?

If you are satisfied with your results, itกs time to go live! Upload the web page to your server and take a look at it; use this little web based utility Iกve found very helpful, the Submit Express Meta Tags Analyzer: http://www.submitexpress.com/analyzer/

The above utility will give you lots of information about your web page. Once you enter your URL look at the results and compare the relevancy numbers. Use the single keyword and double or triple keyword phrase to adjust your final results. Most of the time, you don’t have to adjust your writing, only your particular choice and order of keywords.

Adjust your keyword choice and do your best to get good to excellent relevancy and keyword fit. Notice that this is the last step in the process since you want to preserve as much of your natural style as you can. If you do your best to stay focused on the subject matter of your web page, you shouldn’t have to do many changes.

by Francisco Aloy

(C)2004 Francisco Aloy

About The Author

Francisco Aloy is the creator of The Newbie Business Guide. High quality resources to start your new Internet Business. Discover the marketing punch of original content. Visit: http://www.newbiebusinessguide.com/writing_and_copywriting.html.

This article was posted on January 12

by Francisco Aloy

Publishing Great Content To Boost Your Link Popula

Publishing Great Content To Boost Your Link Popularity

by: John Taylor

Before we get started, thereกs a couple of things that I ought to point out…

1. You really should have a fairly good knowledge of your subject material and enough time to write high quality articles. Alternatively you should be able to invest at least $40 per month to pay someone else to research and ghostwrite some articles for you.

2. You will also need to have sufficient time to submit your articles to the main article directories or alternatively be prepared to pay at least $40 per month to have someone else distribute them for you.

Writing and distributing articles, while not especially glamorous by any means, it’s a very effective way to get links back to your site.

The proven system:

1. Decide on a topic for your article and either write it yourself or, as mentioned above, get someone else to write it for you. I prefer to use http://www.Rentacoder.com to hire good writers, simply because they have an escrow system that allows the payment to be held until the work is finished. Take plenty of time to write a detailed project specification to make sure that you cover precisely what you expect the writer to provide. You should also pay particular attention to the individualsก feedback score before choosing a writer.

2. Once you have a completed article, or set of articles you need to buy a subscription to one of the article distribution services such as:

http://www.submityourarticle.com

http://www.iSnare.com (Highly recommended!)

http://www.thephantomwriters.com

http://www.ezinetrendz.com/articlesubmission.htm

If you don’t want to pay for the distribution of your articles, then you will need to invest your time in submitting them manually. Once you have done that a couple of times, itกs virtually certain that youกll find the cash to pay for one of the above services!

3. Make sure that you write a compelling signature line with the landing page URL that you want these new links pointing to. You need to decide in advance where you want all your articles to link to. Your home page will give you the best results if you are looking for Page Rank and a dedicated optin page will generate the highest subscriber sign up rate. Set clear objectives for your campaign before you start.

4. Once youกve completed your signup, submit your first article through the Submit Your Article service. Generally, the article will post out from the system within 72 hours. From this point, submit at least one new article each and every week, more if possible.

6. If your article is well written many publishers will pick it up and publish it to their newsletters and online databases.And, if your signature line contains a compelling call to action you should also enjoy lots of targeted traffic.

You can be sure of one thing, once your article has been distributed you will enjoy lots of incoming links to your chosen URL.

About The Author

To learn more information about Link Popularity I strongly recommend that you visit http://www.LinkAdvantage.com.

Copyright John Taylor PhD August 2005 All rights reserved.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 11

by John Taylor

How to Avoid the 11 Biggest Mistakes of First Time

How to Avoid the 11 Biggest Mistakes of First Time Authors

by: Roger C. Parker

ขIf you want to change your life,ข Harry Beckwith wrote in The Invisible Touch, ขwrite a book.ข But writing a book can also be tremendously frustrating and unrewarding.
Following are the 11 biggest reasons most firsttime authors fail to receive the rewards they are due.
1. Unrealistic expectations. Don’t expect to get rich off your book, even if it’s a success by publishing standards. The vast majority of books fail to earn out their advance.
Instead, develop a personal marketing plan to leverage your career off your book. Instead of trying to make money on the book itself, use your book to open doors, promote your credibility and build relationships with readers.
2. Writing without a contract. Never write a book without a signed contract. Instead, prepare a polished proposal and two sample chapters.
Publishers are increasingly selective about the titles they accept. Often, less than 1 in 20 titles proposed are published. Writing a book that isn’t accepted is not a good use of your time.
3. No agent. You must be represented by a literary agent. Publishers rarely accept unsolicited book proposals. Unsolicited proposals are frequently returned unread or are simply discarded.
The right agent will know exactly which publishers might be interested in your book. Agents can also negotiate terms more effectively than you.
4. Weak titles. Titles sell books. The title of your book is like the headline of an advertisement. The title represents your one and only chance to attract the attention of acquisition editors or bookstore readers.
Successful titles stress the benefits readers will gain from your book. Successful titles arouse curiosity and offer solutions. They often include consonants and alliteration (repeated ‘hard’ sounds like G, K, P or T).
5. Title versus series. Focus on a series of books rather than an individual title. Publishers want concepts that can be expanded into a series rather than individual titles.
6. Going it alone. Successful careers involve a nurturing support group of readers and peers. Your quest should include the support of your friends, other authors, book coaches, readers and others who will help you maintain your enthusiasm while providing ideas, assistance and feedback.
7. ‘Event’ writing. Write a little each day rather than ‘going away’ to write your book. Stress is an author’s biggest enemy. When you attempt marathon writing, you’re putting an unrealistic burden on yourself. ขWhat happens if I come back and my book isn’t written?ข
8. Selfediting. Avoid unnecessary selfediting. It’s far more important to complete the first draft of your book than to agonize over the perfection of every word.
Editors will ensure that grammar is correct and ideas appear in the proper order. But they can’t do anything until you submit the final manuscript.
9. Failure to promote. Publishers are not promoters. Publishers are skilled at editing, manufacturing and distributing books. But they are not set up to give your book the marketing attention it deserves. A single publicist may represent over 100 books!
If you want your book to succeed, you have to promote it as well as write it.
10. Failure to back up and save. Save frequently when writing. Always save before printing. Never turn off your computer without making a copy of your files for offpremises storage. Never end a writing session without printing out a hard copy of the latest version of the chapter you’re writing.
11. Failure to plan future profits. Before writing your book, create a book marketing plan. Book sales should be just the first step in an ongoing relationship with your readers. Your plan should identify opportunities from consulting, newsletters, audio/video recordings, seminars, speeches and yearly updates.
A book can, indeed, change your life. But you must take charge; take a proactive role in promoting and leveraging its success.

About The Author

Roger C. Parker is the $32,000,000 author with over 1.6 million copies in print. Do you make these marketing and design mistakes? Find out at www.gmarketingdesign.com

This article was posted on July 02, 2004

by Roger C. Parker