The Write to Link Popularity

The Write to Link Popularity

by: Nicholas Dixon

Using writing as a means of boosting your link popularity can be a turnoff for many webmasters, when in fact it can lead to a wealth of links.

I first learnt about link popularity while researching about many different methods that I could use to market a Geocities site I had. After emailing countless webmasters and receiving some dismal results, I realized that it was hopeless to get people to exchange links with my freebie website.

Then I discovered writing. At first I was skeptical at using this concept but after trying it for some time, the results began to show. What was wonderful is that it only cost me some of my time.

With the help of article writing I was able to achieve a Pagerank of 4 for my Geocities website. The more webmasters that archived my articles the more links I had pointing to my site. As a result of my growing link popularity I began to see my site show up on the first or second page for some relatively competitive search terms.

Using writing as a marketing tool can save you thousands in advertising dollars. Imagine a website or ezine that costs hundreds to advertise in and you have the feature article which didn’t cost you a dime to produce. You can easily see which generates more profit in the long run.

Through the power of the written word you can be able to get free publicity for your business. Providing quality and profitable and sometimes inspiring information can help you to achieve that goal. Many top marketers have used writing to good effect.

Developing your own writing style is important. As there are many others doing the same thing you what to differ from them. How can you stand out in a crowd if you are just like everyone else.

Practicing and researching helped me to put pen to paper for my first articles. Some of your first creations maybe a bit tacky but as long as you keep going you can improve.

Writing can be a task at times. There are moments when I have written the first two paragraphs and just get stuck. The inevitable writer’s block can be a challenge to overcome. Taking a break and getting into the right frame of mind can be helpful.

Can anyone become a writer? Well the answer depends on how much effort you put into it. I have had some wonderful experiences since I became a writer. At times when there are criticisms and negative feedback, they can help you to better your skills if you use them the right way.

Many people don’t like writing. But sometimes it is the things that we don’t enjoy doing that are most beneficial to us. Try your hand at writing, if a guy from a Caribbean island can do it then so can you.

Copyright © Nicholas Dixon

About The Author

Nicholas Dixon is a writer and webmaster from Jamaica. Visit his website http://WWW.Oceanroc.com for articles, free courses and information about a cool island town.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 10, 2004

by Nicholas Dixon

12Copywriting Tips to Make Your Advertising More

12Copywriting Tips to Make Your Advertising More Profitable

by: Thom Reece

Year after year people make the same mistakes in directresponse copy and advertising. You can avoid the most common and costly blunders by following the following proven tips…

1. WRITE IN DIRECT RESPONSE LANGUAGE:

Use short paragraphs and short words. This article has 68% short wordsfive letters or less. Strive for at least 65%75%. Never go under 50% unless you are writing to Ph.Dกs.

Make your sentences and paragraphs flow like a breeze.

Ignore good grammar when you have a good reason.

Keep the bucket brigade going: Start paragraphs with And, But, So you see, However…

Use the freshest concepts and the most colorful language you can without disturbing the flow.

Use hot words: free, profit, new, now, secret, easy, save, guarantee, today… and the hottest word of all: YOU!

Use bullets… lots of them.

2. WRITE LOTS OF HEADLINES.

Always think up dozens of alternative headlines. Put your strongest benefits in them and test your best alternatives. When writing headlines for web sites make sure they include key search words and phrases along with the benefits.

3. DROP THE WARMUPS…

Youกll destroy your entire letter/ad by starting off, กAs a homeowner, you know how maintenace costs are climbing every day…ก. Take your first draft and try cutting out the first two to three paragraphs… youกll usually find the real กmeatก starts to appear in your copy after you have started to กwarmupก to the writing.

4. STAND OUT.

Separate yourself from the competition as clearly as you can. Discover, isolate, and dramatize all the reasons for doing business with you…today…, instead of your competitor. Build your entire package or ad around these reasons (benefits).

5. SELL BENEFITS, NOT FEATURES.

Readers don’t buy products or features of products. They buy the benefitsofuse of the product or features. Be humble enough to realize that a buyer will not give you one red cent for any product or feature until you convert the features into benefitsofuse.

6. LEARN TO GIVE.

Most advertisers and charities think of direct response strictly as a device to กgetก. Unfortunately, most readers also want to get. So, to succeed, you must adopt a กgiveก attitude… beyond what you offer in the product or service. Give them something immediately in your ad, your letter, your web page. Give them news, business tips, interesting stories, resources, freebies, special deals.

7. USE TESTIMONIALS.

They’re proof that you’re as good as you say you are, and that youกll do what you say will do. Like…

กI increased profits by $100,000 last year using your services…ก Joe Smith, President, Smith Corporation

The more specific the testimonial the more power it has. Give full attributions whenever possible. Testimonials give you believability and credibility. You can’t do successful directresponse without these two essential factors.

8. OFFER A MONEYBACK GUARANTEE.

Whatever you are selling, make sure you offer a moneyback guarantee. Itกs a critical factor in getting someone to send in their monty to someone they don’t know or maybe never heard of.

9. CREDIT CARDS, TOLL FREE NUMBERS.

Credit card purchases and tollfree ก800ก numbers can increase your response by as much as 50%. If you’re on the web make sure you opt for secure online transmission (SSL) of credit card orders… or allow other means for your customer to provide their credit information to you.

10. ASK FOR ACTION.

Itกs amazing how often otherwise good copy never gets around to asking for the order. If you don’t ask for action… you won’t get any.

11. BUDGET YOUR TIME.

Devote about one third of your writing time to the lead elements, headline, subheads, teasers, opening paragraphs.

12. KEEP CURRENT.

Directresponse is more scientific than other types of advertising. Like any fastmoving science, it has itกs discoveries daily. This is especially true of writing for the Internet/World Wide Web. Subscribe to industry trade journals such as Target Marketing, DM News, Direct, and other relevant publications.

(C) Copyright 2004 Thom Reece All Rights Reserved

About The Author

Thom Reece is the CEO of OnLine Marketing Group, a direct response marketing agency with headquarters in Hawaii. He is the creator of the Online Marketing Resource Center [ http://www.ecomprofits.com ] & the major portal for the network marketing industry MaxxMLM.com [http://www.MaxxMLM.com]. Thom can be reached by email at: [email protected].

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 04

by Thom Reece

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

The Best Advertisement For Your Business

The Best Advertisement For Your Business

by: Mark Daoust

It is no secret among internet marketers that writing articles is a great way to market your website. With all the article distribution services and all the websites looking for free, unique content, writing a quality article can bring you more links to your website in one day than an entire month of working out link exchanges and submitting to directories. The benefits of writing articles have been written about time and time again. Yet in order to enjoy the benefits of article writing, your article must first be accepted by the publishers who receive your submissions. This article will focus on a few key points to help increase your chances of getting your article accepted by the Internet’s top publishers.

Proofread Your Own Writing

Proofreading is very time consuming. If you want your article to be widely accepted, it is your job to make the publisher’s job easier. The first step in making the publisher’s job easier is to check, double check, and triple check your spelling and grammar. If you have someone that can review your article, have them read it over. Tell this person to look for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and poorly worded sentences. They will be able to point out mistakes that you may never have seen. When you write an article there is a tendency of getting overly familiar with the content and thus you could miss a glaring mistake in your writing. Consider the following exercise by reading aloud what is written:

London

in the

the

spring

x x x

What did you read? If you identified that the word ‘the’ is written twice, than you can consider yourself one of only 5% of people who get this exercise correct. 95% of people who read this exercise only see ขLondon in the spring X X Xข. (If you still do not see it, read it aloud again, but this time point to each word as you read it.)

The point of this exercise is to show you just how easy it is to miss obvious mistakes. Add in the element of familiarity with the writing and you are likely to miss even more mistakes. By asking someone else to read over your work, you greatly reduce the chances of missing a glaring error in your writing.

Rule to Remember: Proofread Your Own Writing, and then Proofread Again

Offer Something of Real Value

Articles are an incredible source of free traffic and free advertising for your business. However, articles are not supposed to be advertisements themselves. There is nothing you can do to get a publisher to delete your article faster than writing an article that is nothing more than a longwinded ad copy.

If you want to get your article published, once again you must get into the publisher’s mind. The publisher is always looking to offer his or her readers with fresh, insightful, and helpful information. Commentaries on industry trends, useful strategies, tutorials, observations and theories all make good articles. As an owner of a business, reviewing one of your products, offering a teaser of the information you sell, or blatantly marketing your products by including your hyperlink throughout the article makes for a horrible article that will likely not be published.

Think back to the time when you first started your online venture (this may not be very long ago) and remember how thirsty you were for good, quality information. When writing your article, remember how valuable this information was to you when you found it. Every author has the right to a resource box which serves as your advertisement; if you prove to the reader that you are an expert in your field and give them information that only you can provide, this will serve as a stronger advertisement than if you spend 2,000 words on a longwinded, selfpromotional article.

Finally, when writing your resource box, it is best to be as concise as possible. Resource boxes that appear to be about as long as the article themselves show that the author has no concern about the content of his or her article. Limit the number of links you put into your resource box to no more than three links and keep the resource box to no more than four or five lines.

Rule to Remember: Write a Good Article, not a Good Advertisement

Be Clear and Concise

Many people fall into the trap of thinking they have to develop an eloquent, graceful writing style in order to be published. What these people seem to forget is that an article is written with one main point: to deliver information. Be concise, be clear, and be direct. When writing your article, you should actually aim to be slightly boring with your writing style. What is slightly boring to you is probably very clear and direct to the reader.

It is important to note that most online publishers have much more to deal with than the writing styles of the authors who submit articles to them. Publishers are more concerned with grammar, spelling, and content than they are with how eloquently a writer can make his or her point. One thing that a publisher will take notice of, however, is a writer who has a confusing and difficult to follow writing style.

Your article should encourage readers to read through the entire article. If a reader gets a few lines into the article, or even a few paragraphs, and finds themselves confused, you can be sure that they will never get to your resource box and thus never visit your website. To keep a reader interested in your article, give them quality information and give it to them directly and clearly. A reader will only continue to read an article if they believe there is a good chance that they will gain something further by finishing the article. Although it may be counterintuitive, boring writing does just that.

Rule to Remember: Being Boring is Better than Being Confusing

Writing good articles is not difficult. When writing your article, think first about what publishers are looking for in an article. Focus on your grammar, spelling, clarity, conciseness, and content. Remember that your article should actually help people beyond just selling your product or service. Offer valuable information to your readers and they will pay you back tenfold. Offer valuable information to a publisher’s readers and they will be certain to publish your article and provide you with the best free advertisement for your business.

Copyright 2004 Mark Daoust

About The Author

Mark Daoust is the owner of http://www.sitereference.com. Discuss this article further at http://forums.sitereference.com/t120/s.html.

This article was posted on November 25, 2004

by Mark Daoust

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

Screen Printing Gets a Rival

Screen Printing Gets a Rival

by: Nash Ville

Before anything else, let’s have a brief description of the screen printing and heat transfer processes. Screen printing refers to the forcing of inks through a stencil that is in a mesh material. Heat transfer, on the other hand, is a method of applying an image in Tshirts, sweatshirts, jackets, hats, bags and more by releasing an ink, dye, toner, etc. from a special transfer paper via heat. Now, let’s move onwards…

According to the article ขScreen Printing vs. Heat Transferข by Bruce Roberts which was posted at www.bfprinting.com, the author has mentioned some pros and cons in using the screen printing and heat transfer methods to produce printed apparels. The article has stated that screen printing is advisable if you are planning to do mass production of Tshirts. He has added that digital heat transfer must be considered for printing short runs because it avoids the expense and extra work of preparing screens and cleaning up ink and chemicals. With financial considerations, much money is needed in screen printing than in heat transfer if you want to set up a business. The screen printing process was also explained in Roberts’ article.

Advantages and Limitations of Screen Printing

Screen printing is suitable for most projects which will be exposed to outdoor elements because of its inks that can last outdoors up to seven years against fading. Its other advantages include larger or smaller design format, use of half tones and blends, versatility and adaptability, great design reproduction capabilities, being good with fine detail, being economical on larger orders, and being permanent when applied properly. So, if you need printing on ridged materials like wood, glass, plastics, etc., it is absolutely the perfect choice for durability and value. However, it doesn’t work well on coarse textured substrates.

Advantages and Limitations of Heat Transfer

The heat transfer process offers unlimited print color combinations, photographic quality reproductions, and the versatility to print small quantities with multicolor designs. It also allows an opportunity to have small quantities of shirts made with colorful designs at affordable prices. Moreover, heat transfer printed shirts are fully washable and can be ironed after a wash while screenprinted shirts cannot be ironed. However, this process doesn’t work properly on dark shirts.

There you have it, folks! With this information on screen printing and heat transfer, the choice is still left for you to decide on which process best suits you. I agree that both methods of printing can be truly fun and rewarding but then, there will always be one that will stand out from among these two. What do you think, is it screen printing or heat transfer?

About The Author

Nash Ville

Well, I must say that I am not a born writer. I didn’t acquire this gift hereditarily either. However, I’m an adventure book lover and used to read everything that I come across in the Internet that sounds interesting. I think, I only developed it through constant practice and exposure to numerous writing stuff. I was chosen to compete in press conferences that showcased my needsowelldeveloped writing skills. I became part of our school publication staff. I started as a news writer and photojournalist of the school paper. Soon, I was appointed editorinchief. It was during this time when I realized that I needed to be more efficient in writing because duty called for it. I should say that this event in my life opened me wholly to the wonderful world of writing.

With all these, I can’t say that I have mastered writing because of these writing experiences. I believe that this craft is also a continuous learning process. I’ve been working hard to become amore efficient and competent in writing, most especially now that I’m working as a content writer for this company. I’m doing articles for printing companies, medical sites, legal sites, and many more.

For additional Information about the articles you may visit their website at http://www.brochuresprintingonline.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 09

by Nash Ville

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

Five Keys To Leaner and Meaner Copywriting

Five Keys To Leaner and Meaner Copywriting

by: Robert Warren

Grab กem and don’t lose กem. Every marketer knows that one. Human beings have very short attention spans, so you can’t afford to waste your prospectกs time give them the good stuff and then let them go as soon as you can. Writing effective marketing material is all about writing crisply with just a handful of words.
Clean writing isn’t an accident, but is instead the result of the careful application of certain principles and tools. Try these five techniques for crafting leaner, meaner, more effective business copy:
Avoid modifiers. Modifiers change the meaning of other words; the most common of these are adverbs and adjectives (words that describe verbs and nouns, respectively). They’re used when the writer feels that the noun or verb needs a little something extra: ‘the shining sunก, กrun quicklyก, etc. Get rid of as many modifiers as you can and choose nouns and verbs that stand on their own.
No lazy words. Every word should be doing real work, conveying necessary information and supporting other parts of the piece. Think of your sentences as support beams and rafters in a building, and analyze the piece wordbyword: are there any nails sticking out of boards? Anything thatกs there purely for show? Anything that doesn’t strengthen your writing weakens it. Strip your copy down to its most essential parts, and throw out the words that are sleeping on the job.
Reduce it to a single sentence. Do you really know what you want to say? You might be surprised try phrasing your entire piece into one simple sentence. Can you do it, or are you insisting that your message is too indepth? Taking your point down to a single statement can give your copy new focus and clarity.
One thought per sentence. Sentences and paragraphs are different things. Avoid long, complex sentences built up of multiple thoughts. Keep your sentences to one thought each, keep them short and simple, and use your paragraphs for the complex ideas.
When in doubt, cut it out. Every writer has written the perfect sentence that just doesn’t play along well with others. Hemingway was right kill your darlings. If you can’t figure out how to ease that bit of poetry in with the rest of your marketing piece, cut it completely and don’t look back. Be merciless. Youกll be surprised how often thatกs the best solution.

About The Author

Robert Warren (www.rswarren.com) is a Floridabased freelance copywriter specializing in the unique marketing needs of independent professionals.

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 05, 2004

by Robert Warren

Writing eNewsletters – Tricks of the Trade

Writing eNewsletters – Tricks of the Trade

by: Glenn Murray

Follow 10 simple rules of thumb, and you’ll soon be writing great enewsletters and reaping the rewards.
Company enewsletters can be an amazingly successful marketing technique. Whether you want to upsell or crosssell, establish your brand or establish your authority, or simply reach a wider market, an enewsletter can do the job for you. You just have to make sure you write it right.
Television, radio, and print advertising are often too expensive for many businesses to justify – especially small businesses. Fortunately, there is an alternative. Today’s internet and email technologies make company newsletters a very inexpensive, yet surprisingly effective, form of advertising. When it comes to newsletters, big companies and small are finally competing on a level playing field.
So what is an email newsletter?
An emailed newsletter serves much the same purpose as a traditional company newsletter. Think of it as a short newspaper – but instead of relating to a town, city or country, it relates to your business. You can include articles on new products or services, awards, recent success stories and case studies, promotions, specials, share price rises, company events, research… And if it’s a quiet month, you can simply write articles that might help your customers out.
10 Steps to Success
Follow 10 simple rules of thumb, and you’ll soon be writing great newsletters and reaping the rewards…
1) Keep It New! Your readers won’t waste time reading something they already know, so make it news they can use.
2) Keep it personal: Always use your reader’s name. Make sure when someone signs up, you get their name, then use it in the subject line, in the greeting, and anywhere else you can.
3) Know your reader: Find out what your reader is interested in. Do some proactive research, invite response, or find an email marketing solution such as Ezemail** that tracks the links your readers click on and keeps a history of their activity.
4) Let them know you: Let your personality shine through. Readers are far more likely to become loyal if they feel they know you. Always include a bit of you in the newsletter, whether it’s humour, personal details, personal anecdotes, or personal views.
5) Subject is Headline: The subject line of an email newsletter is like a frontpage headline in a newspaper. You need to draw the reader in, so make it engaging and relevant (maybe promise a benefit) but no more than 25 characters so your reader can see it all before opening the email.
6) Use a Title bar: Make the most of the title bar to add visual appeal and establish brand awareness.
7) Make it ‘scannable’: Most people don’t read online – they scan. Make sure you use easytoread bullet points and subheadings. Don’t lose your reader’s attention. Reading is physically more difficult online, so make sure you’re concise. Use links to other places instead of writing long articles.
8) Use White space!: If your page is too busy, you’ll lose your reader. Give them a chance to absorb valuable information by dedicating about 30% of your screen real estate to white space.
9) Easy unsubscribe: Make your unsubscribe easy to find. If it’s obvious, they’ll feel safe and can then appreciate the content. To many people, the ease of unsubscribing is an indicator of the integrity of your company.
10) Forward to a friend: Include a link to encourage readers to forward the newsletter on to their friends and colleagues. Find an email marketing solution which allows you to do this and sit back and watch your database grow!
** Ezemail enables you to create, manage, deliver and track your email marketing and sales communication. Email [email protected] or visit http://www.ezemail.com.au.

About The Author

Glenn Murray heads advertising copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at [email protected]. Visit http://www.divinewrite.com for further details or more FREE articles.

This article was posted on May 26, 2004

by Glenn Murray

Organizing Your Data to Write Better Copy

Organizing Your Data to Write Better Copy

by: Neroli Lacey

Last quarter I talked about interviewing / gathering data. So now you’ve got several thousand words of notes, hopefully digitally recorded. What comes next?
GETTING ORGANIZED
I suggested organizing your interview questions into 4 groups. I’m going to label them for you A, B, C, D.

·what is the business problem? = A
·what is the high level solution? = B
·can you tell me more about the solution? = C
·why should I trust you (as my vendor?) = D

Any decent piece of writing has a beginning, a middle and an end. So before you start editing / writing you want a map, to show you where you are going. Take a blank sheet of paper, write four major headings and label them A, B, C, D, as above.
Now read your notes. When you find data relevant to ขAข (the business problem), underline that copy and mark a big ขAข in the margin (in red?) . Keep working through until you have marked up relevant copy for all four sections of your piece.
You will be leaving out anything that does not seem suitable as you go.
THE CUT AND PASTE JOB
Next comes a cut and paste job. Group together all the ขAขs, then the ขBขs, ขCขs and ขDขs.
Next, take a look at all the ideas you have in the A group. It helps if you take a new sheet of paper and write a list of the ideas or facts in the A group. Now prioritize. Be ruthless. And trust your first instinct. If an idea seems to leap out and have life, put it first. The less important ones come later. Weed out any repetition or weak data. Now you work on flow. Do you have a logical flow of ideas that your reader can follow? Are you telling him/ her a story that you yourself could believe in?
You will go through the same exercise with the remaining blocks of notes, ie ขBข,ขCข and ขDข.
EDITING IS PRIORITIZING
Editing is prioritizing. Often you will want to limit a list of ideas to 3. Three has a flow to it. And is about as much as any reader or listener can grasp at one sitting.
Finally you polish. Now you are reading for flow or musicality.You are cutting out superfluous ideas and words.
This is the long way to write.
THE SHORT WAY TO WRITE
The short way is to sift and prioritize all your notes in your mind ie you turn on your thinking tool. The key idea will pop into view, and hey presto, you begin writing about that one. You have a feeling for what comes next and what after that. You understand how to prioritize your ideas. Soon with a bit of jiggling ideas around the page, your story has a beginning, a middle and an end.
You can teach yourself the short way by writing the long way, again and again. Or by turning copy round in the middle of the night for an 07.00am deadline as I often had to do as a newspaper feature writer.
ขWhen we encounter a natural style, we are astonished and delighted: for we expected to see an author, and we find a man.ข Blaise Pascal. Quoted with thanks to John R. Trimble, Writing with Style published by Prentice Hall.
Do you have a robust marketing plan to execute against? How clear and persuasive is your website, brochure copy or direct mail? Call Neroli Lacey NOW to win more business TODAY.
CALL ++ 612. 215. 3826 NOW
or email: [email protected]

About The Author

Iกm Neroli Lacey of Beyond Communications Inc. in Minneapolis, MN. I’ve been helping executives transform their businesses and their lives with outstanding marketing materials since 1995. VISA, 3M and Perot Systems are some of my bigger clients. I have worked with clients in Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, Austin, Minneapolis, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin and Delhi. I used to be one of the top journalists in Britain writing for The Times, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, The Evening Standard, New Statesman, Vogue and Tatler.
Before newspapers I was an investment banker. I grew up in London, England, studying Latin with Greek at Bristol University.
Please visit my website: www.beyondcommunications.com

Or contact me at: [email protected]

6122153826

This article was posted on April 30, 2004

by Neroli Lacey

Media Training 101 The Secrets Of Writing A Goo

Media Training 101 The Secrets Of Writing A Good Press Release

by: Sandra Stammberger

Does the thought of trying to get publicity for your business seem like something that you can’t do yourself, and would have to hire a professional for? Do you think that writing a press release is totally outside your ability to do? Does the thought of talking to the media about your business make your mouth go dry and your stomach clench? If so, take heart, because you’re about to learn how you can take care of your own publicity, simply and easily.

Getting publicity for your business can seem like an impossible task something that only happens for กbigก companies that can afford to hire publicists.

The reality is, getting free publicity for your business isn’t that difficult. Welcome to กMedia Training 101 The Secrets of Writing a Good Press Releaseก. By the time you finish reading this article, youกll not only understand the basics, youกll know what goes into the process, and what you have to do to get started writing your own press release.

First of all, letกs go over some basic terminology you need to be familiar with.

Press Release: A statement with useful and relevant information that is written for distribution to the media.

Hook: The information or larger story that you can use to attach your press release to. Using the right กhookก in the right way can help you to get more publicity for your business.

Spin: Telling your story your way.

The good news about learning to write a Press Release is that there is an established format that you need to follow. And once youกve learned the basics, writing a press release is a kind of กcookie cutterก process. Here are some basic ideas to keep in mind:

Make your news กnewsworthyก. A press release is not a sales advertisement. A good press release answers all of the กWก questions (who, what, where, when and why), and sometimes กhow.ก Your purpose in writing it is twofold: to provide the media with useful and relevant information about your organization, product, service or event and to get your name out to your target market.

Begin with a strong headline. Your headline and first paragraph need to grab the reader’s attention. Without being flowery or overly dramatic, you have only the first few seconds to grab your reader’s attention and get them to read your story, and decide if it’s worth running. So don’t blow it by being vague or weak. The rest of your press release can give them the nittygritty details.

Tailor your story to your Primary audience – the media. Your secondary audience is your target market, but if the media doesn’t decide that your story is newsworthy and runs it, your potential customers will never know about it!

Pay attention to your writing. Sometimes, especially in rural areas and online, the media will run your press release in their publications with little or no modification, so make sure you’ve used your spelling and grammar check before sending it, and keep to the facts. Most of the time, journalists will use your press release as a stepping off place for a larger feature story, especially if you can show larger relevance to other current events. Always develop your story as you want to have it told – put YOUR spin on it. Even if your story is not reprinted verbatim, always remember what YOUR purpose is in writing it – to provide exposure for you, and to help brand you as an expert in your field.

Not everything is news. Just because you are excited that you made your first big sale, or started a new product line, or wrote your first article, doesn’t necessarily mean that the press are going to think you have a newsworthy story. From the time you start your first draft, keep your audience in mind. Who will find your story interesting? Why are they going to find it interesting? How is it relevant to something else that’s going on right now?

Identify a problem, and show how you’re solving it. Use real life examples about how your company or organization solved or is solving a problem. Give examples of how your service or product fulfills needs or satisfies desires. What benefits can be expected? Use real life examples to powerfully communicate the benefits of using your product or service.

Stick to the facts. Always. Tell. The. Truth. Avoid fluff, embellishments and exaggerations. It is part of a journalist’s job to be skeptical. If you want to use publicity effectively, then you’re not looking for a one night stand. You want to gain the trust of the media, establish your credibility, and build an ongoing relationship with your local media, so that you become a resource for them within your industry.

Find your ขhookข. Try to make your press release timely. Keep informed about what’s going on in your community, in your state, region, the country or the world. Is there a local, regional or national news story that somehow ties in to your industry or your business? If you can hook your press release to current events or social issues, you increase your chances of having it picked up. If not, then make sure your story is relevant to the needs, wants or problems of your community or target audience.

Use an active, not passive, voice. Use strong verbs that will bring your press release to life. If there is controversy, describe it. There is an old adage in the news business: ขIf it cries it flies, and if it bleeds, it leads.ข (Not very nice, but it’s often true.) So, while you may not be crying or bleeding, make what you’re writing about stand out. Use active verbs. Write ขpartneredข rather than กentered into a partnershipก or ขengagedข rather than ขinterestedข, etc. Writing in this manner will help guarantee that your press release will be read.

Use only enough words to tell your story. Avoid using unnecessary adjectives, flowery language, or redundant expressions such as กadded bonusก or กfirst time everก. Paint a strong, vivid picture in the minds of your audience by making each word count.

Use jargon sparingly. There are times that some jargon is required if your goal is to optimize your news release for online search engines, but whenever possible, speak plainly, using everyday language. Avoid words like กcapacity planning techniquesก and กextrapolateข.

Avoid hype. The exclamation point (!) is your enemy. You will destroy your credibility by using hype. If you must use an exclamation point, use one. Never do this!!!!!!!!!!

Get Permission. Most people and companies are very protective about their reputations. Be sure that you have written permission before including information or quotes from employees or affiliates of other companies or organizations. If there is a hint of a dispute in this area, chances are your press release will be tossed aside, and never used. And you will lose your credibility.

If you follow those simple rules, youกll be able to put together a newsworthy story that will help you achieve your goals of getting the word out about your business.

About The Author

Sandra Stammberger is the owner of Insider Scripts. At Insider Script’s programmers are working around the clock to develop affordable, powerful money making scripts that will help you drive traffic to your business. http://www.insiderscripts.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 26

by Sandra Stammberger

Writing Articles Two Aspects Of The Surge

Writing Articles Two Aspects Of The Surge

by: Elaine Currie

Writing articles for publication on the Internet is, at the time I write this, every Internet marketerกs favourite way to get free publicity for his website. If you are an Internet marketer and haven’t heard the buzz thatกs going around about writing articles, where have you been? No, forget I asked, there can’t be a single Internet marketer hasn’t heard that writing articles is an essential part of website promotion.

Suddenly everyone wants to be writing articles. Hundreds of wannabe authors are writing articles and flooding the article directories with items they have specially written for publicity purposes. Many Internet marketers are writing articles to a high standard but there are plenty of others who are churning out poorly written articles or ones that are no more than thinly disguised advertisements for their affiliate programme. I recently saw an article that claimed to be original but where the กauthorก had taken someone elseกs article and added a paragraph or two before putting his own copyright on it. It got published with the result that there are additional links back to his website and thatกs all he cares about. Prosecution for copyright infringement is unlikely as this article will quickly get lost in the growing crowd.

All sorts of liberties are being taken in the name of writing articles, but does it matter? I am sorry to say the answer is no: as far as writing articles is concerned, anything goes. If you are writing articles to advertise your website, you can get away with poor spelling, bad grammar and boring subject matter. You can get away with plagiarism and even with cheating by having a robot writing articles for you. About the only thing you are not allowed to do when writing articles is use obscenities or incite people to violence. The torture of the English language is, however, widely condoned.

This situation makes me sad because I love reading and I just can’t help writing. I am not alone in writing articles because of an inner compulsion. If you have read John Colanziกs article, My Magnificent Obsession, where he says, กIt didn’t matter who read my writings. I was doing it for me. I had to keep writingก, you will realise that I am not the only writing junkie on the Internet. If you have never read this article, you can find it at my website; John Colanzi is one of my favourite Internet writers (one reason for this being that he is does not take himself too seriously).

The idea of writing articles for the sole purpose of advertising depresses me, it makes me feel that writing is being devalued. Please don’t think Iกm saying the fact that I can’t help writing articles makes me superior, I don’t feel that way at all. Being a word addict is no more a matter of talent or education than being a drug addict or an alcoholic. An Internet marketer who is writing articles with his mind more on his resource box than his topic has just as much right to have his work published as anyone else. What I am saying is that this great stampede to be writing articles is causing our standards to be lowered so that we now accept spelling and grammatical errors as the norm and cheating at writing articles as acceptable business practice. Our unresisting acceptance of the lowest common denominator as our benchmark is the aspect of the writing articles craze that I detest.

This lowering of standards in regard to writing articles does, however, have a positive effect in that a level playing field is being established for Internet marketers who are writing articles for publication. Lack of writing skills or the fact that English is not their first language need no longer deter Internet marketers from writing articles. If the current craze continues perhaps the article writing practise will result in an improvement to writing skills which would not otherwise have happened. Maybe writing articles will turn out to be the antidote to txt type spelling and that is definitely a good thing.

When writing articles offline, the authorกs intention will be to communicate with potential readers but when writing articles for the Internet, the authorกs aim is to attract the attention of the search engines. Writing articles for Internet publicity purposes is tackled in an entirely different way from writing articles for offline use. When you are writing articles for the Internet, the most important thing is to include hot keywords in your article. The best way to start is to identify a popular keyword or two and build an article around them. As long as you choose your keywords wisely and repeat them frequently enough, the quality of the prose surrounding them is of little importance. Writing articles for Internet publicity is more of a mathematical exercise than anything to do with language skills. This is not as strange as it might at first seem: after all, Googlebot is a robot, not a literary critic.

Copyright 2005 Elaine Currie

About The Author

Elaine Currie publishes articles at her Plugin Profit Site at: http://www.huntingvenus.com/plugin_profit_site.htm

This article was posted on August 04

by Elaine Currie