A recent survey showed that more than eighty percent of Americans want to write a book. This extraordinary statistic is somewhat puzzling considering that the National Endowment for the Arts estimates that only fifty-seven percent of Americans have read even 1 book in the last twelve months!

What is it that makes people — even non-readers — want to put pen to paper?

Perhaps it’s the desire for fame and fortune, the need to earn the respect of others, or maybe it’s just the wish to leave some mark on the future, a permanent record of a life lived.

Whatever the reason, for those who actually complete a manuscript, the odds of seeing it published by a reputable firm are slim.

For the estimated 2 million manuscripts currently completed, there are only 64,000 publishers of record, and only a fraction of those are actively seeking new manuscripts.

So what are the millions of hopeful authors to do?

Well, the first step would be to ensure their manuscripts are the best they can be. This can be done by re-writing, editing, proofreading by an outside firm or even by a well-read and literate friend.

Even then, most of those two million books stand no chance of being accepted by a traditional publisher. Those authors that do make the cut are not necessarily the best writers, but rather are those who can sell themselves and their stories most convincingly.

Some authors, after rejections from the trade, will find themselves victims of vanity publishers, who take advantage of the hopes and aspirations of writers to extract an exorbitant fee to ‘publish’ their book.

Luckier will be the writers who publish through firms like iUniverse and Lulu, for although their books will likely never see wide distribution, at least their losses will be minimal.

And finally there are the select few who decide to become publishers themselves, even if it is only to self-publish their own book.

These publishers will find great obstacles, and a great deal of work in this route, but the challenge and reward of having one’s success or failure entirely in one’s own hands is a powerful feeling.

Whether they choose to publish electronically, or use short run printing service like Lightning Print, or even to go full boar with a print run of 1,000 or more, their success depends on how well they sell themselves and their story to others.

And so, if you are about to embark on a new manuscript, educate yourself thoroughly about the industry, its scams, and potential pitfalls. And more importantly, learn to market yourself well, for this, more than any other skill, is the determining factor in your success or failure.

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake UpLive the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

Getting Published is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com

Writing is not really an art. It is a craft, and crafts can be learned. Here are four techniques you can use to immediately improve the quality of any writing you do, from business letters to web site articles:

1. After you run your spell checking software, go back and reread your writing. Very few people are good spellers, which is why spell checking software became popular years ago. Unfortunately, reliance on the software leads to silly errors. For example, the words “form” and “from” are both good, legitimate words. But if you wrote a business letter that said, “We will be taking $200 form your checking account to cover the payment,” would your spell check software catch the error? Yet a simple typo changed “from your checking account” to the silly “form your checking account. Spell checkers are a convenience, but they are neither authoritative nor infallible. Always read through your writing at least once after you spell check — and keep a dictionary handy.

2. Use that famous “KISS” principle for your punctuation. You know the rule, don’t you? “Keep It Simple, Stupid” is the rule regarding punctuation. If you don’t know how or when to use a semicolon, then avoid semicolons; you’ll only display ignorance if you get it wrong. In keeping with that KISS principle, limit your use of commas. Far too many people use far too many commas. Just because a sentence is long does not mean it needs a comma. Well-placed commas make reading easier and are appropriate. Commas thrown in simply to break up the words are incorrect and distracting. Another important rule of punctuation is to avoid using exclamation marks almost always. If your choice of words, sentence structure, and overall prose don’t convey the sense of excitement you are seeking, an exclamation mark won’t do it. If your writing conveys your sense of excitement, an exclamation point is, well, pointless.

3. Make sure your writing is grammatically correct. You don’t have to be an English teacher to get the grammar correct. You simply need to learn the basics — verbs and subjects agree in number, for example. That is, “he was” is correct; “they were” is correct. To say “they was” is incorrect. If you aren’t sure about using grammar, especially if English isn’t your “first” language, go to some good reference sites for fundamental English grammar and usage. (If you are writing in another language, the same advice holds true for that language.) Invest in a good, basic grammar book or style manual. Check with any bookstore, online or offline, and you can find one.

4. When you finish some writing, put it aside for a couple of hours or days (if possible), then reread it before you let go of it. Of course, if you’re writing or dictating a business letter or other “time sensitive” document, this may not be possible. If you set your article or story aside for even a day, then reread it, you may be surprised at glaring errors or significant changes you will want to make. And you thought before that it was finished. Many writers and teachers have commented that all true writing is done in the rewriting. Take that advice to heart and you will significantly improve your writing.

These four steps, rechecking your spelling, taking care with punctuation, watching for fundamental grammar errors, and rewriting, will improve your writing. They are proven tools used by every word craftsman.

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake UpLive the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

Four Ways to Immediately Improve the Quality of Your Writing is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com

People love to learn about other people, and interviews are an effective way to accomplish that learning. Successful interviewing is not simple, but there are basic steps you can take to make sure your interviews are successful and that you come up with interesting, useful information about those you interview. Here are five such basic steps, whether you are doing an in-person interview or a remote interview by telephone or email:

1. Prepare as Much as You Can in Advance. This should be obvious, but often it isn’t. You should go into the interview knowing as much as you can about the person you are interviewing. Especially, you should know what their likes and dislikes are, what may especially anger or irritate them, and what your audience most wants to know about them. You use this information as a tool to shape the content and flow of the interview. Depending on the type of interview and the preparation time you have, of course, your advanced preparation may be limited. Do the best you can.

2. Establish Rapport With Your Subject. Try, if possible, to meet with your subject prior to the actual interview and show them you are friendly and that you are genuinely interested in them. Part of this step involves putting your subject at ease about the physical layout and surroundings of the interview, i.e., where you will sit or stand, where they will sit or stand. If you are planning to tape or videotape the interview, try to make your subject familiar and at ease with the technology you are using.

3. Control the Flow of the Interview. You are the one doing the interview and you need to move through it using the questions and very brief comments you have prepared ahead of time. Don’t let the subject feel they are going to control the interview with a personal agenda when you have objectives you need to accomplish. (Look again at Step 1.) At the same time, be alert for unforeseen or unplanned information that may come up during the interview. Don’t miss out on something good because it may be unexpected. Be in control, but be prepared to “go with the flow” if the flow looks good. Your goal is to part with the subject knowing you got what you needed, and to appreciate any bonus that come along.

4. Part on the Friendliest Possible Terms. Make an effort to be courteous and express appreciation for the interview. This will leave the door open for any follow-ups, as well as create good networking opportunities for additional interviews with people your subject might know. Never kill a potential future lead with a bad attitude or ingratitude. Always try to end the interview on good terms.

5. Get All the Spelling Right. Yes, you read that correctly. It is amazing the number of common words and “obvious” names that can be misspelled when you write up the interview. If your subject is well known, this might not be much of an issue. But even well known people have lesser known friends and family members. Don’t let spelling those names trip you up. How do you get the names spelled correctly? You ask, of course. Even “famous” people appreciate the professionalism and concern you show by asking to get the spellings correct. Don’t let inattention to spelling details ruin your good work.

Successful interviewing and interviews may not be simple, but can be fun. With a little care and attention to these five basic steps, interviews can be well done and professional. Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake UpLive the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

Five Basic Steps to a Successful Interview is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com

It seems it would be a snap to write a short article of five hundred to a thousand words. After all, you’re knowledgeable in many subjects, you’re intelligent and you’re a talented writer who enjoys writing. So why do you face that dreaded writer’s block when you sit down at the keyboard?

Most daunting, perhaps, is finding a topic to write about. You’ve already written articles about all the subjects you know best, often two or three times from different angles, and you can’t use any of those subjects again. The deadline is tomorrow.

You’re good at research, so that’s not the problem. Usually the Muse is with you once you get going, so that’s not it either. All you need is a new topic for your next article, and you’ll be able to knock out a good one. How do you come up with a new subject?

It’s best to let the topic come to you, to strike you in the head, if you will. In order to do this successfully, you can’t be thinking about it too hard. That’s certainly paradoxical!

One great way to come up with topics is the somewhat old fashioned process of reading the newspaper. Read all the sections. More often than not, there is some story that grabs your interest about some subject you’ve never heard of before or about one that has been scratching at the back of your consciousness for a few weeks. Often the newspaper article will provide all the facts you need to pop out an entire article of your own. If not, it doesn’t take long to do a little research in Google to get the missing pieces.

Another way to find new topics is to read magazines and books for pleasure and cash in on the ideas that strike you while reading that remind you of other things. Your mind makes associations and sees things in new ways when it’s relaxed by reading.

You can also observe products while food shopping. There are always plenty of items for sale you’ve never noticed before, and some of them are fads. Fads are good to write about because they tie into the current collective consciousness of society and therefore people are interested in reading about them.

It’s good to let your mind wander. This is how different ideas that are floating around a bit aimlessly in your consciousness can suddenly juxtapose themselves atop one another in a new way.

Sometimes by purposefully pursuing this mind wandering, you can come up with several topics you’ve never thought of writing about before. You find yourself enthusiastic about writing your new article and effortlessly pop it out and a few more. You may even end up with a list of new topics that will keep you busy for a few weeks!

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake UpLive the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

Finding Great Topics to Write About is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com

Credible writing starts with sound research. Then use your own experience to develop your material and you will write more authentically.

1. Define your reasons for writing Who is your targeted reader? Where – and why – is he likely to meet problems? How much does he already know? What special knowledge do you have that can help him? What else do you need to find out? You cannot help your reader if you do not gain his respect.

2. Plan your methods of research Revisit some of your favorite manuals or textbooks to refresh the basics. Read through recently published articles on your subject. You want your own article to be current. When searching the web for background material, include the word “problems” along with the name or description of the object of your piece (e.g. “XYZ Ion Regenerator problems”). That will get you into company-sponsored user forums where you can discuss what problems real people are concerned with today. Be prepared to sift through a volume of conflicting advice; here is where experience is absolutely necessary. Never try to wing it. If you have never actually used the XYZ Ion Regenerator, it would be too easy to misunderstand the subtleties, obscurities and downright misinformation common to open technical forums. That would surely destroy your credibility.

3. Write from personal experience Include problems that you have faced, and solutions that you have found; that establish your credibility at once. Real knowledge gained from experience zings with authority. Respect the semantic link between author and authority. As an example, anyone could slap together a fair article on dog training. With 40 million web sites about this one subject, all you would have to do is skim through a few of them and cherry pick some thoughts. But if you are unable to structure your article around real anecdotes concerning dogs you have trained, your words will ring hollow.

4. Work experience as valid research “Write what you know.” Old advice that is equally valid for writers of all genres. Base your writing on what you actually know and back it up with fresh research. For instance, have you ever worked as a dishwasher? Good, then you should realize the difference between washing dishes in a restaurant and doing so in a cafeteria. In a cafeteria, the panic is always over flatware when people are pressing into line for a quick lunch and can’t find any clean forks. (For some reason, the stainless steel seems to get dumped into the garbage along with the leftovers. Garbage cans in cafeterias now have magnets to prevent this.) In a restaurant, on the other hand, the endless mountains of pots and pans from preparing many individual meals simultaneously are what kill dishwashers. (Not all cooks are quick to get their used cookware back to the scullery, causing recurring crises as the dishwasher struggles with waves of encrusted pots.) Once you have this authentic background, can you find something useful there? Does it suggest an article about laborsaving practices, or a short story about personality clashes behind those kitchen doors? As a babysitter, you might develop a great article about how to put children at ease before their parents leave. Or, while reading aloud to the kids, you notice which stories they demand again and again. There is your research! Now make up some stories of your own. Test them on your charges; which ones do they keep asking for? You are now fine-tuning your first children’s book.

Write from the strength of personal experience fortified by solid research. Sound research is its own reward; it leads you to what you need to write. Experience suggests how to structure your writing for credibility.

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake UpLive the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

Experience + Research = Credible Writing is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com

Before writing an article, have you ever felt overwhelmed by a blank sensation, not knowing where to start?

…I’ll bet you have!

This checklist should help you eliminate some common problems in writing articles:

1. Have a specific purpose in mind. Always have a specific purpose in mind before you begin writing: you should be crystal clear about what are you hoping to accomplish by writing your article. Is it an article clarifying an issue for your customers, to attract prospects, to improve the link popularity for your website?

2. Know your target population. Before writing an article, conduct research on the target population. What are their experience, their interest, and their wants in the chosen topic? What pain or problem do they try to avoid?

3. Develop a detailed outline first, stressing on the benefits. Now that you have a purpose and a target, organize your article so that scanning it quickly will show immediately to your reader how he will benefit from it and what are the most important points.

4. Stop your reader in his tracks with your title. Your title should grab the reader’s attention and ‘force’ him to read your first paragraph. Using your most important benefit usually does it.

5. Start your article with the most important information Again, do not keep your most important information for the conclusion! Give it immediately and develop on it in the following paragraphs.

6. Keep jargon to a minimum. If possible, avoid jargon as well as prejudices and insinuations. Write your article so that even a child can understand it.

7. Make your article warm and personal. Speak direct to the reader. Use a lot of ‘you’. Reading your article, the reader should feel warmth and empathy, knowing that you have the same problems and goals than him.

8. Keep sentences short and simple. Using short and simple sentences will allow a fluid and easy reading, preventing your reader to get bored.

9. Have someone from the target population critique your article. Who can give you a better feedback than someone from your target population? It will help you

10. Spend more time rewriting than writing. Besides formatting your article for easy reading and nice presentation, be sure to use tools or an external editor to carefully proofread your writing for grammatical and spelling errors.

Remember that the more writing you do, the better you will get. After sometimes, when you are in the habit of writing, article writing will not seem as difficult as now!

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake UpLive the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

Checklist For Writing Effective Articles is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com

Basically, an article is a body of text that imparts information. Whether this is done in a scientific language, with an informal voice or in a more serious manner, is usually decided by the subject and type of article, and to whom it is aimed.

A scientific or medical article aimed at professionals will use the first example, i.e. scientific language. The same article aimed at the general population must be written in layman’s language that everyone can understand. An article written on a serious subject should have a similar tone of writing, while something aimed at teens or young adults about entertainment, clothing or sport eg, will take on a bright and more breezy note.

To get a human face on the issue being discussed in an article, many editors require two anecdotal pieces to be included. These will come from interviews with people who have first hand experience of the topic. In an article about home-schooling for instance, you can interview people whose children are home schooled. If you don’t know of anyone, support organizations can help by supplying names and phone numbers. They are willing to do this because your article will help to spread the word about their work.

An article usually has five sections:

Headline – Yes, this is important, as it will inform the reader what the article is about. If it is catchy, or has a hook of some kind, so much the better. The reader will be curious to find out what it is all about and read on. Look through a paper or magazine and note some of the headlines.

Introduction – One paragraph is usually enough for the introduction. It should build on the headline and explain the content of the article without giving it all away.

Main body – This will contain all information that is required about the topic along with anecdotes if any.

Conclusion – The conclusion need only be one or two paragraphs to sum up and round off the information presented. In the case of how-to articles, it should give the reader a pat on the back for all the hard work that has been done and point out the benefits. Eg, “Now you have the most unique gizmo on the block and your friends will be envious.”

Bibliography – This is not always necessary. Some editors like to see a list of your information sources, but don’t necessarily publish them. A longer article that contains specific important information on say, health issues or scientific topics may require a bibliography.

The how-to article is a little different than other types of articles. It should be written in imperative voice, eg, “Grasp the leaf and pull down.” Not, “You should grasp the leaf and pull down.” Warning on safety, if necessary, should be presented early in the body of the text and unusual terms and names explained clearly. Let the reader know what the project entails in the introduction – they might not want to paint 200 copies of that flower after all. A list of tools and materials will be required, but it is a good idea to leave writing this list until the last, even though it should appear at the beginning. This is so no mistake can be made in the type of tools and materials used.

In general, the how-to article will be written in steps. It is important that these appear in the proper order of doing, so the reader will not be confused. Do a quick summary of what the project should look like at various stages so the reader will know whether the job is going right. Visualize each step carefully as you write. The how-to article is one of the easiest types of articles to write. If sketches are required and you cannot supply them, just do a rough job to give the general idea. Magazines usually have their own artists who will work from what you supply.

Articles about VIP’s have been done to “death”, so try and find an unusual angle to slant the information from. One writer who had tried to interview a celebrity, but failed due to the man’s ’sniffles’, still wrote the article, but based it on his failure. Another wrote about a golfing personality and interspersed the article with golfing jokes. Editors and readers alike love a touch of humor.

One of the easiest articles to write is the “10 tips to a great (whatever)” type. The ten tips form the body of course, while the introduction explains why you need this information. The brief summary recaps the information and gives a call to action, eg, “Now you know the best way to catch that fish, go out there and do it.”

You should always keep the ‘writer’s voice’ out of your articles. People want to know what’s in it for them, not why you thought you should write it, or how you got the idea for it. And if you are writing about a topic that is so unusual that few people know about it, try to use an analogy that is familiar to them. In general, you don’t need hooks or gimmicks to start an article, simply find the point where the useful information starts and go from there.

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake UpLive the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

Article Writing Styles Explained is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com

Article marketing is a professional way to increase your profits with very little effort! You put some 400 to 800 words on paper, submit to several sites and that’s it. Well, almost.

Your article needs to relate to a subject people are looking for information about. Some one wants to know how to take care of their animals (care, training, etc.); or maybe they want information on building a simple bookcase; or the basics on choosing a car; or…

Writing on a subject you know is the usual way to go about producing an article but with the advent of the Internet we can write on any subject of interest to us, whether we have full knowledge of the subject or not. Why? Because today we have the ability to fully research any subject through the Internet, put that information into our own words and publish that information.

For instance, one fellow bought a 1969 Roadrunner muscle car – a real wreck! With his knowledge about this, and other cars, he fully restored the car to prize-winning condition. He knows where every nut, bolt and screw goes. His knowledge can be turned into articles that help others.

Putting something of yourself into your article is a great way to get people interested in you and your subject. Not your life story just something simple, maybe an anecdote on something that happened to you. Remember; always be honest with your readers. You are creating a picture with your words, not just of your subject but also of you.

Just put the information down on paper – or word processor. Don’t worry about the grammar or sentence structure, or anything else. Make the article somewhat light – but informative, as you want your readers to follow up by going to your site for more information. Once you have the words on paper then you can go back and rewrite to make corrections and polish the article. Spend time on this aspect – this tells your readers something about you.

Now, admittedly that writing is hard for a lot of us. Using an outline can be one of the easiest ways to put an article together. Whatever you are producing will practically write itself with the use of an outline.

Having said that, it is a good feeling when you put your words to paper and know that others are interested in what you have to say. You and your information are valuable because no one in the world has your exact viewpoint on the subjects that interest you – because no one has your exact experiences!

Once an article has been completed, you submit it to sites that specialize in free content. In turn, others that have an interest in your particular subject pick up your article and the article gets passed around the web. It becomes – very Viral!

How does this help you? Well, at the bottom of your article is a little box called a resource box. This little box has a small bio on you with a website link. It contains your name, who you are and a link to the website you want people to visit.

A link which takes your readers where ever you want them to go: a website with information you are providing such as books, ebooks, manuals, services you provide, etc.

Just go for it – start researching your subjects and writing, putting information into words that have meaning to you and your readers and – PUBLISH!

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake UpLive the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

Article Marketing = Profits is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com

Who couldn’t use some great ad copy tips once in awhile?! Here are secrets shared by ad pros to use in your promotions online and off.

1. DIGITAL IMAGES – Add images with your ad copy. Rule of thumb here is NOT “the more the merrier.” So choose one or two of your best images. Don’t have a camera or not great with it yet? Don’t worry. Surf the Internet or check software packages for images that grant you permission for use. Simply type “free images to use” into your favorite search engine. Or check places like Amazon.com or Ebay.com for affordable image packages that fit your industry needs.

2. PRICE – List your price and don’t irritate people by playing games and hiding it or leaving it out. People are bombarded with sales commercials, postal mail, email, radio and television ads, etc. They don’t and won’t waste time on hunting for your price. Plus whenever you offer rewards or free bonus items in your ad copy, make sure to include the dollar value beside each so that people know they’re getting a god deal and your package holds more value overall.

3. TESTIMONIALS – Continually gather testimonials of all lengths from your clients and sprinkle them throughout your ad copy. Group some inside a yellow or blue (or other color that coordinates with your marketing piece) box. List some in individual boxes along with a photo of the person sharing comments and his or her company name to add credibility. No need to be book-length comments, either. “Those 1-liners stand out and pull readers!” 4. HAND WRITTEN NOTE – Include a hand written notation or actual letter with your ad copy. Write the note on the edge of the ad so that it stands out, or write it on a small different colored sheet of paper. For online use, scan it and publish it on the web page or visit your favorite search engine and find a third party solution under “website handwritten notes” for companies like 3M Worldwide at www.3m.com . The addition of a personal touch can always help increase sales. Note: If your handwriting is difficult to decipher, maybe ask a friend or colleague to re-write your copy first before it going to press.

When you’re finished, with your ad copy, go back and check for areas of improvement. Even tiny changes can make hug differences in response rates. So go take a peek!

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake UpLive the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

Ad Copy Secrets is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com

What percentage of prospects come your way as a result of your ad copy? What percentage of sales do you close because of your ads? Well, increase both percentages with some of our tips, tailored to your own ad campaigns.

1. ERRORS – It’s tough to have 100 percent perfect ad copy. Nearly impossible! So tell your readers that whoever spots five errors in your ad copy due to grammar issues or misspelled words, wins a reward. This way your readers will not only be reading your copy longer, increasing the likelihood of purchasing awhile they’re at it, you’ll get editing done at no charge for your revised printing or online publication.

2. YES – Lead your readers to the conclusion you want; that is to say, “Yes” to your offer, by asking them several yes and no questions in your ad copy that have affirmative answers. Have the questions be based on the main offer and focus on what will happen if they do not buy. But don’t set a negative tone by having them reply “No.” Or by the time they’re through reading, they might say, “No” to you!

3. CHARITY – Tie in a percentage of your sales with one of your favorite charities. And make mention of this in your ad copy. This is a win-win strategy because your company gives back to society plus your clients read about it; it improves your image in their eyes and shares your concerns. And they give, too. Everyone helps each other.

4. GUARANTEE – Include a good, solid guarantee in your offer. For examples, look at the last thing you purchased and check out the guarantee. In a nutshell, make it a lifetime offer and / or give them back MORE than they gave you.

5. PS – Since most people look for this feature, add it! Say something in your P.S. – like give them a Bonus offer if they reply by a certain deadline. Or focus on your best reason why the reader should buy – and NOW.

6. CONTACT – Do include complete contact information – that works! Test any email addresses and telephone numbers before going to press

So next time you need to ace your ad copy, go back over what you wrote and tweak it here and there for improvements. Better yet, have a contest and invite your readers to do it for you! How’s that for a win-win solution?!

Steven E enables authors to gain instant credibility with his marketing appeal. Steven E gives authors the ability to market to an audience they may not be able to reach on their own. Steven E is looking for all different types of authors right now. Becoming a best seller is now in reach with Steven E. Authors need not look any further than here to begin the process of becoming a best seller. Steven E wants to help propel your name as an author and to make your name known.

Ace Your Ad Copy is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com

With a little effort and a sound, reusable structure, you can write articles to draw traffic to your website, ad copy to sell your products, and generally enhance your presence on the Internet. With these methods, you will gain the attention of those all-important search engines and get your products and ideas seen.

There is no mystery about the basic structure for writing website articles. Each article should have a beginning, or lead, middle, or content section, and an ending, or conclusion. Not that difficult, is it?

The extra ingredient you want for website articles or ad copy that will draw traffic is this: targeted keywords or phrases. Don’t be frightened by the idea of writing an article structured around keywords. It is much easier than it sounds. If you have researched a keyword(s) you want to get traffic for in the search engines, a good rule of thumb would be this: Use your keyword(s) once in the title, once in the beginning or lead, once in each paragraph of the article content, and once in the conclusion.

If you can use this basic structure — keyword(s) rich title, lead, content, and conclusion — you will find it easy to write content that will draw search engines to your website.

Take this sure-fire structure and combine it with a bit of research on the Internet or better yet in a nearby library.

Libraries are your “secret weapon” to find material for your sure-fire article structure. Here is the “offline” advantage — if people are writing articles targeting the keywords “electronic dog fences,” for example, by researching the Internet, they are bound to be seeing similar articles. This may not lead you to duplicate their content, but it certainly won’t help. If you go to a local library and find some magazines or newspaper articles about “electronic dog fences,” you’ll be ahead of the competition.

Use that research material with your keyword(s) and write something in the range of 300-500 words and you have your article. Don’t be frightened at the idea of writing 300-500 words. Think of it this way: One double-spaced page printed out with one-inch margins all around holds about 200-250 words. If you’ve read a few articles and taken notes, you probably have more than enough ideas and information for two double-spaced printed pages.

Using the above example “electronic dog fences,” you might try the title: “Four Ways Electronic Dog Fences Enhance Your Pet’s Life.” That isn’t the snappiest title you could find, but it does tell someone and the search engines what the article is about — while using the keywords “electronic dog fences.”

Then take the research you have done and come up with four major benefits for dogs and their owners related to electronic dog fences. Your lead might be something like: “Electronic dog fences not only make happy neighbors, they can make life better for your pet, too.”

Use each of the “four ways” you mentioned in the title as a section for your article. If you want a short article, make a paragraph for each of the “four ways,” a longer article may require two or three paragraphs about each of the “four ways.”

When you reach the conclusion, you want to do two things: Try to summarize the lead or title in the conclusion by using the “electronic dog fences” keyword(s) again, and quit.

Use this sure-fire structure and you’ll find you can build successful, keyword-rich articles for your website — even if you don’t think of yourself as a writer!

Steven E enables authors to gain instant credibility with his marketing appeal. Steven E gives authors the ability to market to an audience they may not be able to reach on their own. Steven E is looking for all different types of authors right now. Becoming a best seller is now in reach with Steven E. Authors need not look any further than here to begin the process of becoming a best seller. Steven E wants to help propel your name as an author and to make your name known.

Writing Articles for Your Website is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com

Steven E enables authors to gain instant credibility with his marketing appeal. Steven E gives authors the ability to market to an audience they may not be able to reach on their own. Steven E is looking for all different types of authors right now. Becoming a best seller is now in reach with Steven E. Authors need not look any further than here to begin the process of becoming a best seller. Steven E wants to help propel your name as an author and to make your name known.

1) Remove your limits

Reduce your subject to a single core word and then brainstorm around it. For example, if you’re trying to write about “Study Skills”, expand your thinking to “School”. Now jot down everything that comes to mind when you think about School, and when you run out of ideas start asking yourself open questions around the subject and noting your answers.

Examples:

What did I enjoy about school? What scared me? What did I wish I’d known from Day 1?

This will help you get back into the mindset of someone struggling with school issues of all kinds and you’ll start to get a feel for their concerns and worries.

2) Restore your focus

Once you’ve started to understand the general feelings of your readers, allow your mind to focus back on your original topic of Study Skills. From your new perspective, what questions would you ask? What would you want to know? Is this really a “Studying” issue or is it more about Time Management or being able to work without distractions or being paralyzed by the fear of not doing well?

3) Be your audience

Write each question on a separate sheet of paper; don’t stop until you have at least ten and preferably more. Stay in the mindset of your readers until you feel you’ve asked every major question that concerns them.

4) Take a step back

Put your pile of question aside for a few hours, overnight if possible. Don’t consciously think about them; just go about your day as usual. Give your subconscious time to process them without any further prompting from you. If new questions come to mind jot them down somewhere safe and then forget about them.

5) Get out your pen and write

When you’re ready, sit down with your pages of questions and simply start to answer them. Writing your answers by hand can give you access to ideas that might be missed if you type them. Don’t edit yourself at this stage. Using Speech to Text software or a digital recorder can also be helpful in bypassing the internal editor.

Imagine someone sitting in front of you asking for advice and just talk to them. Keep your tone natural and conversational and stay with the question-and-answer format.

6) Edit lightly

Trust your first instincts. Proof-read and correct any obvious errors, but don’t do any major editing until your piece has had time to “sit” for a while. Again, leaving it overnight will give you a fresh perspective the next time you look at it, but even if your deadline doesn’t allow for that it’s important to give yourself a break from it.

When you’re pushed for time, writing several articles at one sitting can create enough change of focus to make you “forget” the one you’ve just written.

7) Polish it up

Short articles are unlikely to need major editing if you’ve written them as described here. They will flow easily and naturally already and having each Q & A on a separate sheet makes it easier to select only the ones you want. Your job now is to put them in a reasonably logical sequence and make sure they’re understandable and that the reader is led smoothly from one question and answer to the next.

Top and tail it

Write a brief introductory paragraph as a “teaser” for the main article. Many article directories now put the first paragraph of each piece into RSS feeds which are picked up by other websites, so you’ll want to make sure that your two or three major keywords appear at least once in that first paragraph.

Write another short paragraph to summarize the major points of the article and provide some ideas for the reader to explore the subject further. Don’t of course forget your own resource box at the end of the article.

9) Submit it!

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake UpLive the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

9 Steps to Unique Articles! is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com

Steven E enables authors to gain instant credibility with his marketing appeal. Steven E gives authors the ability to market to an audience they may not be able to reach on their own. Steven E is looking for all different types of authors right now.

Becoming a best seller is now in reach with Steven E. Authors need not look any further than here to begin the process of becoming a best seller. Steven E wants to help propel your name as an author and to make your name known.

This article is based on the assumption that you are using a word processing program of some kind in a Windows environment. If you are not using a word processor, the principles will still apply, but they must be implemented manually.

Writing and editing are two totally different tasks. Writing is a creative process, whether the work is fiction or non-fiction. Editing is a critical process. If writers attempt to edit as they write, their creative ability is inhibited. Because each task demands a very specific focus each must be handled separately. Editing should not start until the writing task is completed.

When editing your own work, your eye and mind tend to either fill in, or correct, many errors and, as a result, they are left uncorrected in the manuscript. In order to avoid this, it helps to break any patterns used in creating the original work. If at all possible, the work to be edited should be allowed to “cool off” in a file or desk drawer for a while. The purpose of this is to break the connection between the work and the writers’ remembrance of the exact words and phrasing used. An additional technique used for breaking this connection is to reformat the work. This can be done by changing the margins, font face and font size, line spacing, etc. This should be an easy task for any word processor.

When saving your work as you edit, the product of each editing session should be saved with a different name. If your original work was called “manuscript.doc,” your first save should be called “manuscript1.doc.” This means you will always be able to go back and check your original page setup.

If the task of editing is broken down into four (4) steps it becomes less of an onerous task and the result is a much more thorough job.

Step 1:

Run your spell checker without the grammar checker. This seems like the most obvious step however the spell checker can only do part of the job. It will check every word against an internal dictionary and highlight or underline in red, those words that it doesn’t find in its dictionary. That means that if you spelled the word “too” and meant to use the world “to” your spell checker will accept either because they are both correct as far as it is concerned.

Spell checkers are normally set to NOT CHECK capitalized words or names, or words with numbers. Ignore these names on your first pass and just correct any misspelled words brought up by the spell checker.

On a second pass with the spell checker, not only verify the spelling of the proper nouns, but also make a note of the correct spelling on a separate piece of paper or in another program. The easiest way to do this is to boot up a text program and multi-task – switching between your manuscript and the text program. This will enable you to quickly verify the spelling of a proper noun throughout your work.

Step 2:

Run the grammar checker. Almost every word processing program has the ability to check grammar and will allow the user to establish both the type of work to be checked along with the specific grammar rules that are to be used during the check. You can set these parameters to fit your need, but remember that your writing style is most important. Don’t let the grammar-check program dictate what your style should be. As you go through your manuscript, make those changes, which are obvious problems, such as punctuation, run-on sentences, subject and verb agreement, etc. Don’t change your writing style to fit the grammar-checker.

Step 3:

If your manuscript includes dialog, it should be checked for problems with syntax and general usage. The best way to do this is to have someone else read the dialog, out loud, with no voice inflection. Your ear will uncover problems with dialog better than your eye. If you don’t have someone else to work with, you will do almost as well by reading the dialog out loud and recording it on some kind of recording device. When you play the dialog back, you will discover problems that your eyes overlooked.

In reviewing writing where there is no dialog, check each paragraph for focus. Is it lean and direct, or are there words that can be removed that will provide a clearer structure? Since this type of problem involves a broader discourse on writing techniques, we can only refer you to the vast number of books on writing that are available for almost every writing project.

Step 4:

Check the overall appearance of your work for uniformity. Have you used the same font face and point size throughout? Is the first line of each paragraph indented the same number of spaces? Is your line spacing consistent? Are your margins consistent? On of the beauties of a good word processor is that once you establish the rules for “page setup” and a “normal” paragraph, and use them throughout your work, you can change the appearance of your entire manuscript by simply changing the settings of either or both rules. This can be extremely helpful if you are submitting the manuscript to several organizations, each of which has different formatting requirements.

Conclusion.

If you follow the 4 steps listed above, editing your own writing will be much less difficult and the result will be greatly improved.

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake UpLive the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

Improve the Editing of Your Own Writing is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com

Steven E enables authors to gain instant credibility with his marketing appeal. Steven E gives authors the ability to market to an audience they may not be able to reach on their own. Steven E is looking for all different types of authors right now. Becoming a best seller is now in reach with Steven E. Authors need not look any further than here to begin the process of becoming a best seller. Steven E wants to help propel your name as an author and to make your name known.

“LIVING IN ABUNDANCE” FEATURED AS PART OF HIT SERIES

MARCH 1, 2008

(Little Rock, Ark.) Living in Abundance has recently been released as the 25th book in the best selling Wake U . . . Live the Life You Love series. Officials of Global Partnership, LLC, and Arkansas-based publishing group, announced the release of the book today.

The book contains a variety of stories with “lessons that readers can learn, and plans of action that may bring the understanding of abundance,” said a spokesman.

PBS star Dr. Wayne Dyer is joined by Bill Harris, Gregory Scott Reid and motivational speaker Steven E and more than 50 other co-authors. “Top professionals from all around the world have contributed stories of personal triumph over physical, emotional or spiritual adversity, said publisher Lee Beard.

According to Robert Valentine, publications director of the Wake Up Live series, “This book contains the words and the wishes of those who are out to change an imprisoning view of life.”

“Wake Up Live the Life You Love” is published by Little Seed Publishing. It is now available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, and through the contributors. Other books in the series include Finding Life’s Passion, and A Search for Purpose.

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake UpLive the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

Living in Abundance is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com

Steven E enables authors to gain instant credibility with his marketing appeal. Steven E gives authors the ability to market to an audience they may not be able to reach on their own. Steven E is looking for all different types of authors right now. Becoming a best seller is now in reach with Steven E. Authors need not look any further than here to begin the process of becoming a best seller. Steven E wants to help propel your name as an author and to make your name known.

Are you running short of ideas for your articles? Is generating fresh ideas for writing becoming difficult? By following the techniques discussed in this article, you will be an article generating power house.

1. Subscribe to a dozen RSS feeds on various subjects you are most interested in. Scan through the feeds every morning or at night and select a few articles for thorough reading. After reading the articles, tag them using your own classification system.

Classifying articles in different categories helps locate them quickly. Use Google’s RSS reader for reading and tagging the RSS feeds. You will have access to your categorized articles from any computers connected to the Internet.

2. Subscribe to a few print magazines and read them regularly. After you finish reading an article, record the main points of the article in a Google note. You will have access to these notes anywhere in the World.

3. Use a PDA and carry it with you wherever you go. Better yet, get a PDA with a camera and cell phone. You will only carry one gadget for all your communication, organization, and content generation needs.

Take pictures of interesting places, events, and moments you come across in your daily life. Use the voice recorder of the PDA to record whenever an idea hits you. Every night, transfer the ideas from your PDA to Google notes and upload your pictures to flickr.

4. Scan through the comments posted by others on the online articles you read regularly. Record interesting ideas, pros and cons of an issue, and strong opinions posted by others in your Google notes. Leverage the wisdom of the crowd.

5. Have lunch with friends at least once a week. Bounce ideas off them on any topic. Mix ideas from divergent topics to create new ideas in you own subjects.

6. Use the time like driving, watching TV while exercising in a treadmill, etc. to think about your favorite topics and try to relate to things you observe on the road and on the TV. When you get an idea, record it in your PDA.

7. Go through all the ideas and articles you have recorded in Google notes and your RSS reader to create new ideas by giving new twists to the old ideas. Combine two or more ideas and change or improve an existing idea to come up with your own idea.

8. Use a variety of online tools like Technorati, Digg, Delicious, etc. for writing inspiration. Every hour, hundreds of new articles and news stories are posted in these sites. Quickly scan them to hit a few gold nuggets that can serve as springboards for new ideas.

9. Using on-line tools discussed earlier, select an issue and jot down all the pros and cons. Search Google to enhance the idea by adding more pros and cons. Once you have collected a dozen diverse opinions, you will be able to write an article based on those facts in a pro-con format.

10. If you are good at using data for analysis and comfortable in the use of a spreadsheet, draw charts in the spreadsheet and look for patterns in the data. Provide you own interpretation to the data. Illustrate your articles with charts and graphs.

11. To generate topics for your article, use overture keyword selector. Select a single keyword and run it through the overture. You will see a dozen or more keywords based on the search popularity. Copy a few selected keywords to a notepad. Now, take each keyword and do a search in online sites like Digg, Technorati, etc. You will see a number of articles. Read them to generate ideas.

12. Ask yourself what if, what else, and why not questions on an issue and search the Internet to find answers from different sources. Create new ideas generated from existing materials, provide step-by-step guide for somebody to practice an obvious idea, or offer benefits of practicing an old idea.

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake UpLive the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

Wake Up and Live is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com