As an online writer I get a few emails each day inviting me to post my articles on some industry website or some online article site. Some are quite sincere and great websites yet if they are not affiliates with the category killers like EzineArticles.com you have to ask yourself why?
What I have found is that if article websites are not affiliated in anyway, maybe they did not pass the scrutiny of ethicalness to do so, or maybe they are not so legit. Perhaps they are, but one of the biggest give aways to scoundrel activity is an email which overly embellishes the writer’s abilities and attempts to stroke their ego.
Recently I had this happen and what a turn off it was. The gentleman in his email pitch stated; “I was just going thru your articles. You really write well. In fact I have myself been a Business Columnist for one of the largest newspapers. As a professional I can say I really like your work.”
Well how many people did he send that exact email too I wonder. So, here is the email I did not bother to send back to him.
“First off as a realist, I can say that my abilities as a writer suck, not that I care, as I am not a writer, I am just bored. Secondly I think all writers are persnickety, under whelming and mental cases. They are under achievers who could not make it in the real world. Third you are stroking me, because if you were a Business Columnist you would readily see my writing is lacking in so many regards. What a crock of crap and you know it. So, no I would not be interesting in contributing to someone’s website who is a BS’er like you nor do I care to have my ego-fed in such a way. Perhaps in the future you would stop throwing out compliments to people who do not deserve them and come clean. That’s what I think. By the way as an entrepreneur, you are a super marketeer and manipulator of people and your skill set is beyond belief.”
Now of course I did not send this email out, but that is basically how I feel about these ego-stroking losers playing games. If you are a downtrodden writer who needs you ego and god only knows what else stroked then perhaps you will fall for this line of crap. Personally I get sick of it. Consider this in 2006.
“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/
From our deconstructions of more than 100 Hollywood Blockbusters:
Hero’s Journey
The Hero’s Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters.
The Hero’s Journey:
a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.
b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.
c) Interpreted metaphorically, laterally and symbolically, allows an infinite number of varied stories to be created.
The Trials
Once the Hero is in the First Threshold, he [in effect] undergoes a series of trials. These are separate and distinct from the trials in the Transformation stage.
The trials in this [and the Transformation stage] follow a number of patterns. One of them is this: Often, the first is passive. The second is proactive. And the third is dramatic.
For example, in A Beautiful Mind (Academy Award Winner,2001):
Trial 1: (passive) Nash just sits in the library for two days: “…you’ve been in here for two days…”"…Martin’s already published a paper and I can’t even find a topic for my doctorate…”
Trial 2: (proactive) Nash hits on the girl in the bar: “…essentially we’re talking about fluid exchange, right…”
Trial 3: (dramatic) Nash and Charles have a fight and throw the desk out of the window: “…that Isaac Newton fellow was right…”
Learn more…
The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and other story structure templates can be found at http://www.clickok.co.uk/
You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.
Kal Bishop, MBA
**********************************
You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.
Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at http://www.clickok.co.uk/
Intensive web advertising of my writing services is how I have
managed to land the vast majority of my clients. In this article
I discuss a web advertising technique that has helped me bag my
most valuable clients.
While it is true that there is a huge and growing demand for
online writing services, it is also true that your potential
clients need to find you and they also need to get convinced
pronto that you can write. The web advertising strategy that I
am about to reveal to you, did just that for me
The nature of online writing is such that most of the
prospective clients you will come across will be looking to use
your writing skills to increase traffic to their site and
ultimately the sales that they achieve. I have found that by
using articles as my main web advertising tool, I have been able
to attract a lot of interest and clients. To start with, it
shows clearly that you believe in what you preach. It is
excellent practical research into the sort of articles that work
best in promoting a business.
Where you post your article matters a lot if your web
advertising is going to give you a good response. One site I
know has consistently outperformed all others in terms of
driving traffic to my sites and helping me get a response to my
free web advertising articles that I post at their site. That
site is www.ezinearticles.com. I still post my web advertising
articles at other sites and they all give me a response
occasionally. But the site I mention here is my leading site and
gives me a response, that is visitors to my site, every day
without fail. It is really amazing. I know that they do various
things to publicize articles posted at their site, but whatever
it is they do, the end result speaks for itself.
I usually post the same articles that I usually distribute free
elsewhere, to my blogs. I then refer people to my blog where I
have a page that describes my writing services in full including
what I charge for a typical 300-400 word article. Hat page also
has my email address where interested prospects can reach me.
So picture a prospect reading one of my articles on how they can
promote their web site using articles as their main advertising
weapon. They can immediately tell whether my writing meets their
standard or not. And if they did this at another site and they
find my article interesting, they will then use the information
in the article resource box to find my blogs on the subject that
they are interested in.
But my web advertising strategy for writing clients does not end
there. Most people will not take immediate action. That’s where
my valuable email course comes in. I usually run it using the
popular free online auto-responder service www.freeautobot.com.
For the next couple of weeks they will receive information from
me in their email inbox. It is from this constant reminder of my
writing services that almost 90 per cent of my most valuable
clients end up giving me some online writing work to do for them.
Set everything up so that you can start using this powerful web
advertising technique today. If you do it right, you will soon
end up with more writing clients than you can handle.
——————
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On any given day, how many people, events, problems, projects, family issues, things to remember and appointments are running through your mind? A LOT, right? If you’re writing a book, you have to add on top of that a whole other world of characters, events, settings, plots, (if you’re writing fiction) or stories, bullet points, theories and rhetoric (if you’re writing non-fiction). How do you keep track of it all?
Keeping a journal for your book can be a great tool. In it you can keep your outline, character details, plotting charts and anything else that serves as a guide for helping you stay on track. The following is a simple outline of headings for setting up your daily journal pages to help you with the day-to-day writing of your book.
Word Goal
At the top of your page start out with the date of the writing session and set a goal for how many words you will write for the day. Make the number big enough to challenge you, but not too big that you feel overwhelmed if you consistently miss it. You can also keep the word goal in line with what you’re working on that day. If you are re-writing a chapter instead of creating a new one, then your word count for the day will be significantly smaller. (And that’s okay!)
Today’s Work Will Focus On…
Under this heading you will plan out what you want to handle in the session. Are you writing a dialogue where your main character learns someone’s innermost secrets? Are you doing a scene setter that places the reader in the heart of your book? Are you writing a how-to chapter to explain how the reader can put to use the new strategies you’ve given them on how to be a better networker? Doing this also makes the word goal less intimidating because you immediately see what you’re going to do with all those words!
What Problems Might I Encounter?
There WILL be problems–no big deal. Note what they may be so you won’t get tangled up in the problem as you’re sitting in front of the computer screen. Write down each one. Some examples: “How do I get my character to go from living at home to a place nearer to where all the action is happening?” “How do I introduce the character to the guy who will ruin her life?” “How do I shrink my program down to 5 simple steps that people can remember?” Acknowledging problems really helps to lessen their power over your writing. You aren’t scared away from a problem so easily when you know you can come up with a solution.
Possible Solutions Include…
This is where you’ll do a quick brainstorming of how you can solve the problem. You can try out one of the solutions in your writing session. If that doesn’t work, you’ll have a list of things you can try the next day. What’s great about this is that you’re starting to train your mind to look for answers. You’ll find that when you’re writing consistently, you’ll be thinking about ideas and solutions all the time–in your car, in the shower, while you’re taking a walk. This is really where the magic happens. I truly believe that the bulk of books can be worked out in your head–then you have to sit down and get it onto some paper!
Today’s Result and Where It Will Take Me Tomorrow…
At the end of your writing for the day you’ll want to take note of what you accomplished. Maybe the dialogue you wrote today has opened up another avenue you’d like to explore with your character. Or perhaps you’ve noticed a big hole in the research you’ve done for the biography you’re writing and you realize you need to make a few more calls. I like to print out the pages I’ve written so I can really see and feel what I’ve done for the day. It makes me excited to do more. The idea here is to reward yourself for your work and also see that you have more to do. You’re less likely to get writer’s block if you see that you still have plenty more to say for your next session. But if you do happen to get stuck anyway, go to…
Your Fun Page
This is the page where you just dawdle and dream when the writing isn’t quite happening. I had a page with “Acknowledgments” written at the top. Whenever I didn’t feel like writing, I would go to this page and think about who I wanted to thank when the book was finished! It was fun to add names or cross them out depending on my mood! Having such a page helped me stay connected to my vision of being a published author. Your page could have the list of cities for your book tour, or notes on the introduction you would give before your readings. Keep it light, keep it fun. This way, getting to the end of your book will be a pleasure, not a struggle. Isn’t that the way you want it to be?
© 2005 Sophfronia Scott
Sophfronia Scott, “The Book Sistah,” is author of the bestselling novel, All I Need to Get By. If you liked today’s issue, stay tuned for more because The Book Sistah also offers FREE audio classes, FREE articles, workshops, and other resources to help aspiring authors get published and market their books successfully. The Book Sistah, 230 South Main St. Ste. 319, Newtown, CT 06470 203-426-2036, Info@TheBookSistah.com
“Article writers wanted: I will pay $3.50 per article. Must be
quality writing - no hobbyists!”
No, this isn’t a joke. It’s an actual job advert, posted on a
website earlier this year. What’s more, there’s nothing
particularly unusual about this advert. It seems that more and
more often these days, people expect writers to work for free -
or as close to free as it’s possible to get.
So what’s the catch? Well, professional copywriters won’t write
for $3.50, which means that the only people who’ll respond to an
advert like this will be very people the employer says he
doesn’t want - hobbyists.
But what’s wrong with that? Why not go with a hobbyist - a
non-professional writer? What can a professional copywriter give
you that an amateur can’t?
Here’s what:
1. Time
Let’s think for a minute about how many $3.50 articles a writer
would need to produce in order to make anything like a decent
amount of money from it. Quite a few. Quite a few hundred, in
fact. In order for it to be worth their while, then, the cheap
article writer has to be churning them out at the rate of at
least a few an hour. They’re not going to spend a lot of time on
each article: what would be the point? Even if each article
takes them an hour, they’re still earning less than minimum
wage, so the article you receive isn’t going to be carefully
researched and written: it’s going to be churned out in as
little time as possible.
2. Quality
You may think quality doesn’t matter too much. If you’re
commissioning articles for a website, you may be tempted to
think that quantity is all that matters: the more pages of
content and keywords you have, the better your chances of being
ranked in the search engines, after all.
Think about why you want a good ranking though? Presumably you
want your site to be well-ranked in order to receive more
traffic and more sales. Your content, then, is there to lure in
people, not search engines. And it’s a fact that most people
arriving at a website full of badly-written content will just
hit that back button right away.
3. Credibility
There’s no doubt that good quality writing lends credibility to
your website or articles, while sloppy writing creates the
impression that even you didn’t think your project was worth
investing in, so no-one else should either.
4. Skill and Experience
Some people think that anyone who knows how to string a sentence
together can call themselves a writer. Not so. A professional
copywriter doesn’t just put words on the page: they know the
right words to use to gain the reaction you’re looking for from
your audience. It takes years of experience to know what works
and what doesn’t in terms of website copy. Do you really think
someone who’s spent years acquiring those skills will give them
away for $3.50?
Of course, it’s up to you. If your main concern is adding
content to your site for very little cost, go with the $3
article writers. But if you want to create a high quality
website, with content which will pull in visitors and keep them
coming back, it could be worth bringing in the professionals.
