Archive for January, 2009
How to write what you want over a longer period of time
Sitting down in front of a blank screen, you type out a sequence of words followed by a period. You pause for a moment, you backspace it all away and you type another new string of words. You know what I mean?
Why is it that at times writing comes easily, but at other times it barely trickles out? Part of the reason may be that you are losing all of your best ideas in between those sit-downs at the computer.
When you have ideas or see things which get you thinking, write them down. Collect them in some way. Odds are within a few days of doing this you will see relations and trends you would not have noticed before. This will lead to more quality content. Think of the outstanding quality of articles that you’ll be writing over the course of weeks and even months?
Something I have found myself doing since I began blogging, is writing a huge amount of memos and small notes. They can be either halfway completed or standing as headlines only. While it can be daunting to stare at a big list of articles waiting to be written, it can also make the process of beginning to write a bit easier when you hit a creative roadblock.
It can also be very helpful to use a writing tool that tracks changes. I use Writeboard, but there are others out there. Even MS Word can track changes if you want. Keep your ideas flowing, and keep working on them over time.
Do not skip over silly ideas and stories. You never know what might come in handy later.
Actively investigate the world around you. Be a journalist all the time. Ask questions and look for details. You might be surprised at how many ideas jump out at you.
For more details and my inspiration for this article you can visit my site mentioned in the Author field.
How to write it?
Everything seems fine, no mistakes, no false statements, no taboo ideologies expressed but still you get “satisfactory” and think about what a looser you are. It seems unfair. After getting the same result each time you ask yourself, what is that I do wrong? How to write it? Here are some hints for you to get the general idea of how to do it. First of all, you are to choose, what kind of essay it will be (for and against, persuasive, description essay). Each of them has its own peculiarities and requires different style. Then you have to structure your essay properly in order to highlight the theme you were given or you have chosen. There has to be an introduction, where you introduce the main idea and the statement around which you are going to make your essay. Then goes a main body where you state all the necessary facts to prove your idea, express your opinion, and make an impression. Use as many facts as it is only possible. This will make your essay more interesting and serve the right aim, to impress the reader by your intelligence and writing skills. Then conclusion comes, where you summarize everything mentioned in the main body and make the necessary statements, according to the type of essay you are going to write.
If you consider at least some of the above mentioned you will not have to do this term paper research, spend hours to compose it, check it hundred times, than give it to a friend to check, and see that the result stays the same and you hide the paper with disgust and swear that it will never happen again. Your research paper has to be next to perfect. Language you use is also very important. Your idea may seem great and the facts that you’ve stated are proper, but the way you have represented them leaves something more to be desired. You are to be careful with words, not to use strong verbs unless it is absolutely necessary. There has to be no offence, no matter how emotional your essay is. There have to be some introductory words like “all the things considered”, “actually” etc. This shows your excellent knowledge of the literary language. This is an additional plus to your nicely composed and well-written essay. It is also a big plus for you to use quotations and extracts out of famous writers’ masterpieces. It makes your language more emphatic and makes very good impression on those who read it.
And finally, you are to use some psychology. You may know a person you turn the paper in to. It is your teacher or a lecturer so one way or another you may get acquainted with some of her/his basic ideas and principles. Even if your essay is perfect and there is nothing to add and to correct, you’ll still be given an “F” for not responding to the ideas of the lectures delivered. So, be careful with what you write and what you express, your reader may not like it. To make a good impression one also has to be very accurate. If you had a task to write an essay on the spot, not to print at home, you have to make a sketch and only then, after looking through it write it to your final paper, with no corrections made. If you read this carefully and follow some of the instructions, you’ll reach success in writing and hang your work graded “A” on the wall above the bed.
How To Write Ezine Articles In Clusters
Writing several articles at once might seem pretty much impossible to do if you are just starting to write Ezine articles and find producing them one at a time hard enough. However, writing articles in clusters is not difficult and, once you understand how it’s done, you will enjoy the benefits. A group of articles written as a cluster can easily be turned into a series but for now we are looking at the how to produce a group of unique articles written at the same time around a central topic.
Some of the main benefits are as follows:
1. Writing articles in groups saves time when you are researching your subject;
2. It gives you space to fully develop a theme;
3. It gives you more unique content for your blog or website;
4. It gives you extra articles to submit to ezines or to sell.
When you write an article for publication in ezines, you have to keep the word count within certain guidelines (about 500-800 words is usually most acceptable). If your article is too long, ezines might not be prepared to give up the space required to reproduce it. If the article is too short, there is a danger Ezine publishers won’t take it seriously. Cluster writing is definitely not about turning out a number of truncated Ezine articles instead of one full length one. Neither is it about stretching or padding your material (you’ll only ever get a poor fit if you try that). It is about making full use of ideas and not wasting time or words.
If you are writing about a topic you know well, you will find yourself constantly having to edit your articles to keep the word count down. Instead of throwing away the excess material, paste it immediately into another document with a new title. I would suggest keeping the titles similar – eg “Puppy Training, Why To Do It” and “Puppy Training, When To Start”, you can swiftly move on to “Puppy Training, The Best Methods” etc. Don’t let the document get too big, anytime your word processor reaches page 2, it’s time to think about breaking it into two.
As you write, be alert to any tendency to wander off topic. You might be writing about how it is one thing to have a cute puppy jump on your bed but quite a different experience when that pup has become a 10 stone hound with muddy paws. Suddenly you remember something about doggy vitamins. Instead of popping the idea into one of your puppy training articles as an aside, put it into another new document which you can later use as part of a new cluster about dog nutrition. With one quick “cut and paste” you have kept one article focussed on the main topic and saved an idea, which might otherwise have been wasted, for a new project.
If you are writing an article on an unfamiliar topic, you might think you won’t have the problem of needing to cut down your article and will have trouble finding enough to say. However, if you undertake proper research about the subject matter (as you should if you want your article to be taken seriously), you are bound to come across material which relates to the article you have planned but does not quite fit it. Make notes of all this related material. If you get ideas for further articles as you are researching, make a note of these ideas. Research for article writing takes time, so make the most of it. Even if you can only manage two articles on an unfamiliar subject, it is two for the price of one.
Let’s look at how to use just one passing idea as the basis for a group of articles. Take the thought “my first home business venture reminds me of Apollo 13″. To make this idea into an article, we have to say what is behind the initial thought. Otherwise, the reader will be left thinking “What, it nearly got lost in space?” or “You were trying to land on the moon?”. With no explanation or clarification, the idea is meaningless to anyone but you.
The thoughts behind the idea could be about a series of numerical coincidences in regard to events, about surviving near-disasters, about how duct tape solved a huge problem and about the power of prayer. With all these four things encapsulated in the idea, you have the basis of a four paragraph article. It does not require much of an imagination stretch to see that you could have the basis for four separate articles clustered around a central idea.
Never let an idea or a word go to waste. For the time and effort cluster writing saves, it is worth trying to use the technique even in the early days of your Ezine article writing career. Once you try it, you will realise it’s even better than “buy one get one free”.
How To Write Well
Raising your level of writing needs you to focus on bigger things, like having your work published for example. This is a surefire way to encourage yourself to go beyond your current limitations and weaknesses as a writer. Taking the step from writing as a hobby towards writing professionally and having an article or a piece published is indeed a big leap for anyone. It needs a long-term commitment, discipline and an almost endless source of inspiration to be able to write constantly and creatively. Not only does it entail having to do intensive research, but it also pushes the writer to find a certain niche from which he can excel.
Moreover, you have to be able to gauge your own work and consciously maintain a higher level of quality as compared to when you were just writing on a journal or your own blog. This leaves the question of how one learns how to write well. How can you raise your level so that it is up to par with what is asked and required of you as a professional writer?
There are different ways to find your way towards fulfilling your worth as a writer. Some of these are the following:
1. Find your niche. You have to be able to know what you are capable of writing about. You have to know where to focus your attention to, what topics to write about, and what genre of writing you are going to start with. Some may find poetry as your strongest area, while you may feel that writing feature articles are where you are at your best. The important thing is that you are able to decide where to concentrate. For a writer who is just starting, you have to be the master of your specialized craft before branching out to other areas and other genres.
2. Educate yourself. You were not born with all the information already lodged in your brain. Read and refresh your mind by going through printed materials about the topics close to your heart and the areas where your interest is more attuned. Learn from the best in the business; study their style and their delivery. From those lessons, you can create your own unique style.
3. Write from the heart. The next important step is to start writing. Pour out your soul and write from an intelligent yet emotional perspective. Show your strengths as a writer and highlight these in all the lines that you write.
4. Edit and correct your article. Check if the facts add up, review your references, and see to it that you don’t contradict yourself. Give others a chance to critic your work, and be open to suggestions without sacrificing the content of your work.
The above-mentioned ways are just rudiments of how to write a good article. These will help you get started towards your goal of being a good writer and being able to write well. Mastering all these things however does not necessarily mean producing a best seller or getting all the accolades you dream of. Perhaps the true measure of how good a writer you are is the patience and dedication you give towards writing a well written article or book, for even the great ones did not receive praise immediately. So hone your craft and be patient in doing so, as even the longest journeys start on a single step.
How To Write Good Articles
As a writer you may be ready to cash in on the need for web content. There is a lot of money that can be made through content writing if you know what web publishers are looking for in high quality content. If you are a very versatile writer you will find that you can actually make content writing your full time job! The new trend of article marketing has writers very excited because webmasters all over the Internet are hungry for talented writers who can’t pump out the high quality content fast enough.
What to Write
Exactly what you should write will depend on whom you are writing for. If you are a writer that is writing pieces for an article directory you will want to keep things as generic as possible. The more nonspecific you can keep your articles the more likely a webmaster will choose your article to be displayed on his or her website. It’s important not to mention websites or specific products, as this can limit the usefulness of the article to webmasters because they generally do not want to promote anything other than themselves and especially not their competitors. Most web publishers are looking for content, not marketing pages.
If you are writing for a specific web publisher you will want to keep in mind what their business is all about. Think about key phrases or words that are often associated with their product, business, or service and include them in the article. Be sure that the key phrases you come up with or are provided don’t seem unnatural and they don’t disrupt the flow of the article. Key words and phrases are only as helpful as their placement. Remember, we are talking about quality content, which reads well and helps search engines figure out what the website is all about at the same time.
Research Required
Make sure that if you are writing on a topic and you don’t have first hand knowledge that you research! Content provided by websites is only as useful as the author that is writing. If you only provide fluff and no real meat in articles visitors will be less likely to come back to the website again, so you are actually working against the plan to increase traffic with the article. Always look at your article the way that a visitor would and try to provide all of the information you would want if you were that person.
How to Write
Your style of writing is really a matter of opinion. Many web publishers like for their content to be written in a very conversational style. This writing style allows for readers to feel as though the author is talking to them, and it’s just a very comfortable way to get information on the Internet. If you take an official tone many visitors may be turned off even though you are providing all of the information that is needed.
Market Yourself
Don’t forget your resource box! The resource box is the section either at the beginning or end of an article that tells the reader who you are, any websites that you are affiliated with, and may even provide links to the websites. This is a great way to market yourself. While a web publisher may first find your work on an article directory he or she may contact you personally for your services, in which case you usually stand to make a lot more money!
How To Write Reviews That Webmasters Will Link To
Product reviews are an exceptional tool to drive traffic to your own, or any other website. They are inherently valuable and provide benefit, which is exactly what readers and webmasters are looking for. When content provides a benefit, people will read it, forward it, and link to it. As an online marketer or website owner, product reviews in particular are a great way to drive traffic to your website via linking, reprints, and click-throughs.
Saying that, in order for a product review to be an effective traffic generation tool, it must also be believable. This means that if at all possible, consider actually purchasing or trying out the product. It’s pretty much the only way to be completely knowledgeable about a product or service.
You also need to think creatively when reviewing. For example, a great product review for a hair removal system might actually have a series of reviews based on the ability of the product to remove or reduce hair over time. This type of review will most likely be linked to by many people because it is a real and demonstrative review of the product.
Here are a few things you should consider when you’re writing a review for a product or service.
1. Take the time to be thorough in your review. Every review must answer these questions:
* What does the product promise?
* How well does it achieve those goals?
* Is it a good value?
* What are the drawbacks of the product?
* Is the product easy to use?
* How does the product compare to others on the market?
* Would you buy or recommend the product? If yes, why? If no, why not?
2. Compare multiple products for more effect. Sometimes it’s easier to compare products than to simply evaluate one single product. When comparing products, it is important to remember a few things:
* Compare the same types of products.
* Compare similar attributes and features.
* Be honest about any preferences you have for one or the other.
3. Demonstrate information in a variety of ways. Can you incorporate graphics, pictures, or statistical data in your review? The more comparative information you can provide your reader, the better. Often, statistics are more easily understood when they’re conveyed in a graph, a chart or a simple photo.
Put yourself in your reader’s shoes. What would you want to know about the product or service? While it is important to be diplomatic in your reviews, it is also important to be tactfully honest. If your reviews are all positive all of the time, you’re going to loses a bit of credibility. People want the drawbacks pointed out to them too. They want both sides of the coin.
Write your reviews conversationally. This means using language most people understand. Skip the jargon and tech talk. Use language that is friendly. Break the review up into easily digested sections.
Keep to one point per paragraph and keep the paragraphs short and easy to read. Taking the time to write your review for online reading makes it easier to read, and thus easier to print, publish, and link to.
How to Write Checklists
There are a number of strategic reasons for using checklists, a writing format which helps you make your point(s) by writing at least some of your document in lists, rather than all in standard paragraphs. For example, checklists may convey the idea that you have carefully analyzed a situation, that a sequence should be followed, or that you are a well-organized person.
In this article, I have a follow-up, in which we look at the creation of checklists.
How you create your checklist will depend on its type. In some cases, you will want readers to follow a sequence of steps; this is a sequential checklist. On the other hand, if it’s just a list, like a shopping list, then it would be a non-sequential list.
If you write non-sequential checklists, use bullets or boxes to indicate a new line or new item, as in:
* something
* something else
* another thing again
One quick note about bullets: if you’re printing and distributing the message, then you can use conventional bullet forms (usually a square or round dot, whether solid or hollow). If you’re sending the message by email, use an asterisk because not all email programs handle bullets properly (something to do with ASCII characters).
If the steps must be taken in sequence, then you’ll use numbers or letters as your bullets. And, if that sequence has several sub-steps within each step, you would follow convention by using these types of characters, in this order:
* Roman numeral;
* Capital letter;
* Standard (Arabic) number;
* Lower case letter.
For example:
I The Beginning
A. The first part of the Beginning
1. The first part of the first part
a) and so on.
Indentations are helpful when working with highly structured checklists, like these. They show at a glance the importance of each component in the list.
A couple of other types of checklist might also be considered — flowcharts and mind-maps. A flow-chart means a series of boxes illustrating the linear steps in a process. These are especially helpful if the checklist includes decision points. For example, “If the computer starts, do this” or “If the computer DOES NOT start, do that.”
A mind-map refers to a number of boxes with interconnecting lines (not necessarily in a sequence, but perhaps showing interrelationships). In this case, the idea is to show how different aspects of the same issue connect with each other.
One final thought: outliners, whether stand-alone or in word processors can provide checklists, along with appropriate indentations. If the content fits the checklist format, an outliner may help you create one quickly and easily.
How To Write Good Articles
As a writer you may be ready to cash in on the need for web content. There is a lot of money that can be made through content writing if you know what web publishers are looking for in high quality content. If you are a very versatile writer you will find that you can actually make content writing your full time job! The new trend of article marketing has writers very excited because webmasters all over the Internet are hungry for talented writers who can’t pump out the high quality content fast enough.
What to Write
Exactly what you should write will depend on whom you are writing for. If you are a writer that is writing pieces for an article directory you will want to keep things as generic as possible. The more nonspecific you can keep your articles the more likely a webmaster will choose your article to be displayed on his or her website. It’s important not to mention websites or specific products, as this can limit the usefulness of the article to webmasters because they generally do not want to promote anything other than themselves and especially not their competitors. Most web publishers are looking for content, not marketing pages.
If you are writing for a specific web publisher you will want to keep in mind what their business is all about. Think about key phrases or words that are often associated with their product, business, or service and include them in the article. Be sure that the key phrases you come up with or are provided don’t seem unnatural and they don’t disrupt the flow of the article. Key words and phrases are only as helpful as their placement. Remember, we are talking about quality content, which reads well and helps search engines figure out what the website is all about at the same time.
Research Required
Make sure that if you are writing on a topic and you don’t have first hand knowledge that you research! Content provided by websites is only as useful as the author that is writing. If you only provide fluff and no real meat in articles visitors will be less likely to come back to the website again, so you are actually working against the plan to increase traffic with the article. Always look at your article the way that a visitor would and try to provide all of the information you would want if you were that person.
How to Write
Your style of writing is really a matter of opinion. Many web publishers like for their content to be written in a very conversational style. This writing style allows for readers to feel as though the author is talking to them, and it’s just a very comfortable way to get information on the Internet. If you take an official tone many visitors may be turned off even though you are providing all of the information that is needed.
Market Yourself
Don’t forget your resource box! The resource box is the section either at the beginning or end of an article that tells the reader who you are, any websites that you are affiliated with, and may even provide links to the websites. This is a great way to market yourself. While a web publisher may first find your work on an article directory he or she may contact you personally for your services, in which case you usually stand to make a lot more money!
How to write it?
Everything seems fine, no mistakes, no false statements, no taboo ideologies expressed but still you get “satisfactory” and think about what a looser you are. It seems unfair. After getting the same result each time you ask yourself, what is that I do wrong? How to write it? Here are some hints for you to get the general idea of how to do it. First of all, you are to choose, what kind of essay it will be (for and against, persuasive, description essay). Each of them has its own peculiarities and requires different style. Then you have to structure your essay properly in order to highlight the theme you were given or you have chosen. There has to be an introduction, where you introduce the main idea and the statement around which you are going to make your essay. Then goes a main body where you state all the necessary facts to prove your idea, express your opinion, and make an impression. Use as many facts as it is only possible. This will make your essay more interesting and serve the right aim, to impress the reader by your intelligence and writing skills. Then conclusion comes, where you summarize everything mentioned in the main body and make the necessary statements, according to the type of essay you are going to write.
If you consider at least some of the above mentioned you will not have to do this term paper research, spend hours to compose it, check it hundred times, than give it to a friend to check, and see that the result stays the same and you hide the paper with disgust and swear that it will never happen again. Your research paper has to be next to perfect. Language you use is also very important. Your idea may seem great and the facts that you’ve stated are proper, but the way you have represented them leaves something more to be desired. You are to be careful with words, not to use strong verbs unless it is absolutely necessary. There has to be no offence, no matter how emotional your essay is. There have to be some introductory words like “all the things considered”, “actually” etc. This shows your excellent knowledge of the literary language. This is an additional plus to your nicely composed and well-written essay. It is also a big plus for you to use quotations and extracts out of famous writers’ masterpieces. It makes your language more emphatic and makes very good impression on those who read it.
And finally, you are to use some psychology. You may know a person you turn the paper in to. It is your teacher or a lecturer so one way or another you may get acquainted with some of her/his basic ideas and principles. Even if your essay is perfect and there is nothing to add and to correct, you’ll still be given an “F” for not responding to the ideas of the lectures delivered. So, be careful with what you write and what you express, your reader may not like it. To make a good impression one also has to be very accurate. If you had a task to write an essay on the spot, not to print at home, you have to make a sketch and only then, after looking through it write it to your final paper, with no corrections made. If you read this carefully and follow some of the instructions, you’ll reach success in writing and hang your work graded “A” on the wall above the bed.