This Static Spot is open for sponsor

Click Here to Sponsor MCT Eric Post in Full Page

Afrikaans Afrikaans Albanian Albanian Amharic Amharic Arabic Arabic Armenian Armenian Azerbaijani Azerbaijani Basque Basque Belarusian Belarusian Bengali Bengali Bosnian Bosnian Bulgarian Bulgarian Catalan Catalan Cebuano Cebuano Chichewa Chichewa Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional) Corsican Corsican Croatian Croatian Czech Czech Danish Danish Dutch Dutch English English Esperanto Esperanto Estonian Estonian Filipino Filipino Finnish Finnish French French Frisian Frisian Galician Galician Georgian Georgian German German Greek Greek Gujarati Gujarati Haitian Creole Haitian Creole Hausa Hausa Hawaiian Hawaiian Hebrew Hebrew Hindi Hindi Hmong Hmong Hungarian Hungarian Icelandic Icelandic Igbo Igbo Indonesian Indonesian Irish Irish Italian Italian Japanese Japanese Javanese Javanese Kannada Kannada Kazakh Kazakh Khmer Khmer Korean Korean Kurdish (Kurmanji) Kurdish (Kurmanji) Kyrgyz Kyrgyz Lao Lao Latin Latin Latvian Latvian Lithuanian Lithuanian Luxembourgish Luxembourgish Macedonian Macedonian Malagasy Malagasy Malay Malay Malayalam Malayalam Maltese Maltese Maori Maori Marathi Marathi Mongolian Mongolian Myanmar (Burmese) Myanmar (Burmese) Nepali Nepali Norwegian Norwegian Pashto Pashto Persian Persian Polish Polish Portuguese Portuguese Punjabi Punjabi Romanian Romanian Russian Russian Samoan Samoan Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic Serbian Serbian Sesotho Sesotho Shona Shona Sindhi Sindhi Sinhala Sinhala Slovak Slovak Slovenian Slovenian Somali Somali Spanish Spanish Sundanese Sundanese Swahili Swahili Swedish Swedish Tajik Tajik Tamil Tamil Telugu Telugu Thai Thai Turkish Turkish Ukrainian Ukrainian Urdu Urdu Uzbek Uzbek Vietnamese Vietnamese Welsh Welsh Xhosa Xhosa Yiddish Yiddish Yoruba Yoruba Zulu Zulu

 

 

Article Navigation

Back To Main Page


 

Click Here for more articles

Google
Top Ten Tips (Part 2)
by: Elaine Currie


Golden Rules For New Writers - Things you need to know before you begin.

Rules govern everything we do in life; even if those rules are of the
unwritten kind we abide by them and expect other people to do the same.
Why should writing be any different? It shouldn’t be and it isn’t. The
following rules are the basis for good writing. If anyone tries to tell you
that rules are made to be broken, remember that you have to learn those
rules before you try to bend them or break them otherwise you are just
being sloppy, not radical.

If you missed Part 1 of this Article, you can read it in its entirety at my website: http://www.huntingvenus.com/ecwart1.htm
_____________________


Spell well

You need to be able to spell in order to write properly. If punctuation is
the putty in your windows, spelling is the bricks out of which your house
is built. If you don’t have bricks, you cannot build yourself a house. You
will probably find this hard to believe but spelling used to be taught in
schools in the olden days. Nowadays most people who write do so on a
word processor with a spell check function. It is apparent that many of
these people do not bother to use their spell checker. This sort of
laziness cannot be excused. At the same time, you should not rely entirely
on the spell checker: it is only a machine trying to guess what word you
have scrambled. If you are not sure about a word, look it up in a
dictionary: it never hurts to know the correct meaning of words as well as
the correct spelling. Never forget that spell check will take your words
out of context: if you type "He sold his soul to Santa", you can’t blame
the spell checker for not knowing your really meant "Satan". People
would snigger cruelly if you failed to correct this.


Keep to the point

Never make the mistake of padding out your writing with unnecessary
or irrelevant details. Keep to the subject announced in your title, after
all, the title is probably what attracted the reader in the first place. If the
body of your work does not relate to the expectation aroused by the title,
the reader will feel tricked and nobody likes that feeling - your
reader will move on to read somebody s/he can trust. Do not attempt to
pad out your writing with unnecessary words: inserting a few adverbs or
adjectives to boost the word-count never works and makes the article
difficult to read. Keep it simple, whether people are reading for pleasure
or enlightenment, they will not appreciate lumpy prose and they are not
reading your work to marvel at your cleverness or your vocabulary. If
you run out of things to say before your work is the length you wish to
achieve, you are writing on the wrong subject or from the wrong angle.


Read and revise

Boring but essential. However much we enjoy the writing process,
reading the end product over and over and making changes is not what
we want to be doing. We would rather be starting the next article which
is bubbling up in our brains but we have to read, re-read, revise and revise
again. It is easy to make mistakes particularly if you have written
something over a long period . If you do not correct your mistakes
before publication, you will lose the trust of your audience. (I never got
over the fact that one of my favourite authors accidentally changed the
date of birth of a main character half way through a novel. How could I
ever believe in his people if they had moveable birthdays?) If you were a
carpenter, you would not offer your customer an unfinished piece of
furniture. If you were a tailor you would not offer your customer an
unpressed garment. The author should not dream of offering the reader
an unpolished piece of writing.


Sleep on it

Don’t be in a rush to publish your work the minute it is finished. Let it
rest. If it is ready for publication, it will still be ready tomorrow but, if it
is not quite ready, you will have given yourself a chance to make a final
amendment. This is particularly relevant when you are writing shorter
things. If you have spent months redrafting a novel, you are likely to
know if you have satisfactorily completed the final draft but it is easy to
knock out and send off short items such as articles or letters and then
regret our haste. There is always scope for improvement and what looks
like a work of art in the evening glow, might not appear so well in the
cold morning light.


Pay attention to detail

If you do not pay attention to detail, you will not discover your errors and
there will be plenty of people out there who will be delighted to pick out
and highlight the smallest error. Some people just can’t help themselves:
it is the way they are made (the way I react when a menu offers me a
choice of "Salad’s" - salad’s what?). Other people are just waiting to see
you trip yourself up. Don’t give them the satisfaction: get things right
before they start pointing and you will have the last laugh. If you have
realised that this paragraph is number eleven of my top ten and are already
laughing - Well Done! If you did not notice - see what I mean?




About the author:
This is one of a series of articles
published by the author, Elaine Currie, BA(Hons)
at http://www.huntingvenus.com
The author’s monthly newsletter is available free
from mailto:networkerhvm@ReportsNetwork.com



Circulated by Article Emporium

 



©2005 - All Rights Reserved

This Static Spot is open for sponsor

Writing Tips

Read Articles:

Ten Tips on Writing and Creativity
What employers look for in freelance ...
Is it worth paying for professional c...
The Difference Between Critiquing and...
Don’t Let the Global Village Prevent ...
So You Need Some Inspiration? Try Som...
Improve Your Trade Show Results By Wr...
How I Made $1683.04 From Writing ONE ...
Consider Self Publishing in Ebook Format
What Hurricane Katrina Can Teach Authors
The Truth About Article Marketing
From the desk of…Stationery Addict
The Secret Source of Clear Content
Becoming A Ghostwriter
It's A Dog-Eat-Dog World In The Freel...
How to make real money from writing?
New recipe for your fresh paper pie
A Guide to Refurbished IBM Laptops -
How To Earn Cisco’s Firewall Speciali...
The Importance Of Content – Adding A ...
Free Gadget and ultra cheap PC Offers.
Passing Your CCNA and CCNP: Configur...
IT Support Services in London
Defeating Writer's Block
REMOTE MONITORING
3 Simple Tips For Making Money Online...
Blogging: Free Internet Marketing Method
Web Site Marketing Strategy - Article...
Make Your Website Talk: How To Instal...
Web Content (Mass + Keywords) + Links...
Articles - They Really Work
Link Building Techniques
Email Etiquette – More Than Just Manners
Best-Selling Book Secrets
Top Ten Tips (Part 2)
Screenplay Slug Lines - An Important ...
Editing Your Work Can Save You Money ...
Top Ten Tips Part 1
How To Use Punctuation
What’s Wrong With Proofreading?
3 Elements to a Deal-Sealing Classifi...
From Book Notes to Book Reports
I Wonder Why Dictionaries Went Out Of...
How to Build and Sell your eBook at t...
Top Ten Checklist to Edit Your Articles
A Few Brief Tips To Deal With Writing...
How to Sell Your E-book - (or other i...
A Few Brief Tips on Dealing with Reje...
Novel to Screenplay: The Challenges o...
Surefire Ways to Get Your Magazine Ar...
5 Ways to Generate Article Topic Ideas
6 writing tips for starting your writ...
How to Jumpstart your Next Writing Se...
Dealing with the blues of a bad book ...
In Your Own Words
Writing Tips for Article Writing
Raise Your Hand If You’d Consider Giv...
Writing eBooks
Understanding The First Rule Of Writi...
"How to Unlock that Best-Selling Book...
A First Time Author's Publicity Kit M...
The Search for the Story: One Writer'...
A First Time Author's Publicity Kit M...
Beautiful Dreamer, Stephen Foster, Am...
Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Discuss...
Make More Money Self-Publishing Speci...
Harnessing The Wisdom of Procrastination
Platform Development Tip: #1 - Switch...
WRITING YOUR LIFE STORY - Some Common...
Taming The Book Proposal

More Article Pages 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

Steps to a Writing an Effective Press Releases
 by: Diana Ennen

Want to get the most media attention and spotlight for your business? Then the first place to start is with a GREAT press release. Now I can almost see half of you leaving now, dreading the thought of having to write one of these. But wait!! I’m going to show you easy methods to make your press release work for you and get the attention it deserves. Ready? Let’s go.

We’ll briefly go over the basics because of their importance. Editors want to see things done the RIGHT way. I would bet that a lot of good releases simply get tossed out just because they aren’t set up properly. To a busy editor, that all too familiar “10 second glance” says a lot for you and your business; it let’s them know if you’ve done your research enough to warrant that release to be placed in their newspaper or magazine.

Here are your essentials:

"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE" on the top left of the page.

Your contact name, phone number, e-mail address, and website follows.

Headline is next, normally in bold and centered on the page. Summarize what the release is about and capture their attention. Spend almost as much time on your headline as you do writing the release. It’s that important.

The press release body starts with the location of the release and the date (Margate, Florida, May 5, 2005.)

Most press releases are between 200-500 words, and no more than a page. The first paragraph has the most important information. Don’t save the best for last, it won’t get read. In this paragraph answer the questions, who, what, when, where and why?

It is recommended that you write press releases in the 3rd person and use short sentences and paragraphs. Do not go over board, trying to dazzle the editor, it won’t work.

Target your release. You will be sending your release to a specific audience so make sure that in your release you keep to what would appeal to that audience. What don’t they know that you can add? Nothing works better than getting an “AAH HAA” when an editor is reviewing your release.

Provide statistics. Do some research and find some relevant information that applies. You can easily do this through Google. Once you find your quote, do a Google search or Yahoo quote on that particular topic. However, don’t stop on the first Google link and take that for gospel. Research it a bit further. Have it come from a respectable company or magazine.

Include relevant quotes from experts in your field that will reinforce what you are saying. Approach authors, leaders in your Industry, and other experts that back up the facts you are stating in your release. They will normally appreciate the added publicity and you get the quote you’re looking for. For example, as an author I’ll often get asked to provide a quote for an article on home-based businesses or the virtual assistant industry. I welcome the opportunity as it provides me more publicity.

Also, if you have a satisfied client that you feel will add credibility to your Release, add a quote from them as well. The first time you mention the expert, write out their full name. Then list them by last name or Mr. and Mrs. Smith only. I normally prefer the last name.

The last paragraph should be your call to action. You’ve talked the whole release about your business or product, now tell them what to do with the knowledge they just acquired.

At the bottom of the release include ### to indicate you are done, followed by a short bio. Make sure if you include your website that you include http:// in front of it for search engine recognition.

Your bio should include your information, any books authored, etc. Double check this for accuracy. At this point, you’re tired and done with the Release. But if it goes out to the world with the wrong web address, the valuable time spent even writing the Release has been wasted.

That’s it; the basics for writing a press release! Now one other thing I’d like to add in, they work! They truly work. I’ve had a recent release get accepted by PRWeb (and yes they do reject bad ones!), and then go on to hit several other major newspapers and media outlines and the Google alert, which resulted in our paper in the area contacting me. You want to set up a Google news alert for your name so that you can follow the path and see when you make the news so you can follow up. Also, PRWeb at http://www.prweb.com has complete guidelines for setting up a good press release. Go with the extra money and spend $20.00. It’s worth it to get the additional exposure.

About The Author
 

Diana Ennen is the author of numerous books including Virtual Assistant: the Series, Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA, Words From Home, Start, Run and Profit from a Home-Based Word Processing Business & the Home Office Recovery Plan. She specializes in publicity and book marketing and is president of Virtual Word Publishing http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com and http://www.Publicity-VA.com. Articles are free to be reprinted as long as the author’s bio remains intact

 

 



©2005 - All Rights Reserved

JV Blogs Visit free hit counter