Entrepreneurs - 3 Ways You Can Profit From Newsletters Without Writing Them Yourself
May 31, 2007
I’m sure you have heard many online marketers touting the benefits of having a newsletter. I have used newsletters in the past for many sites. I’ve used them as a source of revenue by having advertisements embedded within the newsletter content. They are also effective as a means to keep a site sticky - to “anchor” clients and bring them back to the site. Newsletters can also be a great selling tool to provide free information, samples of your expertise or services, and as a taste of your full product/service. The lure of free content from newsletters can help you to turn casual surfers to potential customers and then finally paying customers.
I find the biggest problem for me personally is to consistently provide new content (which is strange since I have no problems writing a daily blog, go figure!). Consequently I have looked for methods to get around this problem.
Many of the sites I control I enjoy for the business management side of things and don’t actually provide the core services myself. For example at BetterEdit.com I don’t do any of the editing. I have professionals on staff that handle that aspect of the business. Consequently I have found it difficult to write newsletters that appeal to my target audience. Other times I’ve just grown bored of the subject matter and it becomes a chore to write a newsletter. If you don’t have enthusiasm your output is not going to be very good.
How to Write Articles to Sell Your Book
May 31, 2007
Selling books online means that you need to get interested readers to your website or to your Amazon listing. One great way to get people to your website is writing articles for republication.
My author friends asked me to share what I’ve learned about writing articles for the Internet. I’ve spent thousands of dollars learning what I’m going to share with you. In return, please help me grow my ezine subscriber base.
There are six categories you need to understand about article writing:
1. Article Structure
This article follows a typical article structure for email delivery. Note that articles you submit directly on websites need a different format. Each website explains their individual requirements.
a. Article Title: (How to Write Articles to Sell Your Book) You need a title that gives a benefit to the reader. There are hundreds of articles telling you how to create a sizzling title. Learn how to use keywords (more about this soon). My first title for this article was “How to Write Articles to Promote Your Book.” A stronger benefit to you, the reader, is “sell your book.” Another title tip: change your titles when submitting to various websites so you know which title gets picked up more. Another title for this article could be “Sell More Books: How to Write Articles.” After you submit your article, search for the title and you’ll see where it goes and which title works best. For instance, my article “Feng Shui, Design Psychology and Bed Placement” posted on EzineArticles didn’t do as well as “Feng Shui, Design Psychology and Sleeping” posted on thephantomwriters.com.
How to Relax Your Writing
May 31, 2007
Q. My writing sounds stiff and stilted. Help!
A. Memories of high school and college papers are probably getting in the way. We’re often brought up to believe writing is a Big Deal. We can’t, of course, write the way we speak. That would be too easy!
Some corporate departments perpetuate this myth. Many years ago, one group that hired a couple of writing consultants — over zealous English majors with little business experience who enjoyed showing off their expertise. Experienced managers were thoroughly intimidated. They had bought into the myth, “Writing is for experts.”
To relax, try these tips:
(a) Read your work aloud, preferably into a tape recorder. Do you find yourself stumbling over certain phrases? Do you have one collection of words and phrases for speaking and another for writing? As you listen to yourself, you’ll become sensitized to your own voice.
(b) Show what you’ve written to a thirteen-year-old. If they can’t understand what you’re saying, start over! I often use this exercise when people try to describe their jobs, especially in a resume, to people who don’t know their industry.
Blank Mind, Blank Screen: Need Ideas!
May 30, 2007
Q. I’m staring at a blank screen with an equally blank mind. I need an idea for tomorrow’s newsletter. Help!
A. Most of us have too many ideas or too few. I’ve never met anyone with just the right number. Here’s the secret: Once you start writing prolifically, you’ll get ideas. Each idea will seem better than the one before. In fact, some ideas will be so good that you may be tempted to stop your current project and start over with the new idea!
Instead, keep a folder on your virtual or actual desktop or write ideas in a notebook. Some ideas age gracefully while others earn a decent burial.
But now let’s say you’re staring at a blank screen, desperate for an article for tomorrow’s newsletter. What can you do? Here are five tips to get started.
1. Begin with your website’s keywords. Let’s say your site features “time management for stay-at-home-moms.” You want to attract visitors who are searching on “parenting,” “home” and “mothers.” Write your keywords on top of a sheet of paper and free-associate. Busy. Homes. Housework. Hmmmaybe you can write about housework and time management?
How Many Ways Can You License Your Tips Booklet?
May 30, 2007
You’ve been thinking about writing a tips booklet. After all, it’s shorter, faster, and easier than writing an entire book. A single tips booklet manuscript can be recycled over and over again, developing a new income stream with each deal you make. The booklet can be distilled from a book you’ve already written, a newsletter you distribute, or from sound bites you continually share with clients, audiences and anyone who will listen.
When that booklet is done is when the fun really begins. You can sell it as single copies or as large quantities that you produce for your clients. Or, you can sell the rights to the contents, on a non-exclusive basis, in many ways. Think about all the languages in the world. That can be a starting point. Find someone who is interested in licensing the right to your material to translate into another language, reaching a non-English speaking population in your own country or in a different country.
They get to do the translating, editing, production, marketing and distribution, and pay you for that right! You could also license the rights to your information to a company who wants to purchase 10,000 or more copies of your booklet. They can generally buy print less expensively than you can sell it to them. You will once again license them the right to do all the work, and pay you for it.
3 Tips For Writing Content That Will Make You Sales
May 30, 2007
Content is king. Without content your website is an empty shell, a skeleton with no flesh, an empty vessel. Content can redeem the worst designed website. The right content can make your phone ring off the hook and flood your inbox with people wanting your product or service. Content is the most important ingredient in the recipe for your website’s success. If you have engrossing, valuable and relevant content you are onto a winner..
Tip 1 - Keep It Customer-Focused - What You Like Is Irrelevant
I land on the homepage. I want to buy a bathroom from this company. I want to know what bathrooms they have available. I want to know how much it will cost, when they can deliver, if they have any special offers and what their previous customers have said about them. Instead, upon landing on the homepage I get the following all-time classic;
“Welcome to ABC Bathrooms. Our company was formed in 1985. Our Managing Director John set up the company at the age of 25 after spending thirty years in the position of..”
Hey Cient, this is Me! Find Your Writing Voice and Sell Yourself
May 29, 2007
In a crowded market, clients will be seeking personality as they read what you’ve written — they’ll click right past pages that feel “been there, read that.” They’re looking for a voice that says, “Hey, client, this is me!”
They want to know not just what you deliver — but how. Will you be funny or serious? A perky cheerleader or a sardonic commentator? Will your view of life be based on “believe and it happens” or “what you see is what you get?”
Here are some tips to add your own voice to your writing.
1. Write from the heart.
Too excited, passionate or angry to sit still? Best time to connect with your voice. Grab a pencil and scribble ideas as you jump around the room.
2. Say something new.
After forty articles on time management, your readers know about cutting projects into manageable chunks and setting priorities. Ho hum. Try “better than zero” or “turn your life into a time warp.”
3. Tape yourself talking to a good friend about a product.
Do your words sound different when you speak than when you write? Transcribe the tape into an article for easy reading.
Everything I Needed to Know About Article Writing I Learned from My English Teacher
May 29, 2007
By now you probably understand how important writing for trade publications is to establishing credibility in the home business world.
On to the first hurdle: how do you get past that HUGE writers’ block? How do you know what to write about, and how do you make it unique, informative and interesting?
Remember how you resisted writing those reports in school, insisting that you would never need to know how to do that in “real life”? Welcome to the real world of business writing.
Your English teacher gave you the bare bones: pick a topic, research, take notes, make lists and an outline, write a rough draft in your own words, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Don’t forget introductory paragraphs, summaries, footnotes and bibliographies.
Thanks to the internet, you can use a search engine, copy and paste, cut and paste, type, cut and paste edit into infinity, include hyperlinks and add your resource box at the end.
But…you’re still stuck on picking a topic. You feel as imaginative as a two by four. Start with your own home business, internet marketing, or entrepreneurial problems. Better yet, start with your journal. You don’t keep one? Here, you can borrow some of my own entries: (better yet, each of these items is looking for a foster home)
Zany Ideas That Increase Writing Productivity And Quality
May 29, 2007
Welcome to the zany ideas of a productive writer. My students keep reminding me of my unusual tools and how helpful they have been for them. I also thank my students for their concept testing and refinement. Now, I feel much more confidant about sending them out into the world.
For the next few minutes let your imagination run amuck. Okay, amuck is a little too far out there, so what about allowing an open mind for the time being. Afterwards, you can let your mind ruminate.
My office has a beautiful "u" shape ash wood desk that I’m proud of. Partially due to its price and uniqueness. It is here, I handle my emails, pay bills, read, coach, and edit there. Yet, I had difficulty setting the ground work for my writing. Tasks like creating first drafts, deciding on the major points, or creating a table of contents. Because of this I usually seek another environment that sparks these efforts.
Probably like yourself, I found my best ideas arrive when I’m in the shower, when I first wake, while driving, or while walking. Just to name a few. Let’s take a short side trip, I want to share with you how I capture my thoughts during these light-bulb moments.
The Writers Angst
May 28, 2007
What is this annoying, insidious angst that permeates my psyche? In all other regards, I’m a moderately confident guy. I’m secure in my abilities to be a good father, husband, employee, friend, gardener, etc. And, heck! Lots of folks tell me I’m a good writer. I’m passionate about my writing. I consumed by my stories. I can’t stop, can’t envision life without it.
Yet, I have this persistent fear that I will be “outed” as a fraud by the next highbrow literary critic that comes upon my work. Even though complete strangers have given surprisingly glowing reviews to my first (and worst) book, even though my readers tell me otherwise, I can’t get over the fear that a “real” writer will some day come along and renounce me, sending banishing me into the netherworld of faux writer fools who tumble around with ridiculous stories and are woefully inadequate when put to the task.
I know it’s absurd. I’ve told friends, many friends, who write beautifully, that they are writers simply due to the process. If it’s in your blood, if you can’t stop, if your day is filled with the details of the next chapter, if you write for therapy, then you are a writer! You don’t need a degree in English Lit or Composition to qualify. Heck, my degree is in Engineering. You don’t need a degree, period! And yet, I have trouble applying that philosophy to myself.
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