6 Surefire Ways to Improve Your Writing Starting Today

I’m surprised at how often people are impressed by the fact that I write for a living. Surprised because it is far from glamorous and a lot more work than most people would guess.

Writers block, self doubt, and just plain laziness plague me on days when I have no choice but to put fingers to keyboard – like it or not. It’s publish or perish or in my case, produce or perish.

Inspiration often comes when I least expect it. On a walk. Driving with my kids or at the field watching a soccer game.

Recent inspiration came in the form of a book by Bob Bly that I’m finding is rejuvenating my writing and getting me excited about the prospect of taking some risks with my writing. Bly starts by covering some basic every writer – novice or professional – can use to immediately improve their writing.

Here are just a few:

Use Effective Headlines
Grab the reader’s attention with headlines that deliver a complete message but leave room for elaboration later on. Remember, many people never read beyond the headline – especially if it’s weak.

Select an Audience and Write to Them
Determine your audience and write to that specific audience rather to a general one. Bly gives the example of an ad for life insurance targeted at people 65 and older. “Screen out those readers who are not potential customers,” he says.

Use Shorter Sentences
Write sentences with an average of 14 to 16 words and no more than 25. Vary sentence length to include a few short punchy sentences. It will spice up your writing. (example of short sentence)

Use Simple Words
Don’t try to impress readers with your extensive vocabulary. Substitute ‘help’ for `assist,’ ‘car’ for `automobile,” and ‘tell’ for ‘indicate.’ These are just a few examples of instances when a simple word will do just fine.

Be Concise
Cut words whenever possible. Avoid redundancies, run-on sentences, wordy phrases, and the passive voice.

Be Specific
Don’t say ‘he teaches various courses’ when you can say `he teaches science and math.’

Ten strategies for better web searching

 

1. Be aware of what you're missing: Often more authoritative information is found off the Web, in books or journals or newspapers. On the Web, you may find more useful information in commercial services or government sites, such as those listed at Power Reporting. And much of what's on the Web is not found by search engines, as is made plain by Gary Price's Direct Search. Instead of searching, you may do better to guess the Internet domain name you want -- harvard.edu or insinkerator.com or whitehouse.gov or army.mil or redcross.org -- if you know what organization is likely to have what you want, and you think you'll find it by going through the front door. Your news librarian or researcher is the best guide to finding the research tool with the right balance of accuracy, cost and timeliness.

2. Try a directory: Yahoo is not a search engine. It's a directory. Directories list Web sites, as opposed to pages, sorted by category. Directories include only the titles and descriptions of Web sites, not the text of their Web pages. So they have less info, but may be a better place to start. Examples include Yahoo and Google's implementation of the free, public Open Directory. Have you noticed that link at the top of Google to "Directory"? That's it.

Directories are made by people, not compiled by computers, so they're sometimes quicker to follow the news, and you get less chaff. They are organized in categories, like a library, encouraging the serendipity of finding something great next to the one you were looking for. (There is no "next to" in a search engine, there being no shelves.) So use a directory if you're in the journalistic situation of wanting starting, basic information about a common subject, and you're likely to find that information by going in the front door of the site. But use a search engine if you already have formulated a question, and want to find Web pages using the words in your question or that you anticipate will be in the answer. Notice that even Yahoo has an Advanced Search page to look through its half million listed sites. But if you want to find a more obscure bit of information, or any references to a word, then use a search engine, which looks at the text, word by word, of millions of Web pages.

3. Envision the result: Forget keywords when using a search engine. Remember that you're searching the complete text. Don't search for words about the subject. Search for words that will be on the page. Ask yourself, "If I were making the perfect page, just what I'm looking for, what words would I have to use to do it? In a directory you'd search for words about the subject, because that's all that a directory knows. But in a search engine, search for words that must be in the text of the page, because that's all that a search engine knows. If you want a list of children who have lived in the White House, don't think presidential progeny. Think chelsea and clinton and amy and carter and tricia and nixon and "white house." (We'll get to quotation marks below.) If you want a list of Super Bowl sites for the next three years, don't think "super bowl locations." Think 2001 and 2002 and 2003 and "super bowl." Under the theory that any good listing of future sites will also show where the games have been, you might add and 1983 and 1972 and pasadena and "new orleans". Try it! It helps to write down, or at least to imagine writing, the perfect page.

4. Think of it as a zoom lens: The best possible first search will yield no results. Why? Because it's easier to back out from zero than to zoom in from 187,000. What's the first thing you do with a zoom lens on a camera? You zoom in all the way, then pull back until the subject fills the frame. Of course, the most successful search is ultimately one that finds what you're looking for. But first go for broke, then remove one restriction at a time to pull back.

6. Tinker: Expect to search several times. This is the first thing you'd notice by watching over the shoulder of professional news librarians: They don't search once, perfectly. They search over and over, circling the prey. Remove one restriction at a time. (That's the essence of troubleshooting.) Try being more restrictive here, and less there. Then try it the other way around. There is no perfect search, but often there is a pretty good combination of searches. For example, title:"jesse ventura" would insist that "jesse ventura" be in the title of the page. That's a good first step. But if you get nothing in return, you merely have to use your mouse to delete title: and then "search" again to try it without that restriction. Now you still want the governor, but anywhere on the page, not just in the title.

7. Don't scroll: There's no crying in baseball, and there's no scrolling on the Web. If you turn up hundreds or thousands of hits, scrolling through them is unlikely to find the one you want. Better to refine your search. And when you choose a page to look at, remember that you can use your browser's "Find" command to quickly find any instance of your search terms on that one page, just as in a word processor. (Often it's under the "Edit" menu.)

8. Use only what you're sure of: If you want to find a list of states, showing whether each state has the death penalty, you can't assume that the maker of the page will use the words "death penalty." It could be "capital punishment." So use only the word you are sure of, or hedge your bets. So try ("death penalty" or "capital punishment") and texas and missouri and georgia.

9. Use anything you know: You can assume that every state name is on the list of states with or without the death penalty, or it's not the page you're looking for. So think ahead. Include in your search not only states with the death penalty, but states without. Try ("death penalty" or "capital punishment") and texas and minnesota and "new york" and "north dakota." It may seem onerous to type in so many state names, but it's more reliable, and quicker, than scrolling through too many hits.

10. Use what you learn: As you search, whenever you see a fact in the results list or on a page, use it. Go back to the search engine and throw that fact onto the search. The more arcane the item, the more you'll narrow to pages that are just on that subject. For example, if you want a list of Robert Penn Warren's works, and all you know is the most famous one, start with "robert penn warren" and "all the king's men." You'll learn that he also wrote "Blackberry Winter" and "Band of Angels." Instead of reading more Web pages about "All the King's Men," go back: Add and "blackberry winter" and "band of angels" to the search, getting closer to only those pages that list all of his works.

Originally posted on Power Reporting.com

According to Junta42 research, 59% of businesses will be increasing their content marketing budgets in 2010. With the increasing use of the internet and businesses competing in the global marketplace, many businesses are replacing traditional marketing with online marketing. The common consensus is that to reach the global marketplace focus on using online marketing tactics and to reach the local marketplace focus on using traditional marketing tactics.


The top five areas where businesses will be increasing their budget in 2010 are:

1. 72% increase in Social Media usage
2. 63% increase in eNewsletters usage
3. 63% increase in Blogs usage
4. 48% increase in White Papers usage
5. 48% increase in Article Marketing usage

How can content marketing help your business?

• Reach a targeted audience receptive to your message
• Improve the ranking if your website or blog
• Improve conversion rates of online sales
• Establish you and your company as experts in your industry
• Attract better qualified prospects to your website or blog
• Repeat visitation to your website or blog from prospects and clients
• Keep in touch with current clients and promoting referrals
• Help to establish likeability, trust and credibility

What are the different types of content marketing available for use by your business?
Social Media – Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn and other social media sites help promote your business, showcase talents, engage prospects and help spread the word about your business.

ENewsletters – Inform, educate and entertain readers on a consistent and timely basis, helps promote your business, are shared with others, increases reputation, recognition, trust and loyalty among readers, and increases sales.

Blogs – Educate, entertain and inform readers about your topics, encourage return visits to your blogs with frequent updating, engages readers to share comments and share the information with others.
White Papers – Showcases your industry knowledge, provides the opportunity to be a thought leader, informs and educates the readers and can be shared with others.

Articles – Educate, entertain and inform readers about your topics, showcase your knowledge and lead readers to action.Case Studies – Educates readers on your businesses pass success and tell how your business will help them achieve the same success.

Online Video – Educate, entertain, informs watchers, helps increase your likeability, trust, recognition and reputation among watchers.

eBooks – Establishes you and your business as experts in your industry, increases reputation, recognition and draws traffic to your website or blog.

Podcasts – Educates listeners, helps increase your likeability, trust and reputation.

Online Courses – Educate participants, showcases your knowledge, increases reputation and sales.

Workbooks – Educates readers, helps readers solve problems, increases reputation, trust and loyalty from readers.

Seminars – Webinars and teleseminars help educate participants, showcase your knowledge, increase reputation and recognition.

Businesses use a combination of the above content marketing tactics to create a content marketing strategy. While this is list is not comprehensive it is a good starting point to begin thinking about using content marketing in your business and what tactics are available. Content marketing allows small businesses and solopreneurs to level the playing field when competing against larger businesses.

How are you currently using content to draw prospects to your business?