Visiting Guest: Deborah Gaines
This month, writer and consultant Deborah Gaines, offers some valuable tips on how to write effectively. |
10 STEPS TO EFFECTIVE WRITING
By Deborah Gaines
After 20 years as a working writer, I've found that most people either minimize or exaggerate the difficulty of writing well. At one extreme, there's a "give-it-to-the-intern" attitude that leads to costly and embarrassing mistakes, like confusing "their" and "they're" in a mailing targeted to corporate attorneys. At the other, I've met executives who pay consultants $300 an hour to handle their personal correspondence. (Not that there's anything wrong with this-from the consultant's point of view.)
The truth is, you don't need to be Jane Austen to write effective business communications; showy prose may actually obscure your message. That said, nothing kills your credibility faster than bad writing. It astounds me that companies will spend a fortune to produce a brochure, website or media kit without budgeting for a decent writer.
What constitutes good writing? Poets and novelists come to blows over this question, but in business the answer is simple: Good writing gets results. Here are ten steps to writing that works. Click here for the rest of this article |
June Class Schedule:
Wednesday June 3rd: Introduction to Constant Contact
1:00 - 2:00 ($20)
Online Webinar - from the comfort of your own desktop!
Join us for an informative overview of Constant Contact. One participant's information will be used to open an account and start an e-newsletter during the session! Email me to volunteer to be the featured participant.
Wednesday June 17th: Advanced Constant Contact Tips and Tricks
1:00 - 2:00 ($20)
Online Webinar - from the comfort of your own desktop!
Join us as we look at advanced image, input and graphic tricks to take your publications to the next level! Email with requests for specific areas you would like to see covered. |
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This Month's Tip:
If you do make the effort to write your own content and you think that it may be of interest to others, you should consider submitting it to an online article site. Often called 'article marketing', this is a excellent way to establish a reputation as an expert in your industry, build 'brand' awareness and to build your customer base.
By including your website and contact info in the bio in the footer of each article, you will be able to drive readers to your website (or brick and mortar site) - a no-cost way to increase site traffic!
While there are some sites that will pay you for your articles, below is a list of reputable places to post content that will be offered to others free of charge:
- Ezinearticles.com: all types of articles - well respected - my favorite!
- GoArticles.com: bills itself as the web's largest free content article directory - all types.
- Slashdot.org: it's tag line is 'News for Nerds' and 'Stuff that matters' - a good match for technical articles.
- ArticleAlley.com: varied with a focus on technical
- ArticleCity.com: a huge selection of articles as no cost but there is a recorded advertisement that pops up as you arrive at the site - annoying but I suppose that is how they cover their costs.
There are others but I left out the ones that are more social (vs professional) in focus and avoided ones that feature articles that only a SPAMMER would love. To find more, just google 'article marketing'.
Certain sites have specialty interests so check first. And be sure to follow the submission guidelines. Some have specific requirements for formatting and the number of links you can include in the body of a document, etc. Many of the sites have very similar instructions so while the first may take a few minutes, subsequent submissions will be much easier! And while you are on the sites, surf around, you may just find an article or two that you will be able to use in your own publication!
If you want to learn more about article marketing, here is very informative blog post written by Joe Pullizzi |
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Till next month...
Be well and enjoy the process!
LisaMarie |
