Archive for Articles & Blogs
How to Write a Book in ONE Month or Less!
Hello,
Have you ever wanted to write a book, but thought you either didn’t know enough about anything interesting … or you just didn’t have the time?
Unless you’ve already written a book, I’d be willing to bet one, or both, of the above excuses is the ‘reason’ you offer. Did I win? 
Assuming you really do know enough about something to write a book, if you really believed in yourself and created the time, I’m going to give you a simple formula for getting it done in record time — like in a month or maybe even less.
OK, here goes:
1. Choose a title: Make it something that makes you smile, laugh or feel professionally satisfied with it.
2. Write an outline: This will include all the important points you want to cover in your book. (No more than 7 to 9 chapters. And then jot down the main points (3 – 5) to cover in each chapter (sub-topics).
Here’s a Sample Title:
How I Wrote a Book in 10 Days … and How YOU Can Do it Too!
Chapter 1: Why Writing a Book Will Establish You as an Expert.
1. You believe in yourself enough to just do it.
2. People will perceive you as someone who knows what they’re talking about.
3. People will actually SEE you out there, writing about something you care about.
4. Experts usually have a lot to say and aren’t afraid to say it.
5. Authors are revered just a little.
Chapter 2: Why Writing a Book Will Rescue You from the Clutches of Depression
(Write down all your sub-topics to cover in this and each succeeding chapter.)
TIME BUDGET: You have ONE day to accomplish all of the above.
Next Day (day 2): To write or speak the FIRST chapter … that is the question?
Since I’m a professional writer already, I’ll just write, but for ‘experts’ who aren’t actually writers, you can record yourself. Just talk about each part of your outline.
Talk it or write it … but get the FIRST chapter done in ONE day!
Next Day (day 3): Time for Chapter Two … No time to waste. Just DO IT!
On and on, until you’ve spent 7 – 10 days TOTAL on your book.
This is the first part. Good job! (Spend about one hour on each chapter, and you should get about 20 pages, when transcribed, for a total of about 140 – 180 pages.)
Introduction: Once you’ve finished recording all of the chapters, now you’ll have a very good idea of what your book is all about, right? So, now you can record your introduction.
GET IT TRANSCRIBED:
Now it’s time to send your audio files out to be transcribed for you. This now becomes your first draft.
GIVE IT TO A PROFESSIONAL WRITER/EDITOR:
Now, you can give your rough draft to a writer to do the final polishing on your new book. Voila! You’ve now written a book in less than a month! So, you can now decide if you want to self-publish or to find an agent to get it published for you. (Self-publishing is a LOT faster.)
So, just do it. Go write that book. You know you have one inside you. Just do it!
Tell me about your dreams of writing your book, by posting a comment?
Here’s to the writer in everyone,
Carolyn Permentier
Marketing Failures Can be Used as a Stepladder to Success!
If you’re among most business people in the world, you’ve had your share of marketing failures.
But, the trick is to look at your failures as simply a stepladder to success!
You’re probably aware of some of the more famous stories about ’so called’ failure, like Thomas Edison? In hindsight, it sounds so incredulous, doesn’t it?
How could the most famous inventor of all times have failed 10,000 times, before successfully inventing the light bulb … yet, we’re told that’s exactly what happened.
He believed in his dreams and he didn’t know the meaning of the word “impossible.”
Failure can stop the ordinary man/woman in their tracks. It can leave us whimpering, blaming, offering excuses, or …
we can use failure as simply a stepladder to success!
Like Edison, let’s look at any failure or mistake as one step closer to our goal, shall we?
The result will be in direct proportion to how we choose to think. So think positively, think BIG and never stop believing in yourself, your ideas and the ability of infinite intelligence to manifest those ideas.
Oh, and one more thing … make sure what you’re offering is genuinely good for people.
How to Maximize Marketing Communications
Are you making your marketing communications work overtime for you?
If not, you definitely should be! By that, I mean you should ensure that every, single marketing message in every, single marketing medium you use — includes your brand, personality and value proposition.
All too often, company owners or CEOs (large and small) don’t really understand they are in the marketing business. They may sell products or offer services, but they are ALL in the marketing business.
So, it would behoove you to pay very close attention to what’s happening in your marketing. What ARE the communications messages saying about you and your company?
I suggest that unless you, the one at the top, work very closely with your marketing VP or director or an outsourced professional … to ensure everything that goes out is reflecting how YOU want you and your company to be perceived in the market place.
Hopefully, you will have someone you trust to manage this for you, but you need to work closely to establish some guidelines, beginning with your mission and vision statement — making sure what you stand for is always being supported, by your various marketing messages.
Here are a few things to do to guarantee your brand, personality and value proposition are always included in everything that goes out to the market place:
1. Start with a well-thought-out mission statement.
2. Make sure everyone, not only your marketing department, but everyone in the company is aware and ‘on board’ with the mission.
3. Understand that every employee is an ambassador for your company. And have some kind of effective internal communications program in place as well.
4. Be involved in creating the communications plan. It’s VITAL to your organization’s healthy growth.
5. Set up some kind of system whereby you know what’s going out, where it’s going to and that it includes the BIG 3.
These are just a few of the bare bones minimum things all owners or CEOs need to pay attention to, I believe.
And remember, to maximize your marketing communications to the fullest, YOU need to be a ‘change artist for good.’ Your leadership can help you and your company join the ranks of more self-aware, socially responsible companies everywhere …
and, thereby, be the kind of company existing and new customers will want to buy from.
It’s a great phonomenon, isn’t it? When you do the right thing, more and more consumers are apt to do business with you. I write about the socially responsible movement that’s sweeping the world of business in a soon to be released report. (If you leave your name and email address in a comment or the contact form, I’ll be sure to send you one.)
Now get to maximizing your marketing communications — and let the world know how wonderful you are!
Till next time,
Carolyn
http://www.marcommagic.com
Master Artist of Genuine, Inspired Connections
Are You Writing Articles for Syndication? And Are You Doing it Right … or All Wrong?
Lots of folks have caught on to the notion of syndicating articles,
in order to get one-way links to their web sites.
And, also, to be seen as an expert in their respective field is
another very valid reason to go to all the trouble of writing
articles.
I’d like to offer a few tips on writing articles for syndication
for the purposes we just mentioned … to get one-way links to our
site and to be seen as an authority in a particular field.
14 TIPS to Effective Article Syndication …
1. Always post your article on your site first. (Under your
articles section or on your blog).
2. Then, wait a week AFTER you’ve posted it on your site,
before syndicating it to other sites.
3. The reason for #2 is that you want the search engine
spiders to index your site and give YOU credit for the
original content.
4. When you syndicate (put articles out there for others to
use), there are a staggering number of places to do this.
Choose wisely.
5. Submityourarticle.com is one place I’ve found, where you
can write up several versions of your article, so it isn’t
considered duplicate content.
6. In your article on your site (or blog), use links to
different pages on your site. Do the same thing in the
articles you release for syndication.
7. Use anchor text for the links, going to different pages
on your site.
8. Also, use a keyword or keyword phrase as the anchor text
for the links, going to different pages on your site.
9. Never, never ONLY use links to your homepage. The search
engines don’t like that.
10. Relevance: Google only respects relevant content. So, make sure the links take the reader to ‘relevant content.’ In other words, if your subject is about dog breeds, make sure your links go to a page on your site that talks about dog breeds.
11. Do NOT post the same article on your site and on your blog also.
Not good.
12. Keyword weight – Only use 1 or 2 keywords per article.
(3 – 4% keyword density)
13. Some article submission places may not allow you to use
links to your site in the body of your article. In this case, you’ll
be relegated to use your URL in the resource box at the bottom.
14. Never syndicate (give your content away), unless you at
least get a resource box at the bottom, with your bio and link to your URL.
That’s enuf for now. So, may I wish you happy writing!
And, if you don’t know how to write or don’t have time … just hire a kickass copywriter to write articles for you.
You’ll be glad you took the time to get it done right!
http://www.kickasscopywriter.com
