Posts from — September 2010
5 Easy Ways To Get Your Creative Juices Going
Writing an article doesn’t just mean putting down thoughts into words then typing and writing it. You have to capture the interest of your readers and get them to keep on reading. To send your message across you have to get the attention of the reader and have a firm grasp of their interest and pique their curiosity.
The main ingredient in baking up an article is a large dose of creativity. While creativity may come natural to many people, some just gets into a block or something to that effect that can drive someone crazy. Many writers have literally torn their hair out when they get writers block and just can’t seem to get their creative juices flowing.
Putting words into images in the readers mind is an art. A clear and crisp depiction requires a certain flair that only creativity can provide. Similes and metaphors help a lot, but the way an article gets entwined word for word, sentence by sentence then paragraph by paragraph into a whole article develops the essence of the article.
So just what do you have to do when nothing comes to mind? There is no surefire ways to get the perfect ideas but there are easy ways to get your creative juices flowing. No one can guarantee you of having the perfect mindset but many methods may aid you in achieving that state of mind. Here are five easy ways for that.
1) Keep a diary or a journal with you always. Ideas can be triggered by anything you may hear, see, or smell. Your senses are your radar in finding great ideas. Write all of them into a journal and keep it with you for future reference. You may also write down anything that you have read or heard, someone’s ideas could be used to develop your own ideas and this is not stealing. Remember that ideas and creativity can come from anywhere; it’s the development of the idea that makes it unique.
2) Relax and take time to sort things out. A jumbled mind cannot create any space for new ideas. Everyone must have a clear mind if one wishes to have their creativity in full speed. Get rid of all obstacles that can be a hindrance to your creativity. If you are bothered by something, you cannot force your mind to stay focused.
Try to relax every time that you can and think about your experiences and interactions with others. Your experiences are what shape your mindset and your opinions which could be reflected on your writings. Try to discover yourself, find out what triggers your emotions. Discover what inspires you and what ticks you off. You can use these emotions to help you in expressing yourself and your ideas, with this you can grow creatively.
3) Create a working place that can inspire your creativeness. Your working place can be quite a hindrance if it doesn’t make you feel happy or relaxed. Creativity comes from being in a good state of mind and a messed up workplace that causes distraction won’t be conducive in firing up your creative flow.
Surround your working place with objects that makes you happy and relaxed. You may put up pictures, or scents, objects that inspire, or anything that can get your creativeness cranking. A clean and well organized workplace also rids of distractions and unwanted hindrances. With a good working place, you can work in peace and never notice the time pass by.
4) Set the mood. Setting the mood requires you to just go with the moment or to induce your self to feeling what makes your mind works best. Finding out what makes you tick could help you find ways to get your creative juices flowing. Set the pace and tempo for your mood and everything else will follow.
There are many ways to set the mood. Some writers have been known to use alcohol, a little sip of wine to stir up the imagination. Some would like some mood music while others let the lighting of the environment create the mood.
5) Go on a getaway and just do something unlike crazy. Letting yourself go and have fun produces adrenaline that can make your imagination go wild. Take an adventure or a solemn hike. Whatever it is that is unusual from your daily routine can take the rut out of your schedule. In no time at all, your creativeness will make use of that experience and get your imagination to go on overdrive.
September 29, 2010 0
Top 5 Ways To Generate Low Cost Website Traffic
Top 5 Ways To Generate Low Cost Website Traffic
There is one hard and fast rule in generating income for your website: A steady flow of website traffic. If no one goes to your site, it hardly bares a chance of generating an income. Many sites have tried and failed in doing so, and these results to the sites demise. It takes money to maintain an income generating site; it also takes money to make money.
BUT, it doesn’t take a whole caboodle of cash to generate website traffic for your site.
Ever wonder how does big hit sites drive traffic top their site? Most of them are spending tons of money to drive the traffic to their sites, investing in many advertising campaigns and different forms of marketing schemes and gimmickries. This is all worthwhile because, well, they are what they are now, high earning, big hitting websites.
You don’t have to do this if you don’t really have their resources. There are many ways to generate low cost website traffic without having to spend what you don’t have or can’t afford. Many people have banked on high cost methods and have ended up losing their shirt over it.
Here I present to you the Top five ways to generate low cost website traffic that could help your site a whole lot. Even if you only get a small percentage of successful visitors in to client ratio it still works especially if you get a high number of website traffic.
Exchange Links
This is a sure and proven method. Rarely would you see a site where there is no link to another site. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with one another so that they could produce more public awareness about their sites. You’ll soon see and feel the sudden upsurge of the traffic coming in to your site from other sites.
A major prerequisite in exchanging links with other sites is having the same niche or content as the other site. They should share a common subject so that there is continuity in the providing of service and information to what interests your target traffic.
Exchanging links also boosts your chances of getting a high ranking in search engine results. It is common knowledge that search engines ranks high sites that have inbound and outbound theme-related links. With a good ranking position in the search engines, you will generate more traffic in your website without the high costs.
Traffic Exchange
This is like exchanging links but on a different higher level. This may cost a bit more than exchanging or trading links but could be made cheaper because you get to earn credits. You can use those credits when viewing others traffic, while you earn credits when someone views yours.
Traffic exchange services are the viewing of another’s site or page. This is done vice versa where a site can use your sites contents and so can you to his or her site. You both benefit from each others efforts to generate traffic. The other sites visitors can go to your pages and know more about your site as well as theirs. Once again the public awareness of your sites existence is boosted.
Write and Submit Articles
There are many e-zines and online encyclopedias in the internet which provides free space for articles to be submitted. If you want to save costs, you can do the articles yourself. There are many freelance writers who are willing to write for you for a small fee, but to save money, it is wise to do those articles yourself.
Write articles that are themed along with the niche of your site. Write something that you have expertise on so that when they read it, they can feel your knowledge about the subject and will be eager to go to your site. Write articles that produce tips and guidelines to the subject or niche your site has.
Include a resource box at the end of your article that can link them to your site. Write a little about yourself and your site. If you provide a light, information-laden and interesting article, they will go to your site for more.
Make a Newsletter.
This may sound like hard work because of all the articles you may need to use to build a newsletter but on the contrary, this is not so. There are many writers and sites that are willing to provide free articles as long as they can get their name in on your newsletter. This will also provide free advertising for them as well.
As your newsletter gets pass around, you can widen your public awareness and build an opt-in list that can regularly visit your site.
Join Online Communities and Forums
This only requires your time and nothing else. You can share your knowledge and expertise with many online communities as well as your website. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche with your site.
Share your two cents and let them see how knowledgeable you are with the subject. As you build your reputation, you also build the reputation of your site, making it a reputable and honest business that could be frequented and trusted by many people.
September 27, 2010 0
Seven Ways to Make Your Technical Writing Better (Guest Article By Jane Sumerset)
I found this article on isnare.com that I thought might interest you as a freelance writer. It talks about how to improve your writing. Enjoy.
Seven Ways to Make Your Technical Writing Better
By Jane Sumerset
Many people believe that you must be born with writing skills in order to be a better writer someday. Although most of them find it hard to write a content, having an inborn skills is not really the answer of producing expert writers in the field of writing.
It isn’t necessary if what’s your status in the community or if you’re a professional or not, as long as you are determine to write then there is no problem at all.
Technical writing skills are always present to everyone but the only difference is how you can improve it more.
Many expert writers have developed their skills in writing as they continue to write and learn more. But when it comes into technical writing, they always focus their attention on how to deliver their message within their writing and to organize the necessary information that their readers needed to know.
Everyone thinks that technical writing is much difficult than any other forms of writing since you deal mostly with real information and not just your own views alone. All facts should be direct to the point and to organize them clearly as possible than to mess up with unnecessary words.
To help you more about technical writing, here’s what you should do:
1. Make it easy to read. Your technical content should be the hardest thing on the paper, not your grammar. Pay someone to proofread the whole thing or use a technical writing software.
2. Avoid ambiguous words. You can get away using ambiguous words (i.e. words that can have multiple meanings) in most types of writing. In a technical document, though, using them can lead readers down the wrong path.
3. Avoid strong words. Saying “absolutely” and “without doubt” may be part of your regular use of the English language, but terms as strong as these are rarely appropriate for a technical document. It’s fine to be assured by your results, but you want the reader to make their own conclusion.
4. Be very clear. The reader should know which subjects all your pronouns are referring to, as well as which noun or verb your modifiers are changing. Clarity is key to many types of writing, much more so with technical pieces.
5. Use terms consistently. If you use a term to refer to one kind of an idea, use it the same way throughout the piece. It will help lessen confusion.
6. Use first-person pronoun when referring to the author or authors. While you are supposed to refrain from using “I” and “We,” it is perfectly appropriate when detailing work you actually did. In fact, it’s likely to only make the material clearer, as opposed to using “The researchers” or “The team.”
7. Use a technical writing software. People have written technical papers for years without software, so why need one now? Because it will save you a lot of time on the documentation of your work. Let’s be serious: do you really think your time is better spent slaving over grammar or doing other things?
About the Author: See how innovative Technical Writing Software instantly can boost your English writing and watch how NLP technology can help you to write perfect emails, essays, reports and letters. More Info.
Source: www.isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=598703&ca=Writing
September 22, 2010 0
Freelancers–Want to beat procrastination? Read on for details… (Long)
Many freelance writers struggle with procrastination on a daily basis. That is totally understandable. There are so many things clamoring for your attention. You’ve got to write in your blog, do social media, write stuff for clients, and you’ve got to tackle that mountain of laundry before it attacks your kids. Believe me, I know how that is. I’ve been there. My good friend Travis of bummarketingmethod.com shared this weird way that he beat procrastination.
Take it away Travis…
Hi!
I fight daily with one ugly enemy named PROCRASTINATION.
She’s a tough cookie too.
I can’t reason with her.
I can’t pump myself up and try and trick her.
She’s got fangs and rips into me so deep
I feel paralyzed at times…and she loves it!
She takes glee in robbing me of a lifetime of
fulfillment, health and happiness.
With such a formidable foe…
You’d think you’d need just as formidable weapon
to beat her?
Surprisingly…
I’ve found a weird way to beat her regularly.
I suspect it’s almost as weird as how garlic
wards off vampires?
But…
Even though my way is weird…
In the last few years I’ve beat her enough times to:
* Go from weighing 227lbs to 187lbs
* Shred my body fat from 20+% to 11% (I’m 42)
* Build my business and bank account to where I confidently quit my job.
* Build and maintain very profitable business for the last 3 years
* Oh…yeah…I quit smoking 4 years ago.
* Pay off all my debt (I keep a mortgage because rates are so low.)
I won’t go on because it makes me seem jerky, but my point is…
I think I’m on to something?
Here’s the weird way I beat procrastination.
Whenever I feel procrastination’s breath on my shoulder, I
ask myself?
What’s the smallest step I am willing to do?
(The smallest step in which I won’t trigger procrastination
to bare her fangs and try and fight me.)
Once I know the smallest step…
I give myself permission to do just THAT ONE STEP…no
matter how small or tiny…without judgment if I don’t go
past that step.
Then I do that ONE STEP and REPEAT THE PROCESS.
THAT’S IT!
Here’s what NORMALLY happens…
Let’s say procrastination is trying to trick me into
giving up my health priorities and is telling me
I have too much to do to go out and do something
as silly as jogging 4 miles today.
Here’s what I do…
I may tell myself…
“okay…Let’s just put on our running shorts and shoes, we
don’t have to run, let’s just ‘suit up’.”
After that…
If I don’t feel like doing more…I DON’T!!!!!!!!!
BUT!
You know what happens most times?
I fly underneath procrastination’s radar and all
of a sudden…I almost automatically say…
“We’re already suited up…let’s just go outside.”
“Don’t have to run…just go outside”
So I go outside and suddenly I catch a breath of fresh
air that MAKES ME FEEL like running.
if not…
I might say…
“This feels good…let’s just walk up that hill once”
so I do…
“Next thing I know…I’m jogging?”
and ENJOYING IT…
That’s one example…
Another that happens VERY OFTEN is I have
something to write and procrastination has me
under the “I don’t wanna” spell.
What I do…
Is I say…
“Do I feel like just OPENING Word?”
“Sure…we’ll just go the PC and open Word and if we don’t feel
like doing more…we’ll stop.”
Then…
I open word.
Many times that is enough to get me writing like a mad man.
If not…
It’s okay!
After Word is open I might say…
“Let’s just come up with the headline, doesn’t even have
to be good…then we’ll stop.”
Then…(Bet you know what happens?)
I get so EXCITED by the headline I’ve got to finish.
Well my friend, that is the weird way I beat procrastination.
Sometimes…
To be frank with you, there ARE TIMES when I sit in my
house for hours suited up for my run and never go out to
do it.
and I don’t make myself feel bad about it, as long as…
I’ve done that ONE TINY minimum action.
That’s the KEY!
I’d love to hear if this ‘garlic’ helps you ward
off your procrastination vampires:-)
Live, Laugh, Love,
Travis
PS That little wench tried to talk me out of writing this note too!
We showed her though didn’t we?
Okay it’s DeAnna again. I know that was a bit longer than my normal post, but I felt like it was important to share this with you. Now go and get stuff done (or at least started.)
September 21, 2010 0
Freelance Jobs: Site That Searches All Of Craigslist
I know it can be tough to find a freelance job using Craigslist. However, I have come across a site, thanks to my friends over at the Warrior Forum, that will allow you to search all of craigslist in a short period of time. Here is the site: http://allofcraigs.com Happy hunting!
September 16, 2010 0
Freelancers: Stay Away From These Products…
By reposting this blog post, I may alienate myself from some big time marketers but I don’t care. I’d much rather you be wise about your purchases than to stay on the good side of someone using tactics I don’t agree with. I came across this blog post by Jason Fladlien regarding all of these product launches with people making big claims about something that turned out not to be true. I won’t spoil the details, just click the link below for more details.
http://48hourreport.com/myblog/stayawa/
September 15, 2010 0
Freelance writers: video with marketing tips for your small business
Every freelancer needs to market her business in order to survive. If you don’t consistently bring in new clients, you won’t survive. This video will give you some marketing ideas you can use in your business.
September 13, 2010 0
Earn Money Online By Taking Surveys (Sponsored Post)
I know you are probably busy with your freelance business. That’s great. I’m happy for your success. However, if you ever have a slow period in your freelance business, you may want to consider adding an additional stream of income to your current mix of income producing activities. You may want to earn money online by taking surveys.
Now before you start moaning and groaning about how those things are a big waste of time and don’t work, just go visit the link. This guy is genuine and he is actually going to take the time to coach you through the process so you’ll be successful at this. I’m not going to say that this will replace your day job or help you become a millionaire overnight. You know I don’t make claims like that.
Here are some of the features offered by the two survey sites recommended on this website:
*$5 just for signing up!
*Pay you when they say they will!
*Surveys are easy and earnings show quickly
*Excellent support by email with quick response times
*Refer friends and family for even more money!
*Cash-out by check, direct deposit, paypal or gift card
*Clean and simple user-interface
*How-to and instructions that make it easy
*New surveys are added regularly
*Option to do paid surveys for the big bucks
That’s a lot more than what I’ve seen on some of the other survey sites I tried out. Give this a shot. I always say that you need more than one way to earn money these days. Don’t wait. Click on the words earn money online by taking surveys now to get started.
September 8, 2010 0
Freelancers – Create a Social Media Policy For Your Company Using These Guidelines
Freelancers, have you considered creating a written social media policy for your company? Now I know you may be thinking, “I’m just a one person shop, why do I need a social media policy?” Well one day you may grow into a Fortune 500 company. It’s better to go on and get some kind of policy written down now while it is just you that you have to worry about. Read the rest of this article for more details about how you can create a social media policy for your growing freelance business.
Do you have a social media policy for your business? There have been many cases of employees getting fired because of social media. This could have been avoided if the business owner had a clear cut social networking policy in place and communicated that policy to the staff. While you might not have a large staff now, it is a good idea to put an online networking policy in place as soon as possible. Make sure that everyone is aware of the social networking policy when they are first hired. Here are some things to consider when you are coming up with the social media policy for your company.
What your employees are allowed to say about the company.
I am not suggesting that you totally censor your employees. However, you do have a certain public image to uphold. You have to decide early on what you are going to allow your employees to say about the company on social networking sites. This is definitely something that needs to be outlined in the handbook you create about your company’s social media policy.
Is there a particular point person to send media requests to?
Your employees may run into members of the media while they are networking. The journalist may want to ask them some questions about your company. You have to decide if you want your employees to be able to answer those types of questions themselves or if you want one employee to be the designated spokesperson for the company. Whatever you decide, make sure to communicate this to all staff so there is no confusion.
What employees are allowed to post on online networking sites.
Once again this is a matter of protecting your company image. Your employees are a representative of you. You need to figure out what kind of information you want your employees to post on social media. Are they allowed to reveal your company name on their personal profiles? Can they post pictures of themselves at work? Is it okay for them to post pictures of themselves drinking alcohol? These might seem trivial, but it is important to let your employees know beforehand what they can post rather than trying to discipline them when they cause bad publicity for the company.
Having a social media policy is important for you and your employees. It helps your employees to know exactly what they can and can’t do with their social media profiles. It could also protect you from future lawsuits since the policy will be spelled out in black and white. Now stop reading this article and create a social media policy for your company.
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September 8, 2010 0
Freelancers: Focus on Relationships and the Money Will Follow
These days your potential clients have a lot of options. They have a lot of advertising messages coming at them on a day to day basis. How can you make sure that your messages and products stand out? You have to make sure that you focus on building relationships with your clients. The rest of this article will explain why it is so important to focus on relationships instead of just making that one time sale. We’ll also discuss how you can build relationships and how to decide who you want to build a relationship with.
Who is your customer?
This is the most important part of the equation. If you don’t know who your customer is, then how will you know who you want to build a relationship with? What do you do if you don’t know who your customer is? If you don’t already have a client base, you need to do some research to decide what type of client you wish to serve. Remember that the ideal client is someone who desires what you offer and can pay for it. Of course you want to make sure a need exists for your product or service, but it is equally important to target people that can afford what you are offering.
What is your offer?
This is also an important thing to consider when building relationships with customers. You have to know what you are going to offer your customers. Make sure what you are offering fits the customer’s lifestyle. For example, if you are selling expensive crystal, you probably would not want to target people with young children. The reason for this is that they would not be likely to buy anything that fragile. Take these things into consideration when you are choosing offers for your potential clients. Don’t just promote something because the commission is high. If the offer does not solve your client’s biggest problem, don’t promote it.
You must determine what the main problem you are going to solve for your client. You can offer more than one product, just make sure that it fits your client’s needs. It doesn’t matter if the product has the prettiest sales page on the planet. If the product isn’t something your customer wants, you will not make that many sales. In order to find out what your customers want, do some research. You can do surveys of people that follow you on various social media sites. You can also find out what your customers want by hanging out at the forums they frequent.
Once you know who you are selling to, you can focus on building relationships with them. Build a forum on your website for your customers to hang out on. Socialize with your clients on twitter and facebook. Hold live events to show your appreciation.
Focus is extremely important. You can’t be all things to all people. You will be much more valuable to your clients if they know that they can go to you and get answers to a specific problem. It may take time to determine what your niche is. Once you do that, it will make marketing that much easier.
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September 6, 2010 0
