BEST ARTICLE

Secrets to Top Speed Writing

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:02:17 +0000

If you’re the kind of person who usually spends 45 minutes to write 3 sentences, you’re not alone! I am constantly surrounded by people who keep asking me, “How do you write so fast so much?” Erm….taking the mistakes and simple spelling errors into account?

Well, here’s the thing. You don’t really need REAL talent to write fast and I am telling you how over here.

STEP ONE

Write a skeleton. Yes, the skeleton is one of the most important parts of your article or whatever it is that you’re writing. The skeleton will be your guide. Even if you decide not to follow the skeleton later on, it doesn’t matter, you’ll have a structure there that you can change and edit as you see fit as you write on.

STEP TWO

Write. This is where the speed comes in. This is where most people get stuck. I have friends who produce all of 1 word per minute. The problem is that they ponder over the minute details too long too soon! This is not the time to go over the grammatical errors and simple mistakes. The second stage of writing is pretty much like talking. Yes, write the way you talk….we’ll deal with the details later on! The reason why some people spend days writing an article is because they’re dwelling on the details too soon!

If you want to get ahead, think and write. Or better still, TALK and write. This way, you’re actually writing the way you think and write.

STEP THREE

Checking for grammatical errors. This is the boring-est stage of the writing process. After putting all your thoughts into words, you’re going in for the details now. Not sooner and not later. Check for spelling errors (MS Word usually does a pretty good job at covering that unless you’re the kind of person who likes to write on the fly) and also grammatical errors. Rewrite some sentences and rearrange the structure of the article too if you have to.

STEP FOUR

Proofreading. If you think step three is bad, this is the pits! I hate proofreading (and if the job is an unpaid one….such as this article), I might decide to skip this step if my mood is blacker than my wok. But if it’s a job for a client, I’ll go through the mill and do the running, anyway. Although this part is as mundane as it gets, and yet if you want a professional feel to the article, this step is unavoidable.

There you have it, your ARTICLE!

How to Write a Newspaper Article Quickly and Easily!

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 09:49:27 +0000

Articles in a newspaper are quick and to the point, not infused with a whole lot of personal opinion or evaluation, and tend towards the facts plain and simple as you can possibly imagine. This style may not seem like a lot of fun to write, but it is one of the most important types of stories and writing skills that you could possibly have. After all, newspapers employ more writers than any other writing industry, and even most companies who are not in the writing industry will look to hire people for writing newspaper articles. So, if you’re a writer, then you need to learn how to write a newspaper article quickly. And if you need to learn how to write newspaper article quickly, then follow this simple guide.

All good newspaper articles start off with a good headline that will entice the reader to follow up and read the whole article, so it would be remiss of me not to cover the basics in this how-to guide for writing newspaper articles. The type of headline will likely be determined by your placement in the newspaper if you write for a physical product, so make sure to have plenty handy. If your article is to appear on the cover, something enticing will work well, however, if you’re stuck on the inside pages, you need to stick to the facts and write a more generic title. Your title also might need to be shortened depending on what kind of space has been allotted for your article. For online magazines and publications, you should find a more enticing title that will tell them about the key idea of your article, but mention that it contains a “surprise” or a “secret.” These two words drive more clicks than you can possibly imagine, and work very well for driving people to your articles.

For the body of the article, you need to find some good quotes from interviews. Nothing brings people in like quotes. It will make your article more personable and give it a human quality, plus it allows you to break the flow of facts.

There should be no more than three sentences per paragraph. If you have more to add about a particular topic, you should revisit it after a relevant quote or at the end of the article. Your article will be cramped into a corner and put in thin columns, so writing with short paragraphs will look more appealing and readable. Most people forget this, and will write long and interesting paragraphs, full of information, but will wonder why so many people skip reading them.

The last thing you need to know about how to write newspaper articles is that your article should contain a picture. Words are less powerful than a picture, and a captivating picture will make or break your readability. Without a picture, your article looks dry and unimportant. With a picture, you will suddenly gain notoriety and visibility.

If you follow those simple steps, then you will have learned the basics of how to write a newspaper article, and you can write a newspaper article quickly and easily. If you want to learn how to make some money with your newspaper articles, then click here to learn how to make money with your newspaper articles.

The Connection Between Technology And Childhood Obesity

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:06:35 +0000

Today, it is hard to imagine life without a computer or television and other electronic gadgets that have become so commonplace since the advent of modern technology that it is leaving us and our children with little time to enjoy nature and the outdoors. Not so long ago, parents derived much pleasure from seeing their kids cavorting in the outdoors beneath the sun or climbing trees and remaining somewhat more active than the kids of today who have found a virtual world in which to remain engrossed. Thus, technology and childhood obesity are closely related because we have now become accustomed to having our eyes glued to the computer screen or television screen and are otherwise taken up with different forms of electronic entertainment.

Boob-Tube And More Boob-Tube

The new lifestyle that has taken over our children’s lives leaves little time for them to exercise, go out and remain otherwise active and it is far removed from the lifestyle our parents enjoyed many years ago. Along with the sedentary life that our children have become accustomed to, technology and childhood obesity have become closely intertwined and our concern for our health has also taken a backseat as the life in front of the boob-tube continues to take up all of our children’s time at the expense of their health.

It is thus imperative to understand the reason why technology and childhood obesity are going hand in hand, and when one considers the fact that child obesity has gone up by more than three times in the recent past, the problem has actually now reached epidemic proportions and it seems that now we are breeding obesity in our homes as we are letting our children spend all of their time in front of the television or other electronic devices.

The fact is that when we and our children sit immobile for hours on end watching television or working on the computer or playing video games, we neglect to exercise and along with a diet consisting of sodas and fast foods are breeding obesity like never before. Thus, technology and childhood obesity are causing our children to eat more, exercise less and live sedentary lifestyles which is a cocktail that only serves up more obese children in our population today.

No doubt, there are a number of other factors too that contribute to obesity, but television is a prime example of how technology and childhood obesity combine to the detriment of our health. Staying glued to the television will mean a lack of exercise, focusing on excessive eating followed by an unhealthy lifestyle and thus contributing to furthering the incidence of obesity in our children.

Television and the computer are prime examples of how technology and childhood obesity are making kids do things that are bad for them and if you want your kid to not become obese, you should discourage him from watching too much television, which is a major reason why children become obese, and to also address obesity as a health problem which needs to be addressed and not to consider obesity as merely being a problem with how the child looks.

Article Submission Myths Debunked

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:45:10 +0000

The article submission myths that people are so ignorantly led to believe today are perplexing at best and disgusting at worst. However, they’re also getting rather dated despite blatant and consistent evidence to the contrary. In fact, some veteran article marketers have even theorized that there is a conspiracy by some of those who profit from these myths to ensure that they are perpetuated. So let’s get right to the point: you should submit your articles to as many directories as possible, you should never spin your work, duplicate content (as you know it) isn’t real, you can get high PR backlinks with articles and you will always outrank directories for your article if you index it on your site first. Article submission myths debunked, but read on for specifics.

Article Syndication Myth #1: You should only submit your article to one directory

One of the most common article submission myths is that you should only submit your work to 1 directory, or to a handful of “high quality” article directories. First of all, “high quality article directory?” What’s that? Doesn’t matter, because the reality is that article marketing is actually article syndication. You know, syndication – where the best thing that you can hope for is that your article will be picked up and republished to blogs and websites everywhere.

Let’s examine that: you want your article to be spread all over the place, but you only want to do that by submitting to one directory? That’s illogical. In fact, many of the same directories that could (and do) pick up the article from your one source are the same sites that you could submit your work directly to.

So here’s the point: get your well-crafted, flawlessly edited original articles out to as many directories and republishers as you want to – just make sure the directory is relevant. (Meaning don’t submit your article titled The History of Fish to a golf-related article directory.)

More importantly, consider giving traditional article marketing a try and submit your professional articles directly to the email inbox of editors who publish works related to your topic. And submit to as many good, relevant editors as you can find, because that’s the principle idea behind syndication: to [distribute] something for multiple publication; transitive verb: to [distribute] something such as an article or comic strip for publication in a number of newspapers or magazines simultaneously. (Taken from Encarta Dictionary)

Article Submission Myth #2: You should spin your articles

If you’re spinning articles you’re gaming the system and it will catch up to you. However, this is hardly the point. The point is that spun articles are supposed to offer something new and unique to each article directory. The idea is that by spinning your article a few dozen or even a few hundred times, you’ll be putting unique content out, and that “unique” content holds more weight than one original article distributed to hundreds of directories.

Let’s examine that lovely jewel: If you spin articles, you’re saying that in order to offer something new and unique to directories, you’re going to take one article and transform it into an avalanche of unreadable garbage? Have you ever read a spun article?

Spun articles are worthless and any person with any amount of intelligence will immediately identify them as the crap they are. Of course, the major argument here is that people who spin articles don’t expect they’ll actually be read by humans, and instead only care about the link value.

Sigh.

1.) If you don’t care about human readers, don’t submit to article directories. In most cases it is a violation of their TOS to do so, spammer.

2.) The only directories that will publish spun articles are low authority, PR0 sites that no one cares about – especially not Google. Even 50,000 or 100,000 thousand of those links won’t hold the weight of one link from a high authority relevant context site.

The time and resources spent spinning articles could be invested in crafting compelling and valuable original articles for syndication. Think about it: it takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour to spin an article using The Best Spinner – IF you do it well and take the time to spin at the word level, ensuring that each new word flows to the next logically.

If you produce 50 spun versions from your spin-syntax copy and submit them out to 500 directories, you’ll get a maximum of 50,000 links if you put two in each article. (Standard practice at most directories)

Of course, that 50,000 assumes that every single article directory accepted and published every single article, and any person who has ever used article submission software knows this won’t ever happen. The high quality article directories will reject the spun articles because as we’ve said before, any monkey can spot those in an instant. So you’ll get tens of thousands of worthless links on PR0 sites. Bravo.

Now, imagine if you spent the hour it took you creating that spin-syntax document and instead wrote one original article that provided real value to the reader and submitted that to the directories. Done this way, you’ll not only get tons of great links, you’ll also get human readership and the conversions we’re all ultimately hoping for.

Article Submission Myth #3: Submitting to multiple directories is duplicate content

Duplicate content isn’t a real thing – not in the way that most people have been led to believe. Instead, duplicate content refers to identical content on one site that can be found at different URLs on that same site. It can also refer to work that is not properly cited i.e.: stolen. Submitting your articles to multiple directories isn’t duplicate content: it’s syndicated content and it’s perfectly O.K. with Google.

If you believe this duplicate content myth, then what you’re saying is that you think Google only wants to see content that is exclusively found on one website and only that website throughout the whole world. Right?

Wrong.

One of the most significant benefits the internet provides is a place to share. People share photos, videos, poems, (ahem) articles, content, businesses they like and much more. According to this myth, sharing is a big no-no. I guess that’s why sites like Facebook, EzineArticles and the Warrior Forum are so unsuccessful, right?

Article Submission Myth #4: All backlinks from article directories are worthless

This myth is frustrating because it is often perpetuated by seemingly intelligent and experienced article marketers. Of course, most of the pages that your articles will ultimately end up on will be PR0, but what it you submit a popular, high quality article? Are you saying that an article with a lot of views, comments and shares won’t get PR? If you were, you’re probably not now.

Good articles achieve high PR all the time, which means those links you have down in the resource box will hold a lot more weight. (Many directories – including high authority ones – are still DoFollow sites.) There are plenty of articles out there that are PR5, PR6 and higher. The key is to write well and offer something of value; the reader must be entertained, informed, engaged or compelled in some way. Do this and you’ll attract readership, attract readership and your articles will get PR.

Article Submission Myth #5: Directories can outrank you for your article

This is a really lame myth. Can one instance of an article outrank another instance for the same keyword? Absolutely. If your website is a poorly optimized PR0 site with a newbie domain, of course you’ll get outranked. Will the directory version outrank you for an exact-match title search? Probably not.

But as far as PR goes, if your site is properly designed and optimized it’s not likely that another instance of your article will achieve PR. Index your work on your own website first. Once it’s indexed that article will be held as the original source and will likely be the only version to obtain PR. Only after your article has been indexed should you submit it to directories.

The only other strategy that can achieve better results is to create one original article that will be posted exclusively to your site, and one “mirror” article written by hand to be 100% unique in every way, and then posted only to directories.

Of course, anyone who wants to continue to believe these myths is more than welcome to do so. Less competition. (Not that people who would practice these myths are competition…)

Good Writers Vs Great Writers – What Does it Take?

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:35:38 +0000

A lot of inexperienced writers looking to break into freelance or book writing wonder…how can I become a good writer? What does it take? Is there some kind of formal process I need to go through in order to write well and get my work noticed?

Good writing vs. great writing

The truth is, good writing takes practice. I believe that most people are capable of good writing, and that only a few people are capable of spectacular writing. No matter what the genre (business, creative, non-fiction, etc.), this theory seems to hold true.

Case in point #1

Of all the books published every year, many are good (obviously, or they wouldn’t be published at all right?). But how many become best sellers? And of those, how many actually win literary awards? There are plenty of good book writers, few great ones. This is a trend that goes back to the ye old days of Shakespeare, who in his time never achieved the literary acclaim he has now.

Case in point #2

I have seen non-writing business colleagues create marketing materials or implementation guides that were actually fairly good. But I’ve also re-worked documents from colleagues (including colleagues supposedly specializing in marketing communications – yikes) that lacked flow, structure, and general grammatical accuracy. Good writing exists, great writing is hard to find.

So what can you do?

Practice, practice, practice. Writing with correct structure, and with interesting words. Break out the thesaurus (there is one available in Microsoft Word) and find a different way to describe something. This is one of the best tools you can use to make your writing more interesting.

The importance of good communication

Beyond grammatical accuracy, interesting content and language “rules” (which honestly, good writers sometimes completely ignore), a good writer is first and foremost good at communicating. If you have trouble communicating via speech, you will have trouble communicating via the written word.

Whether you are writing marketing collateral to sell something, training materials to teach something, a book to tell a story, or an RFP for a client…if you cannot get your message across with your words, you have failed as a writer.

How can I improve my writing?

My three biggest guidelines:

#1: Read. And read a lot. You will increase your vocabulary and your ability to craft material. I recommend reading some of the classics, or some of the award winning novels you can find via the New York Times listings. These books will have the best examples of excellent writing, not just good writing.

#2: Practice. In all my years of writing, I still have things to learn. New approaches, new techniques, new presentation. It takes practice to create something truly engaging for the reader. So write, and write often.

#3: Consider a writing class. If you don’t know where to start or are interested in creative writing (novels, poetry, short stories), a class at your local community college can help you get moving.

Facts About Using Cheap Content Writers For Your Blog

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:05:31 +0000

With the explosion of blogs on the Internet today, there is an undeniable need for blog content writers today. This opens up a brand new industry for writers like me….write blog contents everyday for clients! And frankly, blog content writers today are dirt cheap! Dirt cheap! But here are a few facts that you might want to consider when hiring cheap blog content writers.

Plagiarism problem

One of the biggest problems with hiring cheap blog content writers is plagiarism. It’s way too easy to plagiarize work of others and earn a damn good income from it! So easy that it’s scary. And you know what’s even scarier? That the writers don’t have to be penalized for it….instead, the blog or the website owner gets the rap! Yes, it’s true. And the writers who have taken your money get away Scot-free. Scary, isn’t it? Something should be done to reduce the number of ‘victims’ of these cheap blog content writers because I have seen some of my clients being penalized for it.

Writing gibberish content for your blog

I am going to be really frank with you here….it’s easy to write about nothing and get paid for it. I know because sometimes I have such requests. But the whole purpose of maintaining your blog is to keep your readers and the content have to create an interest. Without it, your blog readers are going to come, fleet between a couple of pages and leave…never to come back again. The job of the blog content writer is to bring ORIGINAL interesting articles to the readers so that the readers will come back and read more.

Copy and pasting job amongst cheap blog content writers

Listen, if you want to learn a dirty trick, I’ll teach you how. Go to http://www.google.com and search related keywords. Open a couple of web pages. Copy and paste the content from all the sites into a Microsoft Word document. Edit the document without typing out a single word of your own by deleting a paragraph here, a word there, relocate some sentences….there, you’re done. This is how some cheap blog content writers do it. Shocking, isn’t it? How do I know this….I’ve been tempted one time too many to do it myself, that’s why!

Search engines take plagiarism very seriously and will not hesitate in penalizing the blog owner for it. And that is why you should be cautious when thinking about hiring a cheap blog content writer! Go into their background, make sure they’re transparent and they know what they’re doing, professional in every sense of the word and can transform your blog into a reader magnet without plagiarizing other people’s work.

It’d be a shame if you had a great blog going and it all goes down the drain the moment you hire a cheap blog content writer. It sounds really mean but this is just a warning I want to share with all blog owners so that they don’t get penalized for something they didn’t do.