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Tips on Improving Your Writing Skills

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Tips on Improving Your Writing Skills
By Nicole Powell

Writing can be described as an art; some people will master it, while others struggle to put a well structured sentence together. However, with the right mindset and practice you can certainly improve your writing. There are many ways in which you can progress; we will examine three (3) of the most important aspects of writing.

In order for you to write professionally you will have to ensure that you read a lot. Reading is more than just recognizing or calling words. A good reader will read widely; to expand both knowledge and skill. Reading does not take place until you comprehend what you have read.

Therefore it is very important for you to pay attention to new words and also to find out their meanings. You must never pass a word without looking up its meaning. Reading widely will certainly improve spelling, vocabulary and grammar.

Another crucial factor to take into consideration is the use of English. For you to become a fine writer your grammar must be excellent. In addition you must know the eight parts of speech and also the role each play in the formation of sentences. Further, the proper use of punctuation marks is also necessary in creating clear and grammatically correct sentences. Always remember to make the most of your grammar check software when working from your computers.

Strive to present your readers with rich, fresh and quality content. It is also critical to bear in mind the purpose for writing, your content must be appropriate and appeal to your target group. From time to time you should remind your self of "why" and "who" you are writing for. It is also necessary for you to proof read your work, or have someone re-read it.

You cannot be lazy, if you are going to master the art of writing, you have to practice. Your aim should be to write something everyday, and overtime you will see improvements in your writing.

Nicole Powell, www.english-bizniz.com

For more information on how to fine tune your writing go to http://www.english-bizniz.com Submitted by: Nicole Powell

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Using Articles To Generate Targeted Website Traffic

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Using Articles To Generate Targeted Website Traffic
By Colin Meunier

Article marketing has been the topic of hot discussion during promotional brainstorming in both small as well as big businesses around the world lately. Every entrepreneur sure wants to take a piece of this pie, because it is indeed true that article marketing reaches out to a wider global audience. It is a very significant way of bringing targeted traffic to your business website. And that is the reason people are so much sold to this idea.

Let us begin this discussion by getting to the bare bones of the concept of it first. You have a website that you want to promote with article marketing. So what do you do? You get a professional informative article written. Then you weave in some keywords into it. These keywords are searched from web tools and are the keywords that people around the world are popularly searching. You put the keywords in the headline and format the article in a very readable style. Your article is now search engine optimized for its content. Some anchor tags may be added in the content of the article directly pointing to the website, but that is not always done (it is considered to be a crass way of promotion, anyways).

When this is done, the article is submitted to some article directories. All article directories will have an author resource box below them. This is the place for promotion actually. The author speaks very succinctly about him/herself and the product and provides the URL of the website. This takes care of the procedure of the article marketing exercise.

Now let us see its modus operandi. When a person from anywhere in the world types the keyword to search for information, he/she will probably get the article page as one of the search results. Upon visiting there and reading the article, if the reader is suitably impressed, there's a high and mighty chance that they may click on the URL of the website given below for more information. This is it - a quite simple concept! Your article has brought a visitor to the website. From there on, it's up to your website to actually sell the product to them.

Why is an article marketing campaign placed so highly above other marketing strategies then? Is it only for its simplicity? It is actually not fair to say that article marketing is simple. That's because its success pegs on the important factor of how impressive your article is. But the more important reason of its success is that you get a targeted flow of traffic.

People who read your article are those who have searched for that specific information. That means, they are already interested in that product. Your article sells the product to someone who is already looking out for it. Now that is what is called as targeted traffic.

The traffic that your article brings in comprises of people who are pre-sold to the idea of buying the product. If you read between the lines here, you will understand that with a successful article marketing campaign, you are not going out to people selling your product, but your niche itself is coming to you for information. The chances of selling your product to someone that has come through a campaign is higher than most other strategies for this single reason.

There are many ways to entice this targeted traffic further, by providing them freebies, by giving them privileged offers, by email marketing, etc. Article marketing acts like the initial magnetic pull for targeted traffic - that makes your promotional work quite easy to effectuate sales and monetize the traffic.

Copyright (c) 2008 Colin Meunier

Colin Meunier is a Successful Home Business Coach and Mentor! To learn how you can use a breakthrough marketing system to become more successful in your home business online visit: Prosperity Cast Network

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Listen To The Critics

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Listen To The Critics
By Alyice Edrich

Back in 1999, I wrote my very first self-published book. I wrote it in Microsoft Word®, then took it down to Kinko's to be copied and bound. I sold several of those books without one ounce of feedback-good or bad.

Then a retired minister contacted me; he told me the book was good, but could be so much better. It was hard hearing his constructive criticism but I listened. I made the changes as fast as I could and then I sent him a complimentary copy. He emailed me immediately, ecstatic that I had rewritten the book because it was exactly what he needed. In fact, he was so thrilled with the new content that he offered to pay me for the second copy. (I declined his offer.)

I stopped printing and began selling the e-book version. The e-book began to make more money and word of mouth spread.

A few years later, I received an email from another gentleman who loved the e-book but felt it was lacking information. I asked what he felt was missing and where he was having trouble. He emailed me back some specifics. Once again, I went to work to improve the material in that e-book and sent him the finalized draft. A few weeks later he wrote back to tell me that the e-book was a hit! In fact, he was praising it all over the Internet and had received several job leads because of it.

Had I insisted my e-book was fine just the way it was, I would have made a few hundred bucks a month, but thanks to the feedback I received and my willingness to improve my book to meet the needs of its audience, I now sell over $1,000 per month of that very e-book! (And that is all by word of mouth...I have yet to pay for advertising for that e-book.)

So how do you go about getting feedback? You ask for it!

1. Include a questionnaire with every item you sell. Provide a multiple choice or fill in the blank survey.

2. Send an email to every customer who provided you with an email address. After three weeks from the date of purchase, send your customer an email asking for feedback on the product/service purchased. In exchange you will enter his/her name into a drawing for a prize at the end of the year. (Make sure you have your drawing rules and disclaimer in the email or a link back to a web page on your company site.)

3. "Send a sample of your product to trusted friends, colleagues, and/or business associates and ask for their honest feedback. (Remind them that you'll return the favor.)

4. Hire an outside company to get a survey going.

Sometimes, we don't know everything and listening to feedback from our customers can improve our bottom line-if we're willing to improve our product or service.

Alyice Edrich is the editor of The Dabbling Mum®, a free parenting publication, and the author of several work from home e-books designed to help parents earn extra cash while spending more time with their children. To learn more, visit her at http://thedabblingmum.com/ebookstore

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Distortion 101 - Taking Words Out of Context or Can My Most Frequent Expression Be Used Against Me?

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Distortion 101 - Taking Words Out of Context or Can My Most Frequent Expression Be Used Against Me?
By Ellen Wood

I watched one of the Presidential debates the other night and it reminded me just how powerful words are. During the debate, all candidates repeated words they wanted to sink into Americans' consciousness. (In computerspeak, I guess we'd call them "keywords".)

But one frontrunner candidate, in particular, kept repeating derogatory words about one of his opponents, also a frontrunner. His opponent vehemently denied those words and the media seemed to concur that they were untrue. But this candidate continued to repeat those keywords about the other man over and over, up to the very end of the debate. It seemed obvious he wanted to have them stick - to paint them on his opponent with indelible ink that soaked clear through his skin.

It got me thinking about words and the power of words: "Jury, disregard that last statement" kind of thing. Or "Don't think about an elephant."

His opponent claimed those words were taken out of context. Maybe they were - I don't know - I'm not writing about the veracity of his keywords. My point is about the power of words and the opposing emotions they can elicit when taken in context and out of context.

This was brought home to me last evening when I said to Colitta, as I frequently do throughout the day, "I'm going to beat you up!"

Of course, she probably heard it as "Aaar rahaar aarr raaww raw," or something like that, because Colitta is a dog.

She loves it when I say "I'm going to beat you up!" because it's a fun game we play to see who can get up the stairs the fastest. She smiles (truly, she does smile) and pants and wags her stump of a tail, whether she wins the race up the stairs or not. And she always gets extra pettings at the top.

I play this innocent game with my "rescue" pooch - my cherished dog who, on her first day in my home, shook so badly from fear I thought her heart would stop and all fours would stand straight up in the air. She had been kept outside in a pen for the first seven years of her life - even in the bitter cold weather we have in these northern New Mexico mountains.

This miracle dog, who died on the operating table and was revived by the first-rate vets in Taos - "Good news! So far it looks like no brain damage!" - has a back with a permanent no-fur, four-inch triangle and her missing teeth give her tongue the perfect place to loll when she pants. But she's beautiful to me, loves me unconditionally and our race seems to be her favorite thing to do.

If someone were to write that Ellen frequently says to Colitta, "I'm going to beat you up," without putting those words into the context of our race up the stairs, how distorted they could become.

This observation hit me over the head with the marketing of candidates. How refreshing it would be if we could be spared some of the distortions and negativity of the campaign trail - and if civility and veracity ruled.

Until that day, we can each notice that our own words carry energy and power. It's a good reason to be conscious of the words we choose when we speak to others and to ourselves - especially to ourselves. Observe your thoughts and see if you're telling yourself how magnificent you really are!

Ellen Wood, inspirational speaker and author of "The Secret Method for Growing Younger - a Step-by-Step Anti-Aging Process Using the Law of Attraction to Help You Stop Aging, Grow Younger and Enjoy Life", is a living example of the effectiveness of the processes she teaches. At 71, Ellen is pioneering a revolution in age-reversing consciousness. Her passion is to spread the joy of youthfulness from mind to mind until a critical mass is reached and elders become empowered, valued members of society.

Her book is endorsed by Barbara DeAngelis PhD, and world-renowned physicians, including Norm Shealy MD, Larry Dossey MD, David Simon MD, Richard Moss MD and Mitchell Gibson MD. Download the Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2 for free at http://howtogrowyounger.com/

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Technical Writers Jobs - A Simple Definition

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Technical Writers Jobs - A Simple Definition
By Jamie Denning

Technical writers jobs are few and far between, this type of work is well paying most of the time, but also highly involved and specialized. Most writers are usually adept at adapting to job requirements. When you think most technical writers jobs typically involve writing an instruction manual on a newly released product, you will understand that although millions of products are released around the world every day, getting that work can be cumbersome and the income not reliable.

A writer always writes, if your job is writing, or you aspire to become a professional writer and what that means is getting paid for your writing, then becoming a technical writer is only one avenue to profit. The reason why technical writing is involved and specialized is because you are typically writing about a product and that means understanding safety standards of use in the country the product is being released in. It also means knowing the legal minimum requirements of what you can and cannot say because to a certain extent, if something adverse should happen with a purchaser who is following your written instructions, you are open to a certain level of liability.

Finally, the cumbersome part is actually liaising with manufacturing and development, to understand the products specifications and how it should be used. This is a lot more difficult, than for example sitting down and just writing about something you know about which is the ideal situation for a writer. Still, technical writing can be lucrative if you get those contacts and develop the skills you need and get the specialized knowledge.

Getting paid is a lot simpler! Imagine quitting your day job in just 3 days, you can, you know, you can write articles for a living just like me and thousands of others do. Discover how to get paid $90 dollars per hour or even more doing simple, short articles. Genuine work from home opportunity, replace your day job income working only 3 hours a day - click the link below.

http://www.writers-dream.com/index1.html

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Writing Jobs Australia - Melbourne

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Writing Jobs Australia - Melbourne
By Jamie Denning

The coolest thing about having a writers job is that you can work where ever you want, most writers get paid writing from the comfort of their own homes. How good is that! One of the perks of becoming a professional writer I guess. There are many writers looking for work in Australia, Melbourne (must be something in the water!) The following is some advice for writers generally and some ideas about where to get work.

To become a professional, the first priority is to get paid. Anyone can write really, there is nothing special about us writers, but the difference between a hobbyist and a professional is that the professional gets paid. So ideally, finding consumers of freshly written content takes up some of the writers time, because once you have a few good clients, they can happily feed you work for years and even decades. Some of the biggest consumers of content are webmasters, because the web is completely dependant on content and in particular writing, (there are many different forms of content including software, audio/visual etc anything that is informative or entertaining is content) because if there was no content on the web, if there was nothing but ads, the world wide web would not be particularly interesting.

So, webmasters have a vested interest to buy fresh content on a regular basis to find an audience on any particular topic. That is where you come in. Who do you think writes all those billions of informative pages on the web? The web fairy? Content is detailed and time consuming work from a webmasters perspective because administering a website is a big enough job as it is, that is why they actively buy content on a daily basis. It is the first place a writer should look to make money writing.

Imagine quitting your day job in just 3 days, you can, you know, you can write articles for a living just like me and thousands of others do. Discover how to get paid $90 dollars per hour or even more doing simple, short articles. Genuine work from home opportunity, replace your day job income working only 3 hours a day - click the link below.

http://www.writers-dream.com/index1.html

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Writing And Editing Jobs You Can Do From Home - The Are Out There

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Writing And Editing Jobs You Can Do From Home - The Are Out There
By Jamie Denning

The following article describes some of the procedures required to secure writing and editing jobs online. Webmasters are prolific content consumers and collectively are the biggest buyers of content and writing on the planet. Webmasters typically do not write content themselves because their requirements are so monumental, when you think, the typical webmaster has 100,000 pages of content and maybe 300 websites, to write all that content themselves would be unthinkable, and so they turn to writers.

Anyone can write. The difference between a hobby writer and a professional is that the pro gets paid. So, to become professional anyone can apply for these projects and get paid. One of the most enjoyable things about becoming professional is that you can work from home which for most people would be a wonderful thing. To be able to quit a full time job and work from the comfort and peace of ones home is a nice way to live.

There are markets where such project listings appear and all you have to do is apply for the jobs which are listed daily. The first thing to do, is to introduce yourself and make a bid for the batch of work described in the listing. This is easy and you can apply for 500 jobs a day or even more if you want. It is advisable to send along with your bid, a couple of samples of your writing, just make sure the samples are good and are reflective of your work quality. Typically, you will be awarded a proportion of these applied for projects and all you have to do then is get writing!

Imagine quitting your day job in the next 3 days, you can, you know, you can write articles for a living just like me and thousands of others do. Discover how to get paid $90 dollars per hour or even more doing simple, short articles. Genuine work from home opportunity, replace your day job income working only 3 hours a day - click the link below to become a paid writer.

http://www.writers-dream.com/index1.html

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3 Easy Marketing Tips for Writers

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3 Easy Marketing Tips for Writers
By Jinger Jarrett

As a writer, I'll be the first to admit that sometimes I really hate marketing. If I weren't a writer who writes about internet marketing, I would probably avoid it like the plague. After all, marketing is not really my passion; writing is. So, I'd rather spend my time writing.

However, if you want to go from being a hobby writer, i.e. someone who does it nights and weekends, and still has to work a J.O.B., to someone who makes a living writing, then I would highly recommend that you learn how to market. It can mean the difference between being a hobbyist and a professional who earns his/her money writing.

As writers, it's very easy for us to market too. Since we like to write, and some of the best, and free, internet marketing techniques include writing, then we're already one step closer to our marketing goals.

Here are three easy techniques you can do to get started:

1. Submit your site to the search engines.

Although search engine optimization might sound really hard, it's not. In fact, one of the biggest mistakes I made early in my online career was to not learn search engine optimization.

By optimizing your website for the search engines, and then submitting to the top search engines, it's a very easy way to get organic traffic. This is free, targeted traffic. Targeted traffic means others are looking for what you have to offer.

When optimizing, don't forget to include your name in your keywords. After all, don't you search for your favorite authors by name? I do.

2. Build a blog and build relationships.

Blogs are one of the easiest websites to build. When you first start off, you can always build one on the free sites like Blogger or Wordpress. Once you've built your blog, then you can always import it to your own platform.

The beauty of a blog is that it allows your personality to shine through and build a relationship with your readers. Blogs are also easy to optimize for the search engines because you can use tags. You can also join blog communities and connect with other bloggers, as well as writers.

3. Write an article to promote your site or blog.

There's some disagreement on whether or not you should use articles to promote your writing. The problem a lot of writers have with this is that you aren't getting paid. However, had you rather earn a few thousand dollars over time from an article you wrote for promotion, or just a few bucks when you submit it for publication?

Why not do both? You can write for pay, but you can also write to promote. It's an easy, and a very lucrative way to make more money from your writing without a whole lot more effort.

Want more tips on how to make more money from your writing? Then check out Marketing for Writers Learn how to earn $100 a day or more writing articles: 101 Articles.

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10 Common Expressions and What They Mean

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10 Common Expressions and What They Mean
By Amy Nutt

We have a lot of odd expressions and idioms in the English language. We use them every day to describe things and to let people know how we feel . . . but have you ever wondered where they came from? Most idioms and expressions come from a simpler time when life was quite different and it can be difficult to understand their original purpose these days. Here are ten of the more common expressions we use and their meanings.

"I´m as hungry as a horse."

Meaning: "I´m very, very hungry."

This odd saying probably originates from the huge amount of food that a horse needs each day. Though they ingest a relatively small amount of grass at a time, the continuous eating makes them appear to be starving at all times!

"I feel like a million bucks."

Meaning: "I feel great!"

A million bucks refers to a million dollars. Obviously, if you had one million dollars, you would feel pretty good! This is especially true since this phrase originated in a time when a million dollars was worth even more than it is today.

"He's like clockwork."

Meaning: "He is always punctual or on time."

Clocks are the ultimate time keepers. The word clockwork refers to the gears that work inside the clock to keep it ticking and when you say someone is like those gears, you mean he or she is always on time, not early or late.

"They were running like a bat out of hell."

Meaning: "They were moving very quickly."

Hell is a very unpleasant place full of fire and demons, so you can imagine that a bat would be in a big hurry to get out of there! Thus, the expression means that the subject was going very fast.

"I know them like the back of my hand."

Meaning: "I know and understand them very well."

Your hand is a part of your body and chances are, you´ve looked at it a few times in your life. You know exactly what the back of your hand looks like and so, when you use this expression to refer to how well you know someone, it means you are very close to them.

"He sat there like a bump on a log."

Meaning: "He didn´t move."

Logs are inanimate. They don´t move. If there is a growth or a bump on a log, it doesn´t move either, at least, not on its own. So if someone or something is just sitting there, without making any motion, you can refer to them as a bump on a log. We usually use this one in a negative sense.

"I feel like a fish out of water."

Meaning: "I am uncomfortable or feel like I don´t belong."

Fish live in water, they can breathe in it and they feel comfortable there. When taken out of their water, they are very uncomfortable and certainly don´t belong.

"I'm watching you like a hawk."

Meaning: "I will be watching you very carefully."

Hawks are well known for their amazing eyesight. When you tell someone you´ll watch them like a hawk, it means you won´t miss a thing they do.

"Put a sock in it."

Meaning: "Be quiet."

Putting a sock in someone´s mouth tends to stop them from talking, which is where this expression comes from.

"Happy as a clam."

Meaning: "I´m very happy."

We refer to clams as happy because they have the ideal life . . . living on the beach, no work to do. They simply open their shells to get food. So, being happy as a clam is to be really pleased with life.

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Recognizing the Four Major Parts of Speech

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Recognizing the Four Major Parts of Speech
By Amy Nutt

In grammar there are eight parts of speech which break down into four major parts and four minor parts. A part of speech is a category assigned to a word or a phrase. The four main parts of speech are noun, adjective, adverb and verb. In English, a word can be more than one part of speech depending on how it is used.

A noun is a word that is used to name a person (Nicolas), place (Guatemala), thing (television), quality (beauty), action (flight,) or idea (mercy). There are several different kinds of nouns including proper nouns, common nouns and abstract nouns. Proper nouns are used to name specific people, places or things and are capitalized. Dawn Williams, Dawson City and Golden Gate Bridge are all examples of proper nouns. Common nouns refer to all nouns that are not proper and they are not capitalized. Abstract nouns name ideas, qualities and other intangibles. Some of these include words such as fear, happiness and honesty.

Adjectives are words that describe, modify or qualify a noun or a pronoun. An adjective tells us how many, what kind, or which one. In the following sentences, the italicized words are examples of adjectives.

"Jordan gave his mother the silver bracelet for her birthday." (What kind?)
"There were thirty coats for sale in her shop." (How many?)
"Out of the sisters, Sarah was the older one." (Which one?)

Adjectives can also change form by adding -er or -est to the end of if they are preceded by "more" or "most". The easiest way to find an adjective is to find the word that describes the noun. Articles are considered to be adjectives as well. There are two different kinds of articles and they are: definite (the) and indefinite (a, an).

Verbs are words that describe an action (walk, jump, think) or a state of being (become, is, seem). A complete verb is made up of the main verb as well as any helping verbs that may or may not be used with it. The most commonly used helping verbs are called the nine models which are could, should, would, might, may, shall, will, must and can. These models express how the writer feels about the verb. They give the verb a sense of urgency or obligation. Every verb has five forms which include; base form (walk), past tense (walked), past participle (I have walked), present tense (he/she/it walks) and present participle (I am walking).

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives or another adverb. To find out which words in a sentence are adverbs, ask yourself when, where, how, why, under what circumstances and to what extent, as the answers to all of these questions are in fact adverbs. The italicized words in the following sentences are all adverbs.

"She walked near her house." (Where?)
"She walked yesterday morning." (When?)
"She walked carefully." (How?)
"She walked because she needed to get to work." (Why?)
"She walked while feeling sad." (Under what circumstances?)
"She walked quite carefully through the snow." (To what extent?)

Another way to recognize an adverb is to look for words that end with the suffix -LY. Most of these adverbs are created by ending -LY to the end of an adjective. Some examples of this are slowly (slow), aggressively (aggressive) and hopelessly (hopeless).

The four major parts of speech are found in any good writing. Learning to use them correctly is the best way to ensure that you´ll understand them when you come across each part as you read or write.

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