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January 13, 2006

Stop Complaining And Make A Change

Stop Complaining And Make A Change

I am going to write something that may not be popular, but if it offends you in anyway, it probably means that I’m writing this for you. I’m writing this to help you
not to criticize or belittle you. I want every entrepreneur to continue to grow throughout his online career and sometimes when we don’t accept change
we stop growing. I don’t want that to happen to you.

Lately, I’ve seen a lot of online service-based business complain that cheaper alternatives are driving them out of business. I’ve seen virtual assistants angry that anyone would work for US $10 per hour. I’m surprised by that anger because $10 is above the minimum wage in every single state in the U.S. and province in Canada (2005 statistics). Yes, I know running a VA business carries expenses, but many people working online just want enough to be able to stay home, instead of trudging to a crappy job. Good for them for being resourceful.

I’ve seen article writers and article distribution services annoyed that new software and automated process are cutting into their bottom line and causing them to lose clients. It seems the hay days of getting paid $100 plus per article are gone
or are they?

If you’re letting your business die because lower cost services are coming in – it’s time for a wake up call. Complaining isn’t going to get you anywhere, except possibly bankruptcy. As more and more people come to work online, there’s going to be a lot of people working for what you think is chump change. As programmers get more creative with technology, more processes will become automated.

A smart business person will make competition irrelevant
or as irrelevant as is humanly possible. If you are trying to get your typical “Internet marketer on a budget” to hire you for $25 per hour to answer his emails
you probably will lose out to the moms who just want to earn an hourly wage to stay home with their kids. But if you set yourself apart and target a market that doesn’t want to nickel and dime and perceives more expensive services as more professional — your client list will grow. If you have satisfied clients paying $25 per hour, they can always refer more clients who will pay $25 per hour.

If you’re a writer and you think it’s fair to charge $100 to write an article (and honestly
well written articles ARE that valuable), realize how much money you could be making by writing articles for your own use. Plus, you don’t have the headache of dealing with clients.

This is the realization I had to come to in 2003. I was a copywriter for hire. I didn’t charge top dollar (and a few copywriters complained to me about that)
but I wasn’t at the bottom of the heap, as far as rates went. I thought if somebody would pay me $75 to optimize one website page for them
why was I wasting my time letting them earn the residual income from it? If someone would pay me $150 to write a short page of sales copy
just how much money were they earning from it to make it worth their while?

After thinking about that, I decided to quit taking clients and focus my efforts on using my own writing skills to earn me residual and passive income. Now, I make about 5 times much as I did back then and I work a lot less. Best of all, I have no clients do deal with. You see, when hire yourself out for pay
you have to keep working to earn that pay and it can be a real drain on your time and energy.

If you’ve been complaining about external changes affecting your business, really think about how you can change your own approach to make it work for you. Every business has to evolve to keep up with changing times. After all, McDonald’s did once say they’d never offer a veggie burger.

Alice Seba is a full-time online business owner that thrives on helping others say good-bye to their J-O-Bs forever. Sign up for her “Internet Marketing Prescriptions” to cure what ails your online business: http://www.AliceSeba.com

Article Source: http://articles411.com

January 6, 2006

How To Choose The Best Directories For Your Article Writing Campaign

How To Choose The Best Directories For Your Article Writing Campaign
by Deanna Mascle

If you have spent any time at all researching internet marketing strategies then you know that writing articles can help position you as an expert in your field, gain valuable targeted traffic for your web site, drive leads to your products, grow your email list, and quickly multiple your site’s text links.

Once you are ready to dive into article marketing — and you have a few articles all lined up and ready to submit — you can quickly become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of article directories available. Sure you could simply use a search engine to locate article directories but a recent search netted me 17,800,000 results. That’s enough to make anyone give up before they even begin! Plus that is really not a very effective way to determine the quality of a directory and doing your own quality check can be extremely time-consuming.

Why should you care about the quality of the directory? Just think about it. On the internet you are very much judged (by search engines and visitors alike) by the company you keep. Another important reason to carefully select your article directories is that your time is finite. It is better to regularly submit to a core group of high-quality directories than to throw the same handful of articles at every directory site you can find.

Finding the best high-quality article directories that meet your specific needs and match your specific goals can greatly increase the power of your article marketing campaign. You need to become a savvy article marketer to maximize your article marketing campaign.

Great, but how do you find those high-quality directories?

When I first embarked on article marketing I went straight to people who had been article marketing for a while and asked them for their top recommendations. I posted the question in a couple forums that I regularly check. I quickly assembled a list of hundreds of sites. Now obviously this list is much more manageable than the 17+ million I got from Google but still rather large. First I culled through and found the sites that were mentioned by more than one person and that list became my starting point. I then gathered as much information as possible to determine if they were right for me. I will share my criteria and priorities but you need to work out your own.

Here are the 10 essential questions I ask when reviewing a site:

1. How old is the directory? Is it well established and ranked or is it new and growing? If not then I cross it off the list.

2. Can you easily identify who owns and/or operates the directory? Is there a way to contact that person?

3. How fast do they respond to your email contacts and/or article posts?

4. How many authors does the site have listed? A lot of authors and articles mean a well established site but there may be room on a growing site for more exposure.

5. How many articles does the site have listed? Again a big site won’t get knocked off my list for this but a small site that is growing steadily might be due for a good seo bump soon.

6. Think about the categories you are likely to need and see if they exist. Is there a place to submit all your articles? If this is a niche directory it may be very narrow but then might also be to your benefit in the long run — if at least some of your articles fit within the niche.

7. What special options does the site offer visitors and publishers? Do they provide RSS feeds, email alerts, forward to a friend function and other strategies to increase the distribution of your articles?

8. Are they responsible with the advertising clients they have on their site? ie: No popups, flashing, or offensive ads

9. Do they provide article reports to help you see which articles are getting viewed, rated, distributed or not?

10. How do the search engines view this site?

After visiting each directory and answering these questions it is easy to refine your list to a handful of top sites that you want to really concentrate your efforts upon. You can also maintain some a list of additional sites to submit to as time allows.

I also regularly re-evaluate my top article directory list. I check my backlinks and the directory stats to see how my articles are doing. Some sites move up and down my priority list (or even off the list entirely) when I investigate how they are performing for me.

Learn more about Creating Your Article Marketing Campaign by visiting http://AnswersAboutWriting.com or http://NowLearnMore.com . Sign up for our free Article Marketing tutorial to read the full article and many more helpful article marketing tips.

Article Source: http://articles411.com

Internet Copywriting - Make Your Offer Irresistible!

Internet Copywriting - Make Your Offer Irresistible!
by George Dodge

Want to increase your online sales? Make sure your offer is one they can’t pass up!

Any offer you make through your Internet copywriting needs to be worth the readers’ time. Time is valuable and there is no bigger waste of time - for you as the creator or for your reader - than a worthless offer.

A number of years ago, a newspaper advertising sales rep went to her boss, disgusted that her client would not buy the ad schedule she pitched. It turned out that the last time the client ran an ad - five years before - “I didn’t get a single result from my coupon” that he ran way back then. The coupon was for a free coffee refill… something that was already common practice at the restaurant. Honestly, who would bother?

“Go back and tell that man we’ll run his ad for free if he will live up to the offer we create,” was the ad manager’s response. From there, he proceeded to tell the young sales rep to tell the client that the coupon would read “Bring this in for $1.00 in cash.” So, she did.

The client naturally refused because he knew he would have too many takers. What he finally admitted to himself is that his advertising did not work because his offer was lousy. Keep this business owner’s woes in mind as you plan to create your own irresistible offers with your Internet copywriting.

Make your offer one that is worth the time it takes to respond. A “Free 60 day trial” is a pretty good offer for an online program. What kind of offers can your business make?

The key to getting readers to respond to your offers is to make them irresistible. Can you afford to knock several dollars off the fee for your product or service? Or maybe you can make a strong guarantee, making your product or service almost risk free. Transferring the risk from the customer to you will help remove resistance to your offer.

Whatever it is you decide to offer, honor the offer at all costs. Keep your word and potential customers will quickly fall into place as current customers spread the word.

If you have never done any Internet copywriting before, don’t worry about it. No one knows your product or service as well as you do. Because of your passion for the product or service you are selling, you know it better than even a professional copywriter. Let that passion lead your Internet copywriting as you work to create the perfect offer that your potential customers just cannot refuse!

If you need some help creating an irresistible offer for your Internet copywriting, ask yourself, “What would make me buy?” Think about your answer. Is it do-able? If so, let that be your irresistible offer.

You can always make it available for a limited time (another good way to get people to act quickly) in case you decide the offer is too good to be very profitable.

Add a sense of urgency to your offer to get people to act immediately. If they put it off, they are likely to forget about it and you end up losing the sale. Adding a sense of urgency can be done by limiting the quantity or time of the offer or both. For example, the special offer is good only for the next 100 people who order, or the offer expires in 48 hours. You can even use both to heighten the sense of urgency.

In summary, make your offer irresistible. Make it worth the effort to the customer to place the order. Transfer the risk from the customer to you and add a sense of urgency. Then be sure to live up to what you have written in you copy. If you do these thing, you’ll see your sales skyrocket!

George Dodge is owner of http://www.CompellingWebCopy.com where you will discover 757 explosive persuasive copywriting techniques guaranteed to skyrocket your sales and put more cash in your pocket - even if you haven’t written a thing since high school

Article Source: http://articles411.com

December 27, 2005

Boosting the Sales of Your Internet Marketing eBook or Any eBook

Boosting the Sales of Your Internet Marketing eBook or Any eBook
by Christopher Enders

When you put your all into learning something that you need to know, you can bet that other people can benefit from what you have learned. Internet marketing is one of those topics that lots of people need help with. So once you’ve gained knowledge and experience writing and selling an internet marketing ebook might be a good opportunity for you.

In order to make money in ebook publishing, you have to have a product that people want. How-to books that fill a need are undoubtedly best-selling ebooks. An internet marketing ebook falls into that category.

There is nothing worse than an internet marketing ebook or how-to ebook that is filled with junk. Thus, in order for your internet marketing ebook to be a best seller, it has to offer useful information. If it doesn’t, you’ll get return requests and charge-backs left and right. Besides, if you don’t have quality content in your internet marketing ebook, you can’t comfortably offer a money back guarantee which is actually a vital aspect of marketing ebooks for profit.

Every ebook, especially an internet marketing ebook, needs to have a clear purpose before you begin to write it. Decide who your target audience will be - who will buy your book? Selecting a niche market to sell your internet marketing ebook to is half the battle. When you narrow your market rather than trying to satisfy the masses, you will have a much higher quality product and less competition. The trick to producing a best seller is to provide a solution to an existing problem that isn’t effectively solved by numerous competitors.

Add value to your internet marketing ebook by offering freebies as bonuses for buying the ebook right away. A customer’s perceived value is very important. Examples of bonuses might include things like a report on how to set up an affiliate program for an ebook, how to manage a pay-per-click campaign, or how to write results-oriented sales copy for an internet marketing website.

Realize that if your internet marketing ebook is going to make money, you’ve got to apply the internet marketing principles that will get your ebook noticed, walk the prospect through the sales process and close the sale. The first principle is driving traffic to your website. Whatever internet marketing techniques you use to accomplish that, targeted traffic is vital. Once you have visitors at your website the sales process kicks in.

Long-copy sales letters are undoubtedly best for selling an internet marketing ebook or any other ebook for that matter. Short copy just doesn’t cut it. You see, when you are selling information products online, like an internet marketing ebook, you don’t have the advantage of a face-to-face sales opportunity. Your web copy has to accomplish the sales for you.

To close the sale, the copy must convey a unique selling proposition - one or more things that stand out apart from your competition. It has to be attractive and compelling to your well-defined target market with headlines and subheads that grab attention by stating the product’s benefit or solution, or invoking curiosity. Your pricing strategy and relative bonuses must give readers a high perceived value so they feel they are getting an internet marketing ebook and additional information or products that are worth what they are paying.

The sales copy also has to build credibility either by stating the author’s credentials, using testimonials, or both. The reader’s objections also have to be countered by the sales copy. This can be accomplished by addressing them directly and by offering a money back guarantee.

A long-copy sales letter for selling an internet marketing ebook or another “how to” ebook that creates a sense of urgency can result in immediate sales. People have a tendency to be impulse shoppers so creating urgency by offering a “limited time” price or bonuses or making the product available only for a limited time will prompt the close of the sale.

Another factor to consider when writing sales copy for your internet marketing ebook is, buyers want to know they can contact you. When you provide valid, easy-to-find contact information your credibility increases tremendously and as a result so will your sales for your internet marketing ebook or any ebook you choose to publish.

Article Distribution by rcplinks.com.

Copyright Christopher Enders. Internet marketing doesn’t have to be a “hit and miss”, “learn from your mistakes” mission. There are people out there who have mastered the art and are willing to share their successful strategies. For some of the most comprehensive internet marketing strategies available today, visit http://BiznessTips.com.

Article Source: http://articles411.com

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December 23, 2005

Making Yourself Memorable: Create A Stunning Powerpoint Presentation

Making Yourself Memorable: Create A Stunning Powerpoint Presentation
by Christina Greenway

Did you know that using a PowerPoint presentation can be one of the most effective ways to address a large group of people? With such a variety of learning styles, using a visual presentation allows you to reach a large group of people – particularly those who need to see it to believe it. What better way than to create a stunning PowerPoint presentation?

Have the data, but lacking that polished finish? A good way to start is to look at templates to get an idea of which style suits you and your presentation. By accessing numerous templates at http://Microsoft.com you be able to create stunning presentations. Looking at an individual slide or downloading an entire sample presentation can inspire you to be more creative with the content that you include in your own presentation. There are many charts and diagrams in different templates that can really spark your creativity and give you additional ideas to give your presentation a professional look. While looking through the samples, consider that if you are wowed by the slides, graphics, or charts, your audience probably will be too.

What works? There is no magic formula, but there are amazing presentations. With the ability to create almost anything imaginable, there is no limit to what can be included in your presentations. Vibrant colours, sleek graphics and stylish photographs all contribute to making a great presentation even better.

What does not work? Avoid the overuse of clip-art. Although there is some good quality clip-art out there, too much in a presentation can be distracting and give it an unpolished, unprofessional look. That is not to say that there isn’t a time and a place for a cleverly placed clip-art picture. Another thing to watch out for is wordiness – before adding a slide filled with text, consider adding the supplemental information in a handout.

Handouts are another great idea because you are providing your participants with additional information which adds value to your presentation. The added bonus of using handouts is that you are giving your participants additional information, which includes your contact information (a great instrument for making new connections and contacts).

Try to tie in visual cues that will help people remember and associate images with you or your company. The key is to make yourself, your presentation, and your information valuable and memorable.

Christina is the owner of Online Office Assistants, with specialties in PowerPoint presentations and many other areas. Working as a Virtual Assistant for over a year, Christina also has an extensive background in advertising, human resources, sales, and customer service. Visit Online Office Assistants website at http://www.officeassist.ca

Article Source: http://articles411.com

December 19, 2005

How To Choose The Best Directories For Your Article Writing

How To Choose The Best Directories For Your Article Writing Campaign by Deanna Mascle

If you have spent any time at all researching internet marketing strategies then you know that writing articles can help position you as an expert in your field, gain valuable targeted traffic for your web site, drive leads to your products, grow your email list, and quickly multiple your site’s text links.

Once you are ready to dive into article marketing — and you have a few articles all lined up and ready to submit — you can quickly become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of article directories available. Sure you could simply use a search engine to locate article directories but a recent search netted me 17,800,000 results. That’s enough to make anyone give up before they even begin! Plus that is really not a very effective way to determine the quality of a directory and doing your own quality check can be extremely time-consuming.

Why should you care about the quality of the directory? Just think about it. On the internet you are very much judged (by search engines and visitors alike) by the company you keep. Another important reason to carefully select your article directories is that your time is finite. It is better to regularly submit to a core group of high-quality directories than to throw the same handful of articles at every directory site you can find.

Finding the best high-quality article directories that meet your specific needs and match your specific goals can greatly increase the power of your article marketing campaign. You need to become a savvy article marketer to maximize your article marketing campaign.

Great, but how do you find those high-quality directories?

When I first embarked on article marketing I went straight to people who had been article marketing for a while and asked them for their top recommendations. I posted the question in a couple forums that I regularly check. I quickly assembled a list of hundreds of sites. Now obviously this list is much more manageable than the 17+ million I got from Google but still rather large. First I culled through and found the sites that were mentioned by more than one person and that list became my starting point. I then gathered as much information as possible to determine if they were right for me. I will share my criteria and priorities but you need to work out your own.

Here are the 10 essential questions I ask when reviewing a site:

1. How old is the directory? Is it well established and ranked or is it new and growing? If not then I cross it off the list.

2. Can you easily identify who owns and/or operates the directory? Is there a way to contact that person?

3. How fast do they respond to your email contacts and/or article posts?

4. How many authors does the site have listed? A lot of authors and articles mean a well established site but there may be room on a growing site for more exposure.

5. How many articles does the site have listed? Again a big site won’t get knocked off my list for this but a small site that is growing steadily might be due for a good seo bump soon.

6. Think about the categories you are likely to need and see if they exist. Is there a place to submit all your articles? If this is a niche directory it may be very narrow but then might also be to your benefit in the long run — if at least some of your articles fit within the niche.

7. What special options does the site offer visitors and publishers? Do they provide RSS feeds, email alerts, forward to a friend function and other strategies to increase the distribution of your articles?

8. Are they responsible with the advertising clients they have on their site? ie: No popups, flashing, or offensive ads

9. Do they provide article reports to help you see which articles are getting viewed, rated, distributed or not?

10. How do the search engines view this site?

After visiting each directory and answering these questions it is easy to refine your list to a handful of top sites that you want to really concentrate your efforts upon. You can also maintain some a list of additional sites to submit to as time allows.

I also regularly re-evaluate my top article directory list. I check my backlinks and the directory stats to see how my articles are doing. Some sites move up and down my priority list (or even off the list entirely) when I investigate how they are performing for me.

Learn more about Creating Your Article Marketing Campaign by visiting http://AnswersAboutWriting.com or http://NowLearnMore.com . Sign up for our free Article Marketing tutorial to read the full article and many more helpful article marketing tips.

Article Source: http://articles411.com

December 15, 2005

Article Marketing: What Constitute Good Content For An Article?

Article Marketing: What Constitute Good Content For An Article?
by Evelyn Lim

Article marketing is simply the process of writing articles, publishing your articles on article directories and syndicating your articles.

To be successful in article marketing, you need to:

1. Write high quality and keyword optimized articles.

2. Submit a series of such articles to article directories on a regular basis.

An article that has good content and that contain the keywords that readers are searching for has many page views. Imagine if each article generates a page view of 500 readers, if you have ten of such articles, you will get 5000 page views. With article syndication, you get more back links for higher ranking on search engines and can also brand yourself as an expert in your area of online business.

But what constitute good content? Here are some useful tips:

1. Your content answers a need or solves a problem that your target readers have. Specifically, your article contains keywords that readers search for. For instance, if you are targeting readers with hair loss, then “hair loss” is a keyword phrase that you can use in your article. However, a better keyword phrase is likely “hair loss remedy” as your article content can be on remedy solutions for hair loss, thus addressing the needs of your reader.

2. Your article contains useful resources. Using the same example for hair loss, you can write about where your reader can find the remedy solutions.

3. Your content contains practical tips that your readers can easily apply. A step-by-step guide on preparing a remedy right out from one’s kitchen is interesting and unusual.

4. If you are writing a discussion topic, you present alternative views and a healthy discussion on each view.

5. Your content is personalized. You write from your own experiences.

6. You have an opinion on a discussion topic and your ideas are well supported. Support can be in the form of testimonials from experts or references to scientific and proven research. It is okay to write an article based on general information but winning content are those that have supporting reasons for your opinion.

7. Your article is up-to-date with the latest information on trends. No one likes to read outdated ideas. This is especially if you are writing on an area that is fast moving like IT or even fashion.

Evelyn Lim is a writer and an online business entrepreneur. She also owns and manages an article directory site, with more than 100 topic categories and a growing database of quality articles. Please visit http://www.ArticleMap.com to submit your articles.

Article Source: http://articles411.com

December 2, 2005

How To Write A Problem Solving Article

How To Write A Problem Solving Article
by Richard Cussons

If you are like me then topics and ideas for writing articles about my product, service or niche can be tricky and getting started even worse.

You will probably know the problems people have in your industry. If you don’t then you should find out by asking your customers or searching on the internet. Forums can be a great source for finding problems people in your market suffer.

Over time I have found that writing to a formula works well as it gives you something to hang your words on and breaks up the writing into manageable chunks.

The problem solving article works so well because you have the opportunity to show that you know what you are talking about and help the reader at the same time. You build a relationship and they are more receptive to purchasing your services or products as a result.

Here is a simple formula that breaks up the task of writing your article into simple chunks that will make writing your next article a breeze.

Generally there are two main types of problem solving article:

“How to Articles” (eg “How to write the perfect article”)

“Tips & Tricks” (eg “10 ways to promote your article”)

Make the title of your article compelling to draw people in. Also, try to make your title unique that way when you search for it in the search engines (using the title of your article in quotes) you will know that all the entries which come up will be for your article.

Your opening sentence is vital. You need to grab the attention of the reader or they will not read your article. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Did you know that…

How many times have you…

Here’s an easy way to…

Next state the problem and make your first point followed by a more in-depth description. State your other points and go into more details for each.

Once you have finished making your points begin to wrap up your article with a summary and conclusion.

Finally you should end you master piece of problem solving with a call to action to get the reader to think or do something. That way when they see your resource box they are more likely to click on the link to your site or call you up.

Always check to make sure that your title still makes sense with respect to your article. Double check to make sure there are no spelling or grammatical errors.

So that’s it. Problem solving articles help you build a strong relationship with your readers (customers) and are easy to write when you follow the simple formula.

Now go write your article and watch your business grow.

Richard Cussons writes on many subjects from dogs to DNA testing and currently has three to four articles published every week. You can submit your article at one of his sites, The Article Store.

Article Source: http://articles411.com

November 16, 2005

How To Get A Reporter’s Attention For Your Book -

How To Get A Reporter’s Attention For Your Book -
Reporters are busy people. On any given day they are fielding dozens of phone calls, making calls of their own, reading stacks of newspapers and magazines and rushing to meet deadlines. So how do you break through all the noise to get a reporter or an editor on the phone to listen to your pitch?

In my 15 years as a magazine journalist I’ve fielded hundreds, if not thousands, of such calls. The following tips are what I’ve told many authors and publicists. The ones I eventually wrote about are the ones who listened and learned from the conversation.

1.) Ask If the Reporter Has Time to Speak to You

Make “Is now a good time?” the first question you ask when you get a journalist on the phone. Don’t assume that if he or she is busy, they won’t answer the phone because sometimes a reporter on deadline has to pick up. They might be waiting for confirmation from a source or to connect with a colleague in the field, and Caller ID doesn’t always give enough information for proper screening. There were many times when I was on deadline and answered my phone only to find, to my chagrin, a non-stop pitch on the other end. But the callers who impressed me would ask immediately if I was on deadline. All I had to say was “Yes” and they’d say they would call me in another day or so and hang up. Totally cool. I made sure I made time when they did call back. Sometimes I even checked my mail to see if I could find the caller’s press release so I would be ready for our talk.

2.) Understand This: The Fact That You Wrote a Book is Not a Story!

You may have written the best book in the world, but unless you’re Stephen King turning to pulp fiction (as he did recently) or Terry McMillan publishing your first novel in several years and getting divorced at the same time (as she did recently), you and your book are not a story. I’m sorry but that’s the plain truth. Of course if you land on the bestseller lists then we’d have something to discuss. There is one instance, however, when you would be a story and that’s when you…

3.) Connect to a Story Already in the News

When promoting your book you should be reading the newspaper and watching the news (local and national) daily. You’re looking for stories related to the subject matter in your book. Ideally you would have something to say and you would offer that up to a reporter. For instance, if you’ve written a book on cronyism in official government posts you could have put out a press release and called up a reporter during the Hurricane Katrina disaster with information such as, “This kind of cronyism has caused mishaps in government response before. I can tell you how it happens and where it has happened before.” The press release would list the details in easy-to-read bullet points. It would be easy to see you’d make a great interview subject.

This can work for novels as well. Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones is an exquisite book in its own right, but it got a huge publicity boost because it happened to get published at a time when several stories of missing girls were in the news.

4.) Ask What the Reporter is Working On

If the reporter isn’t interested in your story, don’t just cut and run. Engage the person in a friendly conversation and find out what types of stories he or she is working on for future issues. This way you get to cultivate a relationship–important because good media contacts are difficult to come by. You’re also learning what is newsworthy so you can either tailor your message for other outlets or come back to the reporter when you do have information he or she can use. I used to love it when the latter happened–it made my job easier!

One last note: Always follow up on the press releases you send out. You might be thinking, “Well, if they’re interested they’ll call” but nine times out of ten it doesn’t work that way. Your press release could be in the mailroom, in someone’s office under a pile of papers or in the garbage unopened. It definitely hasn’t been read! Don’t be afraid to make the call. Whatever the outcome, at the very least you’ll be able to use what you learn for your next publicity effort.

© 2005 Sophfronia Scott

Author and Writing Coach Sophfronia Scott is “The Book Sistah” TM. Get her FREE REPORT, “The 5 Big Mistakes Most Writers Make When Trying to Get Published” and her FREE online writing and publishing tips at http://www.TheBookSistah.com The Book Sistah, 230 South Main St. Ste. 319, Newtown, CT 06470 203-426-2036, Info@TheBookSistah.com

November 3, 2005

How to Craft a Series of Bestselling Titles from a Single Topic

How to Craft a Series of Bestselling Titles from a Single Topic
by Jim Green

During the past ten years I have authored seventeen traditionally published niche non-fiction books, all of which (save one) have achieved bestselling status in their respective genres.

Here’s the thing though; I have used only 2 topics to produce 16 bestsellers.

How do you do that; craft a series of titles from a single topic?

It’s a little-known technique that dates back to the dawn of literature and is used by all bestselling authors either consciously or unwittingly.

And when you know the secret, you can also use this technique in writing fiction.

It has a lot in common with what the late great Alfred Hitchcock called the ‘McGuffin’;
the singular device he employed in all of his screenplays.

Hitch reckoned that everyone is looking for something whether they are watching a movie or reading a book and when you discover what people are searching for in your particular niche you will be well on your way to writing a successful book in record time.

And when you’ve done it once, you can do it all over again - as many times as you like.

Although considerable mileage still remains in the 2 topics I used to produce 16 bestsellers, I decided eighteen months ago to research a third topic for its McGuffin potential and the result was “Your Retirement Masterplan” (How To Books ISBN 1857039874) published in October 2004.

This title currently ranks No.7 out of 3328 competitive titles on Amazon.co.uk and is due for a 2nd upgraded edition in February 2006; to be followed by “How to Earn Money in Retirement” (How To Books ISBN 1845281128) in April of the same year.

But the McGuffin on this third topic is only just starting to bite


I also have signed contracts for these forthcoming titles:

1. ”Maximising Mindpower to Enrich Your Retirement” – Publication date 2007

2. “Give Your Mind a Daily Workout in Retirement” - Publication date 2008

3. “101 Retirement Holiday Options” - Publication date 2008

4. “101 Projects to Spice Up Your Retirement” - Publication date 2009

5. “101 Online Venues for Stimulating Retirement Interests”- Publication date 2010

6. “Chronicling Your Lifetime Achievements in Retirement” - Publication date 2011

7. “Achieving Your Greatest Successes of Retirement” - Publication date 2011

Have you guessed the secret yet?

There is no end to its power in producing bestsellers and if you would like to incorporate it in your creative writing, you will find out how in the website featured in the resource box below.

Jim Green is an entrepreneur and bestselling author with an ever-growing string of niche non-fiction titles to his credit. http://1st-creative-writing-course.com

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