Writing Today

Emperor by Colin Thubron is a mightily ambitious novel. It describes the conversion to Christianity of the emperor Constantine the Great, the circumstances of which are unknown. But this was an event that changed human history. This single event elevated Christianity, previously a minority sect amongst many, to the status of official religion of the Roman Empire. Thus it became the religion of a continent, a status it has never lost. What is so original about Colin Thubron’s book, however, is its form. The novel is constructed as if it were a sheaf of documents by different authors. The entries are arranged by date, but are constructed as if assembled from a jumble of material stuffed at random by an incompetent clerk into a satchel that was then lost. The author thus assumes many voices, many forms, many perspectives. Constantine has embarked upon the final phase of his conquest of Rome to establish himself the undisputed leader of the empire. He was in York when his father died and Maxentius, his wife’s brother, usurped the throne. Constantine must therefore raise an army and conquer his way to power all the way from the north of England to the imperial capital. Emperor takes us from the boundaries of Verona to the outskirts of Rome, the progress described via the jottings of several characters. Constantine’s own journal is the centrepiece. In it the emperor muses on military tactics and the progress of war. But we also discover a sensitive, emotional character often preoccupied with significance deeper than the mundane. The letters and jottings of Fausta, Constantine’s wife and sister of the pretender Maxentius, show how little those involved are able to express or trust their own feelings. Constantine is besotted with her, but she always demands a distance. We are never completely sure of her motives

So once again I am sitting here trying to figure out what to write and hoping that something insightful will come to my mind. So far it is not going very well but I have made very few grammatical or spelling errors. I’m trying to write another article about ice fishing but there is only so much that I can actually put into words. I have created a website all about it and now I am just trying to get the word out about it. If you type ice fishing pro into google you will find it and I’ll definitely add a link at the end of this article. It is so tough but I guess I just have to put in a lot more hours into it. Something that I have notice about letting my articles freely propagate throughout the net is that some webmasters are so rude that they will just post it up on their crappy sites without giving me proper credit and a link. I don’t think that it is so much to ask and I would definitely give credit for the work that some poor sucker did. All I could do was just ask them to add my link. I was polite. But I just did that this morning and will probably never get any responses. I have been at this article marketing thing for about two months now and have posted four articles online. I’m quite pleased with my work and it has actually gotten me about six extra hits a day but only one back link. I don’t know if that is any good but I’m going to keep at it for as long as it keeps increasing my traffic. I really want this to work. Sitting in front of a computer and watching money roll in is my idea of the perfect job. I have signed up for quite a few of those make money online programs but the problem with those are that they all say the same thing, post online advertise and make money. Well that is a bloody brilliant scheme but it is not quite that easy. If it was, everyone would be millionaires. That would be a pretty scary world to live in. Back to article marketing. I have found about a hundred or so site that will accept my submissions but when I check search engines I find no trace of my submission through their site. I have whittled it down to about a half dozen site that I submit to. I do this not to limit my exposure but to prevent myself from wasting time. Article marketing can be a double edged blade. One side is the bit of added exposure that your site will get but the other side is the amount of time and creativity that it takes to actually make these silly things. Oh well, I’m going to keep at it until I figure out a much easier legal way to spread my messages across the net. I think you should too, although it may be frustrating it is definitely worth the small amount of work that you actually have to do. Justin has not written many articles but would like everyone know that he is an up an coming web designer with dreams of ruling the internet from behind his computer. You can contact him through his website at icefishingpro.com

OVERVIEW The User-Product Life Cycle (U-PLC) is a powerful tool for the User Document writer. Use the U-PLC to generate the high-level topics for your User Document. THE USER-PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE (U-PLC) Usually, when we think of a Product Life Cycle, we think in terms of the development and production of the Product itself. When writing User Documentation, consider the U-PLC to help you generate all the topics necessary for a complete document. User Documentation should support your Users in all of their interactions with the product. The User-Product Life Cycle refers to the full range of interactions between the User and the Product itself. This is more than simply “how to use the product.” As you will see below, “Use the Product” is only one stage in the U-PLC. STAGES IN THE U-PLC Here are the stages IN the U-PLC (assuming that the User as acquired the Product): — U-P LC Stage: Transport the Product to its working location — U-P LC Stage: Unpack the Product Transport and Unpacking of the product are listed here just for completeness. These are currently displayed on the packaging itself, usually in pictorial form, and do a good job. — U-P LC Stage: Overall knowledge about the Product. This is information that is presented to the User early in the User Documents. Topics here include safety, legal, and disclaimers related to the product. The description of the product should indicate how the product may change the way that the User currently does things. For example, an analog voice recorder will require the User to listen to all the stored items to find a particular one; a digital voice recorder will enable the User to quickly jump from one message to another. — U-P LC Stage: Set up or Install the Product * Environments It is important for the writer to think of the various environments where the product will exist. For example, how should a computer program be installed in a Windows, Mac, or Linux environment? “Environments” includes other things that the product must work with. For example, how should a DVD player be installed in a system currently composed of a TV and a VCR? How about installation to a TV & VCR system where the TV has only one video input? * User Capabilities. The capabilities required for the User to set up the product are also important. Since the assumptions related to the User for set up may be different from the assumptions about the User in using the product, the wise writer will present the skills (and perhaps regulations) needed to set up the product. A section entitled “Can You Set Up This Product?” will enable the User to make the decision about whether to set the product up themselves, or find outside help. For example, suppose the product is an electrical light dimmer that is intended to replace the light switch in the User’s home. Using the product merely requires adjusting the dimmer’s single control to set the desired light level. Installing the product requires experience with home electrical wiring–does the User have these capabilities? Sometimes, the limitation may be legal. In some jurisdictions — Quebec, Canada, for example — only qualified electricians are permitted to install or modify electrical circuits in the home. Thus in Quebec, the general User of the dimmer will not be able to (legally) install the light dimmer. — U-P LC Stage: Use the Product This component is the focus of most User Documentation. It should contain at least these three sub-topics: - Starting the product - Actual Use of the product For most products “Actual Use” is the central focus of the User Document. Ideally, this should be divided into basic or common product functions, and advanced functions. A good example is photo-editing software. Most Users want to crop, rotate, and adjust the brightness and contrast of the image. These are basic functions. More advanced functions might be combining the parts of one picture with another. - Shutting down the product Is there any maintenance to be done at shut down? List it here and in the “Maintain” section. — U-P LC Stage: Maintain the Product Consider breaking this down into time periods, such as: after each use, weekly, monthly, yearly, as applicable. — U-P LC Stage: Move the Product For a computer software program, how the User should move the program and its data to another computer; computer users often upgrade their computer hardware. While it is often assumed that the User should re-install the product on the new computer, there always is the question about moving the data related to the product: where is it located, and how should it be moved so the newly-installed program can recognize it on the new computer? For a physical product, are there any special considerations in moving the Product to another location? — U-P LC Stage: Discard the Product or its By-Products Here I would like to mention only selling the used product. It might be wise to mention that by keeping the User Manual, the seller may find it easier to sell, and possibly get a higher price, for the used product. USING THE U-PLC IN YOUR WRITING As you generate the topics for your User Document make sure that you keep the U-PLC in mind. Ensure that you include topics in your User Document Outline to assist your User in all phases of the U-PLC. Great User Documents can assist in the UP-LC section that I did not present here: acquisition of the product. Your marketing department may be able to use your GREAT User Document as part of its marketing campaign. RESOURCES Barry Millman, Ph.D., has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (1966, Carnegie Institute of Technology) and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Psychology (Human Information Processing, University of Calgary). He has been a consultant for over 25 years, an instructor, course developer, and award-winning speaker. For the past seven years he has been researching and creating resources to help organizations create great User Documents. Visit: .greatuserdocs.com/ for resources to help you create the User Documents that your Product needs and your Users deserve. Visit .greatuserdocs.com/ReadingRoom.htm for more articles like this one.

Why is it that the serpent was able to beguile Eve? Its was said that the only creature in God’s creation that had free-will was man and subsequently woman. If this is true then how was the serpent allowed to enforce an act of free-will by lying and saying that it was alright to eat from the tree of Knowledge? It could not have done so unless God willed it to do so. And if this were true then he would be considered an enemy of man. When God proclaimed that man was made in his image does that mean man’s emotions are the same as God’s? It seems so with all the punishment and smiting, like an adolescent in temper tantrums and hormonal rages. And as time went by he matured and mastered his emotions, thus finding the ability to forgive his creations for their transgressions. But if he can forgive, then does the notion of damnation in hell still exist? Will some of us be sent to the worst place there is, beyond imagination, horror incarnate? From it no soul will ever be allowed to leave. It seems that jealousy has existed in all creation since the beginning. Lucifer was jealous of man and his favor with God. Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him and his favor with his father. Cain was jealous with Abel because God smiled upon Abel’s offering and not his own. In this manner we see that the world has never been fair and that life never will be, no matter how much we try. There will be the haves and the have nots. Simply because our society and economy relies on many people working in low positions for little money suggests that for there to be those that have great things, there must be many who do not. The concept of forgiveness exists in the story of Joseph, Abel, etc. Why? The Old Testament states that man will not be forgiven by God, why should we forgive each other? It’s an extremely hypocritical situation. In the story of Joseph it is because he took the higher road, not lowering himself to the level of those that had rid themselves of him, that he was rewarded and lived a charmed life. In the story of Cain and Abel, God placed a mark upon Cain that proclaimed him to be a murderer, but also ensured he would not be harmed by others. It makes one wonder for what reason this is so. Hell had already been established, why not just send him to his fate? Because there had to be an explanation for the continuation of the species. Abel was killed, Cain was left to wander fathering children where he may. Thus we have the offspring of sin and degradation, because if all the peoples of the earth were descended from “good” people, then why were there “bad” people to be washed away by the flood? One interesting sidenote concerns the mark of Cain. A particularly radical sect has interpreted the extremely old manuscripts as the mark being two puncture wounds on the neck. This makes one think of the undead and vampirism. And from this a race of evil was created. While I consider the idea somewhat unlikely, there are those who truly do believe that vampires exist because of those writings and that Cain was the first. (Not just the Role Playing kids either) The strength and terror of the great flood mentioned in Genesis is one which was so great that God made a promise never to release such a power again. This makes one wonder if God really knows his own strength, or is he just getting used to the concept? And because of this were some of the great disasters that occurred really the judgment of God, or were they the result of over enthusiasm on his part? John Albers jragebellsouth.net

While there are many effective ways to get more traffic and build your email newsletter list, the one I’ve had the MOST success with is to submit articles for use on other people’s websites and in their ezines. “But wait a minute,” you say. “Aren’t I supposed to be creating great articles for MY OWN e-zine?” Yes, you are! And after your article appears in your OWN e-zine, you should then submit it to others. Over the past few years, I’ve found this to be the best way to get traffic, build my list, and increase my sales, for five reasons: 1) You can quickly gain FREE exposure to TENS OF THOUSANDS (or even HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS) of untapped prospects at a time. There are many high-traffic sites and ezines with high readerships that are looking for content from people like YOU. 2) Articles let you educate and share good information with your prospects. They also position you as an expert in their eyes, so they’ll think of YOU as the most respected resource in your field. (Traditional ads don’t do that for you.) 3) You have the right to promote yourself, your business, and whatever else you want at the end of every article. And anyone using your article must keep this information intact. (More on that in a minute.) 4) This is a tried-and-true method that will NEVER stop working, unlike the latest and greatest gimmicks to spoof the search engines. (Try one of those and see how quickly your traffic halts once the bottom drops out.) Search engines love real content and will always love real content. 5) It’s EASY, and anyone can do it! HERE’S HOW TO GET STARTED… 1. PICK A WINNER Browse through your archives and pick an insightful article that really showcases your expertise. Or, if this is new to you, write a basic article on your subject of expertise. (Not a good writer, or need help? Hire a writer from Elance.com.) 2. POLISH IT ‘TIL IT SHINES Publishers will not be interested in your article if it contains typos, misspelled words, grammatical errors, or inactive Web links

The Internet has many tools for internet marketers And it has opened up a whole new world and made book marketing exciting, creative and lucrative. There are many fantastic internet tools and resources that can make internet book marketing a breeze. The internet has opened up a whole new world and made book marketing exciting, creative, and yes it can be lucrative too. The first thing you think of when you think of the internet is likely a website and yes, a website is important however there are many other fantastic internet tools and resources that can make internet book marketing a breeze. Blogs, are a fantastic tool to communicate with your current customers as well as your prospective customers. You can have a formal and authoritative tone to maintain your ‘expert’ credibility and status. You can also take a more conversational tone and develop a more friendly or informal relationship with your customers and readers. Forums, chat rooms, and social networking Now I am not suggesting that you go and get a MySpace page and begin chatting, however many artists and authors do have MySpace pages. What I am suggesting is that you take advantage of the forums and interactive websites that cater to your target market. There are forums and online social groups on just about every topic imaginable from hobby trains to gardening, from rock climbing to pet care. Find these groups, register, and mingle. You never know who you might meet and by placing a link to your book’s website in your signature you are connecting with potential customers. Email, is a powerful tool for an internet book marketer. As you collect email addresses from associates, from your website visitors, and from folks you meet, your list will grow. You can use this list in any number of ways. Many rich authors choose to send their email list a regular email newsletter which informs and also announces any promotions or new products. Others choose to simply contact their list when they have good news, like reaching no. 1 on the Amazon Bestsellers List. Websites, of course it is important for you to have a website too. A website can, and should, be more than just a brochure type page where people can read about you and or your book. Your website can link to bookstores where people can buy your book. Your website can offer a newsletter subscription. It can promote your book with testimonials and reviews and your website can offer a shopping cart so people can purchase your book right then and there. The internet has many many tools for internet book marketers and we have only scratched the surface. Advertising, links, online magazines the sky is the limit. Get online and get marketing! For Your FREE MP3 (Value $97.00) How To Make A 6 Figure Income Writing & Publishing Your Own BookGo To: Book Marketing Bob Burnham Entrepreneur, Consultant and # 1 Amazon Best Selling Author of “101 Reasons Why You Must Write A Book” For Information on How to Write and Publish your Own Book go to Expert Author : .expertauthorpublishing.com Read More On: Internet Book Marketing

Someone will ask his friend to call and order the essay; the other will ring up himself and will elaborate on the content of his work for hours. Another believes that informing the custom service about the topic of his dissertations 3 days before the deadline he can expect flawless work because he pays quite enough. You will be surprised, but the work quality does not depend only on its price. Here a lot of conditions matter. If you fulfill them, your work will be perfect and both the customer and the writing service will enjoy this partnership. So… Rule 1. The earlier you place your order, the better essay paper you will get. Some companies promise you to complete a dissertation in three days, but will you trust such a company? Sometimes working on a tiny cause and effect essay will take a lot of time if the topic is too complicated and unclear. Rule 2. Don’t put off. If you know the deadline of your paper, in the order form write a date 1

Know more about A Blogging Master class Getting links from other websites is not the only way to attract visitors to visit your blog. This time, we are going to explore alternative methods to attract high quality traffic with both free and paid methods. The first thing you can do to generate traffic is to recycle all the content you have written on your blog. What I really mean is to turn your blog posts into little “manuals” or articles that help people solve their problems or offer valuable information and submit them to article directories. These article directories are like aggregators that collect articles of similar themes together in one place, so they receive thousands and thousands of qualified visitors every day. When you submit your articles to these directories, you are exposing your name to the thousands of pairs of eyes visiting them for free! On most article directories, you are also permitted to include a “resource box” where you can include your contact details, a simple biography and so on. This is where you can truly leverage the traffic of the said article directories. Some good article directories to get you started are .eZineArticles.com, .ultimatearticledirectory.com and .submityourarticle.com. Another excellent way to gain traffic is to join internet forums that is based on your niche. To find these kind of forums, just go to any search engine and enter ” +forum”, without the quotes. You would want the most focused forum with a substantial number of active members, and preferably always bustling with activity. Just check the dates of the threads posted on the forum. When you join active forums that focus on your field of discussion and post very useful and valuable posts, your peers will start noticing you and paying attention to what you have to say. In most forums, you are also allowed to append a link to your site in the signature line, which is under every post you make on the forums. People will click and visit your blog if they find your posts helpful and informative. This way, your credibility is built even before they land on your blog, so traffic from the forums would be easier to turn into profits if your blog is selling your own products or recommending others’ as an affilliate since they are already convinced you’re an “expert” in the field. The strategy we’ll discuss is word of mouth. Let’s say you already have a daily visitor count of 100. What if you compiled a small report or gift and posted it on your blog, saying that if a certain visitor can refer three of his/her friends to visit your blog the gift will be his/hers for free? If your small report or gift is lucrative enough, it will generate a small buzz among your blog readers and they will surely refer their friends to this blog that they frequent! You can also utilize the “blog and ping” technique that everyone’s talking about. Basically, when you update your blog, you can let blog portals such as .technorati.com know by pinging them. You can ping a lot of portals at once by using the free .pingomatic.com. Besides the techniques described here, there are also paid methods like buying links from high-ranking pages or buying banner advertisement space. A thing to keep in mind when buying paid traffic is to always weigh your profits generated from the paid ads. If your profits do no offset the expense, you will end up losing money, so choose wisely. Monetizing Your Blog You have been working hard to produce good-quality, original content on your blog and you have attracted a decent amount of traffic by doing so. However, money is not going to appear out of thin air just because you have traffic. You have to turn your traffic into money. There are several ways to generate profits from the visitors of your blog, and Google’s Adsense programme allows you to do so with ultimate ease. First, visit their website at adsense.google.com/. You’ll find out more about their advertising programme there, but here are some extra bits I’d like to tell you. First, Google’s Adsense programme is a really useful way to monetize your blog because when users finish reading your newest post, chances are they want to leave your blog because they have nothing else to do on your blog. If your Adsense advertisement block is visible on your blog, they might see advertisements relevant to them and click on them to exit your blog. Ka-ching! You’ve just cashed in on your first virtual cents! But yes, your profits will only be cents if you don’t “do it right”. This involves placing your Google ads in the right places and ensuring they blend in to your site so that they appear more like links rather than advertisements to your visitors. Consult the page https:.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html to see the “heat map” of your blog. The “hotter” a certain area, the greater the chances of someone looking at your blog. Once you get a Google Adsense account, you can change the colour of your advertisement text and links. You will want them to match the colours on your blog. If your blog’s text is black and the links are red, do the same for the ad blocks too! It’s that simple. Another way to earn profits from your blog is to recommend products to your readers. When your visitors buy from the merchants you recommend, you get to keep a little commission too. This is known as affiliate marketing and it is very easy to start because you don’t have to create your own products or services. Anyway, let’s refer back to our technological gadgets blog example. Let’s say you discover this Gadget X on a merchant’s website, and they offer an affilliate programme. What you would do is to create a post in your blog and do a mini-review on this Gadget X. Rip it apart and point out its benefits and bad points, if any, and include a link (which is given by the merchant) for the visitor to purchase the Gadget X online. If your visitor clicks and purchases the gadget, the merchant will track from the link that the purchase is referred by you, so they will send you your share of the profits. Imagine if 1 out of every 100 visitors you get purchases this product, and you earn $27.00 commission from each purchase! If you get 10,000 visitors in a month that would be a $2,700.00 paycheque for you just for writing about ONE product. Now, affiliate programmes are very nice ways to generate profit, but how do you find affiliate programmes that are related to your blog’s theme? Easy, just go to Google and search for +”affiliate programmes”. Another slightly better way is to go to .associateprograms.com/search to look for affiliate programmes in your niche. The two ways mentioned above are basic ways to generate profits from your blog. We’ll be discussing other great, profitable ways, so keep your eyes peeled! About the author:- For more useful tips and hints, please browse for more information at our website:- .blog-and-ping.com .blogging.reprintarticlesite.com Keywords: - blogging, make money, bloggers, create on blog , online money.

Hi! I made a website which contains everything which needs to be an entertaining one. My Website includes Wallpapers, Games, Astrology, Numerology, Make Money, News, Fun, Extras, Biographies, TV, Music, MP3, Freebies, Downloads etc. This website has is multiple ads multiple pages and styles. Have a nice day!! .halffried.com Hi! I made a website which contains everything which needs to be an entertaining one. My Website includes Wallpapers, Games, Astrology, Numerology, Make Money, News, Fun, Extras, Biographies, TV, Music, MP3, Freebies, Downloads etc. This website has is multiple ads multiple pages and styles. Have a nice day!! .halffried.com Hi! I made a website which contains everything which needs to be an entertaining one. My Website includes Wallpapers, Games, Astrology, Numerology, Make Money, News, Fun, Extras, Biographies, TV, Music, MP3, Freebies, Downloads etc. This website has is multiple ads multiple pages and styles. Have a nice day!! .halffried.com

Persuasion enters into nearly everything we do. From writing catchy advertising copy to encouraging your boss to realize the potential of your brilliant idea, or even convincing a friend why Peet’s makes better coffee than Starbucks-getting people to do something or think a certain way is an art. It requires finesse and eloquence, intelligence and thoughtfulness. In every aspect of business communication-writing, discussing, or presenting-these twelve rules will help you sharpen your rhetorical abilities and get people to say “yes” with skill. 1. Prepare for contradictions. Identify the weak points of your argument and make a list of ways to refute them. Play the devil’s advocate in your own mind-this way, you will be prepared when the other person plays it in person. 2. Empathize. Find the common ground between you and the person you are trying to persuade. Discover what makes the other person tick-and then prove that you can relate. Sympathy just means you see where the other person is coming from; empathy means you have been there, too, and know exactly what it takes to get from A to B. 3. Be logical. No one can argue with an eminently rational position. Start out with non-controversial statements and work your way from there. Like statistics, logic can be used to argue for or against just about anything. Just do not get so caught up in the rational framework that you fail to notice discrepancies in the bigger picture. 4. Demonstrate your expertise. You are more convincing when you know the facts, so do your homework. Even without being an expert, you can still project confidence about your position-just be careful not to let your self-assurance morph into arrogance. 5. Actually listen. Do not just nod along-actively pay attention and respond to what the other person is saying. Listening carefully will educate you about his position and help you detect the holes in his argument. It also demonstrates that you respect the other person-a quality that will take you far in his esteem. 6. Admit when you are wrong. Conceding points when you know you have lost actually strengthens your argument because you become more trustworthy. Of course, do not give up something unless it is actually false-but if it is, be humble and acknowledge the fault. If you continue to promote a clearly flawed position, the only thing you prove is your stubbornness. 7. Get them to think it is in their own best interest. This is crucial. By pointing out the benefits they will receive-instead of saying why you want them to change-you are putting the focus squarely on them. This will echo in their mind long after your words are gone. 8. Don’t preach. Easy to think, harder to do, particularly when you are passionate about something. Do not be caught up trying to spill everything at once; it will only turn into a lecture. You will appear out of touch with your audience and apathetic to their needs. If you are doing all the talking, it is also a good sign that you are not getting the other person to speak up-which precludes your listening (see number two). 9. Don’t trivialize personal beliefs. Unless you have engaged specifically in a debate about the nature and existence of God, avoid such sensitive subjects. In business writing especially, it is professional to stick with the topic at hand and leave matters of personal conviction out of the discussion. 10. Hammer it home-but mix up the tools. Repeat your point plenty, but vary your methods. People respond differently to assorted types of communication: someone might understand an analogy or metaphor more easily than a pie chart. Throw in references to pop culture or medieval literature-you never know what is going to trip the wire. 11. Offer an incentive. When all else fails, the blunt tool of rewards-social, financial, or spiritual-will often spur a skeptic into action. Just do not go overboard and promise something you cannot deliver; that is just bad business. 12. Keep your sense of humor. Stay calm and be able to laugh at yourself. A smile will get you places no amount of anger ever could. You will also unwittingly exude confidence in your position, which-see number four-earns you points. Remember, someone who is converted against his will never really changes-it’s persuasion half-baked. If you follow the above guidelines, you will not only get someone to say “yes,” he will think it was his own idea. Courtland L. Bovee, one of America’s leading instructors in clear and effective communication, co-authors several leading college-level texts with John V. Thill, a prominent communications consultant and current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Global Communication Strategies. Their website, Business Communication Headline News, the #1 business communication site on the web, is at .businesscommunicationheadlinenews