Writing Today

Rock climbing is a great way to challenge yourself and get a heck of a view. Alas, your experiences can fade with time. The best way to prevent this is to keep a journal for rock climbs. Journal

Let’s start with a little scenario. You have what you consider to be a great idea for a nonfiction book. Your head is spinning with ideas, and you can hardly wait to get started. Perhaps you have made a list of the main points you want to cover or even begun to write. At first, the words just seem to flow onto the computer screen. You feel like a real author — until the moment you realize you are stuck. Suddenly, you don’t know if you’re on the right track, if your writing is coherent or rambling, or what you did with the wonderful few pages you just wrote, which you forgot to title. You need help. You need a book writing coach. So, you do a search on Google or Yahoo! or your favorite search engine and find the perfect person. She listens with interest. She understands your subject. She asks great questions, which clarify your thinking. She wins your confidence, and you agree to work together. “It’s a partnership,” she tells you. “We both have the same goal: to help you write the best book possible.” Your book coach spells out exactly what you can expect from her, which are all the things you know you need, plus a few you never thought of. Then, she tells you what she expects of you, as the author. In a partnership she explains, both parties have responsibilities. To get the most out your coaching relationship, here are the seven things a good client should do: 1. Make a full commitment to the book and to your working relationship. This is not a hobby you have undertaken. Writing a book and working with a professional assumes you are serious. You will find your book coach, if you’ve chose the right person, to be dedicated to you and to your project. You should be, as well. 2. Attempt to stay on the schedule and meet the deadlines you have agreed upon. A good coach will help you establish a realistic time table for completing each section of your book. She will build in time for writing, critiquing and editing, rewriting, and all the other aspects of working through the project. To keep the momentum going you must try to meet those deadlines. 3. Communicate as candidly as possible about concerns, ideas, doubts, changes in plans — in short, anything that is on your mind. One of the most important aspects of your relationship with your book coach is honest, open communication. Both of you must feel free to express yourselves in a safe, accepting environment. A good coach will create that environment. 4. Follow through on all promises and commitments you make. It may sound too obvious to mention, but it’s important. If you say you’ll do something, no matter how small, do it. You would expect that of your coach, and she should expect it of you. It’s called being accountable. 5. Consider all feedback, suggestions, and guidance your coach provides. Keep an open mind. You have hired this person for her experience and expertise. She brings a perspective to your book you don’t have, so hear her out. In the last analysis, however, this is your book; so, if you don’t agree with a suggestion, you don’t have to take it. 6. Be prepared for meetings whether they are in person or on the phone. If you had a meeting scheduled and your coach wasn’t ready, what would you think? These touch-base times are important to the process and serve to move the book along. The more effective the meeting, the better the work you will do when it’s over. 7. Accept encouragement, positive reinforcement, and sincere compliments. One of the things a good coach does best is cheerlead. She is 100 percent in your corner, through the smooth times and the not so smooth. Writing a book is a time-consuming process that requires a long attention span. When yours flags, your coach’s will hold steady, and her enthusiasm will re-inspire you. A book coach fills many roles — editor, guide, friend, and teacher, among them. But first and foremost, she is your partner in an endeavor that matters to you. It is a partnership you will come to value over the time. About the Author Bobbi Linkemer is a ghostwriter, book-writing coach, and editor. She is also the author of 14 books. Bobbi has been a professional writer for 40 years, a magazine editor and journalist, and a book-writing teacher. Her clients range from Fortune 100 companies to entrepreneurs who want to enhance their credibility and build their businesses. Visit her Website at: .WriteANonfictionBook.com

In my work as an author, I have become very interested lately in Latent Semantic Indexing, or LSI. The big to-do about Google’s latest damage to websites and rankings has prompted me to take a look at what they are doing. Anyone with any expectations for their articles and web copy knows that Google’s ranking algorithms change constantly, and this causes a great deal of frustration and concern, especially to those attempting to make a living on the internet. LSI is simply a system, based on the vector space model of document classification, that brings relevancy to an article. One of the biggest advantages of LSI is that it is a strictly mathematical approach, with no insight into the meaning of the documents or of the words it analyzes. Because of the scope of this article, I will leave that to your personal research. For the layman, relevancy is simple to explain. Let us say you have a website on dog training. Utilizing the common way of thinking towards keyword density, your copy might go like this: “Welcome to our dog training site! Here, you will find all you need to know about dog training. We will show you methods and tricks to make dog training easy. We have been involved in dog training for twenty years. See our articles and information on dog training on our website. We also have a good ebook here on dog training.” Sounds like ad copy, doesn’t it? Keyword density on this paragraph is obviously high for the keyword “dog training”. You can see it on most every website you visit. However, this is not what Google is now reportedly looking at, or placing more weighting on. Let’s try again. My example will be used utilizing Wordtracker’s Keyword Universe, using both lateral and thesaurus. Let’s use “dog training” again. My research will be from Wordtracker, using the lateral and thesaurus options: 1. dog training 2. dog 3. training 4. puppy 5. obedience 6. dogs 7. puppies 8. behavior 9. agility 10. canine 11. pet 12. housebreaking 13. tracking 14. puppy training 15. obedience training “Everyone loves a puppy. However, to keep everyone happy, dog training must be used. You want your new canine friend to be happy and healthy, so proper housebreaking is essential. Although puppy training is not hard, it takes a lot of dedication on the part of the owner. Puppies at the weaned stage are really no different than babies - they eat, they poop, and are only driven by these basic instincts. Training them is the responsibility of the owner. Dogs exhibit pack behavior, and it is one of the things that cannot be overlooked in the course of obedience training. Nothing less than that they understand that you are the “big dog” will do to keep your pet happy. they must know where they stand in the pack to develop the obedience required of them. People acquire dogs for many reasons. Whether it is for companionship, utilizing them for their agility and knack for tracking, or just a plain guard dog, dog training is essential for the relationship between the dog and the owner for the utmost in pleasure and peace in the home.” I wrote this article in about 5 minutes, using my 15 keywords from Wordtracker. I used the root keyword, dog training, twice, or roughly 1%. For a 500 word article, 15 keywords is more than enough, and it is a sure bet that search engines will find this more relevant, and anyone reading the article will be happy with the results received. Reading the first example of dog training would surely turn most people off, and it is a sure bet that it would show in your sales. There is much more to LSI than is covered here - this is just a basic overview. Visit my site at .exclusiveprivatelabelrights.com to find out more. Alden Smith is an award winning author who has been marketing on the internet since 1998. His site, .for-the-record.biz, is loaded with articles and information for the beginning blogger and internet marketer. marketer.

Writing, publishing and marketing a book can be a tremendous investment of time and money–so much so that many aspiring authors won’t embark on the journey until it’s clear they will get something (preferably dollars) out of it. Trouble is, they don’t know how to make money with a book beyond the traditional model of “sell book, get paid a royalty”. Royalties can be slim pickings, sometimes just 7 percent of the book’s retail price. If you’re looking to make more you’ll have to think of your book as not just a book–you’ll have to have a bigger picture in mind. Does Your Topic Have Moneymaking Potential? Be honest. Do others want what you have to offer? If your book is a memoir, for instance, with stories that only your family members can truly appreciate, there won’t be a big market for it. However if your memoir is a harrowing tale of recovery, that’s different. Others would want to read it and connect it to their own experience in one way or another. You’ll want to think the same way about your fiction or non-fiction book. What’s selling in the stores right now? Can you make such a connection? Can your book tie into a current wave of popularity (Chick lit.? Business leadership? Current events?) Or is your book different, but so totally out of the box that you can grab some attention for it? The clearer you can be with nailing down a market for your book, the easier your job will be. Sell It In Bulk Why sell one book at a time when you can just as easily sell 25, 50, 100 or more all at once? Think about getting a company or a group to make a volume purchase. Support groups might want all their members to have your recovery memoir; churches might be interested in passing on inspirational works to their congregations; businesses certainly are in need of free gifts for their customers. Do a little research and find out what possibilities exist for your book. Use Your Book in Your Business If you’re an entrepreneur, a book can be an excellent lead generator. It’s a way to reach customers who may not have found you through your usual marketing strategies. You’ll see this technique at work in books such as “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” and “No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs”. These books offer invitations to free seminars, coupons for free gifts, contests, free trial subscriptions to newsletters. The authors of these books understand that while they’ll make a little money from selling the book, the real funds will flow from turning the customer into a purchaser of their higher end products. Use Your Book to Pursue Job Opportunities If you’re not an entrepreneur, you can still earn financial benefits from your book in non-direct ways. Think of it like this: your book becomes your business. You use it to attract speaking engagements, teaching gigs, or even consulting work. You could develop a workshop around your book. Many of the teachers in continuing education programs such as those offered through The Learning Annex (.learningannex.com) are authors who have done just that. If you’re in the corporate world, think of this: few people get to walk around with the word “author” on their resume, so it’s sure to stand out when you’re hunting for your next job. In fact, it may bring you better offers! Prepare Your Plan of Action If you’ve been putting off starting your book because you’re not sure if there’s money in it, then do your research. Take a few of these ideas, or use them to think up new possibilities, and map out how you could make money with your book. If the numbers look good, print them up, post them near your computer screen and let the vision of those potential dollars inspire you to your book’s conclusion. © 2007 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 book publishing tips at .TheBookSistah.com

Many people would be unaware that it is quite possible to make anything up to $100k (and more) per year as a freelance Internet writer. Having said that, part of being an internet freelancer is being realistic in your expectations of what amounts of cash you can earn at home when first starting out. You won’t make really big bucks right away, but then the same is true for most professions in the workplace. Remember too, that building a client base and developing your reputation as a writer takes time. Naturally, you’re not going to be making millions per year as a freelance online writer, but if a comfortable living of say, $75k - $100k sounds attractive to you, you should definitely give it a shot! All you really need to succeed is a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a good working knowledge of the Internet freelancing world. There are literally a myriad of ways you can earn cash at home as a freelance internet writer. From writing blog posts and eBooks, right through to authoring eZine articles, lesson plans and course manuals on any number of subjects. Do you feel you have the time, the drive, and the basic writing skills to give it a shot? I can recommend freelance internet writing as a genuine method of attaining the freedom to work from home that you’ve long desired. If you’d like to learn more, visit this link to a fantastic eBook which details how you can set yourself up with a Write At Home System.

Feel an emotional cold coming on? Try Blogging! Blogging can be a fun way to cure emotional cold and hurt. Writing expresses our true selves and releases stress. Sometimes, writing can be just the pill we need to escape our hurt and pain the fun way! In attempting to write one must keep certain parameters in mind: a] Blogging can be done by anyone with a penchant for writing. Personal experiences and inspirations come from varied moments. Noting them and expressing them as best as one can in their own true style is essential. b] Do not be deterred by childhood experience that has sabotaged your dream of becoming a writer. You can still realize your dreams of writing. As you move on in life you meet new mentors and come across a varied series of ideas that can rekindle your motives. c] It is true that nature is your biggest inspiration. Small retreats into nature, hikes and long walks will obviously get your mind back in focus from your daily chores and help you come back to your writing. Holidays alone are really helpful to get back your thinking in tune. d] In accordance to what you wish from life often long-time emotional scars or set-backs will have stopped you from doing what you want. A self-exploration through writing will not only prove to be free therapist but your story will also inspire others and give them motivation. When you share a positive writing you circulate and radiate your optimism and well-being which are all the more reasons to keep your readers inspired e] Your honest expressions are yours to keep, so emulating anyone else will only slacken your own panache. Don’t let the temptation to emulate something which you think better cramp your style. What you do best is you! f] A word for public display of your writing: maintain anonymity where you smell a possible controversy and remember that if you write out of spite, it so very much pushes you back in your self-growth. After all time is moving ahead and not heading backwards. Heal yourself through the power of writing but don’t try to change anything that is not under your control! When we’re talking about related fields and interests we are generally very committed. So find things that you are madly interested on. This way the inclination to learn and know from others will rise and so will your participation. Soon enough you will be able to create your own niche .A healthy community feeling creates formation of a genuine bond and develops fellow-feeling greater than you might expect. But this needs a bit of time and regular online involvement. Express yourself in very honest ways and you will have a very active network of online buddies with whom you can discuss your related interests. Nick Sanders is the owner and founder of Supaproofread.com, an online proofreading and editing services company, specialising in essay proofreading and editing services. You should visit them if you are looking for essay proofreading

<title> Sue’s Success Secrets Ask any question about the business of coaching and get your expert answer from Prosperous Coach Mentor, Sue Brundege. From the Wisdom Vault… Mastering the Marketing Mindset What’s your reaction to the idea of marketing yourself? For many coaches, marketing is a distasteful cocktail full of sour trepidation and biting frustration. Maybe for you, just thinking about marketing makes you feel numb. Or maybe you put it off, opting to stay busy with anything else rather than implement a marketing plan. That’s where I was. I read all the marketing books, took lots of seminars about how to get clients and book myself solid… but, even when I did attract a few more clients, I still looked on marketing as a bitter pill I had to swallow for my own good. Then I realized that as long as I had my own business (and I’d already decided I’d never go back to working for someone else), I’d be marketing! Why consign myself to constant misery? It was time to change my way of thinking about marketing. How about you? Would you like to learn to market authentically, ethically and effectively, and have a winning mindset about it? After all, why not truly enjoy the journey to success rather than waiting until you reach your goal to be happy? To successfully market your coaching services, start by making these Four Simple Shifts in your mindset: 1. Shift from thinking like an altruistic caregiver to thinking like a caring business owner. 2. Shift from the mantra “I need clients” to “What do my clients want most?” 3. Shift from talking about abstract concepts to detailing tangible results. 4. Shift from trying to convince prospects to being detached from outcome. More than any single marketing technique or campaign, getting your mind in the right gear sets you up for success. The way we think about something is more than half the game. Most coaches try to market by thinking and talking like a coach and their marketing falls on deaf ears. Why not make marketing a friendly tool? Learn how to think like a marketer and speak the language your clients understand while letting your authentic voice shine.***** Copyright ©2008, Bubbling Well Inc.

I thought today would be as good of a day as any to tackle this subject. If you are a regular here and I hope you are. You will know that I love tattoos and would absolutely love to get another one but my husband isn’t a real big fan of them so I haven’t gotten any more. So this leads me wanting to know would you do the same thing if your husband/wife or girlfriend/boyfriend felt the same way? I know there maybe people out there that feel that it is their body and they should be able to do whatever they want to it and I agree with that. But when you truly love someone and really respect them you sacrifice things that you want because of them. However, there is one thing that I don’t quit understand about my hubby not wanting me to get another tattoo. The reason is because he actually paid for my second tattoo that I got on my 21st birthday. He claims that it is different because we were not married then. But I feel it is the same thing, I mean I was his girlfriend at the time. So what do all of you out there in tattoo land have to say about this? Also have you experienced the same thing with your loved one? Lastly, would you go out and get a tattoo even though you knew that your lover did not approve of it? I know I would never be able to do that because I wouldn’t want to disappoint my husband. But if he gave me the ok, then yes I would get another one in a heart beat. Your Tattoo Friend Ashley

It has always been a dream to a freelancer to get a desired project, paying good bucks similarly on the other hand many businesses want their projects to be completed without appointing highly paid employees. .savvylance.com is the perfect market place for both parties. Online Freelance market place is a platform for Freelancers & Webmasters, Webmasters post projects and select qualified freelancers at the price they want. Freelancer post their resume, skills and bid on projects what webmasters post, in this way webmasters can go easy selecting a good freelancer. They both have to pay small commission to the market place in return projects security and payment is secured for both the parties via escrow. Freelancer can be anyone a Programmer, Content writer, Web designer, Web developer, an SEO and many more, in today professionals want to be more free and try their hand working individually that’s why they want to work freelance. Freelancers are also experienced and can work perfectly with the economical rate. Businesses are also look for freelancers to complete their projects to cut their project cost, in this way demand of qualified freelancers has been increasing every day. Webmasters/Project creators can be an individual, business or website who want to complete their projects like custom programming, web designing, web developing, seo, content writing, marketing research, data entry and lot more. What they want is to get those projects done in the quickest way without appointing highly paid employees. They choose freelancers who complete the projects remotely worldwide. Savvylance is an online market place for freelancers & webmasters. Webmasters post projects and freelance programmers, web designers can bid a projects.

Online articles have to written in a way that gets the readers attention, holds it through the article, and gets the click through to your web site. Writing for the reader may be the most important part of online writing. However, it isn’t the only important part. Who else do you need to write for? If you want your articles to go beyond the directories in which you post them, you have to write for newsletter and web site owners - potential publishers of your articles. Ideally, your online articles should spread around the internet, creating more and more incoming links for your website. Each of these links is a potential stream of income. For example, when I wrote an article for my web site, The Secret Information Site .com, I posted it in several directories. I didn’t get much traffic directly from the directories, but soon a decent web site took and published the article in their newsletter and on the site. Within weeks, they had generated dozens of sales of my ebook for me. This was almost a year ago, and I still get sales from there every week. Writing Online Articles For Webmasters Newsletter publishers and web site owners like an interesting article, the same as any readers. However, they have other concerns as well. They are running a business, so they want an article that helps generate income. Here are some of the specific things they look for. 1. They have few links. Generally one link in your author’s resource box should be enough for your purposes. More than that, and you are likely to scare away potential users of your article. Site owners don’t want too many non-paying ways for visitors to leave their site. They get your article without direct cost, but they “pay” you for your article with that link, and three links my be too expensive. It is also bad form to put links in online articles now - keep them to the resource box. 2. They are not sales letters. Your “Why My Site Is Best,” and “Ten Reasons To Buy My Product” articles will not be used. For the sake of the publishers of your articles and the readers, articles should be informative or entertaining, but not a sales pitch. Selling should be limited to the “About The Author” box. 3. They are short. Long article mean slower loading times for the pages they are published on. There also has to be room for the publishers advertising, navigational links, and more. If you keep your online articles between 300 and 800 words, they will be published more often. 4. They have simple HTML. Many publishers just copy articles from a directory without copying the HTML code. They know how to make the link active, but they may not want to recreate your highlighting, side bars and graphics. Use bold tags and italics, and not much else. 5. They are keyword optimized. The publisher should be able to recognize the primary keyword in the title, and see it in the first and last paragraphs of the article. Notice that “online articles” is used in the title, and body of this article. A publisher hopes that your article will generate new search engine traffic to his site, so decent keyword optimization makes your article more likely to be chosen. Copyright Steve Gillman. He lost money on his websites until he discovered the power of articles. Six months later he was making a good living online. To learn how you can do the same, get your free online writing course at: .999articles.com