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Writing in a Headline-Driven World

December 13th, 2008

Today, Seth Godin wrote about the importance of headlines.  Sure, we all know that writing a good headline for an article is perhaps the most important part of the writing process.  

After all, if you can’t communicate succinctly what you are writing about, why would anyone want to read any further?  

But being able to write a good headline isn’t only a skill you need when writing a blog post or some sales copy.  It is important in your daily life.  You should be thinking of the best subject line for an email so that it gets read.  You should take the time to craft the objective line on your resume and the first line of your cover letter. You should think of the first line you want to use when you talk to the attractive girl or guy at a party. (I’ve found that the combination of “hello” and “what’s your name?” work better than anything else.)

Joe Sugarman (who Godin references in his post) writes that the main job of a headline is to get people to move onto the first line of the body of whatever you are writing.  If people don’t move on, then nothing happens.  Your email or article is useless.  

A good headline does three things:

1) It makes clear what you are writing about without being wordy.  This is obvious but so often overlooked.

2) It catches eyes.  A clever or even just carefully-written article or well-crafted first line will get more attention than something boring.  Life is short.  People are busy.  Be interesting.

3) It starts the “slippery slide.”  Sugarman, the brilliant direct mail copywriter that he is, writes that the title is designed to get a reader to read the first line.  The job of the first line is to move on to the second line.  And so forth.  When a reader gets involved in a piece of writing, they start to slide down the rhetorical slippery slide.  Then you’ve captured your audience’s attention and move closer to whatever your intended goal may be.

Attention is hard to come by these days.  Communicating succinctly and getting your point across in as few words as possible will help your writing immensely.

Read more about online business.

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7 Ways to Make Your Website Great

December 5th, 2008

This is a list of 7 ways you can make your website better.  Whether you have a personal blog, a niche site, or a blog attached to your online business, these tips will help you make it great.

1) Write Longer Posts.  Many people say to write short posts because people (especially online) have short attention spans.  This may be true, but some people like to read long, informative, well-written posts. Longer posts also have more of your keyword phrases in them, which is helpful for search engine traffic.  

2) Make Your Blog Accessible.  Use a less-cluttered two or three column theme.  And make it easy for people to find out who you are.  If readers get more acquainted with you, it’s easier for them to get “involved” in your site.  They may even become regular visitors or subscribers.  

3) Write Stronger Titles.  Try to use keywords related to your post in the title.  And deliver what the title promises.  Create tags as well that can help your visitors find what they’re looking for more easily.

4) Use Images in your posts.  Pictures draw your readers into the articles you write.  If nothing else, they keep their eyes fixated on the page for an extra second or two.  Write a caption and alternate text (which may help the image get indexed by search engines).  Print advertisements tend to have images for the express reason that they attract eyeballs.

5) Promote, Promote, Promote.  There is nothing wrong with letting people know what you’re doing.  There is a key though.  You want to get in touch with people who run similar blogs and websites.  In general, people who deal with similar themes are more likely to be interested in what you’re doing.  This isn’t always true because interesting content always gets noticed, but it’s a good way to start out.  Engage other site owners with comments that add to the discussion brought up by their work.

6) Don’t Quit.  I think this has to be the single biggest reason why a blog fails: quitting.  It may take six months before your site takes off.  Heck, it may take a year.  Keep writing good, informative pieces and keep trying to connect with others.  Learn a little about keywords, learn a little about link building, learn a little about internet marketing and online business, and make sure that you enjoy what you’re doing.  If you’re not having fun, then quitting probably is a good option.  You can always start a new website.  

7) There is no #7.  I just broke the promise of my title.  You probably feel somewhat betrayed (See #3 on this list), but I hope you see the point I’m making.  Always deliver what you promise so that people will find what they are looking for and will want to come back.

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Richard Branson on Taking Risks and Finding an Edge in Business

November 17th, 2008

In an informative book called The Medici Effect about entrepreneurialism and innovation, there is a section with an anecdote about how Richard Branson started Virgin Airlines that shows the serial entrepreneur’s views of risk taking and research in business.

In 1984, Branson was already a successful record company executive.  But upon being presented with the idea to start an airline, he jumped at it.  His research consisted of calling a possible competitor, a discount airline called People Express.  When he tried calling to make a reservation, he was put on hold and couldn’t get through to a company representative for several days.  This led Branson to conclude that the company didn’t provide something that Virgin Records, Branson’s first company, did extremely well–good customer service.

This was the “in” he was looking for, his competitive edge.  A few calls later, he signed a year-long lease for a Boeing jumbo jet.  Six months later, Virgin Atlantic’s first flight departed from London.

As the author of the book points out, Branson hadn’t done “extensive research” into the airline business.  He had taken a huge leap into a business that many people knew way more about than he did.  The point of this anecdote, which is probably rather simplified, is that taking action without all the research and the “experience” you think you need may be a good way to get started.

You may be thinking, “well, someone who has the entrepreneurial instincts and past success of a guy like Richard Branson has a better shot at making a new venture succeed.”  And you might be right.  But going form the music business to trying to compete with huge airlines was not an example of “straight line” thinking.  And his research wasn’t what you would call extensive either.

Obviously, a big part of his success relies on the fact that he takes risks and goes balls out where others might play it safe.

It is easy to get bogged down in research and self-doubt.  Sometimes taking the leap is a great way to learn how to do something and figure out how to succeed from inside the business as opposed to getting stuck looking at it from the outside.  In the online business world, where you can start a website or blog in minutes and for little or no money, it has never been easier to take a leap of faith in a new direction and see what happens.

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How to Earn Money if You Are Unemployed but Have a Computer

November 14th, 2008

I noticed that quite a few of the visitors to my site are searching for terms like “make money while unemployed.” This traffic may be coming to me due to what I thought was my really clever domain name–which has the word “unemployed” in it.? But since a few people have come in search of information regarding that theme, I figured I would write directly to you. I know that we are going through tough times and there are a lot of people who don’t have jobs in the United States, which just really sucks.

There are hundreds of ways to earn money online–I am researching and trying to find new ways every day. I’m really interested in online business and I know that it will be even more important and more effective as we go forward. Frankly, private and public companies can’t be counted on to support workers anymore. Jobs are not safe and 401k’s certainly aren’t either.

Write Articles Online

Constant Content is a great place to sell your writing, no matter what you write about. It is pretty cool because you can list your work and your asking price. If people are interested in your work, they can purchase it from you. You can also sell licensing options, which means you can sell the same article to multiple people. There are also article requests that you can respond to and get paid. There are quite a few people who do really well at Constant Content. If you write good quality articles and can pump out the writing, then you’ll do very well there. Sign up here.

One way to earn money while unemployed if you are located in the United States (unless they’ve changed their rules) is Associated Content.? This is a website for writers where you submit work to the site’s editors and they pay you for your work.? You also receive small bonus payments for every pageview your articles receive.

If you are a writer, or even if you just like to write, you can try your hand at writing a few articles for AC. You can also upload your own videos or audio recordings to the site for payment, so that might be another option.

We’re not talking about a lot of money here, but a few bucks here and there always helps. If you write a few articles that gain a lot of traffic, you may be able to earn a nice little chunk of change. If you have any questions about how to get started with Associated Content let me know in a comment or send me an email.

I’ve earned as low as $4 or an article and as high as $12. Typically, you will earn around 5 bucks for an article–and then you earn bonus payments for every 1000 views, which frankly doesn’t add up to much. One of my articles gets a healthy amount of page views and earns me an extra $7 a month. It doesn’t sound like a lot, and it isn’t really. But I haven’t written many articles published on the site, so if you had ten or twenty good articles earning that, you can see how you could add to your bottom line–no matter how small the amount of money is per article.

Update. I no longer recommend Associated Content as a place to write articles. Start your own blog and you will be able to earn more over the long term. Or if you want a head start, write at Hubpages. You will be able to earn far more money with Hubpages (if you do it right) than you will ever earn at AC. Read how to make money at Hubpages.

Start a Free Blog

Blogger is a free service where you can start a blog, name it what you want (if it is available), and write about anything you want to.? It is also very easy to implement the Google Adsense advertising program to your blog.? You can do it right from your dashboard at the site.? When people click on your ads, you earn money.? When you hit $100, you get a payment issued to you.? The keys to earning money from a blog (and this is a very basic explanation of a not too easy process) are writing content based on a consistent theme, gaining a lot of traffic, and having some sort of monetization on your site. You can use Adsense or even try some affiliate marketing products.

An even easier route to make money online is to sign up for Xomba.com, a website where you can write articles about whatever you want to.? You can include links to any other website of your choice.? The way you earn money on this site is from Adsense.? You just have to put in your publisher id in your account page once you sign up and you start earning 50% of the revenue earned from your writing.

These are just a few ways to get started earning money online.? I know this is not an in-depth or very thorough post, but I just wanted to throw these two sites out to those of you looking for ways to earn income online during these tough times.? They may not be perfect for your situation, but they are a place to start.? Good luck.

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