What's New With You? How to Write a Press Release

By Kathryn Beach

The purpose of a press release is to briefly state your case to the media so someone will want to write about you, your business, or your product. The key ingredient is proving that your story is newsworthy.

Learning how to write a good press release is not much different than any other writing you do to promote yourself, your business and your products. As always, the focus has to be not on all of the above, but on your reader. The only differences are in the format, and you can find press release templates all over the web easily. Think about content only for now.

Your content is very basic "who, what, where, when and why" info. The "why" is, why is it newsworthy?

Here are the steps you need to go through to plan your angle, your "hook". You may be thinking, "I'm not newsworthy."You may be happy to learn that there is no need to be. You have to find something that IS newsworthy that connects with your product.

Where do you get your news from? You probably get it from a combination of places. My news comes from forums, blogs and television. Perhaps you find out your news from neighbors, chats, and newspapers. It doesn't matter where. There's a certain celebrity that likes to tell us what's "hot", so take notice of what's in the news that pertains to your business.

I'm a writer. I get ideas from the strangest places. It took watching a television show for me to remember that college students are on spring break currently. College kids are all about writing, now I'm thinking of what they write. I could write a report on how to write a research paper and have it ready for when they're back to school. How many of them will be panicking about getting that paper written before finals?

Is there anyone else living on this continent, besides me, that is mostly ignorant about hand-held communication devices? Even so, it appears to me that new uses are turning up daily. Maybe something in this area applies to your business.

Two houses down from me the city is turning a playground into a dog park. Dog parks seem to be springing up everywhere. I would think there would be socialization issues here; suddenly all these dogs that have been walked on leashes all their lives are running free. If you had a dog website, how to train your dog to play well with others would be a good topic for an ebook or report and featuring training aids (are there any new ones?)

Once you've found your "newsworthiness" angle, your press release will almost write itself. Remember, it's all about the readers that the media contact will be writing for. What's in it for them? At the very end of any press release template, there's a paragraph that is usually referred to as the "boilerplate". This is very simply your "elevator speech" about your website or business. It's that two sentence, 15-second description that you use everywhere you're asked what it is that you do.

Your boilerplate appears at the end of your press release and is the only place in your press release where you mention, in a matter-of-fact way, precisely what your business does.
Kathryn Beach writes original content for her own websites and for clients who pay for her ghostwriting services. She specializes in helping clients add optimized content to websites and promote their businesses with article marketing.Kathryn Beach, Copywriter http://www.kathrynbeachonline.com

Article Source: http://www.ArticleBiz.com

Tips For Writing Effective Business Correspondence

By Stephen Thomson

Writing a correspondence in business is like shooting at a target. You may possibly hit a target by chance, but it is more apt to be hit if accurate aim has been taken. The main idea of a written communication is to express your thought, and the further idea may be to have the thought produce action. But the action depends predominately on how well the thought is conveyed.

A business letter or correspondence always has a purpose, so if you set out the exact object of the letter, memo or circulars, you cannot go wrong in writing any sort of correspondence. Following points can be used to make your business correspondence an effective tool of communication.

Avoid use of dull and monotonous language while writing a business correspondence:

In general, you glance through the first paragraph of any letter you open. If it grabs your attention by a point in which you are interested, or by a clever allusion or a striking headline or some unconventional style, it is likely you will read at least the next section or two. But if these paragraphs do not keep up your interest the letter will be passed by unfinished. If you fail to give the letter a full reading, the writer has only himself to blame. He has not taken benefit of his opportunity to carry your interest along until he has driven his message properly, point by point.

Keep your sentences short in written businesses communication:

Readers are normally likely to be put off or confused by long sentences. Sometimes, the reader loses the beginning by the time he comes to the end of the long sentence, so keep sentences short in your business correspondences.

Positive language:

You should try, as far as possible, to use positive and affirmative language in business letters..

Give importance to the reader:

While writing a business letter to your customer, you should avoid self-centered focusing on your own concerns or your business and focus on the recipient's needs, interests, or purposes. This "you attitude" or recipient oriented style is very beneficial in winning new consumers and keeping old ones. It does not mean that you must use more of "you" in your business letters, but you should make recipient the primary focus of the letter. However, you should be careful not to overdo anything in your communication to avoid feel of deception, superficiality or ambiguity.

Sincerity of a purpose:

Sincerity means your readers should consider what you want to say. Genuineness of purpose becomes all the more essential in any business correspondence, where primary purpose is to build up the relations with consumers or clients and earn business. Although, the business letter has a materialistic purpose but it also has the personal touch.

Advantage of written business communication:

The communication, if clearly written, will never misrepresent your proposition, plans or any offers and it will reach the prospect just as it left your desk, with the same amount of enthusiasm and freshness. The business letter or any correspondence, once it lies open before the man to whom you wish to talk, is your counterpart, speaking in your words just as you would talk to him if you were in his office.

The idea of any business correspondence is to convey your thought that will set off some kind of action - instantly or remotely. There are two important points for writing effective communication. The first is, you should know what you want to say and the second is, say it. And the saying is a matter of putting one word after another. Writing softwares with text enrichment tools can be used for writing and proofreading business correspondence, emails and letters. More information is available at www.writingeditingsoftware.com on various writing softwares for effective written business communication.

For details on softwares for writing, please visit Writing and editing Software or Writing software for business correspondence website.

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7 Book Writing Secrets that Make Your Book Sales Soar

By Earma Brown

Does your writing lack pizzazz? Does it lack the power to draw your readers in for more? Does it inspire confidence in you as an author? Does it stand up to your competition and hold its own?

If you answered no to any of the questions above you may be interested in the tips below. Discover how to write compelling copy that makes your book sales soar:

1. Put your reader first. Most of us tend to write selfishly. I mean we write what we want. Go against the natural grain; give your readers what they want. Write to their benefit. Write a solution to their problems.

2. Start well. Create a sizzling beginning. Hook your readers through emotion. Slant your book or introduction with a question or an amazing statistic. Share the top benefits of your book early. Aim for the 'You' in every reader.

3. Break your writing into short sections. Write your book in chunks, chapters, sections and parts. Use headings, bulleted lists, pull quotes and other easy reading tools. Don't make your chapters too long. Create easy transitions to the next chapter or section. Keep each section short and easy to read.

4. Use short sentences. Slash your sentences to under 15-17 words. Don't bog your readers with complex sentences. Remember multiple phrases slow your reader's comprehension. Make it easy. Get to the point fast.

5. Use simple words. Write for the 7-10 grade level. The shortest, most well known words are best. The more syllables in a word, the less compelling it becomes. Cut all unnecessary adjectives. Clear, easy to understand copy makes your reader want to read your piece to the end. Fill your writing with what's in it for them. They'll come back for more and tell all their friends.

6. Avoid technical jargon. Unless you are writing a technical manual where most everyone will understand the technical language, don't use technical jargon. It will become techno mumbo jumbo to your readers; they will find something better to do besides figure out what you're saying.

7. Be specific. Avoid generalities. Engage your reader's emotion with specifics. Let them experience color, size and shape. Instead of, "Complete your degree online fast to increase your income." Say, "Complete your master degree online fast so you can upgrade your lifestyle, get vacations, health insurance and other corporate benefits." Specific benefits create a stronger pull than the general benefit of increased income.

8. Slash adverbs. Go through and cut words like openly, suddenly, very that tell the reader instead of show the reader. Circle all the (ly) and (very) words. Pull out your thesaurus and replace them with power words that show emotion or describe.

9. Check the flow of information. Check your paragraphs for good harmonic flow and understanding. Meaning, make sure you don't drop off suddenly and change the subject. Clear writing creates compelling copy. Compelling copy leads to more book sales.

10. Slash passive structures. Passive sentences slow and dull your writing. Get rid of the passive voice sentences. Give your sentences a clear subject and a verb to avoid the passive voice. "The writer found fame and fortune through marketing her books online." instead of "The writer's books were instrumental in leading her to fame and fortune." Avoid connecting verbs like 'was', 'is', 'had', and 'seemed'. Replace passive voice verbs with active verbs.

Are you ready to write sizzling copy that your readers find hard to put down? Remember to put your reader first, develop a sizzling start, break your writing into short sections, shorten sentences, use simple words, avoid technical language and be specific. Implement these seven tips to begin writing for more profits! Now go; write a successful book and make us all proud!

Earma Brown, 13 year author and book coachGet a Free Book Writing Kit when you take the Write a Book Challenge. Send any email to wabc@bookwritinghelp.com for 7 lesson mini-course "Win with the Writer Inside" or visit her at How to Write a Book for more resources and tips.

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3 Easy Marketing Tips for Writers

ByJinger Jarrett

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

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

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

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

1. Submit your site to the search engines.

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

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

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

2. Build a blog and build relationships.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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