Writing headlines for your ads is the most important part of your online presence. When posting your ad to classified sites, directories, message boards, newsgroups or mailing lists, the only part of your ad that is showing is the heading. So, what your heading says will make the di ...

This is the ideal topic for us all to think about. We do it everyday, especially those of us that use the Internet the majority of the time. Web pages, business letters, articles, news releases, documentation and most certainly, advertisements. I have at times found myself proofreading ...

Among the various foolproof methods used to boost traffic to your site (ezine advertising, and search engine submitting, to name a couple) one method seems to be forgotten about by many new Internet marketers. That method is writing press releases. Press releases are a way to get your ...

Writing a sales letter doesnt have to be that difficult all you need is the right writing style and some tips to knock out a killer sales letter Benefits The first thing you need to do is focus on the benefits the reader will find useful. Tell the reader whats in it for him. Promise the ...

A friend and I were talking the other day about writing. He liked to write, but even so his biggest problem was finding things to write about. My friend was astounded at the volume of writing that I do - at least one article and something as many as six, per day. Where do I get all of th ...

Weather posting a page to your Website, writing a letter to a customer, or submitting an article for publication, it is extremely important to demonstrate how professional you are. Not only does a series of spelling and grammatical errors show a discourtesy to your readers, it makes you ...

It is certainly true that we don't get a second chance to make a first impression. As the impression we make on the Internet is almost always with the written word, is it unfortunate that there is so much poor writing bouncing around in cyberspace. The following tips are intended to help ...

Concision. (Sounds like I made up another word.) It's the idea of being concise in our ongoing communication with others, both written and oral. Many take forever to say so little. These are the same people who spend a lot of time in meetings. Some who may have little to say use lots of ...

BAITED, BATED Baited usually refers to traps or snares. When the reference is to someone who is hardly daring to breathe, the correct word is always bated: "She watched with bated breath." I've yet to read that someone "bated a trap" instead of baiting it, but there's always a first time ...

This is confusing because possessives normally have an apostrophe, but in this case it's is short for it is and its is possessive--always. "Its colour is green and it's quite beautiful." Other possessives that don't have an apostrophe are theirs, hers, yours and his--though I doubt anyon ...

LATER, LATTER Later means afterwards; latter is the second of two things. "Later that day we went for a walk." "We have two choices. The latter is the more reliable, but the former would be cheaper." LAY, LAID This pair confuses writers almost more than any other. "He lay on his bed." Al ...

PASSED, PAST Passed is the past tense of pass. Past means a time that has gone. "Time passed and we all forgot the incident." "In times past it was the custom for women to wear hats in church." PEACE, PIECE Peace means the absence of war (or even noise); piece is a portion of somethi ...

SALE, SAIL Sale is either offering something for purchase ("for sale") or offering it at a special price ("on sale"); sail is part of a ship or boat. SELL, CELL Sell is to exchange for money; cell is a small room. SCENE, SEEN Scene is the place where something happens; seen is the past ...

ASCENT, ASSENT Ascent is an upward movement; assent means agreement. ASSISTANCE, ASSISTANTS Assistance means help or aid; assistants is the plural of assistant, one who gives help. ASSURE, ENSURE, INSURE Assure means to guarantee; ensure means to make sure; insure means to protect agains ...

Once you've plotted out your book, developed the characters and written the last word of text, the real work begins. As busy editors are bombarded with hundreds or even thousands of submissions a year, it's more important than ever that authors apply their own editing skills to their man ...

The main task of a newsletter publisher is to select and package quality content of direct, practical relevance to its specific readership audience. This might sound quick and easy, but it is not. Publishing a quality newsletter is more than just cutting and pasting quality content in ...

Hands up if the title to this article made you think that you'd strayed into a fishing feature Perhaps you didn't quite go that far, but hopefully you were puzzled or curious enough to wonder what on earth those three angling associated words have to do with writing. The answer of cour ...

(NC)-Life is full of transitions, from high school to university, from first job to the next. Each of these changes brings with it a financial 'first': How much will it cost to go to college or university What are my rights when I lease an apartment Can I afford a car Do I need insurance ...

More and more good authors are turning to the Internet to self publish. There are several reasons for that. All of them are probably well known to every writer by now, so we'll not go into them here. What we'll talk about here is a new way to self publish. Everyone has, by now, heard ...

Hundreds of writing contests tempt screenwriters with the lure of prize money, instant film industry contacts and personal feedback from film professionals. But contests can be costly, screenwriters should choose intelligently. Before you write that check, research and evaluate the cont ...