Speaking for FUN and PROFIT

Online readers love information, but be sure your information is crisp, clean, clear and concise.

1. Keep your paragraphs short, even a line or two. Online readers will ignore long batches of words in long paragraphs, whether in an ezine or at a Web site. That costs the author a lot of book sales. Respect readers who want material short and
sweet.

2. Write tips in their correct format. First, use a verb command, such as “do this.”

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So many clients come to me as a book or marketing coach telling me how they spent and wasted a lot of money and time following different well-known gurus in the book and publicity fields.

Debbie’s Story

A recent client, Debbie, already got her books printed–over 900 left to sell from the 1000 at too much cost. She’s discouraged and now doesn’t have much money to promote her masterpiece. Too bad she didn’t consult with a professional book coach with 20 plus years experience who could save her mistakes learned from pros who don’t have the best interests of the unknown authors with limited resources at heart..
The traditional path is not the path for all of us.

Think self-publishing. Think Print on Demand, but be careful.

The Book Coach Says…If you are a new author looking for printing/publishing direction, check out the best Print on Demand Printer/Publisher at www.deharts.com.

Many of

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How do you make your fundraising letters creative and fresh year after year when your needs don’t change all that much? I am not talking about new initiatives. I’m talking about the programs that you run year after year. The membership drive that you run year after year. The funds that you must raise to cover administrative expenses and salaries year after year. How can you request funds for these things over time without boring your donors into apathy? Learn a lesson from Jack Foster.

Jack Foster spent 35 years working in creative departments of advertising agencies in the United States. One of his challenges was doing the advertising for Smokey Bear. Here’s how he describes his predicament:

The first thing the writers and art directors had to do every year was come up with a basic poster.

The rules for the poster never varied: It had to be a certain shape and

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“Play your cards close to the vest.” “Knowledge is Power.”

In the industrial age, knowledge was indeed power. Your manufacturing processes gave you a competitive edge. Knowing how (and where!) to find the oil reserves put you ahead of your competition. It was the Cold War era, there was a lot of spy vs. spy stuff going on. Everyone was paranoid, desperately clinging to each morsel of data like it was the last clean bathroom stall at Woodstock.

But those days are over.

Now we’re in the information age, and the new mantra is “Content is King”. These days, sharing knowledge is power. That power can mean hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars in revenue.

Are you sharing your knowledge with your prospective customers? Do you “open the kimono” and allow them to peek behind the scenes into your business, or are you still playing things “close to the vest”?

Certainly there are some

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Although there’s no sure-fire method for creating a successful career as a freelancer, I can offer you a few strategies that have helped me to build my own little business as a single mom and struggling writer working from home.

As much as I do not enjoy “selling” anything, you have to sell yourself, your work, your skills, your services etc. to prospective clients or obviously you will probably not get a lot of business.

So how do you market yourself?

There’s many different methods and some may work for most writers, while others may not be appropriate or appealing to other freelancers.

One way that I prefer to promote myself to prospective clients is by sending direct mail to new businesses opening in my local area and online companies, publications or corporations that I have not worked with in the past.

You can search for such prospects in your phonebook and through your local

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This is the seventh stage of the Hero’s Journey.

The hero encounters a value that drives him to consciously and forcefully enter the world of the antagonism - something he has previously resisted on some level. This value is often outside the hero’s present frame of reference or pattern of behaviour and involves significant sacrifice.

The goal of this stage of the journey is to Seize the Sword - a tangible purpose that lays in the depths of the antagonisms world. Therefore it is not unusual that the Sword lies deep underground, in the dark, in an uncomfortable environment, is guarded by the antagonist’s lieutenants and so on.

In Carlito’s Way, Al Pacino agrees to help Kleinfeld break Tony T out of jail. (the Sword) He does this out of loyalty to his perceived “brother,” who saved him from a thirty-year stretch in prison. Even though it is against his best instincts, against

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Have you ever had to give a speech?

Do you remember that feeling? A knot in the stomach, sweaty palms and a panic attack!

Not a very pleasant experience. And yet, I’m sure your speech was a success because 90 per cent of a typical audience want the speaker to succeed.

Yet according to The Book of Lists, speaking in public is one of our greatest fears.

Much of this anxiety is due to a lack of confidence in writing and preparing a speech rather than in the delivery.

Giving a presentation can be a great way to build your business, influence public opinion or kick-start your career.

It is an excellent way to stand out from the crowd and make a real difference in people’s lives.

What are the secrets of writing a powerful and persuasive speech for any occasion?

Here are 10 tips for turning a good speech into a great one!

1. Have a plan and

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Readers often send me interesting and exciting e-mails about the op-ed pieces I write and manage to publish. As a writer, I get all sorts. Some are actually encouraging. Then there are those who say, “This is YOUR fantasy, not the reality I have seen.” Or, they ask, “Your point is?”

Alas and alack, it is the lot of professional writers to suffer these comments all in the name of trying to write something someone wants to read (and buy!).

In my latest piece on the Minuteman Project, some readers took offense at my attempt to link Chris Simcox, one of the co-founders, with groups run by gomers like Glenn Spencer. In fact, one lady wrote and said,

“Your attempt to tarnish the citizens of the Minuteman Project by linking it to Spencer and the ABP is about as honest and courageous as spreading the stench of MS-13 over the entire illegal population.”

And

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Sometimes learning what not to do is as important as learning what to do. Copywriting is no exception. I oftentimes see copy that is well written, but obviously created by an amateur. How do I know? One or more of the following five mistakes was made and that killed the copy dead.

Once you understand why these mistakes are, in fact, mistakes, you can easily avoid them. It isn’t like they are complicated concepts. It just takes someone to bring them to your attention so you can guard against them.

Pull up your site in a browser and follow along. See if you’ve made any of these mistakes on your site.

#1 - Writing Without Knowing Your Target Audience

This is, without a doubt, the biggest mistake of copywriting and the #1 killer of conversions. Why? I’ll answer with a question.

When you write a letter (or email), do you just start writing and decide

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Started a book and then got bogged down? Like many of my bookcoaching clients do you say, “I have so many other demands, I just can’t get to the book.”

This isn’t procrastination or fear. Most writers get stuck when they don’t know how to move forward, finish, publish and sell their unique, useful book to audiences just waiting for it to come out. Let me share two ways to speed up your process.

One. Take One or More High Level Action Each Day

Another to do, you groan? Not really. If you don’t make your book one of the top three priorities in your life, it won’t finish it.

Get real. How many hours can you give to your book a week?
If not ten, I say you may never get your book out. Clients get so discouraged when they don’t do their fieldwork for our coaching calls, so I came up with one

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