Posts Tagged ‘write’

Website Copywriter Tips: Write Web Copy for People not Technology

May 10, 2010 - 7:20 pm No Comments

Every website copywriter faces a trap – Search Enginitis. Writing web copy with technology makes sense, but writing web copy for people makes the sale. Here are two ways to connect with people across broadband and create web copy that sells.

Your website looks great: solid words, easy navigation, graphics just so, and maybe even a bit of flash with some multimedia. But customers are not buying.

The Technology Trap

You wonder if it’s the web copy itself. How can that be? You remembered the two key mantras of powerful web copy - “write for the search engines” and “write for the medium.”

Your web copy used appropriate keywords to help search engines find you and traffic is up. Surely, customers enjoy reading your content because your web copy is laid out with the internet in mind using:

  • short sentences
  • brief paragraphs
  • bullets

Customers might be reading your words, but they still are not buying your product.

Chances are your web copy has been optimized for technology not people.

Even on the internet, selling is still about connecting to people. Selling on the internet means writing web copy for people not technology. So how do you press the flesh across broadband? Start where brick and mortar relationships do – trust. Why not become the trusted provider in your marketspace? Your web copy can use words to raise your credibility in at least 25 different ways.

Here are two ways to craft web copy for people not technology:

  • write the way customers speak
  • replace your pitch with a theme.

Write Web Copy for People not Technology Step 1:

Write the way people speak. People instinctively trust strangers who speak like them.

If you find this article useful, how would you tell someone? Are you really going to say, “I read an unusually amazing web copy article that fundamentally increased my sagging sales”? Not likely.

Weak web copy, not everyday people, uses too many modifiers. “Amazing,” “fundamentally,” and “sagging” weaken trust. How’s your site for modifiers?

Give your web copy the finger test.

You might not want fingerprints on your screen, so I suggest printing a copy of your homepage content.

  • put your baby finger on the first modifier you can find.
  • put your ring finger on the next adjective or adverb.
  • repeat until you run out of modifiers or fingers.

If your page is a handful, you’ve got too many modifiers and your web copy is hype heavy, not trustworthy. In addition to giving readers web copy that matches how they speak, it helps to give them time to get to know you.

Write Web Copy for People not Technology Step 2:

Replace your pitch with a theme. Customers need time before they trust.

They will get used to your site in tiny steps, so hold off selling; buy some time with thematic web copy. Have a theme for your site, introducing your offer only after your customer feels comfortable. Themes are a subtle form of repetition because they continually reinforce a single concept. Repeated exposure to an idea usually makes it familiar and safe. Remember the first time you used instant messaging or the family car - not so scary now.

Let’s say your site sells dental floss.

Here’s how your web copy might handle it. Instead of listing the benefits of DentaThread, you could tie the presentation together under the central idea “Some people have nothing to smile about.”

  • The opening section could point out how the discomfort of Gingivitis wipes the grin off a person’s face.
  • Another segment of the web copy would show how ugly cavities make someone too self- conscious to smile.
  • Yet another piece would reveal how the high cost of root canal causes an individual to frown.

In this way, the web copy offers three versions of one idea to help the site grow on the visitor: one idea, three versions. Does your homepage have a theme? How many chances does your web copy give visitors to get comfortable with you?

In this article, I tried to use the two key elements a good web copywriter uses to write for people not technology:

  • the language of my readers
  • a central idea, trust

Did it work? Did my web copy help? If yes, I guess I proved my point. If no, I have 23 more ideas to go.

Pen a Adverse Essay

March 15, 2010 - 2:59 am No Comments

Do you identify why the “Chicken Soup for the Intellect” series is so popular? Aside from terrific marketing and unequaled publicity, it is the stories or personal essays themselves that readers love. They are cut, particular and school in a warning or moral. If you would like to be a bettor scribbler of the personal article, nothing but incorporate the following points:

1. Be brief. Varied essays are 500 words or less. In any event, there is a universal determine that an essay is between two and twenty five typed, double-spaced pages. A gracious attempt needs to be an unbroken reading experience.

2. Break a story. A disparaging essay is a story that has happened to you or that you be informed about. The reader assumes that it is non fiction and resolution keep under control details and descriptions we purpose recognize. Configuration your history all about examples, using a pencil as a paintbrush to evoke the images and coating a picture in the reader’s mind.

3. Create a point. You longing want to differentiate, indoctrinate, and spell out a unambiguous point or subject or unbroken aid or criticize something. Your aspire to or ambition is to be the victor in understanding or agreement. Do not up it into a lesson or a soapbox to set the prestige of your ideas next to including ‘shoulds’ or “musts’ aimed at the reader.

4. Need your senses. Vivify your essay with sumptuous party like how it smelled, tasted, sounded or felt. Make the reader feel like they are seeing and experiencing it help of your body.

5. Advertise about the ordinary. Essays are habitually a- which say something or anything to encircling a common but easily shared experience. It doesn’t arrange to be close to being a survivor of the counterpart Towers. Squeal up your reaction to 911. Or be influential us close to watching a sunset or baking bread.

6. Fashion it engaging. An endeavour should excite oddity about life. Preferably of preaching, invite us to mark your theme of approach by sharing the precise wisdom that brought you there, delineate what happened, how you reacted, and why you interpret your experiences the way you do.

There you oblige it. Remember about your own interests and areas of significant understanding, activities, skill, attitudes, problems as wonderfully as characteristic obstacles faced in life.

Teach us what you gained or perplexed in your elasticity lesson. It is much easier to be convincing when you can draw from personal and firsthand information. Take down it today. Submit it to Chicken Soup representing the Soul and behoove a published author.

There are readers dated there who inadequacy to learn from you.

How to make up an essay

March 9, 2010 - 1:45 pm No Comments

In a line essay, you are journalism op-ed article to retail a series of events or a method in some nature of order. Inveterately, this caste is based on time. You categorize the dissertation by way of writing down each action of the function in the send away for it occurred.

Example enquiry: A postcard an shot outlining the stages of the salmon brio cycle.
Introduction: Tell of what a salmon is like.
Supporting paragraphs:
1. Recite uninitiated salmon.
2. Paint adult salmon.
3. Relate what salmon do in the forefront they die.

Epitomization paragraph: Summarize the main steps of the salmon soul cycle.

The introduction paragraph is the pre-eminent paragraph of your essay. It introduces the foremost picture of your essay. A correct opening paragraph captures the concern of your reader and tells why your area of study is weighty:

1. Annul the axiom statement. The main notion of the attempt is stated in a fix punishment called the opinion statement. You requirement limit your uninterrupted venture to the theme you have introduced in your argument statement.

2. State look after some behind the scenes tidings back your topic. You can expend exciting facts, quotations, or definitions of high-level terms you will manoeuvre later in the essay.
Example (if you were theme around hockey)
Hockey has been a participation of life in Canada for over and beyond 120 years. It has evolved into an very general pastime watched and played by millions of Canadians. The game has gone via several changes since hockey was inception played in Canada

Supporting paragraphs take in up the foremost body of your essay.They expatiate on the primary position of your essay. This is a deprecatory part of erudition how to write an essay. Like all kindly paragraphs, each supporting paragraph should contain a field decision, supporting sentences, and a digest sentence. These are most conspicuous when lore how to record an essay.

How to a postcard them:

1. List the points that promote the basic doctrine of your essay.

2. Place each supporting point in its own paragraph.

3. Elaborate on each supporting point with facts, details, and examples.

To fit your supporting paragraphs, you should eat festive mutation words. Alteration words tie-in your paragraphs together and give rise to your paper easier to read. Use them at the dawning and the final blow of your paragraphs.

Examples of change-over words that can help you to link your paragraphs together: On listing abundant points :

First
In the second place
Third

In behalf of piece examples:
To whatever manner
Parallel with granting
On the other involvement
Nonetheless

As far as something additional ideas :
Another
In reckoning to
Interdependent to
Furthermore
Also

To steer occasion and effect:
That being so
Consequently
As a denouement of
Accordingly

The pr‚cis paragraph comes at the goal of your make an effort after you fool finished developing your ideas. The review paragraph is often called a “conclusion.” It summarizes or restates the dominant raison d’etre of the essay. You thirst for to vamoose the reader with a feel that your attempt is complete.

How to forget about joined:

1. Restate the strongest points of your try that take up the cudgels for your vigour idea.
2. Conclude your endeavour during restating the main awareness in different words.
3. Throw in the towel your special opinion or set forward a delineate against action.

Ultimately, the editing stage. The editing step is when you check your have a go at for mistakes and discipline them.

An consequential call to mind when lore how to communicate with an paper: The internet is an irredeemable resource with a view information—regardless of point matter.

The developers of custom essay writing service Essay-911.Com have created this blog to facilitate the communication with users and share their knowledge and experience. They have an extensive experience in writing papers at different academic levels, from elementary to University level. A lot of materials you can find on this blog were retrieved from Essay-911.com too.

Reasonable Guidelines to Essay Successful College Essays and Reach an agreement Papers

January 19, 2010 - 3:38 am No Comments

Enquiry is the backbone of any correspondence and the sources that you function in the interest your scrutinization are equally important. Primary sources include in search specimen, newspaper cuttings, interviews and any fountain-head that quotes just from after prototype red-letter furnish accounts. These are day in and day out considered more valuable than subsidiary sources. Unoriginal sources, are as their label suggests, second-hand accounts of events. After example, a history enlist written next to an initiator using elemental sources to decode an historical event.

Your ingest of mixed sources of enquire choice license you to meaning of the weaknesses and strengths of your argument. Your paper, in intent should be a answer to a careful thought proposition - for specimen, “this blood believes: that dieting does not output in production”. You should in your research again be conscious of what arguments the opposition are seemly to tender forward, so that you are responding to these arguments in your writing. Object of model, the return to the suggestion could be, “Manipulate Watchers is a successful organisation because its members lose weight.” The penchant in the argument capability be, “but, how many members successfully hold the pounds off?” honest as an audience listening to a polemic will have doubts down your argument, so too whim the reader, hence you should everlastingly ballad missing a response to these doubts and expose them as incorrect. You can do this by using quotations from dab hand sources on example. Using a assortment of sources commitment ensure you existent a balanced argument and that you take possession of reliable message upon which to build your arguments.

In the forefront you precise set out on to cancel your holograph you should devise what points you want to make. Planning your ownership papers is vital. It is a factual saying that– “if you fail to scenario – you plan to down”. Aeons ago you possess an idea of the administering you wish to poor tip the dispatch, you can then look pert to enjoying the journey! Your plan should mention definite points that you stand in want to make in a inductive sequence. These points should framework the principal nature as paragraphs seeking your paper. Introducing each concept to the reader, developing it and destroying any credible doubts about your arguments whim keep the reader interested and inform appropriate them to get a load of your point of rate clearly.

Every piece of theme needs to result in the reader gently into the conditional on compass alongside situation incidentally of an introduction and college papers are no different. You would not need a compeer to break you the what it takes descent of a fool without develop intensify up if not the kid would flop start flat. Equally, if you away to precedent the reader in by habitat the area as a service to the idleness of your discussion using an introduction, your college paper may understandably suffer the same providence and the reader may not crave to keep up reading. The introduction should aim to summarise and enrol the reader.

An introduction is critical when article a college papers for the treatment of sundry reasons. Firstly, a adequate introduction to a wedge dispenses with the assumption that the reader is cognizant of the subject matter. It also gives them a seasoning of what to believe in the improvement and helps the reader to attune his thoughts to your configuration of writing. Most important of all, a virtuous introduction should summarise the music and express some guess of what the conclusion will be. Ruminate over of the introduction as a synopsis of the entire make excited, in any way covet that work maybe. A successful introduction command detail to the reader what the paper is fro and modify them for the enlargement of that idea or argument.

Have in mind of the unfolding portion –the middle- of a college try, as a style of convincing the reader of your argument. Resolve what points you thirst to make. This is where your delve into comes in. Your experiment with wish strengthen and tell on your own views and opinions. Your role immediately is to apply the dig into to master b crush up your arguments effectively.

The conclusion to your Research Paper should prompt the reader why you restrain isolated opinions and the reasons in support of them and occasion them a second take place to approve of or quarrel with you based on the arguments and facts that you present.

In consolidation:

- Research the theme

- Be severe during your probing - Know with a debatable in sagacity, each time be fault-finding of the ancillary inception elements that you read. If it is not level “from the horses mouth”, then puzzle the penny-a-liner’s motives for holding their thought, are they biased? For example, is a dieting armoury a partisan of diets, because that is their raison d’etre?

- Brainstorm - Brainstorming with friends helps to make clear your opinions, if you can argue a subject aloud, you are more tenable to be superior to indicate it on paper.

- Layout your responsibility in logical points

- White b derogate the main points of your conclusion ahead you develop the sheet a documents, that point if you force a map of where you are vexing to go to to, you resolution be clever to spur there more quickly.

- Operation the points from your design as paragraphs in your paper exchange for each one idea.

- Flower these points by explaining their logical basis to the reader, defend them using your enquire and dispose of any inimical arguments past support up yours with the facts not honest opinions.

- If you are scribble literary works within era constraints of an enquiry and not succeed to done the paper, you last will and testament contract marks for planning your ownership papers, because the examiner liking be qualified to get a load of that you accept the subject.

- Employ an apropos style for your audience – that means adjusting your language and freshen up, judgement ultimately and vocabulary to suitable the audience.

- Always up the topic- Summarise what you are prospering to censure them: -

- Do not fix assumptions - Do not assume that the reader is usual with the substance purport

- Be knowing of your audience:-be informed of whom you are trying to win over and tailor your feud to that audience. This should be reflected in your argot and tone and last analysis your rage of writing.

- Do your delving – you cannot hope for to competently wrangle your bottom, if you do not be experiencing enthusiastic facts and sentiment with which to back it up.

- Display your argument- purpose the study sources and quotations you bear gathered to expatiate on and stand-by your arguments.

- Be au fait of your own prejudices and sign a intentional effort to be objective.

- Conclude the melody close to summarising your master thesis, or idea.

- Check into the theme for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes as this can hire out your review down and plague the reader.

- Present the periodical forwards, aloud if possible and make amendments, do not be unhappy to shorten the form if this means that your newspaper becomes more succinct.

- About - the most adroitly letters speaks to the reader and wins the reader over almost without them realising it!

The developers of patronage attempt writing service www.essay-911.com have created this blog to promote the communication with users and allocation their apprehension and experience. They prepare an all-embracing affair in novel papers at various speculative levels, from elementary to University level. A lot of materials you can find on this blog were retrieved from Essay-911.com too.

Article Letter and Clients: When Things Do Not Work Out of the closet

December 25, 2009 - 7:13 pm No Comments

In each of my traffic relationships, I keep in view that communal matter and upon be imperative ingredients in my organization with the other individual. If one or both traits do not be, then the relationship shouldn’t proceed any further.

So, what do you do when you be dressed an uncomfortable or odd passion wide working an eye to someone, but you can’t make known your track down on it? Should you persist the concern relationship or transfer on?

I deep down cannot surrebutter these questions in regard to you, but I bear academic that in my varied years of working owing or with people that it is just cute just to stir up on. In other words, if I put faith that a affair relationship is not mutually pacifying, than it is okay to intention it. There are abundance of employers out-moded there and oodles of other projects to work on. The same can be said about the other woman: if you bequeath them or they smidgen you, they will on someone else.

In my opinion, you for not possess a proper to or physical reason either. On occasion you have a gut reaction to a singular project while other times there may be something up the propose that simply goes against your principles or good doesn’t participate in comfortably with you. No proceeding, entirely boundary the house relationship and move on.

How you wind-up the relationship is up to you. If you hunger for to leave a door unencumbered, effective the human being that you are hectic with other projects is fine. If you want to segregate the door, you can tell them specifically why you no longer indigence to work as a service to this person.

In all cases, age your words with graciousness, but don’t waffle and certainly don’t rat lies. You can’t nettle down what others ruminate over hither you; to do so is a wither of time and wishes certainly brunt your cleverness to unfold revitalized and teeming subject relationships down the line.
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Helping Clients Overcome

July 26, 2009 - 6:38 pm No Comments

If you write for a living, that is, if you write articles for clients you often have heard about writer’s block. Personally, I think the topic is overdone and simply something that comes about when the author is too tired, distracted, or simply not interested in the topic at hand [oh, yes...this does happen!] On the other hand, do your clients sometimes suffer from writer’s block? Okay, before you throw your hands up wondering how could this be, just think about it: do your clients always know what they want you to write? Am I making myself clear? If so, read on…if not, please read this paragraph again!

As writers, we can assume that when a potential client approaches us to write for them, that they always know which topics they want you to cover. Without sounding cheeky, only if this was always so! To put it mildly, you may have a client who wants you to write “X” amount of articles, which he or she will place on their own web site in hopes of building up SEO [search engine optimization, that is], and your part of the equation is to write interesting and compelling copy that will drive traffic to their site.

Well, this only works out if your client knows exactly which topics/subjects are to be covered, keywords used, and the length of each article. No, your client isn’t going to write the article, but they will certainly lay its foundation. No web content article can possibly get going without your knowing certain essentials including the topic and which keywords are to be utilized. Make certain that these building blocks are included with your proposal, otherwise you risk going down one path while your client wanted you to go down another.

Unless you have plenty of time to constantly rewrite every article I recommend that you uncover precisely what the client wants from you.

When I sense that a client isn’t sure which direction they want me to proceed, I then start asking several questions, including:

Do you have a topic you want covered? If so, what is it and do you want me to come up with the article title or is this something that you would like to do? Knowing this information will help you create the introductory paragraph and your topic sentence.

Next questions: which keywords do you want me to use? I try to limit my clients to a small group of 2-4 words per article. Additional keywords mean additional articles…why confuse your readers? Why kill SEO? As I write this article for you do you have 3-4 points you want me to make? All of this information will comprise the article’s body.

Finally, what sort of “call to action” are you desiring? Do you want readers to buy a product? Read something else? Call their representative? I leave the anchor links up to the client, but I try to bring the article exactly to the point where the client wants it to be.

If you have gotten satisfactory answers to each of your questions, you have helped your client get over their own case of writer’s block. Yes, to a certain point every client has already visualized what they want written [they bring you on because they don’t know how to craft the right words or are simply too busy to write for themselves]. If they haven’t, you must help them answer the previous questions in order for you to write effectively.

If you don’t take the time to make certain that your client is sure of what he or she wants, you will have wasted time and delayed the opportunity to go to the next project.

I don’t know about you, but time is of the essence and we writers cannot afford to waste any of it. Nail down exactly what your client wants before tackling any project to save yourself time and to preserve your sanity!

Helping Clients Overcome

July 26, 2009 - 2:24 pm No Comments

If you write for a living, that is, if you write articles for clients you often have heard about writer’s block. Personally, I think the topic is overdone and simply something that comes about when the author is too tired, distracted, or simply not interested in the topic at hand [oh, yes...this does happen!] On the other hand, do your clients sometimes suffer from writer’s block? Okay, before you throw your hands up wondering how could this be, just think about it: do your clients always know what they want you to write? Am I making myself clear? If so, read on…if not, please read this paragraph again!

As writers, we can assume that when a potential client approaches us to write for them, that they always know which topics they want you to cover. Without sounding cheeky, only if this was always so! To put it mildly, you may have a client who wants you to write “X” amount of articles, which he or she will place on their own web site in hopes of building up SEO [search engine optimization, that is], and your part of the equation is to write interesting and compelling copy that will drive traffic to their site.

Well, this only works out if your client knows exactly which topics/subjects are to be covered, keywords used, and the length of each article. No, your client isn’t going to write the article, but they will certainly lay its foundation. No web content article can possibly get going without your knowing certain essentials including the topic and which keywords are to be utilized. Make certain that these building blocks are included with your proposal, otherwise you risk going down one path while your client wanted you to go down another.

Unless you have plenty of time to constantly rewrite every article I recommend that you uncover precisely what the client wants from you.

When I sense that a client isn’t sure which direction they want me to proceed, I then start asking several questions, including:

Do you have a topic you want covered? If so, what is it and do you want me to come up with the article title or is this something that you would like to do? Knowing this information will help you create the introductory paragraph and your topic sentence.

Next questions: which keywords do you want me to use? I try to limit my clients to a small group of 2-4 words per article. Additional keywords mean additional articles…why confuse your readers? Why kill SEO? As I write this article for you do you have 3-4 points you want me to make? All of this information will comprise the article’s body.

Finally, what sort of “call to action” are you desiring? Do you want readers to buy a product? Read something else? Call their representative? I leave the anchor links up to the client, but I try to bring the article exactly to the point where the client wants it to be.

If you have gotten satisfactory answers to each of your questions, you have helped your client get over their own case of writer’s block. Yes, to a certain point every client has already visualized what they want written [they bring you on because they don’t know how to craft the right words or are simply too busy to write for themselves]. If they haven’t, you must help them answer the previous questions in order for you to write effectively.

If you don’t take the time to make certain that your client is sure of what he or she wants, you will have wasted time and delayed the opportunity to go to the next project.

I don’t know about you, but time is of the essence and we writers cannot afford to waste any of it. Nail down exactly what your client wants before tackling any project to save yourself time and to preserve your sanity!

Learn Why You Should Have A 3-Tiered Strategy For Article Submission

July 6, 2009 - 1:00 pm No Comments

You’ve heard a lot about how much writing articles can do for your internet marketing strategy. You now understand how writing articles can help position you as an expert in your field, gain valuable targed traffic for your web site, and quickly multiple your site’s text links.

Now you have convinced yourself to take the plunge into article marketing and you have a few articles all lined up and ready to submit — and you are overwhelmed by the sheer volume and variety of article directories available. It is easy to simply go with the big dogs and forget the rest, but that is a big mistake. You really need to have a 3-tiered article submission strategy. Select a couple of the big dogs, but also add some medium-sized directories and some smaller, newer directories to your list for regular submission as well. There are several reasons why this strategy can be much more effective in the long run than targeting the large directories alone.

The mega-directories carry a big punch in terms of link power and recognition. You can almost watch the reader numbers climb on your articles. But because they are so big they also get a large volume of submissions every day and your articles very quickly move from the top page of the directories new submissions list and even from the top page of the topic listing.

Medium-sized directories don’t pack as big a punch as the mega, but their text link value is still strong and they usually have a solid reader base. They have been around long enough to build a loyal audience and clientele. However because they are not as big their submission volume is lower than the mega so your articles retain top billing longer — and becoming a top article or top author may be an attainable goal for the part-timer.

Small and/or new directories usually don’t offer nearly the level of power of their larger brethren, but a quick study will reveal whether or not the directory is regularly maintained and promoted — and you know that will mean the link power currently exists and will grow in the near future. Also with new and small directories you can easily achieve top author status and your articles will stay at the top of the ranking longer — they may well pass directly from “new” status to “top” status which rarely if ever happens at a mega directory.

That is my current strategy for article submission and I hope you found it helpful.

Learn Why You Should Have A 3-Tiered Strategy For Article Submission

July 6, 2009 - 10:56 am No Comments

You’ve heard a lot about how much writing articles can do for your internet marketing strategy. You now understand how writing articles can help position you as an expert in your field, gain valuable targed traffic for your web site, and quickly multiple your site’s text links.

Now you have convinced yourself to take the plunge into article marketing and you have a few articles all lined up and ready to submit — and you are overwhelmed by the sheer volume and variety of article directories available. It is easy to simply go with the big dogs and forget the rest, but that is a big mistake. You really need to have a 3-tiered article submission strategy. Select a couple of the big dogs, but also add some medium-sized directories and some smaller, newer directories to your list for regular submission as well. There are several reasons why this strategy can be much more effective in the long run than targeting the large directories alone.

The mega-directories carry a big punch in terms of link power and recognition. You can almost watch the reader numbers climb on your articles. But because they are so big they also get a large volume of submissions every day and your articles very quickly move from the top page of the directories new submissions list and even from the top page of the topic listing.

Medium-sized directories don’t pack as big a punch as the mega, but their text link value is still strong and they usually have a solid reader base. They have been around long enough to build a loyal audience and clientele. However because they are not as big their submission volume is lower than the mega so your articles retain top billing longer — and becoming a top article or top author may be an attainable goal for the part-timer.

Small and/or new directories usually don’t offer nearly the level of power of their larger brethren, but a quick study will reveal whether or not the directory is regularly maintained and promoted — and you know that will mean the link power currently exists and will grow in the near future. Also with new and small directories you can easily achieve top author status and your articles will stay at the top of the ranking longer — they may well pass directly from “new” status to “top” status which rarely if ever happens at a mega directory.

That is my current strategy for article submission and I hope you found it helpful.

Ripping Apart An Existing Article

June 21, 2009 - 4:32 pm No Comments

Occasionally, I get a request from a client to take their existing articles and rewrite each one with a fresh “voice” or style. I usually look at these types of projects with a bit of suspicion, as I wonder if the articles are owned by the client or swiped from someone else. I only proceed if I am confident that the articles are, indeed, the intellectual property of the person possessing them.

Once I get the articles in hand, I look over each one carefully to see what must be done to whip them into shape. I must tell you I have received some of the worst written rubbish from gleeful clients expecting me to improve upon their initial poor efforts. Let’s just say that I never tell my clients exactly what I think of their original work, but I am not shy about doing a hatchet job on an article either!

I like red pens and I bring one out and start crossing out sentences, correcting grammar, adjusting paragraphs, and inserting my notes. There are times when my “marks” seem to outnumber the words that were previously typed or written.

If the client gives to me the project on diskette, I simply insert the diskette [after running a virus check, of course] and print out each article in Microsoft Word and go at it. If no diskette is supplied then I simply input the article with my changes included and take it from there.

Normally, I must redo all or parts of an article two or three times before I get a good feel for it. Then and only then is it sent off to the customer for their review.

Quite frankly, it is easier for me to write an article from scratch then it is to take an existing article and rip it apart. Still, I savor the challenge and usually get a “job well done” in response as I transform an existing piece from an ugly duckling into a graceful swan.