Wise Authors Write for Dollars

Suszanne Lieurance’s 21-Day article challenge has been just the nudge I needed to get busy writing. Many writers may be able to go it alone, but if there is anything I am learning about network marketing and internet marketing, it’s that none of us can do it all alone. It takes a team. In this case, it’s a team of writers encouraging each other and sharing resources.

The writers in this month’s challenge set high standards both of writing and of working their writing busniesses. Lynne Lee has lots of infomration on article marketing and links to seo resources. Wanza Leftwich has a new book out, Faith and Fertililty, an inspirational book for women who want to be mothers. Judi Ferril tells all about how to eat organic and healthy with Local Food Connections. Deb Gallardo has a new ebook out called Story Ideas — Inside Your Newspaper, but you will want to subscribe to her blog first for a substantial discount. Carma Dutra shares her creative writing and editing resources. I’m not an affiliate of any of these wonderful women, only impressed by their work.

I have a new gold star over there under my signup link–I’m now officially an expert! I have known about using article directories for sometime now, but it helps to have a group of women to report to about my successes and to share theirs. Give each of them a few minutes of your time today.

One resource available with Susanne Lieurance’s 21-day article challenge is her PDF file with tips for writing articles and with listings of article directories. The one she likes best is EzineArticles.com, but several others have been mentioned: ConstantContent.com and AssociatedContent.com.

Each of these sites has similar rules, including different levels of exclusivity. In some cases, you can use the content elsewhere, such as using display mode in AssociatedContent, or in shared mode. Of course, you get the most money from the site by offering unique content not available elsewhere. That is their marketing plan, to offer customers content that is not full of PLR hack work.

You must log in and provide each article separately, including a title, teaser paragraph, key words, text and resource box. Do not put links in the text, but save them for the resource box at the end. The articles that you post in these article directories also bring you backlinks, both from the directory itself and from the publications that use your articles. Newsletter publishers, webmasters and others use these articles to build their own content quickly and cheaply.

Be sure that your resource box at the end of the article seems more like a conclusion than a sales pitch or personal ad. What you want the reader to do is to click on your link for more information, so offer more information in the form of your website, newsletter or ebook.

These article directories do not allow mass emails of articles, such as the strategies promoted by James Brausch. He suggests finding individual ezines that use the type of article that you wish to write, loading the email and URL of the ezine into his software package which distributes variations of the article in mass. The purpose of the software is not to bring in money from the articles, but to build many backlinks from the ezines with different variations of the same information. Once people land on your sales page, you make money from the sales of your product. It’s a different strategy.

If you need a daily nudge to remind you to keep writing, then Suzanne Lieurance is your girl. Her daily Morning Nudge email offers a quick pep-talk and sage advice to keep us working as writers, nudging us to write every day, even if only for 15 minutes. After all, if you aren’t writing, you aren’t a “working writer.”

She also offers a freebie ebook Get Your Freelance Writing Career Off the Ground as a sign up bonus. This 24-page PDF file covers these topics:

1. Do you dream of being a freelance writer?
2. Writing Samples: What do editor really want to see?
3. The rule of twelve: Unlock the door to your freelancewriting career.
4. Freelance writers: You need a weekly marketing plan.
5. Writing tips: Five easy ways to instantly improve your fiction.

I’m not an affiliate–this is a free offer. It’s worth your time to see how she promotes her writing coach business with her article marketing and email campaign.

Margo L. Dill is the guest blogger at Scribes’ Tribe Scribblings and she shares how she gets paid every week for writing with links and suggestions for developing relationship with editors. Check her out today.

I took Philipa Burgess’s Media Branding course back in the fall, and I can recommend her highly. She has well organized teleconferences, good handouts and excellent followup support. Here’s what some other folks have to say about her:

“Philippa Burgess’ class is a must for anyone wanting to work in any capacity in Hollywood. She is generous with her knowledge and truly wants people to succeed. What she shares is invaluable.” — Marilyn McGarry, Screenwriter

“I started Philippa’s course believing that marketing was a necessary slog I had to master, but Philippa shifted my thinking. Her passion for the marketing process is so contagious that by the end of the 8 sessions I was completely jazzed. I realized for the first time how creative and fun marketing could be. Thanks to Philippa’s enthusiasm and generosity as a teacher and the pages and pages of information and resources she shared with us, I now feel well-positioned to take control of my destiny and confident that I can learn whatever I need to shape my career.” –Alexis Niki, screenwriter and Author of 101 Screenwriting Tips

“Hi Phillipa,
Just a quick note to share a success! If you have an opportunity to check out the current People Magazine issue (Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon on the cover)…inside you’ll find a story about the search for my sister Ashley and the inspiration behind the mission of Outpost for Hope . There have been a few other media inquiries including some national tv possibilities - I am thinking carefully about the points/short soundbytes I’d like to make and my goals for the future. It’s a little busier than I’d like at the moment but I suppose these are good problems to have. I hope that everyone is doing well and moving steps closer to the life of your dreams. Many blessings, Libba” - Libba Philipps, OutpostforHope.org

Now you can see what the buzz is about

Upcoming Million Dollar Screenwriting & Content Career course — 6 Session Teleseminar Intensive starts July 14th. This course is all about selling to Hollywood or taking your screenwriting career to another level. Learn more about it at http://www.screenplaybyphone.com/career. Register Here

Invitation to connect with Publishing Industry Veteran - Alan Rinzler on a Teleseminar July 16th at 5:30PM Pacific / 7:30PM Central / 8:30PM Pacific presented in association with our friends at the Pomada Larsen Literary Agency who are producing the upcoming San Francisco Writing for Change Conference. There is no cost to be on this call outside of long-distance or cell phone minute charges. Register at for this call at http://www.creativecvg.com/ask . He’s an amazing resource that we are thrilled to be able to bring into our community. Feel free to spread the word.

If you or someone you know is looking to green their current position or transition to a greener career, we invite you to learn more about our client Dr. Sarah’s Green Career Circle. Her three month program begins July 16th. You can learn more about her mission as a pychologist and Ambassador for Green at www.ecoactionplan.org and more about her upcoming career coaching program at www.ecoaction.ecoactionplan.org/ask/greencareercicle.php. If you know anyone who can use her assistance your help getting the word out is much appreciated.

What are people looking for that you know about?

How can you target your articles to get their interest?

You need to know what people want to know. Some topics won’t be interesting to you, or you won’t have the resources of knowledge to write about them, but somebody  somewhere is out there looking for you, and they don’t even know it.

How can you find them? What do they want to know?

Everybody knows about Wordtracker, but now you can use their service free for a whole week–seven days of the best search engine information available and training videos to show you how to use it.

This is not the little 85-word trial, but a full 7-days with all the stops pulled out to let you learn what you really need to know.

The videos are quick and simple, so you won’t waste time trying to figure out how to get the really juicy words or what to do with them once you find them.

This is your chance to match what you know with what people–real people (sometimes called “traffic”)– to your website to see what you are about.

The smallest change in a headline or description can make the difference between 1% and 10% conversion, if you know what change to make. Whether you are writing fiction or self-help or general information,  you need to know where to focus your research and expertise.

Just click on the link above (Okay, I make a nickel from it…you can get one too) or  go to http://wordtracker.com and have at it.

It might just be the week that changes your online life and your writing career.

If you act quickly, you can snag a  f.r.e.e PDF of Mark Joyner’s classic book The Great Formula. This is 245 pages of Joyner’s marketing formula in his clear and entertaining style.  He says that they are testing the impact of free ebooks on the sales of print books.  I say it’s a steal.

The link is http://www.simpleology.com/courses/tgf/ You’ll be asked to login or register with Simpleology for a copy via email. Wihle you are waiting, you get a chance at the new Great Formula course with lots of goodies for only $97.

Simpleology Elective:  The Great Formula
You already know The Great Formula can give you the key to a truly profitable business.  Now you’ll actually master and implement these ideas in record time.

Advanced Martial Art Techniques for the Mind!
Renowned as a master of influence and persuasion Kevin Hogan teaches you the 2 questions you need to ask to uncover someone’s buying profile. Many people have gratefully paid him $195 for this information alone.

The Power of Influence and Confidence
3 audios from the master of influence Kevin Hogan. They include a full length program that shows you the techniques successfully used by others to build their self confidence. Now you can do the same for yourself and your friends, family or customers.

Unlock Buying Criteria To Create a Sale in Seconds
How powerful would it be if you could convince prospects it was their idea to buy from you (in an ethical way of course).

Psychological Sales Triggers Direct from Joe Sugarman  

I’m studying as hard as I can to get myself organized and to take advantage of all the information at my fingertips. I suggest you do the same.

Happy reading!

Jack Sinclair has a quick video on his Referral Camp blog to show us how to find a niche for targeted articles and products. It’s clearly produced and takes only three minutes to watch. Give him a look.

http://www.referralcamp.com/blog/making-money-online/finding-your-niche

There are other short helpful videos as well, and the price is right.

Check out this link: http://www.listbuilding.com/quickstart/

 Get a domain name, get a hosting account, set your dns, get an autoresponder, get HTML software, get FTP software.

 Now that you have your tools, think about what you want your website to do:

1) attract buyers for your writing

2) collect names and email addresses for later sales

3) tell the world who you are and where you are appearing, speaking

4) host you blog so you can share your thoughts

5) sell your books

You will also need a paypal or paydotcom account to collect money online.

Now build your site, keeping it fairly simple–avoid music, stringy cursors, slow loading pictures. Go to paypal and make your buynow buttons for your book or seminars or other products.  Put them in you site. Upload the whole thing to your host, and test it.   Then set up your blog on a subdirectory. If you have a Cpanel hosting, look for Fantastico. It will manage the setup for you, if not, go to Wordpress.org, where you can get someone else to do it.

Then start blogging–post something every day, or write a bunch of posts and set the time stamp to release them one a day. Write articles abou the subject of your book, submit them to and link them back to your website. Find other people who write about the general subject of your book,a nd comment on their blogs.

Don’t spam, though. Add to their discussion, or they will delete your comment. After all, you are knowledgeable. Show it.

This is what I am working on for this site. It’s what the gurus say to do. Share your experience for the rest of us.

Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore  is a wonderful tool for editing, light on theory and full of technique and examples. It is easily the best book I have read on revision with specific suggestions on all aspects of fiction writing.

Lyon writes both for planners and seat-of-the-pants-ers, with thoughts on structure, style, characterization, and punctuation and syntax.  I am reading an advance copy, which came just at the right time (Thanks, Universe!) to help me with the WIP.

Lyon’s style is conversational, clear and supportive. Her examples come from contemporary literature rather than from movies or television, and she assumes that the reader has a manuscript in process. Her book has many good suggestions for creating a first draft, but that is not her focus.

My favorite technique is in the first chapter, called riffing. Here’s her explanation:

It is similar to what has been called free writing or writing to a prompt–a picture or word or memory–or free association on paper. These methods fill your pages with writing, they help loosen you up and stick it to the censors, and they generate ideas for manuscripts. Riff-writing differs from these methods by being expressly applied to revising a portion of your writing….Riff writing helps you expand your imagination around  a particular problem or need–to lengthen a section, to add images or  to develop more characterization for example.

Starting with a sentence or paragraph that needs work, pick one aspect of craft–feeling, object, memory, attitude, setting–and develop it with whatever comes to mind: “overwriter; dont’ stop when you have the first impulseto. Keep writing; keep writing.”

Lyons goes on to tell the story of playing jazz with professional musicians, and being mortified when she played wrong notes. She was told, “There are no wrong notes. you work them and they become part of the riff.”

Each chapter has a handy summary-checklist to keep the reader on track with revision. The book is designed to be used as a reference, so that the reader is directed to the chapters which deal with specific approaches and specific difficulties.  She is careful to discuss pitfalls of any approach to writing, such as advantages and disadvantages of single point of view, dual points of view, and author intrusions.  She discusses the differences in structure between the hero’s journey, as described by Joseph Campbell and the heroine’s journey described by Maureen Murdock, and how each fits into a different genre and approach to storytelling.

Lyon writes from two decades experience as an independent book editor at her freelance editing company, Editing International, http://www.4-edit.com. Her other titles are The Sell Your Novel Took Kit, A Writer’s Guide to Fiction, National Directory of Editors& Writers, and Nonfiction Book Proposals Anybody Can Write.  She is available to speak and instruct at writers conferences and will present private custom-made workshops for groups of writers called “I’ll come to You.”

Elizabeth Lyon, Manuscript Makeover from Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0399-53395-2