Kind Pointers to Info Streams

It’s distressingly simple to spoil even the most creative electronic brochure, never mind how much energy you’ve put into it, with a low grade of digital brochure package. Actually, selecting a software provider is the most important decision you’ll take when you make an electronic magazine. This isn’t a case of just picking a nice format for your creation - indeed this is a crucial choice because it can easily make or break your overall venture. The most essential feature to look for is, obviously, simplicity of use. If you can’t make the software work it doesn’t make any difference how great it is claimed to be. Make sure to dry run multiple packages before you pick a provider for your ebrochure. As hacking and spamming are online issues, security measures should be your second main consideration as you’re making an online publication. What security is in situ to ensure security on your package? Does the package vendor have anything which prevents the general public from merely copy-pasting your content?

The marketing timetable will need to be considered to promote your electronic magazine. No matter what plan you choose you should consider what role networking media will play. Thinking about search engines is also essential when considering marketing your digital journal.

Is your content solely going to be offered for free? What about offering multiple possibilities for subscription? Also, the nature of your content - is it monetized or is this venture not-for-profit? How about providing summaries and teasers to sell this digital publication? How available is your brochure? Is it private - in which case you can look into all your hosting options or is it public? You should probably host directly with your provider. What will you be doing with back-isues?

Lastly, in picking out a flash package provider try to select one offering quick technical support. Is it merely emergency technical support? How long will tech-support response time be? What is their trouble-shooting page like? Such things you should examine before you have problems an emergency, it’ll be a good thing that you did!

You set the success of your digital publication by selecting the right software provider. Rewards follow careful choice.

To produce digital publications is a lot of effort, therefore no one wants to destroy that by picking the wrong online newsletter software package. In fact, picking out a software supplier is the key part of producing an ebrochure. This isn’t about merely picking some good format for your creation - quite the contrary, this decision is quite crucial as it can well make or break your overall venture. Amongst the potential features, simple usability is the main one. The software could be the most amazing you’ve seen - but without being able to actually use it, it isn’t worth a damn… Before choosing a supplier for the ezine, make time to test it.

Because hacking and spamming are online issues, security should be your next main consideration after you’ve made an online publication. Do you know whether and/or how the account has been secured? How about the content? Is it possible for people to just copy-paste the magazine content or has the digital publishing software supplier protection in place peventing these things? Is content secure from copying and pasting by the general reader?

Has a marketing plan been produced yet? Regardless of which business model you use you should consider what role social media will play. Selling the interactive journal will likely need search engine friendly content.

Can you mix free content and paid? How about the possibility of offering single copy and several subscription options? Will you be monetizing your content in any way? Will you be providing teasers and summaries to sell this ebrochure? How available is your magazine? Will it be private — in which case you can look into all your hosting possibilities or will it be public? In which case you should probably host directly. What is the plan about back-issues?

The tech support provided by your online publication software provider is your final consideration. Are you able to contact the host with questions? How long is their response time? Are there useful FAQs available? Remember to check what tech support is accessible.

The final choice in vendor may make or break your e-brochure. Search Google or Bing to hunt for the terms “create online publication” to find more hints.

Writing and submitting articles is a free and easy way to drive traffic to your website. Article directories allow writers to submit, promote and make available articles to website or newsletter publishers in search of content. When an article is used by a publisher the writers begin to increase their web exposure though a backlinks to their website.

As marketing tools, articles are very effective since they allow you to promote your products and website. Article writing also enables you to increase your credibility within your field. Be sure to write articles which offer the reader quality information about the products your selling and avoid articles which sound more like advertisements, rather write something interesting and enlightening about your product.

An owner of a website which sells garden accessories, for instance, could write about how an Adirondack chair improves a garden or makes a patio space welcoming to visitors. For products such as weathervanes or sundials, articles about their usefulness, technology or history would be ideal.

Current trends are also interesting topics to many people. Keeping people up to date on the latest improvements in, say, lawn equipment (to stick with the garden theme) is a great way to market products. Writing such an article will also go a long way toward helping you establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Another way to market the products you are selling is to write an article which reviews products.

Submit your article manually to a few directories. Definitely submit to the larger directories, some of which get thousands of hits per day. Also, however, submit your articles to smaller niche directories. These directories specialize in specific topics. An article submitted to such a site will be read by many people who already have an interest in your website or product.

Remember, if you submit useful, informative articles and keep the reader interested and they’ll be more apt click on your website link and visit your site. Also, create two links in the resource box at the end of the article, one for your homepage and one to the page which displays the product you’re promoting.

Publishers want to provide their readers with quality content so be sure your articles are well written. Have a friend proof read them prior to submission. This way your articles will have a better chance of being used.

Recently a very controversial topic has come up where online article writers have submitted many articles to an online article submission site and purposefully miss spelled the words. Why; well simple really, you see, they want to; Game the Search Engines and thus pick up those search engines users who type in the wrong word or miss a key stroke?

One online article submission site wants this abuse to stop. In order to do this they want to disallow miss spellings in the titles. But some words may not be in the spell check, especially industry words like SmartCars, NanoFiber or Tornatic Storm Cell. Instead of addressing this issue they want to make rules without thinking and I can name 100 examples of words, which are used in common English, search engine searchers and everyday speech, but are either not actually recognized words.

And you can pick up any newspaper, white paper, industry trade journal and find at least 5 words per column that would show miss spellings, but are completely within the bounds of reality and not purposely miss spelled. Meanwhile there are many words which are miss spelled so often they in fact become the norms. All of the writers who want such a miss-spelling rule enacted are wrong on this and show their complete ignorance and I am ashamed to be associated with them in any way. They are linear thinking and are not understanding reality, basically they need to; Grow up. Consider this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Top 10 Reasons to Use a Blog to Publish Your Ezine

Blogs are the hottest thing going these days when it comes to marketing on the Internet. A blog is a delivery medium. Here are 10 reasons why you should deliver your ezine articles via a blog.

1. A blog is web based so you can update and post new articles anywhere, anytime. It’s a dynamic medium that can be updated on a moment’s notice.

2. Subscribers can subscribe to your RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed and have your content delivered straight to their desktop. This delivery system bypasses spam filters and readers get exactly the content they want.

3. No web site to mess with. It’s very inexpensive way to set up a web presence for your ezine. There are several sites where you can set up a free blog and others are very reasonably priced for the massive exposure you can get.

4. You can set up links for ads and your affiliate programs in side columns so you don’t have to include them in your ezine format.

5. You can set up a subscription form and send emails to your subscribers when new content is added.

6. Blogs link to other blogs which helps you create a viral marketing system and increases your exposure in search engines. Search engines LOVE text based, fresh content that is highly focused (key word rich).

7. You can use your ezine blog to become a trusted expert for your subscribers, by filtering content for them so they don’t have to visit hundreds of web sites.

8. You have an instant archive of all your articles. When you post an article, a new page and permalink is created. People can share that link with others and be sent directly to the article being referenced.

9. Readers can comment on your articles, which creates rapport and trust between you and your subscriber. Comments also add rich content to your site and again, helps your ranking in the search engines.

10. The bottom line is this: using a blog can help you attract more visitors who become subscribers and then eventually become clients.

For an ezine publisher, a blog compliments and can significantly ease the delivery of your ezine content. Essentially, like any web site, you have to promote it and encourage people to add your site to their RSS feed (that’s another subject) or subscribe for updates through a subscription form. That’s why I put a subscribe form on my site - subscribers and get updates in anyway they want. You still need to submit to search engines and directories to drive traffic. If you already have an ezine subscriber database, my advice would be to post everything on the blog and then send a weekly email, or whatever your normal publishing schedule is, informing your subscribers when new content is posted.

Marketing is done in a conversational way and via the links on your blog. Announcements can be posted on the blog and to one’s list. I see the blog and ezine database as complimentary…working together to increase your exposure and make it easier for people to get your information and build relationships.

If Random House pulls up to your house with a U-haul filled with millions and wants to buy your book, maybe you’d consider giving up the rights forever. But, let’s come back to the real world. In the real world, many authors find that the best way to launch a writing career is to essentially self-publish by using a print-on-demand (POD) publisher.

The problem is that the POD buffet is filled with the equivalent of healthy choices (publishers who charge low or no publishing fees and allow authors to terminate the contracts at anytime) and unhealthy choices (publishers that charge exorbitant upfront fees and lock authors into contracts for years). Often the writer’s eyes are bigger than her stomach - she makes a move for the first publisher who tells her that her work is great.

Signing a POD contract impulsively is always a mistake. Unless you are trained as a lawyer, deciphering a POD contract can be tricky since many POD publishers have paid some hefty legal fees to have attorneys sculpt contracts that could easily crush an unsuspecting author.

If you can’t afford to hire a lawyer to review your POD contract you need to arm yourself with some knowledge before signing one. In my book, The Fine Print (www.book-publishers-compared.com), I take the legalese commonly found in most POD contracts and explain it in terms that will actually make sense. I also tell you the types of clauses in a POD contract that should cause you to run away from a publisher as quickly as possible.

If you don’t want or can’t purchase The Fine Print, here are some three tips that may help you avoid a bad publishing experience.

1. Never pay more than $500 in up front POD publishing fees.

The most reputable POD publishers charge between $300-$500 for the publishing package which should always include customized cover art, formatting, placement of your book on Amazon, etc.; and ISBN number, bar code, and a sales page on the publisher’s website. If you are paying more and not getting at least the services mentioned above, you are getting taken.

2. Only Sign a Contract That You Can Terminate When You Want

The best contracts are those you can terminate at any time (usually by giving 30-90 days notice). Some POD publishers that don’t charge or charge very little for their services require a longer commitment on your end (1-2 years) before you can terminate. Because they have money invested in you this is understandable. Never sign a POD contract that you can’t get out of easily. Some POD publishers require that you give them the rights to your book for the term of the copyright. When you see this run fast! The term of the copyright is for the life of the author, plus another 70 years - basically forever.

3. If the Publisher offers less than 30% Royalties on the Gross Sale Price Find Another Publisher

The royalties paid should, at a minimum, be 30% of the sales prices of each book. Be wary of contracts that give you some high percentage of the net sales price. This is where fuzzy math can creep in and take away almost all your profits.

The factors you should use to determine whether or not the proposed royalty is acceptable are:

•Whether it is based on the gross or net sales amount (and if based on the net sales amount, the calculation must be on hard numbers (production costs, credit card processing fees, etc.) and not vague items (”administrative costs”, etc.); •The actual production cost of the book (Production costs on POD books should be between $3.50 and $5.50. Anything higher than that and you can bet that the publisher is padding this amount to lower your actual royalty); •The size of the publisher’s distribution network and traffic to the publisher’s online store (the more places your books are for sale, the more chance people have to find them); and •Marketing efforts the publisher engages to inform readers of your book (if a publisher actually spends money to help sell your book, a lower royalty is not out of line). •Whether the publisher treats itself like a third-party retailer (e.g. Amazon.com) and gives itself a trade discount to sell you book (For example, for a $15 book, Amazon gets $7.50 for each book sold, then the remaining $7.50 is divided between the author and publisher based the royalty agreement. Some publishers give themselves a trade discount so in effect they end up making 80% of each sale for a book that you paid them to publish!)

Again, these are just the basics of the basics, but they provide the building blocks of the foundation of knowledge you will need to have before you sign a POD publishing contract.

There is a right way and a wrong way to recruit online article writers for your website. All too often those who are looking for writers will go down a list of online authors and contact each one of them. They type out a message and then control C, control V, it into each email to each author. Often this does not fit. As the recruiter will attempt to butter up the writers and say something like; I really like your articles and writing style.

As far as how to approach authors; be honest, have integrity, know what you are talking about, do a background so you know who you are dealing with. Send a personal note of meaning. You know all the things you might do when buying a business, seeking employment, considering a date, voting for a candidate; due diligence. Anyone can rifle off emails to people. Anyone can blast fax, cold call, blanket, carpet bomb, flyer automobiles, SPAM, sprinkle fertilizer on the lawn in one of those little hand held spreaders.

If you are a writer and tired of getting incessant emails asking you to writer for free for some website, simply reply to the email with; “Please place me on your DO NOT EMAIL LIST, DO NOT CALL LIST, DO NOT CONTACT LIST and anyone associated with you in any way there where you work. I trust you will follow this law and observe my rights? Do you have enough integrity to follow that request?” I hope you will all consider this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

A professional editing service will be one that meets the demands of the company or business, perfectly. To find a qualified editing service for your needs, consider the following services that they should be able to provide for you. While it is nice to search out a freelance provider, they too must meet the demands that you have for them. Here are a few things that are virtually mandatory for them to provide for you, the business owner looking for an editing service.

1. They should provide quality work. The work should be right on target and free from any mistakes. This goes for grammatical errors, spelling errors, and punctuation. The writer or proof reader must insure that there are no problems with the flow of the piece as well.

2. It should make sense from start to finish. It is important the piece flows, but it also must make good, logical sense. If the tone is off, the proof readers should be able to guide the copy into being correctly written.

3. It should be guaranteed work. For this reason, it may be necessary to double check work. Regardless, there is no point in looking to a company or a freelance agent who will not provide quality work 100% of the time.

4. The price needs to be right. Let’s face it. Sometimes it is nice to pay a lesser fee, but it is also important that the piece be of good quality. Choose a price that is lower but the quality of the work must stilll be high. It is either right or wrong in this case.

5. A good relationship should be forged. If you can not communicate with the freelance agent or the company, then you have no business with them. They need to be available to answer your questions and fill your needs.

It can be difficult to find this quality of work, but it is necessary in order to have a properly written piece. To find the right professional editing service, you may need to check out several then decide.

Visit http://www.FreelanceWritingResource.com for more Articles, Resources, News and Advice about Proofreading and Copy Editing.

Copyright © FreelanceWritingResource.com. All rights reserved. This article may be reprinted in full so long as the resource box and the live links are included intact.

At certain time of Life, under certain conditions of life person can become more sensitive, more sentimental, more impressionable. He gets plunged in his memories and forgets about the reality. A person becomes captured with various memories, which touch his heart and soul.

The memories of the childhood, of the family, of parents, of the loved person turn to be very useful, especially for a person, who is in despair, who is on the verge of ruin. Because memories can make a miracle by urging a person on searching the way out of the difficult life situations.

Memories make people believe that the life is wonderful and it is worth living. And it’s truly said that “CAPTURING MEMORABLE MOMENTS IS ALSO OFTEN A MATTER NOT ONLY OF NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS BUT ALSO OF PERSONAL INEREST” (seeing and writing, 141).

And here I am…. Sitting in front of the fire-place, feeling the tender warmth of the fire…. It is raining outside, rain pattering does not allow me to have a nap. And I’m alone in this dull, gloomy depressing evening.

To distract my mind from my cares and to capture some memorable moments I take my old album and start looking through it. There are kept photos of all my life. Opening the album the first photo I see is a baby picture of me. I was two then and I was with my mother holding me and with my dad at a Chinese restaurant.

I feel the smile emerges on my face, my heart starts beating. How happy we are on the picture! How young and beautiful my parents are! We enjoy our staying together, we enjoy our life!

I feel warmth of my mother’s hands… I feel tenderness of her touches… I feel incredible intimacy with her. How I miss this all! I am carried away to my childhood, where I can hear my mother’s tender voice, her endearing words, I can see love and care in her eyes. But these are only my memories, only my dreams.

I start feeling loneliness and despair. I’m closing my eyes and trying to recollect my mother’s touch, embrace, kisses. At this moment I would give everything for only one minute of staying with my mother to take her in my arms, to kiss her, to say “I love you!”.

And then I feel overwhelming desire to write. I have never been so inspired since I started my career as a writer. Now I understand the following words: “I THINK THAT WRITING AND PHOTOGRAPGY GO TOGETHER. I DON’T MEAN THAT THEY ARE RELATED ARTS, BECAUSE THEY’RE NOT. BUT THE PERSON DOING IT, I THINK, LEARNS FROM BOTH THINGS ABOUT ACCURACY OF THE EYE, ABOUT OBSERVATION AND ABOUT SYMPATHY TOWARD WHAT IS IN FRONT OF YOU (INCLUDING MEMORIES). IT’S ABOUT TRYING TO SEE INTO THE ESSENCE OF REALITY. IT’S ABOUT HONESTY, OR TRUTH TELLING, AND A WAY TO FIND IT IN YOURSELF, HOW TO NEED IT AND LEARN FROM IT. “(seeing and writing, 141).

While stating my thoughts on paper, memories of my dad rush into my mind. I look at the picture. Yes, I have always remembered him such as he is pictured on the photo: smiling, happy, very handsome.

He is a wonderful person, he has been an example for me that I have been following all my life. On the picture he folds my mother in his arms, he loves and worships her. Looking at the picture I really admire their love to each other, I have always craved for having such sincere, reliable, trustful relationships with my dear person as my parents have.

My dad has always been a support for me and my mother, he always has been ready to give us any support, help us out, give us a piece of useful advice.

I wonder how I manage not to think about them for so long time. I close my eyes and try to imagine my dad: what is he doing now? Does he think about me? Strong desire to see him, to feel the strength of his handshake, the firmness of his voice and real love in his words arises in my heart.

And you know, the most terrible thing struck me is that I am not the only person who misses his parent, there are also a lot of people who have to live far from their parents. They miss them greatly and can not change anything in their lives.

It’s awful but it’s only my fault that I have not seen my parents for ages. You see it’s me who left them, who forgot them! When I was seventeen I decided that it was high time to become independent, to earn my living, and I left my parents without even saying them good-buy. And since that one question has been always haunting me: how I dare leave my parents, people who gave birth to me, who brought me up? How I could be so ungrateful?

And now I am sitting alone in my dull room, in front of the fire-place, without nobody to comfort and warm me with his love and care.

I keep on writing and writing…. Looking at the picture I have mixed feelings: delight and disappointment, joy and sadness, happiness and grief. These mixed feelings can be explained. On the one hand my happiness is stirred up because I arrive at the truth that I am not alone. This picture shows me that there are two people in this world who love me, care about me and are always waiting for me.

But on the other hand, my grief concerns the fact I have not kept in touch with my parents, I ignored them. And can you imagine? It is the first time for the last fifteen years when I open this album.

It was said: “WHETHER WE TAKE PHOTOGRAPGHS, CREATE SCRAPBOOKS, KEEPJOURNALS, DESCRIBE OUR EXPERIENCES IN LETTERS OR EMAILS TO FRIENDS, SHARE FAMILY STORIES DURING THE HOLIDAYS, OR SIMPLY REPLAY MEMORIES IN OUR MINDS, WE ARE FAMING OUR EXPERIENCES — FOR OURSELVES AND OFTEN FOR OTHERS. AS THOSE MEMORABLE EVENTS DRIFT INTO THE PAST, WE OFTEN REVISE AND EMBELLISH OUR STORIES ABOUT THEM.. INDEED, WE CONTINUALLY RESHAPE THE NATURE AND TONE OF YOUR STORIES EACH TIME WE RECALL THEM.” (SEEING AND WRITING, 223).

But I have had no memories for these fifteen years, you know I think I just avoided recollecting anything to make my life outwardly happy.

But I’m sure that even if I have any memories, they would be only for me, as I have no friends to describe them to.

Out of the blue I stop writing. Everything seems me to be like a real nightmare. Parents, my parents… I need to see, to see right now, immediately! Without realizing anything, perhaps being completely unaware of what happening around, I rush to the phone. But why? I want to call my parents! Yes, I want to call them! But I do not know their number! What shall I do? What can I do? It occurs to me that I can go to their place. I should order the ticket by phone… Yes, I’ll go to my parents! I grab the picture, the picture that has changed all my life, I rush out of the house, I drive to an airport at a very high speed. I drive to the meeting with my parents, to the meeting with my future!

Now I’m already sitting in the plane, looking at the picture and smiling through tears. I’ll see my parents! Thank you, thank you my dear picture! I’m happy now and I’m laughing like a child!

Memories! What a miracle they are! They are of a great importance. People should keep their own memories and save them as if they were a real treasure.

Person who forgets his family, his native home, can lose his soul. He can became alone in the world with nobody to comfort him.

Memories allow us to keep something beautiful in our hearts and souls, something warm, pleasant, exciting: memories of our family, of our children, of our parents, of our dears.

Memories can direct our lives. AS captured with memorable moments of success, good luck, rapture, joy, we will never loose our will, persistence and belief.

Some memorable moments are present in the life of everybody. Being a child or an elderly person, a man or a woman, a married person or a divorced one, a lucky man or a failure, it does not matter. Everyone has his own memories, that should be remembered all his life.

Aaron is a senior writer at Custom Essay Writing Network. He is an experienced custom essay writer and will be glad to share his experience of custom essay writing with you.

As a writer, I am on a continual quest for ways to organize all the various tools that are important to my craft. Sometimes I read about a new idea. Other times, I have a flash of brilliance all my own. Let’s peer into one of my flashes.

When searching for markets for my work I look in many places: magazines, trade books and online. This can be overwhelming! One popular writer’s market book is enormous. Often, when I am ready to look for a place to submit my piece, I’ve forgotten where I saw the market! So, I gave it some thought and came up with an idea to organize this information.

I went to a local super center and purchased four plastic index card boxes. Then, of course, I bought index cards. On each box, I used scrapbooking alphabet stickers to label the boxes for articles, short stories, novels and poetry. And, being the creative type I am, I added additional stickers to make the boxes my own.

The next step was going to be a bit tedious. I took that huge market book and sat down with it. As I find a market that is compatible with my style and genre or simply captures my interest, I write all the information on an index card. I admit this will take time to do, but it is worth the effort. As I find markets in magazines and online, I write down the information and add these to the mix. As I finish each card, I place it in the appropriate box. Now I don’t have to turn the house upside down to find it when I need it.

To further organize, I purchased alphabetized cards for a few of my boxes. For short stories and novels, I’ve chosen to make my own cards separating the entries into genres. For markets that cater to more than just one of my chosen areas of writing, I make a duplicate card for each box that the market pertains to. In this way I won’t have to search further.

Once I have my boxes organized, life will be simpler. If a market ceases to exist, I can remove the card. As new markets come onto the scene, I add them. I have all the information I need for submission at my fingertips. It is a tool that will never wear out and is versatile. Now, I can cross one more item of my quest list.

Nikola lives and writes in Oklahoma. She is active in her local Citizen’s Polcie Academy Alumni and Volunteers in Policing. She enjoys reading, scrapbooking and spending time with her dogs. Nikola is an author on Writing.Com
which is located at http://www.Writing.Com/ and is accessible by anyone.