Everyone hears about being nervous when speaking, and when you overcome it, you become confident and very successful. What you don’t hear from successful speakers is about the journey itself. For example, when I started in the field of speaking, I was a corporate employee. As a project engineer, I had to develop concepts and designs to solve problems within the plant. I was good at this and yet my career progress was slow because I simply couldn’t speak well, and I needed to present my proposals to obtain funding. I would become nervous, tongue tied and confused. So when I started my public speaking career I was so scared and terrified, that even the thought of being in front of a group of people, made me feel physically sick, and would make my heart race so much, I thought I was having a heart attack. Clearly, I didn’t want to go through my life like that so I did some training and got ready for my Maiden speech. With this speech I was competing for a prestigious Silver Cup and I was excited because I thought I was going to win it. I walked out onto the stage in front of 200 people and arrived at the podium. Suddenly my legs started to shake so much I thought I was going to fall down. So I grabbed the lectern, which also began to shake, and then, at that moment, the butterflies in my stomach turned into dive-bombers and I started to feel sick. While shaking the lectern so much, I watched with horror, as my notes slid onto the floor. In total confusion now, I decide to start my speech without picking up the notes. My voice quavered as I stated my name, and then my mind went completely blank. After what seemed an eternity, I grabbed my notes from the floor and fled the stage. All I achieved that day was to let people know who I was and that I was one pathetic speaker. Needless to say , I didn’t get the prize or even a polite or sympathetic applause from the audience. It was such a horrifying experience that I had to make a decision to quit or do something about it. (I was unable to get into the witness protection program to lose my identity!) Well I studied, practised and used everything that I write about in my book and then some 12 months later, I had to give a speech on behalf of my company. Now this was a seriously major important speech for the company and me. If I didn’t do a brilliant job, my career would finish, the company would suffer and I reckon I would have been out of a job. That would mean, a massive change in lifestyle for my family, changing schools, changing houses and even putting my food supply at risk.. So as I walked to the Podium this time I could feel this huge pressure bearing down on me. And do you know? I was confident, created humour and had them laughing, created pathos so they could feel sad, lifted them with excitement, spoke a very clear message, had them in the palm of my hand and when I finished ,they stood up to applaud. Pretty good eh? Oh yes, I got promoted and realised that day, that being a great public speaker helps you make more money, no matter what your job is. So what made the difference? What transformed me from bumbling idiot to charismatic speaker? And could anybody do the same? Clearly, the answer is yes, if they went through all the stuff they I had. Why am I qualified to say this? Because it is based upon my learnings, my studies, my experiments, good and bad, and most importantly, on my real life, in the fire, under the hammer, experience. And then I even wrote my own book on how to overcome the Fear of Public Speaking! As Chairman of the Public Speaking Group at the Australian Institute of Management I have coached and helped many people who at the beginning of the year , could not even say their name, and by the end of the year, had become articulate and confident speakers. So overcoming the fear and building the skills, step by step, not only transforms your presentation skills, it builds your confidence in all parts of your life. And isn’t that a good enough reason to start! Roger Bourne has been involved in Public Speaking, Personal Development and Coaching for more than 25 years. As published author of “From Fear to Fame in Public Speaking,” he knows how to makes it clear and simple for people getting started in Public Speaking. So visit: .stuffaboutpublicspeaking.com

Subscribers frequently ask me how many articles they need to write to be successful with article marketing. As you begin your article marketing career, you may only be able to write two or three articles a week. That’s okay, in the beginning, write as many as you can and submit each one to the largest ten to twenty article submission directories. With this kind of production, you will not see a flood of traffic, but you will gain experience and begin to see a few visitors come to your site. As you continue to write more and more, it will become easier for you. So it’s very important for you to focus on writing those two or three articles a week. Once you become good at it, you can increase this number to four or five a week. Over time you will become very good at writing and you will be able to write and submit an article every day. And remember, your articles have a cumulative effect. Articles you wrote three months ago are still being read and the links are still being clicked. Once you have written 100 to 200 articles, and assuming that you are still writing one a day, you should see about twenty to thirty visitors a day coming to your site. Of course, if you are serious about using article marketing as a free source of traffic, you should try to write as many articles as possible. If you write three articles a day, you will triple the amount of traffic coming to your site. Writing five articles a day will give you five times the traffic. So back to the original question, how many articles do you need to write to be successful with article marketing? Well, the answer to that lies in the amount of traffic you need. The more you write, the more traffic you will get. Hopefully this information will motivate you to write more articles so that you can increase your business. Want more information on how to be successful with article marketing? Check out the information below. Make Money With Your Existing Articles! Turn Little Articles into Big Money! Get the Best Article Submission Software at the Cheapest Price! This is the same program that I use. Are You Making Money? FREE Ebook

Although the structure and plot of a short story can take many forms, a typical short story will often follow the principles set out below. Following such a pattern can be especially useful for those starting out in short story writing, or for those who are struggling with the demands of telling a story in such a compressed form. Following these principles will help simplify the process of writing a great short story. Introduction - in which the setting, characters and circumstances of the story are succinctly described and brought to the reader’s attention. It is the combination of these that will usually set up the problem that causes the conflict of the story. Development - when the characters interact with each other and try to find the solution to the problem and hence to resolve the conflict. This involves the development of both the characters and the means by which they will try to solve their problem Conflict

If you find your sentences filled with commas, and they wend from one topic to another, then you, like many people, may be guilty of writing run-on sentences. The run-on sentence is annoying. The run-on is boring. Most important, utilizing run-ons in your work is a sure-fire way of losing your reader. The run-on works in one instance

Information-based marketing is one of the most effective techniques in getting targeted prospects to sites and converting them into buyers. After all, those that go online are looking for content of some sort to help them solve their problems. It is no surprise that article marketing, whereby you submit articles to article directories, to get your site noticed is gaining much popularity. There are many tools that people can use to make the process of distributing their articles more easily. Though these tools are invaluable in getting the content more exposure, this is not enough. In fact, you should first focus on getting your content right for article marketing. It is not just the mere use of creative writing skills. Let us take a look at the common mistakes made in the article content: 1. Failure to Educate. This happens when you become overly focused in selling your website or product, without providing some useful information to the readers of your article. In article writing, there are three key benefits why you are promoting them; branding, lead generation and promotion. These form part of your optimization efforts. But there is only one reason why you write an article, and that is to inform your audience. If the article is not focused on this primary and most important purpose, it will fail to achieve the three promotion benefits because no one will be interested in reading them. Do the pre-sell through information sharing and through your articles. And let the sales letter on your site do the hard sell. 2. Failing on Using Good Keywords. You may know already that your articles can help you generate additional links back to your site. But do you know that you can get more visitors and better search engine results by using good keywords? Just be sure not to overdo them. Some authors are even using anchor texts which are also an effective method. But it is important to know that majority of the directories are not able to support the use of anchor text. In addition, having the right keywords ensure that your articles get easily picked up by webmasters looking for reprint content. Part of doing well in your article marketing is having your articles picked up by publishers with a large number of audiences. 3. Failure to Promote Effectively. It is funny how some authors can even fail to promote themselves properly in the content. You have authors that are overzealous in selling their websites and products but there are also some that do not know how to market themselves artfully in the content. Weaving your personal experiences in the content is a great way to let readers think that you are an expert and know what you are writing about. There is no blatant hard sell and you are viewed in a positive light. 4. Failure to Consider the Needs of the Publisher. You can double the number of sites you can submit to by writing articles that the directories want to share with other people. All it takes is one publisher with a hundred thousand readers to increase your potential audience overnight. Write the articles that publishers want in their publications if you want your article marketing to work the most effective way for you. This also means you have to obey the standard guidelines, spell checks and do proper research and writing. .instant-marketing-articles.com .articlemarketing.infozabout.com In the end, it is all really a matter of choice on your part. You can get some exposure from the increased links back to your site. Or enjoy massive exposure from a little more effort in making quality content.

Everyone knows that you should optimize your website in order to obtain the highest possible traffic from the major search engines. But did you know that you can use that same strategy for your articles? Do a Google search on the title of your article and see how many listings you get on the first page. I have seen some my articles listed in nine of the first ten items on Google’s first page. One of the reasons for this is the efficient use of the optimizing techniques described below. A keywords search indicates how many searches were executed using that word or phrase over the last ninety days. There are several sites that provide free keyword search information. Use these sites to determine the popularity of relevant keywords. Enter individual words, one at a time. The site will return the number of searches performed on the word you entered and phrases that contain that word. The highest ranked words or phrases are listed first and lowest ranked words are last. One of the ways to optimize your website is to research high ranking keywords that pertain to your web site. Then you enter into your web site the keywords with the greatest number of searches. The same thing should be done with your articles. By consistently using these methods, you can turn those articles into cash. Many submission sites ask for keywords that pertain to your articles. Do the same type of research for your article that you would for your web site. Look for relevant keywords or phrases pertaining to your article. After doing the research as described above, enter the highest ranked words and phrases into the keyword section of the site that you are submitting your articles to. Enter each word or phrase separated by a comma. In addition, there is one more technique you can use to maximize the optimization of your article. Make sure you use some of those high-ranking keywords in your title. By doing this, the regular article readers will find your article and some of the people that are doing Internet searches will also find it. By using the techniques described above, you will maximize the page views of your article. And, the more viewers you attain, the higher your income. Get our FREE DOWNLOAD on making money writing articles! Jo Mark is an Internet marketing expert specializing in the generation of income through the writing and placement of articles. Our successful ebooks have helped countless individuals to generate income by writing articles. For tons of free downloads, reports, information, and articles, CLICK HERE

“Buy this magazine or we’ll shoot the dog,” went a memorable cover for the satire magazine National Lampoon many years ago. On the cover, along with the threat, was the picture of an attractive dog with large sad eyes - and a pistol pointed at its head! Want a powerful way to make sure your message leaves an impression on the people who receive it? Talk about the consequences that will occur as a result of following or not following your advice. That could be a carrot (good things will happen) or a stick (bad things will happen), depending on the situation. Consequences are the outcome of a cause and effect sequence. If you do one thing, another thing will happen. Buy the magazine and the dog will be saved. Buying the magazine is the cause, and a reprieve for the dog is the effect. There are several types of consequences, and we can leverage our communication strength by knowing and understanding the different types. Functional consequences refers to physical results. Use this shampoo and your hair will look beautiful. Buy this car and you’ll get more miles per gallon. Psychological consequences refer to intangible results, but still have a powerful effect. Consider life insurance: if you buy it you will never get a benefit from it, but your family will, and that gives you peace of mind. Social consequences are the third type, and refer to your standing with your peers or important others. Buy this wine and your friends will think you’re a person of discerning taste and style. Why are consequences important? In addition to the obvious, consequences help us understand the connection between the features of a product or service and the values that are (or are not) satisfied by using or consuming it. As we’ve all been told many times, features aren’t important in themselves, rather they’re important for the benefits they confer. Yet, benefits tend to dead-end, that is, there’s a tendency to stop analyzing once we’ve identified them. Thinking of consequences, rather than benefits, helps extend our analyses to another level, to values. Admittedly, this may be as much about semantics as substance, but nevertheless it matters. From another perspective, consequences help us move from the concrete to the abstract. We can touch or experience features directly; that takes no imagination. Values, on the other hand, are all in the mind; they can’t be touched or experienced in the same way. For example, wash your hair with this shampoo, which contains ingredient X-15 (a feature) and you’ll feel more confident (a consequence) when you go out for an evening, and a feeling of confidence helps you enjoy social occasions (a value satisfier, and ultimate result). You’ve no doubt seen this strategy used in shampoo commercials and display ads. Which makes sense, because most of us don’t value nice hair for its own sake; we value it for social reasons. In summary, understanding the connection between features and values, through consequences, helps make our communication more effective. Robert F. Abbott writes and publishes Abbott’s Communication Letter. Learn how you can use communication to help achieve your goals, by reading articles or subscribing to this ad-supported newsletter. An excellent resource for leaders and managers, at: .communication-newsletter.com

A blog, a contraction of the term “Web log”, is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary or descriptions of events in the bloggers life or that they are personally interested in. In Angola among teens this is usually about soccer, school and sex. Blog entries are normally displayed with the newest entry at the top of the list. Many of the teachers in the capitol Luanda have their own blogs and encourage students to read them for class home work. Today there are 0.8 % of the population of Angola on the internet so most will have encountered blogs. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. Topical blogs are great for ESL students since they are usually open to the public for reading and writing. Also, publicly posted blogs can be commented on by others. Given the growth of use in the internet use of 233.3 % from the year 2000 to the present there are a lot of young people out there to be writing and commenting on each other’s blogs. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. Blogging as a way to practice English online in Africa is fairly common now but especially in the country of Angola. With internet access so available now, literally there is an internet café on every street corner in the capitol Luanda so ESL lessons online are available to the masses now. In the year 2000 there were 30,000 internet users but this year there are 100,000 internet users in Angola. This is a prime opportunity for ESL professionals in Luanda especially to get their English as a Second Language students writing in English. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most public blog sites have the option for the blog owner to approve comments made on their blog posts before the blog site posts them Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on video blogging ,vlog, which is part of a wider network of social media. Look at YouTube for vlogs and great English as a Second Language video lessons videos . With the advent of video blogging, the word blog has taken on an even looser meaning

When you work from home and you do article writing as part of it, like driving traffic to your site or simple blogging whatsoever, you always encounter that certain challenge to come up with not only good titles for your write-ups but also titles that will seize almost everyone’s attention. A catchy headline is almost critical and important as the body. Titles are the first thing people read and if those titles are interesting enough, readers will more likely check the whole article out. But if it’s boring or too general and doesn’t have an appeal at first glance, then your potential customers will probably just ignore it. The following are two great concepts on what kind of titles you should think of before or even after writing an article for your work from home. First is making use of the word, “why” in your headlines. Most people search the Internet for some answers and they are really keen to topics and writings that may hold the solution to what they’re looking for. That’s why certain articles which have titles like, “..Reasons Why..,” or “Why Is It Most People…,” or “Do You Know Why…” are very much bankable in terms of views and reads. Not only that, another nice work from home technique would be using the word, “warning” in your article titles. It’s somehow difficult to come up with that one especially if there’s really no life-and-death situation involved but a little slice of creativity won’t hurt, would it? For example, you can try “WARNING! How To Avoid Being Banned From The Forums,” or “Scams Warning!” as titles for some article writing. Being aware of these useful tips and tricks on how to make your article titles a sure head-turner is a major asset for your work from home to deliver good results. We all know that in every step of the way, we come closer to our goals. Same is true with these little information which will lift us a notch higher to a productive article writing and article marketing.

PREWRITING BENEFITS AND A WARNING By Katherine Ploeger, M.A., M.F.A. Prewriting is one of the most important stages of the writing process, in addition to revision. Unfortunately, most beginning (and some advanced) writers don’t spend enough time on these activities, so writing is more difficult that it needs to be. Prewriting involves all the activities needed to prepare for the first draft, starting with that first flash of an idea, all the way to a complete outline. The prewriting process (at least as I have experienced it) has several steps, each with techniques that make the step easier to get through. So why not just start typing after that first flash of the idea? Only in the movies does a writer do that. Remember Chevy Chase in Funny Farm (1988)? He thought he had a great idea for a novel. He sat down at the typewriter, typed “Chapter 1″ and stared at the typewriter, at a loss for what to write next. He hadn’t done his prewriting. He finally produced (in my view, based on the thickness of the manuscript) a paltry attempt at a novel, more of a novella than anything else. Chase’s character eventually gave up on the novel and became a sports writer. I wonder, as a writer and teacher, whether he gave up because he didn’t understand the process of writing, or whether he simply wasn’t cut out to be a novelist. He seemed happy with the sports writing, so the movie did have a happy ending. BENEFITS OF PREWRITING Prewriting is a vital part of the writing process and offer several benefits to the writer: 1. Prewriting can be a lot of fun. Anything is possible at this point. You have your wonderful book idea, still fuzzy and vague but with great possibilities. Your ideas can be freewheeling, even idiotic. It doesn’t matter. Just keep brainstorming, playing with ideas, collecting resources and notes, doing all the other activities needed to finish this stage of the writing process. The only restriction at this point (unless you place more on yourself) is your need or requirement to stick close to the original vision for the book. But even that restriction is false. Your original idea will rarely match the finished product. I know that’s hard to read, but that’s been my experience. Of course, my books are often better, usually more complicated, than the original idea. The vagueness of the vision allows you to begin work on the idea, so you can create the book you are intended to write. Detours and weird ideas can often lead to flashes of brilliance for your book, whether with the content, organization, or whatever. At this point, your book can go in many directions. Explore them all until you hit upon the one that feels right. “Ah, ha! That’s what I’m going to write.” 2. During prewriting, you can work out the true purpose of the book, playing with alternatives until you find the one that’s right for you and the reader. What benefits are you looking for as the writer? What benefits are you hoping to give the reader? Make sure your book addresses these purposes. 3. You get to find out more about your readers (a.k.a. target market, audience). This exploration is part of your research about your competition. You probably know a lot about them because you were one of them, having been a beginner once yourself. Or you might be aiming at a different audience, in which case you’ve got some work to do. In your exploration of your readers, you can play around with additional audiences you might want to address. You might want to write for different age groups, education levels, or levels of proficiency with your topic. Brainstorm all the possibilities for all these variables. You might find that one or two of the alternatives present other book projects you can tackle, once this first book is done. Heck, create an entire industry out of your book idea, aiming each book at a different audience. 4. You get to plan the book to best meet your readers’ needs. You get to play around with different organizational strategies for the entire book and for each chapter. You get to think about different features for the chapters. You can even play around with the cover design if you’re self-publishing. 5. You get to do preliminary research, as much as you need to finish the first draft, or at least as much as you think you need at this point. If you are passionate about your topic (that’s most important), then doing more reading on the topic should be sheer delight. Remember that eventually you have to write your own book, so don’t get lost in the research. Give yourself a time limit for the research process. After that time, add questions to your Research Questions List, to be done during revision. 6. You can easily evaluate new ideas that come flooding into your mind (and they will). Does the idea fit your present vision of the book? If used, would this new idea drastically change the book? Is that change good or bad? If good, then where does the idea fit into your present outline or vision of the book? If bad, toss it. 7. By the end of the process, you’ll have a full outline of the book (that is, if you follow my process, addressed in WRITE THAT BOOK! The Prewriting Process available at ploegersservices.com). With that outline, you’ll be able to see the whole project at a glance. Spread the outline across your desk and examine your creation. You’ll be able to detect: * inadequate organization of the ideas, * gaps in ideas and content, * whether you have one book or two (or more), * whether a chapter will become a monster, which needs to be cut down to size before you begin drafting. 8. Prewriting allows you to write the first draft more easily because you know what you want to write at each writing session. 9. Prewriting increases your confidence in yourself as a writer and about your book idea. You’ll be able to determine if the project has merit, and if you’ll be able to finish the project and actually write that book! A WARNING ABOUT PREWRITING The one warning about prewriting is that you can become so fascinated by this stage (it really is fun), that you don’t actually move past it to create the first draft, and then on to (oh, no!) revision. Like research, writers have a tendency to spend too much time planning and never get to implementation (drafting). Allow about 25% of the project’s entire schedule for prewriting. If you have extensive research to do (which you shouldn’t, at least not for a first or early book in your writing career), then allow more time, say 30-35% of the time. But then move on and write the first draft. Prewriting is a crucial stage of writing any nonfiction work. It allows the writer to be prepared, rather than stumbling around in the dark, wondering what to write next. Do your prewriting. And then WRITE THAT BOOK! * * * .ploegersservices.com