Writing
for Success: Home
Business Writing Made Simple
People
will make judgments about you based on the way you write.
It may not be fair, but it is true. From spur-of-the-moment
emails and simple business
letters, to those exhaustive research documents and published
articles, the impact of your message is directly affected
by the way it is written. It may be true that you get paid
for some skill other than writing, but you must be able to
communicate effectively through written media if you want
to achieve the highest level of success in your field. Our
Effective Business
Writing workshop covers every aspect of the writing process,
beginning with what you need to know and how you need to plan
before your fingers ever hit the keys.
Business Writing
- An Imperative Asset
Have you
ever written a letter to a friend? Ever written an outline for
any project you were about to start? What about a shopping list?
If you have, and I imagine most have, you can then write focused,
brief, content articles for your online home business.
Why write?
Well, of course you can spend lots of money to drive traffic
to your site with absolutely no guarantee that you will obtain
a single sale. Moreover, most of the traffic, although targeted,
may leave your site and forget it ever existed. Writing puts
you personally, your site, and your products/services within
the same framework as a well-honed opt-in list of subscribers.
People remember you, learn to trust you, eventually purchase
from you, and most importantly return to purchase again and
again, as long as you continue to offer what they need.
"So
how can I simplify what seems to be the arduous task of writing",
you ask?
Try this:
(1) Take
out pen and paper and go someplace quiet where you can trigger
the creative side of your brain. (Yes, I said pen and paper.
Don't sit in front of the computer for this exercise.)
(2) Sit
back and think for a moment about your online home business.
What do you offer? What have you learned so far about building
traffic? Have you noticed any patterns for certain promotion
methods that work? What about anything that can be considered
well needed advice to others just starting out?
(3) Now
write down the first thoughts that come to your mind. Don't
edit. Your not at that stage yet. Just write the ideas, and
do this for several minutes, or until you have at least a
single page filled up.
(4) Done?
Good. Now go back to the top of the list. Slowly go through
and hone the ideas. Anything that pops out as particularly
intriguing or immediately brings up related ideas mark off
for the next step. These are the ones to develop further.
(5) Now
take out a sheet of paper for several of the ideas marked
off and write the idea at the top of the paper. (You can use
your computer now, but I tend to think better with pen in
hand.)
(6) O.k.
Ready? At the beginning I asked if you ever have written a
letter to a friend? Remember? Keep this in the back of your
mind always. Write like you speak. I promise you that for
short content articles to develop your online home business,
this is the tone that works. If people need a textbook they
will buy one.
(7) First
make a list, sort of a shopping list of related things to
cover. Try not to get carried away. Remember - short content
articles.
(8) Now
fill in the details as if you were explaining it to a friend.
That's
it. All there is to it. I think you will be surprised how
easy it is once you write a few. Personally, I keep a notebook
handy at all times just for ideas that I later cultivate into
short articles. When I learn something new that I believe
will be of benefit to others I make a note.
The power
in this technique resides in the fact that you are not a robot
and neither are your prospects. When you write, and take it
from the perspective of friends sharing information, you step
onto a personal level. Now who wouldn't pick up on that. Eventually,
with continually writing and publishing your articles in newsgroups,
e-zines, and other web site, your credibility builds, your
persona builds, and your traffic and sales will build. You
absolutely cannot loose with this cost effective traffic generating
strategy.
By Dan
J. Fry
"Business
Writing - Communicate Effectively"
Business
Writing Quote:
You're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep
trying to do the best you can every day.
Marian Wright Edelman
Suggested
Reading
Effective
Business Writing: A Guide for Those Who Write on the Job
by Maryann V. Piotrowski
Better
Business Writing: Techniques for Improving Correspondence
(Fifty-Minute Series.)
by Susan L. Brock
Business
Writing : What Works, What Won't
by Wilma Davidson
Professional
Business Writing, Student Text-Workbook with CD-Rom
by Elizabeth Kerbey, Marilyn Satterwhite
Business
Writing Makeovers: Shortcut Solutions to Improve Your Letters,
E-Mails, and Faxes
by Hawley Roddick
The
Plain English Approach to Business Writing
by Edward P. Bailey Jr., Larry Bailey
Writing
Business Plans That Get Results
by Michael O'Donnell
Webster's
New World Business Writing Handbook
by Richard Worth, Sharon Sorenson
Strategies
for Business and Technical Writing (5th Edition)
by Kevin J Harty
Writing
of Business, The
by Robert P. Inkster, Judith M. Kilborn
Persuasive
Business Proposals: Writing to Win More Customers, Clients,
and Contracts
by Tom Sant
Writing
a Convincing Business Plan
by Art Dethomas
|
