How I get through involves writing. You may think it takes up too much time to write a note here, draw a picture there. But, for me, it helps to insure that I stay on point and don’t forget anything needed.

Here’s what my process looks like, these days.

Drafting

I need to write through a project. I may write detailed descriptions of what is needed, how it should work, and what goes beyond what I was asked for. However, that’s not always required.

I usually draw pictures. Simple line drawings are my favorite, because they offer room for details and changes.

My recent brochure project, I drew up based on samples provided. After looking at it and the blank screen, I added my ideas for them.

Finally, once I was satisfied with the drawing, it was time to put it on the screen.

Reviewing

Before the client gets it, I review it to make sure I covered all I had intended. Everything the client wants needs to be included — unless it’s not going to be.

Sometimes I will add or detract from a project, once it’s on the screen. To be sure I can say why when presenting the work, I may make notes on the sketch, or write detailed explanations for what I’ve changed.

Presenting

A big reason for writing notes is so I don’t have to trust my memory — or lack of memory. With my notes in hand, during presentation of my draft, I can explain why I did whatever I did, if any question should arise.

Revisions

Once the draft was presented, I was on to my next project as I waited for any revisions to come in. No matter how much time I take to get everything included, there may come a need to incorporate new information. In part, it’s because things can change for a client between the time I’m engaged and the time I complete a draft for them to proof.

Still, I try not to have many revisions. There are several things I do to keep revisions to a minimum.

• Ensure all the client’s specifics are covered
• Ensure client understands my design choices
• Charge a fee

Charging Fees

The reason I may charge for changes is because this work can quickly become a time-sink if I’m not careful. At times, there are big company changes that must be incorporated, (business happens). When the changes are so many that they take up much more time than is allotted, sometimes taking us far afield from where we started, then I will charge for the extra time.

Finishing

I revised the brochure as requested and sent the final version — one of the best parts. While I do enjoy the process, there is a lot to be said for putting a project to bed.

That’s my simple process for working through a design project. I find that drawing helps to connect me viscerally to my project. Do you draw first, or go straight to the computer? How do you work through your design projects?

The rules are simple and the benefit is high — sounds great, right! So read on to find out what I’m bargaining with myself to get done this summer. Below, I’ll share with you the link to Karen Barnes, where I read the challenge.

From NAIWE:

There are three parts to the challenge:

1. Read three books that will stretch your mind and inspire your creative spirit.
2. Finish one project that’s been nagging at you for longer than you care to admit.
3. Brainstorm a new project that will bring you an additional stream of income, then take the first step to make it happen.

Lately, I haven’t been sticking with much, due to intense time constraints. So, it’s a good time for me to re-group and re-orient my attentions on what is important to me. I will use this as one of my summer incentives to work differently.

Other steps – post the challenge to your website along with a link back to the challenge post; add the challenge badge (like the one above) to your site; post a comment in the challenge post with your site’s URL and your all set. Click on the badge above to go right to the challenge details on the NAIWE site.

Here’s my Plan

For reading: I want to read What we Ache For by Oriah Mountain Dreamer. I read it some years ago, and I think it may be time for a refresher. Since it’s a re-read, I decided to red three others. Mine are books from the genres I want to write in, fiction and poetry.

1. Open House by Elizabeth Berg
2. The House by Danielle Steel
3. Thirst, poems by Mary Oliver

Finish one project: There is a poetry collection I’ve been working on‐more like iffing at. It would be good to get it out of my head and onto paper—or my computer. It’s one of several that have been festering without going away fully.

Brainstorm a new project: I have these novel ideas—not new but constantly being added to. And I think that’s what I need to finish a novel draft (something I’ve wanted to do but never went through). It seems like I have enough in my head to brainstorm a full plot and I want to try this summer.

If You’re Sold…

Get involved: Read the NAIWE challenge post, follow the instructions to post their badge and leave a comment with your URL, and you’re in.

Another Participant: Even though I get the NAIWE newsletter, I don’t always read it in a timely manner. I read about the challenge first, from Karen Barnes, on Change the World with Words, here.

• Internet Traffic Tracking Tool
• Some Important Points on the Use of the Internet in Education

More are linked on my samples page on the static site. Stay tuned for more to come.

Lately, I’ve gravitated toward computer and business writing, which is reflected in the topics I pick from the Demand Studios articles pool. That may change in time, or depending on what writing requests I get.

Since I read that eHow has taken to deleting some of the duplicated content, I have to check on mine to be sure they’re still there. I don’t know where mine fall in their selection process.

For that reason I’m checking somewhat regularly, right now. I don’t want to have a link to an error page or something. If you come across a bad link, I’d appreciate it if you let me know.

Promoting your wares is the how you get the business you want. It’s an arduous process for me, as I’m not a huge fan of “blowing my own horn.” I am however a fan of work, generating work (leads)—you know, the business stuff.

I’ve got a strategy in place for increasing my posting frequency. A new tweet plan is in the works. And, to help me with growing a community, this past weekend, I added two tools to my arsenal, an auto tweet plugin, WP Tweeter, and a Facebook Page for The Word ‘Mage.

Why I added Auto Tweets?

I don’t mind tweeting other people’s posts that I enjoy or find useful. In fact, I enjoy sharing others’ posts a lot. It’s painful to tweet out my own work, and that’s costing me. To help me out with this, I installed my first auto-tweet plugin for the blog. I was hesitant about this tool for my PR strategy at first. But, I caved and added WP Tweeter plugin for two reasons.

1. First, it kind of takes the sting out of self-promotion, if I close one eye so to speak. It distances me just enough to smooth out the gut-wrench that comes with saying “Look what I did!” (I’m getting a little better at that too since I do it for my poetry.)
2. Second, I find auto tweets from people much more palatable when they tweet manually too—not sure why that is. So I allowed myself the use of this plugin, so long as I off-set that with live tweets of non-TWM stuff, which I already do.

Why add a Facebook Page?

While working on administrative stuff to improve my presence online, the idea of an FB page came up again. I looked around at my friends and family on FB that have work relations in their profiles. Many of their links connect with barren pages, with the generic briefcase icon and no updates on the pages. Mine couldn’t be one of those.

I read a great post from Karen Swim [Words for Hire] about PR and it was just the catalyst I needed, right reading at the right time. (You could think of it too as the straw that broke the camel’s back.) The idea to create  an FB page has presented (more like insinuated) itself continually over the last few months. This past weekend, it came to a head and I put the page out there.

It’s Live—Now What?

Linking to it: My promotion for the work Facebook page will be another hurdle to cross over. I’ve added a badge to the website and the FB page has links to both the website and this blog. For now I’m leaving only the Social Media button here on the blog to connect with the FB page. On my personal FB page, I added a link to the FB page for employment.

Talking about it: First is this post about it. Further,  I will invite people through conversation. That’s important to me because I find sites that I enjoy reading the most are very conversational, interactive, where readers write in and writers respond. Even if I have nothing to say, it’s good to know that someone is there exchanging with their readers.

Inviting you to it: The way to grow a community is to offer useful information and connections. Check out The Word ‘Mage’s FB page. It’s out there ready to interact with you. If you have a Facebook page and have suggestions for mine, such as a landing page idea, please let me hear from you.

In Closing

These are two tools I’ve implemented this month as part of my PR strategy. Because of the way I view auto tweets and Facebook pages, using these means tasking myself to do more writing and social media posting. If I’m correct in my assessment, this should prove to be an interesting phase. I hope you’ll join me.

Do you have PR ideas that have served you well? My strategies are based on how I work and what I see others doing. What are your thoughts?

Resources:

There are many people discussing the pro’s and cons of PR on the web, including how your interact, where you choose to interact, and what information you choose to share. Below are only the two most recent articles I’ve read and a site that can give you a lot of Facebook tips and tricks.

• Is Your PR Strategy Crazy?, Words for Hire
• Facebook for Public Relations, Journalistics
• Social Medai and Blogging Tips

Just like there’s an inside voice and outdoors voice, there is also an optimal voice for copywriting. It’s active voice. Active voice means you write about doing things, as opposed having things acted upon. Active voice lets you breathe life into your message.

• Read on to learn more.
• Ideas and information will be gained by reading further.

See the difference? It’s subtle sometimes, other times more pronounced. You may have noticed too, active voice is a more precise use of words.

It makes a difference, so it’s important to know and use it where it counts. You need to use active voice to write effective copy for web and print. Sometimes things just come out of my head in a passive voice. So, in the revising and editing stages, I rev up my copy to make sure it grabs the reader’s attention.

You can do this too by using your action verbs and moving adverbs. There are two parts to writing effective, engaging, action-grabbing copy.

1. Show what you offer.

You want to get people’s attention when you’re explaining things to them. You’re goal with copywriting is to draw in readers and engage them with what great benefits they will get from using your goods, services, or ideas.

Active voice is how you say “This is what I can do for you and here’s why you should let me.”

You don’t need crazy claims of supernatural abilities. You don’t need to be in possession of the only device in existence that can literally turn any substance into gold—in a matter of seconds. You have a great product or service. Tell it like it is. And be done with it? Not quite.

2. Invite what you want.

After your powerful, enticing description, your next step is to present a reasonable call to action. Not a DO IT, DAMMIT call to action, even though those have been used from time to time. (Remember the Godfather’s Pizza commercials?) Use active voice to be persuasive not a bully. Simply invite your readers to act with urgency, to rescue themselves, make their work or personal lives easier, better, more fulfilling.

Think of it like this: once you effectively state the value of your goods or services, it’s only fair to let your readers know how they can take advantage of what you offer. A call to action is a matter of closing the deal.

Let your readers know how, where and when:

• How they can take advantage of the services you offer; contact you with their needs.
• They can sign here to read more of your great how-to guides, sign up for your newsletter.
• The time to act is now if they what to take part; time to sign up ends on [date].

Whatever it is you want from your audience, spell it out (forgive the pun). It’s the last step to insure that your readers know how they can get your assistance, product, information.

When you’re looking for someone to write that copy for you, contact me; I can help you.

That’s when I saw just how new the business was, or the site was new at least. You could have knocked me over with a feather, in fact. The landing page had Latin filler text in it. You know? Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectitur edipising elit… I was stunned. And it only added to my dismay that it was a website design business.

It’s not necessary for anyone to get started with a lot of pieces missing in their website. Certainly you don’t have to highlight the shortfalls.

3 Workarounds to cover the Shortfalls

If you don’t want to postpone the date for your website to go live, then don’t. But you don’t have to make a point of being ill-prepared. It’s not necessary. It’s not encouraging to be ill-prepared in areas where you offer services. Still, there are times when you can’t get everything you need for your first day of business. All is not lost, though. Following are three simple ways to work around not being ready.

1. Get the content you need before you go live. I had to say it. It does matter to explain to your visitors what you’re offering to them. You can have someone working on the content while your site is being built. Brainstorm ideas of what you want people to know. If you’re not the writer, have a copywriter prepare your content for you. Or, find free website content that comes close to what you have to say. Until you can get your own customized content, that is.
2. Don’t invite people to your website landing page if it’s not ready. Remember, all your pages can be landing pages, when you consider that visitors can reach your site from any page. Take advantage of the flexibility of linking; link to the page that you have prepared. Link to your About page or whichever is completed and that serves you best.
3. Use your social media to your best advantage. This may not keep people away from the unfinished page, but it will at least direct them to useful pages first. If your home page still has the Latin filler text, don’t link your social media accounts to that page. Use the page that’s ready and relevant. In the case of the site I recently visited because of a Twitter connection, the Services page had their website content. It would have been a much better choice to have visitors land on that page.
4. Use only the pages you need. Instead of avoiding pages, disengage the unused ones. If you have enough content for three out of five pages, let three out of five pages go live. You can save the other pages until you’re ready to make good use of them. It’s not hard to disable some of your pages for later. If it’s a blog website, you can simply relegate them to drafts for the time being. If it’s a static website someone built for you, it should be built to your specifications. Really, what’s worse, to have a site with two well-used pages, or a site that shows you’re unprepared?

Keep in Mind: Your Goal is Attraction

It’s great when you’re starting something new, isn’t it? I get all excited about getting products ready to go live. But do you want it live if it will function to work against your goal of attracting customers? Shouldn’t your website presences work to your advantage? Even if you’re a one person operation, it doesn’t mean you have to skip steps. And if you do have to postpone some things, your website doesn’t have to highlight that to your website visitors.

If you need help with content or website tweaks, contact me. We can likely work out plan for your website to show your wares in a professional light.

Now I’ve added website development to my list of services. You can get the details of this added service on The Word ‘Mage website for now. I have a site that is being built for this new service. I’ve put off the site for a bit while I work out a few logistics.

5 Benefits of adding this Service

1. Lets people know the service is available now
2. Generates activity and interest in advance of the new website
3. It’s a great off-shoot for writing ad and website copy
4. Could attract the person in need of both a website and content
5. Might force me to stop dragging my feet on building the design site

Starting Small

The website for this service was started at the end of last year. However, it needs something more. But, since I’ve been researching e-commerce site development for a friend, I’ve been focusing on that and not my other site. And, really, I let other things get in the way too. So, since I really want to work for people who need a website, I decided to park the service here for a short time.

Starting this way gives me time to work up a great pitch to my target audience while building websites. I know there are many people offering the service of website development. That’s why I am working to distinguish myself in that arena. Not with the flash and the flips and whistles.  But I will work it out.

More’s to come. This is one of my first major tasks on my 2011 list. Might be the second on the list. Anyway, it’s high up there and I’m feeling pretty good that I got it done…and it’s only FEBRUARY.

Ultimately, I’m doing all this for 2 simple reasons: because I love it and because I can.

Visit my page if you get time, (linked below). And be sure to drop me a note with any tips you may wish to impart. I have a file.

Visit the Page:

• Website Development on The Word ‘Mage website

• Sensationalism
• Euphemism
• Fanaticism

These three can backfire pretty good if not wielded properly. This post addresses sensationalism. Something that can be really useful and fun to read when it’s used well.

Yourdictionary.com defines sensationalism as:

a. the use of strongly emotional subject matter, or wildly dramatic style, language, or artistic expression, that is intended to shock, startle, thrill, excite, etc.

b. preoccupation with or exploitation of what is sensational in literature, art, etc.

This definition works for the most part. Defining a word with a variation of the word is not generally useful, but it is passable here.

Sensationalism

Sonia Simone wrote the following in one of her lessons about writing headlines.

If your headline fails, you may as well go home

Prominent web savvy social media (non writer) guy wrote this next phrase.

…words are just fluff

Which attention grabber would you buy into?

Rings True

Simone makes a viable time tested point in this statement. It’s more than just her opinion or feeling about headlines. She goes into explaining the job of headlines and how they can cost you the attention you’re writing for. Generally, headlines are your first contact with readers. If you can’t catch them there, they may not read further.

Think about your own web surfing experiences. How many times do you scroll through a blog reading through the headlines to see what catches your eye? To see what the blog is about?

You can get a lot of information from scouring headlines. You learn some things about the blog’s consistency, versatility, viability and if it interests you. My favorite headlines are the ones that seem far-fetched and precede a strong supporting post. It’s nice too when it ties in nicely with the overall theme of the blog or website. But, there are times…

Nonsensical

The second quote comes from an article titled “5 Reasons  Copywriters Need to Get Data…Or Get Out of the Game”

Way harsh, right? Overkill is not necessarily a bad thing. If you think you need that to make your point, give it a shot. Warning: this is not a tactic that you want to use if the rest of your information is comparatively flat. Certainly it’s not necessary if your position is strong without it.

Following that title with the sample phrase, writing is just fluff, aimed at writers, was downright off-putting. It put the article in an unnecessarily negative light. It is unnecessary because the valid point, copywriters need to get data, is salient, important and timely. No need for hitting.

5 Things wrong with Nonsensical Writing?

It’s ultimately an issue of credibility. If you want to be taken at your word, (I know I do), you need to offer good, reliable words that look true at first glance. Words that can then stand up under close scrutiny.

1. It detracts from otherwise acceptable writing about good ideas.
2. It could put your writing in a negative light .
3. It makes your authority on a give topic suspect.
4. When you can’t back it up, you leave your readers wanting something more.
5. It blocks you from your goal of becoming the penultimate in copywriting practices.

Words = Fluff

The author of the words = fluff claim stated that he wouldn’t hire a writer who could not illustrate the impact of his writing by using another company’s data.

That’s good information, letting writers know a potential downfall of not getting data. Learn to get the numbers to attract that audience requiring data. Two questions come to mind for writers:

1. Do you see a possible downside to writing for a man who writes the statement that words are just fluff?
2. Does any copywriter not know that numbers are important in attracting clients?

In the comments, I learned other writers knew too that data is important. He was preaching to the choir a little bit. That’s fine because what is reinforcement to some is news to others. I didn’t know that numbers were out-performing words.

Still, I can’t rationalize the oxymoron of writing 1200 words to explain how words are fluff. He actually made a simply ridiculous claim and stuck with it. In considering writing for this person, a major concern of mine would be that he expects this kind of rhetoric from his writers.

One thing that could ease my mind: I’d likely look at the whole thing differently if he’d delivered his message without words.

Words matter, period.

I read an article from Problogger that said you can do lots with your unknown blog—you know, while no one’s really looking. So, this is my time to expand my posting strategies by adding audio maybe, or video. Maybe not vlogging just yet.

Anyway, while visiting some of my favorite and newer cyber haunts, getting inspired ideas of things I might try, I noticed a small detail that really matters to me. Bad links. Either they were broken or outdated. One led to a completely new site and I was shocked. It was a popular b5media link, The Golden Pencil. Well, I was so surprised that I checked it in other sites that I thought might have old references to it. Sure enough, I did find the old links and they led to this new, unrelated site too.

Why it Matters

There are large sites that can’t be diminished by a broken link or two, or ten. But for new sites, it will detract from your credibility to have a few or many links to be broken, or lead to the wrong site. Consider your reaction to new sites that have many broken links. Compare that with visiting establish  sites with a link broken. You understand the difference, right?

Update Links

A few other link snafus were tantamount to a warning to me. I’m not setting myself up as a reference hub, but when I do refer people to anything, the links need to work. The Broken Links Checker plugin for WordPress is a great help for me on my blogs. I trust it does a good job of catching my broken links. And when I see them I just have to do a little work.

First, I have to see what the link is to. I recently had to delete a link to a blog because, sadly, it seemed to have gone away. A short while before that, I had a links that broke when the website owners revamped their storage, either due to archiving or just moving things around. Then, the ones I decided to keep, I simply updated. If I didn’t want the link anymore, I just broke the connection, “unlinked” them.

Update Blogroll Links

Sometimes blogs may change from their purpose that initially attracted you. For that reason I visit the links on my blogs and website to see if they are still viable. If they change, then I may likely move them to a different category, so long as they provide the same quality content. I have a few that I really liked that went wonky, either moving or becoming dormant. Some I’ve just hidden from view to check periodically for updates.

I’ve decided to attend to this small detail on my sites because it matters to me when I visit other sites. I want to give the same quality experience I expect to find when I visit other places. It doesn’t freak me out to find bad links. In fact, I sometimes enjoy researching them to see what’s what. But when I need to find something quickly, I do appreciate when the links work.

My lists are relatively small, and it won’t take me long at all to update my links. But if you have site with many links, especially if yours is a major reference site, you have a big task to keep up with all your connections. Be vigilant.

Reference:

• Three Ways to Take Advantage of being a Blogging “No One”
• Broken Links Checker plugin for WordPress

Recently I read the perfect article from a ‘Bad Advice’ series on Forbes’s blog, Work in Progress: Career Talk for Women. The article is Bad Career Advice: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Christine Scivicque. In the article she makes the great point that the small stuff is very important.

It’s a point that has suffered some neglect for several reasons. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff became a wildly popular rule of thumb, admonition for those trying to survive. Scivicque mentions the book of that name as part of the reason for the public shift toward relaxed attitudes toward details. Whatever the reason, it is a good idea to relax, but to do so to the neglect of details is counterproductive.

Small stuff matters. It’s not to say that you should bleed, stop, and pick a new life goal. But the little things make up the bigger projects you may undertake. If you skimp on the little things, the underpinnings, then your project won’t be as strong as it could be. And, likely, it won’t be strong enough to weather minor disturbances.

• You can be meticulous without being obsessive.

Focus on details without losing sight of the big picture. Understand that the only way you can succeed is to do your best along the way, and continue to keep moving forward. That is working smarter when you do it the best the first time out. I do sweat the small stuff. Sweating small stuff at key, basic, pivotal points, can have you relaxing later.

Some things would make me want to completely stop, just give up because I begin to think it couldn’t be the best of whatever to come to life on screen or paper. Of course, stopping is utterly counterintuitive, because as a result, nothing gets done.

I will grant you that getting things right, sweating the small stuff, is a little obsessive. But it doesn’t have to last interminably. Like in writing: set it to paper, work in all the details, weed out the unnecessary parts, edit, revise, refine, edit, re-read, then release it. (I did mean to include ‘edit’ twice.) And when you release it, know that you’ve done your best for it and move on to the next thing.

When you look at it, this is more a matter of wanting to put your best out. And that’s the whole point of any job you undertake, isn’t it?

• Give yourself a challenge that pushes you through your stalling.

It’s early in the year and you want to do your part to shape your year. Start by addressing what you know needs work. This was my thing to address. And as it happens I found the perfect push over at But You’re a Girl. The post I’m speaking of announces the winner of the New Year’s Eve contest Adria Richards had. I was all excited to read about this guy who wrote 25 posts on New Year’s Eve. I was buzzing about the idea of cranking out that much content in a day when I don’t do it in a month.

Wouldn’t you know, I got down to the end of the article and the contest is extended through the end of this month! It was a cosmic sign. A confluence of signals all indicating what I already know is needed, and that is to keep moving forward. So of course I decided to take on the challenge for this blog.

It’s not about winning the contest, with my late start. But I think this is really an great first goal for this blog, to get to a specific number of posts by the month’s end. Since, it’s my most neglected blog and I really want to wake it up this year. It’s also a great idea to get this kind of momentum going at the beginning of the year, when there’s all this extra energy and excitement in the air.

• Don’t just fall into your goal, plan it and work it out.

You can simply do things on a whim. But that’s likely what you’ll get out of it: something whimsical or flimsy. Instead, think about what you want, think fast because the month is already begun. Figure out some steps and make it happen.

For this blog, it will be a matter of writing and not tossing the majority of what I write, which is what I usually do. I’ll keep my ideas and work through them, working fast to develop them and post them before I give up on them. I tell myself they’re not what I need and scrap them before I give them full room to blossom. But not this month.

My thought is, if I can push through this month with a pressured pace like this, then next month a sane pace will be doable, even easy. Sort of like a bootcamp for the rest of the year. As I said before, for me it’s not about winning the contest, but beating myself out of sliding by. I slide by posting when I say it’s not good enough and move off to the next thing. I slide by when I let myself off the hook because there’s other work to be done. Other work won’t let up, but that’s not really the problem. Letting myself off the hook is the problem. Following the rules of this contest is the boost I need to make it so.

If you’re a Trekkie, then you may already know that’s a Jean-Luc Picard command. I always liked the deliberateness of the command and all that it implied. You have a choice to make. Continue to stroll along ignoring the details, not sweating the small stuff. Or, you can attend to the details and play an active role in shifting the balance from ineffective to effectively working smarter.

Try something new to get your year off to a great start. Work smarter by attending to the details without getting bogged down in them so you get ahead and sustain your business.

Reference posts

• Bad Career Advice: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
• We have a Winner for: Write 25 Blog Posts On New Year’s Eve Contest #25blognye

Customers want to Take it Easy Online

I read a comment from a would-be customer who said that it was too difficult to buy the items she was interested in. The first thing you always want to do is make it easy for the customer to pay. So, I needed to find out what ways are inexpensive and fast for startup businesses. That was part of the reason for last months post on making it easy for people to pay you.

In this post I want to share more about the early stages for selling online, as I learn them. If you’re just starting to sell, like me, or if you have a larger inventory of several different items, you need to make it easy for customers to make purchase from you, certainly easier than getting people email you to request a product.

Take Advantage of the Technology Available

Long ago when I first thought about selling, it would have been a process where people would download and complete my order form, then mail it to me with a check for payment. I really didn’t like the hassle that it presented for customers and me. It would have been clunky but I could have done it that way. However, there were things going on at that time that  had to come before my selling venture.

Enter online payment companies. Now with online payment companies, I have the opportunity to not only buy easily but to sell too.

A few weeks ago, I was trying to think of where I could go to sell the last of my inventory. Looking into it for a friend, made me think of the selling idea again. So, I decided to try it for myself. And what better test than to sell my book, right?

What I have On Hand

Since Paypal is already in place for me, I investigated what it can do without me having a shopping cart. It has the full complement of services needed for selling one item. I can offer multiples of the one item. There is a module to generate a shipping label and I can be done in one shot.

I can update the order form to reflect different versions. For example, if I had on hand the dust jacket version of the book, I could set it up to offer either hardcover or paperback editions.

Other offerings are subscription setups for recurring payments and installments setup. Although I have no need for these, it’s good to know they’re available to grow with my business when I’m ready.

What’s Next

I’m going to check out shopping carts. The site I’m reviewing needs a shopping cart, something I’m not familiar with yet. If you have any ideas for me, please do share them.

Paypal was the obvious payment option to consider because I already had the account. I knew how easy it was to pay for my purchases online. When I looked at it as a tool to receive money, I learned that part is easy too. Since there’s minimal work involved in sending an invoice and taking the occasional fee, I decided to try it out. It’s a faster process to set up than navigating the red tape of using a bank.

I’ll tell you why I like Paypal.

Speed and Efficiency: The Order of the Day

Think about it, twenty years ago, this would not have been possible. Paypal is a nice alternative to traditional methods of accepting credit cards. Let’s face it, many people today pay online and credit and debit card payments are a fast alternative to checks.

Paypal makes it easy for your customers to pay you. And, you get immediate access to the funds, in most cases. There are alternatives to Paypal when it comes to accepting funds. There are bank and credit card services you can review to see if they might be a better fit for you. Although for individuals in business, you might be hard pressed to find something that is more cost effective.

Recently, I came across a list of online payment services from About.com, 5 Online Payment Services to Help Small Businesses get Paid, by guide, Alyssa Gregory. In it, she’s included five services that can help clients to easily pay “…on time and in full.” I haven’t tried any of them except Paypal. I believe it’s a good idea to know what resources are available to you. So, I’ll likely check them out at some point, and compare what they they offer in comparison with what I already use. Makes sense, right?

Extolling the Virtues of Paypal

Paypal makes it easy to shop and pay online, for business or personal use. Without gushing, let me share eight aspects that I appreciate.

1. It’s free and easy to set up.
2. The transaction fee to receive money is minimal.
3. No fee to receive money from a Paypal account.
4. It’s fast. Funds are available for use as soon as the invoice is paid.
5. No hassles with checks from out of state or out of the country.
6. Making purchases online is easy, as many sites accept Paypal.
7. Via the Internet, I can access my Paypal account any time.
8. Paypal sends mail notifications when payments are made to my account.

A Caveat

You likely already know this, but I have to say it anyway: Nothing is perfect, including Paypal. However, you’re not looking for perfect, so much as the perfect fit for your needs.

There are scary stories related to Paypal. But I wasn’t there, and I’m skeptical enough to know that the person relating their bad experiences is possibly not telling the whole story. It’s human nature to be biased in your own favor, after all.

My whole point is that Paypal is working for me. I’ve had no trouble with them to date. Still, if you want to know bad things, the down side of Paypal, you can find it on the Internet. You have to do your research anyway to learn how the company works, if it will work for you. So, you may as well look at the bad stories too. Do your research and measure all the information against what you need.

I hope my experience gives you some useful insight. If you have an alternative to Paypal that you consider better or comparable, please share your suggestion.

A résumé is your sales tool. The second part of your two part letter of introduction. Both your cover letter and résumé are important. But, what if they were separated: Could your résumé stand alone? It’s often the first thing a person will see. It’s your Representative. It is your opening bid to get the all-important initial interview.

Get Motivated about Writing Your Résumé

What do you wear to write a résumé that gets you in the door? Start with your best attitude. It’s a positive document crafted to show who you are. If writing résumés and job hunting is not a fun time (and rarely is exhilarating joy associated with job hunting, right), you may need to work at getting into the proper frame of mind to write.

Don’t wait for inspiration to come to you; go get it. Think about the things that get you motivated and let yourself get excited. Focus on your goal of putting your best foot forward to get that interview. Celebrate what you have to offer and what accomplishing this could bring you like:

1. the chance to interview for the perfect job
2. the new things you might learn about your community
3. the chance to learn more about yourself and things you might do differently
4. the opportunity to get the job you really want

Get Practical about Writing your Résumé

1. Carve out time to write your résumé. Decide to focus on only that writing, and nothing else unrelated in that time slot.
2. Eliminate all stressful thoughts. You don’t have to solve all your problems to do this. Try writing them down and putting the paper in your drawer for later. Then think positive thoughts about securing the interview you were meant to have.
3. Draft your goal for one résumé. Write the position you want to get and your related objective, focusing on one job at  a time.
4. With the job requirements on hand, assess your bank of skills and experiences. Select the ones you think are best suited to the position your focused on. Then select some that are laterally related, (for overview, cover letter, and to show what you want recruiters to see).
5. Select the format that suits your goals, and fill in the outline with your best information.

Get a Little Philosophical about It

Attitude matters. Behavior matters. It’s like smiling when you’re on the phone. The person at the other end can hear you smiling. Similarly, you can infuse your writing.

Use your gratitude. You may not be feeling it when you need to write your résumé. But take a moment or two to find it and let it fuel you. Think about the things you have to be grateful for, the good parts of even the most difficult and trying times. If nothing else, consider the fact that you have something to offer a company and the ability to say so. Let your spirit smile. Release your happy, relaxed state of mind and let your résumé writing flow.

Try it next time you need or want to write your résumé. Gratitude is important all the time. Especially, though, see if it doesn’t help you when you’re doing this important writing of presenting yourself to new people.

Benefits of using Keywords Statistics Plugin

• Real time keyword data, and keyword density received while you’re writing.
• No need for visiting another site to check your work.
• Since it’s built into WordPress, it operates on whatever browser you use.
• Since reports all data, you can see what words you’ve overused, as well as what’s not used enough.

5 Steps: Get the Most from Keyword Statistics Plugin

1. Begin writing your post draft using your researched keywords.
2. When you return to your draft to revise and edit, review keyword density before you begin.
3. Make adjustments to your content to get the optimization that you want.
4. Edit your post to make certain that you’re not stuffing keywords. Your optimization should not drown out your message.
5. Consider manually filling in your keywords and description fields, instead of relying on automatically generated meta data.

A Warning, a Resource, and a Reminder

Automatically generated data is not always the best. Generally, I choose not to use automatically generated anything until I’m very well versed in how the plugin functions. So, even though the keywords are generated, I don’t fully rely on what’s automatically generated. What I’ve been doing is populating the keywords field manually, with both my researched keywords and some of the plugin’s generated keywords.

Try to always have good resources. For detailed SEO training, you may find it helpful to get a resource that you can turn to regularly to address your SEO needs. For me, one such consistently high ranking site is SEOBOOK a site that offers free and paid training.

Remember to search for training for the new tools you want to implement. If the plugin site doesn’t give enough of how-to details, and the plugin is rated, then it’s likely that there’s more information online. And consider using Twitter searches to see you might be discussing what you’re looking for.

Related posts:

• Easy Blogging SEO

Now, I’m not going to tell you again that you first need to write excellent copy. Everybody says that. I’ve said that. And more importantly, you know that if you don’t attract your visitors with your content, you won’t have a chance to convert them to customers or clients. Right? Enough said. On to the optimizing strategies.

Where did I get these tips?

Most of the tips included are optimization strategies used in web content articles I’ve written. I learned about how well they worked by listening to the number crunchers’ analysis of the ROI from optimization and other efforts.

I read about them at SEO sites. And, I watch how other successful people do it. The bloggers who apply these practices say that their traffic is raised which helps them to build their community. I’ve picked the actions that cost time only, for now. In another post, I’ll discuss the ones that cost.

Finally, I’ve learned of them from using them on my own blogs, though rather sporadically. Since I’ve decided to use it regularly, (at least here on my work blog), I thought I’d share with you some of what I’ll be using, as well as what I may try later.

How do I get started with SEO?

1. Use good keyword tools to find the best words to attract readers. These are two free tools that do the job well. And you should know that Wordtracker has a nifty little plug-in for Firefox.
   • Wordtracker’s free tool
   • Google External Keywords tool
2. Decide on the best keywords and use them in your content. It may be that you don’t select the top ranked words. Whichever words you choose, incorporate them into your website in the following areas, but don’t go overboard. You don’t want to get into keyword stuffing. Use your keywords about three times, in the following several of the areas:
   • in the body of your post
   • in the anchor text
   • in your post title*
   • in a bold or title heading (h1 or h2 title tags)
3. Use your keywords in all the following area:
   • in your multimedia ALT tags*
   • in your meta tags, and title text*
   • in your meta description
4. Use analytics tools to review the results of your SEO efforts, and adjust accordingly. Yes. Google does have a free tool for that too. Try out Google Analytics. It takes a few steps to get it installed on your blog and a little while for it to collect enough data show any measurable outcomes.

These are the tools and practices that I use, which are not unique to any blogging platform.

* The last two I want to share with you are plugins in WordPress that will allow you to manipulate your meta tags listed above.

SEO Tools in WordPress

The WordPress tools I use are very popular, right now. And that’s a good sign. These plugins allow you to manipulate your meta tags. The plugins are All in One SEO Pack, and Headspace2.

The first is All in One SEO Pack, which is what I’m currently using. It gives you control over your meta description and tags. You can take a look at this SEO Tutorial Video to get a good overview of how the plugin works.

The other WordPress plugin is called Headspace2 SEO. It is a powerful tool that has global features, similar to the other tool. And, I found a really excellent video, Headsapce2 SEO Tutorial Video, that will show you a lot about how the plugin works.

So why do all this?

The whole reason behind the development of SEO practices is to improve traffic to your site. Think about it: Your site is your store and you can’t sell anything if you can’t get the people through your doors. Or in this case, you have to get them to your site. Enter SEO practices, the great attractor. The power is yours to wield! Use it wisely.

Now, what did I miss? What are the best practices you use to attract the audience you want?