Archive for Writing

Are You Leveraging the Power of Verbs In Your Marketing?

In 1974, psychologists Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer showed test subjects seven 5-30 second video clips of car accidents. Every subject saw the same clips.
After viewing the videos, the subjects were given questions about the accidents and were asked to write down their answers.
The twist was that they were given different questions.
The critical questions were:

[...]

New Blog Launched: “Words Worth A Thousand Pictures”

To stretch my creative muscles, massage my right brain, and develop my writing skill, I have started a new blog entitled “Words Worth A Thousand Pictures.”
But before you dive into the deep, dark recesses of my infected psyche, I should warn you that this is not for the faint of heart. If you’re overly sensitive, [...]

Poems From Transformational Writing 101

We’ve been having a blast with our first writing class.
The students are doing phenomenal work, as witnessed by the three poems below:
The Struggle with Parting
By Eric Dowd
The siphoning spear probes for prey
An unheard scream; recoiling move
Slight arms and legs shove spear away
It isn’t hushed till half removed
A future ripped from calm of womb
Tornadoed fetus [...]

Get To the Point, Already!

Unless you want your writing to be discarded, you must lead with the point, rather than build to the point. Your thesis must be stated clearly and early.
You’ve got just seconds to grab readers before you lose them to information overload.
In fact, the chances are extremely high that most readers will only read your opening [...]

Should Your Writing Be Concise, Clear, or Artful?

Jesse Hines, freelance writer and author of Robust Writing, once wrote a post entitled “The Key to Writing Concisely.” His post consists of two sentences:
“Only write what is absolutely necessary to make your point. Not a word more.”
Jesse has an excellent point. Numerous words can be chopped from most writing while still preserving the point, [...]

Surprising Truths About Book Publishing

I have co-authored or ghostwritten nine books, one of which was a national bestseller (Killing Sacred Cows, affiliate link).
Publishing a non-fiction book can be one of the most powerful marketing strategies for entrepreneurs.
However, I often encounter misconceptions about the publishing world, and my insight and advice can be disappointing.
There’s a pervading myth that [...]

A Pleading Letter to You from Your Website

Dear Business Owner,
Please forgive me if I sound ungrateful. I love my new look, I really do. I love to strut in front of your clients, my colors shimmering, my navigation sharp as an army regiment, my product store organized flawlessly. It’s just that…
To be candid, I want to know when I can be a [...]

Improve Your Writing With These Essential Books

This is a follow-up post to my last post.
Want to improve your writing and knock the socks off your readers? Then rush to Amazon as fast as your fingers can carry you and seize these books:

Any one of these will endow you with unprecedented power from the writing gods. And reading all of them will [...]

Never Underestimate the Power of Words

Identify significant shifts in history and you’ll find word-warriors, slicing through status quo debris with sharp words, lighting the souls of men with fiery words, subduing anger with gentle words.
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses incited the Protestant Reformation. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense united angry colonists. Harriet Beecher Stowe pierced through the vile darkness of slavery with [...]

Are You Shouting At Your Audience Unintentionally ?

Is your blog and/or advertising campaign a bullhorn, or a living room?
Publishing platforms, such as blogs, give you a bullhorn. Here’s the problem with that — no one likes to be shouted at.
The police use bullhorns, as do obnoxious activists. People get shouted at by parents, teachers, bosses, and other authority figures. Pushy salespersons use [...]

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