How To Overcome Writer's Block

It's out there, lurking... waiting to strike. The arch nemesis of every writer, that awful limbo of running out of things to say, where every sentence you write seems forced and off kilter, where the cursor winks at you expectantly - the dreaded blank page.

Writer's block is no fun, but you can overcome it. Everyone has their own technique that works for them, but there are some basic exercises that are helpful to almost everyone to get their creative juices flowing again.

The key to overcoming writer's block is to let yourself become inspired. First of all, relax, empty your mind of your stress, forget timetables and shut off the computer.

Read one of your favorite books again, watch a movie that makes you cry, put on some music that stirs your emotions, then take a long walk through your neighborhood and soak in everything - imagine writing about your surroundings.

A good stop off would be your local art museum. Often, observing the creativity of others helps to spark your own. Look at the paintings and sculptures; try to see their hidden meaning, imagine writing about what those artworks say to you.

If none of these things work, sit down with a pen and paper and begin writing down words and synonyms to those words, branch off and start writing what those words make you think of. Jump, Hop, Skip, Child, Baby, Mother, Pregnant, Love, Touch, Feel, Cry...

This exercise stimulates your brain into a creative pattern. If you get stuck, start over with a new word. Wall, Barrier, Shield, Sword, Soldier, Knight, King...

Taking a nap and a long shower or bath can also be productive. Writer's block is often just your mind's way of telling you that it needs a rest.

As already stated, the key to overcoming writer's block is to allow yourself to become inspired so do whatever inspires you.

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Effective Marketing Strategies In A Weak Economy

Building relationships is the key that will throw open the doors to marketing success as quickly and as widely as possible in a tough economy. When marketing is a challenge it's tempting to throw money at the problem (if you have the money to spend). I mean, haven't we all heard that the last thing to cut back on is marketing when times get tough? But persistent, persuasive, and/or assertive marketing just won't prompt enough people into action during times of financial uncertainty. Spending lots of money isn't the key to marketing success.

It might even be tempting to "ride it out" - to do nothing until things turn around. This passive approach yields passive results. Nothing will happen while you're waiting and when things do turn around, the business will go to the people who've been doing something all along. The people who will get the lion's share of the business - both now and in the future - are the ones who work to build relationship.

So exactly how does someone "build relationships"? Building relationships does not mean becoming "best friends" with everyone. It doesn't require taking people out to lunch or coffee. It isn't about sending gifts to people. For the most part, building relationship is about being attractive and adding value. By "being attractive", I mean being likeable, having integrity, being a good communicator, and being passionate. (These are all important topics, but we'll cover them in another article.) Let's instead, spend some time talking about "adding value".

Specifically, let's discuss how to add value to and create connection with prospective and existing clients. A real key to accomplishing this is to give without expecting something in return. The act of helping or giving without getting creates a very powerful dynamic. It establishes you as someone who cares about others. It shows you're not just focused on yourself. It demonstrates an abundance mentality. It makes you even more likeable and respected. And last, but not least, it creates a feeling of obligation on the part of your prospects and existing clients.

Here's a starter list of things you can do to add value to and to create connection with prospective and existing clients. Use it as a starting point for your relationship building efforts. Be creative with relationship building approaches which reflect your personality.

• Create and send out a useful, timely report. (make sure it's not self-serving, though)
• Offer ideas and information that are fun, useful, and/or interesting (most of them will not be related to your business, although some could be)
• Have conversations with prospects and clients to get to know them (people love to be heard)
• Send specific things of interest to specific prospects and clients (it shows you were listening to them and that you care)
• Offer free workshops of interest (but remember, no selling or pitching!)
• Send out personal letters (handwritten is best, but definitely hand signed)
• Personally call to say Hi! or Thank You! (dropping by in person is even better)

Especially when things are tough, it's more important than ever to build relationships as the cornerstone of your marketing strategy. It will cause people to act sooner and will cause more success to flow to you as things turn around. And besides that, it's just plain fun.

Written by Michael Beck, Executive Coach and Trainer. He can be reached at 866-385-8751 or http://www.clientmonkey.com Get your free program on "Power Recruiting & Prospecting" at: http://www.powerrecruitingandprospecting.com

Permission to reprint with full attribution. 2008 Exceptional Leadership, Inc.

Search Engine Optimization Tips

What is SEO?

SEO is the active practice of promoting a web site by improving internal and external aspects in order to increase the traffic the site receives from search engines. It is focused on website promotion by improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via natural (organic) search results for targeted keywords.

Search Engine Optimization Companies that practice SEO can vary; some have a highly specialized focus, while others take a broader and general approach. Optimizing a web site for search engines can require looking at so many unique elements that many Professional Search Engine Optimizers (SEO experts) consider themselves to be in the broad field of website optimization (since so many of those elements intertwine).

We have listed out some of the most essential Search Engine Optimization ethics that needs to be formulated for website promotion:

Directory Submission

Directory submission is a great source of links to the website. Submissions to web directories are the best place to start promoting a new site. Web directories offer links for free, for a fee or in exchange for a link.

Tips:

• Always submit to relevant and most appropriate category
• Try to submit to a quality page
• If paid submission, then be sure to check the relevancy and quality of the link page
• If Reciprocal, then exchange link with similar PR or a page with higher PR.

Link Popularity

Link Building or back links are very important for optimizing the site on search engines. Google counts every back link as a vote delivered for your website but also considers the quality of the page linking to your website. So, only relevant and quality pages with less number of links should be preferred for Link building.

Tips:

• Always choose relevant and quality pages for link building
• Free one way links are the best
• Pages that link to your website should be indexed with Google
• Pages that link to your website should be no more than 2 clicks away from the home page and should contain no more than 30 links on the page.

Social Bookmarking

Social Book Marking has become a very important strategy in the SEO process. Social bookmarking sites are "tag based"- which means you can "tag" them with keywords so your visitors that bookmark your site can find them easily later. Search engines when crawl, index these tags, as well as the link, so you are essentially getting free one-way links from high-traffic sites, with all of your keywords attached to them.

Tips:

• Chose proper tags for your web listing
• Share your bookmarks with your friends and others
• Promote your bookmarks as well
• Comment on others bookmark and let others comment on yours

Keyword Research and Analysis

Keywords play the most important role when it comes to website optimization. As search Engines need just the most informative and useful sites for their visitors, they prefer the sites containing content with the highest priority of the keywords being searched.

Expert Keyword Research is the cornerstone to a successful SEO.

Tips:

• Always chose keywords relevant to your site's theme
• Use multi-word phrases
• Research keywords specifically for each page
• Country specific Keyword Research
• Perform Effective Keyword Analysis
• Ongoing Keyword Research

Search Engine Friendly Design

Before starting search engine optimization process for the website, it is very important to make website Search Engine Optimization friendly. Making web site user friendly as well as Search engine friendly includes a few simple steps.

• Make it simple
• Organize website
• Avoid Javascript and images
• Avoid scrolling

White Hat SEO

White hat technique to Search Engine Optimization consists of ethical methods of search engine optimization which are recommended by search engines as part of good design. Some of the most popular white hat techniques are:

• Quality Content
• Use of Relevant Keywords
• Use Structural (Semantic) Mark Up and Separate Content from Presentation
• Proper use of Titles and Meta Data
• Keyword Research and Effective Keyword Use
• Quality Inbound Links

Know these SEO Tips in detail and more of these Search engine optimization tips.

View our List of Free Directories for submission and social bookmarking sites and SEO Process.

Breakthrough Article Marketing - Revealed - 3 Fresh Secrets to Improve Your Article Marketing

If you have been in the internet for quite sometime, you probably know that article marketing is dominating the World Wide Web. Millions of webmasters from all sides of the world are using this technique to either popularize their website or promote their products and services.

As more and more people are taking advantage of this impressive marketing method, the competition in getting the attention of online users has grown stiffer. As a marketer, you must device mechanisms on how you can constantly improve your article marketing strategies so your articles will stand out above the rest.

Here are the 3 fresh secrets to improve your article marketing:

1. Titles. The competition begins when online users search for your targeted keywords. When they search content using search engines, they will be presented with numerous articles that are related to the keywords they have keyed in. To give your articles an edge, you must give them titles that are keyword-rich. This will help them get better placement on search page results. However, it not enough that your titles are keyword-rich, they must also be appealing so online users will be enticed to read your articles. Consider your titles as baits that must attract online users at first glance. Let them know what is in store for them when they read your content.

2. Content. Once you have successfully grabbed the attention of online users through your titles, learn how to sustain that attention by making your articles content-rich. Provide the information that your readers are looking for so they will be glued on your article. Keep your content short, concise, and direct to the point by presenting the most important information upfront.

3. Resource box. This is the element that you would like to focus on if you would like to improve your conversion rate. Make it powerful and compelling so it can effectively move your readers to click on your website's URL.

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