News Capturing Ideas
by Melody
Looking for more ways to get picked up by the media? Try these:
- Send in editorials to your local newspapers
- Don’t forget about TV and Radio stations. They’re news seekers too.
- Scan news sites like Yahoo, MSN and Google News to find ideas to write about
- Post your opinions on your site & other people’s sites that may be talking about the same topic
- If your product or service is related to a recently published story, write up a press release and submit it
- Don’t be shy! Opinions and controversy feed the media
10 Tips For Avoiding Writers Block
by Melody
If you have days where you can’t think of a single thing to write about, these tips can help:
1. Some days are more creative than others. Always keep a notebook with you to jot ideas as they come to you
2. If a notebook isn’t handy, try using a mini recorder. They’re inexpensive and small enough to fit in your pocket or purse.
3. Write a review of a product or service you’ve recently used that would benefit your readers
4. Encourage your readers to submit questions so you can pull them from the “mail bag”
5. Post some feedback from a client and expand on the topic
6. Review previously written “tips” articles and expand on the individual tips
7. Create a “top” list. For example, “Top 10 Reasons to Outsource”
8. Read a newspaper, online news site or some articles in your industry for ideas
9. Review transcripts or recordings of interviews or seminars you’ve given in the past. Expand on the topics discussed.
10. Call a friend or family member. Simple conversation can sometimes get the creative juices flowing.
Why You Shouldn’t Use MS Word With Blogs
by Melody
Most people use word processing programs such as Word or WordPerfect to create documents. These programs work great for ebooks, print items, attachments, etc. However, they often wreak havoc with blogs.
Blogs, such as WordPress and Blogger, have a style sheet (CSS) which controls the text, among other things. When you write your post or article in Word and then copy and paste it directly into your blog there is often a code conflict or extra coding from Word is left behind. When this happens, you may see a multitude of problems.
A few of the most common are:
Font Style and Size Problems: Font styles and sizes may be different. You may see multiple fonts within a single post or different fonts for different posts. It’s important to use a single type of font throughout the entire blog so that it looks more unified and professional.
Spacing Problems: When paragraphs are not uniformly spaced throughout your blog, it can be difficult for your visitors to read your articles. If they don’t read, you will may lose sales. Often times, paragraph divisions are missing or some have double spaces between sentences where others are single-spaced.
Punctuation Problems: Quotes, apostrophes, and ampersands may appear as strange symbols. Have you seen a post with a diamond and a question mark instead of an apostrophe? The cause is often a code conflict with Word or another word processor.
RSS Feed Problems: When quotes, punctuation, and text don’t appear correctly, your RSS feed may be affected. In some cases, the feed can become invalid and is relatively useless to you.
This problem isn’t limited to only blogs. Many article and press release directories, online forms, web page editors, autoresponder programs, etc have the same type of conflicts. It’s important to eliminate as many conflicts as possible to ensure you maintain a professional online appearance.
So how do you use your favorite word processor to add articles and posts to your blog? Simply write your article in the program of your choice and save it as usual. Then copy and paste the article into Notepad and save as a .txt document. Notepad will strip away the formatting code that Word and other word processors add.
Be sure to read over the article once more after you put it in Notepad to remove any strange symbols left behind. Also, using the ‘Format’ option at the top of Notepad, make sure ‘Wrap Text’ is UNCHECKED. This will allow your paragraphs to naturally wrap to the default settings of the blog or CMS.
When you are ready to add your article to your blog, copy and paste directly from Notepad. Once the text is pasted into your blog, you can add formatting such as bulleted lists, underlining or bolding text, etc. This should be done using the text editor included with the blogging or content management system you are using. Yes, this does add an extra step to the process but in the end, you’ll have a much more professional looking blog.
Note: I’ve worked with some blogs that have a paste from word plugin or option available. With some of them, the tool worked great but with others, there were still issues. This is why I didn’t recommend using it.
Press Release Format Guidelines
by Melody
Here is an outline of what a press release should look like. It can be short or long depending on your needs but following this general outline will ensure that the media has all the pertinent information at their fingertips.
Contact Information (for the press) goes here
Contact Name
Phone Number
URL (if appropriate)
Email address
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: (or the earliest date the news should be released)
Headline
Be creative and keep it to one sentence (about 60 characters). Capitalize the first letter of all words but do not use ALL CAPS. Avoid exclamation marks (“!”) and other unnecessary punctuation.
Paragraph 1
City, State, Month, Day, Year – Begin with a strong introductory paragraph that grab’s the reader’s attention and contains the information most relevant to your message such as the five W’s - who, what, when, where, and why. This paragraph should summarize the press release and include a hook to get your audience interested in reading more.
Paragraph 2 thru 4/5
These paragraphs should contain more details about your news. They make up the bulk of the release. They can include quotes from you, clients, or experts in the subject that you are discussing.
Final Paragraph
This paragraph should restate what you release is about and summarizes the key points.
End with ### to signal that it’s the end of your release
Additional Tips
• Write in 3rd person… not I/we but They/Them.
• Remember, you are writing a press release to grab the attention of the media. Make sure you stick to facts and clear information but make it appealing.
• Try to keep the press release to fewer than 400 words total. Straight and to the point works best. However, there are times when a longer release may be needed so use your judgement.
• Provide complete information on how to contact you. Include mail address, telephone, fax, e-mail and web site (especially for online business). If using a website make sure to include the http:// in front of it for search engine recognition.
• Proof it over and over. Write it, put it down, and come back to it. You’ll be amazed what you discover.
• Use a minimum of one-inch margins on each side of the page, with the body of the text of your release centered on the page.
• Double-space your press release.
• Do not use abbreviations or acronyms when you first refer to someone or something. Instead, spell out the full name – Virtual Assistant - and then put VA after it in brackets. The next time you refer to it you can say VA.
• When you use someone’s name say: “Melody Spier” the first time and then “Mrs. Spier” or “Spier” in further references.
• Use the names of both the city and the state the first time you refer to a location.
• When you mention a particular day, use the date and year.
A final thought: If you can cut the bottom half of the press release off and still provide your readers with sufficient information, then you have written an effective release.
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