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It goes without saying that learning how to create compelling content is a part of one’s success as an online publisher. Reading widely and deeply while consistently honing your writing skills helps a great deal in bettering your prose. Sometimes, it doesn’t hurt to read a few stylebooks/essays on writing by professional teachers or authors. One of these essays on writing is Paul McHenry Roberts’s How to Say Nothing in Five Hundred Words, a brilliantly humorous introduction on writing college compositions. I discovered this essay today and read though easily in one sitting, possibly because it was so well-written and entertaining. It’s a perfect example of the writing techniques listed within.

Most of the “rules” about writing for ezines and newsletters apply to writing posts for your blog, but there are some important differences. Keep these 10 tips in mind and you’ll be publishing great blog content that attracts prospects and clients in your niche market. “Keep in mind the journalist’s rule of 5 W’s in the first paragraph: who, what, why, when and where…. and … Did you remember to ask your readers a question at the end, or something to stimulate readers to comment?”

We just finished the 2nd edition of our most popular Special Report on using direct mail in B2B complex sales lead generation campaigns.  Here is the link to download it:  CLICK HERE This report, first published in November 2006, was downloaded nearly 3000 times the first 12 months of its release and forwarded to others countless times. 

1. A tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. 2. The episodes of a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help develop it. 3. The personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. 4. The personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there. 5. When the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject in hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say. 6. When the author describes the character of a personage in his tale, the conduct and conversation of that personage shall justify said description. 7. When a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven-dollar Friendship's Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a Negro minstrel at the end of it. 8. Crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader by either the author or the people in the tale. 9. The personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausably set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable. 10. The author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. 11. The characters in tale be so clearly defined that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given emergency.

Earlier this month, I announced the Top 10 Blogs for Writers. I recently asked each of these stellar bloggers to pick their best posts on the topic of writing from 2007. What follows is pure gold. This is the best, direct FROM the best.

You probably already know my own Internet strategy, so it might not surprise you that I recommended that he should instead invest his time in writing thorough articles that he published on a regular schedule. Given limited time, this means not spending the effort to post numerous short comments on ongoing blogosphere discussions.

Interesting discussion going on about whether PR agencies should blog over at Brian Solis' PR 2.0 Blog. Part of the post applies to all businesses: "First and foremost, not everyone needs to, or should blog. Some people just don't have anything interesting to say and that's OK. Not everyone needs to write a book, skydive, or sing karaoke either. Yes, so openness and transparency are "the new black." But don't take it at face value. Think about it first."

I'd chunk down and make a list of angles. Then just for good measure I'd chunk down even further. So I'd go from 'Testimonials', which is a broad topic, to a narrow topic like 'Reverse Testimonials'. And under 'Reverse Testimonials', I'd dig deep.

Writing a weblog today isn't the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It's almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.

Let's review some best practices for writing text, or pay-per-click ads.

Imagine going to your Doctor because you’re not feeling well. Before you’ve had a chance to describe your symptoms, the doctor writes out a prescription and says “take two of these three times and day, and call me in a week.” “But – I haven’t told you what’s wrong,” you say. “How do I know this will help me?”“Why wouldn’t it” says the doctor. “It worked for last two patients”