Want to Improve a Printed or Online Product?
You pick the piece, and I'll suggest 10 ways to beef it up!
Here's a fun and free way to get some fresh ideas for a tired printed or online product. You name it -- brochure, Web page, fact sheet, sales letter, whatever -- and pass it along to me between April 1 and June 15, 2009. Maybe the piece has been around a while. Or you have a hunch it's not doing the job. Or you want to add zest to that ordinary communication piece.
I'll spend 15 or 20 minutes with the piece you send me, and I'll send you back 5 - 10 ideas you can use to bring new life to that piece. I'm not going to redesign it or rewrite it, but I may offer you a few tips on design and layout ... content ... diction ... headlines or titles ... reader motivation ... online applications ... or ... who knows?
And yes, it's free. And no, it's not a come-on. I'm not going to try to sell you anything. I've planned and written thousands of communication products of every type, and I always learn from studying and analyzing products I haven't seen before. My e-mail: CoreWords Critique.
25 Great Resources for Communicators
Here's a compendium of 25 time-tested communication tools communication tools you can use to get your message across right now.
Winning Themes - The Ingredients of Great Promotional Copy
When it's time to persuade people to buy something, believe something or do something, your writing needs to pack a lot of power. A compelling theme starts it off. Here's what winning themes are all about.
Your Writing Projects: 10 Tips for Getting Started Fast
So you need to get something on paper. An article, a report, a letter, whatever. And you can't get started. Use any one of these 10 tips to get things moving.
Op-Eds: Bringing Yourself and Your Ideas to the Public
News releases and advertising aren't the only ways you can use the media to call attention to yourself, your organization or your cause. Opinion-editorials (or "op-eds") for short are reader-generated commentary, usually placed in a periodical's or Web site's opinion section. Learn what op-eds are all about, and how they can become part of your publciity arsenal.
Ghostwriting: Putting Words in Your Mouth (and on Paper)
Thinking about hiring a ghostwriter to help you with a writing project? (Yup - people do it all the time, for everything from books to news releases to speeches to sales letters.) This primer on ghostwriting will help you learn what freelance ghostwriters do and don't do - and how to make your ghostwriting relationship work.
So You Have to Give a Talk ...
Whether it's an in-house presentation or a formal speech to a business group, getting up in front of other people might give you the willies (that's slang for clammy hands and racing heartbeat). So You Have to Give a Talk ... is a great guide to the basics of speaking.
