Affiliate Referral Sources » Writing

Making a Better Impression With Proper English

Jim Hutchinson — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:28:17 +0000

Your language skills can make a large impact on your visitors and potential customers. A well-written presentation that uses improper spelling, punctuation or grammar shows how you communicate with others. This is one of the aspects I look for when deciding to make a purchase online or offline.

This article will expose some of the most common mistakes that I have seen. Note that I am not an English or grammar professor. These are things that I have learned along the way through life.

GRAMMAR

There : a location
They’re : they are
Their : belonging to someone

Cats : plural -- more than one cat
Cat’s : belonging to a cat
CDs : more than one compact disk
CD’s : belonging to a single disk

Its : belonging to something
It’s : it is

PUNCTUATION

Period : end of a sentence
Comma : pause in the sentence; not to be used after the word “and”, which joins thoughts
Semi-colon : Two related thoughts with the second sentence expanding on the first.
Colon : What follows is usually a list of related items
Ellipsis: a continuation of the same thought, similar to a semi-colon

Run-on Sentence : sometimes the thoughts flow so fast that the writer does not check for errors this should be three sentences but is written one when you see one of these it is tough to follow

Correct Sentence: Sometimes the thoughts flow so fast that the writer does not check for errors. This should be three sentences, but is written one. When you see one of these it is tough to follow.

CAPS : USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS IS LIKE SHOUTING. NOBODY I KNOW OF WANTS TO BE YELLED AT. USING ALL CAPS IS ALSO HARDER TO READ THAN NORMAL, MIXED CASE TYPE.

FEEDBACK

What other examples, or corrections to the above do you know of?

Jim Hutchinson

Using News Alerts For Writing Articles

Jim Hutchinson — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:58:45 +0000

Blog articles should be unique to capture the interest of your readers. They do not want to see duplicate content and neither do the search engines, especially Google. When you are short of ideas for your article, there are some research tools you can use to choose a topic, or fill in the content.

The first service you should be using is News Alerts. When setting up alerts for your site, enter the primary keywords used for your website or blog. When press releases or other blog articles are published, Google Alerts sends them to you in email. When you get those alerts, scan through them for items of interest, visit the sites and read the articles. There may be information you can use to compile your own article.

News Alerts can also be used to see what topics are being talked about most at the time. After reading various articles on the topic, chances are you will form your own opinion. Use those new ideas to write your articles. If you quote someone, be sure to also display and link to the information source in the article. That is usually done at the bottom.

Two news alerts that work very well for these purposes are Google Alerts and Yahoo! News Alerts Register for both of them to get the most current information. Both sites allow you to search the previous news alerts, allowing you to narrow the information you are looking for. Google has a separate site called Google News where you can search recent releases.

When the alerts come in, I use email filters to put those news alerts into their own folder. That wya they can be easily categorized, scanned, searched and archived. While you will want to use the alerts quickly for the popular topics to gain exposure, some can also be used later once the flurry of other articles and media attention have calmed. That will bring more attention to your site by revisiting the topics.

If that looks like too much work or time to compile your articles, try using a program to search for you. The one I like best is Instant Article Wizard. It allows me to search various sources that only include the phrase I enter into the search.

What services to you use to research your articles?

Talking Down A Suicidal Blogger

How Not To Get Sued For Blogging

Jim Hutchinson — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:24:50 +0000

Lawsuits against bloggers for libel continue to rise. Having the freedom to express our opinions is what makes blogging so popular. What happens though when that freedom of speech is used in a negative manner against another person?

Retaliation from the subjects (victims) is becoming more popular. An article by ABC News states, “there have been 159 civil and criminal court actions involving bloggers”. The continue with, “Seven cases have resulted in verdicts against bloggers, with cumulative penalties totaling $18.5 million.” Those are just the ones that went to trial.

If you plan to report derogatory facts about someone, you have to be careful what you say. Imagine yourself on the other end of that report. How would you feel? How would you handle having your personal life thrown out into the public?

If you run a business, you could probably add a few more charges onto that, such as defamation of character resulting in loss of business. Before you follow suit of the tabloids, make sure you can back up your claims. You will also want to have a very good lawyer and lots of money to carry you through the legal process when your urge to unveil the secrets of others comes back at you.

Keep your articles real, informative, fun and even controversial. Just be careful when you start using real names as the target of your reports. If you feel a burning desire to write about an issue and are concerned that you could get sued, change the names in your story. Quote the source(s) of your information, where applicable.

If the topic is very personal, something that you would not want the world to know about in your own life, choose a different topic. That is of course, unless you too want to make headline news for being the next blogger to defend yourself in court. In that case, only you can decide if your 2 minute news report was worth it.