In creating an online publication you should also think about security. Have you been taken through how the account has been protected? What protection has been put in place by the e-publishing software package provider which prevents individuals copy-pasting your words?

You’ll need to think about the selling plan as well to properly market your flash magazine. Has connective media integration been thought through? How is ad-handling placed in the scheme? Not all of these things are absolutely required for all of your publications, but you will certainly need to choose one which matches your business model. Advertising the interactive catalog will probably require search engine appropriate content.

When you create digital editions, you’ll be dealing with former editions. How accessible will this catalog be? If it’ll be widely accessible, you’ll likely want to host it with the vendor. So what plans have you got in mind to advertise your flash publication?

Some solutions need to be looked at in advance before any emergency. What is the level of tech support? Is it simple a matter of a page of FAQs? Also check any how-to guide they may feature. If a response time isn’t published you should ask questions. Try calling their emergency phone number to test it out. Tech support may be the last consideration but it needs to be a deciding factor in your choice.

Consider your options very carefully before picking out your magazine’s e-publishing package provider. Search Bing, Yahoo or Google etc. to hunt for the terms “create online publication” for some more useful ideas.

Because the non-intellectual masses have a lot to be desired in their sound and fury and really get into attack mode on their comments and having watched this and been called everything in the book, clearly as an author of some 7000 articles, I am not interested nor do I have the time to monitor the comments from the peanut gallery.

Believe me I am well aware of all sides of the issues I write upon and really am not interested in rehashing those. So often the commenters somehow believe that the are so smart and bring such new and undiscovered information to the table, yet all in all it is merely repetitive of what was on Television the night before.

On one online article submission site I did find it interesting the types of articles, which get the most feedback, as they are not what I might have expected. I have a skewed and rather dismal view of the average Internet user and their shallow interests. It is rather enlightening to see that topics with substance are getting more comments. Perhaps these too are rather an interesting new trend? Perhaps you too may have noticed this if you are an online article writer? Consider all this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Sure, this has happened to all of us, more than we would like to admit. However, don’t let it happen to you when you are the speaker. The key to keeping your audience from taking a mental exit is to involve them in your talk. Yes! Studies show that the more you involve your audience, the more they retain. Why? Because they are listening!

You can involve your audience in several ways, and I have listed 5 of my favorites below. Select those that will work well with your presentation and that feel genuine to you. If it feels uncomfortable, it will look uncomfortableso don’t use it.

1. Ask questions.
Questions will cause your audience members to try to think of an answer. They can’t help it – it is simply how our brains are wired. If the energy in the room starts to drop, ask a question and select a member of your audience to respond. Then, thank him or her for participating and move on to the next person. Don’t worry about loosing control of your audience. Sales guru Brian Tracy emphasizes, “He (she) who asks questions is in control.” I personally prefer questions like “How many of you . . .,” and then I ask for a show of hands. These closed-ended questions get your audience involved both mentally and physically.

2. Finish your sentence.
For example, if you said to your audience, “Lions and tigers and bears . . .” and did not finish the sentence, what do you think they would say? As long as they are familiar with the movie The Wizard of Oz, they would respond with “Oh my!” This is a fun way to get your audience to participate. If they know the answer, they will blurt it out. If they don’t, you answer it. Choose something that should be so obvious they will absolutely get it.

3. High-five.
This is one of my personal favorites, and if you have attended one of my talks you have experienced it firsthand. If you ever feel like the energy in the room is heavy, you can change it by using this technique. Simply ask a question (remember the power of asking questions). Ask, “Is this good stuff?” When your audience responds with “Yes,” say “Then, turn to the people on either side of you and give them a high-five and say ‘This is good stuff!’” Most people get a kick out of it. However, if you have an individual in your audience who does not want to participate, don’t worry about it. Some people simply just don’t want to have fun.

4. Do exercises.
I learned this trick from the famous millionaire T. Harv Ecker when I took his “Train the Trainer” course. He says, “Get your audience to do the work.” To accomplish this, ask them to break into groups of two or three (with people that they don’t know) and give them an exercise that is congruent with your presentation. Afterward, ask them to share openly with the rest of the group and thank them for doing so.

5. Give them candy.
Reward your audience for participating, and they will participate even more. Simply ask a question and when someone answers it, gently throw a small piece of candy to that person. I find that chocolate works best. You will find that it becomes a game and people will compete for the chocolate. I don’t use this throughout my entire speech, only for a few minutes in the middle of my talk.

There are many other ways and techniques to get your audience involved. What is important as a speaker is for you to come up with as many different ways as you can think of that are appropriate for your audience and for you as a speaker. Believe me, your audience will thank you.

Arvee Robinson is a Persuasive Speech Coach and President of Power Living Enterprises. She works with Service Professionals and Business Owners who want to attract more clients by communicating more clearly about what they do. She teaches them simple, proven systems for delivering persuasive business speeches, getting the most out of networking, and creating a 30-Second Magnetic Introduction.

First, you write the article that has been floating around in your head. It may be that the perpetual state of road construction in the central Mexican town in which you’ve expatriated has finally caused you to flip out, so you write an article. Or, perhaps you’ve written a book.

Second, to sell this article or book, you have to write what is known as a query letter. This is a sales pitch to an editor telling her why she should buy your article.

“I need to eat, so please buy this screed!”

Then, if she wants to look at it, she lets you know, so you send the article, or in the case of a book, the book proposal.

Where this gets dicey for someone living in Mexico is that it costs big to send a letter to the States. The cost for a 25- to 50-page book proposal is astronomical. I spent $25.00 USD to send one book proposal.

There is no use crying over this since this is the way it is done. It is the way it has always been done and probably is the way it will always be done.

Sending a query letter or book proposal to a prospective editor or publisher is very formal. You have to check the submission guidelines of each outfit to see what their requirements are. Though there should be, there is no uniform way of doing this. Each editor will have his own anal-retentive, contrived way of wanting you to send him your stuff. I find this the height of insanity, but who am I to judge?

This gets very, very ,very tricky if you are a writer in a foreign country. Supposedly, there are supposed to be things called International Reply Coupons, which are essentially postage vouchers. The purpose of these little cuties is that editors and publishers, bless their anal little hearts, want you to enclose a Self-Addressed, Stamped-Envelope. They want this so badly that they will threaten you with simply pitching your materials into the trash bin should you so stupidly forget to included this item.

This is not as bad a thing as one might want to imagine. I mean, these editors and publishers get thousands of submissions and would go bankrupt paying to reply to each one. I get that and, when I was in the States, never flinched in including the SASE with my editorial submissions.

What editors and publishers do not get at all is that in Mexico, where life itself functions along a different Quantum Dimensional existence, no one has ever heard of an International Reply Coupon! In Mexico, and I have come to suspect specifically in Central Mexico where I live, this is more true than anywhere else in the country (or world).

Here is an example: My wife loves to buy canned salmon at the local supermarket. It is the only place we know of where we can get it. That store has been carrying it for a couple of years. Well, one day they were out of stock. They were out of stock for so long that my wife finally asked, in the fluent Spanish at her command, when and if they would get some more in stock. She was told,

“Oh, Seora, we don’t carry canned salmon, and what’s more, we never have.”

You simply would not believe how common an occurrence this is in this part of Mexico. We hear this all the time. And, there is nothing you can do to convince the person with whom you are talking otherwise.

I talked to about a dozen postal employees who all told me that not only did they not have International Reply Coupons, but what’s more, they never have had such a thing. One lady went so far as to say nowhere in Mexico would you find such a thing.

I accept this now without so much of a twinge of wanting to scream like a banshee and run through the streets of Guanajuato pulling out my hair. What I cannot begin to possibly accept is that editors and publishers are so clueless about Mexico as to assume that Mexican postal employees would have heard of such things as International Reply Coupons.

What does make me want to scream like a banshee and pull out my hair is that in the day and age of the Internet, these recalcitrant editors and publishers for the most partand I mean the vast majoritywill not allow any writer, no matter where one lives, to send in work using anything other than snail mail.

I know of one publisher who said the reason publishers wouldn’t even let you send work by international courier, like DHL, is that they might try to deliver it when the publisher is not there, making it necessary for him to take the “attempted delivery” notice somewhere to pick it up

THEY DID NOT WANT TO GET IN THEIR SUV’S AND HAVE TO DRIVE TO PICK UP AN ATTEMPTED DELIVERY!

Not only do they demand you send your work by snail mail, but you somehow, someway, through a miraculous act of God, have to attach return postage on it or it gets trashed! So, no international courier and especially not as an e-mail attachment. God forbid!

Let’s say I was fortunate enough to send a manuscript by snail mail and could include an envelope with the proper return postage. The chances of it reaching the publisher from Mexico very closely approximates ZERO!

I have lost money like you would not believe sending requested manuscripts to publishers on speculation. This is a term which means, “we might buy it, or we might not”. They want you to spend a fortune sending them something from Mexico based on their whim.

Do you begin to see how writing for a living is very much a publisher-heavy proposition? Though, if it weren’t for writers, the publishers would not have a job. Yet they make demands on writers, especially those who live and work in a foreign country, that are all but impossible to keep!

How do you send something with sufficient return postage when the postal employees have never heard of International Reply Coupons?

Though logic demands using the Internet, those who sit on the throne of the publishing world simply do not get it.

Who ever said logic counts in the publishing world?

###

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: (Summer 2006)

Guanajuato, México (April 22, 2006) New Book offers survival tips in the Land of Frogs

Guanajuato, México – According to the 2000 Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, published by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Service, an estimated 300,000 Americans would expatriate to other countries each year between 2000 and 2005. Some estimates predict the number will continue to increase each year after 2005. Americans are leaving the country in droves, most of whom settle in Mexico. The authors of The Plain Truth about Living in Mexico have written a new book targeting a specific area of Mexico where Americans are moving as expatriates, study abroad students, or retirees. This new book is titled,

“GUANAJUATO, MXICO: Your Expat, Study Abroad, and Vacation Survival Manual in the Land of Frogs.”

Contact Information:
Doug and Cindi Bower
http://www.zyworld.com/theolog/PlainTruth/Home.htm

Knowing that writing internet articles is important for Search Engine Optimization and marketing is not good enough, your articles must be published, noticed and be able to generate hits for your website. If your only concern is getting one way links, then just getting your articles published in the internet is good enough. If are selling a service or want the reader to visit your website, then you need to work harder on the content.

In this article, I am going to cover the key elements in getting your articles accepted by major internet article publishers, how to write succesful articles and get them noticed.

Finding A Topic

When most writers write their articles, they do not do any research before writing. Doing research before writing your article is the most important part of the article writing process because it determines the food for your target audience. If your website is about internet marketing, your obvious customers will be internet advertisers, marketing professionals and so on… Even if you are a good web designer, you do not want to write an article on web design because you do not want to attract the wrong people to your website.

Do some keywords search in google, yahoo or msn and you could see that many people might have already wrote something on what you had in mind. You could use those materials and ideas for your articles but becareful of plagarism. You could also try visiting forums to see what other people are talking about and looking for. A good idea for the topic of your article is to identify a problem, and write an article that resolves the problem.

Choosing An Appropriate Article Title

Your article title should hopefully contain the keywords your want for your article. Using the same internet marketing example as above, your article should probably contain the keywords Internet Marketing. If you can, make your title grab the reader’s attention. The best thing to do when trying to come up with an article title is to write the benefits that your reader will receive by reading your article. An example of a good title is “How to market your website” rather than “Internet Marketing”. Write down a few variations of the title and ask other people’s opinion. You will be surprised by their reply.

Writing Good Content

Most of the articles out there are nothing more than sale pitches or materials that do not contain any valuable information. Such articles are basically useless to the reader. As mentioned before, if what you want is only to get back links, you need worry too much about your content. However, with your reputation at stake, you might want to provide good information in the article and improve your credibility in the internet. What do we mean by good content? It simply means that your article must be helpful to the reader and in most cases, unique.
Unique content is hard to find. If your article is unique, many people will link to it and many publishers will want it. Writing unique articles is the key to generating great number of back links to your website.

Many people like to use articles as a way to promote their affliate programs. It is undeniable that this is the best way to do it. However, the bad news is that most publishers today do not accept affliate links. Some even do not accept html tags in the body of the article. It is therefore advisable not to include any html tags in the body of your article if you decide to mass publish it.

Publishing Your Aticle

If you want to make some cash with your internet article, then at the end of it in your bio, provide a link back to the page of the service or product that you are promoting and put your affliate link in that page. Use appropriate term in the link in your bio. For example, a www link like www.sitecritic.net/web_articles.php is not good enough. www.sitecritic.net/web_articles.php is a web page about internet articles, so the text link should be internet articles instead.

As mentioned previously, many publishers nowsadays do not allow links in the body, so many writers have no choice but to stuff links in the bio. This to me is a big mistake because experienced publishers do not want too many out going links from their website and if they see that you have 5 out going links in just one article, do you think they will want to host your article? I too host a few article websites. It is sad that I could not publish many good articles because there were too many links in the bio section.

There are many softwares or internet services that allow you to mass publish your articles in many article directories or websites which could save you alot of time and manual work. Use it. One advice though, more back links does not mean better ranking or higher click throughs. An article published in 1000 article directories might not be as effective as an article published in just one well recognized website.

Bernard Peh is a great passioner of web technologies and one of the co-founders of Sitecritic.net Internet Articles. He works with experienced web designers and developers for more than 5 years, developing and designing commercial and non-commercial websites. During his free time, he does website reviews, freelance SEO and PHP work.

My mom started keeping a journal in her eighties. After two years of journaling she announced she was done. As she handed me her journal, giving it to me, she asked me to read a few pages to her. I smiled to myself as I read what she had written. She had journaled what she wore that day, what she ate and what she won at bingo. That was so much like my mom. She had journaled what was important to her.

Your journal is the place where you express and record what is important to you. Many people have told me about their journals. Here are a few ideas of what was important to them to journal:

One man uses journaling to control his physical pain.
A woman who wants to be a comedian writes a joke a day.
A friend tracks every penny he spends.
A pregnant mom wrote to her baby everyday starting in her womb.

I have heard from abused women who journaled their way out of the abuse.
Some write letters, poetry, or on a calendar.
Others keep a prayer, dream, purpose or intention journal.

Many track and record what happened that day.

I asked subscribers to my column, About Journaling, if they would share what journaling has meant to them. Here is what they said:

“Greetings Doreene, Thank you for inviting me to share my journaling experience. First of all, journaling to me has been one of those things I admire about other people who seem to naturally have a pension for doing it. I felt out of sync with the whole process, I’ve stared many journals and after just a few days of struggling about what to write about, the entries would slowly fall off, until nothing. I think I had thrown the towel in the ring, so to speak, I had given up; until at an intensive workshop back in December 2005 I was given the directive to each night, write down five (5) successes from my day. I immediately knew I could do this. I am proud to report I have consistently written in my journal each night since the second week in December.

The mere fact that I’m focusing daily on, “what are my successes,” has subtlety changed my perspective. I am finding myself getting very comfortable about my progress, big and small, it makes no difference- I like the feeling- and my experiences look so much brighter to me in the moment as they are happening. I look to see success in everything and from everyone, it’s becoming contagious. Thanks for this opportunity! Reflective” M.

“I did not keep a journal until I was over around thirty years old. I started keeping a journal because I went back to school, one of the classes I took was a writing class and the instructor required we keep a hand written journal. I started the journal and found that it helped my creativity, I did not encounter writers’ block as much while I keep a journal. Since beginning my journal I have found that, both my knowledge of self has increased and my writing has changed. Most of the time I use my pen and paper journal for ideas, rather than anything else, when I write anything else I use a computer and word processor program. In addition, I have now expanded my journaling to a writing blog.” N.F.D.

“I received The 5 Year Journal as a Xmas present. I start each day’s entries with Aura-Soma – Discovery Through Colour Tarot cards pulled that day and any significant messages and/or events from the day. The format helps me to simplify and get to the essence of the day. Thank you for this book.” M.

“I have just started a computerized journal. I found that writing everything down not only took more time, but it got to be a hassle in trying to keep all the different journals organized. About 2 weeks ago, i found a free download for a computerized diary. It’s pretty decent…enough so, that I’ve decided to switch everything over to that. It allows you to record multiple journals so i have one for daily thoughts (i keep my gratitude, moods, daily thoughts in this one)…i have one that i keep copies of my blogs in….i have one that i record my tarot readings in…i also have one for meditation as far as insight i gained at that moment.” C.

“I have journaled for so many years, because I love to write. In the beginning, I kept a prayer journal, and then I could go back and document how my prayers had been answered. Then our family went through some very painful times with our children as they grew up. By then I was filling page after page with our happenings, our joys and triumphs and lots of pages of pain. Sometimes it was like having the emotional pain flow out of me, through my pen, and onto my paper, giving me needed relief and an outlet. This was good for my husband too, as he was experiencing similar pain to mine. If I had expressed all this grief and sadness and disappointment to him, it may have helped me, but it would have made him carry my burden as well as his own. The journals were perfect outlets for me. Eventually, things leveled off somewhat, but I kept journaling, and they sort of became personal and family archive material, some of bad, most of it good.

When I retired, my co-workers gave be a beautiful, leather bound 5 year journal. I loved it! Then a loved one in my family had very hard times again, and again we found ourselves in emotional turmoil. That journal contained my every thought and feeling for about 4 years. Then one day while visiting my daughter out west, I put some books on top of the car in order to free up my hands to get the car keys from my pocketbook, and you guessed it! We drove merrily away, until I remembered the books half way to our destination. Horror! We scurried back to my daughter’s neighborhood, canvassed every home, looked in every ditch and behind every bush on the highway, including a long patch of freeway (on foot) and never, never did find that journal. Someone must have picked it up and had an interesting read. I thoroughly expect to read a book someday or watch a movie on TV reminiscent of “Portia Faces Life,” and know beyond a doubt I am hearing some of that good/bad stuff from my journal. I am sure to an outsider reading it, it must have been very much like a soap opera and they must have thought the writer was a drama queen, because remember, you don’t have to hold back when you are just writing for yourself. Your can let yourself have a real catharsis, in writing.

The worse part of the loss was the sense of having 4 years of my life snatched away. Did I mention I have a very poor memory? Eventually I came to the knowledge that a lot of what I had written was something I would rather forget. Life had become more manageable. Our lives had been re-established with lots more blessings than problems. So, who needs to keep bad memories? Not me. I actually felt, finally, that it was much healthier to let it all go.

The other realization was that I definitely wanted another 5 year journal. It is so enjoyable to write the day’s entry and see what we did one, two, three years hence. I went to the Internet, entering “5 Year Journal” in my search engine, and there you were! The rest is history. I take good care of my journal I ordered from you and I never, never take it on trips. I enter data in another notebook, and transfer it when we return home. For the most part, this is a happy journal, and I have enjoyed it. Thank you for designing it, making it available at an affordable price, and even for giving encouragement and ideas for the journaling process.” S.M.

“Hi Doreene, I have never considered myself a really strong person, until I reread my journal. Six years ago, our 35yr old son had been divorced a year and was homeless “somewhere” in Vegas. I journaled (in Doreene’s journal) about who I contacted and the progress made, if any. Because we were able to find our son and get help, he has recovered and moved close to his family.

He graduated from Nevada Community College with honors and is tutoring others (on the computer) that have been affected by mental illness . I have relived the tears ,the heartache and despair I felt for our son who was diagnosed with mental illness. The pain of it all, the stigma! Now, I am an advocate for mental illness and share what I have learned. I have Doreene’s Journal and just discovered something about myself. I am strong! I am starting a new journal, “What a vibrant, ambitious 40 year old feels like……. inside the body of an 80 year old!” Thanks, Doreene.” D.

“Doreene, This is my third year using my journal (The 5 Year Journal.) I could not imagine ending my day any other way at this point. My journal has helped me through the best of times and worst of times. I was able to journal through my pregnancy, loss of that pregnancy, and a successful subsequent pregnancy. I find it incredibly valuable to be able to reread where I was at the same calendar time period years before. I can see how far I have grown as a mother, wife, and person when I read my own words and feelings. Thank you for such a wonderful tool for capturing this information.” L.L.

Copyright 2006 OMDC, LLC

Doreene Clement, a cancer victor and author of The 5 Year Journal, is currently writing a new book and movie, Blessed, about her life and her cancer experience. For more information http://www.the5yearjournal.com 480.423.8095

The Hero’s Journey:

• Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

• Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

• Interpreted metaphorically, laterally and symbolically, allows an infinite number of varied stories to be created.

The Hero’s Journey is also a study of repeating patterns in successful stories and screenplays. It is compelling that screenwriters have a higher probability of producing quality work when they mirror the recurring patterns found in successful screenplays.

Consider this:

• Titanic (1997) grossed over $600,000,000 – uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• Star Wars (1977) grossed over $460,000,000 – uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• Shrek 2 (2004) grossed over $436,000,000 – uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• ET (1982) grossed over $434,000,000 – uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• Spiderman (2002) grossed over $432,000,000 – uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• Out of Africa (1985), Terms of Endearment (1983), Dances with Wolves (1990), Gladiator (2000) – All Academy Award Winners Best Film are based on the Hero’s Journey.

• Anti-hero stories (Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990) etc) are all based on the Hero’s Journey.

• Heroine’s Journey stories (Million Dollar Baby (2004), Out of Africa (1980) etc) are all based on the Hero’s Journey.

Good Screenplay or Story Ideas

The essence of the good story is the Apotheosis – the illumination or insight that the hero undergoes.

The apotheosis follows the atonement with the father – where the hero confronts that which limits his apotheosis.

Once you know what the apotheosis is and what blocks the hero attaining it, you can (relatively) easily build up to and beyond that point.

The above makes-up the A-story. Then you need a B-story.

Let’s use one of the great films of our time as an example: Raging Bull (1980).

The A-story in this is movie is Jake La Motta’s relationship with Vickie (his wife) and Joey (his brother). The B-story is Jake’s desire to win the Title.

The B-story is completed with the attainment of the Title (through the core processes of Meeting with the Goddess and Woman as Temptress; Seizing the Sword and Rebirth through Death).

The A-story culminates with the Atonement with the Father, where Jake beats up Joey and the Apotheosis, where Jake finds out that Joey et al have all been sleeping with Vickie…

If you deconstruct any movie, you can find the above…but it isn’t always easy because the great screenwriters hide their plot movements very well…

With a rough idea of the above, you can begin your step-outline and treatment.

Learn more…

The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and FREE 17 stage sample and other story structure templates can be found at http://managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at http://managing-creativity.com/

Script

In my experience working with presenters in Fortune 100 companies, I have found that most speakers are putting the entire speech on slides and reading it to audiences. One look at the faces in the audiences tells me that they are reading ahead of the presenter, or simply tuning out.

Writing the script is not a step anyone should skip. Create your slides after you write your script, not instead of writing your script. A script can be complete sentences or detailed talking points.

Begin by determining the objective of your presentation. Are you there to persuade the audience to buy your product, to inform them of a new policy, or to introduce your company? If you don’t have a clear objective, your presentation will not be effective.

Next, outline your key points. Studies show that audiences remember only 3% of presentations. Increase your odds of audience retention by eliminating unnecessary detail. For example, if your objective is to introduce your company, stick with the most important points that you want your audience to remember, such as:

• What you make/sell
• Why they should want to work with you
• How to contact you

Avoid distracting details such as:

• Number of employees
• Detailed price lists
• Detailed organizational charts
• Financial statements

Finally, flesh out your key points into complete thoughts or sentences, with transitions between points. Later, these transitions will become your cues to change slides.

It’s best to use a word-processing program such as Microsoft Word to write your script. PowerPoint can contain your script in the speaker’s notes section, but you should cut and paste your script into PowerPoint after it is written.

After you have written your script, then it’s time to build the slides.

Slides

Remember Show and Tell? I’ll bet you never held up a written report for Show and Tell. Think of your script as the “tell” and your slides as the “show”. Your slides are visual aids that support and reinforce what you are saying. They are the backup band, not the lead singer. To paraphrase, a slide is worth a thousand words, it shouldn’t be a thousand words.

And while we’re on the subject of visual aids, here’s a radical idea – do part of your presentation without any slides! PowerPoint has a feature that will go to black screen on demand (or you can simply turn off your projector for a moment). This will provide a break from the screen for the audience, and redirect the attention to you.

During this slide-free time, you can either go without a visual or use a prop. I once presented a new health care savings account program to a large group of employees. The big advantage of this account was that the employee could pay for purchases with a debit card. Instead of putting a picture of the debit card on a slide, I went to black screen, and moved through the audience holding up one of the debit cards. It was a very effective visual. I then resumed the presentation with slides.

Number of Slides

What’s worse than 10 bad slides? 50 bad slides! Some people advocate strict formulas for the number of slides to use, such as one slide for every three minutes of your presentation. Thus, if you are given one hour, you should show 20 slides. I don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all solution.

When deciding on the final number of slides to present, consider:

• Your objective – remember the 3% rule for detail
• Your allotted time – plan your presentation to move at a comfortable pace for your audience and you
• The attention span of your audience – think about how you would respond if you were in the audience

There is only one instance where it is a good idea to bring dozens of slides. If you are leading an interactive discussion allowing the audience to ask questions, you should have backup slides available with detail that will address the topics that arise. Then you can show the relevant slide when appropriate. Make sure you can quickly access each slide on demand.

Handouts

Are handouts a good idea? Some things, like an agenda, should definitely be handed out. An agenda makes a better handout than a slide because the audience can refer to it during the meeting.

It’s never a good idea to hand out copies of your presentation before you present. Your audience will be reading the material instead of listening to you. If your intent is to give them the presentation for note-taking, give them blank paper instead.

Always hand out paper copies of your presentation with your speaker’s notes, reference information such as price lists, and backup slides to the audience as they leave. Or you could email all of this after the meeting, post it on a web page, or give audience members your presentation on a flash drive (engineers and techies love this, and this guarantees that they will open your presentation at least once).

Follow these tips and knock ‘em dead at your next presentation.

Leslie Whinery is a freelance business writer with over 15 years experience in Fortune 100 companies. She has written countless communication plans, newsletters, web pages, PowerPoint presentations, articles, technical manuals, training manuals, on-line help screens, and a few fortune cookies. Visit her web site at http://www.MyWritingService.com

Step One

Define what you want to write about. What are you passionate about? What is it that you are an expert? Every one has interests and knowledge about something. There are eager people wanting to know what you know best. That is where you begin your article writing.

Step Two

Write a few words preferably to 3 to 7, to describe it. That is your article title.

Step Three

Elaborate your title in a few sentences to tell what you want to tell in the article. That is your articles introductory paragraph.

Step Four

Write down 3 to 4 points on some important aspects of the subject you want to write about. Your article outline is ready.

Step Five

Now go back to each of the outline points that you have written and write 3 to 4 sentence elaborating it.

Your article body is now ready. You are almost there.

Step Six

Finally we come to the concluding paragraph. This is very easy. Just summarize what you have said above in a few short sentences to drive home the point you are trying to make in the article. In fact you can re write the opening paragraph to summarize what you have told.

Do you now see how easy it is to write an article? This article just took me 20 minutes. So let’s have your first article started…

R.G. Srinivasan is a Managerial professional, Writer and Author. You can view his home-business resources blog at http://www.home-businessresources.blogspot.com for online marketing tips, resources,links and business opportunities.

Out of the three questions I asked, I answered no to two of them, which brings me to the whole point of why I’m writing this article. I want to give people four simple and general steps to help begin creating comics that are appealing, and then hopefully successful. We must know that in order for a comic book to become successful, it first has to be appealing to many readers. Let’s now go into the steps.

Step 1

If anyone wants to create comics, his or her motives must be right. Let me tell you why I say this. Creating comics is easy. But, if you want to create a successful comic book, especially if you don’t have any experience in creating comics, it would be very hard. Now, for the people without any background or experience and want to begin creating comics, it is a must for your motives to be right. If you think it is a quick way to make money or that people would automatically like what you produced just because you like it and grandma likes it, it would probably be best you stop, and not waste your time.

Step 2

This is a no-brainer. Get a good comic book idea. For those who can’t think of a decent idea simply think of what you like to do, in terms of sports, (basketball, football, soccer, tennis, karate, or boxing) academics, music, or hobbies. You can think of what you like to watch like: action, comedy, romance, and adventures. You can even think of your values as in: God, family, friends, and so on. If none of these works, try to think about what you think comics are lacking. And maybe what you’ve heard your friends or comic book fans talk about that they would like to see or won’t like to see in comics. Then all you have to do is meet that audience need. Believe me, there are a lot of fresh ideas out there. Once you have a feasible idea, you are ready to move on to step 3.

Step 3

This is where some creators mess up in creating comics. They only think of what they like. See, your comic book is not for you, so you have to think of what you like and make sure there are many others who share those preferences. This is done through research. I know, many people cringe at the sound of that word, but it is a must if you want to create a comic book that appeals to people. Appealing to people is just catering to their needs. This is what Stan Lee did with the creation of Spiderman, Fantastic four and others. When you do your research, you find out whether there is a market for people looking for what you have to offer in your comics. Once you are sure that there are people who are interested in what you have to offer, you have a guaranteed audience and could go forth in creating your comic. Do your research!

Step 4

Develop a great storyline to your theme. Don’t ever depend on the art work alone to keep people glued to your comic book. The art work can attract people but does not get people asking for more.

If you follow these first four steps, you would see whether creating comics is for you or not. If you are successful in these four steps, you are truly on your way to creating an appealing comic book.

I’ve always considered comic books a very interesting and intelligent way of storytelling. However, lately I’ve been seeing more creators trying to use explicit art to create an audience. This has caused me to research what has made some comic books and characters popular, and I would like to share this info on creating appealing comics with you. Make sure you visit comic-book-and-strip-service.com to learn more about creating appealing comics.