Essay Online

OVERVIEW

For small companies, creating their product’s User Documentation in-house, provides benefits to the company, to (idle) staff, and to the product. This article describes the benefits and some downsides of producing User Documents in-house.

THREE OPTIONS

If you have no in-house writing staff you have three options:

1. No User Document for the product. This is NOT a valid option. Every product needs User Documentation. It completes your product package, and enhances the User’s experience with your product. Here are two examples of non-existent User Documentation:

* Tomatoes. Most people don’t know that before use, tomatoes should not be refrigerated. Refrigerating tomatoes before use will reduce their flavor and nutrition value.

* A Manual Can Opener. This can opener clamps on the can, thus the user does not have to squeeze the handles while operating the can opener. It came with no User Documentation, as “everyone could probably figure out how to use it.” This is wrong. After a few uses, the blades become slightly dulled, and the handles are very difficult to clamp and lock.

The simple tip of turning the knob while squeezing the handles makes the can opener easy to use. That tip could form the basis of a User Manual for the product. The manual should include instructions for care of the can opener. The absurd situation is that this clamp feature was the unique aspect of the product; but the feature becomes unusable because of no User Document.

How have you felt about products that came without User Documentation? Were you confused about the product and getting the most from it? User Documentation adds to the value of the product. Let’s look at how we can get it created.

2. Use an outside writing service or consultant. Technical writers may be an excellent choice to create your User Documentation. However, there may be downsides to using them.

* When documentation changes have to be made, the company has to re-hire the writer. If the writer were unavailable, then you have to wait or search for a new writer. When the new writer gets hired, a new orientation to the company and the project would have to start. Delays, delays, delays.

* An even more horrible thought is that the outside writer used some fancy piece of software to create the User Document, and you do not own that software. Thus you could not make any changes until you bought and learned that software, or hired an outside writer who uses the same software. (Most technical writers are enamored with a particular piece of esoteric writing software.)

Using the outside writer will force you to batch your documentation changes, making the literature out of date. (How many times have you seen product documentation that does not match the product? This happens because the company was waiting for the next major upgrade to update the User Documentation.)

3. Using idle employees in your company to create the User Documentation. The remainder of this article will focus on this option.

STAFFING BENEFITS

In most organizations, there is some staff down-time. By assigning these staff to create User Documents you benefit from effective use of this down-time, and the employees benefit from experience in a new field.

These staffing benefits include:

* Use staff who may be idle between projects

* Your staff know the company’s culture and their fellow staff

* Your staff use existing company-wide writing tools (your word processor)

* No time needed to get oriented with the physical aspects of the job

* You have created a new resource within company

BENEFITS TO YOUR USER DOCUMENTS

If you have in-house writers (even if they are not formally trained as “technical writers”) you can just say “Sue, could you or Tom update the document where the sign-in window is presented.” Much faster and more flexible then having to go to an outside source. Sue and Tom have ownership of the document, and would work to improve it. They would use software resources available in your organization.

The benefits of in-house writers to your User Documents include:

* You can make corrections as you find the errors.

* You are able to update your User Document when you update your product.

* Better control of timing and resources

* No fear in dealing with the User Document in electronic form. From your word processor or add-ins, you can publish your User Document as a portable data format (.pdf) file, or as HTML for display on the Internet.

DOWNSIDES OF IN-HOUSE WRITING

The primary downsides of in-house User Document creation are the attitude and emotions of your newly-appointed writer. These include:

* Fear (”I don’t know how to write”)

* Anger (”Why me? This is unfair”)

* Uncertainty (”I don’t know what to write”)

* Isolation (”I’ve been cast into this writing thing”)

You can reduce these negative emotions if you encourage and support your New Writer.

SUPPORT YOUR NEW WRITERS

It is unfair to assign a non-writer to create a User Document without supporting him/her. You have to support your writer with:

* Training;

* Access to the development and marketing teams for product information;

* Use of the development team to evaluate their writing (small chunks);

* Access to the product, industry literature, and marketing materials;

* Style manual;

* Editor — your writing expert;

* Time to do a good job.

Other articles in this series (see the links in the “Resources” or “About the Author” section of this article) present more information about supporting your New Writer.

EVALUATING YOUR OWN WORK

By Derek Rydall

Founder, ScriptwriterCentral.com

“Words strain,

Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,

Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,

Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,

Will not stay still.”

– T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

WRITING IS REWRITING

As a writer, you may use other script consultants to critique your material, but inevitably you’ll need to master the ability to analyze your own work. This can be a difficult task, somewhat akin to trying to look at your own face (without a mirror). If you are going to write at a level that sells, however, you will need to rewrite.

And rewrite.

And rewrite…

But do not despair, you’re in good company. Many screenwriters struggle over evaluating their own work. I still have bloodstains on my office walls where I pounded my head as I rewrote one script sixteen times before putting it in the market. I once spent so long looking at a single word that it lost its meaning and was reduced to its original, primordial symbolism. Talk about a head-trip! And it’s not just screenwriters that suffer with this. The French poet, Paul Verlaine, once said that a poet never finishes a poem, he abandons it. Marcel Proust continued to correct proofs for Remembrance of Things Past on his deathbed. Henry James rewrote some of his novels long after they were published. And Oscar Wilde once proclaimed that he spent all morning adding a comma and all afternoon deleting it. Boy, do I know that one!

So how do you analyze your own work without becoming an alcoholic or a guest at the Mad Hatter’s tea party? First, you have to accept the fact that you will never have a completely objective perspective. Second, you have to learn when to just grit your teeth and conclude that the work is finished — even if you have the uneasy feeling that more can be done. Honestly, I still feel that way about almost everything I’ve written. It goes with the territory.

There are certain things you can do, however, to gain some perspective:

ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW (LESS) FONDER

Writing is a love-hate relationship. We start out hating everything we’re writing, and end up blinded by love for every word we’ve put on paper (or the other way around). In order to gain objectivity, we must get distance. Putting your work away for a while &ndash sometimes weeks or months &ndash can allow you to come back not so enamored by it. (Falling in love with a new piece of material can also help.) It gives you a chance to read it almost as if it’s someone else’s. This is the first, and perhaps most important, step for evaluating your own work. If you find yourself getting hung up again, wanting to save all your babies, stick it back in the drawer and move on to something else &ndash or send it to a trusted friend or script consultant.

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD — OUTLINING AGAIN

Deconstructing your script back to an outline form can make the process more analytical again and give you some much-needed objectivity. It allows you to see the basic building blocks and recognize if this house will really stand. Then you can make the necessary changes in outline form before you go back to script.

HAVE A READING

Getting a group of actors together to read your script aloud can be an anxiety-producing experience — but almost always an illuminating one. Hearing the actors speak, and often stumble over, your dialogue, definitely gives you a fresh perspective on it. You begin to see that some of your words don’t fall trippingly over the tongue, but cause the tongue to trip and fall over the words.

After the reading is done, you can elicit feedback from the actors &ndash or the audience, if you have one. But I must issue a word of warning here. Having a group of actors give feedback on your script could be one of the most painful experiences of your creative life. The first time I did it, the group ganged up on me to proclaim just how bad the script was. It was downright ugly. AND THESE WERE MY FRIENDS! Even my mom was part of the lynch mob! It dealt a crushing blow to my fragile writer’s ego. I promptly threw the script away, indulged in the nearest libation, and curled up in a warm and cozy depression. A couple weeks later, however, I emerged from the near-suicidal encounter with a ton of insights and a much better script.

THE FAST “NO-BRAINER” READ

Your unconscious already knows what’s wrong with your script, it just can’t get through the filtering of your conscious monitoring mind. So sometimes, just riding over your script roughshod, writing every note that comes to you without considering the absurdity of it, can result in some pretty insightful and inspired comments. It might also result in some pretty brutal ones as well. But that’s okay. After the group therapy session you had with your script reading, you’re tough enough to take it.

THE HIERARCHY OF NOTES

One of the toughest parts about rewriting, once you’ve evaluated your script, is knowing where to start. You’re sitting there, staring at a big smelly pile of notes — scribblings and late-night ramblings on every page, legal pads covered in blood and coffee stains. There’s just no way to begin easily and painlessly with that mess. So don’t. Yet. Organize your notes from ‘easiest’ to ‘most difficult.’ In other words, at the top of the list will be the typos and grammatical errors, then descriptive polishes, dialogue polishes, moving on down to the more difficult character, plot, and theme notes.

I know that a major time-management proposition is to begin with the most important goal or task and stick with it until it’s finished. But this ain’t time management, folks. This is art. It’s not rational. So I believe it’s better to start with the easiest damn thing and get it done fast. Then move to the next easiest thing and whip it out quickly. Now, with a little more momentum, you might actually be willing to tackle the more difficult notes with a higher level of confidence and a lower level of antidepressants.

A FINAL NOTE ON GIVING YOURSELF NOTES

Some of you will be way too eager to get your script out to every producer in town &ndash even after the first draft. Your task is to develop patience. You’ve spent this long on the script, what’s another few weeks or months to make sure you’ve got it right.

Just take a breath.

Put the script away. Rewrite it. Whatever you do, don’t send it out there knowing it could be improved, thinking “they’ll just fix it in post.” NO THEY WON’T. The only ‘post’ that script will see is ‘compost,’ because that’s the pile it’ll end up on. So unless you want your work to become fertilizer for someone else’s lawn — chill out, dude.

Then there are those of you who will resist sending your script out into the seemingly cold, harsh world of Hollywood no matter how long you’ve been working on it. This is not only inefficient, it’s creatively debilitating. Think of your script like a plane that has landed and is still on the runway. If you don’t move it along, all those other planes (stories) can’t land. If you’ve done everything you can, had others give notes on it, rewritten it until the words have lost their meaning — it’s time to abandon your baby. Wrap the little babushka up in a blanket and set it on the doorstep of every production company you can.

With a little luck, someone will decide to make that child their own.

——————————————————————————————

As a screenwriter, Derek Rydall has sold, optioned, or been hired on assignment for over 20 film and TV projects. He has developed projects for the producer of Ghost, RKO, U/A, Miramax, Saturn (Nick Cage), and many indie producers, as well as worked as a staff writer for Fox, Disney, and Deepak Chopra. As a story consultant/script doctor, Derek has helped writers, producers, actors, and directors turn books into screenplays, secure millions in financing, make six-figure script deals, get hired to exec produce, direct, star in their movies, obtain major distribution, and win awards. And as an author, Derek’s book, I Could’ve Written a Better Movie than That!: How to Make Six Figures as a Script Consultant– Even if You’re Not a Screenwriter, is due out October by Michael Wiese Publishing. For more info, you can check out his site, .scriptwritercentral.com, email derekscriptwritercentral.com or call (661) 296-4991.”

Offering free content on yours or others business Web site is a crucial part of Internet marketing. In fact, that’s how Internet marketing got started, which is why everyone wants and expects something for nothing on the World Wide Web. They’ve always been getting it.

The public has come to expect Internet information to be free, and those most-often searched keywords are what will take consumers to your Web site. Once you’ve determined the most visited keywords in your industry, you’ll want to write or find articles that incorporate them.

If you’re not a good writer, or you don’t have the time it takes to write articles, you can use the articles of others. You can offer local writers or industry experts to contribute articles in return for their bio which gives their own site and business credibility, branding and traffic. Or you can buy articles from people you don’t know. One way of doing this is through an article membership site. Here you’ll find articles on just about any subject, with new ones added all the time.

There are many sites that offer articles and memberships to help your Internet marketing. The catch, however, is that each invariably limits its membership ranks so that the Internet marketing articles don’t get published too often. You may have to do some searching, or some waiting, to get a membership in the Internet marketing article membership site of your choice.

Once you are a member and you find the articles you want to publish your Internet marketing work is not done, however, You have to do some rewriting, making it not only fresh and unique to your site, but also giving it a little tweak so it talks directly about your industry, and, if possible, about your products or services.

You may find an article or articles that particular fit your Web site and your business but the keywords you need aren’t found that densely in the article. So you’ll need to do that. That’s fairly easy to do, and far easier than sitting down and writing your own article.

Never take an article from an article membership site and publish it verbatim. This is destructive to your Internet marketing concept. You want to make it yours &ndash your voice, your personality and your products. You might even find a lengthy article that you could use as a tease, publishing the first part and then offering the conclusion next week. You might also publish a newsletter &ndash a great Internet marketing tool. You start the article in the newsletter and refer readers to your site for the conclusion.

Whatever you do, make it yours. Your Internet marketing will succeed as a result.

OVERVIEW

A good User Document includes sections on how to set up, use, and care for the product. However, to create a great User Document , the technical writer should use the Persona, generated in the analysis of the User/Reader, to create the topics for the most useful section of the User Document. This article describes this procedure.

THE MOST USEFUL SECTION OF A USER DOCUMENT

The most useful section of a User Document is the one that helps the User get what he/she wants/needs done right now!

Writing such a section might seem to be an impossibility. How do you know what the User needs to do now?

The only thing that you, as a writer, can do is to play the odds. That is, determine the topics that have the highest probability of being of interest to your User. And “of interest” means “getting what the User wants done, right now.”

We created Persona (an almost-real representation of your product’s User) in another article in the “New Technical Writer” series (see the links in the “Resources” or “Author Information” section of this article). We can use the Persona to create a topic list for this section.

USING YOUR PERSONA

This step in using your Persona is missed by almost all User Documents that I have seen. Yet this step will result in a User Document that is most satisfying to your Reader. Here it is:

Imagine your Persona using your product. Now, what are the main things that your Persona will want to do with your product.

As an example we will use a photo editing program (Acme FotoPhixer, a hypothetical product from a hypothetical company) that comes bundled with a point and shoot digital camera. Our Persona is a typical user of such a camera.

Ask: What does that Persona want to do with Acme FotoPhixer?

The short answer is that they want to improve their photos. HOW can they improve their photos with Acme FotoPhixer? In OUR words (not the words of the User) we could tell them how to:

* Rotate

* Crop

* Red-eye removal

* Adjust brightness & contrast

* Removing unwanted items from the photo

* Focus/Blur

* Save

* Print

* Share

These names are what we, the photography experts might use. However, “crop” may be meaningless to our Persona. In fact, we could move crop into “Removing unwanted items from the photo.”

The “Focus/Blur” topic is interesting. If a photo is out of focus or blurred, there is really nothing that our software can do to improve it. However our Reader does not know this, but still wants to do it. We should include topic with this text: “It is impossible to fix the focus or remove blurring in a photograph. You might be able to improve this using the [Sharpen Effect] tool in FotoPhixer.” (The [] specifies a reference to the topic in the User Document.)

DON’T HIDE THIS SECTION

If your Reader cannot quickly find what he/she wants to do in your User Document, then the document has failed. Since we created this section to answer the User’s pressing needs for the product, then we must make this section very accessible to the User — they have to be able to find it easily.

“Fixing (Improving) Your Picture” is a PERFECT, User-oriented title. That is the correct title for this section. Don’t bury this gold under titles such as: “Tutorial” or “Use FotoPhixer’s Tools.” These titles do not suggest answers to the User’s questions.

You should make this section very easy to find in the User Document. It’s the key section of the User Document. It has the information that most Readers want, most of the time (by your analysis). Place it prominently in the User Document.

SATISFYING THE READER IS EASIER THAN YOU THINK

Producing this section is easier than you think.

First, imagine that you were NOT going to include this section. Your User Document would still have to cover all of the features, tools, and user interactions for the product. You need to do that to satisfy your boss. It’s also logical. If a feature is not described, then why is it in the product?

Thus you have created a topic list for a “classical” User Document.

Now we create our User-oriented section, “Fixing Your Picture.” Here are the steps:

1. List each of the topics for fixing a picture, using titles that the Reader will understand.

2. Provide a brief overview, perhaps with a picture showing before and after the use of this fixing method.

3. Then list the steps for that topic, and provide links to the documentation for the relevant tools for each step

Done!

Actually, I would recommend using what I call a “Visual Index,” which is described in the links in the “Resources” or “Author Information” section of this article.

Within Document Re-usability

We could call this organization method “within document re-usability.” Here the writing for a topic exists as an item in the “reference” section of the User Document. By referring to that item when it is needed for performing a User-oriented task, we make the text do double duty. This results in reusability within the document.

HOW TO GET THE TIME TO WRITE THIS SECTION

Put less detailed effort into the documentation for the product’s features that will be rarely used. For example, FotoPhixer includes tools to make the image look like it’s made of stone, or produce 3D effects, etc. These are rarely used, and have a similar set of controls. Instead of detailing the use of each of these rarely used features, write a global usage, describe the controls, encourage the User to experiment, and remind them of the un-do and cancel capabilities.

You can create the “most useful” section with the time you save by not thoroughly documenting these rarely-used items.

THE BOTTOM LINE

You can make your User Document much more effective if you think about your User/Reader and what he/she wants to do with the product. Use this information to create an easy to find section in your User Document that meets your Reader’s needs.

Writing erotic romance is certainly a sexual liaison with my muse. Anticipation starts the juices flowing, and then imagination takes over. What is hotter than the expectation of tingles and whispers, caresses and sighs, and finally, skin against skin. The mind, after all, is the most potent erogenous zone. Much like spending a hot night with a lover, foreplay begins while walking up the stairs, or in this case, turning on the computer!

Before computers, writers stared at a blank page in a typewriter. Now, it is a white screen on a monitor waiting to be filled. My muse helps me find the sensual space in my imagination, from which sexy stories appear. Sometimes when I need him, my muse has to be enticed to come out and play. I tease him, pursuing him until he can no longer resist.

My muse is certainly masculine, a commanding presence when he emerges. To coax him out of the private sanctum where he lives, I bait him. He loves music, especially the blues. Oh baby, yes, the blues will lure him out every time. He absolutely cannot resist Etta James.

Once I have his attention, I take a hot bath and soak. That is when we commune. He whispers to me as I drift, telling me what he wants to do. Often, he shows me what he wants, the erotic pictures vivid in my mind. When finally I sit down at the keyboard, the words and images flow from my mind into my fingers.

Holding onto the space of erotic thought can be a challenge. It is a delicate altered state of consciousness, a meditative zone where nothing exists except the story. The characters are on stage, and I have to be a rapt audience. There is no room for laundry waiting in the basket, the grocery list sitting on the table or vacuuming the cat litter tracked onto the rug. Everything, and I do mean everything, has to take a back seat to the presence of the muse. When his virility fills my heart and soul, I have to pay attention.

To sustain my concentration and encourage my muse to continue his flirtatious whispers, I often look at pictures of beautiful men. I trace the curves of their muscles with my eyes, allowing their potency to wash though me. The impressions translate easily into scenes, where I play voyeur to a gorgeous hunk of man making love. Watching him in my mind’s eye, my own fire burns brighter. The tactile sense of him, how he smells, the sweat on his skin, the hard line of his body, the softness of his hair &ndash he overwhelms my senses.

Making love on the written page is as intimate and personal as loving on a bed (or any other surface to your liking). The endorphins kick in and identification with the characters is spontaneous. Whatever is happening on the page is also happening in my mind, an alternate reality for the duration of the session. My muse strokes me until I am sated. Then, he allows me to rest until our next liaison. With a tender kiss, he promises the next time will be even better.

Overview

Your editor should be an integral part of your writing team. Do not think of him/her as a judge, but rather as a resource to help you in all phases of the writing project. This article will help you overcome any fear of your editor, and how to effectively use your editor during the writing process.

Beware of Your Editor

Some of the changes that an editor might suggest could make the User Document more difficult for your Reader to understand.

Improving Your Writing

Once your editor has gotten past the basic mechanical editing tasks of:

* grammar

* punctuation

* spelling

* editing to a Style Sheet,

he/she may work on “improving your writing.”

Your editor may believe that one way to make the writing more interesting is to use synonyms when you refer back to something. Thus you might call something a “chip bin” in one part of your text, and your editor might suggest using a different term, such as “waste trap,” later in the document. This should make your writing “more interesting.”

You do not want interesting writing in your User Documents! You want clear, simple, very easy to understand writing. If you make your writing more interesting by using the synonym (”waste trap”) then you force your reader to have to think about whether or not these are the same thing. I recommend that you use the exact same wording every place in your User Document where you are referring to the same thing. No synonyms here!

If your Reader wanted to be entertained or have his/her thoughts provoked, then he/she would be reading a novel.

Don’t let your editor make your writing more interesting or more clever if those efforts makes the material harder for your Reader to understand.

Erudition

Another place to beware of your editor is “erudition.” That is, when an editor that tries to make your User Documentation sound more formal. Other than disclaimer, legal, and safety information, the User Document should sound friendly, with a conversational tone.

For example, an editor might suggest changing contractions (such as “don’t”) into their more formal form (”do not”). Don’t do it! Contractions are conversational and they should not be avoided.

If you think about it, most people reading the User Documentation for any product are under some form of stress:

* they either want to get on with using the product, or

* something has gone wrong.

A formal document will put the User off. The document should not be silly or flippant; however, it should provide the information that the User needs in a conversational, easily understood style. The needed information should be easy to find.

Although most word processor grammar checkers are woefully inadequate, many of these checkers can be made to provide a readability score (you may have to set an option to enable this feature). Editing should help increase the readability (indicated by a decrease in the reading grade level) of the document. If editing increases the reading grade level, ask your editor why that score has changed.

What to Do

Provide your editor with the information that will enable him/her to do the best job. Here are some things to tell your editor:

* The intended audience for the User Document

* Tell your editor that you want an informal style of User Document

* What style manual or guide to be used in editing

* Scheduling and progress of the project

* Format for sharing and editing the text (make sure the editor can read your electronic documents — do this when you hire the editor)

(Whenever you are dealing with someone outside your organization, you must have a signed non-disclosure agreement. This is in addition to any other contractual items between the outsider and your organization.)

Get to Know Your Editor

Your editor is NOT your school teacher. In your school days, your teacher-as-editor was a judge. Your goal was to impress your teacher with your writing. You were working for a grade. Thus you may have come to fear your editor.

Change your thinking! Now, your editor is on your side. Your editor will work with you to produce the best possible writing. You will not have to worry excessively about grammar. You goal is to get the information “on paper” as clearly and completely as you can. Your editor will suggest changes to polish the text.

So don’t fear your editor. Make your editor part of your writing team.

Love Your Editor

Hire Your Editor Early in the Project

Hire your editor early in the life of the project. There are at least two benefits to hiring the editor early:

* First, your editor will be prepared for the editing task. He/she will have had time to get to know the product, target audience, and your organization’s style guide.

* Second, your editor can help you with your writing, as I describe below…

Let Your Editor Help You

If you run into problems about how to write something, call on your editor. Most likely your editor can provide an effective wording to get you around your block. That’s one reason why you got the editor on the project early. Here’s another…

A Recommendation

I recommend that you work on small pieces of the User Document, and circulate these small pieces (rough drafts) to the development team for comments. Then use their comments to improve the writing, and re-circulate the improved material. Continue this for a few cycles. I call this “Iterative, Interactive Writing.” This is an effective method for writing quickly and accurately.

If you feel uncomfortable about circulating rough drafts to the product development team for review, here’s a solution. Have your editor perform a quick edit of the rough draft before you circulate it for comments. Your “drafts” will look quite good, and the development team will concentrate on the content, not the wording or grammar (and comments about content are you want from the team).

The Bottom Line

Don’t think of your editor as an enemy lurking at the end of your document production path. Instead, realize that your editor can be a valuable member of your writing team, and is on your side. He/she should:

* Be brought onto the writing project early

* Be kept aware of the status of the writing project

* Be used as a writing, as well as an editing, resource

TIP: It is much more enjoyable for the writer (you) to work with “marked-up” electronic documents, rather than marked-up printed documents. Investigate your word processor’s “multiple reviewers” capability. To employ this capability requires that you and your editor use the same or compatible word processing software.

NOTE: I am not an editor, nor do I represent any editors. But as a writer, I value editing.

Keywords that cut to the heart of your prospect’s pleasure or pain zone are certain to capture the attention and interest of that specific group. Dynamite benefits, extra advantages and unique solutions all naturally draw attention and interest.

To the prospect suffering from a seemingly incurable case of Hay Fever, a headline such as “Stop Hay Fever In Seconds With This Secret Ingredient Found In Every Refrigerator!” is guaranteed to interrupt his online travels and the dozen or so thoughts swirling around in his mind and draw him towards your message.

The obvious keyword is “hay fever” — this is what the prospect’s radar is set to detect. More specifically, it’s the cure, or the alleviation of pain and discomfort that the prospect seeks. But it’s the use of the word “hay fever” that identified the message as having importance, triggering the reaction and shift in focus.

Prospects are constantly on the lookout for ‘new’ ideas, solutions, and upgrades — hence the common practice among marketers to unveil ‘new and improved’ versions of older products. ‘New’ implies an improvement over the old, established way. It hints at the promise of a greater benefit.

Promise a unique advantage in your headline and you’ll pull eyeballs towards your proposition. As humans, we’re wired to be on the lookout for ways to get more living out of life. We want more… and we want it faster, easier and at a lower cost. Headlines that scream such advantages reap the reward of higher readership.

Another strategy to create great headlines on demand is to employ proven, attention-getting words and phrases. Following is an ongoing list of such headline words and phrases. Obviously, you’ll want to customize your own headline, but stringing together a few words from this list can get you off to a good start.

It’s no surprise that your headline is crucial to the success of your article. It’s the first thing your reader will see, and it has to do many things, including getting your reader’s attention, drawing them into your article and encouraging them to read more, and summarizing what the article is about - and you’ve only got about 15 words in which to do it. This article will explain how you can avoid leaving it to chance.

There are some basic considerations when writing your headline. Who is your reader? What are the important features of your product or service? Lastly, why would your reader want to buy your product or service &ndash what benefit will reading your article offer your reader?

For maximum readership, write your headline as if you were creating short, curiosity-arousing teaser copy on an outer envelope. Compel your reader to read further without being so blatant in your headline that it turns them off.

Here are ten ways to produce effective headlines all the while taking into consideration your answers to the earlier three questions: who is your reader, what are the important features of your product or service and what benefit does reading your article provide?

1. State a benefit, something like “Learn how to potty train your dog in 3 easy steps.”

2. Use words that help the reader visualize, such as “Keep your socks dry. Eliminate doggy carpet puddles, and wet socks, in 3 easy steps.”

3. Highlight your offer in your headline. “Learn how to create an award winning aquarium.”

4. Use numbers and statistics.

5. Make it newsworthy using words like: new, introducing, or announcing.

6. Make a promise or guarantee.

7. Make a big promise. This is used a lot &ndash Lose 20 pounds in 20 days.

8. Use a reasons why headline. “10 reasons why you’re losing money in the stock market.”

9. Anticipate and address your prospect’s fears.

10. Pique their curiosity.

There are of course many ways to produce a good, attention getting headline. Psychologists and skilled copywriters will both tell you that people don’t buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional ones. Fear, greed, curiosity, benevolence, jealousy, lust, insecurity, pride, and frustration are among some of the effective emotions copy writers tap into.

The same holds true for article headlines. If you can provide a headline that appeals to their emotions, not only will you have more people eagerly reading your article, you’ll have more websites, blogs, and newsletters printing and linking to your article.

When writing your headline, it is often useful to write several headlines and choose the most effective or to write your copy first and let your copy dictate the headline. Regardless of how you proceed, experience and reading other eye catching headlines will help you explore the process.

Visit an article directory and take a look at the articles that catch your eye. Browse through the articles with the most readership and examine the differ net headline styles. This exercise will help you create article headlines that generate the same readership numbers. The end result, more traffic and visibility for your website.

From scrapbooking to videography, so many families around the world are trying to document their life history before they depart from this world. But what happens when one becomes frustrated with it all, not enough time and/or money, started a project but never finished it or better yet never even began?

Online experts have provided many solutions to this problem, two websites can be found at the end of this article. Let’s begin with some tips from a work in progress to completion.

When the goal is to create a book or video about one’s past and/or family, first begin collecting information about the subject(s). Start by letting everyone know about the task you are undertaking, so that they may be able to assist you. Ask them when they would be available for an interview. Most likely, some will be a bit defensive because they may not be happy with their lives, while others will want to talk you to death. Here is just a sample of some questions to put the closed mouth at ease and control the motor mouth when asking about he or she and their grandparents:

1. What is your full birth name and nickname (if any)? (If they had a nickname, ask why they were given that name.)

2. Where did you live as a child? (If it were numerous places, just list city and state and what they liked most and least about each area.)

3. Who were your grandparents (include their full names and don’t forget the mother’s maiden name.)

4. Where did your grandparents live? (On both mother’s and father’s side.)

5. What kind of relationship did you have with both?

6. What do you remember most about them?

7. Describe what they looked like to you.

8. What kind of people were they?

9. What kind of relationship did your mother and father have with them?

10. Did you enjoy visiting them?

Some of the questions you can repeat, this time asking about their relationship with their biological or stepparent. There are so many more questions to ask, but is just a start.

The next task you should consider is following-up with other relatives via phone, email, party or visit with them. Find out as much as you can and take a look at photo albums, newspaper clippings, awards, etc. to add to your notes.

Your notes should be very organized. Consider buying separate notebooks and label accordingly. One notebook may consist of interviews. Another may have a list of the things you may need to buy and a list of business contacts that could assist you with publishing. You may also want to include anyone who wouldn’t mind helping you sponsor the book. They may want a particular page or business card size ad for their goods, service, or charity. Designate help, someone who is reliable who can do some research, make some follow up calls and help with organizing.

Don’t let any family event pass by without you being there! Family can be more relaxed and open when they get together. Bring along a cassette recorder or video camera and have your questions ready just like a journalist.

Be sure to have a plan for the type of book you are putting together. If it is just a simple family tree then you may not want a coffee table book, but if it is a history of the family’s cherished last name, then you may be printing an encyclopedia, so know what you want.

One you have all of your information collected, photos in possession, scan the ones as they relate to the individual or subject matter. If he or she talked about the family farm, then obviously you will want to have a photo of the family farm, if that isn’t possible, then use a photo where someone is working on the farm or use a photo of what they may have looked like at the time.

Organize a table of contents page, see similar books for ideas.

You should have a workspace available for your project, if not find one and fast, the longer your information sits in the file cabinet or a bag, the least likely you will want to do anything about it. Take the information you have gathered and start a folder on your computer. Name the file anything that you know you can remember like “Family History.” Then begin to type each interview in a word processing file, one that is commonly used, this way if you should take your documents to a printing company they will be able to bring them up without any problem. Choose a simple font like Arial or Times Roman, this too will eliminate any potential problems.

Leave space on each page to include a photograph or any other item you would like to include. Later, you will go back to those empty spaces and upload those photos from your computer. Once, you have included all the information, be sure to have someone proofread and check over any historical data. Make necessary changes and go back to include photos. Once again, have someone review the layout and possibly add designs, color and other creative input.

Lastly, put the file on cd and have a hard copy of your document. If you follow these instructions, you should have at least a near finish or completed product.

The following sites are helpful if you choose to put your history online or if you are looking for a much needed family member or friend to complete your story:

Part of a hot new category of social networking sites, OurStory helps users Collect, Share & Keep the memories and moments from life’s journey in a permanent, secure online archive. Each entry is organized by date, place and topic on your personalized timeline. Many customers use OurStory as an online journal, online diary or as a blog.

Reunion.com has over 28 million registered users and everyday, we help people find family members, classmates, forgotten friends, lost loves, old business contacts & so forth!

Click the links attached to this article.

Would you like to compose personal love letters and poems for your sweetheart but don’t know where to begin? While it’s true that a personalized love letter is usually preferred over a greeting card, unfortunately most folks don’t put forth the extra effort to compose one. Although this may be due to lack of time, often people are too timid or lack the confidence to write their own. Many feel they don’t have the necessary writing skills or flair. Fortunately, writing of this nature can be mastered with a little practice and patience. In no time at all, you could be writing material that captures the heart of your lover.

Writing Tips for Love Letters and Poems

The first thing to remember when composing a love message to your mate is to write from the heart. Let the person know your true feelings for them. This may include telling them how you felt when you first met, describing past events or occasions that are dear to your heart, or telling them of their qualities you find most attractive. Remember you are writing to an individual. Take time to personalize your letter or poem and it will be cherished for years to come.

How many people do you know who have saved love letters that are decades old? Actually it’s not too uncommon for a person to keep hand written correspondence from a former or current lover. Now ask yourself how many people would be likely to save greeting cards from years gone by. While maybe a few, the numbers are nowhere near that of hand written letters and poems. This fact alone should inspire you to create your own love greetings.

Special Events and Occasions

The following list contains holidays and events that are the perfect time for letting your lover know just how you feel.

* Valentine’s Day

* Sweetest Day

* Birthday

* Anniversary

* Marriage proposal or engagement

* Birth of a child

These are just a few of the special times you may wish to write your own love letters. However, you needn’t wait for a certain event to express your feelings of passion. Often receiving a love greeting unexpectedly can have the greatest impact. Your mate will be grateful that you took the time to express yourself for no special reason.

After a little practice, you will become more comfortable writing your own love messages. In fact, your mate may soon start to expect or anticipate hand written correspondence from you. When this occurs, you will know your efforts have been worthwhile.