|
|
|
An SEO Copywriting Makeover – Turning “Not” Into “Hot” Part 2 of 2
by Karon Thackston © 2003 http://www.copywritingcourse.com In part one of this article series, I outlined a recent project I undertook for a Web site that sells gas logs. The site had a lot of potential, but in its current state the sales...
"Can You Become a Freelance Copywriter in Los Angeles?"
Is it out there? The chance to be a freelance copywriter in Los Angeles? For those looking to become a copy writer, finding employment in various cities can be difficult. In fact, most freelance writers around the world struggle to find...
Does Your Copywriting Trigger What Makes Your Visitors Buy?
You study your website stats and see the amount of traffic coming through. Nice numbers. But when you compare your traffic against your sales, what do you get? A small fraction of 1%? Wouldn't you love to see those conversions grow? But how can you...
How I learned to make my writing pay, and you can do it too. Copywriting is easy money
Summary: Want to make great money from your writing skills? Become a copywriter (a writer for business). How come there's so much writing in the world, but most writers are poor? It's because writers are writing the stuff that makes other people...
“How To Make Your Headlines Sell”
If you want to maximize your sales, then your ad copy must open up with a GREAT headline that declares: "Here's The **BIG** Benefit You'll Get When You Read What's Below!" It must GRAB your prospect's attention! But it shouldn't sound the same as...
Power Writing 101: Tips and Tricks to Get You Taken Seriously!
In my ten years as an advertiser, I’ve encountered plenty of folks with a flair for writing. They were born having some idea of where to put the words within the sentence, and the sentences within the paragraph. They usually know what words to use –...
Should You Use Ghostwriters that are "a dime a dozen"?
By Fred Farah
Lately there's been a lot of talk about articles,
articles for your web site content,
articles for your ezine,
articles with your bio info posted to article directories.
So what's the big deal anyway? Why is...
SOME COPY TIPS FROM AN OLD HAND
I have been in the ad game for a long, long time. I have trained hundreds of writers, and I've been responsible for shifting millions of dollars in product worldwide. Here are just a few tips that I hope will help you do a better job, and make a...
The Bible - The Source Of All Copywriting Secrets
I've been a student of the Bible for practically all my life.
There is a lot of reason why this book remains the number one
best-seller year after year. I think that it is the source of
ALL wisdom, yes, including successful copywriting!
What...
They’’re Searching So Why Aren’’t They Buying?
by Karon Thackston ©© 2003 http://www.marketingwords.com There seems to be a common myth regarding site visitors and the buying process these days. I’’ve heard this statement more than a few times over the last several months: ““My visitors find me...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Making a Career of Sharing
After battling the sea for nine years, it's time to move on. That's what I told myself when I first stepped ashore to search for a land job. The decision was not made on the spur of a moment but after much thought and soul searching.
While I was working aboard ship, many of us talked about working ashore some day. I heard people saying they were quitting and then much later, I would find them on another ship. My conclusion -- many have tried to quit, but very few have succeeded.
Whenever I see older seamen on my ship, I feel a bit of pity for them. I can feel their frustrations. And I know exactly what they will face over the coming six to nine months.
They will face the rigors of the sea and extreme climatic conditions, such as huge waves, strong winds, icy cold and hot weather, the boredom and loneliness when nothing much happens, seasickness and insomnia when encountering heavy weather for weeks on end, and of course, missing the home and the family as well as missing out on the many other things that a normal life can offer.
But it's not really a bad life at all if you are still young. It's a life that can offer many exciting experiences and adventures, a lot of traveling, and sightseeing in places that can be far off the normal tourist routes. It can be a very satisfying experience. I still have fond memories of my experiences while working on board ship.
When I first started sailing, I collected souvenirs from all the countries that I visited. After a while, these started collecting dust and I had to get rid of them. Furthermore, I found that some of these souvenirs were actually made in other countries.
That made me decide to take photographs as my souvenirs. I now have almost 3,000 colour slides of my travels.
What can I do with these? Well, some of the images have been accepted by a stock photo agency, but this is just a small portion of my collection.
I was seriously into photography at that time and even bought an expensive SLR camera with a set of interchangeable lenses so that I could take good quality photographs. I even sold a few photographs to some magazines during that time.
When I realised that my photographs were being published to support articles in the magazines, I started to take up writing.
After that my articles were published in the local newspapers and magazines. But that was a very long time ago when computers were practically unknown.
Even after I quit the sea, my experiencees on board ship made a lasting impression on me. I still wanted to explore new places. I was fascinated by computers when they made their debut in 1987. These had the 80286 processor, I remember.
A colleague taught me how to use the Lotus 1-2-3 software and I was delighted with what I could do with it. I was able to created graphs with this WYSIWYG program.
But computers were expensive and not very affordable at that time. I still had to hammer on the keys of my trusty portable typewriter to produce any work.
I moved on to other jobs later, but my fascination with computers continued. Being an engineer, I was very much interested in creating engineering piping diagrams. I learned to do AutoCAD drawings that were very much better than the ones I had to do during my college days with pencil, T-square, eraser and paper.
Later on when I was introduced to the Internet, my interest practically shot right through the ceiling. There was so much information available. At about that time, I decided to build a boat for myself. (It was a dream that I had been keeping in my head since the time I took up sailing during my college days.) So I began to search the Internet and discovered how other people built boats. The whole project took about three months of research and manual labour.
The result was a custom-built kayak that was carefully crafted for speed, manoeuvrability, portability, and durability. And specially built to suit my weight and the length of my legs.
I had experienced the power of the Internet. And I love it.
Being trained in marine engineering enables me to be flexible
in using technology or any other tools available in order to get the job done. You see, when working on board a ship, we were expected to make do with whatever materials were available to solve problems. There were no contractors that you could call in to help, in the middle of the ocean.
Anyway, I later decided to learn web designing. I found this quite interesting. And once I delved into web designing, many other subjects also caught my attention. Search engine optimisation, designing for fast loading, html language, marketing, affiliation, advertisements, writing effective sales copy, etc, just crept up along the way.
I even made my own website about marine engineering at http://www.free-marine.com
Then I stumbled into e-books and e-zines. I found some of these very interesting, and I started to mess around with them. Eventually, I produced my first e-book. That's how "Sign Off -- A Guide to Career Success on Shore" got started. Anyone can download it for free at http://www.free-marine.com/exseaman.htm
Now I am into self-publishing and I can publish whatever I want. I shall not receive piles and piles of rejection slips anymore. As an author-publisher, I can also design my own illustrations and layout in whatever way I think best, and most important of all, I don't have to spend money on printing, paper, binding and whatever else.
I can also pass around my e-book to people in the form of downloads and e-mail attachments or even CDs. Unlike webpages, people don't even have to be online in order to read my book. I believe that we are in this world to be a blessing to others. Whatever experiences that I have gone through need not be wasted but can be used to help somebody somewhere. That's why I wrote my e-book.
Also, being involved in a 34-week "Becoming Disciples through Bible Study" programme for the past three years, I have come to realise that by giving we receive. I have even made a website on that at http://disciplespenang.tripod.com
With that in mind, I searched through the memory bank in my brain, and also my notes, and found that I have many things to share with people. After going through many years of working experiences on land, I think it is worthwhile to share some of the experiences I have with those who are contemplating switching jobs.
Just like the photographs that are gathering dust in my home, these experiences should not stay in my memory or storeroom and be lost forever. I should leave something behind to benefit future generations. So I quickly got my stuff together and started writing the e-book. It took me about three months of free time to complete.
Most of the visitors have an interest in life on board ship, but the e-book I wrote is about working ashore. So that makes the information relevant to anyone else too.
E-books have the potential to spread marketing messages to potential buyers. They can also be instruction manuals for users, for displaying products as catalogues, for publicising services, and a thousand other uses. The outcome of any tool depends on the one who wields it. It only takes a good writer with a flair for IT, marketing concepts and visual communications copywriting and design to make it work.
"Measure, Improve and Promote Your Career Skills!" The Opportunity to earn certifications in over 425 of today's leading skills is now here! Brainbench makes it easy to measure and develop your skills. Get certified and reach your career goals with Job Role Certifications. Compare Your Skills to those of Your Peers. For Business, boost your training ROI, improve your hiring success, and optimize performances. Certify for Performance
About the Author
Many years of working experience in Marine, Facilities, Construction has given the author material for writing e-books and articles related to engineering, and management. Subscribe to facworld ezine More information at Marine and M & E
|
|
|
|
|
|