Tools of Trade

Once, I had a bead collection I acquired from a friend who was sick of beading. She said to me, “if you just look at collection long enough, you’ll have ideas.” This is what I did, and this is how I made my necklaces. For writers, I recommend they look at as many hard copy and on-line publications as possible. Don’t forget to obtain a copy of current Writers Market. It’s a useful publication for profiling buying publications. I suggest budding writer look into publications in sync with their personal interests. For example, I enjoy backcountry hiking and camping. I would probably want to contact outdoors magazines to pitch them some stories. I also have an interest in local newspapers, travel, educational, and holistic healing magazines. I’ve pitched to all of these types of publications. When you find a publication you really like, write down editor’s name, e-mail, phone number and start to pitch. There’s also a great writers’ site called www.writingformoney.com. For $8 per month you can review an interactive on-line listing of publications which are currently buying new work. With these links, you can visit publications directly, read about them, and e-mail editor your pitch. The longer you look at these tools of trade, more ideas will percolate.

Hit a Home Run

You want to hit a home run with an editor and land a story? Well, try going to bat with two to three story ideas instead of just one. Or story you’ve developed can be pitched at different angles, which may make it more suitable for your publication of choice. Make sure to view at least several articles from publication itself before pitching an editor, so you can have an idea of that editor’s taste in material and style. All of these tips should help you land a great story, and even more in future. As with baseball: practice. With practice, you’ll learn how to pitch like an expert.

Having a site with great and informative information will make another site owners more likely to link to your web site. Think about it! Would you link to a site that just had their products and service web pages? Or would you link to a web site that has great content that will help your visitors? If you are like most webmasters you would chose 2nd one because this will benefit your web site because it helps visitors know more about your products.

Search engines such as Google and Yahoo! love themed sites! Having a good themed web site means your ranking is more likely to rank higher than other web sites. Not only does this help out your site's theme, but also allows you to target more keywords. Surfers will find these web pages when searching web and will result in more sales.