Similarly, Wall Street Journal once devoted eight column inches to ridiculing a conference on critical thinking that sent out a press release referring to conference's "world renown" researchers "in field of thinking" such as our former surgeon general "C. Everett Coop." (He spells it "Koop.")

And more than bad publicity was at stake when L.L. Bean's back-to-school catalog invited people to call a phone number held by a Virginia company instead of Maine-based mega- retailer. L.L. Bean paid Virginia company an unnamed sum of money (surely six figures) to immediately take over that misprinted phone number. The cause: someone in production department who "knew" that a toll-free number starting with "877" should really have started with "800."

Typographical errors can have serious repercussions for your organization. Misspellings and grammatical flubs damage your credibility, omitted words cause confusion for customers and numbers that get printed wrongly can prevent buyers from reaching you. Here are some tips for making certain that your materials are letter-perfect.

You want your business to be noticed by thousands daily. Online ezine publishers and webmasters are constantly looking for new, original content. They want and need your articles. This is a promotion marriage made in heaven. But you will have a much better chance of being chosen if you write an article that solves a problem for your audience. Give each article an angle.

Let's assume they are business people like yourself who need a problem solved--to stop procrastinating, write a book, promote their business, develop a loving relationship.

What Format Suits You?

1. Write a how-to-article.

Information hungry people want this one! First, open with a hook--something that will entice your reader to keep reading. Then, write a short introduction on background of problem and need for your solutions. Follow with solutions in a new paragraph. You can number these if you wish.

Don't worry about giving away store.Readers will judge you by your concise style and content, and will be attracted to see what else you offer.

Make a list of topics you know or that relate to your business. Take one at a time and write a short piece on it. You can write a short article under 500 words or a longer one if you desire.

For solutions to problem, give information and resources that will assist your audience. Here's some sample article titles from my clients: How to Procrastinate to Your Heart's Desires; How to Create Employees Who Can Hardly Wait to Get to WorkEach Day; Promote your Coaching and Speaking Business Through Free Articles.

2. Write tips.

This kind of article takes shortest time to write and is also easiest format. Always include an introduction with your thesis-- point you want to prove, or problem you are about to solve. Usually one or two sentences are enough. Include a one or two sentence conclusion in which you add one more punchy way to stimulate your reader to act. Remember to include your power- packed signature file below each article or tip.

To write a tip:

1. Start with a command such as " Do this."

2. Follow that by consequence of not following tip.Or, show a benefit of following tip.

3. Show examples or resources to solve a problem and put tip into action.

Write an article with 3, 5, 7 or 10 tips in it. It's best to give a complete tip as listed above rather than just list 29 tips.