Knowing the Market

Another common myth regarding PC security software is that “free antivirus” or “free antispyware” is worse than “paid versions” of same products. In fact, we’re talking about feature-limited editions - less controls, simpler admin panels, no live support, etc. But signature databases are same as with paid software, because engineers cannot waste time coding separate databases for users of free and paid programs. It would be silly. This kind of malware usually collects private data reports it to home server and creates the profile of your browsing activities.

This scam is very simple; the thieves simply wait until some unsuspecting user who is searching for, say, airline ticket offers, finds their site offering dirt-cheap airline tickets. Really pleased with himself and looking forward to the trip, the user fills in the form, entering his credit card number, expiry date and verification value (CVV). Data loggers, key loggers are just a few programs which harvest info from your computer. Winclear is the only program created specially to auto remove such spywares. 74. That is why every computer owner needs winclear.

Protect With Winclear :How To Delete History Internet
Identity theft protection is quickly becoming a hot topic. Every day, computer users are haunted by stories of people falling victim to identity theft. The biggest culprit in this recent rise in cyber crime is spyware, the buzzword that is on the lips of every internet user. Experts are now saying that nothing is 100 percent secure on the internet anymore, and users must take steps to protect themselves. Winclear is the only software which is capable of removing keylogger programs. Because even if you erase the file that person can use file retriever and in just seconds the file that you had been erased are still available. Winclear has been the industry leader in fighting keyloggers for the last 8 years.

Winclear:
Just because a banking site labels itself as secure does not mean that a user is protected from a keylogger. That is the reason why you need Winclear installed onto your computer. The Internet is a source of myriad information that can help us make our grueling existence easier and happier. Protect your computer security by using Winclear! More about Winclear here: Win Clear.

All serious writers find it necessary to have someone read their draft and offer useful comments. Each honest, critical reviewer has a hand in helping a writer turn his draft into a piece of literary excellence. You may even see your name listed in the credits someday.

If you find a piece you consider wonderful, and your comment is ‘this is wonderful!’, and give it five stars, that is not a critique, that is praise. We all do it and sometimes the item is perfect, there really isn’t any more to say. The author would like to be told though, why you think it’s wonderful. Is it the story? The characters? Did you relate to the plot, or did it make you laugh or cry?

I love praise. Everyone needs a good dose regularly. Praise is my pay for writing; but after all, I joined the site to learn the meat and potatoes of writing. If I also receive a little praise, that’s the gravy.

What makes a good story, in the end, is the interpretation of the reader. Everyone is not going to like or agree with everything they read. A good reviewer reads objectively. The writer doesn’t need your rating or your opinion on either his opinion or his choice of subject, he needs it on how well he wrote the piece. After he’s published, you can choose whether to buy it or not.

Writers must be able to trust their reviewers. Most authors on the site are working toward publication, and their aim is for the item to be the best it can be. Be honest and encouraging. They can get there without you, but it will be much more difficult.

Honest and constructive critiques are important to both the reviewer and the author. As we learn to read critically, we are learning to write more intelligently. Reading critically helps you to become aware of how you, as a reader, respond.

When I read an item I read it seriously, as completely as possible with two intentions. The first is to help the author to the best of my abilities. I help in the areas I can. I don’t attempt to cover all the issues of a critique because I don’t have the knowledge.

The second is for me, it helps with my own writing. As I read a story and notice things that may need changing, then read my own items, I can more easily see where I have made the same mistakes.

By rating honestly — and providing the all important constructive criticism, we do a great job of helping everyone. It is always better to rate honestly, regardless of age. If we were to rate highly, and a younger member submitted an item to their English teacher, expecting an “A” and got back a “D”, that wouldn’t be good at all, would it?

On the other end, if it is an older person, and they’re rated a “5″ when they deserve a “3″, then they submit their item to a publisher or publication and get a scathing rejection letter, they’d be devastated.

Hopefully, while you are helping others by pointing out mistakes and corrections and giving suggestions, it helps you to explore your own writing style and learn what you like and don’t like as you go. Reviewing is one of the best ways to improve your own writing and creative processes. So keep that in mind when you’re doing it… remember to take it in for yourself as well as the author you’re reviewing.

So you see, learning to give a good review is critical to both the review’er and review’ee.

Keep Writing!

Harriet has written many newsletters and articles on the subject of novice writing and reviewing with common sense and encouragement. Her portfolio can be found at http://www.Writing.Com/authors/storytime She is an author on Writing.Com
which is located at http://www.Writing.Com/ and is accessible by anyone.

One great benefit of article marketing is the generation of high-quality backlinks.

Simply put, a backlink is a link to your website from another website. There is a difference in quality of backlinks, and search engines know the difference. When marketers first learned that search engines rewarded websites that had many links from other websites, they began to establish link farms (they traded links with each other) that were nothing more than pages upon pages of links. Clearly, these links were not helpful, either for someone looking to follow a link, or for the search engines, who at first supposed all the links meant a high-quality site was being linked to.

As search engines got smarter, marketers realized they needed links to be contextual: that is, there should be a body of content (at least a paragraph) surrounding the backlink. This new understanding defeated the purpose of link farms, and marketers began to understand and see the value in article marketing: They could write one article, send it to 100 or more article sites, hopefully have it reprinted several times, and have contextual (high-value) backlinks from a number of sources.

Generating quality backlinks is one of the real values in article marketing. But search engines have gotten smarter still, and they now tend to see this as a form of link spamming (though not as bad as the link farms).

So how can a marketer engage in article marketing to generate backlinks without appearing to spam? By subtly changing your content for every 20 or so submissions you make. Some marketers change the context immediately surrounding their website link, which is good, but I suggest you go a step further and actually edit your article a bit. If you aim for a 300 word article, and you write 350 words, pare it down to your original goal and submit your article to 20 or 25 sites.

Then, edit your article (and resource box) by working back in the extra 50 words and removing others to create a very similar, yet different, article (you can keep the same title). Submit again to another 20 sites or so. You can do this over and over again, because each time you rework your article (and your resource box), you will change the content enough that it doesn’t appear as though you are link spamming.

This is how you generate quality backlinks that search engines love.

Jeremy M. Hoover is an online freelance writer who specializes in article writing for website owners to use to establish themselves as experts and generate traffic, leads, and backlinks. If you need articles, Jeremy can write them for you fast. Contact him through his website, http://www.jhooverwebcopy.com (or at jeremyhoover AT gmail.com), and mention this codeEA8405to buy up to 20 articles for $5 each (when purchased at one time). Read more marketing articles by Jeremy at his blog, http://www.jhooverwebcopy.blogspot.com

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 - when to say ‘bloom’ instead of ‘grow,’ or ‘confused’ instead of ‘befuddled.’

But having a flair doesn’t make them an expert in the field.

I’m an expert ad copywriter. But I can’t write a journalistic piece to save my life. I have no experience in this area, and it’s just not my bag. So I happily leave this task to the reporters. Likewise, a retailer, marketer or salesperson should leave the writing to the writer. Yet they seldom do.

A copywriter is forever trying to explain why he inserted a word where he did, or why he chose one expression over another. Frequently, a client or employer takes a writer’s carefully constructed piece and turns it into a wordgarbage wasteland. An atrocity… of verbosity!

If you’re such an offender, shame on you! Let your writer do the job he or she was hired for: to make you look good. But if you insist on meddling with the marketing, critiquing the catalog and butchering the brochure, you may as well learn how to do it right. Master the secret to writing that packs a punch and makes people view you as a credible source. Learn the tricks of the trade that will get you taken seriously!

Use concrete examples to prove your point. Repeating an idea in different words leaves your writing flat and empty. “We’re great! We’re so awesome! You won’t believe how cool we are!” Why are you cool? Did you help a billion people save money last year? Did you rescue an endangered species from extinction? If you can’t back your claim with solid evidence, no one will believe what you say. Be specific! “I’m thinking of you” might win brownie points, but “I’m thinking of you in that little black dress you wore last weekend”now that’ll actually get you somewhere!

Resist the temptation to cheer for yourself. You’re good, and you know it. But if you must crow about it while doing your peacock strut, tell it to your mother because no one else cares. The world’s consumers aren’t interested in what you can do. They’re interested in what you can do for them.

Don’t pepper your writing with bad puns and kitschy wordplay. This is a weakness of mine. Puns come to me at the strangest times… in the shower, while I’m driving, as I’m trying to fall asleep. I want to paint the world with my puns, but alas, this is not appropriate! No one wants to click on their financial advisor’s website and see him raving to everyone in the free world that he’s “so money, baby!” Puns are fun, but the true meaning of a well-turned phrase is one that’s used at the right time and in the right context.

Use the active voice. I forgot about this for a long time, and my writing suffered for it. The active voice lends a certain dynamic quality to your writing. “The teacher wrote the words on the blackboard” employs the active voice. “The words on the blackboard were written by the teacher” illustrates the passive voice. Don’t be passive! Avoid any form of the verb to be, such as ‘is’, ‘are’, ‘was’, ‘were’. Practice this by literally using your own voice. Read your writing aloud, doing your best “announcer” impression. If as you read, you find yourself lapsing into a sing-songy elementary-school kid reading his essay out loud, you probably failed the assignment.

Get rid of the “asides” in parentheses. They might look cute in an email to a girlfriend, but ‘”asides” that stray from the main point of an informative paragraph make you look like a scatterbrain. Interrupting a thought with an unrelated remark is distracting to the reader. It’s a comedic tactic that plays out well in informal writing, but just doesn’t fly in the real world.

Avoid the following: double negatives, redundancy, dangling participles.

The double negative:
“It’s not impossible.” Why not just say, “It’s possible.” A negative plus a negative really does make a positive, even in writing!

Redundancy:
“We’re also offering free gifts to our members too.” ‘Also’ and ‘too’ may be at opposite ends of the sentence, but they’re serving the same exact purpose and that means one has to go. Better: “We’re also offering free gifts to our members.”

Dangling participle:
Beware the dangler in this sentence! “Shivering with cold, Anne’s hat barely covered her ears.” Here, ‘Shivering with cold’ should modify Anne because she’s the one who is shivering. The way this reads now, Anne’s hat is the one with goosebumps. Acceptable: “Anne’s hat barely covered her ears, and she shivered with cold.”

Employ parallelism. Parallelism helps reinforce a point with repeated sentence structure. Bulletpoints best illustrate parallelism. An example:

The product effectively:

- relieves headaches
- eases tension
- boosts immunity

Notice that each bullet follows the same format: action verb, object of verb. To stray from this format is to do a disservice to the bullet. Paralellism also works in a sequence separated by commas. “I like pie, I like cake, and I like pudding.” Another example: “She enjoys climbing, hiking, and fishing.” The incorrect version of this sentence: “She enjoys climbing, hiking, and to fish.”

Avoid wordiness. Eliminate the following words and phrases from your vocabulary, and feel better about yourself: very, unique, being that, utilize/utilization, a lot, needless to say, it goes without saying, in back of, without a doubt, at some point in time, as to whether, it seems to me, oddly enough. They’re just filler, and they’re in the same category as their credibility-stealing cousins redundancy, the double negative, and the passive voice.

Go easy on the prepositional phrases. “The girl who was sitting on the porch of the house that was up on the hill, felt the breeze as it was gently blowing through her hair.” Eegads, what a mouthful! Correct this problem by breaking up your ideas into separate sentences. “The house stood atop the hill, and as the girl sat on the porch she felt the breeze blowing through her hair.”

Use adjectives sparingly. “What? But my English teacher taught me…” Forget about what your teacher said. You’re running with the big dogs now. Which is more interesting? “The boy skipped happily and grinned openly,” or “The boy skipped down the hill, a grin playing about his face.”

Don’t repeat words. I repeat: don’t repeat words.

Avoid hyphenating words that shouldn’t be hyphenated. What is this new trend that’s sweeping the nation? “Put-on your coat.” “Please check-in before 9 pm.” Hyphens are used to join two words that, when used in conjunction, take on another word form. “Put on your coat” doesn’t require a hyphen because you can also say “Put your coat on.” ‘Check-in’ would require a hyphen if the sentence read like this: “Check-in is at 9 pm.” This is because check and in work together here as a noun. Hyphenation is tricky, I admit; even as a grammarian I must consult my styleguide from time to time. I suggest you do the same.

For the Love of God, SPELLCHECK! Enough said.

Don’t over-exclaim or use excess punctuation marks in formal writing or advertising. And for God’s sake please don’t slip emoticons in to help you convey a feeling. That’s what the vast English vocabulary is for. When people see you dropping exclam-bombs everywhere, they’ll think you’re cheap, tawdry and lacking design capabilities. Remember, you can use big bold fonts to make certain buzzwords jump right off the page.

Dashes - and - ellipses… are not acceptable ways to finesse a poorly constructed paragraph. There’s nothing wrong with having two separate sentences instead of one that’s broken up into sections. Dashes and ellipses are a copywriting crutch. I’m tempted by them just as much as the next guy. It’s so easy to insert a little pause in my rambler of a run-on using those three cute little dots. The ellipse… I love it! But I must control myself. Make a simple statement, punctuate with finality, move on to the next idea. Don’t underestimate the power of the period. We all need a break now and then!

Don’t be afraid to use contractions. More and more I come across emails written by people who are either too lazy to use contractions, or they are simply fooled into thinking it is going to make them look smart. What’s wrong with the sentence I just wrote? Contractions such as it’s, I’m, we’re, you’re, they’re, couldn’t, wouldn’t didn’t, doesn’t, aren’t etc. are a way to sound conversational in writing. That’s how people talk. What if you were making a formal speech? If you eliminated all the contractions, you’d sound pretty robotlike, wouldn’t you?

One space will do. Those who are behind the writing times still type two spaces after an end punctuation mark. Modern word processing programs have eliminated the need for this, as they can sense the need for a skoche more room after periods, question marks and exclams. So as much as I applaud you for being fastidious in your space insertion, you can stop it right now. Do your clients a favor! They’re not doubling up on spaces in their websites, so when you submit writing for them, don’t you do it either.

This article is lengthy, but every single sentence holds weight. Read, and heed these words! Don’t be an advertising amateur; if you really want to wow ‘em with your wordsmithing wizardry, memorize and hold true to the writing rules outlined here. Above all: practice, practice, practice! Master these tactics, and you’re sure to establish yourself as a writer with valuable insights, expert information and a powerful message to the world. And a writer like that gets taken seriously.

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

Dina Giolitto is a New-Jersey based Copywriting Consultant with nine years’ industry experience. Her current focus is web content and web marketing for a multitude of products and services although the bulk of her experience lies in retail for big-name companies like Toys”R”Us. Visit http://www.wordfeeder.com for rates and samples.

From our deconstruction of hundreds of Hollywood blockbusters at www.managing-creativity.com/

The Hero’s Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the Hollywood movies we have deconstructed are based on this template.

Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters.

The Hero’s Journey:

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

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

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

and more…

Sample Movie Deconstructed: Red River (1948)

FADE IN: role on text; the open book; reference to the famous Chisum trail.

Context: a wagon train.

Hero departing on a Journey: Tom Dunson wants to leave the Wagon Train.

Hero’s Ethics: “I signed nothing else I’d stay…”

Warning against the Journey: “this is Indian country…”

Meeting the Mentor: “yes, we know that…”

Interdiction: “you’re too good a gun for me to let you leave…”

Hero’s Nature [referenced through other people]: “he’s set in his ways once his mind’s made up…”

Meeting the Mentor: “it’s me and Dunson…”

Hero’s Romantic and Inner Challenge: Tom doesn’t let his wife come along.

Symbol of the Hero’s Romantic and Inner Challenge: the bracelet.

Journey to the First Threshold: Tom and Groot on their way.

View of the First Threshold from a distance: Texas on the other side of the Red River.

Physical Marker / Border to the First Threshold: the Red River.

Inner Challenge Developed: we should have taken her with us.

Obstacle to the First Threshold: the big smoke and battling the Indians.

Inner Challenge Developed: Tom finds the bracelet.

Mentor’s Capabilities Developed: Groot talks to the Indians.

Meeting the Alternate Hero: Matt appears with a cow.

Alternate Hero’s Capabilities: Matt quickly draws a gun.

Hero and Alternate Hero Relationship Developed [confrontational]: Tom slaps Matt; “well, are you going to use it…”

Crossing into the First Threshold: crossing the river into Texas.

The Elixir: Tom creates a Brand. Matt wants one too…”once he’s earned it…”

Threshold Guardian: Don Diego’s Mexicans.

Foreshadow of the Final Conflict: “by watching his eyes…”

Hero’s Ethics: burying the Mexican.

Inner Cave: building the herd and the house.

Time Shift: ten years later.

Pushed to the Physical Separation: “unless we can move them I’m broke…”

Developing Characters and Relationships: Tom, Matt and Groot discussing which trail to take.

Developing the Alternate Hero’s Capabilities: “I led a patrol up there…”"I’ve been using [my gun arm] a lot these past few years…”

Hero’s Inner Challenge: “cost him a woman,” the bracelet.

Developing the Alternate Hero: “Matt, I’m glad you come home…”

Developing Hero and Alternate Hero Relationship: “you don’t think I’d do it…”

Warning of the Physical Separation: men have been ambushed there.

Resistance to the Physical Separation: Meeker wants his beef.

Meeting the Shape Shifter: Cherry Valance.

Alternative Hero and Shape Shifter confrontation: Matt and Cherry test each other.

Foreshadow of Trial 1: the assistant cook stealing sugar.

Meeting Allies: around the poker table.

Pushing toward the Physical Separation: Tom speaks to the men.

Warnings: some men didn’t make it; it’ll be hard.

The Rules of the World of the Transformation: if you start, you must finish.

Physical Separation: they set off….yeee ha..

Warnings: “they say we can’t make it…”

Developing Characters and Relationships: Groot; the teeth.

Foreshadow of the Separation: the first mention of Abilene.

Developing Characters and Relationships: “I didn’t ask you…”"I suppose if I tangle with him I’d have to take you on too…”

Pushing Forward / Developing Characters and Relationships: Tom changes horses.

Foreboding: “all the same, I don’t like it…”

Developing Characters and Relationships: Groot; the teeth.

Foreshadow of Trial 1: stealing sugar.

Foreshadow of the Separation: Tom doesn’t want them to stop at the watering hole.

Foreshadow of the Hero’s Nature: he’ll buy his wife a pair of red shoes.

Developing Characters and Relationships: shaving.

Foreshadow of Trial 1 [dramatic]: stampede.

Pushed to Trial 1[dramatic]: Dan is dead.

Hero’s True Nature: “see that she [his wife] gets full pay for the drive…”

Hero’s Ethics: Christian burial.

Trial 1: Tom tries to give the boy a whipping; Matt prevents it; Mentor’s warning - “you was wrong…”

Developing Characters and Relationships: “you’re too soft…”

Pushing Forward: the storm.

Foreshadow of the Separation: “we should have turned back…”

Warnings: the injured point man appears.

Foreshadow of the Separation: the injured man mentions Abilene.

Trial 2: shooting the quitters; Matt confronts Tom; Groot tells him he should have been injured some more…

Foreshadow of Separation: some men have run away.

Pushing to Separation: “keep moving Matt…”

Pushing to Separation: “tired men don’t runaway.”

Warning of the Separation: “then no one will want to run away…”

Marker: crossing the river again.

Pushing to Separation: “that’s their job…”

Trial 3: “I’m gonna hang ya…”

Separation: “I’m gonna kill you.”

Foreboding of the Final Confrontation: watching their backs.

Foreshadow of the Final Conflict: counting the days until Dunson returns with some men.

Warning of the Sword: finding the Indian arrow.

Foreboding of the Final Confrontation: Matt can’t sleep.

Meeting the Oracle: women and coffee.

Foreshadow of the Reward: “is she pretty…”

At the Outer Chamber: on the hilltop.

Guardians of the Sword: the Indians circling the wagons.

Pulled to the Sword: “everyone wants to ride point…”

Seizing the Sword: meeting Tess Mallay.

Near Death Experience: Tess is hit with an arrow.

Celebration: the dance.

Developing the Romantic Challenge: Tess talking about Matt.

Foreboding of the Final Confrontation: jumpy in the fog; “hold it, right there…”

Reward: Matt kisses Tess.

Pushed to the Atonement: the river is flooding.

Atonement with the Father: Tess confronts Dunson; the bracelet; Dunson remembers his lost love.

Apotheosis: Matt finds the train and gets to Abilene.

Ultimate Boon: Beef sells at £20 a head.

Time Pressure: Dunson is only 5 hours behind.

Refusal: collecting the cheque (it won’t make any difference); Matt won’t run.

Developing the Romantic Challenge: Tess waits in the bedroom.

Magic Flight: the rider runs from the approaching Dunson; “he’s got ten or twelve with him…”

Crossing the Return Threshold: Dunson crosses the tracks into Abilene.

Shape Shifter’s Reward: Dunson shoots Cherry.

Master of the Two Worlds: Matt and Dunson shoot and fight.

Rescue from Without: Tess intervenes.

Freedom to Live: Matt gets his own brand, ’cause he earned it.

Learn more…

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

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

Kal Bishop, MBA

**********************************

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/