When you work online, the temptation is to only promote there, but a business leaflet can help you market your services both online and offline. Here’s more advice from Kes of Printed.com.

How to Write a Compelling Business Leaflet

A well-crafted business leaflet is a powerful marketing tool. Bad business leaflets are worth less than nothing and turn people away. How can you get it right?

If you have a company or service to promote then you may well have thought about putting together a leaflet to show people what you can offer. The problem is that whilst you will have seen plenty of such leaflets around before, you will also know that a lot of them are badly produced and do not achieve their intended aims. Although some of the faults might be obvious, it’s still difficult to create a really effective leaflet. If yours is going to rise above the rest, you can’t afford to take chances.

Learn from others’ mistakes

One of the first steps in the process of designing a really killer leaflet is to check out the competition. You will have seen leaflets all over the place, including the ones that probably come through your front door on a daily basis. Some of these leaflets will be terrible, some reasonable, but few are ever outstanding. To start with, collect a range of leaflets from different companies and try to get a sense of what makes them good or bad.

It should go without saying that immaculate spelling, punctuation and grammar are mandatory. Such mistakes make you look unprofessional and can often be enough to send your leaflet straight into the bin. Beyond that, take a look at the text and layout. Is all the necessary information there? Is there too much – do the leaflets look crowded or busy? What about the use of colour and images – do they help or hinder the message?

Less is more

There’s a real art to crafting good leaflets, because it’s such a limited medium. That can be one of the pitfalls, too: the temptation can be to cram two sides of A4 or A5 with every piece of information you can. In reality, it’s far better to be spare. Your leaflets need to be readable – easy both on the eye and on the mind. The language should be clear and straightforward, and any pictures or styling should add to this rather than distract from the leaflets’ text. At the same time, leaflets that are dull or lack clarity will end up in the recycling. Check through the pile of leaflets you collected and try to gauge whether this was a factor in your assessment of them. People see so many leaflets that a badly laid-out one probably won’t get read at all.

Fix a problem

Beyond these basic principles, your leaflet needs to answer a question. Leaflets that describe what a company does or some wonderful new product have missed the point. Customers won’t be impressed enough to buy something just on the basis of it being amazing: it has to be something they actually need.

In many ways, leaflets aren’t about your company at all. Primarily they are about the customer. They have to engage with the reader’s needs, and present a solution to a problem that the customer has. Writing about a fantastic new carpet cleaner might make a sale, but you stand a far better chance if you tap into an existing concern. Replacing old carpets is expensive and time-consuming, but what if your product can breathe a new lease of life into them and avoid the trouble of a refit? People will be much more likely to look twice.

And finally…

Don’t forget to include clear contact details at the end of your leaflet. To finish, it helps to leave your reader with a strong prompt, reminding them of why they would want to call or visit your website and encouraging them to do so. ‘To rid your cat of fleas, visit…’ ‘To receive a 25 per cent discount, call before the end of the month…’ Otherwise, your leaflets simply present potential customers with some tantalising information but leave them waiting for a resolution.

This article was supplied by Printed.com, the new home of The Digital Print Partnership, a supplier of quality digital print and an accredited member of the Direct Marketing Association. (Image: KaCey97007)

by Steve Kellas

I am a life-long learner. I live for learning. To me, this is one of the most exciting things about being a copywriter – I get to learn about practically anything, and then I get to share my lessons with others. It’s wonderful.

So what do you do when you have to write about something that you have absolutely no interest in? Something that you don’t care about? What do you do when you have to write exciting copy about, oh…say, drill bits?

If you want your writing to sing with passion, then you need to find your love for learning.

Research is learning about holes

When you start any writing project, you probably research the subject (at least I hope you do, even if only briefly) in order to have enough information to write about it coherently.

You fill in the holes in your knowledge. Ordinarily, research can get you through the project, especially if you are writing about something you are interested in like snowboarding or blogging.

But when it comes to drill bits (yes, I have had to write copy about them), you need to re-discover a special place inside you that loves to learn new things – anything! No matter how mundane. If you can get excited about the learning process itself, then you are well on your way to being a better writer, because instead of having to find a place of passion for the subject, you can find it in your love of discovery.

Plug in to your subject

You have your own unique way of learning. Think about it. You probably learn in a different way to others around you. Perhaps you’re a visual learner, needing to see things to understand them. So look at pictures of drill bits and the types of holes they make and in which materials.

Maybe you’re a physical learner and you need to touch things to really understand them. Go out and get drilling! Try it out and learn about why bits for wood don’t work so well on metal. Then try that titanium bit made for drilling metal and you’ll immediately understand the benefit.

Maybe you’re a reader and don’t like touching tools. If that’s the case, you need to get magazines about drilling and learn all you can about it, really love the process – YOUR personal learning process. When you truly enjoy learning, that enjoyment will translate into passion in your writing.

Passion brings it all to life

Readers can sense when we don’t care. They are intuitive. Flat writing is boring and, well… flat. The reader is interested in the subject (they did seek out your piece didn’t they?) and they need to feel that the writer shares their enthusiasm. Don’t fake it. Love learning itself, and let that stoke the fires of passion in your writing.

Rediscover your learning passion

It’s time to get back in touch with that child inside you and find your passion for learning once again. When you discover this child-like curiosity, you will find your writing will flow much easier. You will have cultivated an innate understanding of the subject you are writing about, without fakery. And your passion for learning about even the little things in life (like drill bits) will take your writing to a whole new world.

Steve Kellas is a copywriter, trainer and content director with Big Star Content, a content creation company in the UK. He has taught copywriting courses for over eight years on two continents and is currently learning about allotment gardening.

(Photo: Mike Baird)

Ivin Viljoen has become a regular reader of this blog, so I was pleased when he offered to contribute this guest post.

Samurais and ninjas take years, perhaps even decades, to develop their practice to the point where they are ready to go it alone. In the same way, new writers should constantly hone their craft to continually improve. Here are six ways to sharpen your writing skills.

1. Blog

The best way to keep those ‘writing muscles’ of yours toned is to flex them through a ‘literary gym’, daily. You can do this by starting a blog. The most common forms your blog can take are journals, a column, writing reviews and general blabber. There’s a lot of blabbering in cyberspace, and a lot of it is trash. You can measure your success as a blogger by how many actually read your blog, how many posts of yours are linked to and how many interact with you and your material through commenting.

2. Volunteer

The best way to learn how newsletters, blogs, magazines and columns work is by writing for some. Many publications will not give you a paying writing gig without knowing who you are, but they will give you a chance to write for free, so the best way to get involved is to volunteer.  Many blogs will also give you an opportunity to do a guest post on their blog. Get in touch with the owners of your favourite blogs and email them asking if you could guest post.

3. Creative writing contests

I know this is a bit ‘senior year’ but there are many blogs, magazines and newspapers that have regular creative writing contests. What’s nice about them is that they will force you out of our comfort zone and you will broaden your repertoire as a writer. The more you get involved with freelancing the more you will realize that you are expected to stretch when you write, so it’s best you have some experience.

4. Journaling

This is very close to blogging, but with journaling, you can practice getting personal, digging deep and healing your emotions through writing about them. It’s like you are your own personal shrink. Now if journaling is the form of your blog, other people will become co-psychiatrists and perhaps even like a close group of friends. If you can journal successfully and get a response from your readers, you are well on your way to understanding how to approach writing novels.

5. Poetry

This is one of my favourite pastimes.Good writing is often poetic. If you can write a novel like a poet, that doesn’t mean that everything should rhyme, but that your sentences should be rich with poetic structure to raise it above the mediocre. If you can write like a poet you are well on your way to being a master wordsmith; just ask Shakespeare.

6. Seek out a mentor

Mentoring is not a new concept. Find an author, a professor, or a legend in your field, and spend a lot of time with this person. The best time to do so is while they are working themselves – this is when they’re most brilliant. You get acquainted with their methods of inspiration, intricacies of their personality and work ethic. I have found one learns most by watching. And then, go apply what you have learned.

Bonus:  The Muse

I know, I know, corny. Can you discredit the pinnacle of inspiration among the mystical gods? The muse is almost always a person that brings out the Shakespeare in every amateur. The influence of a muse in a writer’s life can transform him from trying to break the mould of novice and catapult him into unknown horizons of utter brilliance.

Practice your writing, seek out a mentor to guide you and find a muse to inspire you. In that order.

Stop dreaming and make it happen!

Ivin Viljoen is a columnist, scriptwriter, blogger and published author. He blogs daily at http://authopublisher.com

(Photo: Alex Mestas)

While it’s easy to argue that it’s the story that brings a novel to life, I consider it’s the characters you create, that conveys the delivery in your mind as a writer, to that of your reader.

How you pull that character together is another enquiry altogether.

Some writers spend endless hours writing a long thesis for each character so they’d know if the character would prefer to eat a Rossi ice cream in Southend-on-Sea or visit a takeaway for pizza or lasagne; or would they prefer their local Italian restaurant for those items?

They’ll know if their great aunt worked for the CIA and if the friend who lives over on twelfth avenue buys his Sunday paper from the local Wal-Mart or has it delivered, even if the aunt and paper boy or girl aren’t even used in the book.

Most of this detail I find unnecessary, but often little character traits are essential. Perhaps the paper delivery boy or girl will see a suspicious individual leave a house at a certain time?

Essential traits

Characters must be memorable. We all know exactly who we think of when we imagine Sherlock Holmes, especially before the recent movie (which I enjoyed but Sherlock was not the man in my recollection.) We have him pictured and understood in our memory banks. We know the type of person he is. We know his ‘special’  behavior; the way we know the character traits of those we love, in our spouse or partner.

Believable; yes they must be realistic as well. Even Spiderman is realistic in the way that we understand him in our mind. He’s three dimensional; we know the fully rounded person, not just the way he looks and the way he way he wears his clothes.

As writers, we think through our character’s lives. We don’t want to be tripped up later saying she did one thing when that didn’t fit in at all with the previous personality set we’ve introduced. We get to know how a character would react in certain situations, what’d they do and what was the most likely outcome. Of course, as writers, we’re trying to show a character arc through the manuscript so we can see what changes occur, but they’d have to fit in with the person’s general manner or possibilities.

Naming Characters

Names and locations are so difficult to choose. They should match the person or town described, but not be so common or confusing as to cause distress to the reader. How often have you got to page 55 and then had to track back to page 14 to see what someone was called because you’ve been confused by the characters or the location.

If you choose someone called George Bush, your reader will place a character trait on the person in your book without reading further. They’ll confuse your man with that of a president. If your lady is called Halle Berry then apart from a lawsuit probably on its way to you (if the legal department of your publisher hasn’t knocked it out first) you can’t portray her as a ninety year old spinster weighing 300 pounds. It doesn’t work.

Use the internet to search for the names you wish to use. There may already be people with your character’s name, but you can confirm, at least to your own satisfaction, that you’re not framing a reader’s viewpoint too quickly. My daughter has a rare name, then we met someone with the same name. Impossible, but true. It will happen. No point in giving your lead star the same name as the CEO of a rich list company. You may not know them, but many will or might.

The final note on names is to make them appear unlike all the other characters. If you choose John Smith, Jim Smythe and James Smithie you’re going to get your reader to suffer from twisted blood. Better to go for Mark Black, David Hinton and Graham Clitheroe. My apologies if these names belong to you; I didn’t check Google and you won’t be in my book.

Location, location

If you’re using real locations you mustn’t talk about London and then place Big Ben next to Wembley stadium. If your reader knows the site, they’ll place the location in their mind and if you’re not accurate, their belief in the rest of your story might falter. If you take off from Miami international airport, you can’t arrive at JFK in thirty minutes. Concorde no longer lives, but if you were in a Star Trek style story, thirty minutes might be too long.

Having said all of this, even if you call your leading lady Sandy Wiltshire, you can still picture her as Halle Berry and construct a character set that matches your chosen delight, while probably stealing a few traits from some friends of yours. So while you might be thinking of Ms Berry, your lady may be a black actress, attractive, provocative, with a nice figure, but she’ll be slightly different and your reader won’t be thinking of Halle Berry, possibly just a Halle Berry ‘type’,  but were you thinking of Catwoman or Perfect Stranger; the two are not alike at all?

PS I quite liked Catwoman, but I understand I’m in the minority.

Today’s guest post is from scriptwriter and script doctor Stephen Hall. Follow the progress of  his book Chasing The Will at StephenHallOnline.com

When writing for an audience, there are few more embarrassing things to discover after submitting your work than a mistake, or worse yet, mistakes in your submission. Not only are they embarrassing, but your mistakes could cost you future work with the publisher or diminish your credibility in the eyes of your readers. To avoid such mishaps there are aspects of your writing that you should review before you submit your work. Here are a few of the more common mishaps that might occur in your writing.

1. Proofing

Not proofreading your writing might be one of the greatest mistakes you can make. Even great writers must often read and reread their work to ensure that it is fit to be seen by others. Proofing your work is even more important if you know that the only editor reviewing and revising the work will be you. To ensure that you catch a majority of your errors, consider reading your work aloud to hear how it sounds as you speak the words. You may be surprised by how many additional mistakes you catch with this method, even if you’ve already proofread your work several times.

2. Improper Word Use

When you proofread your work, there are many issues for which you should be on the lookout. One of the more major and most common of these mistakes is improper word use. Mistakes like using ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’, ‘there’ instead of ‘their’ or ‘they’re’ and ‘it’s’ instead of ‘its’ are some of the likely culprits you might find lying in wait for you along the way.

3. Word Choice

If you aren’t sure of a word’s meaning, look the word up before you use it in a sentence. Using eloquent words just because they sound good could leave you looking pretentious, uneducated, and your readers left scratching their heads as to what you were really trying to say. Sometimes simpler is better.

4. Tense Change

Didn’t it sound weird when I am saying that I will not changed tense in a sentence? Moving back and forth between tenses can stick out like a sore thumb. We aren’t conjugating Latin verbs here. Chose a tense and stick with it.

5. Online Writing

One of the best ways to become frustrated with online writing is by using an internet site’s application in which to write your work. There is nothing wrong with writing your material in an application with which you are comfortable and then copying and pasting your work into the site’s submission area. Just ask someone who has spent an hour or so writing an article only to have it swallowed by the internet and not having a saved copy to refer to. As a side note to this tip however, be sure to check for glitches in the formatting of your work that may have been altered or affected by the move before you submit it.

6. Copy and Paste

When working online, you might find it beneficial to copy and paste the directions for your writing directly onto your work page. By having the instructions for your assignment available to you upon whatever software you are using to write, you can quickly and efficiently refer to the publisher’s or client’s guidelines. This reference tool can keep you on track and on topic. Just make sure you don’t forget and accidentally submit these instructions along with your work.

7. Long Sentences

In this day and age, people just aren’t up for long sentences like they used to be. Most readers want quick and easy information packed into short powerful sentences, and would prefer not to be lost in a sentence that just keeps going on and on for the sake of taking up space, and those same readers would likely be appreciative of sentences that are kept to a minimum of a line or two rather than three or four lines like this one is turning out to be.

8. Fragments

Sentence fragments can throw. Your readers for a loop. See! While short, compact sentences can often be a writer’s best friend, it helps to ensure that those sentences are complete and make sense. Otherwise, you may be leaving your work choppy and nonsensical.

9. Broad or Overly General Statements

Saying that Harry Potter is the best movie ever, might be true in your opinion, but that doesn’t mean it’s true for everyone. Saying stocks are a great investment, may be true to some extent, but are all stocks really a great investment? It is important to keep the opinions and statements you place in your writing, qualified and backed up with supporting evidence.

10. Slang and Abbreviations

In this age of quick texts and fast information, it’s often easy to forget that not everyone understands what LOL or BTW means. Those who aren’t familiar with such terms might think you are referring to the new NBA, MLB, or NFL, which in many areas of the world aren’t commonly known abbreviations either. My point here is that in a world globally connected through the internet, it’s important to remember that what is commonplace to you, might not be common knowledge to those reading your work.

This is a guest post written by Tom Walker, a writer and designer from the UK who works for a printer supplies company specialising in Epson Stylus cartridges, toner and paper. You can read more of his writing about print media and design on their blog.

(Photo: bookgrl)

Not one finger touched the keyboard in the making of this post. Instead, I dictated the post using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. This is not the first time I have used the software. I first tried Dragon NaturallySpeaking back in the early 1990s. I was writing a dissertation and I wanted to save myself some time and trouble by dictating it. It wasn’t that successful. The software did not recognise my speech very easily, it took weeks to train and I spent so much time making corrections that it would have been easier just to type it out. So I was intrigued to see what would happen this time around.

Installation and setup

It only took a couple of minutes to install the files, set up my microphone and do a couple of other housekeeping tasks. Then I started the training process. To my surprise, it was extremely quick. It took no more than 5 to 10 minutes to read through the training file, which also gave some handy tips on how to use the software. Once it had saved my voice files, I was ready to start using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I decided to put it to the test initially by dictating a paragraph or so see how accurate it was. I was pleasantly surprised by how easily Dragon recognised my voice, coped with my UK turns of phrase and generally got it right. There were very few errors. Once I had finished dictating, I closed down the program and it saved my updated voice files. This process enables Dragon NaturallySpeaking to learn and to improve accuracy over time.

Putting Dragon to the test

Then I decided to give it a real test by dictating this post. To get started I clicked on the microphone and the Dragon bar, opened Windows live writer and began to dictate. You can see the results for yourself. While there were a couple of minor errors, I didn’t spend any more time correcting those than I would have done had I typed out the entire post. I would say that I had to make no more than five corrections in this post of more than 800 words.

Mastering voice commands

One area that can be tricky to master is the use of voice commands. These can be used to handle standard program functions, though the standard version of the software does not allow commands for all programs. For example, when I dictate text into Microsoft Word not only is it easy for me to create new lines and new paragraphs, but I can also save documents, format text, create bulleted lists and more. When dictating in Windows live writer however telling the program to save did not work.

Old issues resolved

When I originally bought Dragon NaturallySpeaking, one of the things that annoyed me was how long it took to start the software and how slow it made my computer. Neither of these issues applies now. Another issue that has been sorted out is that the program no longer interprets every breath as a potential word. That means I can take time to think without having to turn the microphone off. That said, the microphone is very sensitive so if you fumble your words by dictating everything that it thinks you have said will appear.

Useful features for writers

There are far too many features in this program for me to list them all in this review, so I have tried to focus on the ones that writers will find most useful. For example, you can import documents so that the program becomes familiar with the phrases you usually write. You can change the program mode to allow you to focus on numbers or spelling. You can correct certain words to help the program understand your local accent.

Health benefits for writers

There is also a lot of additional functionality in other versions of the program, such as the ability to run your whole computer without having to type anything. Even with the standard version that I am running I can see the possibility of reducing the amount of typing that I do — and this is one way in which I see the software being particularly useful for writers. If you are suffering from the occupational hazards of wrist strain, tendinitis or RSI, using Dragon NaturallySpeaking means that you will be able to keep working — or writing — without impairing your health. (Of course, you may find that you drink a lot more. I don’t know about you, but I don’t spend a lot of time talking when in my home office.)

The verdict

If you are the kind of writer who thinks faster than you can type, Dragon NaturallySpeaking will certainly be useful. It is worth learning the voice commands that work with each program as this will make you even more efficient. But even without those you can use Dragon NaturallySpeaking effectively. My verdict, one day of use, is overwhelmingly positive (which is why I’ve signed up for their affiliate program). If this is what you get after only five minutes of training then I am looking forward to seeing how the program improves after days and months of use.

If you have ever used Dragon NaturallySpeaking or other speech recognition software, then please share your experience in the comments. And if you have specific questions that I haven’t covered in this review, please feel free to ask.

I have a system – and as a writer, I need it. When I started freelancing, it wasn’t hard to keep track of my clients – I didn’t have that many of them. Now, it’s different, and I need to be very organised to keep on top of my writing business. Here’s a peek at how I organised my writing.

My Filing System

First of all I have a folder called ‘writing projects’. This is at the heart of my organisation and I make sure that this folder is backed up both online and on an external hard disk. Once inside the folder I have several key sub-folders. There’s:

• a folder for bidding, which has both copies of successful bids and samples
• a folder for clients, which is further subdivided with a sub-folder for each client and, if necessary, for each project.
• a folder with copies of contracts
• an invoice folder, with archive folders sorted by year. Once an invoice is paid, it moves into the archive folder, so I always know which ones are outstanding. Each invoice has a number and two or three letters representing the client’s name. (For example, all my invoices for ParkRideFlyUSA have the suffix PRF). This makes it easy to identify invoices for a particular client at a glance.
• a personal folder – for personal writing projects, including my ebooks and anything not for clients, though increasingly I tend simply to create a fake client and include personal writing, such as my Suite101 articles, in the writing projects folder.
• an archive folder for uncategorised writing jobs from previous years
• Finally, I have a folder for my newsletter.

I also have a separate folder for the blogs I run – with a subfolder for each blog. Copies of all posts, images, themes and customizations are stored here.

The key to using this system successfully is to file regularly. If it’s not in the right place, you will never find it, in spite of the improvement in desktop search tools. Having a good filing system means I don’t have to worry about forgetting what I’ve called a job.

Planned Improvements

How could I improve it? There’s only one thing I will implement for 2010. I will include the job numbers for each project in the file names wherever possible. I already number each project for invoicing purposes, but I use descriptive names in the client folders because I’m much better with words than numbers. Linking the two will complete the circle, making project tracking even easier.

How do you organise your writing work?

(Photo by ladyheart )

Rewriting – love it or hate it, it’s part of the job of many web content writers. A typical situation is that a client asks you to write a series of articles for a particular purpose, such as to publish them on a website. At the same time, the client asks you to rewrite those same articles so that they can be used for article marketing to drive traffic to the site.

Today, I’m answering a freelance writing question that one of the writers on my writing team didn’t quite get around to asking. The situation was that I had written some articles for a client based on original research. The client needed rewrites which I didn’t have time to do, so I asked a writer to do them. When they came back, some of the articles were so different that they were practically new articles, and that wasn’t what the client was looking for. I realised then that it can be difficult for writers to know what clients want when they ask for rewrites.

Here are some of the types of rewrites I’ve been asked to do in the past:

1. Rewrites where the titles and subheads are based on the same keywords, but are different, and where the first and last paragraph and one of the middle paragraphs is different.
2. Rewrites where each individual sentence must be rewritten so it means the same thing but says it in different words, but using the same keywords.
3. Rewrites where you put the same information in the same order as the original.
4. Rewrites where you put the same information in a different order from the original.
5. Rewrites where you have to change sentences AND substitute keywords.

It’s no wonder that people get confused. As usual, the thing to do before you start is to clarify the brief, so that you can deliver what the client wants first time. Rewrites rarely pay well and if you have to make revisions, then you generally end up out of pocket. And watch out for No 5. I did this once, and went back to the client and argued for a rate increase, because I was effectively writing brand new articles.

Although I wouldn’t want to spend all day doing rewrites, doing simple rewrites (such as No 3) can be a great way to boost your income if you have done the original research and are a fast writer. It’s not creative, but it can help to pay the bills.

There’s one final point about rewrites. Some clients think nothing of asking writers to rewrite other people’s content for their sites. All I’m going to say is that using several sources is research; stealing from a single source is plagiarism. Nuff said!

Technorati Tags: writing,get paid to write,freelance writing,help me write

Why aren’t you writing yet? A lot of people dream of starting a freelance writing career, but never get around to doing it. One of the reasons is that they fall in love with the dream of writing, but find the reality hard to achieve. So what’s the first thing you should do if you want to be a writer? The answer is simple – it’s to write.

I don’t mean to sound like a know-it-all, but I can tell you from my own experience that the more I write, the better I get at writing. One of my former students, SB, a mature student of around 50 looking for a new career, said that telling him to write was the best advice I’d given him in two years of teaching him journalism.

There’s a lot you can learn from journalism courses about techniques and approaches, but that’s only a complement to your own writing skill – and the only way to develop that is to write.

Getting Started

So, how do you get started? First of all, don’t worry when you start about whether your writing is any good or not. The important thing is to have an idea and follow through by getting something down on paper. You may throw it away, but psychologically you will have taken a big step.

Find a publication that you want to write for and study it (I’ll talk more about that in another post). This will help you to identify important elements about the content and style. Then try to write something again.

Finding A Critical Friend

One thing many beginning writers need is a critical friend. That means someone who can critique your work in a constructive way, but who has your best interests at heart. When I started out, my editor was critical, though not my friend. Other people have given work the thumbs up because they are friends, but have not been critical. The trick is to find someone who will strike the balance between being encouraging and helping you to improve.

This was what I did for SB and for all my students. I was thrilled when he got his first paid writing commission, and within six months or so, he didn’t need my help as often. You can do that too. Your critical friend might be a member of your local writing group or a forum. Ideally, this person should have a bit more experience, so that you can ask specific questions about the writing process and particular skills. Don’t worry if you can’t find such a person, you can always ask me – and I’ll be happy to answer.

On The Path To Success

You can become a successful writer. My student, SB, who had not written or published a piece of journalism when I met him, was writing and publishing in several magazines in his chosen niche within a year, and also did some PR work in a government department. So while you’re waiting for the next instalment, start writing and you’ll have taken the first step in achieving freelance writing success.

Technorati Tags: freelance writing,writing,get paid to write,help me write

I’ve just completed a travel piece about a place I’ve never visited. It may seem a strange thing to do, but this was the commission that my writing client gave me. Usually a travel piece is full of local color, but how do you add that if you’ve never set eyes on the place?

Researching The Venue

Thanks to internet research, anything is possible. Wikipedia may be much maligned, but it’s a good starting point for an overview of many cities and countries. Don’t get me wrong, this does not replace researching your topic on other sites, but it does give a guide to the other information that might be out there. It often has good information on the weather, climate and geology, too.

City Information

Many cities and towns have websites, especially in the US. These sites are great places to find out about history, attractions and major events. There are usually links to offsite pages for the attractions, where you can get more information, and if you’re looking for a comprehensive listing of festivals and exhibitions, then you can’t do much better than Eventguide.com. To round it out, check out TripAdvisor or the Lonely Planet site for guides to most places.

Nightlife Reviews

That takes care of most of the daytime entertainment, but if you’re profiling an area, then you’ll need to know about places to eat and nightlife. Again, TripAdvisor can help you, but Yahoo, AOL and others also provide listings of restaurants with type of cuisine and brief reviews. If you are lucky, you’ll also find a user review that tells you what it’s like to be there. There are also similar sites which list bars and clubs. You can find out if there’s a DJ or live music, which night ladies are free and much more.

Putting It Together

Let me give you an example of how you can put this all together to create a decent travel piece. I recently had to write a piece on Jacksonville, Florida. Although I have been to many other parts of Florida, I have never been there. However, I used my knowledge of the climate to set the scene, evoking hot summer days and balmy tropical nights.

Using Your Experience

I checked into the history of the town, including the earliest settlers, and found out a bit about its evolution over the years. After a bit of info on the climate, I was ready to move on to the attractions. You can actually use your own experience to write realistically about places you have never seen.

For example, if you have ever been to a zoo with lots of exotic animals, or gone down a water slide, or ridden a big roller coaster, you can talk about the feelings people will experience while doing those things in another city.

Similarly, if you like searching for antiques, or attending events with live stage shows, it only takes a little imagination to evoke those for your readers. When it comes to rating meals and nights out, I blend my own experience of similar venues with the reviews I find on TripAdvisor and similar sites.

So that’s how you can write a decent travel piece about a place that you’ve never seen. It’s true that it won’t have quite the same feel as if you had been there, but if you’re a competent writer, you can still make the article come to life. Have you ever had to write about somewhere you’ve never seen? What techniques helped you?

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