Self-Promotion Writing Tips for Companies
by Tammy M. Ratcliff

One of the best ways for companies to “get their name out there” is through self-promotion. This is a little different than straight up advertising and usually more effective. Self-promotion involves providing information to potential clients by way of a written article instead of the standard sales pitch. Any company can proclaim their greatness on a banner or a billboard; however, when a company offers free advice concerning their area of expertise, it makes a much stronger statement to the potential clients. Here a few things to keep in mind when writing articles for self-promotion.

Catchy Titles

An article’s title is one of the most important devices used in getting a reader’s attention. The title can literally make or break an entire article since it will most likely determine whether or not a reader keeps reading. If the reader doesn’t finish the article, he will not see the link at the bottom that leads to your company’s website. So, while creativity is always appreciated, accuracy is much more important.

In other words, the title really needs to say exactly what the article is about. If George Clooney’s name is in the title, the article better be about him. People do not like to be tricked into reading something that has nothing to do with the subject they are looking for. The goal with self-promotion articles is to provide useful information to people who might use your services. George Clooney may be the hottest man in show business, but if he doesn’t use or endorse your product or service, it is best to keep his name out of it.

Beginning Paragraphs

An article’s first paragraph is just as important as its title. This is, hopefully, the attention getter! The first paragraph should feed off of the title and set up the rest of the article. It should do so in an informative, interesting way that encourages the reader to keep reading. This is also a good place to set up a general scenario that most readers will be able to relate to. If the first paragraph is successful in grabbing a reader’s attention, the likelihood greatly increases that the reader will finish the article, thus discovering the company responsible for its content. Mission accomplished!

Length and Language

Time is so important to people today. Therefore, when writing self-promotional articles, keep them relatively short (around 700 to 1000 words). Make sure they are written so they are easy to understand. When a person is seeking information today, they want to be able to find it fast and read/learn it even faster. Big words and long articles are just not compatible with this mindset.

The Professional Edge

You may know everything there is to know about cars, but if you can’t put your thoughts to paper in a clear, concise manner, consider hiring a professional writer. Self-promotion through writing Internet articles can only be successful if the final product provides a positive representation of your company. Therefore, if your article is filled with misspelled words and dangling modifiers, the only thing it will succeed in doing is making you look incompetent. People who run their own companies often do not have time to spend looking up the rules of punctuation and parallelism. However, writers do! If need be, take advantage of someone else’s writing expertise to help promote your business in the most professional way.

Editing

Editing is another area where outside help could be needed. Even the most careful writers make mistakes. Unfortunately, once an error is printed, it is too late to correct, and even the tiniest typo can mar the judgment of a potential client. Because of this, hiring an editor may be a worthy investment. An experienced editor will go beyond checking for misspelled or misused words and look for shifts in voice or tense, as well as subject-verb agreement. Using an editor doesn’t guarantee an error free article, but it increases the likelihood a great deal.

Conclusion

Self-promotion using Internet articles can be a great way to increase your business. This type of instructional marketing emphasizes knowledge instead of gimmicks. Taking the time to create a well-written article may seem counterproductive to your actual business, but the results will speak for themselves.

Copyright © 2007 Tammy M. Ratcliff
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About the Author:
Tammy M. Ratcliff is a staff writer and editor for the Phantom Writers (http://thePhantomWriters.com) and Links And Traffic (http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com). The Phantom Writers specializes in ghost writing articles and distributing them as free-content on the World Wide Web. If you would like to promote your business using self-promotion articles, the Phantom Writers will be able to help you. If you would like to talk to a person about our services, call Bill Platt at (405) 780-7745, 9am-6pm CST, Mon thru Fri.

The Cycle of Completion: Making Way for Success
by Jack Canfield

Do you live in a state of mental and physical clutter? Do you have a bunch of unfinished business lurking around every corner?

Incomplete projects, unfinished business, and piles of cluttered messes can weigh you down and take away from the energy you have to move forward toward your goals.

When you don’t complete tasks, you can’t be fully prepared to move into the present, let alone your new future. When your brain is keeping track of all the unfinished business you still have at hand, you simply can’t be effective in embracing new tasks that are in line with your vision.

Old incompletes can show up in your life in lots of different ways… like not having clarity, procrastination, emotional energy blocks and even illness. Blocked energy is wasted, and a build up of that energy can really leave you stymied!

Throw out all the clutter and feel how much easier it is to think! Make a list of areas in your life (both personal and professional) where you have incompletes and messes, then develop a plan to deal with them once and for all. Fix and organize the things that annoy you. Take your final steps in bringing closure to outstanding projects. Make that difficult phone call. Delegate time-wasting tasks that you’ve let build up.

When you free yourself from the mental burden of incompletes and messes, you’ll be AMAZED at how quickly the things you do want in life arrive.

Another area where you’ll find incompletes in your life is in your emotions. Are you holding on to old hurts, resentments, and pain? Just like the physical clutter and incompletes, your energy is being drained by holding on to and reliving past pain and anger.

Remember, you’ll attract whatever feelings you’re experiencing. So, if you’re stuck in revengeful thinking and angered in muck, you can’t possibly be directing energy toward a positive future. You need to let go of the past in order to embrace the future. Letting go involves forgiveness and moving on.

By forgiving you aren’t releasing the other person from their transgression as much as you’re freeing yourself from their transgression. You don’t have to condone their behavior, trust them, or even maintain a relationship with them. However, you DO have to free yourself from the anger, from the pain, and from the resentment once and for all!

When learning to forgive, make sure to complete the cycle. Acknowledge your anger, your pain, and your fear. But also own up to any part you’ve played in allowing it to happen or continue. Make sure to express whatever it was that you wanted from that person, and then see the whole event from the other’s point of view. Allow yourself to wonder what that person was going through and what kind of needs he/she was trying to fulfill at the time.

Finally, let go and move on. Every time you go through this process you’re learning how to avoid letting it happen again!

Attitude Determines Attitude
by Author Unknown

I woke up early today, excited over all I get to do before the clock strikes midnight. I have responsibilities to fulfill today. I am important. My job is to choose what kind of day I am going to have.

Today I can complain because the weather is rainy or I can be thankful that the grass is getting watered for free.

Today I can feel sad that I don’t have more money or I can be glad that my finances encourage me to plan my purchases wisely and guide me away from waste.

Today I can grumble about my health or I can rejoice that I am alive.

Today I can lament over all that my parents didn’t give me when I was growing up or I can feel grateful that they allowed me to be born.

Today I can cry because roses have thorns or I can celebrate that thorns have roses.

Today I can mourn my lack of friends or I can excitedly embark upon a quest to discover new relationships.

Today I can whine because I have to go to work or I can shout for joy because I have a job to do.

Today I can complain because I have to go to school or eagerly open my mind and fill it with rich new tidbits of knowledge.

Today I can murmur dejectedly because I have to do housework or I can feel honored because the Lord has provided shelter for my mind, body and soul.

Today stretches ahead of me, waiting to be shaped. And here I am, the sculptor who gets to do the shaping.

What today will be like is up to you. You get to choose what kind of day you will have!
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Qoutes:

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty”
– Winston Churchill

“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise.”
– Robert Fritz

Four Strategies to Find A New Business
By: Brian Tracy

There are four strategies you can use to find a new product or service to start or build your own business.

Search Your Own Field
The first strategy is to find a new product or service in your own field or skills. You may have a million dollar idea in your own mind. Many people have had the experience of having an idea for a product or service nag at them over and over again, and you keep pushing it away or ignoring it.

They say the average person has four ideas each year driving to and from work, any one of which would make them a millionaire if they would just follow it up. So look into your own field or skills. Look into your own mind. Look into your own ideas.

Keep Your Eyes Open
The second strategy is to find a new product or service while you travel. Keep your eyes open for opportunities.

A very good friend of mine who is now a multi-millionaire, started his fortune by traveling east and seeing a unique type of orange drink called Orange Julius and then getting the exclusive rights to sell it in a large Western city. From there, he expanded into other restaurants, into real estate, and into apartments. He developed a high positive cash flow from his Orange Julius business that made him a millionaire.

Sometimes just finding a new product or service that is doing well somewhere else that hasn’t come to your market area can make you wealthy.

“Increase Your Contacts, Expand Your Influence and Build Your Business Faster!”
You’ve heard the saying… “it’s not WHAT you know, but WHO you know”… how many times has this proved to be true?

Get the Rights to Sell It
Remember your objective, when you find a new product or service, is to acquire the rights to sell the product or service exclusively in your market area. Sometimes these rights are available for the asking.

A gentleman I know named Peter Thomas got the rights for Century 21 to Canada simply by going to the offices and asking for them when Century 21 was a young company. From that, he turned Century 21 into one of the most successful real estate franchises in Canada. He is now worth millions of dollars, having taken the cash flow from Century 21 and channeled it into other real estate investments.

Be Sure it is Already Successful
Sometimes just asking for the right to sell it in your market area is all you have to do. Here’s the key, though. Before you bring a new product or service back to your market area, be absolutely sure that it sells well somewhere else. Many people advertise products outside their market area because they are not selling inside their market area, so make very sure that the product is selling well already in other markets.

Look For Business Opportunities
Strategy number three is to keep your eyes and ears open and alert to new business opportunities occurring around you. Develop a money-making attitude. A friend of mine became very successful by building commercial property across the street from a new shopping center that was being developed. The traffic from the shopping center made that commercial space extremely valuable. He opened two businesses in it, and started his fortune. So be alert to what is going on around you.

Be Sure You Believe In Your Product
And strategy number four is this. Remember you will only be successful marketing and selling something that you believe in, use yourself and would recommend to your best friend.

Many times, I see people who make the critical mistake of trying to sell a product or service that they themselves would neither use nor afford, nor would they recommend to someone else, but they think that other people will buy it even though they wouldn’t. So remember you must really, really believe it the product. You must be excited about the product. You must absolutely believe that this product can enhance the life or work of someone else and then be eager to tell them about it.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put these business building strategies to work in your own life:

First, develop a new business mentality. Continually look around you for new products and services that people need, want and are willing to pay for.

Second, develop a money making attitude. Look around you for opportunities to sell products or services that are not currently being offered, at either higher prices or in greater quantities. The possibilities are everywhere.

Looking For a Great Opportunity Then Click Here:www.millionaire-makers-international.com

So I’m standing in the Foyer of the Crown Plaza Hotel this morning because my Company’s sent out a Major League Speaker, when a lady that works in our local Auckland Market approaches myself and my wife Erlinda and says, word for word:

“My husband and I go out on a regular basis with a bunch of product newspapers and give them out to just about anyone we can. Is this a good way to build our business?” BOOOMMM the old Shot gun Approach

Here was my response to Vicky:

“Vicky, have you ever been to Sky City Casino? Have you ever played a slot machine? Well, imagine going to Sky City Casino and playing the slot machines and right after you put your money in, you line up the fruits in the little windows before you pull the lever. What do you think would happen more often?

What you are doing by just going out and handing out newspapers (or brochures, literature or business cards) to complete strangers, is like throwing a handful of mud up against the wall and seeing what sticks. Imagine instead of doing that you were able to clear a path to your target, before you start shooting. And what if you had the advantage of a good quality Scope? What do you think the outcome would be?

What if you knew more about your Prospect and their situation than your Prospect knew about your company and Product? Then, and only then, could you present a solution to that person’s problem that your company, product or business opportunity might provide.

Imagine if you went to the doctor one day and without asking, your doctor took one look at you and began writing a prescription without even asking why you were in his or her office. Chances are, you wouldn’t be going to that doctor again. {mind you that is what most of them do today }

Why? Because they assumed that they knew your problem without asking and that he or she could provide a solution to a problem which they don’t even know existed.

Are you doing this, to your leads, contacts and prospects?

Are you assuming that everyone has the same challenges as you and would like to be pitched on your Product or company?

If so, I bet your business is not growing very well.

Instead of just pitching everyone you meet and vomiting all over them about your Company, Product or Business Opportunity, try striking up conversation and asking enough questions about them and their situation, to find out if they even have a problem or not.

If they let on that they do have a problem, ask more about it and find out how they feel about it. This will help you uncover the best angle to take when approaching them about a potential solution. By you asking all the questions And LISTENING you are in control and the prospect is telling you all about them and their situation and whats more they are thinking you are a really great person..Why? Because you care and you have allowed them to discuss their favourite topic THEM!!

Apply this strategy, find out more about your prospects than they find out about you and/or your product, company or biz opp and I assure you, you will start collecting bigger, better and faster paychecks all the time.
To Learn More About People and How best To deal with Them Click Here:TEACH ME ALL ABOUT PEOPLE…NOW!

Axel Henriksen “The Wizard Of Wealth”

Freedom From Urgency by Dr. Denis Waitley
Freedom from urgency. That’s what will allow us to live a rich and rewarding life. You may have thought your problem was “time starvation,” when in truth, it was in the way you assigned priorities in your decision-making process. Have you allowed the urgent to crowd out the important?

Each day we will continue to encounter deadlines we must meet and “fires,” not necessarily of our own making, we must put out. Endless urgent details will always beg for attention, time and energy. What we seldom realize is that the really important things in our life don’t make such strict demands on us, and therefore we usually assign them a lower priority.

Our loved ones understand when we are preoccupied with our urgent business, but it’s hard for us to understand, many years later, whey they appear preoccupied when we finally find some time for them. Harry Chapin’s classic song, “The Cat’s in the Cradle,” is still a mirror reflecting our priorities.

All the important arenas in our life are there awaiting our decisions. But they don’t beg us to give them our time. The local university doesn’t call us to advance our education and improve our life skills.

I have never received a call or e-mail from the health club I joined insisting that I show up and work out for thirty minutes each day. My bathroom scale has never insisted that I lose thirty pounds. The grocery clerks have never made me put back on the shelves the junk food I put in the cart, nor has a fast-food restaurant ever refused me a double cheeseburger and large fries because of my high cholesterol.

Nor have I ever been subpoenaed by the ocean or the mountains to appear for relaxation and solitude. Yet I receive hundreds of urgent phone messages and emails each week from people with deadlines.

You see, it’s the easiest thing in the world to neglect the important and give in to the urgent. One of the greatest skills you can ever develop in your life is not only to tell the two apart, but to be able to assign the correct amount of time to each.

Beginning tomorrow, throughout the day, and every day thereafter, stop and ask yourself this question: “Is what I’m doing right now important to my health, well-being and mission in life, and for my loved ones?”

Your affirmative answer will free you forever, from the tyranny of the urgent!
– Denis Waitley

2. The Champion Within Article
Dream Torture by Denis Waitley
Perhaps the greatest torture that could be devised would be for us to be forced, in our later years, to watch a continuously repeating movie of the lives we could have led had we dared to believe in and pursue the dreams and goals that were available and attainable in our lifetimes.

DON’T BE A SPECTATOR
While we all say we don’t have enough time to do justice to our goals and dreams, each of us has all the time there is. None of us really has a time-management problem. We really have a dream- and goal-focus problem. We spend too much energy worrying about the things we want to do but can’t, instead of concentrating on doing the things we can do but don’t It is the regret for something we did or didn’t do yesterday and the apprehension of what we can’t do tomorrow that is the biggest energy drain on our lives.

A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. It is what you would like your life to become. A goal is what, specifically, you intend to make happen. However, many individuals become spectators, resigned to experience success vicariously through others’ accomplishments. They can see success for others, but they can’t imagine it for themselves. Dreams and goals are previews of coming attractions in your life. You can be the script writer, the star, and the producer of an Oscar-winning epic life or an extra in a “B’ movie that someone else wrote and directed for you. Which is it to be?

STAY FOCUSED ON YOU
Make certain that your goals are not measured in comparison with others’. Avoid the tendency to measure your own progress by looking over the fence at greener pastures. There are many others who have started a little earlier than you, and you may become discouraged if you see them harvesting success when some of your seeds are barely in the ground. Comparison rarely benefits anyone. You’ll always be able to find someone smarter, younger, older, wiser, richer, more clever, better looking, or working harder or more effectively than you are.

When you make comparisons in which you place yourself beneath others, you’re in for a discouragement that will keep you procrastinating and perhaps even from seriously pursuing your life goals. You can also find others who don’t measure up to what you have become or are aspiring to be. Avoid the tendency to compare yourself with them as well. You will lower your goals and settle for average when you could have excellence. You may come to think that you deserve more success than others or that success lies ahead for you no matter what you do. Both are false assumptions.

Success isn’t a pie with a limited number of pieces. The success of others has very little bearing on your own success. You and everyone you know can become successful without anyone suffering setbacks, harm, or downturns. Neither is your success measured by what others say or accomplish. Only you can truly define your success, and only you can measure it.

Denis Waitley

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Denis Waitley has studied, counseled and trained leaders in virtually every field including Apollo astronauts, Olympic gold medalists, Super Bowl champions, returning POW’s, heads of state and Fortune 500 top executives.
Denis is recognized as a world class speaker and author and has traveled the globe sharing success ideas and strategies to thousands of companies the past 25 years. To book Dr. Waitley to speak for your company or to be part of your upcoming Regional or National Convention send an email to speaker@deniswaitley.com or call 877-929-0439 and ask for Hilary.

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3. Seeds of Greatness by Denis Waitley
SEEDS OF MOTIVATION: Winning from Within
Put up the dream. Put in the knowledge. Put out the effort.

The two greatest fear busters are knowledge and action.

You can’t concentrate on the reverse of an idea. A fear is a goal moving in the opposite direction from your desire.

We can change if we want to.

Think of your imagination as a skill rather than a talent and learn to use it.

Motivation is an inner force that compels behavior. Your inner drives will propel you further and faster than external perks.

It’s not the experience of today that causes us the most stress, it’s the regret for something we didn’t do yesterday.

Motivation is motive in action.

The most important opinion you’ll ever have is the one you hold of yourself.