Saturday, July 23, 2011

The Importance of a Well-Constructed Title

Dictionary.com defines marquee as “a tall roof-like projection above a theater entrance, usually containing the name of a currently featured play or film and its stars.”

In the first half of the 20th century, before information started traveling at the speed of light and advertising became common place, marquees were a major way to draw people into the theater. They’re still used in that fashion today, but obviously don’t have the same importance with all of the other advertising options available.

Think about the body of your article as being a movie and your title being the marquee that will draw people in to read it. Without a compelling title that captivates the reader, it’s likely they’ll leave without ever reading the content you worked so hard on writing. And without carefully positioned keywords, it’s unlikely your readers will ever find your article to begin with.

Creating a Marquee for Your Article That Will Make a Huge Impact

Here are some tips that you can implement to help you create a splash with your article titles:

1.    Start your article title with your article subject.

2.    Avoid starting with “junk words” or conjunctions, such as “a” or “the.”

3.    Try starting your article title with a verb and then rolling directly into a dense keyword relating to the subject of your article.

4.    Consider using two article topic hooks in your article title.

Example: Yoga Moves – 7 Tips To Flatten Your Abs With Yoga Moves

Techniques Used:
Topic hook #1 is “Yoga”
Topic hook #2 is “Flatten Your Abs” and “Yoga Moves”

Are You Writing Keyword-Rich Titles?

Let’s go through a couple of examples to help give you a better understanding if you’re writing titles that are drawing people in, or if you still have some work to do in building your marquees.

Example 1: Television Audio
* This article title is too short to get any hooks, and the reader has to guess what your angle to the topic will be about.

Example 2: Television Audio and Visual
* We’ve now picked up a 2nd keyword, “Visual”, but it still doesn’t explain why someone should read the article.

Example 3: Television Audio and Visual That You’ll Want to Have
* You now have 2 keywords and a reason why someone should read your article. It’s getting there, but it could be even better.

Example 4: Television Audio and Visual Components – 7 Tips to Amp Up Your TV
* Here you provided multiple high-value keywords, gave a reason to read the article and even used a high value keyword as a verb, “Amp.” This is your winner!


Saturday, July 16, 2011

Tips on Writing a Book

Make it great, no matter how long it takes. There’s no such thing as too many drafts. There’s no such thing as too much time spent. A great book can last forever. A great book can change a person’s life.

Get feedback — loads and loads of it. Along the way, show pieces of your book to lots of people — different types of people. Find out what’s missing, what’s being misinterpreted, what isn’t convincing, what’s falling flat. This doesn’t mean you take every suggestion or write the book by committee. But this process will allow to marry your necessarily-precious vision with how people will actually react.

Let some of you come through. You’re obviously not writing a memoir here, but this book is still partly about you — the world you see, the way you think, the experiences you have with people. Readers are interested in who you are. So don’t be afraid to let bits and pieces of your personality and even life details seep into the text. It will breathe a lot of life into the book.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Tips on Writing a Book

Do as much research as possible away from the Internet — with living people, in real places.

Be ready to organize vast amounts of data. Use a wall, or software like Scrivener.

Be ready to amputate entire chapters. It will be painful.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Acronyms and initialims

This article defines the terms "acronym" and "initialism" and gives examples of each.

You may know the definition that says that an acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of other words; for example, NASA and RAM. There is some debate, though, whether words like USA and HTML should also be called acronyms. The issue is whether or not you feel that acronyms must be pronounceable as a word.


One camp in this debate argues that words like USA and HTML are acronyms. The other camp argues that they're not because they aren't pronounced as a word but are sounded out one letter at a time. That is, yoo-ess-ay and aitch-tee-em-ell.


This leads us to two different definitions of acronym:


An acronym is a word that is formed from the initial letters of other words; for example, NASA and HTML.


An acronym is a word that is formed from the initial letters of other words and is pronounced as a word, not spelled out one letter at a time; e.g. NASA.


Here are some examples that everyone should agree are acronyms:


  • ASCII: American standard code for information interchange
  • NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • Qantas: Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services
  • RAM: random-access memory
  • ROM: read-only memory
If you prefer the first of the definitions cited above, you will also think of these words as acronyms:


  • HTML: hypertext markup language
  • IBM: International Business Machines
  • USA: United States of America
  • WA: Western Australia
What if you prefer the second definition — the one that says that acronyms must be pronounceable as words? What can you call these latter examples if not acronyms?


One term that fits the bill nicely is initialism. The American Heritage Dictionary provides the following definition of this term:


Initialism: An abbreviation consisting of the first letter or letters of words in a phrase (for example, IRS for Internal Revenue Service), syllables or components of a word (TNT for trinitrotoluene), or a combination of words and syllables (ESP for extrasensory perception) and pronounced by spelling out the letters one by one rather than as a solid word.


Distinguishing between acronyms and initialisms in this way is by no means universal. If you like new words, though, this seems like a good one.

Acronyms and initialims

This article defines the terms "acronym" and "initialism" and gives examples of each.

You may know the definition that says that an acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of other words; for example, NASA and RAM. There is some debate, though, whether words like USA and HTML should also be called acronyms. The issue is whether or not you feel that acronyms must be pronounceable as a word.

One camp in this debate argues that words like USA and HTML are acronyms. The other camp argues that they're not because they aren't pronounced as a word but are sounded out one letter at a time. That is, yoo-ess-ay and aitch-tee-em-ell.

This leads us to two different definitions of acronym:

An acronym is a word that is formed from the initial letters of other words; for example, NASA and HTML.

An acronym is a word that is formed from the initial letters of other words and is pronounced as a word, not spelled out one letter at a time; e.g. NASA.

Here are some examples that everyone should agree are acronyms:

  • ASCII: American standard code for information interchange
  • NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • Qantas: Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services
  • RAM: random-access memory
  • ROM: read-only memory
If you prefer the first of the definitions cited above, you will also think of these words as acronyms:

  • HTML: hypertext markup language
  • IBM: International Business Machines
  • USA: United States of America
  • WA: Western Australia
What if you prefer the second definition — the one that says that acronyms must be pronounceable as words? What can you call these latter examples if not acronyms?

One term that fits the bill nicely is initialism. The American Heritage Dictionary provides the following definition of this term:
 
Initialism: An abbreviation consisting of the first letter or letters of words in a phrase (for example, IRS for Internal Revenue Service), syllables or components of a word (TNT for trinitrotoluene), or a combination of words and syllables (ESP for extrasensory perception) and pronounced by spelling out the letters one by one rather than as a solid word.

Distinguishing between acronyms and initialisms in this way is by no means universal. If you like new words, though, this seems like a good one.