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01 June
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5 Tips for Communicating with an Editor

It’s common, especially at the beginning of your writing career, to be terrified of that first email to an unknown editor. How formal should the email be? What should it include? What should be left out? The questions are unending. The five tips below may prove handy in such situations. Read through them and be on your way towards crafting a perfect first email.

Research: Before you craft your pitch and your piece it is important to research the publication thoroughly. Read through the content and analyze the tone and style of the articles. Once you zero in on these details, figure out how your idea can be presented to the editor so as to be a perfect fit for the publication. Do not send completed articles (in your first communication) unless specified in the publication’s submission guidelines.

Address: If you have access to a valid editorial contact, address the email to them directly with a conventional ‘Dear (Editor’s Name)’.  It is essential to spell all names correctly. Poorly addressed emails can leave a bad impression; it tells the editor the writer is careless. This could cost you a commission and an editorial contact. If you don’t have access to a name, start the email with a ‘Dear Sir/Madam’, or a simple ‘Hello’. Once you establish a working relationship with an editor, it’s common to adopt a semi formal tone to your emails.

Introduction: When introducing yourself, be brief. Don’t give a detailed history of your writing career. Don’t tell the editor you’ve been writing since you were six, or add all the writing courses you’ve taken, or your university ranking (unless it was exceptional). Editors do not have too much free time so don’t waste it with rambling emails. However, do list significant writing milestones.

Follow this up with your idea for the publication and your writing experience. Again, be specific. Editors don’t like statements like – I have written lots of articles for many publications. List the more prominent publications and websites you have written for. In case you have commissioned articles that have not been published yet, mention them under the soon to appear title. It is important to be honest through all your communication. Do not ever falsify a list of publications. If you don’t have a lot of published work, make up with a strong idea and a clever hook.

Links and Samples: Always provide clips and samples of your work when pitching to a new publication or a new editor. It helps editors understand your writing style and gives them a glimpse of your range. A really convenient way to do this is to link your blog or website to the email. This may earn you a new (and influential) reader and earn you additional commissions in the long run.

The Follow Up: Post submission, the editor may or may not reply immediately. If you don’t hear back from them, it’s best to wait for a week or two before writing in and asking for an update. An editor’s calendar can be a crowded place, so don’t be surprised if you have to send a few rounds of follow up emails. It’s also a good idea to send a small thank you note to the editor once your piece has been published.

The key to communicating with an editor is to be polite, disciplined and professional through the process, irrespective of the end result. It is essential to create a good impression, as this will lead to more interesting opportunities down the line.

03 January
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Why content is an asset not an expense

‘Asset’ connotes ownership by a person or company for future benefits with its monetary value increasing with the passage of time. Now that’s exactly what the right content, does for an organization; giving an overview, providing details and highlighting core areas of competence.

Producing the right kind of content and marketing it to the relevant target audience is a critical investment in terms of creating and enhancing business opportunities and so considering it an expense will only deter its employment at the right time and across the right platforms.

In today’s virtual world, where the digital revolution and the social media have spelt the death knell of distances and opened up a borderless market, carefully crafted content can go a long way in creating perceptions and enhancing the brand salience.

But the question arises as to what is the right content? On a more generic note, it is very difficult to come to a consensus on this issue. Hence, facts as emerging from research and analysis should form the basis of deciding upon the content that is good enough to be an asset to any individual or organization. The first step is identifying the target audience and their expectations through data emanating out of qualitative and quantitative research. Demographics like gender, age groups, cultural background, occupation, educational background, location etc provide ample cues to structure the content.

Once the target audience and its profiling is in place, then each and every written word should be painfully and assiduously evaluated to influence this audience positively and more importantly to elicit a response and initiation of an ‘engagement process’. In marketing parlance, this is commonly known as a Lead Management System (LMS).

In a nutshell, content management is all about getting the basics right. The content needs to be backed either by facts and figures or by a real on ground situation. The most important aspect of content development is that the information should be relevant and valuable for the audience. It should build trust by being genuine and clear. This in turn results in brand loyalty. Credibility with action is the key to successful content development.

Today, we are witnessing a fiercely competitive world as never seen before. Hence, to be user-friendly will create an audience/customer connect which is paramount to building  personal relationships that can be a key differentiator, resulting in open and transparent communication. To relate better with the target audience, use of graphics, illustrations, animation, videos and audios can enhance interaction and induce feedback and engagement.

The power of the written word is ‘magical’ and its inherent benefits immense. This is being put to good use today, as never before. Content development, therefore, has assumed professional overtones. Copy specialists, more often referred as ‘copywriters’ are now in great demand. These copywriters specialise in conjuring up a vocabulary that is in sync with the creativity that goes with it.
Clear and concise language and a customised tone are hallmarks of “productive” content. To treat the audience as friends and give each one of them a unique, special feeling is the magic that good content is capable of.

30 September
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Integral Perspectives Gets a New Look!

Integral Perspectives (IP) is a speciality consulting firm based in Paris with an extensive international presence. Their philosophy is to offer Integral Psychotherapy to individuals and organisations through Consulting, Speaking events and Seminars. IP helps to develop a deeper, more fulfilling and congruent relationship to self, society and nature with a goal towards global transformation.

About Integral Perspectives & Margot Borden
Margot Borden, M.A (AFP – ACP Accredited Psychotherapist) is the Founder and Principal Consultant at Integral Perspectives. She has worked globally as a psychotherapist since 1986. In the past 20 years she has pursued continuous training in several schools and techniques of Humanistic, Transpersonal and Integral Psychology. After two decades in private practice, Margot realised that the same vision she applies to helping individuals move toward their realisation, can be applied to brands and business strategy in general resulting in the founding of Integral Perspectives.

The Challenge – Developing a strong Web Presence
Margot wanted to launch the IP website with a fresh look, better user experience to coincide with her interview on Voice of America on 15th March 2010.

  • A new website layout considering the global reach
  • A comprehensive overhaul of the content to address new services and approach
  • We had 2 weeks to conceptualise and launch the new website

The Solution

  • Our design team successfully transformed the concept into design which received instant client approval
  • Our content team worked in unison with the designers to marry both the design and content aspects to fit client requirements along with a customised contact form
  • We launched social media marketing efforts to complement the website launch with an integrated approach of stringing all activities

Integral Perspectives  – Before

Integral Perspectives Before

Before

 
Integral Perspectives  – After

Integral Perspectives - After

After

Benefits of Word Quotient’s solution

  • The client had a single point of contact throughout the project
  • Daily updates (via email/skype) for the client to monitor progress
  • The new website was delivered two days prior to the deadline to coincide with the interview. The client received maximum leverage with the audio file being posted immediately following the interview.

About Word Quotient’s website content writing services
Website content writing is a craft. It takes skill, experience and that other essential ingredient – passion. You’ll find all this at Word Quotient. Each creative process sees us charged with excitement and brimming over with ideas. All you need to do is provide us with a brief and then watch your website come to life in the most expressive and appealing way. At Word Quotient, we realise that research is crucial to website content writing. Our writers make it a point to study your company’s goals and objectives, research your industry thoroughly to gain enough domain knowledge and to be able to use the correct terminology, understand your competitor’s service offering and analyse your target audience. The end result is content that truly allows you to stand out from the rest.

26 September
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One Writer, One Month and One Hundred Blog Posts

Founded in 1985 with the mission ‘To inform, entertain and connect the world’, AOL Inc. is a leading global Web services company providing online content, products and services. AOL is considered one of the largest producers of quality digital content and one of the world’s leading sellers of premium display advertising.

AOL & Asylum
AOL became an independent, publicly-traded company in December 2009. It has a strength of 5000 employees across 38 countries/regions and started operations in India in 2002 as AOL Online India Pvt. Ltd.

After being a success in the West as Asylum.com, AOL launched its men’s lifestyle website in India as Asylum.in. Asylum.in covers sports, politics, film news, fashion trends, food & wine tips, is a relationship guide and much more.

The Challenge
To entertain and engage current traffic and to increase it, AOL wanted more fun, spicy yet informative content on Asylum.in before the end of 2009.

  • A 100 blog posts of not more than 500 words was the requirement
  • The intention was to have content that wasn’t time-bound or related to any specific event
  • AOL didn’t have the time and free resources internally
  • The deadline was 30 days

The Writing Solution
The Word Quotient team was quick on the uptake and in 25 days we delivered the 100 blog posts much to AOL’s satisfaction

  • Our writer with the edge for content befitting Asylum was picked for this project
  • We ran a test to make sure we align with the client’s requirement
  • Research, fact checking and writing brought about the desired results
  • Project delivery was made in 25 days with just one writer on the project

Benefits of Writing Solution

  • AOL team earned time with Word Quotient’s assistance. It was reported that ‘3 months worth of writing work was accomplished in a month’.
  • The task that would have consumed at least 2-3 writers at AOL was efficiently managed and achieved with one writer at Word Quotient
  • One writer meant one point of contact and one style of writing
  • Besides time saved, AOL found Word Quotient cost effective, professional and were gratified by the quality of content delivered

About Word Quotient’s Blog Writing Services
Writing successful blogs is a craft. At Word Quotient each creative process sees us charged with excitement and brimming over with ideas. We realise that research is crucial to blog writing. Our writers make it a point to understand your objectives and your target audience before they start writing. A large part of a blog’s success depends on how it is written. If your strategy is to keep your readers coming back for more, and to generate new readers, then you’ve come to the right place. We are committed to perfection and offer quality blog writing at competitive rates with a quick turn-around time. More about Word Quotient’s blog writing services.

About Word Quotient
Word Quotient provides a spectrum of creative writing and web presence management services. Word Quotient began operations in September 2007 and today has a team of more than 30 writers across the world. They each specialise in a genre of writing and come with impeccable writing skills. Word Quotient has to its credit a history of wide-ranging projects giving it the rich experience it has today be it in any industry/vertical from publishing houses, software, mobile technology, finance, pharmaceutical, real estate, travel & tourism, energy & utilities to online media & journalism.

14 September
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Why Does a company Need a Company Profile

Company profile: The winning tool of every successful company

A company profile can be easily be termed as the winning tool for every successful company. After all, it is a statement of a company’s products/services, clients, skills, goals and revenue. A company profile provides potential clients with specific information for easy and convenient business deals. Complete historical data followed up by the present scenario is an insight on how the company has been faring over the years. This automatically gives your company credibility. If you are starting a new company, equipping your venture with a sturdy company profile will give you the advantage as a professionally run start-up and can accelerate business.

Reasons why a company profile can come in handy:

  1. While running a business, you are often faced with financial troubles which in all likelihood can be solved only through loans or investments. Potential investors will be more comfortable if your company has a complete profile showing your expertise and skill and therefore building your credibility.
  2. A company profile is essential if you have to promote your business. A complete company profile will help to give clients information about your marketing plans. Selling would be so much easier when prospective clients have general information about your products and services; transactions are made faster.
  3. Your company profile would help promote your business through reporters or other media which will allow people to learn more about your company.
  4. Through your company profile, you can share your vision and dreams for your business. This can help business and also aid in hiring essential resources.
  5. A company profile need not be a conventional paper and ink document. When published on the internet in your company’s website and/or social media, it serves as a quick reading advertisement for internet-savvy clients.

If you are aiming to carve yourself a niche in the industry and stay on top, you need to be recognized and above all, trusted.