Alone at last , Sarah allowed the thoughts she’d been trying to push away to come forth

“No, no you’re perfect. The problem isn’t you, it’s me”
“I’m sorry I’ve got something in my eye” *sniff*
in some cases ” aa dunya ahiret bacimsin”

What is writer’s block? Well, I just can’t think of a single darn thing to say. Oh well, I’m outta here! Sound familiar? No! Oh, get real! We’ve all experienced this phenomenon when we absolutely have to write something, particularly on deadline. I’m talking about uh, I can’t think of what the word is, oh, yes, it’s on the tip of my tongue, it’s: WRITER’S BLOCK!!!! Whew! I feel better just getting that out of my head and onto the page!

Writer’s block is the patron demon of the blank page. You may think you know EXACTLY what you’re going to write, but as soon as that evil white screen appears before you, your mind suddenly goes completely blank. I’m not talking about Zen meditation stare-at-the-wall-until-enlightenment-hits kind of blank. I’m talking about sweat trickling down the back of your neck, anguish and panic and suffering kind of blank. The tighter the deadline, the worse the anguish of writer’s block gets.

Having said that, let me say it again. “The tighter the deadline, the worse the anguish of writer’s block gets.” Now, can you figure out what might possibly be causing this horrible plunge into speechlessness? The answer is obvious: FEAR! You are terrified of that blank page. You are terrified you have absolutely nothing of value to say. You are afraid of the fear of writer’s block itself!

It does not necessarily matter if you’ve done a decade of research and all you have to do is string sentences you can repeat in your sleep together into coherent paragraphs. Writer’s block can strike anyone at any time. Based in fear, it raises our doubts about our own self-worth, but it’s sneaky. It’s writer’s block, after all, so it doesn’t just come and let you know that. No, it makes you feel like an idiot who just had your frontal lobes removed through your sinuses.

If you dared to put forth words into the greater world, they would surely come out as gibberish! Let’s try and be rational with this irrational demon. Let’s make a list of what might possibly be beneath this terrible and terrifying condition. 1. Perfectionism. You must absolutely produce a masterpiece of literature straight off in the first draft. Otherwise, you qualify as a complete failure. 2. Editing instead of composing. There’s your monkey-mind sitting on your shoulder, yelling as soon as you type “I was born?,” no, not that, that’s wrong! That’s stupid! Correct correct correct correct? 3. Self-consciousness. How can you think, let alone write, when all you can manage to do is pry the fingers of writer’s block away from your throat enough so you can gasp in a few shallow breaths? You’re not focusing on what you’re trying to write, your focusing on those gnarly fingers around your windpipe. 4. Can’t get started. It’s always the first sentence that’s the hardest. As writers, we all know how EXTREMELY important the first sentence is. It must be brilliant! It must be unique! It must hook your reader’s from the start! There’s no way we can get into writing the piece until we get past this impossible first sentence. 5. Shattered concentration. You’re cat is sick. You suspect your mate is cheating on you. Your electricity might be turned off any second. You have a crush on the local UPS deliveryman. You have a dinner party planned for your in-laws. You . . . Need I say more.

How can you possibly concentrate with all this mental clutter? I trust that what you’ve read so far has been informative. The following section should go a long way toward clearing up any uncertainty that may remain. 6. Procrastination. It’s your favorite hobby. It’s your soul mate. It?s the reason you’ve knitted 60 argyle sweaters or made 300 bookcases in your garage workshop. It’s the reason you never run out of Brie. FACE IT ? IT?S ONE OF THE REASONS YOU HAVE WRITER’S BLOCK!

How to Overcome Writer’s Block Okay. I can hear that herd of you running away from this article as fast as you can. Absurd! you huff. Never in a million years, you fume. Writer’s block is absolutely, undeniably, scientifically proven to be impossible to overcome. Oh, just get over it! Well, I guess it’s not that easy. So try to sit down for just a few minutes and listen. All you have to do is listen? You don’t have to actually write a single word.

Ah, there you all are again. I am beginning to make you out now that the cloud of dust is settling. I am here to tell you that WRITER’S BLOCK CAN BE OVERCOME. Please, remain seated. There are ways to trick this nasty demon. Pick one, pick several, and give them a try. Soon, before you even have a chance for your heartbeat to accelerate, guess what? You’re writing. Here are some tried and true methods of overcoming writer’s block: 1. Be prepared. The only thing to fear is fear itself. (I know, that’s a clich?but as soon as you start writing, feel free to improve on it.) If you spend some time mulling over your project before you actually sit down to write, you may be able to circumvent the worst of the crippling panic. 2. Forget perfectionism. No one ever writes a masterpiece in the first draft. Don’t put any expectations on your writing at all! In fact, tell yourself you’re going to write absolute garbage, and then give yourself permission to happily stink up your writing room. 3. Compose instead of editing. Never, never write your first draft with your monkey-mind sitting on your shoulder making snide editorial comments. Composing is a magical process. It surpasses the conscious mind by galaxies. It’s even incomprehensible to the conscious, editorial, monkey-mind.

So prepare an ambush. Sit down at your computer or your desk. Take a deep breath and blow out all your thoughts. Let your finger hover over your keyboard or pick up your pen. And then pull a fake: appear to be about to begin to write, but instead, using your thumb and index finger of your dominant hand, flick that little annoying ugly monkey back into the barrel of laughs it came from. Then jump in ? quickly!

Write, scribble, scream, howl, let everything loose, as long as you do it with a pen or your computer keyboard. 4. Forget the first sentence. You can sweat over that all-important one-liner when you’ve finished your piece. Skip it! Go for the middle or even the end. Start wherever you can. Chances are, when you read it over, the first line will be blinking its little neon lights right at you from the depths of your composition. 5. Concentration. This is a hard one. Life throws us so many curve balls. How about thinking about your writing time as a little vacation from all those annoying worries. Banish them! Create a space, perhaps even a physical one, where nothing exists except the single present moment. If one of those irritating worries gets by you, stomp on it like you would an ugly bug! 6. Stop procrastinating. Write an outline. Keep your research notes within sight. Use someone else’s writing to get going. Babble incoherently on paper or on the computer if you have to. Just do it! (I know, I stole that line from somewhere?). Tack up anything that could possibly help you to get going: notes, outlines, pictures of your grandmother. Put the cookie you will be allowed to eat when you finish your first draft within sight ? but out of reach. Then pick up the same type of writing that you need to write, and read it. Then read it again.

Soon, trust me, the fear will slowly fade away. As soon as it does, grab your keyboard ? and get writing! Now you can be a confident expert on Writers Block. OK, maybe not an expert. But you should have something to bring to the table next time you join a discussion on Writers Block.

Before line by line: I’m standing before you, a decidedly middle-aged woman, round, doughy and blinking through smudged glasses. It’s six p.m. We are in a VFW Post drinking bitter coffee from Styrofoam cups. I look worried and I am. It’s my turn to disclose. All eyes, expectant, are on me. I clear my throat, swallow and say, “My name is Linda . . .” I pause, unsure if I should proceed.  What will you think? That I’m a fool, a loser? I want to run, but I’ve come this far. Instead, I steady myself and blurt out the words, “. . . and I’m self-published.”

After line by line: Before you I stand,(1) a decidedly middle-aged woman, round, doughy and blinking through smudged glasses. It’s six p.m. We’re(2) in a VFW Post drinking bitter coffee from Styrofoam cups. I’m worried.(3) It’s my turn to disclose. All eyes, expectant, are on me. I clear my throat, swallow, then(4) say, “My name is Linda — ”(5) I stop cold.(6)  What will you think? That I’m a fool, a loser? I want to run, but I’ve come this far. My confession tumbles out.(7)  “And I’m self-published.” (8)

Reasoning:

1. In the first sentence, a decidedly middle-aged woman, follows the word you. One could assume then that you are a decidedly middle-aged woman. To correct this, I rearranged the starting prepositional phrase so that the qualifying phrase is clearly about me.

2. We are changed to We’re. A conversation style sets an intimate tone.

3. I look worried and I am changed to I’m worried. First person faux pas. How can I look at myself without a mirror?

4. and changed to then. Clearer progression. Less simultaneous action.

5. “My name is Linda . . .” changed to “My name is Linda —” Ellipsis denote a trailing off, an em-dash an abrupt interruption. I made this change after I made a change in the following sentence.

6. I pause, unsure if I should proceed, changed to I stop cold.  More punch, action, decisiveness.

7. Instead, I steady myself and blurt out the words, changed to My confession tumbles out. Cleaner and crisper.

8.“. . . and I’m self-published.” changed to “And I’m self-published.”  Ellipsis denote a trailing off and are used at the end of a line of dialogue. Misuse of punctuation.

As illustrated, every sentence can be a minefield. The above changes were made after I’d tweaked the paragraph many times. Line by line editing is subjective and I suspect no two writers or editors would make the same changes. Still, there are many common mistakes: 

- Redundant nouns, pronouns, verbs, and phrases.

- Overuse of passive voice construction: was, were.

- Overuse of adverbs (ly verb), infinitives (to+verb) and present participles (ing verb)

- Cliches.

- Complicated tense as in past perfect, had to, have had to, had to have been.

- Metaphors/similes that miss the mark. 

- Simultaneous action. As/While construction.

- Profanity.

- Cause and effect problems.             

- Continuity issues, i.e.,  Jimmie in one place, Jimmy in another.

- Weird sentences that, quite frankly, make no sense.

Line by line editing is fine tuning that will make your writing sing.

Line by line editing is careful consideration and takes time. But there’s a huge payoff: focusing on small sections of words improves writing ten-fold.     

When a person is seduced, it is as if they were indeed hypnotized. That is where the term ‘hypnosis seduction’ came from.

You see hypnosis done on TV countless times. The cliche sentence is, ‘look into my eyes.’ Or another one would be closely watching this pendulum swinging from left to right. In doing so, the person will fall asleep. Then when he hears a snap of a finger, he wakes up and does what is asked of him.

When you are under hypnosis, you have no control of your own actions. Your mind is turned off and you only hear the hypnotist’s voice. You could resist – but only for so little.

When a woman is attracted to a man, it is like she is hypnotized. Whatever a man asks of her, she does, no second thoughts. Remember that scene in “The Phantom of the Opera,” when the Phantom took Christine to his lair. As he was singing “Music of the Night,” Christine was completely entranced by him.

You can say you have completely seduced a woman if she reaches this point of high suggestibility – similar to that of Christine in “The Phantom of the Opera.”

Going back to reality, in order for a man to seduce a woman, he must be a figure of authority. In that way, the woman views him as a man of power and she would be more likely to submit in what he commands. Now you see why women love celebrities or political icons. They are initially attracted to the power that they have.

But since we are in the real world, we know that it is hard to become a celebrity or a political icon. What you can do is to build a social proof. By building this, you will become desirable and can attract any woman out there because of the authority you represent.

How do you do this? First let us get this point across. There are many kinds of seduction. There’s the seduction that convinces a person to disregard his principles. Just like how Gollum was so tempted by the power the one ring represents that he killed his friend Deagol just to obtain it. Then there is the seduction of the opposite sex, as reflected by The Phantom and Christine in an earlier paragraph.

The kind of seduction we are concentrating on is the enticement to bring people to your side, for them to be on the same page as you.

Then why must you ‘hypnotize’ them?

When you are a hypnotist, your goal is to narrow down the focus of your whole audience to only one subject. You are convincing that person to do what you want them to do. Take for example the beauty magazines there. Do you remember the days when supermodels graced the cover? Nowadays, actresses are posing for these magazines. Actresses like the hot Jessica Alba and ever-gorgeous Angelina Jolie have been more accessible to the public because of their blockbuster movies. Magazines did the right move to have them on their cover because in that way, people will grab copies which means an increase on their sales chart.

People bought copies because seeing Jessica Alba or Angeline Jolie smiling back at them as they pass by the magazine stores was like being hypnotized to just get one.

By narrowing the attention of your target audience to only one point, you can suggest what their next move would be. Hypnosis seduction requires charm. By charming them off their feet and exuding an authoritative position, then you can totally bring them to your side.

While we’re on the subject of language that can affect your sales presentations, let’s take a look at your written communication as well. For some unknown reason, sales professionals often believe they need to write in a style that is totally different from the way they actually speak. If you talk like a lawyer, then changing your writing style is a good thing. However, If you talk conversationally, like most people do, then you should develop a written style that is identical to the way you talk.

Generally speaking, letters to your prospective customers or clients need to be less formal, pompous, distant and more friendly, down-to-earth, and personal. Consider the following introductory paragraph taken from a letter written by an account executive to a service industry client:

“Pursuant to your request for a review of the service charges on your recent invoice, I am pleased to inform you that a discrepancy was found by our accounting department in your payment date which was the cause of the incorrect assessment of late fees against your High Point Branch consulting and training account.”

Formal? Yes. Pompous? Yes. Distant? Absolutely! The most common problem in business writing today in sales presentations is that the writer does not think about the purpose of written communication before booting up her word processing program or putting her pen to paper. In this example, if the writer had first asked herself, “what am I trying to accomplish with this letter” she would have said, “to give my client the good news that a mistake had been made and that he was now going to get all his money back.”

The next question to ask yourself is, “How can I state my purpose in a straightforward, direct manner?” The answer to that question is accomplished by organizing thoughts in a logical sequence. Using the same example, a logical sequence for the letter above might have been:

1. State the good news.

2. Tell what happened.

3. Explain how such a situation can be avoided in the future.

4. Thank you client for his understanding.

Once you’ve organized your thoughts, the next step is to write simple, brief sentences in a friendly, person-to-person (not institution-to-person) tone. This is accomplished by keeping one thought in mind as you write: the person you are writing to is a friend and you want that person to feel friendly toward you and the organization for which you work.

The first few words you use to open a letter can make or break your message. Start with a strong, friendly tone and you will set a pattern for the remainder of your message. Now let’s review the rules you’ve just read about for improving your written communications in sales presentations.

First: Define your purpose for writing (in one simple sentence).

Second: Organize your key points in a logical sequence.

Third: Create a friendly tone by picturing the reader as a personal friend.

If you apply these rules to the letter shown at the beginning of this article on your next sales presentation, you could improve it dramatically:

Dear Roger:

Good news, Roger! You were right to question the service charges on the High Point Branch invoice. When we reviewed your records, we found that your payment had been sent to our Elm Street branch on November 14 instead of our corporate office on Maple. For some unknown reason your payment appeared in your Baltimore Branch account.

I have enclosed a receipt that you requested showing the payment to your High Point account and the removal of the service charges we had placed on that account. I sincerely regret any inconvenience this oversight caused you, Roger. Just to be on the safe side, I’ll stop by the High Point office in the next few days to make certain your accounts payable clerk has the right payment address and that we are all on the same page with the charges that were in question.

Thank you for your understanding. I look forward to seeing you in person soon.

Sincerely,

Betty Bunker

Account Executive

Read more on MalaysiaNews.net

“How do you get websites ranked higher or how can I get more traffic and more sales?”

Being that is usually coming from a business owner/internet entrepreneur this question is economic in nature.  The person is pretty asking “how can I make more money” with my website?

I may not be your stock broker or finance professor,  however don’t be naive to think that the internet is exempt from the universal laws of economics.  The supply and demand of your product or service CAN and WILL influence your search engine positioning and ultimate success.   If you change your perspective to fit one economist you can actually boil down a mountain of books, blog advice and lectures into one simple answer.  SEO may be an art…but true success in internet business is a science.

So here it is point blank

Demand (Money + Time) = Your Website’s Online Visibility

Yes thats right.  This simple algebraic equation is a baseline approach that intelligent Internet marketer must consider when promoting a website.  Let me explain the variables to this formula.

Variable #1: MONEY

Demand (Money + Time) = Your Website’s Online Visibility

We are mean and green.  Welcome to the NOW generation.  Most businesses are impatient and will quickly turn to paid advertising for quick traffic and sales.  This includes spending on paid advertising, paid linking, press releases, anything that costs money to get visibility on line.   It could take months to rank for a phrase like “New Balance running shoes” where it takes only 15 minutes to setup a Google Adwords campaign and start getting traffic immediately.   However you must be willing to pay anywhere from $0.01 to over $50 a click for this traffic.  Once your out of money, tough luck. 

There is nothing wrong with spending money on paid advertising as long as your business is producing a positive ROI.   Paid traffic can also bring you repeat business that will likely go directly to your website.  Also considering this primary way search engines generate revenue (in fact Google makes 99% of its revenue through Adwords) it’s unlikely the paid online advertising will ever go obsolete.  Our suggestion is to make sure you are carefully managing your paid accounts…or hire a professional to manage them for you.   Many people are clueless when it comes to setting up and managing pay per click campaigns.   Similar to hiring an accountant to save money on taxes, hire a legitimate search engine marketing professional to save money on pay per click and/or other forms of on line advertising

Variable #2: TIME

DEMAND (MONEY + TIME) = ONLINE VISIBILITY

It’s possible to generate on line visibility without spending a dime on paid advertising. This is usually accomplished through countless hours of search engine optimization, blogging, social networking, etc. This is often more common with hobbyists/part timers who are under less pressure to generate on line revenue. The problem it may take several months/years to learn how to naturally promote a website and much longer to actually apply these tactics. A common problem (and sometimes fatal error) beginners may succumb to taking bad advice and end up using questionable tactics that end up hurting their online positioning. Plus it isn’t just about SEO anymore, there are newer web marketing options such as blogging, video promotion, mobile advertising and social marketing that smart businesses are embracing to gain new customers.  Not to mention the organic listings on search engines are finite, where the competition is growing every minute. 

Devoting your effort to promoting a website/blog can be very rewarding if you are diligent in your work. However remember the old cliché “time is money”. Do you really have extra time to devote to your project?   If the answer is “yes” great, if no find someone to do it for you (unless you want to become a SEO professional).

VARIABLE #3: DEMAND

DEMAND (TIME + MONEY) = YOUR WEBSITE’S ONLINE VISIBILITY

In the not too distant past, the venerable web marketing guru Danny Sullivan commented at SES conference in Chicago that when it comes to web marketing “it is much easier to have the search engines pull your product or service….then trying to push it”. Just face it, some services or products are in more demand than others. And some industries are more or less complicated. If you are trying to promote a website for general keywords related to mortgages, real estate, viagra, etc you are likely going to have demand variable that is far less than 1 (

(1%) multiplied by ($100000 x 200 hours of work) = ONLINE VISIBILITY RETURN

Not to be discouraging, but just realize that if you have a low demand service/product you will end up investing more time and money. You may also have to focus more a certain niche for these markets. For example, you may next to impossible for a newbie to get ranked on the first page of Google time getting ranked on the first page for “New York Real Estate”. Considering your brutal competition your demand variable is going to be very low for this phrase. However if you try promoting our website for “Ashland New York Real Estate” (Ashland is a small city in NY state) your are much more likely to get higher returns and placement for this specific phrase.

Also don’t forget to mention hot topics that are being noticed by the media/public. Have you found the cure for cancer? Did Oprah endorse your book/product? Do you have something special that none of your competitors can offer (and your customers truly want) If you answered YES your demand variable will increase exponentially. So the little money/time you devote to a high demand service/product will be significantly multiplied.

The tricky part about demand is that many business owners often overestimate the true demand for their service or product. You need to seek unbiased information about popular your service/product is.

You also need to protect yourself against copycats, imitators and knock off artists. If you have a great idea make sure to file for a trademark/service mark immediately with the United States Patent and Trademark Office

So you may be saying to yourself “well I get your point….so now what?”. Well every situation is different. First off except the fact that there are NO SHORTCUTS in online marketing business, but you can make better educated choices.  Just like any long term investment you must stay optimistic because you will eventually get what you pay for.

SEO Prodigy understands that there is no best answer to online marketers, only better answers.