In the world of consumerism advertising is the biggest marketing tool. An advertisement can make or break a marketing campaign. It not only helps in getting your product/service heard but it can actually persuade a consumer into buying the product. Given its huge impact a lot of thought process goes into writing an advertising copy making it one of the most difficult tasks of the advertising world.

To write a successful ad copy you need to keep a lot of things in mind.

Knowing you prospective clientele: It is very essential to know who your prospects are as it is to know about the product/ service you are selling. These would help in conceptualizing the idea behind the copy.

Stick to the constraints: Before writing an ad copy one needs to understand the constraints of the media for which the advertisement is being developed. While for a television or radio advertisement time is the man constraint, for a billboard campaign word limit becomes the constraint.

Understanding the objective: One needs to be very clear about the objective of the campaign. A clear understanding of the objective generally leads to a focussed copy.

Focus on the elements of a good ad: Keep in mind the elements of a good advertisement:

Attention: Getting noticed is half the battle won. In our chaotic world the hardest thing to do is to draw attention. So there has to be something about the advertisement—-the punch line, the illustration, the layout–that would make the viewer or the reader sit up and take notice.

Clarity: In the clamour to vie for attention one should never forget to make the message underneath crystal clear. The viewer should not keep wondering about the functionality of the ad.

Persuasiveness: the ad should be persuasive. It should be able to convince the viewer of the necessity of the product or service being offered.

Keeping the above points in mind you can conceptualize your idea and start to write the ad copy. Finally some tips which may further help you:

Play with words to your heart’s content. Be innovative. You can paint your canvas with words, but always sticking to the constraints given.

Use short sentences without wasting words.

Instead of preaching or declaring talk to you reader or viewer or listener in active voice and present tense.
Avoid clichés and make the copy as unique and innovative as possible.

Travel writing gives an account of a place. It can be in the form of a documentary, a weekly article, a travel guide or even an adventure novel. Irrespective of that a travel writer’s job is one of the most exciting ones. It is considered to be one of the most glamorous jobs in the world.  But the job is not as easy as it appears to be. To be a travel writer you need to have certain qualities ingrained in you.

An adventurer by heart: It goes without saying that travel writing involves a lot of travelling. But the travelling is not quite the same as vacationing. You might have to live out of a suitcase. You have to go to places you may not have dreamt of. You need to be an adventurer, a gypsy by heart.

A good writer, if not an excellent one: Since at the end of the day you are to present your experiences through written words you have to be good at writing. A flair for writing always helps making your article all the more entertaining and lively, something very important for a travelogue.

An eye for uniqueness: Nobody would be willing to read facts they already know by heart or have heard a million times. Neither will your editor be willing to pay you for writing such facts. So even while visiting popular vacation spots you need to find something unique about the place, something that has not been explored before. You need to be curious enough to dig out an untold story regarding the place.

Strong enough to brave the odds: Travel writing is not a paid vacation. It is not about staying at luxury hotels. In fact the lodging depends entirely on the budget approved by your editor. So, you must be prepared for living in the most adverse of conditions, backpacking to cheap hotels, shelling out your own money if required and adapting to the strangest of norms and customs. In short you must be prepared to face the worst.

Like every other job there are the ups and the downs in travel writing. There are uncertainties galore.  While it is very difficult to start off it is even more difficult to sustain a job. There can be long periods of unemployment, resulting in financial concerns. If you are feisty enough to fight these odds take the plunge and explore the unknown.

Earlier sports journalism used to be looked down upon as not being serious enough. But in recent times as sport grew in wealth, power and influence this particular field of journalism has also grown in importance. This has made the job of a sports writer one of the most lucrative jobs.

A sports writer is a journalist or writer dedicated solely to covering sporting events.  It goes without saying that a sports writer must be a sports enthusiast and should have a thorough knowledge about the rules and regulations of as many sports as possible. But this is not enough to make you prosper as a sports writer.  Some of the pre-requirements of the job are:

Qualifications

To be a sports writer you need to have a degree in journalism or English and you should be proficient in the language you intend to write in. Also knowledge of short-hand writing and transcription is always helpful.

Flair for writing

Earlier sports writing used to be a written commentary of the game. But with television invading our drawing rooms that style has become redundant. Today it is all about presenting the events in as interesting a manner as possible. This includes analysis of the game instead of plain stating of facts. Your match report can also be interspersed with funny anecdotes, personal opinions of former as well as present players. But you cannot leave out relevant details such as who won, which player stood out (in case of a team game), the final score etc. For all these you need to be a good writer more than anything else.

Thirst for knowledge

To be a journalist you need to be an avid reader. This is no different for sports writers. You need to be aware of all sporting events, past and present. You need to brush up your knowledge regarding historical facts as well as famous players. Also works of famous sports writers need to be followed. This calls for reading not just newspapers or journals but literary works by sporting legends.  You need not restrict yourself to sports related subjects only. Knowledge in any form and on any subject comes in handy in any field of journalism. So be prepared to devour anything and everything you can lay your hands on.

If you possess the above mentioned qualities sports journalism is definitely your calling. Start off with writing for a local newspaper covering local sporting events. This would provide you experience and exposure which would help you to move on to bigger things.

The method of writing books has changed like never before as has the reading habits of readers. While there are still many who swear by the smell of a new book, more and more people prefer to read books online. Thus traditional books are being fast replaced by eBooks making it necessary for writers to learn the trade of writing eBooks. Here are a few tips which might help you if you are stuck with writing an eBook.

Getting started: Barring the basic requirements of a computer and a few software writing eBooks is not much different from writing books. To start off you can look up the Internet. There are plenty of eBooks available and you can get a basic idea about how to write them. But keep in mind that it is ok to be inspired but not to plagiarize. .

Choosing the subject and writing style: If you are in search of creative gratification the choice of subject should not be difficult. But in other cases the subject should be chosen carefully, it being wiser to choose a subject you have prior knowledge about. The style of writing should depend on the target reader of the eBook. For instance, if the eBook is targeted towards a younger crowd contemporary lingo could be incorporated. But for the older target group a more conservative approach needs to be adopted.

Creating the document: You can start writing on any standard application like MS Word which is the most preferred one as well. The writing should be divided into chapters. Since an eBook is read from the screen you can experiment with fonts and layouts. It is always necessary to keep proper backup of your work. The backup should be updated as the work progresses.

Choosing the format: The format of the eBook can be chosen to be executable .exe files or portable document format .pdf files. The choice of the format should depend on factors such as ease in compiling, susceptibility to virus threats, readability etc.

Giving an appropriate title: The title says a lot about a book. So, your choice of title should not only be based on the subject but should also be attractive. It should attract readers making them want to read the book. But the title should never be misleading.

Finally once your work is uploaded invite feedback from readers. If they turn out to be positive congratulations on your success, if not learn from the experience and move on to your next eBook.

With the advent of internet in the 20th century, the age old habit of keeping a diary gave way to writing blogs. Blogs, derived from web logs, are regular entries of description of events, commentary or insights maintained by an individual or even an organizaton.What started as a mere online diary has today emerged as one of the biggest platforms to voice one’s thoughts and opinions. Since 2004 the role of blogs have become more and more mainstream with almost everybody from news services to political candidates to celebrities trying to capitalize the advantages of writing blogs. The goals of blogging have also become as varied as staying connected to fans to forming political opinions. It was not late before the corporate world too woke up to the advantages of blog writing. As a result from being an essentially personal media, today blogs have become an integral part of the business sector. This has given rise to a whole new industry of blog writing services.

Blog writing service providers are websites one can outsource the job of writing blogs to. The importance of blog writing service lies in the fact that it not only saves valuable time but with professional writers working on the blogs it provides the right kinds of blogs keeping in mind the requirements of the client. The definition of a “right kind of” blog can be varied. From the perspective of business blogging, it should focus on increasing the web presence of the company. It should be interactive, allowing readers to post comments. This gives valuable feedback without asking for it. Blogs provided by blog writing service providers are tailor-made for this. Blog writing services also help update a blog regularly as the latest achievements, business standings, product launches etc. need to be incorporated regularly in order to maintain the attraction of the blog. A well written blog can play a very significant role in online marketing campaigns. It can help increase search engine visibility which in turn leads to huge profits through advertising and branding. The basic criteria remain more or less the same for other blogs as well, though the priorities may vary keeping in view the aim behind the blog. Blog writing service providers take care of all these aspects and help the client reap the benefits of blog writing.

Today the subjects of blogs range from fashion to politics, from travel to education and from music to business. Even national governments have started setting up official blogs, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs being the first of them. Such is the impact of blog writing and in most cases these blogs are provided by blog writing services. The presence of ample scope to capitalize the advantages of blogs and the ever increasing demand for competent writers have helped blog writing service surface as an essential tool in marketing and growing public relations. In a very short duration blog writing services have become an indispensible part of the trade. With a plethora of websites offering blog writing services the clients are also spoilt for choices.