Chronicles Articles

8/10/2019 Chronicles Articles

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Article WritingWhy articles create expertise


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Psychotactics Ltd. Sean D'Souza. All rights reserved.Published by PsychoTactics Ltd.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or dis tributed in any form or by any means,or stored in any database or retrieval sys tem without the prior written permission ofPsychotactics Ltd. That incudes the cartoons too!

If you need permission, youll have to ask. Ask , because you never know (we may say yes).

The information in this document is accurate to the best of ou r knowledge at the timeof writing. As a reader you need to accept full responsibility fo r your actions and shouldconsult with a professional about your own circums tances before following anything inthe book. Results are not guaranteed (Heck, nothing in life is guaranteed).

Further, the author and publisher have used their best e ff orts to proof and con rm thecontent of the les, but you should proof and con rm information such as dates, measure-ments, and any other content for yourself. The author and publisher make no warrantiesof any kind, express or implied, with regard to that content or its accuracy.

For more information, please write to:

PsychoTactics Ltd., PO Box 36461,Northcote, Auckland, New Zealand.Phone: 64 9 449 0009 (If you need to call, check the time in NZ before calling).E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.psychotactics.com | Facebook & Twitter: seandsouza

Published in New Zealand (Where else?). Any person outing the above rules, w ill beliable for copyright infringement, plus will be sent (at your own cost of course) to pickelephant dung at the Auckland Zoo.
mailto:[email protected]://www.psychotactics.com/xattversumption.htmmailto:[email protected]


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Contents The Simple Secret of Amazing Articles ................. .................. ................... ............1 The Huh Factor In Your Articles .................. ................... ................... .................. ...3Article Bloating: Part 1 .................................................................................................5Article Bloating: Part 2 .................................................................................................8How To Generate Article Topics ................. ................... ................... .................. ... 10Build A Business By Writing Articles ................. .................. ................... ................12Why Articles Create Expertise .................................................................................15


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1 | Article Writing

I was sitting at a cafe one day, when a client wasraving about my articles. Of course, I was smilingfrom ear to earas you do when someone is abig fan.

So how come Im mesmerised by yourarticles? he asked. Whats your big s-e-c-r-e-t?

One word, I said.

Every article boils down to one word.Most articles go up the hill, down the valley,into the mountains and into the woods. Ourarticles dont.

T ey stick to one word.One concept.T en they drill down like crazy.

So if you were talking about a topic like pricing, its almost too vast a topic. But what if youstripped it down to one angle?

Like how to increase prices by 10% .Or how to increase prices by 10% on your website.Or how to increase prices by 10% with a live presentation.Or how to increase prices by 10% with speci c terminology.

You see what Im saying?Most writers dont follow this level of drill-down.T ey write about massive topics.T ey dont have speci c ideas. And then the article feels soggy. And non-crunchy.

You see any idiot can write articles. And most articles are dopey anyway.Because they dont follow a structure. Or a grid.T ey dont understand drama. T ey dont understand sandwiching.T ey dont understand the intensity or the di ff erence between mystery.

And suspense. And when to use what.So the article falls apart before it even gets o ff the ground.

And thats not all.T ere are also the myths.

T e stupid myths of talent. T at some people are better writers than others.T at some people can think better than others.

But what if that were indeed a myth?Because it is a myth. Writing good articles is within your control if you understand thestructure and ow. If you know how to connect lines so that the words dance o ff the page, its

The big problem we have is that we have toomuch knowledge in our heads. And then wetake all of that knowledge and try to put itdown into an article. The beauty of powerfularticles, is that they focus on one word. Onceyoure able to boil your articles down to oneword, its kinda magical.

The Simple Secret of Amazing Articles


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2 | Article Writing

easy to keep the reader reading. T ose lines need to then connect, or disconnect. Disconnectscreate drama. Connections create ow. But if you want to really see an article go o ff the rails,look out for the absence of one word.

Its one word thats the glue of a powerful article.Once you get that one idea to the reader, its easier to write and yes, the reader gets it.

Writing articlesanyone can do that. Writing great stu ff needs an acquisition of skill. And thatskill starts with the one word.

Whats your one word?


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Article Writing | 3

You may not realise it, but your articles are creating ahuh factor.

A huh factor is like a speed bump on a road. If youdont remove that speed bump, it causes the readerto bounce over your words. If you have too manyof these speed bumps, it frustrates the reader. Andthey leave.

So how do you avoid this huh factor in your article?

You read it back not just to yourself, but also to folksaround you. And watch for the huh sound.

So lets take two lines that are trying to say thesame thing:

Line 1: Do you know this causality dilemma question about the chicken and the egg?Line 2: Do you know about the eternal puzzle of the chicken and egg?

Now read it back aloud Say to yourself aloud: Do you remember this causality dilemma question?T en say it to your kids: Do you remember this causality dilemma question?T en say it to your partner: Do you remember this causality dilemma question?

Youll get the same response: Huh?

Now change the questions to something simpler

Do you know about the eternal puzzle of the chicken and egg?T en say it to yourself: Do you know about the eternal puzzle of the chicken and egg?T en say it to your kids: Do you know about the eternal puzzle of the chicken and egg?T en to your partner: Do you know about the eternal puzzle of the chicken and egg?

And all of them will respond without the huh?

T ats the di ff erence.

T e diff erence is that people get confused when you use di ffi cult words. Di ffi cult words start adownhill slide. And then everything else that follows the di ffi cult words becomes a blur.

If the barrage of di ffi cult words continues, then the blur becomes unbearable. Nowunderstand one thing: Having di ffi cult words is a problem in itself. But when you consider that your audience also has to deal with a di ffi cult concept, then youre making the situation morecomplex than ever.

But how does the situation become complex?

You have to remember why the reader is reading your article. T eyre reading it because they want to ll the gaps in their knowledge. So if your reader reads about a topic like headlines,for instance, its because the reader needs to ll that gap. And when were learning something,theres always what we call a learning curve.

The Huh Factor In Your Articles

To make an article un-intimidating, you need tomake sure you have one thought. You may notbelieve youre causing people to go huh, butyou are.


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And learning curves are slightly di ffi cult, because we not only have to grasp whats being said,but also think of how we would implement the idea in the article. And so learning always hassome factor of intimidation (sometimes a lot of intimidation and sometimes not so much).

If your words are complex, youve suddenly ramped up the intimidation.If your concept/article is complex, youre sending the reader spinning.

So the best way is to ramp down the intimidation

And how do you do that?1) Use simple words.2) Read your words back.3) If you get a huh? in your brain, rewrite the words.4) If youre not sure about the huh, then read it to a friend, child or partner.5) Just focus on the words and youll dramatically improve your article andreduce intimidation.6) To make an article un-intimidating, you need to make sure you have one thought.

You may not believe youre causing people to go huh, but you are. So test it out. Ask others. Ifthey say huh, you know youve got some re-writing to be done.


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Article Writing | 5

If you were to walk into a Hollywood studio, youdexpect to see actors, lights and action, right?

Right. But actors, camera and lights are expensive. Soevery movie director and producer on the planet doesone thing: T ey outline. T ey outline the script. T eyoutline the storyboard. T ey outline every darnedthing that can be outlined.

And the reason for the outline is indeed to save huge wastage of time and money. But its also to avoid thebloat factor.

A movie needs drama

It needs action.It needs ow.It needs storyline.It needs a beginning and an end.

And it sure as heck doesnt need to meander and bloat. And outlining enables you toimmediately see where the script is going out of control. An article careens out of control as well if not managed well.

In a matter of minutes your article can bloat out of control

If you start to write, youll nd you get ideas. T ose ideas lead to more ideas. And those ideaslead to um, even more ideas. Of course you try and put all the ideas together. Or decide that allthe ideas arent a good idea and then you start to edit. You go back and forth, adding or editing. And then tiredness sets in. And frustration. At which point you decide that either article writing is a pain in the butt, or the article youre writing is really not worth the trouble.

And youd be wrong on both fronts

Your article went o ff the rails at the very start when you failed to outline. An outline gives youa clear start, middle set of questions (how, why, what, when etc) and ending. If the bloatingstarts to occur, you can see it all in the outline itself. And you can move the bloated sectionor extraneous ideas aside. And guess what? Youre still outlining. You havent written a word ofthe article.

So lets see how an article can get bloated

Example Topic: How to increase prices without losing customers- Why increase prices.- How customers respond to increased prices (and how to avoid losing them).- T e problem with reduced prices.- How the yes-yes factor helps increases prices systematically.- How to create a yes-yes factor to increase prices.- T e yes-yes factor grid.- Examples of price increases.- Summary Now thats just the outline and you already see its swaying wildly without even writing a

Article Bloating: Part 1

Your article can bloat out of control. So, howdo you avoid article bloating? You learn whatevery movie director doe soutline.


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single word of the article. You can spot the yes-yes factor jump in. And then the yes-yes factorgrid pops in without notice and suddenly the articles gone o ff the rails. If you sat down to write this article, youd be writing and writing and then writing some more. T en youd spendendless time editing. And thats not much good.

Instead we do all our primary editing at the outline stage

Example Topic: How to increase prices without losing customers- Why increase prices.- How customers respond to increased prices (and how to avoid losing them).- T e problem with reduced prices.- How the yes-yes factor helps increases prices systematically.- How to create a yes-yes factor to increase prices.- T e yes-yes factor grid.- Examples of price increases.- Summary

And there you have it, youve done your editing and removed the bloat

In removing what you dont need (at least for now), youre left with what you need. And thisprocess of outlining isnt restricted to just articles or Hollywood movies. In fact its only thestubborn and incompetent folk who fail to outline. T e professionals all engage in outlining.Look at an architects drawing, a Boeing design, a cartoon sketch, a travel itinerary, a trip tothe supermarket, the lyrics of a songand youll see outlines in all of them.

T eres an added bonus to outlining

It keeps you focused. T is article was about bloating. And you read about bloating, bloating,bloating, and more bloating. If the outline wasnt in place, its easier to head o ff into a slightlydiff erent direction. But with the outline in place, you stay on target.

But should there be some level of creativity in the writing?

Outlining doesnt stop you from adding air, drama or even an additional paragraph here orthere. For example when the outline for this article was put together, this paragraph didntexist in the outline. But because I had the outline in place, I had the liberty of putting in anadditional paragraph without disrupting the core idea that the article is seeking to portray.

Outlines dont stop you from adding your own touch. In fact, because you have so much lessfrustration and editing, youre more than likely to have time to add a factor of creativity.

You also dont have to rigidly stick to an outline format

In the outline format for any article you tend to have the opening, the ending and the middlesection of how, what, why, when etc. If you nd that you dont need to add in a when, then you can omit it from the outline.

But having it all in front of you as part of the outline gives you the freedom to put it in, orremove it. And to do so without wasting time writing the article, only to nd it doesnt t in,and has unnecessarily bloated your article.

Bloat can be avoided and should be avoided


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Article Writing | 7

And you can do it easily by instilling the discipline of the outlineeven when free writing. And the greater the cost, the more detailed the outline.

Just like they do in Hollywood. Or Boeing. Or any place where they want to save time, moneyand frustration.

P.S. Heres the outline to this speci c article

- Drama: What happens before a movie is shot (storyboarding)- T e reason for outlining: Keeping Bloat Away - How Bloating Pops Up Incessantly - How To Beat the Incessant Bloat- Examples of detecting bloat in an article. (Put two examples here)- Examples of Industries that Outline: Architect, Cartoonists, Plane Designers. And why theydo so.- Summary.


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8 | Article Writing

Articles bloat.

You start writing an article, expecting it to stay well within the boundaries, and then it just takes o ff . And about two hours later, youre wondering wherethings went wrong. Why is your article looking like adogs breakfast?

T ere are two reasons for article bloat

Reason 1: Avoiding OutlinesReason 2: Bullet Points Cause Bloating.

Weve already seen how avoiding outlines leads toarticle bloat, so lets now look at how bullets cause amigraine of sorts.

In your article your bullets points can create thebasis for bloating

T ats because youve just gone and stu ff ed your outline with loads of bullet points. And soonthe bullet points take on a life of their own. You feel compelled to give adequate detail aboutevery bullet point.

And then it happens: Your article is in bloat mode. It cant help but expand in all directions. And for us to understand this phenomenon, we have to see an example.

So here comes the example of an outline

T e importance of terse, speci c commands in training- T e rambling teacher-Why rambles are dangerous.- takes time- prone to misinterpretation- causes students to want to do too much, too soon.- Getting one step done, wax on, wax o ff .Examples of terse commandsPep Guardiola- Summary - Next Step

T e above outline looks like a perfectly manageable outline

Yet lets not focus on the outline but on the bullet points in the article. Notice this partin particular.

-Why rambles are dangerous- takes time- prone to misinterpretation- causes students to want to do too much, too soon.

Article Bloating: Part 2

Bullet points can take on a life of their own.And cause a migraine of sorts. So you needto keep a watchful eye on them and preventthem from bloating.


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Each of those bullet points could be articles by themselves

In eff ect you could write three articles with headlines that went like this:- Why rambling answers in training take up too much of the students time.- Why rambling answers in training are prone to misinterpretation.- Why rambling answers may lead to students wanting too much, too soon.

So the question arises

Should you remove some of the bullet points that are causing the bloat? But what if youconsider those points to be important? What if you feel the article is incomplete if you dontcover those points?

Well keep the points. Dont remove the bullet points. But spend no more than a few lines oneach of the points.

So your article should visually look like this:

- Why rambling answers in training take up too much of the students time.Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah,Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah,Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah,

- Why rambling answers in training are prone to misinterpretation.Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah,Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah,Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah,

- Why rambling answers may lead to students wanting too much, too soon.Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah,Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah,Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah,

As you see Ive allocated no more than three lines of explanation to each bullet point

You may choose four lines. You may choose two. Whatever you choose, be aware of one thing.Bullet points can quickly cause bloating in an article. And suddenly, if you have about six-eightbullet points in your article, you could have six-eight massive paragraphs jostling for room.

And I dont have to tell you what to do

You already know what you need to do next.1) Write fewer bullet points in your article.2) If you must write a lot of bullet points, then keep the explanation to a few lines.

And yes, theres no reason why those bullet points cant become articles by themselves later Yes even though youve written about them brie y in your current article. In fact, its a superbidea to indeed give each of your bullet points the spotlight they deserve and give them anarticle of their own in future.

T at way you cover the bullet points in briefand later in detail. Most importantly you preventbloat. Phew!


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How To Generate Article TopicsIf you keep writing every day, youll have a problem. Youll have more article ideas than you can write.Every day will sprout thirty- fty new ideas that youcan never turn into articles. But when youre startingout, this problem is quite the opposite.

You may wake up and cant think of a thing

Or you may be so tired that your brain refuses to co-operate.

So heres what you do next: You nd a few books

You can do this o ffl ine, or online. But allocate a xedamount of time. And heres how you go about it. Letssay I want to write about PHP. I know diddly squatabout PHP. So thats the same as waking up and notbeing able to think of a thing to write.

So since the library is closed at this hour, I go online and look for a Dummies book

And I look at the contents page and voilthere are a ton of topics just waiting for me. Not justtopics, but subtopics. Yipeee-yahooey! Now I have my topics and my sub-topics.

But waitasec, isnt that cheating?

Isnt that plagiarism? Yes it is, if you copy the answers. Not if you copy the questions. T equestions are simply the titles on the contents page. So lets say the titles were the following:

Understanding PHP Data TypesBuilding SQL QueriesTroubleshooting a PHP ScriptSetting Up Your Computer for PHP and MySQL Web Site DevelopmentConsidering the Various Uses for the PHP Scripting LanguageKeeping Up with PHP and MySQL ChangesUse PHP Statements to Create ProgramsCommunicate with a Database through PHP MySQL Functions Access and Adapt a Database with MySQL QueriesKnowing the MySQL WHERE Clause FormatMake MySQL Database Changes with the ALTER Query Special Characters to Use in PHP Expression Test Patterns

Now fteen thousand writers can take the very same topics and no two articles may be thesame. Why? Because youre going to approach the same questions from your level, yourexperience, your stories, your objections, your style. It simply cannot be the same.

And I found these points in fteen seconds

You could spend hours trying to dream up the perfect topics and sub-topics, but theyre allready and formatted for you on the Internetif you just look. So look. Set a timer, and then gofor the topics. Cut and paste the topics and then its time for outlining.

You could spend hours trying to dreamup the perfect topics and sub-topics, buttheyre all ready and formatted for you onthe Internetif you just look.


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And by this time the expert in you can still be asleep

Because youre still not writing yet, and are in outlining mode, youre just having a party, bycoming up with questions. So let me give it a shot with PHP (not that I know anything about it).

Building SQL Queries What are SQL Queries? What are the steps to building an SQL Query? Where do SQL Queries mostly go wrong? What are the practical applications for SQL Queries?But surely we can do without SQL QueriesSummary Next step

Now if youre a PHP programmer, Im betting that youll be at least slightly interested in myquestions. Some may be slightly o ff base, but most of them, when answered form a prettygood article.

But some answers may be too big. For example: Where do SQL Queries go wrong? So noproblem. Just list the places where it can go wrongyes, just a list. T en start up a new articlecalled: Where SQL Queries go wrong and outline itand phewyou have another outline!

Your topics and sub-topics dont need to be in your head

T ey can be on the Internet, in the library or in the contents page of every book on your topic(hey, theres this site called Amazon.com). If you want to write topics on starting a business, itsthere. If you want to write on WordPress, its there too. If you fancy gardening, kite building,even getting a divorceits all there on the book stores. And not just one book, but forty or

fty books.

Which is why you need a timer

Because you can get stuck there all night trying to decide which topics and subtopics tochoose. One thing is for sure, though: You can be half asleep forever, and never have a problem when coming up with topics and sub-topics.

And thats just for starters. Once you start writing youll have the opposite problem. Too manyideas and not enough time to write!


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Build A Business By Writing ArticlesImagine you were to start up an Internetbased business.

And told that to promote your business, you wouldnot be allowed to do any a ffi liate marketing. Or joint ventures. Or any external publicity. No Twitter,no Facebook, no social media. No pay-per-clickadvertising. No goo gaa search engine optimisation.

All you had was one weapon: T e ability to promote your business through article writingand article writing alone. Would that be possible? Is it actuallypossible to create not just a pro table, but anextreeeeeemely pro table business with article- writing alone?

You guessed the answer, didnt you?

You instantly knew that it is indeed possible to drop all of the possible strategies you seeonline, and still generate enormous tra ffi cand revenuesthrough article writing alone. And you get that weird feeling of this makes sense, but makes no sense at all.

Everyone will give you the idea that you need ten or twenty methods to get tra ffi c to your website, and you dont. You can use just one methodarticle writingand have more thanenough customers to keep you very comfortable.

But its not going to happen tomorrow

Blogging or writing articles for a year probably isnt enough to begin with. Its like having ababy for a year, and saying Why cant this baby walk, talk and dance? It usually takes morethan two-three years for a business to really be walking, talking and dancing.

And then the walking, talking and dancing depends on how good you get at your writing. If you continue to write crummy headlines and just run of the mill articles, then you cant expectany one to pay attention. But once you start to write well, your ideas come alive.

And so do strategic alliances

When we began our business way back in 2001, we had no customers. No subscribers.Nothing. Besides I was a cartoonist, not even a writer. But I sharpened my writing to the point where others started to take notice. And if they didnt take notice, Id, um, write to them andmake them take notice.

So who were these others? T ey were other websites (blogs didnt exist in such a big waythen) that were publishing good content. T eyd publish my articles. Id open my inbox andthere would be 50, 60 even 200 subscribers. Can you imagine going to bed and waking up to

nd 200 emails in your inbox that are not spam?

But that was 2002, what about today?

Back then there wasnt so much distraction as you have today, but even so, if your article isoutstanding, and it gets published elsewhere you can get 20, 30 or even 50 subscribers from a

Can you build a business on article-writingalone? I guess you know the answer, dontyou? What you may not know is the powerof a single article.


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single article. T ese arent visitors. T eyre subscribers. People who come to your site or blog.People who investigate it before parting with their email address.

Were talking about skeptical folk here. And these subscribers, eventually turn to clients if youget them through a sequencebut you already know that.

What you may not know is the power of a single article

A great article has amazing endurance. An article is not an article is not an article. Its thestarting point to an incredible journey. If you write a series of articles on a topic, its even moreincredible. If done right, you can leverage an article almost in nitely.

But in nite is a big word. So lets look at a nite universe of why articles (and the ability to writearticles) is so darned important. First lets take the leverage tour, shall we?

How far can one article go?

Lets take where I can possibly put a single article that I write.

A single article has enormous potential

When combined with several articles, it becomes a report. But dont underestimate the powerof a single article. Our article on headlines was made into a report. It has been downloadedseveral tens of thousand times and that one article has been the root cause of easily well overtens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But there are no shortcuts

You cant just submit to some article or ezine site and hope to get these kind of results. If youlook around you, youll nd that those who succeed arent lazy bums. T eyre hard working,and work smart too. And they dont take shortcuts. T ey nd a medium that works, and they work it like crazy.


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Which brings us full circle to the question: Can you build a business on article- writing alone?

T e answer is yes.

Weve been in business all these years with no a ffi liates, no joint ventures, no fancy publicity,no ga ga search engine positioning, no ad wordsnothing. Yes, weve done the odd thing hereand there, and yes we do have a so-so social media presence, but as youve worked out, themain strategy has been article writing.

All weve ever done is write good stu ff and make sure that our customers pass it on We write good stu ff and attract other blogs and websites who value good stu ff , to publish ourmaterial. We write good stu ff and that good stu ff then gets leveraged, making us not just a very sizeable income, but also allows us to take a three-month vacation every year since the year 2004.

Can you build a business on article-writing alone? I guess you know the answer, dont you?


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Why Articles Create Expertise

Every business has not one, but about ve hundred competitors.

And no matter how unique your business is today, you will have competition lurking just

around the corner. T is leads us to a dilemma. How you separate yourself from the herd? Howdo you get customers to come to you, instead of you always having to pitch to them?

T e key is the ability to get a message across to your audience in a manner thats non-threatening, educational, and entertaining at the same time. And lets face it, youre probablyintimidated that its close to impossible to achieve such a task. Because every time youve satdown to write, its been one heck of a struggle. You know that article-writing is crucial, but youve tried it, and its been frustrating and demoralising. And you dont know of a way out.

Well...hint, hint (Go on, take the hint and click).

And judge for yourself.

http://www.psychotactics.com/article-writing-live-course


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PO Box 36461, Northcote, Auckland, New Zealand Tel: 64 9 449 0009 | Email:[email protected]

Facebook|Twitter: seandsouza

If you nd anything that bugs you, please click on the bug aboveto send me an email. Nothing is too small or too big. And if I can,

Ill be sure to x it. Email me at:[email protected]
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