Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Easy Tips For Writing A Good Article

Article writing is a rare skill and although millions of people write articles there are few who can make them interesting and useful. If you write articles but sometimes find it difficult to keep them interesting and useful for your readers you can change all that by following a few easy but important tips. In this article we will discuss some easy to follow tips that can help you to write better and interesting articles.

1) The first and most important tip for writing better articles is to know your audience. You should know the people for whom you are writing and the kind of information that they are looking for. This will help you come up with better articles which connects well with your target audience.

2) You should do your research well before writing the article as this is another important step to writing a good article. When you research on any particular topic it helps you analyze on how different writers have approached the topic and decide on what approach you want to take yourself.

3) Articles should be short and to the point as long articles are generally not very popular among readers. You should also keep your sentences and paragraphs short. Most readers don't have the time to read long articles so the effort may not be worth it.

4) You should also choose the title of your article carefully. This is often the first thing that your visitors see and having an attractive title often helps to get traffic from various search engines.

5) Avoid plagiarism at all cost as this can destroy your reputation as a quality article writer. You can lose readers if they come to know that you are copying someone else work. Plagiarism would also mean your work may never be indexed in various search engines which means no targeted traffic to your website or blog.

6) You should always proofread your work before publishing it on your blog or website. If you don't do it your articles may have some spelling and/or grammar errors which can make it difficult for your visitors to read them. This may have a negative impact on your viewership over time as people don't like to read something which has spelling and grammar glitches.

Article writing is a precious skill to possess but even if you aren't good at it you can easily get better. You can just follow the above discussed tips and it can have a huge impact on the quality of your articles and help you increase your website or blog traffic.
Read more ...

Should children be euthenised?

A while back I read about a law that has been passed in Belgian thanks to the insistence of many doctors who have requested that children with a critical illness be euthanized. Now there are a lot of things that would make a person agree or disagree with such law, but honestly, should children be robbed of their life simply because some doctors want to get rid of them? Don’t you think that is beyond cruel? We understand why animals are euthanized, but children? Should they be put down like a pet that is too sick to make it through life, or because of an injury that has rendered them disabled for the rest of their life, or because of having a chronic cold, terminal illness or anything else?

In their defense the doctors proposed the counter argument that adults in that country already have the option of assisted suicide, so children who go through illness beyond a child’s comprehension and control should be given the same choice. However it will not be up to the child to decide, doctors will decide when to call the shots and have the child euthanized. Now if that isn’t terrifying and more than a new boogieman for many children, I don’t know what is.
Read more ...

Why Professional Writers Write for Pennies: A History of Recent Journalism Trends

 


Do professional writers REALLY write for pennies??? Why, yes. Yes we do. We just earn a lot more pennies than those who don't strive to be professional in their writing.

The trick to writing successfully for the web is to BE PROFESSIONAL.

It all started back in the days when print was king. Many of us could earn on average $450 per article writing for major publications in the 1990s. Some writers earned more--much more. Of course, we had to write 1,000 words or more to earn our lofty fee, as well as sometimes produce or pay for professional images, but it was well worth the time and effort.

Then the internet took the world by storm, followed by iPads and smart phones. Large newspapers and magazines--some of which had been around for 150 years or more--began to go out of business.

In addition to writing for several local newspapers and national magazines, I published a local monthly magazine for gospel music in Nashville from 1992 to 2008. I held on as long as I could, but eventually the print version went out of business. It just could not compete with instant news at your fingertips. The web version celebrated 20 years in 2012, and I do earn some pennies from Google ads and Amazon writing for myself, but I learned I could earn more pennies writing for other sites as well.

During the two years proceeding my own paper's demise, all TEN of the publications which I wrote for on a regular business went out of business, so suddenly, there were a ton of very professional writers on the market: writers, editors and publishers competing for fewer and fewer remaining jobs in print. Some went into other businesses. Some lost everything. And some of us learned how to successfully write for pennies. Pennies turn into dollars, you know.



I don't earn as much as I did when I was paid $450 an article... on second thought, sometimes I do. Some months I only published two or three print articles, and some months I have earned over $1000 writing for the web part-time. As mentioned in a previous post, I have been especially successful earning money writing for Examiner.com.

There are definite pluses to writing for the internet. For one thing, it is easier to write for the web. Internet articles usually only have to be 150 to 400 words long as opposed to 1,000 or more for print. For another, writing for several sites I now have my pick of topics and am not locked in to the specific columns I had to write before.  In addition, I have chosen to write for sites where I earn residuals as long as I keep writing or checking in, so I am still earning those pennies on all the articles I have written for the web.

The trick to writing successfully for the web is to BE PROFESSIONAL and write about things that will interest more than just your close circle of friends. No one but your mother wants to read what you had for breakfast or how your toaster is working. Sure you can do that on your personal blog if you want, but you won't attract readers beyond your friends that way. If your friends give you enough page views to live on reading what your toaster is doing, more power to you!

You don't have to have an extensive background in journalism to be successful, but it helps to follow basic standards of quality so you can build your brand and your readership.

Here are a few articles that may help.

Writing Tips:


Thank you for reading and thank you for sharing the link to this article with others. This article is © Kathryn Darden, all rights reserved,  and is not available to repost on websites, blogs, discussion boards, Facebook, or to translate and post elsewhere without written permission.

Post ID KD214
Read more ...

About PWG

Preferred Writers Group is still a relatively new site and there are a lot of new members joining on a daily basis. I am sure many of you have a lot of questions you want answers to. I have compiled a few that I thought many members may benefit from. Here are some of the top questions related to PWG:

1) What is Preferred Writers Group?

2) How is it different from other writing sites?

3) Can I post an article that was previously published?

4) Can I post images?

5) How can I check my earnings?

6) When will I be paid?

7) How will I be paid?

8) Is the site moderated?

9) What should I avoid to save my account being suspended/banned?

10) Can I have multiple accounts?



Read more ...

Natural Allergy Relief

An allergy is a response from the immune system that a foreign substance or allergen has invaded the body. These substances can be a variety from molds, to foods, chemical additives, drugs, animal dander and many other irritants. When a person comes into contact with an allergen, the immune system reacts by creating protective antibodies.

If a person’s body is receptive to an allergen, the immune system responds by creating special molecules called antibodies that trigger an alert to the specific immune cells called “mast cells”. They are a type of white blood cell that reacts when the body has allergic reaction. When contacted with the allergen, the mast cells react by releasing histamine, a protective substance that can cause swelling of the skin, rashes, or inflammation of the airways.

Natural herbal medicine can offer many treatments for reducing the body’s allergic reaction. The safest way to prevent an allergic reaction is to stay away from the allergen itself. This is only possible for some allergies. Food allergies can be preventable but others like pollen may be impossible to avoid.
There are many herbal treatments that will help the immune system and prevent allergic reactions. Treatments can be applied externally to the skin for rashes or itching. Reducing the intake of dairy for the allergy sufferer can help as dairy can create trouble breathing or increases mucus especially if you have asthma.
Drinking Nettle leaf tea can help with allergies, asthma and circulation. The tea enhances the immune system and helps reduce inflammation, runny nose, itchy eyes and sneezing. It works as anti-histamine. Stinging Nettle tea is a flowering plant that is grown all over the world. It is rich in vitamin K, iron, and calcium. You can purchase it loose or in tea bags and it is recommended to drink 2-3 cups a day to receive the benefits.
Cayenne pepper contains an anti-inflammatory called “capsaicin”. It also helps relieve allergies. Just sprinkle generously over your food for a few days and see the results. Homeopathic treatments can adjust the immune system of allergies however these treatments should be done under the guidance of a professional because sometimes these treatments can actually cause flare ups of the symptoms.
Vitamin C is considered to be a natural antihistamine because it stops the release of histamine by the mast cells. Excellent sources of vitamin C are bell peppers, red meat, kale, orange or grape fruit, broccoli cauliflower, papaya and strawberries.
Acupressure has been known to be very helpful in restoring the immune system and relieving allergies. One technique is to apply pressure to the center of the webbing of your hand, between thumb and index finger. Squeeze and maintain pressure for 2 minutes then do the same procedure on the other hand. Do this as soon as you start to have an allergic reaction.
Herbal extracts have been effective as well, by adding to your bath water, or applying to a compress for allergic skin reactions. For eczema you can use oak bark or witch hazel to fight against the oozing or other skin inflammations. Bran or oatmeal baths are very effective and works quickly with burning and itchy rashes.
Chamomile can be applied to a compress and will help with skin swelling. It contains anti-inflammatory agents which sooth the skin. If you are prone to allergies, try on a regular basis a juice fast. Drink nothing but perseverative free herb and vegetable juices for 2-5 days. This helps cleans out waste products and will help stimulate healing.

As always, check with your doctor before trying any new supplements







Article from my Hupages













ID Post mac217
Read more ...

Study: acne pathogen transferred from humans to grapevines -- National Skin Care Examiner





Seriously, this bacteria transferred from humans to plants--grapevines to be exact
If you have acne, drink the occasional glass of wine, are a fan of musician Frank Zappa, or just like weird science, here's some news you will find intriguing... -- Examiner
This could be big news for acne sufferers, because as researchers study the pathogen in grape vines, they might hit upon a cure for the human bacteria. This is the indirect way many other cures and treatments have been found.

Article at: Acne bacteria spread from humans to grapevines new study reveals - National Skin Care Examiner 

Related:

Thank you for reading and thank you for sharing the link to this article with others. This article is © Kathryn Darden, all rights reserved,  and is not available to repost on websites, blogs, discussion boards, Facebook, or to translate and post elsewhere without written permission.


Post ID KD214 
Read more ...

The Last In Line

Someone on my post on "the other site" asked a great question, "How do you know you will get paid at PWG?" I think this is a very relevant question. And the perfect PWG member to answer this is me. Not because I'm an admin, but because I am the last in line to receive my earnings.

In a recent post I mentioned that there is always a discrepancy between the actual page views and the estimated page views we see on our posts page to the right of each of our posts.
- This is because bots, crawlers, and many other things are included in the Analytics report I use to tally up our views/earnings. I cut these out because they do not register as a valid page view and aren't specifically associate with any post. They are a random set of figures followed by an ambiguous http address.
- The comments are also removed from the list as they are, by default, already listed as a valid page view.

The final overall earnings/views must be as close as possible before I begin counting how much each post has earned. $100.00 = 10000 page views or roughly $0.01 per view. The best rate going at the moment, if you can get paid for it. Any deviation in the figure means the last one in line to get paid will lose earnings. That one will ALWAYS be me. $100.00 with 12000 valid page views means I have lost $2.00 for the month. But my writers have not.

This is how you know you will get paid. When a site promises big earnings it is always at the expense of the writers. It is a given that someone must take a hit so that the others will get paid fairly. It is no different here. The last in line takes the fall at PWG. The last in line here is me.

Post ID: 10197
Read more ...

Tips on How to Build an Effective Homepage for Your Website!

 This was previously published by me (pen name Marie Heyns) on Triond on May 4th 2012

Since your homepage is people’s first encounter with your website, it is of vital importance that it makes a lasting impression as this greatly affects their decision to revisit it. The homepage is the page that can either leave users intrigued with a desire to learn more about your organization or it can cause them to become irritated, confused and ultimately to abandon your site. This article contains some tips for designing an effective homepage.


1  First of all, you have to define who you are or what the organization is about. Make sure you clearly display your company name, logo and tag line preferably near the top of the page. Generally users will scan your page starting at the top-left, so this is ideal place for your logo. Clearly show your identity and make sure it is aligned with what they are expecting. Also clearly state if your site is local or national, a small business or a corporation and if it is modern or traditional.

2 Avoid sleazy elements such as a lot of scrolling text, animated GIFS, blinking, flashing objects or sound that auto-loads. Sounds and animation are very distracting. Visitors with slow connections may feel resentful that you’re wasting their time by forcing them to load animations and sound files before actually seeing your page. It is conventionally thought that people are drawn to an animated ad, but in reality quite the opposite is true.If you assault readers with blinking ads, they are more likely to leave your site immediately without clicking on a thing.They are also far less likely to bookmark such a site, link to it, recommend or return to it.The exact same is to be said about scrolling text. Not only do people find it most annoying, they also can not read it at their own pace but are forced to read it at the slow or fast speed it scrolls down in. Scrolling text never serves the visitor, it only shows the owner of the website tried to look cool.

3 Another thing to avoid is to install pop-up windows as this is almost always the most annoying to any visitor. Nobody likes to be bombarded with a lot of pop-ups. By adding pop-up windows you will ensure that your visitors never return. Most people tend to forget their own experience of browsing the web and clicking on a site that overloads you with pop-ups when they start designing their own homepages. Always think what annoys you most of other websites and ensure you do not include that on your own site.

4 Organizing your homepage is extremely important and you need to put some thought into that before making it. Make it easy to find stuff on your homepage. Don’t haphazardly clutter your page with all kinds of tit-bits. Think of what content you want to put on it and how it should be organized. A haphazardly thrown together page is neither interesting to read or look at nor is it a page anyone would ever want to revisit.

5 Minimize clicking as much as you possibly can as this is another big reason why so many sites on the web are not revisited. If visitors are forced to click around your homepage, they might not leave immediately, but will definitely get annoyed and will most probably not view as much of your content as you would have liked them to. On the other hand, also don’t let your homepage be a ’splash page’ (a page that just “welcomes” visitors and has no meaningful information on it) neither. A far better idea is to put meaningful amounts of information on each page of your website, starting with your homepage but keep in mind to minimize clicking and scrolling.

6 It is equally important that you prioritize your content and display items on the homepage that are held in the highest priority. A good idea is to let the most important content be large and closest to the top-left portion of your homepage. If you need to display several important services, products or pieces of content, make sure they are weighted accordingly to size and location within the page.

7 Do not bog your homepage or website down with too large image files. Compress your image files with a graphics software so they take up less room and therefore less time to load into your visitors browsers. There a several graphics software that shrinks your graphics to an acceptable size. Programs such as Gifbot is not only quick and easy to use but shrinks your graphics right there on the web page. You can also download graphics software such as Windows HVSGifCruncher and JPEG Wizard and for Macintosh it is GraphicConverter.

8 Use simple backgrounds or contrasting colors as it is very hard to read dark text on a dark background and light text on a light background. There are also a few color combinations that simply just don’t work. For example putting red text on a dark blue background makes it awfully hard for visitors to read and chances are pretty good they won’t even attempt it. Also ensure that the text is large enough for people to read comfortably since nobody likes to have to squint when they read something.The most comfortable sizes to use are 12 or 13 px Arial or 11 or 12 px Verdana.

9 A display of professional and visually pleasing graphics on your homepage will go a long way in showing the visitors that your organisation has the wherewithal to take the time and spend the money to produce an aesthetically pleasing experience for them. This in turn is a good indicator to them that the same care and attention has been paid to your products or services. Also always provide up-to-date content, keeping it relevant and fresh and if the information is a lot, offer users a “read more” call-to-action.

10 The Internet has become increasingly competitive so it is therefore vital to get users to your site and keep them there. An excellent way to achieve this and compel users to visit further into your site, and if needed to offer up their email address, is to provide them with some kind of incentive. The incentive can be anything such as an e-book, access to exclusive content or special discounts on items, etc. Incentives always add value to the experience a user get and thus will ultimately improve the success of your website.
Remember to always ensure that you focus on delivering a satisfying and pleasing experience and pay enough attention to the smallest detail that might otherwise be overlooked. Every single little detail on your homepage is all important to ensure the success of your entire website.
Read more ...

Natural Remedies For Diabetes


Diabetes is usually a hereditary disease and chances are that someone you know has diabetes- there are over five million Americans that have this disease and are being treated for it. Diabetes happens when your body does not produce or use insulin, the hormone that helps move consumed sugars out of the blood and into the cells.

An excess of glucose "sugar" in the blood and urine are due to the body’s inability to absorb glucose normally, because of a result of insufficient amount of insulin being produced by the pancreas. The inability to absorb and store the glucose causes it to accumulate in the blood in large amounts that can over flow into the urine.

Frequent urination is due to the abnormal amount of urine being produced to allow the excess glucose that the kidneys need to filter out of the blood. Chronic thirst, excessive hunger, or weight loss are just some symptoms. This occurs because the body is unable to use the glucose so the body then uses fat and proteins as a source of energy. If this condition goes untreated the large amount of sugar can lead to a coma or death.

There are two types of diabetes- Mellitus: Type 1 or juvenile diabetes which occurs during childhood. Type 2 adult- diabetes, can usually happen after 40 years of age. With type 1 diabetes, treatment is a careful diet and insulin injections. With Type 2 diabetes successful efforts can be made when controlled by diet, exercise, and natural remedies. Control is essential to avoid any other issues.

It is important to maintain your weight and get exercise. Limit your intake of rolls, pasta, bread, potatoes, and sweets. Decide to eat instead fresh vegetables, proteins, beans, and nuts. Exercise will help keep your metabolism working because excess sugars in the blood can cause damage to the blood vessels. It is important for diabetics to keep their circulation healthy; the reason is so that enough oxygen can be supplied to the organs. This will prevent problems such as kidney failure, blindness, or circulatory disease.

There are natural remedies that can help and control many diseases. Blueberries, Stevia, Cinnamon, turmeric are just a few. You can eat, drink, or take a capsule with some of these herbal remedies.

Blueberries- help protect the blood vessels from damage, they help keep sugar and cholesterol levels balanced. They help with circulation. They can be eaten, taken in capsule form, or you can drink unsweetened juice.

Turmeric-Has many benefits besides helping with type 2 diabetes. It is an anti-inflammatory, pain reliever, and natural antiseptic. It aids with liver problems, arthritis, insulin resistance, and Alzheimer’s.

Cinnamon- Triples insulin’s effectiveness- It can be sprinkled on food, in coffee, and you can get it in capsule form.

Stevia- a good substitute as a sweetener, helps improve insulin responsiveness.

Fenugreek Seeds and Blackberry- by using the seeds and leaves as a tea it has a very beneficial effect on the pancreas. Just mix both in a teaspoon, boil water, let sit for 30 minutes then strain. You can use the Fenugreek seeds and apply to food or make a spread.

Asian Ginseng- helps lower blood sugar.

Yarrow, Dandelion, chicory, and Bilberry are just another few natural herbal products that can be used for diabetes.

As always, check with your doctor before using any herbal product.






Article from my Hubpages
http://macourt60.hubpages.com

















ID Post mac217

Read more ...

Do Vampires Exist?

I, recently, wrote about the Highgate Cemetery in London and that a vampire had been seen there. I have done some more research for more evidence of whether there is such a thing as vampires and I came across a couple of stories that I wanted to share.

Read more about this topic at the new Preferred Writers Website at the link below:

Do Vampires Exist?


Copyright 2013 Denise Larkin. All Rights Reserved.



Photo credit: Denise Larkin - Igrebourne River in Essex


Read more ...
Get paid to write at Seekyt.com