Top Articles on Internet: August 2011

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Top Misc Content on Internet

The Importance of Link Building in Maryland Search Engine Optimization
Points To Remember in Website Content Writing
What is Recession Fatigue and How to Fight it
Sunk Cost Dilemma
Assistance to Become a Research Assistant
What is the Bullwhip Effect and How to Prevent it
What is Project Management Life Cycle
Introducing the StudioPress Marketplace: Great WordPress Themes from Exceptional Designers
Why People Don’t Want the “Real” You

The Importance of Link Building in Maryland Search Engine Optimization

Posted: 26 May 2011 05:15 AM PDT

Link building is one of the most important ways to improve Maryland search engine optimization. For one, links pointing to your site from other popular sites increases your website's popularity. Search engines can readily determine how popular your site is by reading how much traffic it gets. Secondly, links back to your site strengthens your credibility and brand.

Link building services are available to help increase your website's popularity if you are not sure where to start. A Maryland Search Engine Optimization company can help you determine the best sites to get backlinks from based on your industry. For instance, if you are a lawyer, it is wise to submit your URL to attorney directories in Maryland. Likewise, if you own a sandwich shop, you would instead submit your URL to a restaurant directory for local searchers in Maryland. Thorough search engine optimization plans include extensive link building services to build popularity of your website over time.

In addition to URL submissions, link building also exists through blogs, news feeds, articles, forums, and more. A Maryland SEO company can also provide services linking to your site from these places. Blogging and creating press releases are two of the most popular ways to link to your website. By releasing these informational segments, your business is showing your knowledge in the field and the fact that you stay abreast of industry trends. Visitors are apt to click back to your site when they see an established trust factor.

Besides promoting articles that already exist, Maryland SEO companies will carefully construct keyword rich articles relative to a topic in your industry. By carefully researching relevant keywords and crafting articles that link back to your site, your site is likely to gain popularity and returning traffic. Also, an SEO company will create an RSS feed on your website's press release and articles page.

One thing to consider when link building is the quality and relativity of your links. For the best Maryland search engine optimization, make sure you avoid signing up with link exchange programs. Abuse of the link exchange policy might negate SEO forever and cause the search engines to drop your site.

Another common mistake to watch out for is linking to unrelated sites. Doing this decreases your credibility and will not drive traffic to your site. Traffic that is pointed to your site will quickly leave, increasing bounce rates and decreasing conversions.

Follow these simple guidelines to link building from a Maryland SEO expert and watch your rankings stay on top.

Stephanie Aiello is an SEO writer for Maryland Internet Marketing, a company specializing in SEO Maryland,internet marketing, social media, and website content writing. Learn more about Maryland Search Engine Optimization to grow your business.

Points To Remember in Website Content Writing

Posted: 25 May 2011 02:28 AM PDT

Generally, all writings connected to and written for the World Wide Web define website content writing. In the past couple of years however, the Information Superhighway has become more complicated, resulting to more rigorous delineation of different web terminologies. Here, website content writing becomes clearer. Because the Internet creates a new medium of information, the writing that goes with it is then considered a new categorization.

Website content writing aims to become two things: relevant and searchable. By relevant, this means that the texts present meanings that are helpful, informative, and beneficial to the users. By searchable, it means that the texts employ key words and phrases that can make them easy to find using search engines.

Conventional writing and website content writing are still the same in as much as both aim to present truths when facts are concerned; state opinions wherein opinions are needed; and explore creative imagination through the vividness of the language. Format-wise however, website content writing calls for short paragraphs of very brief sentences.

Millions of web pages are publicly available to Internet users, and because of this, reading on the web tends to be fast paced. Readers need to finish a concise article as soon as possible, simply because there are hundreds of pages yet to be seen, and dozens of links yet to be clicked.

Clarity, conciseness, and systematization define website content writing. This means that outlining tools must be utilized most of the time. Titles and subtitles must be catchy and exercise economy of words. Paragraphs must consist of three to five simple sentences. It is easier for a web article to be digested when ideas are divided into several short statements and not crammed into one long complex sentence. In terms of tone, it is generally preferable to use a conversational voice. Use words that typical high school students use when they talk.

A huge portion of web pages is painfully devoted to selling products and services. In the past few years, users have become aware of and fed up with annoying advertisements popping up from all sorts of websites. And because of this, sales talks on the net are usually seen with ridicule and suspicion. Web content writing therefore must be absent of blunt, trite or conventional sales pitches. There is no other way to ward off potential readers than bombarding them with nonsense articles using irritating sales language.

What makes website content writing from other categories of writing is the significance of utilizing key words and key phrases. Because looking for information on the web depends on the major search engines, it is a concern of web writers to use words and phrases that their target readers will use to find their writings.

Searchable key terms greatly define website content writing. And because many websites have to compete with other websites in terms of search engine rankings for certain key terms, it is then very crucial that the texts are well written and truly present what the online users are looking for.

What is Recession Fatigue and How to Fight it

Posted: 10 Aug 2011 10:00 PM PDT

Recession fatigue is a situation of economic-helplessness wherein a person who has felt the burns of recession is not able to revive his economic activities again because of retrospection.

Sunk Cost Dilemma

Posted: 10 Aug 2011 10:00 PM PDT

Sunk cost dilemma is a situation where in one is not able to decide whether to or not to continue a project or a deal, considering its uncertain outcome, when an individual has already invested in some resources.

Assistance to Become a Research Assistant

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 10:00 PM PDT

Planning to become a research assistant? Need some help? You will find some assistance in the following Buzzle article.

What is the Bullwhip Effect and How to Prevent it

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 10:00 PM PDT

Bullwhip effect is a term used in supply chain management. This effect is not good for a business and it deteriorates the production sector growth. To know about bullwhip effect and how to prevent it, read this article.

What is Project Management Life Cycle

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 10:00 PM PDT

The management of a project can be divided into distinct stages. These stages together form the project management life cycle. Let's study the various stages of project management and attributes pertaining to them.

Introducing the StudioPress Marketplace: Great WordPress Themes from Exceptional Designers

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 06:30 AM PDT

When you’re buying a premium WordPress theme, you have to ask yourself (or someone who knows what they’re doing) real questions about security, stability, SEO, ease of use, ease of updates, and much more.

That’s why we created the Genesis framework to be the rock-solid foundation of a smart WordPress site. Then it’s just a matter of dressing it up with a cool paint job.

Our StudioPress division already offers 39 turn-key child theme designs for Genesis, with more coming. But we’re about to open up the doors to a whole lot more of them.

We’ve created a single place for you to buy StudioPress-approved child themes from third-party designers. It’s called the StudioPress Marketplace.

Whether you’re already one of our existing 54,000 StudioPress customers, or you’re thinking about taking up the Genesis Framework for WordPress for the first time, the Marketplace is a simple solution to the ongoing problem of finding a variety of well-built designs powered by Genesis.

So, no more searching endless posts, reviews, or forums, trying to decipher the right information. No more accepting badly-written code for the sake of design.

We’re going to stay on top of state-of-the-art for you.
We’re going to check and double-check every line of code for you.
And most importantly, we’re going to find amazing designers and new themes for you.

You’ll be able to get in, get what you need in one place, and get back to doing what you do best.

Here are the four designs that are kicking off the Marketplace, with many more coming all the time:

You don’t need the bling

For the micro-blogger, speed is everything.

You want to keep screen alive with new color, text, and image. Near-constant movement.

The Blingless theme gets out of your way, so you can get on to what’s next.

Click here to get moving with the Blingless theme.

Blingless was designed by Dre Armeda of CubicTwo.

We don’t care what they say, function is fashion

You’re in the city. You’re in the country.

You’ve got stories and pictures and ideas that can’t be contained by mere … stereotypes.

Let the Elle theme frame your life or business the way you want it framed.

Click here to check out the Elle theme.

Elle was designed by Lauren Mancke of Northbound Design.

Much more than you asked for

Utmost impact. Lavish readability.

Maximum … awesome.

The Maximum theme delivers — in a big way — whether you’re building your company, or creating your personal brand.

Click here to get more from the Maximum theme.

Maximum was designed by Brad Potter of Theme Craft.

Get back to where you once belonged

Somehow, it’s old and new.

The best vintage pieces point back in history, and look forward, defining the future.

Wrap your photos, your words, your audio in the feel of another time.

Click here to get back to the Vintage theme.

Vintage was designed by Lauren Gaige of Restored 316 Designs.

These four amazing designers are just the beginning. Will you join them?

If you build stunning, rock-solid WordPress themes …

… we’ll get them out into the world for you. And get you paid, hassle free.

The most frustrating part of a theme developer’s work is usually on the business end.

You need marketing, accounting, distribution, awareness, bullet-proof hosting, and a hundred other things to make it all run smoothly — to profit from your hard work.

Brian Gardner knows this stuff well, he’s been developing and selling WordPress themes for years. And Brian Clark knows how to sell a WordPress theme or two himself.

The StudioPress team has put a lot of thought into this aspect of the Marketplace, so you can focus on code and design, instead of billing and marketing.

When you join the StudioPress Marketplace, you’re tapping into, and becoming aligned with, years of trust that StudioPress and Copyblogger have earned with customers around the world.

If you’re a developer, come grow with us. It’s gonna be fun.

We’ll tell you how to submit your themes soon. Right now, we’re booked with our initial hand-picked designers, so start building your best Genesis-powered WordPress design ever.

We’re just getting started …

Hopefully it’s obvious to you that we’re committed to making the StudioPress Marketplace a home run for both WordPress theme buyers and WordPress theme developers.

For buyers, a single, trusted place to find and buy superior WordPress themes.

For developers, a world stage to sell your work from, and get paid well.

Check out the StudioPress Marketplace today.

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s resident raconteur, copywriter, and regular-guy attache for the StudioPress Marketplace.

Why People Don’t Want the “Real” You

Posted: 10 Aug 2011 06:30 AM PDT

image of joy division lp cover

Everywhere you turn these days, you hear about authenticity.

They say you’ve got to be real in order to connect with today’s social media savvy audiences and consumers.

But it's not necessarily true.

Go out and be "real" when you're having a bad day, and people will quickly call you out for not reacting in the "right" way.

Or, cross a line with your audience that disturbs their expectations of you, and you'll quickly find that people didn't want that much of the "real you" after all.

And yet, it's unavoidable — the world of marketing in general, and specifically online marketing, has heavily gravitated to a greater emphasis on an authentic human voice over canned messages and corporate speak.

So what's going on with this authenticity stuff?

Glad you asked. Let me give you a bit of an offbeat example involving "authentic" t-shirts on the way to answering you.

The case of the vintage t-shirt

I'm a t-shirt guy.

I'm especially fond of cool t-shirts that I've owned forever — sometimes for decades — and they show it.

I'm proud of my SXSW Interactive shirt from 2000 even though it's seen better days. And I was mortified when I had to replace my Joy Division, Unknown Pleasures t-shirt after it was "liberated" during a party I threw in law school, but what are you gonna do?

Let's look at the larger trend in "vintage" t-shirts:

Group 1: People who have cool t-shirts that they bought way back when and now proudly wear as raggedy badges of hipster honor.
Group 2: People who shop in vintage clothing stores looking for old, ironic t-shirts, perhaps hoping to be viewed as members of Group 1, or at least … ironic.
Group 3: People who buy new reprints of older, popular t-shirts, and then buy other products to begin a rigorous process of making the t-shirt look old so they appear to be in Groups 1 or 2.
Group 4: People who go to Target to buy the same t-shirts as Group 3, except these shirts are pre-aged by the manufacturer, effectively commodifying Groups 1, 2, and 3.

Would you agree with me that Group 1 is the only "authentic" example, with each subsequent group diverting a step further away from authenticity?

And yet, people are spending good money for things that aren't "real." In fact, Groups 3 and 4 often spend more money to appear authentic than the people who actually qualify.

Is it really true that people want "real," or could it be they want … something else?

Who's your favorite person?

The problem with authenticity in marketing is age-old. And the emergence of social media has allowed people to forget Marketing 101, and go right back to egocentrism.

In other words, you're focusing on your favorite person — yourself — instead of focusing on them, the people you're trying to reach and influence.

Seth Godin famously said that authenticity in marketing is telling a story people want to hear, and then making the story a reality (or living the lie). He caught some flack for that, but that doesn't make it any less valid.

And yet, even that's confusing, because you start to think it's your story that matters.

Your story absolutely matters, but only to the extent that it helps people tell the story they want to tell about themselves.

Why people buy things

Very few of the things we buy are truly necessary.

Everything else we buy is used as a way of telling the story of who we are, what we believe, and what we aspire to be.

So, in the t-shirt example, people will go to great lengths to engage in "inauthentic" commerce, because it helps them say something about themselves that's desirable. It's real to them, and that's all that matters.

Am I telling you to be fake?

No, I'm telling you to get your head in the right place.

Focus on them.

Match them with aspects of yourself, your products, and your services. But never forget that you're helping them tell their own stories as you create your own.

Create content, products, and services that assist in the narrative of life we all tell.

Help people tell the story of who they are, what they believe, and what they aspire to be.

That's about as real as it gets.

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger, CEO of Copyblogger Media, and a vintage t-shirt connoisseur. Get more from Brian on Google+.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The holy grail for aspiring writers

I’ve struggled to convey just how I (and others I admire) actually write the way I do.

I’ve wanted to teach it in a way that you, the reader, can take and immediately implement on your own.

This is the one question that won’t. Stay. Down! Kinda like that game where you beat the hedgehog down and then an identical one pops up to take its place? Yeah. Like that.

It seems that in my rather meandering journey to becoming a ghostwriter-cum-blogger, I unexpectedly stumbled upon what seems to be the Holy Grail for many aspiring writers.

I’m talking about my voice.

It’s distinct. I like to think it’s funny and charming. I've been told it’s fairly no-bulls***.

Above all, it’s mine, oh mine, oh mine!

Regardless of where I guest blog, my voice is recognizable.

People read my stuff and they’re like “Hey … I know who this is!”

That happens even if readers don’t yet know that I am, in fact, the author. My friend Abby Kerr does this very well too.

You could say that that voice has now become part and parcel of my “brand”.

So, in the interest of fighting the good fight and teaching ya’ll something useful … I’ll now attempt to give you some pointers on how to unearth your own “voice” and write content that oozes your own flava.

In this process, you might even begin to find ways to brand yourself (so be ready!).

Here’s my 3 key steps to finding your voice and brand, mojo-writer style.

1. Speak your reader’s language

This may come as a surprise, but not everyone who reads your site is going to be a Harvard grad that speaks “ivy league” or whatever other language you specialize in.

Most folks reading online are reading at a grade school level.

That means all those big words you use are making people run screaming in the other direction.

It also means that cool industry lingo you’re so proud of throwing around is mostly falling on deaf ears.

Probably not what you intended to happen right?

When we write, we are creating content with a purpose. We want people to read it, to understand it, to enjoy it and absorb it.

Maybe we want them to take action — maybe we just want them to feel good after reading it.

They are only going to feel a whole lot of frustration if everything you say whips right over their head or they feel like you’re talking down to them because you can’t control your insane need to sound smarter than you probably are.

Not exactly warm and fuzzy advice, right?

Stop talking at your readers.

Stop talking over them.

Stop talking through them.

Talk to them, in simple lingo.

Write like you’re plopped down with them and sharing a cup of coffee and a bit of convo. My buddy SuiteJ pretty much nails this style and implements tip number 3 (we’ll get to it shortly) like gangbusters!

The result? You might be surprised at how many of them are willing to talk back with you.

2. Know why you are writing

All the writing skill in the world won’t do you any favors if you don’t know why you’re writing in the first place.

Lack of purpose is the death of success.

When you write something that has a clear cut purpose it’s reflected in a positive way. There is flow, there is rhythm and there is direction.

If you’re writing without a purpose, it’s kind of like doing one of those writing exercises where you just slap every thought that pops into your head onto paper.

Have you ever tried to read those things afterwards? Crikey, it gives me a headache just thinking about it.

If that's what you’re serving up to your readers, you might as well be handing out free Tylenol in little blog goodie bags. At least that would be useful!

So if you want to nail down your own unique “voice” you need to start with purpose.

From purpose, passion is born.

From passion you are born, in all your unique glory.

Every piece of content you publish should have your name all over it, in more ways than one!

And that leads nicely into my last tip …

3. Brand it, baby

In addition to speaking your reader’s language and knowing why you’re writing in the first place, sprinkle your work liberally with your own little stamps of distinction.

For instance, people who read my content often recognize my voice simply because I use words like shite, or frack, or ya’ll. Or even crikey.

Maybe there are words you tend to gravitate towards on a regular basis, that perhaps not everyone uses.

Or, maybe you have some sort of signature “how ‘dee do” or “fare thee well” that you use regularly.

Maybe it’s not in the words you use specifically, but in the way you tie them together.

Perhaps you like to inject silly jokes or clichés in your content. (That’d be me!) Or maybe you’re madly uncomfortable with writing with a bit of humor and prefer to adopt a 100% serious tone. That’s still branding and it’s OK too (though it may not win you very many friends, just sayin’).

Regardless of which tic you like to tac, there are a variety of ways you can tweak your content and utilize your quirks, so that it reflects you and allows your “voice” to sparkle.

You just have to allow yourself to find them.

Any questions?

There now. I hope you found these three tips useful.

It's hard sometimes to nail down how to find your “voice”.

The process is often different for everyone and some folks come by it more easily than others. It doesn’t mean that it can’t be learned though, and if it can be learned it can be taught!

Hopefully you’ve learned a little something here today and if you’ve got questions, please drop them in the comments below.

And, if you’d like more teaching, mayhap Brian and Sonia will invite me back sometime

Oh, and don’t forget folks … sharing is sexy! (No really, it is! I swear! Just ask Kristi!)

About the Author: Cori Padgett is a wildly hire-able freelance ‘ghost’ as well as the creative brains and dubious brawn behind her blog Big Girl Branding. If you’d like to harness her creative brains and dubious brawn to write for your blog, just stalk her on Twitter and ask. I'm “almost” sure she doesn't bite. Well… like 95% sure.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The movie Footloose, and the battle for your brain

I’ve always been a writer.

Writing is a strange animal. It can be an art and it can be a vocation, but it’s seldom both.

People who write for a living don’t usually think of themselves as artists, and people who write as an art don’t usually make any money doing it.

For me, it was always an art. Oh, sure … as an artist, I knew all about those people out there who made a living by twisting writing into something unnatural — creating nonfiction or ad copy — but that was entirely different from what I did.

That kind of “assembling words into sentences” was, as far as I was concerned, more akin to accounting than writing.

What I did with words was pure, blue-sky creation.

So, accordingly, I did what artists do. I made my art, I let it be what it wanted to be … and when it was done, I tried to sell it.

And I got precisely … nowhere.

The whole of the endeavor — from the time spent creating to the time spent failing at selling — really pissed off the left side of my brain, which was skeptical of this art crap and realistic about its lack of income potential.

Funny organ, the brain. They say the right side handles creativity and the left side handles logic and taking care of business, making the two a bit of an odd couple.

Personally, I imagine the halves of the brain as Kevin Bacon versus Jon Lithgow in the movie Footloose.

The right side wants the left side to chill out and let its hair down. The left side wants the right side to stop that unholy dancing and get a job already.

So while the right side of my brain was busy living the dream, the left side packed its briefcase, put on its dress hat and tie, and hit the streets to find me something productive to do with my time.

“What was I good at that might actually make a buck someday?” it asked.

“Science,” it said.

And this made sense. Really it did. I’d graduated first in my class from high school, then summa cum laude from college with a degree in genetics.

I was good at left-brain stuff. I was good enough, it turned out, to warrant a Ph.D. fellowship at Case Western Reserve University, where I’d get paid (pitifully, but paid nonetheless) to take classes in the A.M. and study fruit flies and electrophoresis in the afternoons.

After graduation, I could get a paid postdoc position or two, then a lucrative job at a research firm or pharmaceutical company.

Problem solved. The left side of my brain was jubilant.

But that’s where the trouble started.

How fruit flies helped make me the writer I am today

When I started at CWRU, I stopped writing. I had to.

I had a long commute, long days in the lab, and a wedding to prepare for back home. I’d been a hybrid right/left-brain guy, but I transitioned.

I became left-focused.

And that would have been fine, except for one thing: I wasn’t meant to do science. I was meant to write.

A very loud, very pushy part of me knew that all along. I disliked everything about CWRU from the day I was offered the fellowship. I disliked the campus. I disliked the work. I disliked the fruit flies the lab used for experiments.

And, even though the people were nice enough, I disliked them for their single-minded focus on science. Don’t these people ever just hang out and be ridiculous? I wondered. Will my casual jokes be wasted, and will they ever understand my pop culture references?

But I ignored all of that, because you’ve gotta make a living. Writing was great, but art almost never manages to pay the rent.

I told myself that the situation I was going into was pretty cool. I got to use fancy machines. I got to play with chemicals. And hey … I was (and still am) interested in science.

So I ignored the voices of protest … until they became insistent.

Until workday mornings started to seem blacker and darker than they actually were. Until I started getting indigestion and a nervous heartbeat. Until I started being spooked by the most innocuous things, and until I started seeking out constant company because being alone terrified me.

Until, eventually, I started to have full-blown panic attacks.

And when that happened, I immediately did two things, both of which came out of instinct.

First, I left my program and the labs and refused to look back. I had no other training and no prospects, but it didn’t matter. This was about survival. I had to leave.

The second thing I did seemed to happen by chance… but looking back now, I see that it was far from coincidental.

I started to write again.

What it means to be a writer

It took six months away from the lab, pursuing a fulfilling, upwardly-mobile career as a Borders Bookstore cafe barista, before I stopped being afraid of my own shadow and began to feel like myself again.

During those months, I didn’t make much money. I didn’t become more realized as a businessperson.

It probably looked from the outside (and to my soon-to-be-in-laws; thanks, Frank and Carole, for hanging in there) as if I were wasting my life. But it didn’t matter. I was free.

And more importantly, I was writing.

The fruit of that tumultuous half-year was a 700-page monster of a humor novel about an uprising at a bagel deli.

It was loosely based on the places and the people I’d known before I’d tried science as a life path, and was my way of going back to a time when I felt fulfilled, happy, and safe. When I’d left that life and begun my “career,” it had felt like a death.

Writing the novel was my way of grieving.

When the novel was done, I tried to pitch it to agents and failed completely, but it didn’t matter. Writing that novel wasn’t about making money or becoming famous.

It was about healing.

That book was about reminding myself who I was, and what I was supposed to be doing with my life.

When I got married the next year, I had to declare my occupation on our marriage license.

At the time, I was still a cafe barista and had never made a dime by writing words, but when the clerk asked what I did, I told him I was a writer. I still remember how saying that made me feel.

You tell people that you’re a writer, and they don’t get it.

They’re mired in the left-brain / right-brain dichotomy, uncertain how you could “be” something that’s usually considered a hobby.

So they’ll ask what you write, and who you write for … but ultimately it comes down to one question: “What does that mean, ‘You’re a writer’?”

I have an answer to that question now.

It’s means everything.

Now, focus.

I see a lot of people who have blogs, so they write posts.

I see a lot of people who are copywriters, so they write copy.

A lot of people who call themselves writers think it’s their job — in various senses of “job” — to put words together. They make sentences. Answer arguments. Explain features and benefits. Create dialogue.

But few ask, Why does what I’m doing matter? Or more to the point: What does it all MEAN?

The best writers have a purpose. They have a reason for doing what they’re doing.

Everything these people write is a right/left-brain fusion, a unique and beautiful thing that manages to convey a point AND express emotion AND drive a business outcome AND move the reader in one way or another.

The best writers don’t just assemble words. They assemble big ideas, and then use those ideas to do big things.

The best writers have a story.

They’ve experienced a life-changing event.

They’ve fought for their ideas.

They hit you with their words so hard, it’s like a violent encounter.

Jon Morrow told me once in an interview (which you can get right here), “When I’m writing a blog post, I literally imagine myself bludgeoning someone with a baseball bat. I want my words to hit them that hard … because you can’t ignore someone who’s hitting you with a baseball bat.”

The best writers want to change the reader.

If a person reads their words but leaves as the exact same person they were when they started reading, the very best writers feel like they have failed.

I want to change you here, today.

I want you to see that writing is the reason I’m here. It’s the reason I was put on this planet. It’s the reason I do what I do, and it’s the reason that, ultimately, I had to find a way to make writing work as my career.

I write almost every day, and I write a lot. I have to … because I don’t want to be reminded again what happens when I stop.

I want you, as a writer, to find that spark within yourself.

If you are a writer and have been simply “assembling words,” I’d like you to stop.

Focus.

And ask what your writing really means to you.

Put that meaning, that purpose, into what you write, and make others feel that meaning, that purpose.

Be bold. Be gentle. Be strong. Be compassionate. Be violent.

And start to change the world.

About the Author: Johnny B. Truant is a writer. You can sign up for his free series on how to start making more money with your own writing here.