If You Want to Succeed As a Writer, Dont Just Think It, Do It

It never ceases to amaze me when a prospective writer confesses that he or she has never put anything down on paper. Obviously, that's the first step. Just dreaming about it won't make it happen. Anyone can write. But not everyone writes well.

Shaping a manuscript as most everyone knows can be compared to shaping a formless lump of matter into a work of art. But it has to be shaped and chiseled more than once; sometimes you might even have to start over, and, when it reaches its final stages, it still might need a trim here and there. Without the benefit of an objective reading, you might consider taping your manuscript. When you listen to it, it's like hearing someone else's work and you can edit out the hiccups. The best test, however, is reading one's work in front of an audience, whether a roomful of people or one person; you can feel it when the listener loses interest or when the rhythm is off or when you've used the wrong word. It's a good way to stand back and look at your work objectively.

It's important to have the necessary materials and tools to do the job if you want to be a writer. You can't create anything from a formless lump if you don't have something malleable to work with in the first place. The tools you need as a writer are a collection of words on paper, a story outline, a typewriter or word processor, and a few books offering guidelines on how to prepare a manuscript. Then, you keep doing it till you get it right.

Marjorie Allen is a free-lance writer/editor who has had several books published. She has also taught writing at a local community college. She and her husband spend winters on the Baja Peninsula and summers in the Berkshires of Massachusetts.

You Have To Love The Location, Say These Owners Of Orlando Florida Villas

It has been said that in real estate there are three things that count the most: location, location and location. I recently discovered how powerful this concept can be.

Not long ago, I wrote an article about owning a vacation rental and what to consider before making the plunge ( http://www.seo-writer.net/clients/villa-ownership.html ). Like every decision, there are pros and cons, and it also depends on an individual's temperament, comfort with risk and many other factors.

I asked a few dozen villa owners who were listed at an Orlando Florida villas rental listing site at http://www.lastminutevillas.net why they had chosen villa ownership and what cautions or advice they would offer somebody considering a Florida vacation rental.

What struck me, however, was how most of the vacation rental owners I interviewed offered more comments on why they chose Florida as a location, than why they chose to be a villa owner.

In other words, the location more than the occupation inspired villa ownership, and that location is Orlando, Florida. Considering the battering Florida had recently taken by one hurricane after another, this struck me as kind of odd. So I picked up the phone and called Stewart Granville, owner of the listing site.

"It's late Fall and I'm sitting out here in my shorts. Do I need another reason?" he asked. "How are you doing up there?"

"Uh...let me just go get a sweater," was all I could respond.

To give you some idea of how important it for a vacation rental property owner to fall in love with the location, here are just two samples of what some villa owners told me:

"When we are driving back to the airport in Florida we never want to leave," says Michelle Prince, owner of Secret Key Villa in Kissimmee, Florida ( http://www.lastminutevillas.net/villa/166/ ), adding "It was something we have always wanted to do since taking a Christmas break in Florida every year."

"I believe that to feel that you wish to buy property in Florida you must think further than 'Profit'," says Dave Gordon, owner of Lindisfarne Villa in Orlando ( http://www.lastminutevillas.net/villa/89/ ). "I sincerely believe that most foreign villa owners have the 'feel good' factor themselves and buy because they want to return time and again?if they make a profit?what the heck!"

Of course, no business venture should be run on the off-chance of making a profit, but every business venture should be a labour of love, and few require as much love as the tender nurturing of vacation rental homes.

About The Author

David Leonhardt is a freelance writer

http://www.seo-writer.net/freelance/writer.html

Info@thehappyguy.com

Enlightenment Takes You to Selfishness

An act of selflessness is the highest expression of selfishness and unconditional love because it considers the soul first.

Selfishness does not preclude consideration of others, but selfishness is necessary before consideration of others is acted upon.

Few people really understand the true meaning of selfishness. We were born selfish and even before birth we came to this earth for selfish reasons.

All of us act from selfishness because we consider what is in our own best interest first at some level of consciousness and then do a thing even if it goes against the desires of others or what we believe our spiritual purpose is. There is most always a contradiction between spirit and ego. Consideration is something that has been taught to us by our parents and other authority figures from birth. We are taught to be considerate of others first mostly because others see it in their own best interests to have us consider them first. We are told we are selfish or are acting selfishly when we do not comply.

In the very strictest meaning of selfishness we are all perfectly selfish and it can not be any other way. If one considers that he/she is the only one there is, there would be no one else to consider and in truth there is no one else because there is only one soul. We are all alone in this world and are creating all the circumstances and people in our life that we experience. Because we are part of the whole we are interacting with ourselves and it is therefore perfectly logical to be selfish.

Consideration comes as a natural result of interaction with others; but still we consider at some level the advantages of considering others first and are therefore doing it for selfish reasons.

Until one can accept this aspect of higher awareness then one has to live with the idea that there may be two kinds of selfishness and that is rational selfishness and irrational selfishness or good selfishness and bad selfishness.

Rational selfishness does not preclude consideration for another. A decision is made for self without taking away anything from another, while irrational selfishness considers the self first at the expense of another. These two ideas are early steps towards being completely selfish and true to spirit.

In order to return to the one that is perfect the one that created us, we must be as pure as that one; therefore we must always consider ourselves first. It is the natural order of things that we always move towards betterment and perfection.

As humanity learns to deal with and evaluate circumstances that are less than our true selves, we move towards perfection. As we move towards that end, we begin to consider all aspects of ourselves and we include the welfare of others because they are really a continuance of ourselves. Still being selfish for our own purposes we begin to consider and include others because we see it in our own best interest to do so, knowing that it brings us closer to uniting with perfection.

As one becomes more enlightened one also becomes more selfish (rationally) and one knows intuitively when they are being irrationally selfish and they easily move away from it.

It is therefore selfish to consider what others expect from you. If it is your desire to consciously move towards enlightenment, then most often you will not do what others want you to do because it is not in your best interest considering what you know yourself to be and where you want to go, unless it is your wish to experience moving away from self. If enlightenment is the ultimate conscious goal of your ego then selfishness will get you there.

In a world of unenlightened people those that are closer to enlightenment will most always be considered selfish. Some will be ridiculed, alienated or killed. No one wants to be left behind and they will try to stop you at any cost. This is a demonstration of the opposite of unconditional love. Selfishness does not mean that you are better than another, it simply means that you know what you want and where you are going and you will get there by considering the wishes of others, but not necessarily granting them.

One can not attain enlightenment by trying to please others only and you must follow your own path selfishly in the best way that you know how. In the course of doing so, if you find yourself being irrationally selfish you will simply know that you have wondered off your chosen path and you will make corrections.

It is incorrect to believe that someone does not have a selfish bone in his/her body; it simply means the opposite, this one knows exactly what they want and how they are going to get it, they understand the importance of the consideration of others and it is working for them. This person would never consider themselves selfish nor would others and it is simply a matter of semantics and awareness.

Life is not about learning, but simply a matter of experiencing choices that get you were you want to be spiritually. Selfishness is a highly enlightened state of awareness that takes you there.

Roy E. Klienwachter is a resident of British Columbia, Canada. A student of NLP, ordained minister, New Age Light Worker and Teacher. Roy has written and published five books on New Age wisdom. Roy's books are thought provoking and designed to empower you to take responsibility for your life and what you create. His books and articles are written in the simplicity and eloquence of Zen wisdom.

You may not always agree with what he has to say. You will always come away with a new perspective and your thinking will never be the same.

Roy's style is hard hitting and comes straight from the heart without all the metaphorical mumble jumble and BS.

Visit Roy at: http://www.klienwachter.com

Use Pain To Get Commitments

Whenever I speak with new salesreps and entrepreneurs, I hear a similar frustration:

"I call a lot of prospects each week, most of which are really hard to get a hold of. When I do get someone on the line, I am thrilled just to talk to them. I sell a great product, yet very few of these people actually buy, even though they sound very interested."

So I usually ask them, "Did you get a commitment?"

The answer is... well you can guess the answer. Without a commitment, you are left hanging as to whether or not the sale is really moving forward.

Now this doesn't happen only with new salespeople. It happens with experienced salespeople also. I see experienced salespeople going after competitive deals all the time, forgoing commitments in the process. This is usually rationalized away as "I had to, otherwise the prospect would have cut me out of the deal".

Buyers love to do this to salespeople. To the extent that there is such a thing as "buyers school", they are taught to get multiple vendors bidding on a deal so that the prospect maintains control (for those of you in high-tech sales, I know that Gartner Group used to run seminars on how to manipulate vendors like this).

So instead many salespeople spend lots of time preparing price quotations, proposals, product demonstrations, arranging customer reference calls and site visits without knowing whether or not they will get the business.

Selling is a process of continuous negotiation and trading. I give you some of my time, you give me some of your time. I give you my product information, you agree to read it and tell me what you think about it. I give you a presentation, you agree to give me a decision upon completion of the presentation.

Selling is a series of incremental closes then, each one of which moves us closer to the sale. This is the most effective way to approach "closing". The "big close" doesn't exist here (it doesn't need to). You are being respectful of both the prospect, and most importantly, you are being respectful of yourself.

These incremental closes can occur within a single sales call, where you get the sale in one meeting. Or it can happen over the course of many days weeks or months as you work with multiple decision-makers in a large business-to- business sale.

So how is this done?

The key is to remember that anything and everything that a prospect wants is leverage in negotiating for incremental commitments.

Everything. Product info, names of customers, price quotations, proposals, product demonstrations, customer reference calls, meetings with your company experts. All of these things potentially represent value to your prospect.

Ultimately the prospect wants a solution to her pain. Each of these things represents a way of exploring and proving whether or not you offer that. You must learn to use the prospect's pain to get incremental commitments.

How? Simple. If the prospect really wants to solve her pain, then she will give you a commitment. Remind her of her pain. Then ask and be firm. If she won't give you a commitment, then either the pain is not important enough for her to solve, or you are not being taken seriously as a vendor.

You must negotiate the process of the sale with your prospect. You want to set the rules for what can and cannot happen during the sales cycle, and for what you should both expect of each other. Then negotiate for an advance of the sale for each offer of additional value on your part.

If her pain is not big enough to give you a commitment in the beginning, then it is almost certain you will not get a sale at the end. So stop here and move on to the next prospect. Offer to come back when she is serious about solving the problem.

Do not fall into the trap of believing that you have to demo / show / give away your info without any commitment. In retail sales this is the norm. Retail salespeople are paid to be on the floor talking to prospects, answering questions, and giving out free info, demos, brochures, etc. Everyone else should not sell this way. Unfortunately for the rest of us, most people's experience buying is in the retail world.

Oh, and don't go out and buy a book of closing techniques. If I hear another sales rep start a close with "If I could show you a way...", I will throw-up!

? 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.

Shamus Brown is a Professional Sales Coach and former high-tech sales pro who began his career selling for IBM. Shamus has written more than 50 articles on selling and is the creator of the popular Persuasive Selling Skills CD Audio Program. You can read more of Shamus Brown's sales tips at http://Sales-Tips.industrialEGO.com/ and you can learn more about his persuasive sales skills training at http://www.Persuasive-Sales-Skills.com/

The Key to Great PR

The Key to Great PR is Perseverance

By Paula Gardner of Do Your Own PR

I regularly seem to come across businesses that have pinned their hopes on one press release. They tell me how they sent it out with excitement in the pits of their stomachs and then felt the hard cold flop of disappointment when they didn't get an army of journalists on the phone the very next day. And then, disillusioned, they resign their venture into PR to the past and move on to what they consider safer tactics.

But what separates these businesses from the ones that do get go on to get great, continuous press is often one thing, perseverance.

PR is a long-term option and takes perseverance in more ways than one.

Putting the time in

Just like exercise, an occasional blast of frenetic activity will have little long-term effect. What does succeed is regular, time-tabled PR activity. Take a look at your weekly schedule and ascertain how much time you can devote to PR. A morning or afternoon a week is great. Put in your diary and make it sacrosanct. If you don't have that amount of time, what can you ditch or delegate to make the time?

Experimenting

One press release does not make a PR campaign. You need to release something to the media at least every other month. Sometimes these communications will disappear into the ether; sometimes they will be spot on. Regular postings to the press ensure that your name is in their minds (and contact books) and allows you to experiment with different ways of writing and presenting your press release.

Building Relationships

But the most important part of a PR strategy is building bonds with journalists and editors. Just like making friends or networking for business contacts, this takes tact and time. It's not a case of rushing in, but gently building trust and respect.

Allowing the campaign to reach the public

Seeing your company covered in the press is extremely flattering and satisfying, and may help bring you enquiries, clients and increased sales, but the real rewards come with continuous long-term coverage that propels your company firmly into the public eye and creates a recognised brand, your brand.

Working with my long-term clients on the PR Academy programme I have watched complete beginners go on to nab columns in national magazines, be interviewed for monthly glossies and appear on national TV. A key part of the programme is clients' accountability ? ostensibly to me, but primarily to themselves. Take this aboard with your own campaign, either charting your goals and your progress in a diary or journal as you go, or partnering up with another business and sharing the process. This helps keep up impetus and motivation when it becomes a little too easy to get distracted by the day to day distractions of running your business.

And it's a wonderful way to share and celebrate your PR successes, supporting and cheering each other on as you go.

copyright ?Paula Gardner and Do Your Own PR 2004. All rights reserved.

Paula Gardner of http://www.doyourownpr.com is a PR and marketing coach who works with people who are passionate and serious about getting their business noticed. Do Your Own Pr offers Pr training via ecourses, telephone coaching, one to one consultations and in-house staff training. You can sign up for the Do Your Own PR newsletter at http://www.doyourownpr.com/subscribe.asp

Communications for Family Emergencies

You know that children can get into trouble. The older they get, the bigger the problem as history would have it. To keep your teens safer you undoubtedly have already issued the cell phones to keep in touch, especially in the event of an emergency.

While having a cell phone is a great measure for communicating with your child, you might want to explore some extra emergency contact methods.

Technology is great, and as you may know, even a dead cell phone is capable of dialing 911. While 911 is great for that life or death emergency, it is not always the immediate solution for common everyday mishaps. As you probably well know, even smaller scale scenarios could eventually lead to a larger 911 problem if left unresolved long enough.

As a safety precaution, many parents are finding themselves purchasing extra phone cards that can be used from any phone. In the event a cell phone is disabled either by a low battery or bad reception area a phone card is good extra insurance. If your teen drives a motor vehicle, the possibility of them roaming into uncharted territory is increased. Remember when you were a teenager, bet you do.

Most parents can easily order phone cards along with extra duplicates from their current phone service or long distance provider. It may pay though to do the extra research to find if there are less expensive alternatives out there being phone card rates can easily skyrocket beyond reasonable costs. However, the costs more than likely will always beat the rates of a collect call.

Another option not as many parents have chosen is having a toll free number that forwards to the home phone. While it doesn't cost much, many are confused by the concept or feel it is too expensive.

Toll free numbers are actually really inexpensive and you only pay for calls received at home that were dialed with your toll free number. Toll free numbers can be dialed from any payphone with connect fees costing about 35 cents and only about 4 to 3 cents per minute. It really is an affordable option when you add it all up and your whole family can memorize it more easily than a toll free phone card number and PIN.

If thinking of using a toll free number be sure to look for a stand alone toll free service with either no or low monthly fees. Before doing that though, check with your current phone provider, you might find they can add it right to your local or long distance bill without ever having to shop around.

This article was written by Aaron Siegel of TopSavings.Net which provides household and business communication services including Internet and phone services.

Toll Free Services and Phone Cards at TopSavings.Net

Mexico: Drugs Galore!

You are going to find this incredible and I assure you I am not making any of this up: You can waltz into any pharmacy (Farmacia) in Mexico and buy almost anything without a prescription. Except for controlled substances, you can get most anything you want or need simply by asking.

This is astoundingly advantageous. Just think of it. You don't necessarily have to pay a doctor's office fee to get a prescription that you already know that you need. Let me qualify this statement.

When I have pain in my sinuses, my head feels like it is going to pop like a party balloon, and I cannot get any air up my nose, it doesn't take a medical degree to figure out what is wrong nor what I need to take! You know what you need. Here is why I say this.

America is a drug-taking culture. We Americans take drugs at the drop of a hat, whenever we feel puny, and do so because we are attacked every time we turn on the TV or turn the page of a magazine with ads for prescription drugs. So when we start feeling a little "under the weather", we run to the doctor for that little piece of paper. At the very least, we go to the pharmacist and ask for a recommendation of what to take.

However, what the pharmacist will show you is an array of weak sister, over-the-counter drugs that NEVER work. The reason the over-the-counter stuff is so weak is that they are designed for someone who weighs less than 150 pounds. In other words, all drugs work effectively according to how heavy you are. That's why the doctor is always weighing you when you go see him. One Actifed tablet won't cut it for me because I weigh in at 265 pounds.

I think most Americans must have the equivalent of at least an undergraduate degree in Pharmaceutical science from all the drugs they've consumed. You KNOW what you need when you get sick! You have years of experience of doctors writing prescriptions for you and your various illnesses.

Let me be clearer. If you've been seeing an American doctor for some chronic illness, like arthritis, and he's been prescribing such-and-such drug, chances are when you are in Mexico you can go into a pharmacy and simply ask for it. If you have a recurring illness for which you've been prescribed a certain drug, and the symptoms rear their ugly head when in Mexico, just pop on down to the local pharmacy and pick it up-no prescription needed.

Having said all that, here's the downside: You will be tempted to self-diagnose. I can just hear the sigh of relief from all the American doctors and pharmacists reading this column. I am not recommending self-diagnosis-not at all. If you listen well to your body, you will know when some symptom is new and unusual. When that happens, haul your little American nalgas (buttocks) down to the local doctor's office. Don't mess around with new symptoms. Listen to your body!

My point here is this: You come down with a cold. You have a nose of granite. Your sinuses are so clogged that you cannot get one breath in or out of them. Your head is killing you and you have muscle aches and pains. You don't have to go to the doctor for a prescription when you already know what you need.

You know you need a decongestant, antihistamine, maybe something for a cough, and some pain relievers. In Mexico, you don't have to mess around with weak over-the-counter, high-priced drugs (although they do have the popular brands here).

You can go to a pharmacy, talk with the pharmacist, and he will give you PRESCRIPTION-STRENGTH medications that will give you some relief.

Don't mess around with those weak sisters.

Expatriates Doug and Cindi Bower have successfully expatriated to Mexico, learning through trial and error how to do it from the conception of the initial idea to driving up to their new home in another country. Now the potential expatriate can benefit from their more than three years of pre-expat research to their more than two years of actually living in Mexico. The Plain Truth about Living in Mexico answers the potential expatriate's questions by leading them through the process from the beginning to the end. In this comprehensive guide, you will learn not only how-to expatriate but will learn what to expect, in daily life, before coming to Mexico. BUY BOOK HERE: http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581124570