Here are ten quick tips to improve your writing:

Write conversationally. Imagine that you are talking to one person in your audience, and write to that person.

Avoid jargon. If you must use technical terms and jargon, explain it. Don’t make your readers feel stupid if they don’t understand something.

Vary sentence length. Short sentences are easy to read and comprehend, but using only short sentences can make your writing choppy.

Include just one main idea in a paragraph. Readers will be able to follow and understand better.

Use subheads and bullet points. Subheads and bullets make copy easier to read and help to reinforce main points.

Use an introduction, body and conclusion. Start by introducing your topic, deliver the meat, then summarize and wrap it up.

Give examples. Examples help your reader understand the point(s) you’re trying to make in your content. They can also help personalize the content and make it more accessible.

Keep it simple. I used to work with someone who loved to use long words in his business letters. There were at least two problems with that: He was often writing to people with very little education, and they didn’t understand what he was saying. And sometimes, he didn’t know what he was saying—he did not always use the words correctly. ;o) Use simple, easy to understand words.

Avoid inappropriate emphasis. Bold, italics and exclamation points are often used to emphasize certain words or phrases. Use them sparingly for the greatest effect. After all, when everything is emphasized, nothing is emphasized.

Smile when you write. Your mood affects your writing. Sit up straight and smile while you write. It will show in your work.

These ten tips are easy to implement and will make your writing flow more easily and be better received by your audience.

WHAT IT MEANS: In business, you’ve always got to know whom you’re talking to, and then use the right level of industry jargon. Not too much…not too little. When speaking to industry outsiders, make sure you’re not talking over their heads. If you edit your written and spoken communications, you will have a better chance of establishing and maintaining a strong relationship.

ACTION PLAN: Use analogies or plain English translations. People often understand complex messages if they are wrapped in analogies; the more universal the analogy, the better. Relating a concept to a trip to the grocery store, the car dealership, or a lemonade stand may seem simplistic, but these are activities that everyone has experienced.

EVEN BETTER: Pay careful attention to nonverbal cues as they will give you clues on what’s difficult to grasp and requires more explanation. If your speech patterns are sprinkled with technical words without any corresponding explanation, chances are your listener’s eyes will eventually glaze over. Adjust the level of industry language that you are using, both to make it easier to understand and to prompt questions when necessary.

Reprinted from “Rick Frishman’s Wednesday Tips”
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I like to use two monitors when I am writing. Having one screen open to my word processor and the other to my research materials makes it easy to read my notes or consult websites and other documents while writing. Dual monitors can also make it easier to check for changes and corrections when proofreading a document.

Those extra seconds spent repeatedly clicking or switching between programs as you work can really add up, and you will work more slowly than when you have the space to have everything you need displayed neatly in front of you on dual monitors.

A second screen may also come in handy for monitoring social media, email or instant messaging without having to leave what you are working on. If I want to watch a video of a webinar or an online course, I can play it on one screen while I work on something else on the other screen.

Dual monitors are not without their disadvantages, though. The very things that can make you more productive can have a negative impact on your productivity if you let them. It can turn your desktop into the computer version of Bloomberg News, where there is so much happening on the screen you can not process all of it. If you are easily distracted, having your Twitter feed or other social media constantly changing in front of you can keep you from doing any real work. It is up to you to make sure that your second monitor makes you more productive, not less.

How does it work? I have a second monitor that I sometimes connect to my laptop PC. After plugging the monitor in to my laptop, I right click on the desktop background and choose Graphics Properties. From that menu, I choose Multiple Displays or Extended Desktop. (The exact choices will depend on your operating system and hardware.) Once the settings are applied I can move my mouse between screens as if I had one large monitor. To move a window from one screen to another, I just grab it with my mouse and drag it to the other screen. Cool!

Although many computers can now accommodate dual monitors, if yours doesn’t you may need to upgrade your video card. Added to the expense of the second monitor, you can be out several hundred dollars. The investment can be worth it if you get more done in less time, often with better quality. However, if your major advantage is being able to play Angry Birds during an online client meeting, it is probably not worth the money.

If you are satisfied with the amount of space on your screen than you may decide that dual monitors are not necessary. Let me warn you, though: Once you have worked with two monitors you will not want to go back to just one!

Image Credit: MrChrome at en.wikipedia [GFDL or CC-BY-3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

Here are some tips for writing an effective About page.

Start with a picture.

Because people like to do business with people they know like and trust, showing what you look like and that you are a real person can go a long way toward helping establish that trust and likability.

Tell people about you and your business.

It’s called an “About” page for a reason. This is where you tell people about you, your business, your products and services, your mission, the history of your business, and why they should consider doing business with you. Don’t make this just a dry statement of facts, though. It should be written in your voice with your personality shining through.

Incorporate social proof.

Your readers will want to know what other people think of you. Include testimonials from your customers and fans that show off the benefits of doing business with you. Other forms of social proof may include a client list with impressive names or large numbers, such as the number of books you have sold, number of clients you have helped, etc.

Brag a little.

Have you won awards? Have you been profiled are featured in major media such as the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times? Mentioning those things on your About page can give you instant credibility.

Where are you?

I am surprised at how many people give no indication of where they are physically located anywhere on their website. Although you don’t have to give details that would violate your privacy, it’s smart to at least give people a general idea of where you are located. If for no other reason, I like to know where someone is so that if I telephone them I call during appropriate business hours in their time zone.

Include contact information.

Include a link to your contact form or include the contact form and other info such as address and telephone number on your About page.

Don’t forget the call to action.

What do you want people to do after they’ve read your About page? You might want them to sign up for your newsletter, contact you for an appointment, connect with you on social media such as Twitter or Facebook, sign up for an introductory teleseminar or webinar, or view your product pages. Don’t make them guess. Whatever you want people to do, make the next action clear and simple for them to do.

Optimize your About page.

Your About page, like any other page on your website, should be properly optimized for the search engines. Be sure to weave your most important keywords through the text.

Your About page is, in many ways, a sales page. It deserves at least as much time and attention as you would give to a product sales page. Once you’ve written a draft of your About page, set it aside and come back to it several hours or a day or two later. Proofread carefully to avoid typos and grammatical errors.

Want to see some examples of good About pages? Here are a few I like from a variety of sites:

Andrew Reifman is a web designer who, judging by his About page, has a good sense of humor and doesn’t take himself too seriously (although it is possible that he overestimates his pool playing abilities). His About page shows off his expertise and makes it easy to learn more about him while letting his personality shine through.

Dogs Trust is an animal welfare charity in the UK. Readers learn about what they do and how they can support the organization, as well as having many opportunities to connect with them on social media.

Chris Garrett is a blogger and social media expert. Chris describes his experience and expertise on this page, with links to where readers can hire him or buy his products.

Although this is not technically an About page, my Connect with Cathy site shows people where they can find me online: my websites, social media profiles and more. This one page site (aka a “business card site”) describes my online presence concisely.

Any fool can step on the gas, but it takes a real driver to steer his car and apply the brakes without accidents.

Each month advance your spark and speed.

The excitement of a new idea can cause us to jump in and get started before we really know where we want to end up or how we will get there.

Enthusiasm is great and will help you to reach your goal, but take the time to plan and make sure you are headed in the right direction and using your efforts wisely.

When we were in Spain we heard much of the persistence of Christopher Columbus in winning good Queen Isabella’s promise to finance his voyage of discovery. But could there be a greater example of persistency than those subsequent days described in his diary written in 1492?

Let’s label the next seven days ” Persistence Week.” Again may we concentrate on just one particular task and have the satisfaction as the week ends of saying, “PERSISTENCE WON.”

Often, we accept failure when success is right around the corner. We will never know how often we gave up when just a little more effort—a bit more persistence—would have brought success.

This week, instead of quickly saying, “This doesn’t work,” “I can’t do this,” or “I never succeed at anything,” commit to giving your best and persisting until you reach your goal.

The great mass of humanity is satisfied with an ordinary level. Such people are not the worst, neither are they the best. Some of them even question any advance beyond the ordinary level. Their fight is simply to hold their own.

This week let’s definitely set our hearts on a Higher Level; and through our daily habits force ourselves to live on this level.

Comparing ourselves to others can lead to being satisfied with an ordinary level of accomplishment. After all, as long as we are doing better than some other people, isn’t that good enough?

It might be good enough for those who aspire to be ordinary, but not for those who want to be their best. And that is the key—being YOUR best, not as good as someone else or better than someone else, but the best you can be.

Until the day you achieve perfection (and don’t hold your breath waiting for that!) there will always be room to improve. Look for ways you can reach new levels in all areas of your life.

Ike

Update – July 27, 2011: Ike and JJ Have a Good Home! Last Friday, Ike and JJ went to their new home. A lovely lady who had recently lost her elderly cat adopted both Ike and JJ. So they are in a wonderful new home with their loving caregiver and they are still together. This is amazing news. Huge thanks go to the people at Friends for Life who have cared for Ike and JJ over the last couple of months and who found them their new forever home.

——-

This is not a typical post for me, but we have a situation here.

My neighbor is a wonderful lady who recently received a devastating diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. She has moved to a facility where she can receive the care she needs, but could not take her two cats with her. I stepped in to help find a place for them. Unfortunately, we can not take them in permanently because we already have two pets (Nigel, a poodle, and Tasha, a Russian Blue cat) both of whom were also rescues.

Both Ike and JJ are sweet and affectionate, but right now they are a bit confused and stressed. They were used to being in a quiet home with the only human caregiver either had ever known. Suddenly, not only was their human missing, new people were coming and going all the time and things started to disappear from their home as it was prepared for sale.

JJ

After making lots of phone calls and moving a few mountains, I have come up with some interim solutions. Ike and JJ will be in the library of my home until spots open up at a wonderful no-kill shelter in Houston that is working with me to help them. However, the shelter is not the end. They will need a forever home.

If you can help find Ike and JJ a forever home, please let me know. It would be wonderful if they could be placed together, although I know that may not be possible.

The sooner they find a home, the better it will be for them and the easier their adjustment will be.

JJ is four years old and cute as can be. He is shy around strangers, but it doesn’t take long to become his friend. A couple of treats and some head scratches (He LOVES having his head scratched!), and he was my buddy.

Ike is 13 or 14. He is the beautiful Siamese (?) cat you see here. Ike is not as shy as JJ and loves to be petted.

Both have been declawed, so can not be outdoors at all.

What You Can Do

If you are in the Houston area and would like to inquire about adopting Ike and JJ, get in touch with me. My email is cathy (at) idealady (dot) com.

If you can not take on the kitties due to geography or a full house, you can help by:

Spreading the word. Let people know about Ike and JJ and let’s see if we can find them a home.

Support Friends for Life. I have been so impressed with the people there and what they do, and I want to see them continue to thrive and save more animals. If you are in Houston, you can volunteer, adopt a pet or make a donation. Wherever you are, you can make a donation by check or PayPal, or by shopping at Kroger or Amazon. Details are at http://nokill1.org/donate.php.

Try AWeber’s
Email Marketing
Tool Risk-Free

In previous tutorials, we went through the steps of setting up an email list in Aweber and adding new messages to an autoresponder series.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a web form or signup box where your subscribers can join your email list. You will want to have a signup box on nearly every page of your website to get more of your site visitors to sign up. Here is what you need to know to start adding subscribers to your list today.

You will need:
• An AWeber account
• A website
• A mailing list set up
• Messages added to your autoresponder

Step 1: Create Web Forms
Log into your Aweber account, then click on the “Web Forms” tab. (Note: If you have more than one mailing list set up in your Aweber account, make sure you are in the correct list.)

Click on the “Create Web Form” button.

You will be taken to a page where you can design the form you want.

Step 2: Choose A Web Form
AWeber offers a large selection of pre-made templates so you can choose one that fits perfectly with the look and feel of your site. You may use the templates “as-is” or you may modify the text and other components. For this tutorial, we will be using the basic blue version, which is pre-loaded in the design area.

Step 3: Modify Form Width
The first thing you need to know is the width of the area where the form will be added. For example, if you are going to add the form to the sidebar of your blog, you need to know the width of the sidebar in pixels. If you are not sure, you might try “eyeballing” the sidebar and comparing it to the default size in Aweber. Sidebars may be any width, but common sizes range from 120 to 300 pixels wide. Once you know the width of the area, you may need to change the width of the form.

Step 4: Modify Form Sections
The forms consist of several basic parts. These are the header, name label, email label, submit button, privacy link, AWeber link, and footer. To edit or delete these areas, hover over each section and select the edit tab on the left or delete with the “X”. You can change any of these. For example, you may change the privacy link to the privacy policy on your site instead of the standard Aweber privacy policy page.

When you edit in this way, you will get a popup, where you can edit several features in the section. To edit without the popup and get more options, use the instructions in the next step.

Step 5: Advanced Modification Options
Want to modify more aspects? In the tool bar, a dropdown box says “Form Type.” Click the arrow to choose a section and then choose the “advanced arrows” on the right. You can see the form type box in the example below, where we edit the header.

When you use this method to edit, you can see all your options in one place, which makes editing much easier. If you are not sure what settings to change, leave them alone. You can always come back and adjust them later if you decide you do not like something about the form and how it appears on your site.

After editing, save your changes and click the button to “go to step two.”

Step 6: Edit Form’s Basic Settings
One of the changes you can make here is to name the form. This may not seem important when you are creating your first form but, as you add more lists and more forms for each list, having a descriptive name for each form will make it easier to keep track of which form is which.

This thank you page here is different from the one you added when you created the list. This thank you page is seen after people sign up but BEFORE they confirm. For this reason, many people use the page to tell people to watch for a confirmation email. Your choices for a thank you page include a basic page, a custom page on your own website, audio or video versions, or no thank you page, where visitors are kept on the same page after submitting the form instead of being taken to a thank you page.

If you choose to send visitors to a custom page, you will need to set up a thank you page on your website and enter the URL of that page into the Aweber form where it says, “Enter Your URL.”

Once you have selected all of your options on this page, click save and go to step three.

Step 7: Publish Form
Here you will select how you would like to publish your signup form. Most people self-install the code so click the “I will install my form” banner.

Highlight the java code, making sure to include the entire string of code, then copy and paste it into your webpage or sidebar where you want the subscription form to appear. Once the form is installed, test it by going through the sign-up process and making changes to the form and settings where needed.

If you don’t have an Aweber account, sign up for a free test drive here:

“When the prospect says ‘NO!’ is when the true salesman demonstrates his calibre.”

What application can you make to all of this during this week?

Physical strength is increased when we include resistance in our workouts. When we work against a force, our muscles work harder and become stronger.

The same is true for our minds and spirits. When we take the safe and easy route in everything we do, we get complacent lazy. It is when we challenge ourselves that we discover how much we are capable of accomplishing.

How will you challenge yourself this week?