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Archive for the ‘Publication’ Category

Coffee in hand, you stagger into your office and sit down to read your morning emails and sort through them like you always do.  Pushing on the button that lights up the CPU on your system and it’s blank. No light, no fan, no nothing. You start to panic and go through the obvious problems.  You look at the clock and hope that its not moving cause that means your electricity is off. Darn, that’s not it.  You crawl under the desk with the dust bunnies and hope that just maybe you accidently discconnected the power source from the power strip. Nope…

After running down a full list of potential problems, you realise that now, it’s a lost cause and your repair guy is going to get your panicked call and he won’t be available for hours if not days.

Sound familiar!?

It’s happened to a few of us and we are no exception.  In that hardware failure, you also start to wonder if all that work that you had on your hard drive is still good and all those files will still be there when you need them most.

The only way to reassure that you can rest at ease is to be sure to back up your files on an external hard drive.  External hard drive prices are coming down in price extensively and they can hold thousands of file with some drives hold up to 400-500 Gigabytes in memory.

Backup software such as GoodSync, can be set to auto back up your files on a schedule that keep you as up to date in your files as you want to be making it very automatic.  There are other softwares out there that are just as good, just do your research to see how versatile they are.

Remember, there is a big difference between backing up system files and doing data backups. Be sure you do both otherwise you might find yourself without some information that you needed. Data backups are the most important as that holds the information for your letters, pictures and so much more.

There has been a great demand for us to establish a regular E-zine for readers and businesses alike.  We have established Digital Daze our bi-weekly newsletter that will offer some great information for everyone who is at all interested in doing business in the virtual world to those who work in the virtual world.

We are welcome guest writers, advertisers and input’s from all industries that will provide those that we are touching with healthy and productive information in a positive format.

If you are interested in advertising or writing for our first edition of our newsletter, please contact us at support@protypists.com and let us know what you would like to contribute.

We look forward to providing you with free information, tricks and tips as well as resources to help those small businesses excel and grow.

Newsletters offer readers the ideal way of getting up to date news by just skimming over the headlines, but also give good in depth information for those who have a moment to sit down and read into it further.  There are 12 key elements of a newsletter that should be incorporated into all newsletters.

Nameplate

• This is like your banner at the top of your website.  It should give not only the name of the newsletter, bu a publication date, volume information and possibly the company logo.

Body

• This is where the bulk of your text is.  Information and stories that are pertinent to your demographic.

Table of Contents

• No matter how small or how large your newsletter is, it is always good to have a small area to place a list of articles and where they can be found.

Masthead

• This particular element falls at the top of the page, normally the second page on and can include the page number as well as the publication date and volume information that is also listed in the nameplate area.

Headlines & Titles

• There are 6 types of headlines or titles that are elementally used,  Headline, Kicker, Deck, Subhead, Running Head and Continuation Heads. We will elaborate on these in an up and coming post.

Page Numbers

• I think self explanatory, however, make sure they are visual and easy to spot.

Byline

• Contains writer/author information.  It is crucial to give credit where credit is due.

Continuation Lines

• Jumplines are used when an article continues several pages over.  For instance, “…continued on page 4.”  This helps the reader follow the story to the appropriate page.
• Continuation Heads are used to identify where the story is continued to.  Both of these act as way to help the reader find their place in the article and in the newsletter.

End Signs

• As important as continuation indicators are needed it is always sensible to put into place an end sign.  These are a line, dash or bullet that will show the reader they have reached the end of the written article.

Pull Quotes

• These can be used when identifying quoted information that is important to the story.  Usually written boldly or in a larger typeface so that it can be found and the eye is drawn to it for interest sake.

Photos/Illustrations

• Most newsletters contain some type of visual representation.  There are two elements that help the reader identify the image and relate it to the story.  The mug shot, a head/shoulder picture of a person and any clipart such as graphs and tables should be accompanied by a caption.  Captions provide crucial information to tie the image to the article.

Mailing Panel

• With technology today, this is not always needed for the delivery of your newsletter, but planning for the newsletter to be mailed through the US Postal service requires there to be a space for not only the postage, but for addresses and return address labels to be used. To find out what the standards are, visit the USPS.com and locate the dimensions for cost of postage and for the requirements for addressing it.

Planning to incorporate and utilize these elements in your newsletter will give you positive results and feed back. Consistency and a good typsesetter alone with a great editing staff will provide you with an archive of information, an excellent way to keep in touch with your clients and staff as wel as educating new users and clients to your business.  Good news is always great news.

Finally, after putting together the team and brainstorming, we have come up with a new look and our new logo.

Still offering the same prices and the same excellent services!

I get asked the question, “What does it take to be a ghostwriter?”

Ghostwriting, in my opinion, only requires a passion for learning, research and good communication.  However, that doesn’t necessarily make you a good ghostwriter.  That would give you at least an edge up on the element.

Ghostwriting requires a great deal of your education and self-motivation goes into your work and it shows.  Your experience in life as a general rule will continue to help you build your skills and what you feel confident writing about.  All of this is rolled into one ball and should be elementally marketed so that you can start making your mark in the fields of your choice.

Remember to keep in mind that the skills that people look for in a ghostwriter are:

1. Education. Preferably in English and or Liberal Arts.  Although formal education looks good on paper, it also helps to have samples of work that you have provided over the years.  Sometimes, in order to avoid plagiarism, you might need to ask for those samples from the writers, but they should be able to provide them.
2. Adhering to time lines. Everyone feels their time is precious. your is as well.  Make sure you can adhere to the time lines set forth and if you are uncertain, don’t accept the project.  Making empty promises can ultimately cause your reputation to speed downhill quickly.
3. Spelling & Grammar Skills. If your writer is writing in English, they should definitely be able to show in all written correspondence and samples that are provided.  Just remember, sometimes it requires a second pair of eyes, or even a third to catch and rewrite things to make them more understandable.
4. Research Skills. In my opinion, this becomes the most important element of a ghostwriter and/or writer.  Giving the initiative and efforts to do their research and to verify it in sources is always crucial. Nothing worse than sending out an article that is based on facts and having those facts published wrong.  Embarrassing for everyone involved.

Today, over 40% of the novels published today are produced by ghostwriters or have undergone substantial editing by ghostwriters.  The work is there and ghostwriters are plentiful.  Hopefully this will provide you with some base steps about finding the right one for your project!