1. Organization

It’s important for the reviewer to be able to get through your proposal quickly, and find important sections easily. Organization is key. For my proposal, I created a table of contents so the reviewer could easily skip ahead to sections that he was most interested in seeing. In addition, I placed the entire proposal in a document cover and added tabs to the paper so the reviewer could flip right to the different chapters. This is especially important if the proposal is a long one. Imagine trying to get through a 20 page proposal that has no page numbers, no sections, and no table of contents. When you think about the fact that a reviewer might look at dozens of these each day…it can make for a real headache!

2. Highlighting and Bullet Points

My proposal was for the purpose of obtaining a book deal, so I had to create a tentative outline of the book. In addition to small chapter summaries, I had to estimate the word counts of each chapter. This is a lot of information that was stuck in the pages, and I wanted that information to be as easily digestible as possible. So, when applicable, I used bullet points to break up the information and create easy-to-read lists. In addition to the bullet points, I highlighted certain things that were particularly important, such as the word count estimates. This took the big block of information and separated it neatly, making it much easier to read.

3. Images and Visual Additions

While you don’t want to fill your proposal up with pictures and images, a few strategically placed ones can really spice up the proposal and add to the value. For instance, in my proposal, I included a map in a part that discussed a certain area of land. This gave the reviewer a reference point, which made the experience of reading the proposal better. You might consider which areas of your proposal could really benefit from a quality image.

4. Personality

The last thing you want to do is try to impress the reviewer with gimmicks…and you want your proposal to be professional. That said, inserting some of your own personality into the proposal can certainly benefit you.  Imagine reading through 10 or 20 stuffy, verbose proposals a day. Coming across one that contains light humor and that gives you a real feel for the author would be quite refreshing, wouldn’t it? Don’t be afraid to use light humor here and there, and be entertaining. Allow your unique personality to shine through in the writing, while maintaining a professional and polite tone.

5. Use Simple Words

This might go against your natural instinct to create a smart-sounding, professional proposal, but it’s important to keep the proposal as simple as possible. Don’t use the word ‘meritorious’ when you could use the word ‘worthy.’ You want the proposal to sound professional, but with a friendly tone, as if you’re simply speaking to a colleague you respect and like. This makes it much easier to read than if the reviewer is wading through words that are three inches long on a page. Filling the proposal full of these long words can also make it come off as pompous or arrogant.

When you really write your proposal from the heart and rely on your experience and skill, it will stand out. Use the above tips to ensure that the proposal is as wonderful as it can be. Of course, if you don’t have the time or feel uncomfortable writing your proposal yourself, hire a proposal writer from Priceless Writers and we’ll do a great job for you.

I have to say, while I love the list, I’ll have to add my very own favorite movie (for right now) to the ‘based on writers’ category.  Becoming Jane, based on the life of one of the most incredible writers of all time – Jane Austen – is a fabulous movie!  Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy were phenomenal and who isn’t inspired by a woman who dropped everything to follow her dream, even when everyone told her it was impossible?

Thanks to Online Universities for the heads up. Let us know your favorite movie in the comments below!

Today, businesses and individuals tend to check their inbox more often than their mailbox.  News is delivered digitally and the green movement has caused us all to take a second look at the amount of paper we consume.  In many situations, email has become an expected delivery method for both professional and personal letters.

When is it Okay to Email a Letter?

• Prospective Employers: Digital resumes and portfolios are not at all uncommon in today’s marketplace, but even if your prospective employer received a hardcopy of your resume it is usually acceptable to email a thank you letter after the interview.  The best practice is to gather contact information before leaving the interview.  A postal follow-up may also be beneficial in extremely formal situations, but email is fast and convenient for both you and your prospective employer.
• Personal Thank You Notes: Handwritten thank you letters are still considered the proper way to convey your gratitude in most cases, but there are some situations where an emailed thank you note is okay.  Small gifts, favors, or a casual thank you to someone you regularly correspond with digitally are all instances when an emailed note is acceptable.
• Sympathy Letters: Again, handwritten correspondence is still deemed more personal than email when it comes to expressing your condolences.  Close friends and those you regularly communicate with via email will appreciate an emailed sympathy note, but it is still a good idea to mail a letter or make a phone call as well.
• Professional Thank You Letters: Thank you notes to clients, donors, and other business-related correspondence can be emailed if you typically do business via the internet.  Studies have shown that most consumers prefer digital communication from companies and are often more likely to read an email than a post letter.
• Invitations and RSVPs: Birthday parties, informal showers, and casual events are all situations when emailed invitations are completely acceptable.  Formal invites, especially to weddings, should still be sent by regular mail and should be addressed by hand.  It is okay to request digital RSVPs for both formal and informal gatherings, however.

When is Postal Mail a Necessity?

As technologically advanced as our society has become, there is still no substitute for the heartfelt emotions that flow from the tip of a pen.  Taking the time to handwrite a sympathy card or thank you note allows you to connect with your recipient on a much more personal level – these tokens of gratitude and condolence are also memorable keepsakes for many people.

In most cases, personal thank you letters for gifts and notes of sympathy should always be delivered via postal mail.  Holiday cards and birthday greetings are typically best received by post as well, although e-cards are acceptable for close family and friends.  Professional correspondence depends on your typical communication methods with the recipient – an online company’s clients, for example, would expect an emailed letter while an offline charity donor would appreciate a postal delivered thank you.

Before mailing or emailing your letter, consider these tips to help you make the right decision:

• Is the recipient comfortable with email?  Friends and relatives who rarely check their email or don’t spend much time online may not see your letter until months after it has been sent.
• Do you regularly communicate via email?  Clients, family members, and friends who are used to speaking with you in person or over the phone rather than email may not appreciate the sentiments of an emailed letter.  Contacts that you rarely communicate with should usually always receive correspondence through post.
• Does the situation suit the delivery method?  The most important factor to consider is the reason for your correspondence.  Someone who took the time to select a gift for you deserves the attention of a handwritten, post-delivered thank you; an emailed followup would be expected after an online job application or novel query.  

Images by Mattox and 13dede

Interested in your own Tweet Cloud?

It only takes three easy steps:

1) Do you want to analyze your activity for 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or 1 year?

2) Do you want a small, medium, large or huge cloud (a little or a lot of keywords)?

3) Do you want to post a link of your Tweet Cloud on Twitter? Then click “make cloud.”

Our @PricelessTeam medium cloud above analyzed one year of Tweets and it looks like we’re staying in line with our goal of providing green news, eco-friendly information, writing tips, and sharing a little bit about ourselves along the way.

Today’s question is from Mark, a small business owner in South Dakota…

“Are there any no cost ways to market my business?”

Realistically, effective marketing requires time and effort, funding, or both – but there are plenty of no and low-cost ways to build your brand and your profits.  The cheapest and most powerful way to increase sales and expand your customer base is to provide quality products and services.

Satisfied clients are the best marketing tool for any business.  Concentrate on delivering value to your customers.  Not only will you enjoy repeat sales from satisfied consumers, but they will also spread the word to friends and family.  Referral discounts and incentives are useful as well.

Other low and no cost ways to market your business include:

• Business cards: Everyone you encounter is a potential customer – or they know someone who could be.  Always carry business cards and hand them out frequently.  Leave cards at your local convenience store, post them on community bulletin boards, and always leave your customers with at least 2 or 3 extras to share with coworkers and friends.
• Build an online presence: The internet has become a thriving marketplace for all types of businesses.  A simple website and/or company blog can do wonders for your business, especially when you use them to establish yourself as an expert in your field.  Free business directory listings can also boost your local visibility.
• Free classifieds: Take advantage of free sites like Craigslist to advertise your products and services.  A well-written ad can open an assortment of new business opportunities. 
• Flyers and brochures: Creative flyers and brochures can be made at home (or you can hire a freelance designer), then passed out in your local community to bring in new clients and increase sales.  
• Social networking: Spend some time with sites like Twitter and Facebook to connect with potential customers and build relationships within your target audience.  Here are a few tips to help you succeed with social networking.

Check out these additional posts for more business marketing tips:

Using the World Wide Web to Benefit Your Business

How to Increase Online Traffic Using Offline Promotion

5 Effective Marketing Tools That Don’t Cost a Fortune

Image by yoshiaka

Advertise

Pay-per-click (PPC) programs like Google Adsense have been around for several years and prove to be an effective way to make money for many websites.  This form of advertising requires very little effort and can easily be integrated into your blog.  The focus of your blog will play a big role in determining how much income you can make from PPC and there are some niches that will not benefit at all from these programs – if your blog is one of those, there’s still hope for advertising-based income.  A blog with steady traffic and good readership can sell ad space to related businesses, often bringing in more revenue than a PPC campaign could generate.  This option typically requires a bit more time and some leg work, but the results can be very satisfying.

Create a Product

Depending on the topic of your blog, a unique product could be your key to a successful online income.  From digital downloads to tangible merchandise, the possibilities for a companion product for your blog are unlimited.  Remember, establishing yourself and your blog as a reliable and trustworthy source for your niche is essential.  Create a cookbook for your food blog; sell homemade wares on your crafting website; compile a review guide for weight loss methods; make t-shirts or notecards featuring your most popular quips and quotes – get creative and build your own online marketplace for your readers.

Promote the Products of Others

Companies and individuals with their own unique products are always looking for new avenues to sell their merchandise.  This form of affiliate marketing isn’t always as profitable as selling your own unique product, but it generally requires much less time and effort.  Programs like LinkShare and ClickBank offer a multitude of opportunities to make sales-based commissions on everything from gift baskets to software downloads.  There are also websites, like Amazon, that allow webmasters and bloggers to pick and choose products for their own online store.  This technique can be a huge success for most websites if it is implemented correctly.

Develop a Membership Site

Everyone loves free information and resources but people are also willing to pay for exclusive, premium content that isn’t readily available.  Lesson plans, recipes, marketing tips, and many other topics make great foundations for subscription-based sites – and can create a healthy online income for you.  Like most money-making techniques, a membership portion of your blog will require steady traffic and loyal readership, as well as careful planning and regular updates.  Problogger has some excellent resources to help you develop a successful membership site.

Flip It

Blog flipping is becoming more and more popular, proving to be quite lucrative for all types of topics.  Some bloggers sell their websites because they no longer have the time to invest in maintaining it, while others establish their blogs for the sole purpose of turning it over to an interested investor.  A blog that is worthy of flipping requires established readership and traffic numbers, a proven potential to generate income, and should already have quality content in place to continue attracting readers.  Typically, a successful blog can return at least 2 years of revenue at the time of sale.

Images: hellori; iprole; meerlap

Do you need help making money with your blog?  Priceless Writers offers blog management, search engine optimized content packages, and original writing services to help you generate a profitable online income from your website.  Contact us for a personalized quote.

Don't Make These 'Instant Rejection' Mistakes!

Previously, we discussed how to write a query letter for your novel and now I’d like to talk just a bit about some of the things you should never do when writing a query letter.

While it’s really important to make your novel query letter stand out from the thousands an agent might get in a week – it’s also important to appear professional and educated.

1. Gimmicks – Avoid gimmicks when querying agents.  You might think it would be clever and funny to make your entire query rhyme or to address it to an agent’s dog – but it’s not.

Remember that most agents have seen it all, and it doesn’t get any cuter as they go along.  Just ask agent Jessica Faust what she does when someone addresses a query to her pup…

Make your query stand out with excellent, crisp and concise writing and you’ll need no gimmicks.

2. Mistakes - No one is perfect, and I think most agents realize that.  However, if you’ve done your job correctly, you’ve proofread that query more than once and probably more than twice.  If one mistake squeezes through (or even two), it might be okay.

However, if your query is full of mistakes such as typos, words used in the wrong context, grammatical errors and more – you’re probably going to receive a rejection.  Agent Janet Reid has a lot of great advice when it comes to the things that will get you an ‘instant rejection.’

3. Begging - Oh boy.  You want that agent to request a proposal package or the full manuscript!  You want it so badly you can taste it, but the last thing you want to do is beg, bribe, threaten or try to trick the agent into asking for a partial or full.

Simply submit the query in a professional and confident way, and if the strength is in your query, you’re going to get asked for more.  Begging will accomplish nothing except making you look pathetic to an agent – which you don’t want!

4. Providing Too Much Information – The agent reading your query wants to instantly find out what your manuscript is about and whether or not it’s good.  They don’t want to know where you grew up, unless it’s relevant somehow to your manuscript.

I’m not an agent, but I’m guessing they don’t care what kinds of sports you’re into or whether you took professional tennis lessons.  They couldn’t care less about who took you to prom and if you’re allergic to corn – keep it to yourself.  Your bio probably shouldn’t even be more than a sentence or two.  Restrict the information in the query to manuscript-related!

5. Time Limits – Giving an agent a time limit for when they should respond to you is a huge no-no.  Let’s face it – we’re nobodies in the publishing world…agents work with a lot of somebodies.  If they receive a time limit from you because you’re going to edit if you don’t hear from an agent within 3 weeks…or because you want to query another agent but would like to hear from this agent first – chances are the agent is going to giggle and move on to another writer.

By avoiding these mistakes in your novel query letter, you may have a better chance of having the agent ask to see more of your work!

Have you ever left your home and then had a funny feeling later that you may have left something on? Keeping your home safe while you’re traveling out of town for your business not only gives you peace of mind, but also protects your possessions and privacy.  Before traveling out of town for business, get rid of ‘that’ nagging feeling before you leave by taking a quick walk around the house with a checklist to remind you of the essentials. Make sure you:

• Turn off all appliances and electronics you wouldn’t normally leave running, like your coffeepot, stove, DVD player, computer monitor, and toaster.

• Lock all the windows and doors in your home.

• Don’t forget to set the alarm as you leave (if you use one.)

While these things are pretty standard things to check, there are a few other tips and tricks you can use to keep your home safe while you travel. Thieves are very good at paying attention – especially on holidays and times when people travel, they are watching for empty houses that promise a lot of loot! Don’t fall victim to burglars – use the following simple tips to help prevent a tragedy.

1) If you have a few reliable neighbors, make them aware of the fact that you will be traveling. Most neighbors won’t mind keeping an eye on your home to be sure that there is no strange activity. Although the chances of being robbed or having your house vandalized while you’re gone are small, being safe is always better than being sorry. Another great thing you can do is leave a few lights and a television or radio on so that your home doesn’t appear to be completely empty. This will make a sketchy stranger think twice before entering your home with bad intentions.

2) If you can, have a neighbor, family member or friend pick up your mail daily. Thieves can often get the most from you without even entering your home. A bank statement, credit card statement or other financial report hanging out in your mailbox is like a payday for a thief who takes the time to investigate unattended mailboxes. They can easily obtain some of your most personal information just by swiping the contents of your mailbox. Prevent this from happening by making sure nothing is waiting for them while you’re away on business.

3) Have your grass cut while you’re gone, especially if you will be gone for a while. Hire someone in advance and ask them to cut your grass on a certain day. In the wintertime, have your snow shoveled while you are out of town. This way, everything will be neat and tidy – eliminating another clue that you’re gone which potential robbers can pick up on easily.

When you take these extra steps to make sure your home is safe while you travel, you will have more peace of mind and less to worry about. No one wants to spend their entire business trip worrying about what’s going on at home. So, go on and seal that business deal – knowing everything’s OK on the home front!

Image Credits: vikush (top); flaivoloka (eye); Ambrozjo (postcard)

Not too long ago, we published a post regarding the ins and outs of capitalization. It seems we’ve attracted a great deal of traffic from people looking for answers that aren’t readily available in the post.

If you have a capitalization question on your mind – let loose and ask it in the comment section below. We will promptly answer your inquiries as soon as we receive notice. And don’t be shy, you never know when you can help a fellow writer facing the same dilemma.

Treat your customers right or you won't have any to worry about!

It’s downright frightening to think of your business losing customers, losing money and having the potential to go belly up. However, it happens to companies all the time; even companies who have good intentions. Today, I’ll discuss the top 3 surefire ways to scare your customers away – helping you to prevent this from happening to your company!

#3 – Keeping Your Customers in the Dark

Your customers want to be able to reach you – whether they have a problem, a complaint, a question or a concern. When they aren’t able to reach you or solve their problem within a reasonable amount of time, chances are they will leave.

You can bet that your competition will be there waiting to take care of that customer! Always make sure that your customers are able to reach a representative of your company and that their problems or issues will be addressed quickly.

#2 – Tricking Rather Than Treating

If your company advertises something – you need to make sure you follow through. If a customer reads an advertisement offering an item for 20% off, but then they find out they have to purchase 5 other items in order to receive that item for the discount – they’re not going to be too happy. Sure, this may trick a few customers into purchasing those 5 items, but it could also cost you several customers as well.

Be honest in all of your advertising material and don’t trick your customers with hidden fees. Treat them to the truth and only offer what you’re prepared to follow up on.

#1 – Ghoulish Customer Service Representatives

So here’s a little tale of fright that actually happened to me. I shop often at a department store close to my home. On one occasion, I happened to be shopping for a gift. I noticed that there were signs throughout a certain area of this store advertising a sale item and I was interested in this item.

When I asked the lady behind the counter to direct me to the area where the items were kept, she replied rudely that they were out of stock. I politely told her that perhaps they should consider taking the signs down so customers wouldn’t continue to ask for the item.

Well, this brought out the demon in her! She proceeded to ask me in a rather loud, annoying voice if I was aware of how much business they had done lately and how many of those items they had sold. No! I wasn’t aware because it’s not my job, and because of this lady, that store no longer gets my business. When your customer service representatives come straight out of a scary story, chances are they will scare customers away for good.

Without your customers, you have no business. The truth is that most customers who are displeased will simply leave your website or walk out your doors without ever complaining. This is not the way to run a successful business and the chances of your business growing and thriving are not great. Remember to treat your customers to the best kind of service to ensure that they continue coming back.