15 Tips to Write, Format and Distribute a Press Release

A well-written press release can greatly boost your sales, promote your business globally, and significantly improve the image of your business, products and/or services.

I share with you my own 15 PR tips that will guide you in the right direction to: 1) write a newsworthy press release for any occasion; 2) format a press release for print media and digital media; 3) distribute your press release to newswires, PR distribution sites, journalists, and the media; and 4) generate ongoing, long-term publicity with a single press release or a series of press releases.

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7 Crowdsourcing Job Sites to Find Freelance Writing Work

I have updated and moved this article to my other blog. Read my article, "The Best Crowdsourcing Job Sites Used by Professional Freelance Writers in 2017."

The Internet has made finding freelance writing work much easier. You can visit a job site in one or two clicks of the mouse, and then review current jobs that need writers immediately. In this special post, I will reveal the best, most-referred "crowdsourcing" sites that supply new writing jobs each day.

Because each job site can attract 50-100 new writing jobs each day, I recommend you stick to just one. It makes no sense to register at multiple sites. The reality is you can only handle one or two (maybe three) projects at any given time—unless you have superhero powers or you are a freak of nature! :)

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Freelance Crowdsourcing Sites Offer Part-Timers a Way to Supplement Their Income

During the Global Recession (2007-2011), a time during which many countries faced near economic collapse, an untold number of workers lost their jobs or were transitioned from full-time to part-time work without benefits. In 2009 the U.S. unemployment rate peaked at 10%, a 16-year high. More than 2.5 million U.S. workers had lost their jobs. What may seem all negative also had positive outcomes, one of which affected the outsourcing industry. Laid-off, unhappy, frustrated and displaced workers turned to the Internet for freelance work.

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10 Proven Ways to Eliminate Writer's Block with Pinterest

When words bog you down and writer's block looms, it can be helpful to switch creative modes. Spending time looking at images can stimulate different parts of your brain and get your creativity flowing again.

Pinterest is a treasure trove of images, all collected in intriguing, sometimes in evocative ways. Here are some ways to use Pinterest to stimulate your writing, whether you are in need of new ideas or are stumped in the middle of a project:

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Free eBooks on Screenwriting and Writing Screenplays

In my quest to hone my screenwriting skills and learn how to become a better screenwriter, I've encountered several useful eBooks. Many of these eBooks are written by professional screenwriters or creative story writers whose purpose is to distill their own tips and advice to succeed at screenwriting.

Some of these eBooks are short (up to 30 pages) and focus on one or a few specific topics related to screenwriting, such as: 1) formatting a new screenplay, 2) writing a treatment to sell your screenplay, 3) writing action blocks and character descriptions, 4) creating life-like characters, 5) developing plots and sub-plots, and 6) what film producers want from screenwriters.

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Free Online Tools to Cite Sources and Format References for Your Paper

These free tools will help you cite, format and organize your references in APA Style, MLA Style or Chicago/Turabian Style, as well as automatically create your Bibliography page, Works Cited Page or References List page.

No matter what type of paper you're writing (i.e. dissertation, thesis, or research paper), your teacher or publisher will request that you follow specific guidelines based on one of the above styles. Each style has numerous rules for citing and formatting different sources, such as books, newspapers, websites, journals, and so on. Referencing an article or a journal has a different format than referencing an article or a magazine. A journal article with more than six authors has a different format than a journal article with five authors. Different formats also exist between online and offline sources.

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Will Print Magazine Closures Reduce Freelance Writing Jobs and Rates?

In today's Digital Age tech-savvy readers prefer to get their information in digital form, not paperback or print form. Their reading habits continue to disrupt the traditional publishing model of print media. It's becoming a glaring fact that the number of print magazine titles may eventually decline to a point where publishing companies begin to shut down their print operations and go entirely digital, or simply go out of business.

Thanks (or no thanks) to mobile devices, Internet availability, and immediate access to "packaged" and "pushed" content with transparent transactions, readers are becoming more accustomed to reading their magazines online.

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Free Online Plagiarism Checkers and Duplicate Content Detectors

I have rounded up the most powerful (free!) online plagiarism checkers to prevent you from duplicating or (accidentally) plagiarizing text. Of course, you can use these same plagiarism detectors to identify plagiarists who are stealing your content or republishing your articles without your permission. I have thoroughly tested each of these plagiarism checkers to make sure: 1) they actually catch plagiarized material; 2) they actually find duplicate content; 3) they analyze your entire text, including words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs; and 4) each one is fast, reliable and free to use.

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10 Quick Tips on Earning Money with Your Poetry by Brian Scott

When I first started writing poetry, it was for a poetry class in college. I took the class because I had wanted a source of motivation to begin writing haiku, free-form, and traditional poetry. I soon discovered that I loved writing in these styles, and I received lots of praise for my efforts from my fellow classmates, my professor, and published poets. I enjoyed it so much that I kept doing it after the class had ended. My poems began to pile up, and before long I wondered if I could make any money with my stylized verses. After doing some research, I uncovered a few decent ways to earn some money for a poet of promising skills—of course, not enough to support one's lifestyle, but perhaps to enjoy a steak dinner at a cheap restaurant every Friday night.

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Literary Censorship in America: Challenged vs. Banned Books

Did you know...

Mr. Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (pub. 1885) was once dismissed as "trash, suitable only for the slums." It is ranked as the fourth most banned book in the United States, even though the book is recognized as a "Great American Classic" and sells 200K copies each year.

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