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Interviews with Well-Known Ezine Writers #1: - Bob Leduc
MS: Bob, how important have Ezine Articles been in achieving your success in online business? BL: Very important! Most of what I learned 6 or 7 years ago about doing business on the Internet came from articles written by others already working online. Today, most of my new customers and clients are generated by the articles I write. MS: How long have you been writing Ezine Articles and what are the main topics that you write about in your Ezine Articles? BL: I've been writing Ezine articles for 5 years and I mainly write about Marketing and Sales MS: Bob, amongst all the promotion techniques you use, how important are Ezine articles? BL: 1st ...by a large margin MS: Are there other techniques you use? BL: Yes. I also do off line promotions by postcard. MS: Bob, what sort of articles have you had most success with? In your experience, what kind of Articles are most in demand? BL: "How to" articles about how to find more prospects and customers or how to close more sales. I've been very successful at building my own business and helping other business owners build theirs. I write about the things I learned and use ...and tailor my writing specifically to help other small business owners. MS: Some Ezine Writers promote a product or service in their Resource Box, while others aim only to get a subscription to their free Newsletter. What would your advice be for getting maximum results from your Resource Box? BL: Both methods are effective. To generate the maximum response the byline must offer the reader an enticing benefit. MS: What have you found to be the most effective ways of getting your Articles published? BL: Building my own list of publishers who requested articles from me. MS: Apart from getting your Articles published in Newsletters, are there any other ways you use your Articles to promote your website? (such as turning them into a free E-Book)? BL: A few of my articles are in eBooks. 32 of them are compiled into a print publication titled, "How To Build A High-Profit Business On A Low-Impact Budget" (http://BobLeduc.com/highprofit.htm) MS: Bob, is there any particular program or software that you find especially useful as an Ezine Writer? BL: Yes. 2 programs: #1. MS Word. I use this word processor to write my articles. I created a template with the formatting I want for writing articles. The built in word count tool helps me control the size of an article as I write. Then I can save the article as plain text with line breaks at 60 characters per line ...the format I use for submitting to publishers. #2: I use WorldMerge by ColoradoSoft to email articles to the publishers on my list. It creates individual email messages with personalized information merged into each. MS: It sometimes seems that everything that could possibly be written about has already been written about. What would be your response to that? BL: Maybe every subject was been written about. But not every aspect of every subject has been covered. Plus, the world is changing -- FAST. Every change creates more things to write about. MS: What would you say is the single most important style tip for writing a good Ezine Article? BL: Make your articles easy to read. Use simple, easy to understand words and examples. This is easy if you only write about things you do yourself -- or things you learned yourself by trial and error. MS: And finally Bob, what would be your advice to someone who wants to write Ezine Articles but has never written for the Internet before? BL: (1) Recognize that most of the articles you read were written by someone just like you. (2) Choose a topic you know a lot about from personal experience ...even if others already wrote articles about it. Then force yourself to start writing YOUR article on that topic. MS: Thank you Bob. ------------------------------------------------------------
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