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The Editor's Desk - From Beneath the Clutter
Feature Article - Do You Have Recalled Items in Your Home?
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Guest Article - 8 Strategies To Catapult Your Copywriting Skills To The Next Level
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I've just started some serious work on rearranging things on this site. It will probably take a few weeks to finish it, but I hope to have things a little more organized around here.
One of the things I have to decide is how to cope with the number of items in the main navigation you see off on the left. I like having most topics there available for people to find, I just don't know if it's overwhelming. I know I have a lot of topics on this site; let's face it, there's a lot to being a stay at home mom.
I've been having fun getting ready for Easter with Ariel. She is so excited. We've done a couple of relevant craft projects... always a messy proposition, but lots of fun for her. She's almost 4, so this year she really understands that there is something exciting about the holiday. I don't know if she quite buys the whole Easter Bunny bit, but then we haven't pushed that one very hard either.
Don't forget, you can contribute your articles or tips anytime for consideration. Just use the contact form.
All too often, you hear about a product on the news that has been recalled by its manufacturer because it has been shown to be unsafe. It could be a problem with a particular model of car, a child’s toy or even food. Unfortunately, it is also quite easy to miss hearing about recalled items.
The first thing to do is just be aware of problems with items in your home. If you have a concern that something might be unsafe, check for a recall at the Consumer Products Safety Commission website. If there’s no recall, consider contacting the manufacturer to see if others have complained. It takes a lot of complaints to start a recall.
Fortunately, if a product has been recalled, the manufacturer should have a solution for you. They might send a replacement part for whatever is faulty, along with repair instructions, they might tell you to dispose of the item and send you something comparable, or they may tell you how to get it repaired.
If you aren’t satisfied with the manufacturer’s response, or if you feel there is a definite danger to the item, you can visit the Consumer Products Safety Commission to find the right place to report the potential problem. While they do not have authority over things such as cars, car seats or food, their site does tell you how to report problems with items they do not have the authority to deal with.
You might be surprised at some of the things around the house that can be dangerous. Many places still have window blinds with unsafe cords. The easiest to fix is probably the pull cord. If the pull cord goes in a loop, it may be a strangulation hazard. However, all you have to do to fix it is cut the cord and install a safety tassel. You can read about this at http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/cords.html
Keeping up with recalls can be a challenge, but there are solutions. The first is to send in the product registration card included with the product. You may not want to take the time for every item you buy, but for important items such as car seats, it is probably worth the peace of mind knowing that the manufacturer will have your contact information in case of a problem.
The other option is to get on email lists or check for RSS feeds. Either of these will let you keep up with new recalls. Obviously most recalls will have nothing to do with anything you own, but the occasional relevant item will make it worth your while. If you aren’t familiar with RSS feeds but have a My Yahoo or similar page, you probably only need to get the web address of the feed to place where you add new content to your page to make it work.
Nothing replaces an alert parent. If you think there might be a problem, don’t let anyone use the item in question until you are satisfied of its safety. Not every broken toy has a defect that will result in a recall, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe to keep when you see parts getting ready to fall off. As a parent, it is vital that you use common sense.
Stephanie Foster is the owner of Home with the Kids, a resource that knows that there's more to staying home with your family than just business. For more stay at home tips, visit the site at http://www.homewiththekids.com/ and subscribe to the free newsletter.
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I am about to share with you 8 quick ideas and suggestions to dramatically help you improve your copywriting skills as you get going.
You can use these tips when it comes to creating offers, E-mails and sales letters that grab people's attention.
So without further ado, here they are!
Number one: Always write your sales letter with the individual in mind.
Whenever you're writing a sales letter or an E-mail, you want to write that E-mail or sales letter as though you were talking to one person.
Number two: Pull them in with the first line.
You've got to create interest with the reader, the very first line that they read.
Number three: Use bullets.
People like to scan, they like to quickly read things as fast as they can, and using bullets makes that whole process a heck of a lot easier. So use them.
Number four: Just let it flow.
When you're starting to write a letter, it is very difficult to just start from top to bottom and write everything. When it comes to writing it and actually putting everything down in order, I want you to just write as it's coming out. You're going to have moments when inspiration hits you and your pen is going to go like crazy or your fingers are going to go like crazy on the computer keyboard, and I want you to just let it flow.
Number five: Write like you speak.
I briefly touched on this in one of the earlier points. But it's much easier for you to envision that you're communicating with one individual as though you're having a conversation with that person, because when that person reads your sales letter or your E-mail, they're going to feel like you're talking right to them, and that's exactly what you want.
Number six: Make your communication easy to read.
What I mean by that is use short paragraphs. Use pictures. I want you to bold certain things. I want you to highlight important areas.
Number seven: I want you to stress the benefits and not the features.
I want you to put yourself in the shoes of the person reading your communication piece The number one question that they're going to be asking is: What's in it for me? You have to address those things, and you've got to stress the benefits of your particular communication piece that you're trying to use.
Number eight: I want you to keep the reader interested.
How do you do that? On a sales letter there are a ton of ways that you can keep the reader interested, and I'm going to give you a few of them right now. - You can use graphs. - You can use pictures. - You can use audio. - You can use video. - Another one that people love to see are testimonials. - Another one that you can always use is giving examples of proof. - Do you have checks? - Do you have screen shots of people registering for certain things?
Whatever you're trying to sell or promote, I want you to give proof that it works or that it would provide benefit to the person that is reading it - screen shots, pictures, testimonials - these are all great things of proof.
So there you have it... 8 quick tips to improve your copywriting skills. This is not the be all and end all of copywriting techniques but they will definitely help you jump over some of the hurdles that are standing in your way!
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