“You can’t judge a book by its cover” is something you have heard a million times and it is said for a reason. Naturally there is an important principle that is tried and true in that age old saying. So the moral of the story is, you need to “read” the substance in between to judge or conclude how you feel or what effect the book had on you, if any at all.

Beyond these fundamental truths and the common sense within, you need to consider the time and effort carefully put into formulating the content of the publication. By extension then we need to carry this line of thought over to the writing of an article. Why am I sharing this thought?

Simply and bluntly put the Internet has become a smörgåsbord of content ranging from articles, books, blogs, and forms of text correspondence, aka messaging. A number of on-liners have taken the creative writing options and turned their writings into on-line publications and then transitioned their work into an income making endeavor. How?

This is a result of a variety of Internet methods that connect content formulating and advertising into a marketing strategy. For more on that, stick with us here on BevyHost for future discussions and of course feel free to explore past articles reviewing the various Internet business applications. But for now we have some writing to discuss.

Writing what? We need to show some love for the people who have decided that they want to have a money making web page and they want their writing to be the feature product on their site. Be it a blog, storytelling, or an informative feature. And while there are many natural writers out there, many of them struggle with creating a good story presentation or developing a topic. And then there are a percentage of writers with a command of their language and grammar but they find it hard to put a story or topic together in a creative or interesting manner.

Well have no fear, some tips are here! And regardless of the subject or theme, these tips will help you through and lead you to some splendid and skillful writing. Make it your aim to be interesting! The subject may be interesting by itself and then flushed down the toilet with bad writing if you don’t put in the work before, during, and after. So picking the topic or story is just the beginning. Making it interesting, attention grabbing and desired is the end game. We are going to set out these guidelines with the understanding that we are talking about creative writing primarily. Be it fictional or non-fiction we are talking about a story type article or an informative overview of a topic. Therefore we are not talking about a tutorial or business report type article. So here we go. Feel free to take notes. (being facetious)

• Create a theme or title first – This will give you a direction. A theme or title sets up the foundation and dangles a carrot and/or a finish line for your writing. But like the book cover lesson we proposed in the outset it can be misinterpreted if it is not an accurate theme. Thus as you develop your content it should springboard off of the theme or title with constancy.
• Introduction – the objective of your introduction is to capture the imagination and yet begin to direct the thoughts of your reader in the “right” and specific direction. Even in the event that you are writing a suspenseful mind twisting “gotcha” story, you want to deliberately lead your readers into a calculated “mind path”. The challenge is, in any scenario or topic, to avoid obvious predictability and to not make the reader feel rudely manipulated. You want them to be sucked and pulled into to your story and feel like they are being taking for an enjoyable entertaining ride whether you plan to surprise them or not in the end.
• Introduction (Cont’d) – for an informative article, intro should also capture your audience. By a skillful use of questions, or an illustration, or some other type of mind picture you should set up your topic with flare and attention grabbing technique. But again it should lead the reader toward the main point or points of your topic.
• Body – The heart and soul of your story needs to flow but not lag. It needs to build on the set up from the Intro.. You will give your reader a descriptive word painting artfully designed with careful thought. It may carry emotional weight at times depending on the topic and details. It should be dynamic enough to entertain your reader. That does not mean it has to always WOW them or be overly dramatic. But they should feel like they just digested a pleasing word meal. Mix timely adjectives, metaphors, engaging dialog, illustrative comparisons, and any seasoned literary creative writing appropriate to that particular work. It needs to have enough information to keep the article lively but not have so much information you have lost your readers or overwhelmed them. In the case of an informative topic you may want to stick with 2 or 3 main points and blend a few sub points that support those main kernels.
• Conclusion – Once you have whipped your readers into an engrossing lather and given them just the right amount of morsels for their appetite, you need to give them a summary. With a story this is a little bit more of a hurdle. As a matter of practice when you write a story you don’t reach a point of a review. So part of the craft of story writing is keeping the reader on track with the main thrust of the story as you weave the character personalities and important nuggets throughout the meat and potatoes of the content with clever repetition. For example if one of your characters is a music lover than you need to entwine a few examples of this as part of the events of the story. Also when writing your conclusion, another item that is very valuable to a conclusion and leaves the reader feeling more of an impact and satisfaction, is if you can make the conclusion motivating or even somewhat inspiring.

So get your pen and pad out or pull up your “office” program on your PC and rough out an outline to be molded into a savory publication. Once you plot out the basics then use the tips we have given you to turn it into a distinctive and accomplished piece of work. And that will manifest itself indeed if you put in the work part with diligence and pride. I can’t wait to read your article now! So come on already get it out there.

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Back again to rap about e-zine. Don’t forget that is pronounced “e-zeen” as in rhymes with magazine. In Part I we discussed the e-zine publishing by way of newsletters. For this article we want to look at the other forms of e -zine on the Net and the doors it may open for you.

Recall in Part I we discussed that some people call e–zine an online magazine. That is because they are referring to something different than a newsletter. Naturally when one hears the word magazine a visual image appears in their mind of something like Newsweek, People, or Sports Illustrated. And some of you were thinking Playboy or Penthouse, you know who you are. LOL!

The fact is although it does not visually resemble an actual magazine, the concept is basically the same. A series of articles are collected and put into a table of contents. The articles contain informative and entertaining information and have a theme or topic in common. For example Sports Illustrated will cover a spectrum of sport related topics. So you know there won’t be political or Wall Street stories found within.

Keep in mind there are a few applications of this formula. Here are a few of note:

• An online version of an already published magazine. For example People.com is People magazines online version as SI.com is a site for Sports Illustrated. And you can find a host of others. This is used also for cross promotion of their tangible version.
• Some are offered in a free format and generate revenue by advertisers.
• Some online magazines offer a paid subscription version.
• A completely original online magazine. A compilation of articles arranged by topic and presented in category and table of content. Obviously as the name implies it is available only online.

The numbers and the studies show that this medium is on a meteoric rise. More and more publishers are experience ever growing visitors online. It actually has the print medium concerned. Not surprisingly some of them are calling this a disruptive technology. This is creating some stressful times in the front offices of traditional publishing houses.

Think about it, aside from the declining number of readers of their more commonly printed products there is the financial fallout. The fact is it is becoming more and more costly to print a physical copy of a magazine. Conversely publishing an online magazine is very cost effective.

And then there are preference concerns. Over the past couple of decades standard printed magazines have filled more and more pages with advertising and less and less substantive articles for subscribers to read. Online the ads are also less intrusive. They are there and they are effective but you can easily navigate to the informative material you wish to read.

Furthermore the publishers of strictly online electronic magazines have an entire niche market of readers and an increasing number of “old school” mag readers jumping on the online bandwagon. It is the here and now and the public perceives it as fresh and enticing.

So what does all this mean? It means a few things. All of which add up to options for someone. You can channel your efforts into publishing an online magazine perhaps. This would involve web design, web advertising and content writing. Things you can do yourself or delegate to others. If managed well you should create an income stream.

This also opens the way for web designers, web advertisers, and content writers to offer their services for hire, thus creating revenue for them.

There you have it. For samples of what we are talking about see ezinearticles.com for an example of an online creation or visit SI.com for an example of an online version of a traditionally printed magazine.

From here you need to learn how to apply for a position or submit your work for review.

Stay with us here at BevyHost as we discuss these topics and much more pertaining to Internet business opportunity.

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Whether you are new to the Internet world or a seasoned veteran, it is likely that you may have heard of or seen the term e-zine, which to the surprise of many is pronounced ‘e-zeen’, as in rhymes with magazine. It is derived from the term electronic magazine.

Some refer to this as a webzine (yep also ‘zeen’) or an online magazine. Many web users probably are familiar with e-zines in the form of newsletters that are sent out via email. In fact a large percentage of surfers subscribe to e-zines or newsletters.

It’s generally understood that these e-zines should be an informative communiqué and not a sales pitch or a “what’s on sale” announcement. Yes if you receive e-zines that are not giving you helpful information than you may consider canceling your subscription, unless of course you are getting satisfactory use from it in another perspective.

If you are going to publish your own newsletter aka e-zine, then you need to put some thought and organization into your work. From a logistical standpoint you can get a newsletter up and running in no time. You may also consider hiring an e-mail service at some point. Sending out your own can become very tedious and tiresome. This also allows more time for other relevant duties.

For starters you need to put together a quality, professional, and compelling article. This can be a bigger challenge for some more so than for others. If that is the case you always have the option of hiring a free lance author to be a ghost writer. You would of course have final approval of the finished product.

Regardless of who is the writer you want to be certain of a few things.

1. Do not bombard people with product pitches. Now if you frame it within a crafty and constructive article, it would be pragmatic or logical to include a calculated product or service “ad” or include links to your site where the product or service can be obtained.
2. Stay on point. Being interesting and provoking does not mean going off on tangents or digressions.
3. Re-writes are important. Don’t be impatient. After you write your e-zine walk away and come back and read it objectively. Or have others read it. If you hire the services of a writer be clear on what specifics need to be included. If you think something is missing work it out with your writer for hire or add the components you wish.
4. Be prompt. If it is a weekly letter, make it weekly.

If you have any questions or you are unsure of yourself, review e-zine newsletters that you think are good and emulate the positive features.

In a supporting area is the opportunity for you writers out there. As we mentioned above there are many a web managers in need of a reliable crackerjack writer to crank out top-notch articles. You can create an income from e-zine writing. Better yet if your work is really good you may find advertisers approaching you.

But wait there’s more: as we discussed earlier an e-zine comes in other forms in addition to the newsletter style we have discussed here. We will explore other applications in another article.

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Did you see the latest American Idol or America/Britain’s Got Talent? Pretty much anywhere on this planet there are a percentage of creative and imaginative people. Have you ever noticed how many people enter a songwriting or poetry contest?

So it goes without saying that there are many among us that dabble in the literary arts. Yes, we have all heard the expression that “everyone has at least one good book in them”. The accuracy of that aside, there are scores of people that have a legitimate desire to pen a book.

Face it, breaking into the formal realm of publishing a book is not easy. And I am not suggesting that you give up that dream if it is your ultimate goal to publish a bonified book. By all means chase your stars. However maybe you could be successful publishing an e-book?

Why not? It may be a stepping stone to reaching your dreams or it may turn out to be a nice Internet income earning job for you. But where do you start?

What to write about? Perhaps you already have a theme you like to write in or an area of specialty that you would like to share. Here are a few questions to entertain when deciding what to write about.

Am I writing a story or a true life event/story type book? Who is my target reader or market? Is it a comedy or inspirational? Does it appeal to certain age groups or gender? The answer to these types of questions will go a long way in helping market your e-book when you are done. It may also help you decide if a specific idea should be carried out or not. An honest assessment of your topic may point to your story as not having mass appeal. Or you may add elements to your story to place it in an appropriate niche market to give it that mass appeal.

Here is an example. Maybe your e-book idea is a riveting story about the struggles of a single mother. You can take her accounts and events and present them in various ways without changing the story, of course. However, say the young mother struggle with a health or weight issue and resolved this issue she had. Well then you can tell her story from the angle of a woman who dealt with her health or weight issue while dealing with her other numerous challenges, and how she can use her success with her diet and/or health as a springboard to coping with her other battles. Now you can market this story in the weight loss/health/diet niche. Granted this type of adaptation will require some effort and creativity but it is all a part of the marketing end of publishing.

Or you can simply add comedy to your story. Perhaps the way you present some of the accounts or by adding some funny anecdotes into your e-book you can now present your book as a real life comedy. Again you need to think beyond just the details of your story whether it is fact or fiction. You need to spice it up with a niche market in mind.

We should point out that you may even overlap multiple niches, which is great. You may write an inspirational story about a young single mom who conquered her health and weight issues and tell it in a funny way for example. That will only expand your target market.

Maybe you are not a story writer. Is your book informative? Is it tutorial or instructional? Will it teach a specific skill? Will your e-book help readers start a new career?

Regardless of whether you are at the top of your game or not, make sure you cover all the relevant items in your informative e-book and offer it in a coherent easy to understand manner. In fact you should incorporate a little of yourself, as if you are talking to us. Try and keep it positive and witty at times. Remind us why this information is so helpful and practical. We should be able to sense that you love to write about this topic. Obviously, if your book is more of a step by step presentation, you should add some comments in and around the instructions to keep it lively.

In the end what will set you apart from the other e-books is if you are interesting. If you try and “mail it in” as they say, your book will just slip through the cracks. But if you calculate very carefully and combine your writing skills with your packaging skills you can be a successful e-book author.

Finished that e-book yet? Because now it is time to market it! Uh-Oh more homework.

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