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There are literally hundreds of reasons for becoming an author. You can gain expert status in your field, expand your career opportunities, use the specialized information as a calling card for your business, and even pass down a legacy of knowledge to future generations.

Here are three compelling reasons to become a writer:

1. Become A Writer To Create Passive Income

I have enjoyed passive income since I was a 12 year old kid. I was the business kid in the neighborhood that instead of delivering papers myself I had several paper routes and sub contracted them to other kids in the neighborhood. I would collect the money from my subs each Friday and split the profits with them and never deliver a paper.

If you have passive income, you are basically earning money without having to put forth any significant action. Yes, you must write the book. But this same book that took you a month to write could earn you money for a lifetime. Aside from future sales and royalties, a book has the ability to produce a steady cash flow for your business through the sale of information products or services.

Your book can sell at anytime, day or night, weekdays, weekends and even holidays. If your title is listed with online bookstores, you can even earn money while you asleep. If you use your book as a marketing tool, your business can earn customers and sales without you having to continually advertise your company. Why? Because your book is a powerful marketing tool on its own. You can literally write yourself rich in information marketing.

2. Become A Writer Because People Need To Hear Your Unique Message

Most people don’t realize this truth but we all have a unique message to give to the world. We all have a different way of seeing and doing things and they are all important to share with each other.

What do you have to offer the world? You obviously have an idea for a book floating around in your mind or perhaps you have a manuscript that you wrote years ago sitting around collecting dust. Why? People need to hear what you have to say and, if your book can help them, you need to publish it.

Think about all of the books that are out there and what they have to say. Is every one helpful? No. Can yours be helpful in some way? If the answer is yes, do yourself and the public a favor by showing what you have to offer. Educating your readers with your own unique message will give both you and them satisfaction.

3. Become A Writer Because A Book Gives You Something Great To Anticipate

When you write a book, there is a lot of anticipation in how it will turn out. What will the cover look like? How will it feel to hold your book in your hands? What will it be like to see your name in newspapers and magazines as a newly published author? These are all exciting times for an author and you will soon come to know these experiences firsthand.

Beyond the actual publishing process, you will anticipate the opportunities that may arise as a result of your book. What type of career choices will become available? Who will you meet? What does the future hold? Will you be able to live anywhere you want without having to punch the time clock every day at work?

We all enjoy having something to look forward to and, if you are like most, anticipating the future with promise is a wonderful experience. Anticipation, alone, is something to look forward to. Don’t you think? Writing a book will create miracles in your life.

There are of course, hundreds of reasons to write a book. You’ll make money, have a richer more full life, you’ll achieve your dreams of writing and publishing a book, you’ll earn respect the list goes on and on. What’s keeping you from following your dreams?

Catchy Business Names are a sure fired way to get your Business noticed in a world brimming with competition. You need to use every trick up your sleeve to be the one that stands out in your chosen field.

Making the decision on what to name your business can be extremely frustrating. You could pay a sum of money for someone to come up with a name for you, but I feel your business name represents you as a person, just like your business does, and it should be something that you choose and feel right about!

Step 1. This is the most important step. You will need to decide if your business is going to stay with the product / service that you are currently providing or if you may, at a later date expand / add or change that range.

The reason I say this is because you will not want to change your name further down the road because the name you chose initially no longer reflects the business you have built and expanded on.

Example: You start selling designer socks and you choose a catchy business name around socks. You then decide to expand and sell other underwear ranges, your business name will not reflect the other products you sell, and this will confuse your market.

Step 2. Write down all the names you can think of that describes your business.

Example: Use different words like underwear / lingerie etc.

Step 3. This is where your business names ideas start forming. Go to Google and type in keyword selector tool. This will take you to a site where you can enter the keywords on your generated list and it will give you a list of related terms to your keyword.

The list also tells you how many people are searching for that term. This is a great indicator of the popularity of that term.

Step 4. Take a term that you like the sound of and put a spin on it. Catchy business names can be funny, unusual, weird, funky or just ‘different’ to the norm. Write down all the ideas you have and jumble them around. Use misspells. People always remember those! Miss letters out, e.g. ‘R’ instead of ‘are’.
Be inventive and step outside your comfort zone.

Step 5. Run the list you have finalised by a number of family and friends. Get a census together of the most popular names. You will probably find they will come up with some great ideas to add to your list.

Finally, when thinking up catchy business names, remember the effect of that annoying tune that you heard and can’t get out of your head. It keeps popping up and you can’t seem to stop singing it. Well apply that principle to finding your business names ideas and you won’t go far wrong!

What’s the first step to becoming a writer? You’d think it would be “write”, but it’s not. In speaking to other writers and from what I know of my own journey to becoming a writer, I’ve come to realize that the biggest obstacle for new writers is that they don’t think of themselves as writers. They have trouble developing the belief that they are writers and yet it’s something you have to do. When you haven’t developed that belief, that conviction, it becomes a source of sabotage–you don’t value your work enough to give it the time and the space it needs. How do you come to think of yourself as a writer, especially when you’re not earning a paycheck as a writer? Here are a few tips:

What Happens When You Write?

If you want to be a writer, I’m assuming you feel you have something to say and a strong desire to say it. You may not know how you’re going to say it or in what form (poetry, novel, essay, etc.) but you know something is there. Okay, you pick up your pencil or pen or you sit down to your computer or typewriter. Write something. Whatever you write, just make sure your heart is in it. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t have to be neat. It does have to be expressive.

Next, as painful as it may be, you have to show this writing to someone. It can be a friend, it can be a family member. Then, pay attention to what happens. Did the person reading your work cry, laugh or get angry? If so, you did that! It means you can have an effect with your writing. It’s worth something. You have to keep going!

A teenager recently wrote to me concerned because she’s writing fiction and she’s worried her mother will read it and get upset because she thinks it’s stuff the teenager really did. On the one hand, that is a bummer to have to explain yourself to your mother, but on the other hand–wow, that means the young lady’s work is believeable and effective. That kind of feedback is hard to ignore. It’s powerful motivation to keep you going–if you take the time to notice and honor that it’s happening. I once had a writer say to me, “I don’t know if my stuff is any good. I just know that when people read it, they cry.” I told her you can’t get a message any clearer than that kind of response. Now she just has to listen to it.

Cultivate Silence

If you’re having trouble thinking about what it is you have to say, it may help you to spend some time each day in silence. Some writers pray. Some meditate. The idea is to get used to clearing your brain space and tuning in to your inner voice. You’ll also be more aware of those little scraps of possibility floating around in your head that can later grow into big ideas.

What Do You Want to Write? Experiment!

It’s okay if you don’t know what you want to write about. It may take a long time journaling for you to see what keeps coming up for you. And it may take longer to find the form that fits you best. I went from poetry to essays to long-form letter writing before I settled on fiction. It took me years to do that. It doesn’t mean I won’t do anything else in those genres, but what I’m doing right now just fits. I encourage you to experiment until you find the form that suits your writing best.

Continually Remind Yourself You Are a Writer

As you develop your belief that you’re a writer, it’s helpful to set up reminders that will jog you back to that brain space that you need to be in to write. When you sit down to write it’s easy to get distracted and starting thinking about doing laundry or what’s for dinner. You’ll want to have something either on your desk or on the wall in front of you that reminds you to get back to work and that you are a writer.

It might be your list of values that remind you that writing is a part of who you are. It may be simple words such as CREATE or INSPIRE. Isabel Allende, who writes beautiful, historical novels will sit in her office with photos around her, old photos of people who essentially represent her characters so she’s surrounded by them. That puts her back into the brain space of her book because she is sitting in their world; these people are all around her.

What world do you need to be in? The journey you take to get there will be one of many you’ll take as a writer. I hope these ideas will help you take those first steps. What you write–and where you go from here–is entirely up to you. Bon Voyage.

Man has harnessed the FREE power of the wind for thousands of years via sails on a sailing ship, and for now the wind is still free therefore why are we not harnessing the power of the wind more?

We have giant coal fired power stations spewing great quantities of carbon into the atmosphere and nuclear power plants that have the potential to spew who knows what into the atmosphere, and yet we as a society go along with this. The general public can see the folly in this, but still allow big corporations and the politicians that receive campaign donations from these large corporations to continue to operate these monsters.

Why not harness the power of the wind to generate power, after all the wind has been around since the beginning of time and will continue until the end of time. That is more than can be said for the non-renewable energy sources that we are now using up at an alarming rate.

The problem up until recent times has been that renewable energy has been expensive to produce, but with the rising cost of fuel oil and gas, renewable energy is becoming a viable alternative now. Also more research is being done to help reduce the cost of renewable energy.

What most people don’t realize is that a wind powered generator can be produced very cheaply by a person that possesses a few home handyman skills. So if a person can generate power from a windmill cheaply and the energy to drive it is free, gee even a politician should be able to understand the benefit that provides to society. I am sure there will be a committee set up to determine how government can tax the people for wind power.

A single wind turbine is probably not going allow you to disconnect from the power grid, but if you generate part of the power that you use for free, then you are not only helping the environment but also your finances. There is always the option of building more than one turbine or maybe a bigger turbine to generate most if not all of the power that you need.

I am sure that you are like me and worry that during the last 100 years (which is such a small part of history) we have decided to use all this non renewable energy, with not much thought for the next 100, 200, 500 years, yet most of us have literally on our doorstep a renewable source of energy - lets use it.

Freelance writer jobs are made for those of you that have ideas in your mind that continually tumble around, simply waiting for a fresh piece of paper to be written on. If you are the kind of person that loves a good story, and you happen to have many of them in your head or on paper already, then this type of job is for you.

One version of the freelance writer jobs is writing stories for books. These book producers offer freelance writer jobs for people to send in their stories, either long or short, for publication as a whole. The jobs for the most part, of this kind, pay by the each job contracted. Sometimes some publishing companies are searching for ghost writers, and they offer freelance writer jobs in the hopes of finding a good writer to do a biography or other kind of book or novel. These ghost writers doing the freelance writer jobs are still their own bosses, and work their own hours the same as any other freelance jobs. There are also jobs for article writers and content producers for magazines and websites, which will require more non-fiction and informative work.

Freelance writer jobs can include any kind of material, from fiction to nature, and sports to pets. The number of companies offering these types of jobs is almost unbelievable; however the freelance writer jobs are not always clear on the content desired. If you are searching for good freelance writer jobs, and find some that look promising or fit a certain guideline for you, try to check into the background of the company offering the jobs. There will be some information if you look in the right places. With the scam artists and dishonest people online today, sometimes trying to find freelance writer jobs can lead to a negative ending if you happen to come into contact with a fake or disreputable company. The better way to find freelance writer jobs online is to bid for them at a freelancing website where you bid by contract. Some providers have long-time jobs available.

Those freelance writer jobs that are genuine are ones that you have no trouble contacting the company, and they are very up front about their intended amount of compensation, and the terms surrounding the freelance writer jobs they are offering. There are also web sites online that offer assistance for checking into companies that are offering freelance writer jobs and other ones as well. These web sites aid the consumer or prospective employee in finding the company’s background, and whether or not there are trustworthy.

Finding a freelance writer job may seem like a daunting task, but it is really quite simple to do. Visit a freelancing information page, like Telecommuting101.com for example, and follow their instructions to ensure that you don’t get burned by a non-paying buyer. Most freelancing websites will allow for safe and secure escrow payments as well, which will help you out immensely when choosing a job. Not everyone is talented to be an artist, but if you can make money doing something you love, then freelance writer jobs are just the right mix for you.

It’s finally done. You’ve finished your first novel after many years of painstaking work. You’re sure it could be an international best seller. Your friends, family, work colleagues and just about everyone you know are very enthusiastic. Yet before long, your manuscript has been returned by at least ten publishers, complete with a form letter giving you no clues as to why they didn’t like it. The process can be extremely frustrating and at times like these, its tough to know where to turn.

A professional manuscript evaluator will often provide you with a detailed written assessment of the content of your work, which may include comments on characterization, the setting of the story, your use of dialogue, the believability of the general premise, the structure and plot, the language employed and the research undertaken. The evaluator will give a summary of the strengths and weaknesses, if any, of your writing, along with comments on your writing technique, format, technical ability and the market potential of your story. They can offer advice on how to develop your manuscript further and may even be happy to provide responses to specific questions that you may have about your manuscript, its marketability to publishing houses and the potential readership.

Writing is by nature a solitary occupation and can be a lonely business, without the benefit of cheering fans on the sidelines. A professional manuscript evaluator is someone with whom you can consult, ask questions, send your work to and receive constructive feedback, a guide to help you with your writing as you try to build your career as a professional writer. Having your work independently evaluated gives you with an unbiased opinion, helping you to tighten your manuscript and fix problems you may have overlooked.

Writer’s block is commonly regarded as the main reason why creative writers don’t write as often, as deeply and as abundantly as they’re truly capable of.

It’s a phrase that for writers is greeted with the same dread as a 9 year old boy feels when told “Your Great Aunt Mabel’s coming to stay this weekend, and you know she’ll want to give you a big kiss and a cuddle.”

But whilst young Jimmy has to pretty much grin and bear that wet smacker from his Aunty, there’s plenty we can do as creative writers to avoid and severely reduce the effects of writer’s block.

The biggest step in this - and the most powerful reason why we have writer’s block in the first place - is all about what we believe.

The way our minds work is to give energy and importance to what we focus on, what’s most in our thoughts.

If you’re anxious before an exam, an interview, or a visit to the doctor, and some well meaning friend says: “Whatever you do, don’t worry…”, what effect does this have?

Yep, it causes you to worry MORE. Our mind can’t really focus on the “don’t”, all it hears is the key word in the sentence - “worry”. So that’s what it focuses on.

Much like if I say to you now: “Try not to think of blue dog on a bicycle”, what is it your mind will immediately focus on? That’s right, Fido the blue two wheeled wonder dog…

So naturally this exact same principle applies to your creative writing and your attitude towards writer’s block.

If you’re always thinking “I’m not going to get writer’s block, I’m not going to find it difficult to write, I’m not going to struggle to have ideas…” then the message getting through is: “writer’s block… difficult to write… struggle to have ideas…”

So what’s the solution? How can you NOT think of suffering writer’s block, without thinking of suffering from writer’s block?

The answer is to REPLACE the negative words with more positive and helpful alternatives. So instead of thinking “I’ll run out of creative ideas”, as soon as you notice this thought appear, replace it with something like “I find it easy to have all the creative ideas I ever need.”

When you catch yourself thinking “I’m determined not to get writer’s block”, instead turn it around to “I write freely and easily”…

Try this from today, stick to it, and within a week you’ll notice the difference in your attitude to creative writing and (I’ll whisper so you don’t hear this and start thinking about it again) writer’s block…

One things writers agree on is that writer’s block help is always appreciated. No matter how great you are as a writer, there are times when the words just do not flow as freely or fluidly as you might like. The great hope is that you never experience a crippling form of writer’s block but there are differences not only in severity but also in duration. This is something that most writer’s prefer be cured sooner rather than later.

What Exactly is Writer’s Block?

Writers block is a term that is used to define an inability to express a thought or idea on paper. For someone who makes his or her living with words, this can be a frustrating experience in the short term. Any writer that has spent more than a day or two struggling with this malady will gladly tell you that it can be an extremely frightening to find yourself in need of writers block help.

Treatment Options for Writers Block Help

There are as many so called treatments for writing snags and blocks as there are writers out there willing to try them. Unfortunately, few of them work well and fewer still are guaranteed to deliver rapid writing results. Some of the more common and commonly effective (though none have been found that work for every writer, every time) treatments for writer’s block include the following:

Time

The wait and see method is the most often recommended and far least preferred method of getting writers block help. Writing is in the blood of most writers. Being unable to write all of the sudden for them would be like a musician suddenly robbed of an instrument or the tools required to play his or her instrument of choice. The time method works by simply walking away and trying something else for a half hour and then coming back ready to begin writing - in theory.

Free Writing

This technique involves basically writing nonsense for a certain period of time -generally five to ten minutes. How it works is you take a piece of paper and write everything that comes to mind for a specified amount of time. Non-sense, song lyrics, nursery rhymes, or even a grocery list can help.

Just write whatever pops into your head and do not stop until the timer goes off. There are some who say it offers no writers block help at all while others swear by it. If you are desperate, it’s certainly worth a try.

Self Hypnosis

This method involves learning to enter into a state of relaxation that bridges the gap between your mind and your fingertips. Those words that are just beyond your grasp are suddenly made accessible because you are using an underutilized part of your brain as part of your writing routine. There are few methods of writers block help that can surpass this method when it comes to success.

Making the Move

At the end of the day you, as the writer, are in control of this particular plot twist. Is the hapless heroine going to take the plunge and open her mind to possibilities or is she going to do the same thing that has been failing for so long? Writers block help is at your fingertips, are you going to get the help you need?

I am sure that if you are reading this article then you are currently writing articles to market your business. This is the number 1 rated method that I use to drive traffic to my website as this method converts the best of all the methods that I use.

However, there is only one thing stopping you from experiencing massive success with this powerful method of traffic generation and that is writer’s block. Ask yourself a very important question how many articles can you write in one day?

The bottom line with articles is that the greater the volume that you submit to the major directories the higher your number of subscribers and sales will be. For most people writing one a day is a lot of work. If you are aiming for five to ten a day that may be very ambitious. Now just think what will happen to your business if you were to write thirty a day.

The only thing basically stopping you from doing this is the dreaded writer’s block. After you have written a few you are going to be running out of ideas and will struggle to continue. I have often experienced this, but I know that the key to building a solid business is to write consistently.

The way that I overcome this is that I record any new ideas that I get electronically. So when I am about to start a new article I already have a lot of ideas that I can use. I am also constantly on the look out for new ideas in forums, the different categories of the article directories and also in Google.

Finally, if I am struggling to get my creative juices flowing I do the following. If I am in a quiet state I will put the stereo on or if I am in a noisy environment I will move to a quieter place. This alternative state usually will get the creative juices flowing again.

If you’ve been dreaming of writing a book or starting a newsletter or just getting your resume out there with a cover letter to try to snag some new writing assignments, then do it!

Take action!

You can talk about your project for years and never get any closer to accomplishing it if ALL you do is talk.

Plus, when you constantly discuss it with friends and family, without working on it, you can become overwhelmed with all the different suggestions and advice you get, and you won’t know where to start.

Today, if you’re feeling frustrated or overwhelmed, decide on some small action you can take toward your biggest goal.

If your dream is to write a book, then sit down and start on an outline, or just begin writing chapter 1.

If your dream is to create a newsletter for people who visit your blog or website on a regular basis, then decide what regular columns and topics you can cover in your newsletter and get that plan OUT of your head and onto paper or into a computer file.

If you want to write for magazines, start working on a query with an interesting article idea.

No matter what project you have been dreaming about, don’t even think about the entire project today.

Instead, decide on one small ACTION to take and then take it.

This way, you won’t get overwhelmed, which can lead to procrastination, which means you NEVER get the project even started, much less completed.

Try it!