by Jea Larche
What do you think of when you hear the word “editor”? Does it have anything to do with you? After all, you did learn to read and write. You speak the language, you know how to use a dictionary, and you know what you want to say. What possible need could you have for an editor?
You might be surprised at how many valuable answers there are to that question. You don’t have to be a professional writer to use an editor – what about your speech to the community association, or the project report your boss asked for? Maybe your resume is not as compelling as it could be, or the menu in your upscale restaurant has embarrassing typos you didn’t notice. And what about the marketing campaign for your small business – is it effective? Any kind of writing, on any scale, can benefit from the attention of an expert.
An editor can help you in lots of different ways. Proofreading is essential, and should be applied to every document. It catches things like spelling mistakes, typos, and blatantly incorrect grammar, punctuation, or usage. These details may seem small, but they have a powerful effect on the impression your work makes, and that may determine the impression you make. Would you risk losing that contract just because you’re not sure where all the commas go in your proposal?
More intensive levels of editing offer ever greater improvements. The purpose of writing is to convey a message – to inform, persuade, entertain, or engage the audience. If it’s not structured effectively, the message will be lost, and the purpose will not be met.
An editor can help on several levels. They may examine the work as a whole, addressing issues of form, content, and style, to ensure the writing does achieve its purpose. They may work with you right from the beginning, helping you with the thinking and planning, so you can create documents of good quality. They may help by checking the work after it’s finished, noting errors or problems and suggesting ways to fix them. Or, if you prefer, they may even do the fixing for you, by re-writing what you submit, after a discussion to clarify your goals and purposes.
These are things you should expect from any qualified editor. If you find an exceptional one, you can expect even more. Expert technical skills can be delivered with a customized, personal approach. And intimidating technical jargon is just not necessary!
Ideally, your editor will bring a wealth of skill and insight to your projects, besides great proficiency with language. Look for someone with diverse experience, which provides the perspective required to really connect with clients. Attention should be paid to the writer, not just the writing. You need to be understood as a whole, complex person, and considered in relation to the writing and to the intended audience. A great editor can help you stay motivated, clarify your goals and purposes, and stick to your timelines. They’ll also offer something that is simple but often hard to find – personalized, effective support and encouragement. This holistic approach makes an incalculable difference to the overall quality and success of your projects.
Part of this steady focus on the needs of the client must include communicating in a way that non-editors can easily understand. The reason a piece works or flops, the descriptions of the problems in the writing, the changes needed to fix it – these can all be discussed and resolved in language that doesn’t make you wish you’d brought an interpreter!
There is, of course, more to say about what editors do, how they do it, whom they do it for, and why… Much has been written on these subjects, and you can find this information easily if you’re interested in reading more.
But at least now you know why you might need an editor – and how to find a really great one!
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About The Author:
Jea Larche owns and operates Refined Lines Editing in Nanaimo, BC. She offers a range of personalized services, including business, academic, and technical editing, with a special passion for fiction.
The author invites you to visit: http://www.islandeditor.ca
Richard and Lisa
Hundreds of thousands of older people quit driving each year and must turn to alternate transportation. Helping Hands Chauffeur is a new innovative transportation and medical business in Nanaimo. Lisa and Richard Macintosh are the owners and operators of Helping Hands Chauffeur. Lisa is a registered nurse and has been working directly with seniors for over nine years. Richard has provided customer service for over twenty years and takes pride in customers’ happiness. Lisa and Richard both have a clean driving record and have clean criminal records. Helping Hands Chauffeur will go the extra mile; they are knowledgeable, patient, empathetic and the most compassionate people around.
Helping Hands Chauffeur puts transportation at your fingertips and companionship at your service. This is just the start of what they are offering the community. Their mission is “to preserve seniors’ independence” while giving family members piece of mind that their elderly loved one is in the best of hands”.
Some of the services at Helping Hands include Chauffeuring (they will drive your loved one to the doctors,
Lisa Macintosh R.N.
shopping, beauty salon, pharmacy). They help with medications, dressing changes, companionship, end of life care and much more.
Their caregivers are compassionate, dedicated, respectful and well trained providing the highest quality of care. With a Licensed Registered Nurse as an owner and staff member their clients, and their client’s loved ones, can rest assured they are receiving the highest quality of care.
By caring for the mind, body and soul, Helping Hands Chauffeur ensures their clients will have an improved quality of life, while staying independent. Their staff has excellent communication skills and keeps family informed of their loved one’s health. They provide piece of mind that your loved ones will be treated and cared for as if by their own family. Making their client’s experience as stress free and enjoyable as possible is a priority. Call Helping Hands Chauffeur today.
Richard Macintosh: at your service
Phone: 250-585-0606
Email: urfirst@shaw.ca
www.helpinghandschauffeur.ca/
by: Fortay Media
Web video production has become increasingly popular as embedding technologies and broadband internet speed gets ever better. Where your business or site warrants it, using an online web presenter can help get your message across – in tutorials and product guides, for example. And where a virtual tour is required, the web video really comes into its own.
The bottom line is, the Internet is now ready and able to support genuine multimedia presences for your company and your company website. In an age of file sharing and self broadcast, your customers and site users expect to see you making the best use of the technology at your disposal. Web video production allows you to make use of video files where they are the most appropriate way to get your message across.
In line with all website optimisation protocols, you should use a web video where a video file or moving image is genuinely the optimum way to deliver your information. Ask yourself the following question, of every part of your website: could it be understood better using another method? If the answer to that question is “no”, then a web video production can simplify your site and make its user experience much better.
Video works excellently for site guides, product descriptions and demonstrations of the services you provide. In many cases it is much easier to show a potential customer or service user something you do, in action, rather than trying to explain it with words and still images. Also, your web video satisfies the strongest of all customer urges – which is to see something they are about to buy, “in the flesh”.
The web video production on your site is ideal for making your site feel more interactive and as long as you have the rest of the page
properly optimised the inclusion of a video file won’t confuse search engines. Unlike Flash menus, which look funky and do all kinds of flashy things when you scroll over them, but which prevent search engines from seeing the navigational structure of your site correctly, an embedded file can be optimised properly, even to the extent of directory submission.
The ultimate strength of the web video is in its ability to demonstrate the use and enjoyment of a product. One of the major objections to web shopping has always been the lack of knowledge about what exactly you are going to get. A photograph of an item you have never seen before never does it the same justice as a video showing you what it is and how it works.
Your web video production can bring your site to life, bring your products to life, and get your information across more clearly. Used properly, it makes your site user’s experience better.
About The Author
Fortay Media is an online video production company. Customers can choose from a variety of web video services, including online presenters, training videos and corporate videos. http://www.fortaymedia.co.uk/.
The author invites you to visit:
http://www.fortaymedia.co.uk/
Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_16039.shtml
by: Markus Lundin
Content management systems (CMS’) are redefining the way Webmasters manage and maintain their Web site. CMS applications are supported by every major Web designer and eliminate the need for them after the initial building process. With a CMS you will have the capability to manage, collect, and publish content in any way you see fit while maintaining dynamic links to components. CMS optimizes the use of a user-friendly format that will help keep your Web site updated, current, and to your specific taste as your customer base and traffic expand. Paying a Web designer to do these things for you can become costly over a very short period of time if you are making frequent updates and this takes the control out of their hands and puts it into yours.
When a Web designer gets your site up and running they are more times than not working with highly detailed and expensive software, that allows them to customize and format your Web site however you would like it. After your site is live you will need to do upkeep on your site to keep it current and updated. Not everyone has time to get to know or the money to spend on elaborate software such as this. This is where a CMS comes into play. Many CMS applications are free and compatible with just about any scripting language that is used today whether HTML, Java or anything in between.
Once you have your content management system implemented into your site you are able to do what the Web designer does from your own perspective. Many CMS systems are open source and dynamic so you will have the capacity to work and manipulate new pages into the site. This is a great benefit to anyone operating a live Web site on the Internet.
Not only will you be able to update information, images and text but you will also be able to store, publish and format data anyway you would like. This can be big if you want to allow access from the Mobile Web with PDF file options. Depending on the CMS you choose you will have a wide array of functions, features, and modules to help you maximize the full potential of your site without the help or cost of a Web designer.
Using CMS programs to publish data is one of the primary functions this system. Since the CMS stores everything as data you are able to manipulate this data however you want. Also because you can store and manage the data from the CMS you can change existing data to fit the needs of the ever changing world of the Internet. Aside from all of this the CMS helps make all of the data you publish easily accessible from any of the popular search engines by allowing you to use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to make for easy indexing of your Web pages thus creating more traffic to your site.
The functions and capabilities of a CMS are always being added to and upgraded so you will never run short of the things you can do. Many are free ware and will help you create the most diversified Web site possible.
About The Author
Marketing People provides the latest in Content Management System that helps our customers to identify, attract and find the right timing to contact a customer. We offer services for B2B Lead Generation as well as professional open source CMS services for TYPO3, vtiger and MrTrack.
The author invites you to visit:
http://www.marketingpeople.se/
http://www.articlecity.com/
By: Tyson Fenech
Naturally there are many aspects to succeeding online but the nature of business hasn’t swayed. You must have a professional image and you must provide a great service for your clients. This is what makes a business grow. This is not another article telling you to be sure you have Meta tags, linking and all the other wonderful Search Engine friendly includes. This is a bare bones old school reflection on how companies are losing sight of the bigger picture.
Put some heart into it
Most entrepreneurs have that essential vivacious approach to starting up a business and the truly successful ones will maintain that level of excitement to help cultivate a healthy and steady growth. A web site can help establish your business as a serious contender or just another hole in the wall. Which one are you? Some businesses place more emphasis on what they’re going to have for lunch rather than the image they portray to their clients. Your excitement about your business shows in everything you do.
When getting a web site for your company be certain you place your trust and hard earned dollars with a design firm that is passionate about their work and has a proven record of accomplishment, understand why one charges $500 and another $3000. You will have a much better project if the designer has foresight and desire to see their work succeed and not just become another bank deposit.
If you surf online and scope out the millions of companies, it is amazing to see how many tired looking sites you’ll come across. I can’t imagine a company that sells from a brick and mortar store, allowing the front of their building to become decrepit with their sign barely hanging on by a couple of bolts. Not a good way of attracting customers off the street and into your establishment.
The heart of your business
Do what you do best. Sell the products and services that define you and earn the capital. Promote your business in the best way possible, keeping honesty and integrity at the forefront. Do not sell yourself short. Invest into your growth and future developments.
There are countless articles on Search Engine Optimization and how to make money quickly. Have we forgotten the core of doing business and how the market is stimulated? There are plenty of ways to promote your business online and expand your demographic just be sure to focus on the important facets that make a company great. Provide and honest service and quality product. More than just attracting customers to your web site you want to retain long lasting relationships which will only draw more clients as time goes on.
Search Engine Friendly
No doubt search engine optimization is an extremely important aspect for the success of your business but can’t stress enough that the importance of having a solid image must tie in. What many articles fail to point out is that SEO isn’t the only thing to achieving online success. The focus tends to be on one aspect and never the whole picture. Business like everything involving human interaction revolves around the senses.
Okay so your site gets to the top of the search results and gets a click thru. Upon arriving to your site, which lacks any sense of presentation is quickly scanned, forgotten and on to the next site they go. The attention span of surfer’s is on the decline. Yes you must have relevant content but it better be presented in the best possible way so when your competitors are visited by the same potential customer you stand out. It’s all about standing out and making your presence known. When you first write your business plan (you do have a goal right?), one of the main things is to define your sole purpose and what the business hopes to achieve and how you stand out from everyone else.
Building that niche
It is ideal to focus your efforts and find that little pocket where you can shine and grow. This is very helpful when creating your online image. Custom designed graphics, tailored to your business will help secure your position within your chosen niche market. A beautiful looking web site will not help your ranking but it will help secure client interest and entice sales. Many SEO specialists overlook the importance of branding, which is number one in order for a company to separate themselves from the pack. Don’t allow customers the chance to forget your name. Be remembered and maintain your presence.
Author Bio
Tyson Fenech is the Creative Director for Core Creative Concepts. Designing web sites and print materials for the past 7 years helping both small startups and Fortune 500 companies. http://www.coregraphicdesign.com/
Article Source: http://www.articlegeek.com/ – Free Website Content
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