It is my intention that these marketing tips will help you avoid common mistakes made by the majority of loan officers. Heed this advice!

Mortgage Marketing Tip #1

Make your advertising and print media more effective by having a headline on everything: letters, greeting cards, ads, everything.

Headlines are what get the reader. They make them want to read more. They tell the reader what benefit he/she will get from reading more. And that’s exactly what you want them to do.

Make the headline powerful and include a benefit.

Examples:

3 things you can do today to improve your credit
Here’s something you might enjoy…
I started thinking of you when I read this article…

Make sure to include a headline in all your media and it will increase your results.

Mortgage Marketing Tip #2

When you do something for a client, brag about it.

What I mean is, if you accomplish something, make it a big deal.’

“Mr. Hity, I was holding my breath for a while, and that collection on your credit report made it real close, but I fought for you and got the lender to approve your loan!”

That’s a lot better than saying, “Hi, your loan was approved today. Congrats.”

Make yourself out to be the valuable professional you are. Make sure that your clients know exactly what you do for them.

Mortgage Marketing Tip #3

Write thank you notes to people everyday.

This one mortgage marketing tool can make you so much money your head will spin. Everyone loves to be appreciated and acknowledged. Being nice and having manners are a thing of the past. But when you take the time to thank someone, you connect to them on deeper level.

Get yourself some thank you cards from the stationery store and thank people who did something for you today. It could be for anything,

Thank your mailman for bringing the mail up to the office
Thank the underwriter for a speedy decision
Thank your client for calling to say they would be late
Thank the realtor for the referral.

These cards can make someone’s day. And you really stand out from the crowd as a caring mortgage professional when you use them.

Mortgage Marketing Tip #4

If someone answers your phone for you, have him or her use the following line.,

“He/she is working with a client right now, let me see if he can take the call.”

This does a couple things,

1. Makes you seem busy even if you are not. This shows the client that you are in demand and confirms that he made a good decision by choosing you.
2. Allows you to not talk to people you do not want to talk to
3. Allows you to say to the caller, if you pick up, that they are important enough to you to interrupt an important client meeting.

This might not be a “traditional” mortgage-marketing tool, but it will make you more desirable. And while it will not make the phone ring more, when it does, you will get respect from those on the other end of the line.

Mortgage Marketing Tip #5

CANI

Constant and Never Ending Improvement
Do something everyday to improve your business. 1 small change everyday can make a huge difference in a couple months. Implement one mortgage marketing tool at least once a week. At least.

Over the course of a couple years, the results will be dramatic.

Just one small thing is enough. Examples are:
Hanging a certificate of completion on the wall
Hanging a testimonial on the wall
Adding a signature to your emails
Adding a small consumer article to your website
Subscribing to The Millionaire Loan Officer Newsletter at http://www.mortgagebrokertraining.com/newsletter.html
Reading the FREE articles on mortgage broker marketing at http://www.mortgagebrokertraining.com/mortgagemagic.htm

Mortgage Marketing Tip #6

Look at other businesses for great ideas to adapt to your business

Most innovations come from other businesses.

Like the drive thru window. Who knows who started it, but fast food places use it, banks use it, pharmacies use it, and even restaurants are experiencing success with it.

What new services do you use that make your life easier? Can you adapt these to your business? How about emailing potential customers the interest rate everyday if they request it? Or Providing a Post-Closing Kit with items clients will need when moving?

You can use the marketing tools from other businesses too. If you see a marketing piece that really gets your attention, think about how to adapt it and use it in your business.

Mortgage Marketing Tip #7

It doesn’t matter how good a loan officer you are – if you suck at marketing, you will starve.

Knowing how to get clients is infinitely more important than any other knowledge you may attain.

Tony Robbins is not the best NLP trainer out there, but he is the richest because he knows how to market himself.

The Men-Mars, Women-Venus guy is not the best marriage counselor out there, but he sure made a killing in books, tapes, and seminars.

The best mortgage lending marketing tools are available at MortgageBrokerTraining.com’s Mortgage Bookstore.

How much money you make has very little correlation to how much you know. Of course you must know the basics, but other than that, it makes very little difference at all.

He who markets best, makes the most money.

Ameen Kamadia, “The Millionaire Loan Officer” has taught over 4,583 loan officers to get more loans and make more money. For 100’s more FREE tips and strategies that will skyrocket your business, visit www.mortgagebrokertraining.com

History’s great promoters of “democracy”, whether they be Ancient Greek philosophers, American or French Revolutionaries, Communists, or English Parliamentarians, have in every case meant that “everybody” in a society should be able to take part in decision-making of the body politic. But how far has this ideal been realised? And is it time that we can take it further?

In none of the cases cited above were their “democratic” methods completely or truly inclusive: “everybody” variably excluded women, people of other races or ethnicities, people below a minimum threshold age, people without property, etc. In the course of the twentieth century, the right to vote in elections for “representational democracy” was broadened, though those who fell foul of the Law, or the diagnoses of psychiatric medicine, were still usually excluded.

“Democracy”, as it is claimed in modern nation states, generally refers to what can be categorised more specifically as “representational democracy” – i.e. where instead of a political decision being made directly by the masses, it is made by a group of regionally elected representatives, who make decisions “on behalf” of the masses for the duration of a fixed term. Take note that, once these elected representatives are comfortably seated in the decision-making room, they can basically do whatever they want. Though they may try to make decisions that will win public approval in the lead-up to the next election, the fact remains that they can make whatever decision seems best (or most advantageous) to them at the time; and it is clear enough, in any case, that elections for democratic representatives are mostly decided based on haircuts (see last American presidential election) and media manipulation (see any Australian federal election).

Until recently, there existed a strong argument in favour of representational democracy: that for a society of millions, direct popular decision-making would be unworkably impractical. But does this argument still hold? Has the internet altered our political potential as a society?

…

Let’s say you are a nation of some twenty million inhabitants, and you want to decide how to divide up the resources budgeted for education. You could hardly gather the population in a room and ask for a show of hands. You could ask them to make marks on pieces of paper, then collect and count the tally; but this too would be impractical if required for every decision. However, the world-wide network of computers linked by telephone cables provides us with a vastly more efficient system of communication.

Obviously, if internet connections were used to enable popular participation in political decision-making, it would still be very difficult to enforce compulsory voting by the entire adult population. But perhaps voluntary, total plebiscites could be efficiently and quickly conducted, so that a genuinely popular decision could be made on whether a new governmental Bill should be passed or not. Perhaps democratic representatives could still sit in parliament, but only to argue points of view, and without any exclusive voting rights. If this were the case, they might even begin to argue issues intelligently – which they clearly don’t feel the need to do at the moment. The Australian parliamentary television program Question Time shows very bored-looking, mostly oldish, mostly men, sitting half-asleep and jeering at each other. Is this really still the best method we have, as a society, of deciding our collective future?

Of course, if the internet were to be used for popular voting on political decisions, access to internet connections would need to be available to all. And data security would need to be both solid and agile; hackers would potentially mount “hacking wars” on the electoral system. If nothing else, this could make a good premise for a science-fiction film. But perhaps internet democracy still is nothing more than “speculative fiction” – for I am sceptical that our current elected representatives would lend much support to this idea. After all, history has rarely seen political power and exclusivity being relinquished willingly.

Tony Macaroni is a freelance writer and thinker.
http://www.totalcardboard.com

Hook up both of man’s greatest interests and you’re sure to bare a craze we commonly know as a sportsbook. Can you imagine anything that could imaginably be more creative. Picture a crowd of sports fellows cheering in support of a favorite local lineup, and almost always antes will be fixed in tandem with the rumpus. Because they want to participate in of the delights, onlookers will commonly attempt to estimate who will make it in the coming meet. Put together, this all finally turns into a warmhearted, amicable meet named sportsbook.

Alright, it may seem to be obsessive but on the contrary – sports wagering is actually simply an amusement and to connect with fellow sports fans. You can wager a an insignificant quantity of bucks and yet have an outstanding time. Read on a few basics to get going sports wagering. In order to place your bet, you will be best advised to go to a sportsbook, i.e. a place which tenders sportsbook. In the USA, there’s four states where we can go for sports wagering in a legitimate manner, but inofficially you may do it just about anywhere if you can find a bookie AND you are legally an adult. Covered sports events you can choose to bet on are pro plus, also, college basketball & college level football, professional baseball, professional hockey, plus, also, bets on both horse and dog racing. You’ll be able to wager on the general score of a game, on what round a given contester will be defeated, and even if a given coin toss in a game will come out either heads or tails.

Report: Jags DT Stroud facing 4-game ban

The sportsbook company place their trust in mere figures to assist you choose which lineup you are confident will make it. First, we have the spread, in other words specific points leverage assigned to the losing competitor expected to go down by a defined number points. Self-Evidently, this describes the bookie’s practice of offering unprejudiced stakes for a Sportsbook. For example a gambler could choose to wager on a team expected to go down and and yet win that bet if the competitor is defeated by a defined number of points. We’ll be able to opt for plenty of varying types of bets- straight bets, teasers, which are kindred to to parlays only you can respectively add or subtract points from the distribution to improve your odds,parlays and, furthermore, over-unders, the straight being the most prevalent in sports wagering.

Why not just have a stab at it and enjoy the recreation for good measure. Only determine that you won’t get gripped and exhaust your entire social security checks frivolously… Because else chances are you’ll catch yourself in grief all life long…

Harvard University has set a short-term goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 30% through the year 2016.

The university aims to bring down 2006’s 282,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCDE) to at least 200,000 MTCDEs in 8 years.

In a released statement, university president Drew Faust expressed Harvard’s interest in taking up the environmental sustainability challenge. She further added that reducing greenhouse gas emissions will help the university fulfill the promise of the challenge.

Improvement programs will focus on encouraging energy efficient practices and reducing greenhouse gas. The research and teaching departments have likewise been encouraged to come up with educational and information campaigns concentrating on creating a sustainable environment through science, technology, and policy analysis.

Environmental League of Massachusetts president George Bachrach expressed his positive reactions regarding Harvard’s green move by hailing the University for setting a good example that other institutions should follow. He also revealed that several of the state’s major corporations are also leaders in the practice of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Meanwhile, it is also worthwhile to note that other campuses and universities in the state have started their own environmentally-geared programs. In fact, Yale University, like Harvard, has been reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, too.

Following the examples set by Harvard, Yale and these major corporations will bring us closer to the realization of a sustainable environment for our future generations.

At CEMEX, air quality is a priority with the cement company’s fusion of environment friendly programs and pro-safety policies

Smart Brief published an article about the Third Annual CEMEX U.S. Building Awards, which also highlights CEMEX air quality initiatives.

CEMEX California Business Information is available on Manta.

Clueless in Conversation-ville?

Are you really “with” people when you’re with them? Are you really hearing, seeing,
feeling, sensing, breathing them in? Or are you often bored, distracted, rushed, or
wishing you were somewhere else? Do you jump ahead in the conversation, saying
what you know they meant to say or strategize “fixes” for their concerns before
they have hardly left their lips? Do you find yourself sizing up their clothing choice,
or facial quirks, or figit with your pen or take in the activity in the room while they
are speaking?
No matter who I am with, I am often dreamily lost in thought: “if only they…speak
up, shut up, be quick, be reasonable, or be honest. I spend a lot of time “wishing”
who I think the other person ought to be and what I want them to say – or not, and
only a small part of my brain or heart is really with them in the now. Sure, we’ve all
been accused of not being “with it” as they say; but often it has become a very bad
habit. Our lack of presence speaks volumes.

Is Your “Half-Heartedness” Showing?

When a person is getting only a portion of our attention, it sends a clear message
that they don’t matter terribly much. As a result, relationships subtly suffer and so
does productivity. Sure, we can “get by with it”, we all do it. And But what price are
we paying to have half of our consciousness half way around the world ? A lot of
misinformation and misinterpretation takes place. People are confused, hurt, and
angry, lost. They feel insignificant. They tend toward uncooperativeness, half-
hearted work, absenteeism, health issues, even undermining each other.
Relationships are strained and artificial or contentious. The loss to me personally is
something I rarely consider – lack of support, lack of intimacy, lack of integrity.

Is it that we don’t value each other enough to be attentive for just a minute, don’t’
realize the impact, or is it that we just don’t know how?

Practice the Presence

In his 1999 book Practicing the Presence of People. Mike Mason on the contrary,
encourages the reader to learn how to be present in– and to– the “presence” of
other people. This involves being willing to see others as they are, for who they are,
and be OK with that. Essentially, to practice the presence of others means paying
full and close attention to the people you are with. The surprising thing is how
rewarding and freeing it can be – on both sides.

When we are able to be present, we are warmly focused. We find ourselves
enjoying the other’s company, fascinated by their uniqueness, intrigued by their
mystery, and at the very least — or best — at peace with them. Practicing the
presence of people is an awareness, yes, but most of all, it is a choice and finally, an
art. As with any art or creative expression, the basis for great results is practice,
practice, practice!

Love the One You’re With

To be “with” someone or present to someone is a choice, but it is a dedicated choice
some might call a commitment. Could it be, that giving someone our full attention
is the essence of real love? Attentiveness is a listening with the heart and soul. It is
not something you give on occasion, it is a consistent way of being with other
people through thick and thin. There are steps to be learned, difficulties to be
overcome, insights to be implemented, benefits to be enjoyed. All of this involves
devotion and persistence. Mason compares the experience of being present to
other people to a contemplative way of praying. Why? Back in the 1600’s, a monk
named Brother Lawrence aptly coined the phrase “practicing the presence of God.”
Brother Lawrence learned the secret to being aware of and taking in the reality of
“God with us.” This led to his ability to be ever connected to this divine presence
with an added bonus that changed his life- contentment in everything.

When we connect to the presence of another, we are “engaged”. We are content to
‘love the one we are with” and not wsh we were somewhere else.
In engagement, we move from being spectators to being participants. In this role,
we are no longer intimidated or judgmental, nevermind distracted. We are fully
aware but not rest-less. We are in a state of active rest.

So, away with pre-occupation, away with busyness, business as usual, time-
consciousness, driven-ness, thinking ahead, fixing, solving, sweating the
discomfort of others. Let’s practice being fully focused, fully present to the next
person we converse with. It’s a awarenes It is choice. It’s an art. It is love.
Rewarding conversations not only make sense, they make cents. “Presence” is the
best kind of gift!

Do you ‘love the one you’re with?’ Or do you wish they were someone else?
Everyday conversations are fertile ground for valuable conversations. Give each
person your full attention and reap the unexpected benefits!

This is a thought on the study of Home and Away Games, The Best Team Always Has the Advantage. Predators and Prey; The Hunters and The Hunted. Recently Rumsfeld asked his brightest commanders to come up with strategies to combat Islamic Extremists Terrorists. Here is an idea. Set up a couple of Humvees, which would drive at normal speed a head of a van, which had interior 1″ steel walls. Drive the Humvees in front and use remote control to draw fire. Put mannequins in the Humvees. And a Big America flag to piss them off. The van will have SWAT Team Special Forces. When the humvees are shot at stop them and the van unloads and surrounds the area from the rear and special forces shoot each one between the eyes, cut off the heads stick them on the posts out front of the houses where they were found and just get back into the van and drive around again.

Hunt the terrorists like the prey that they are. Turn the tables. The hunters become the hunted. The hit and run games of the past turn into a simple way to draw fire as a marker of you’re immediate and next target. At night sneak around in fatigues with special teams. Gore-ill the Gorillas. Use UAV helicopters to get in close a spook them. Use ELF to put them to sleep. Use RF to make them piss. Pull out all the stops to kill them. The triangle is not our Devils Triangle it is their place to meet Allah. Let them come to the triangle in large numbers from throughout the region and slice and dice. To fight this war we need to be the hunters. Play to win, get serious and let the boys have some fun, they have been practicing urban warfare for months on end, they are ready to rock and roll, the weather is going to get more livable, so after Ramadan and Christmas let’s load the place up with the toughest son’s of bitches in this country. The tough guys, Special Forces, the guys who know who they are and who know how to win. Hunt them down one by one. Mercilessly. They want to fight, show them hell on Earth. Cut throats, cut off their penis, shove it in their mouth and decapitate. I bet things change real fast. They want to fight and live in the year 3000 BC, show them what they are missing.

This hit and run sissy stuff cannot be tolerated. If you want to win a war you have to take the will of your enemy out of the group. Let’s do it. We need several hundred such plays as the one described above to deploy, like a football team, mixing up the plays, different each day, different special teams, different methods all with one idea in mind, the goal line. I am sorry if some people reading this think it is too extreme, I believe weak people succumbing to political correctness while our guys get picked off and lawyers determine targets is just dumb. I suppose the enemy is lucky that I am not in charge. There would be hovering apache helicopters over the horizon, just waiting lines up and armed to the hilt and we would be running these plays and hunting like big cats in the night, all night, every night, every holiday, every second, day and night, no rest for the enemy, until every last one is slaughtered. No mercy, no prisoners, no bull sh_t. Of course the Democratic Presidential hopefuls would be so disappointed in me. But let’s get real here. The war is over, these people just don’t get it. Jihad? G-Wizz? It might be time to start sending some of these heads back to the countries where they are coming from. Cruel and Unusual?

We should never fight evil with our hands tied behind our backs. This hide and seek, hit and run, drive and crash needs to turn into pray and pay, lead and be-head from the air and land. Get tough and win. This rhetoric of oh no what do we do now on TV is ridiculous. Either we have the balls, brains and Braun or the liberal anti-American guest stars on the nightly news are right. Which is it? A fighter pilot has rules, in war they are different. “Never give a sucker an even break, take the advantage and cheat.” So far this is what they are doing. Yet those are our rules of engagement and conflict. We are letting them run our plays and sitting around wondering what we should do? The political correctness has gotten out of hand and into the battle area. How can this be? How can we have done this to ourselves? Shoot back, hunt them down, and attack. We have all the advantages, use them. Just a thought, a single perspective and observation. What do you think?

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

London at present is by a long way one of the best destinations to call at in the modern world. What visitors yearn for in a hotel is unquestionably going to be very different from what a customary London occupant would in all probability search for. At present there are numerous different kinds of hotels about. Therefore you will need to consider a good deal concerning what you’re searching for in a hotel. This is because it is a very individual opinion and with the many different selections to be had at the moment it can without doubt be a tough verdict to make.

Modern, traditional, funky, are you wanting to be pandered to, have afternoon tea somewhere fantastic or just have one or two nights to unwind in opulence accommodation. Check out Time Out for all the latest information about London Hotels.

Some of the more usual hotels are the longest and grandest in the City and it has to be said that they are as a whole vacated with a certain category of customer, you’re not really going to stay here if you are with your kids or relatives. The Ritz, Savoy & Claridges are just some of the hotels that have been functioning since Victorian era. They have all been reconstructed since then however still hold lots of their familiar merits and characteristics. There are not many hotels in the world of late that offer this exact brand of comfort, people come from all over the planet to stop at these hotels and the staff take care that the holidaymakers stay is very worth their while.

With London being a fashionable place to come and visit it makes obvious sense that they have chic hotels to go together. Boutique hotels are becoming little by little more popular and present a different type of hotel accommodation than you would find from your more traditional accommodation would provide. If you are trying to discover some of the finest then visit areas like Knightsbridge, Notting Hill & Soho & you’re probably to find specifically what you are searching for. Both the Soho Hotel and St Martin Lane Hotel are some of the greatest hotels in the City.

Do you think you could ever recognize a McDonalds Hamburger store even if the name was not on the building? Absolutely, even a five-year-old child could find the store. Why is that? Sure, the yellow arches do give it away, but the real answer is due to product branding.

Product branding is simply taking your product and creating an image for it in the marketplace in such a way that it can always be picked out of a crowded market and where a customer thinks about your product when somebody talks about the business you are in.

As an example, when we say, “Hamburger” people tend to think of McDonalds. When somebody says, “Luxury Car” do you think of BMW. When somebody says, “Cheap Prices”, you think about Wal-Mart Stores.

So, when it comes to web sites, will you be able to brand yourself in a positive way so that when people say “Herb Garden Business”, they think of your home-based business web site.

Product branding is a money generator, many web site users will stop searching for a product when they arrive at and recognize a familiar name, image or business. The power of a positive brand image can only be measured in the amount of money that is generated without any additional advertising.

Creating a positive brand requires a clear strategy to define your business. For instance, if you own a web site that sells baby products, ask yourself the following questions:

• What colors should I use across my site? – Soft pinks, yellows and blues.

• What type of font do I use for my web page content?

• What images do I use? – Little yellow ducks, pretty flowers or bright butterflies.

• Do I provide a consistent message across the web site?

• Do my visitors perceive and ultimately derive value from my web site?

By writing up and answering these questions you will be well on your way to developing a strategy that will set you apart from your competition.

Peter Engelbrecht is President of Diagonal Street Business Services and operates the web site http://www.BestBusinesses4u.com The site provides stay at home moms and dads with practical home-based business ideas.

World Wide Web Bingo World/

World Wide Web bingo is turning out to be ever more popular all over the place. As a consequence of the recent public smoking ban, a good number of time-honoured bingo gaming places shut down: this expectably initiated a good number of operators putting up ‘net bingo as an alternate option. Celeb promotion such as that by J. and S. Osbourne and many others have contributed by upgrading the public image of Internet bingo: with nearly three and a half million adults now going for an occasional game on the computer.

There are plenty of many ‘net bingo sites, each one promoting to fans really fabulous winnings and a limitless amount of other high class rewards such as brand new cars, concert tickets and luxury holidays. Another marvelous thing about ‘net bingo is that we can easily go for it 24/7 if there’s some internet connection. With games setting out several times per hour you are able to arrange bingo with your regular life. You might have believe that the community side of bingo gambling would doubtlessly suffer owing to this shift away from time-honoured bingo gaming places – however, English and other bingo buffs have proven all alarmists wrong. A growing number are utilizing the chat rooms and forums tendered by very many ‘net bingo operators.

At such a place everyone can forge countless new friendships, leverage select tournaments and become fully immersed in a community of bingo punters. Further, research reports have ascertained that you are more likely to obtain £1M wagering virtual bingo in comparison to alternate styles of wagering such as the raffles and sportsbook betting. Moreover, if you become a little fed up with bingo, innumerable ‘net bingo sites will present a comprehensive selection of side games. These may be anything from number games and slots all through to caption competitions and fun tests. In view of so many different opportunities it can actually be a bit tough to make out which net bingo firm to register with. Besides, you’ll find it will pay out to have a stab at a little research and analyse who is extending to the greatest signup bonuses. Quite a number of ‘net bingo sites will permit first-time visitors to play a certain number of free bingo games or up any cash deposit.

If some of your pals are making use of some special ‘net bingo Web page, you might want to consider following suit since networking is bound to add to the overall enjoyment.:)

Chances are, you won’t be the next J.K. Rowling. After all, she’s the
only children’s writer on the planet who makes over a billion dollars from
her work.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t make a living as a children’s writer.
Here are a dozen ways to get your freelance career started:

1. Make sure you learn the basics of writing for children. If there aren’t
any courses in children’s writing available where you live, take a
correspondence course (through the mail) or enroll in an online
workshop in children’s writing. There are many good correspondence
courses and online workshops available. Go to www.google.com and
type in the words “writing for children.”

2. Read, read, read – all the children’s magazines and books that you
can – from a writer’s viewpoint. Study these articles and stories for
structure, rhythm of language, a child’s or teen’s voice, and the type of
content that appeals to young readers (and that editors tend to buy).

You might find a limited number of children’s magazines at your local
bookstore, so get a current market guide to find out about other
magazines for kids, then write for sample copies of these publications
so you can read and study them.

3. Develop an appropriate resume to submit to publishers. You might
not have many (or any) writing credits at first, so list any work you have
done that was writing related. It doesn’t have to be only work you did
for pay. Also list any volunteer work you have done that involved
writing.

4. Join a critique group, or start one, and subscribe to at least one
publication for children’s writers.

5. In addition to your critique group, network with people who already
do what you want to do – one way to do this is to join your local chapter
of the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators), or
sign up for an online listserv of children’s writers. Go to
www.yahoogroups.com and search for groups for children’s writers.
You’ll find several.

6. Learn to write a great query letter and how to correctly format a
manuscript. There are many good books available that explain (in
detail) how to write an effective query and how to format a manuscript
for submission to a publisher. You can also google “writing a query
letter” or “formatting a manuscript” to find various articles that should
help you.

7. Once you’re comfortable with your skills as a children’s writer,
spend at least one day a week on marketing – looking for new
opportunities and writing assignments. You’ll find job ads for children’s
writers in those newsletters you start subscribing to and also on online
job boards for writers.

8. You MUST learn to use the Internet effectively. Also, learn how to
transfer your work electronically. And, if you don’t have one already,
get an email account.

9. At least once a year, attend a children’s writer’s conference or
workshop. This is will give you more networking opportunities, plus
you’ll learn, firsthand, the current needs of many children’s magazine
and book publishers.

10. Be dependable and professional. Freelancing is a business. Learn
the business. For example, don’t expect to submit a handwritten
manuscript and have an editor read it. Also, don’t expect to ignore
submission guidelines and have an editor read your manuscript (see
next step).

11. Study the markets and write for guidelines for the publications you
wish to write for. Today many publications have submission
guidelines (and even current needs) available on their website, so
search these websites first to save yourself time and postage.

12. Give yourself time to succeed. This is one of the most important
steps. If you’re just starting to write for children, don’t expect to make a
living at this for awhile.

As you learn more about the business of writing for children, and
continue to improve your craft, more opportunities will become available
to you. You should also realize that it will take more than writing
magazine stories and articles to make a living as a freelance children’s
writer, so you must actively seek work ALL the time. But follow the steps
outlined above, and your freelance writing career will be off to a good
start.

See you in print!

Suzanne Lieurance is a freelance children’s writer and she teaches
children’s writing for the Institute of Children’s Literature, and offers
online workshops for children’s writers at http://www.suzannelieurance.com

Lieurance also owns the Three Angels Gourmet Co. which produces a
unique line of “heavenly gourmet mixes.” For daily food tips and other
food information, visit the Three Angels Gourmet Co. blog at http://www.threeangelsgourmet.blogspot.com