In December, we asked you to write an ad for the "Hottest Gift of the Season"

Justus Bowman sent this winning entry:

"The Dreamcruncher"

Have you ever prayed for peace during the holiday season? Has someone ever offended you? Have you ever wanted to retaliate? Have you ever wished you could crunch an enemy's dream?

Now you can, with our new product Dreamcruncher!

The technology and application is simple: Find where your adversary sleeps, place our steel Dreamcruncher on his head and wait for the fun to begin!

Imagine this happening to you: A coworker bumps into you on Christmas Eve, spilling coffee all over your new blouse. You say "excuse me," and he gives you the finger.

What do you do now? Is there anything you can do? You betcha! Simply believe in the power of Dreamcruncher and get to work!

You follow your coworker home and watch him drift off to sleep in his lonely bed. You know he's hoping for a good night's rest, but what he doesn't know is you're placing a Dreamcruncher over his head.

He's enjoying his dream, those droopy eyelids start flapping over his beady, little eyes. Bam! An electrical discharge wakes him and gives his dream a fistful of ouch! You can bet he's perturbed; you can bet he's dreamcrunched.

An item like this is priceless. You're probably thinking, "I can't afford a Dreamcruncher. It's like trying to buy a miracle." We'll agree on the second part, but is $100 too much to ask to destroy your opponents' dreams? Is $50?!

Don't worry! There are no annoying monthly fees or hidden charges. With Dreamcruncher, what you see is what you get.

Maybe you still have misgivings. "What if my opponent was having a nightmare when the machine woke him?" you ask. Don't worry. If he smiles after being crunched, we know he's thinking he got off easy. The machine detects his quirky smirk and crunches him, again and again.

Dreamcruncher: ultimate revenge for only 10 $5 bills.

Call 555-PWNT now to order your Dreamcruncher and get a pocket knife free!

Remember, call 555-PWNT and start getting the rest you deserve this holiday season.

Justus Bowman is an aspiring author and recent addition to the online writing scene. He lives in Arkansas with his wife and newborn son.

Whether you're a writer or not, you can write a blog readers love. Bloggers don't have to be "writers", they need to be communicators, and you can communicate in many ways, including via audio (podcasting) and via video.

If you've been hesitating to create a blog, here's how to create a blog that your readers will love so that you get great traffic.

1. Write as you speak on your blog - in a casual style

It's important to write as you speak - in a conversational style. When you write as you speak, you're writing is easy to understand and enjoyable to read.

If you're used to creating business documents, it may be difficult for you to develop a conversational style at first, however your ability to write as you speak will increase with practice.

Of course you can always take a shortcut, and that's by actually speaking your blog posts, using voice recognition software, or a digital recorder.

2. Use paragraphs, with a maximum of three sentences per paragraph

When blogging, you're writing to be read on the Web. It's very difficult to read on a computer screen so you need to write differently from how you would write for a print publication

Create short paragraphs, with no more than three sentences per paragraph. You can also use a bullet points, and include headings and subheadings.

Readers scan online rather than reading, so your readers will appreciate your attention to their needs.

3. Keep most of your blog posts short, but also create longer "feature" posts

Most blog posts are short. However you can also create longer feature posts which can be up to a couple of thousand words in length. These feature posts are usually reference material, or other material which give readers a background in the topic of your blog.

Take your time writing these longer posts. When they're complete you can link to them from the home page of your blog, so that your readers will find them.

You can also turn these longer feature posts into reports, which you can give to readers in exchange for their email addresses. An email "list" is very useful - if you are writing a money making blog, you can market to these readers.

4. Have a plan for your blog, and stick to the plan

It's important that you have a plan for your blog, and that you stick to this plan. Your plan should include the topics you will cover on the blog, how you'll market your blog, and a schedule for blog posts.

If you have several authors for your blog, ensure that they post to the blog on a schedule too. This is easier when they create draft posts to be published later.

Most blogs take at least six months to gain a steady group of readers. You can get readers faster by marketing your blog consistently. Once you have ten blog posts start to market your blog to both advertisers and to readers.

5. Create a "New to this blog? Start here" page, with links to introductory posts.

Because blogs have a chronological order newer posts will push the older posts down and finally off the front page.

Therefore readers who are new to the blog are disoriented. Ensure that you create a "new to this blog?" Page on your blog and provide links to those posts which will help your readers to get to know you.

Blogging is both easy and fun. Follow the five tips above to create a blog which readers will love.

About the Author

Blogging PLUS coaching ensures that you'll make money. Pro blogger and copywriter Angela Booth has been making money blogging since 2002. She'll teach you how to blog the right way, so your blog is profitable from the start, with her bestseller. Angela's blogging ebook pacakage has a companion blog filled with http://www.dollars2blog.com/blog/ ">blogging tips

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/blog-writing-top-five-tips-for-a-blog-readers-love-410945.html

Buzz Words (The Latest Buzz on Children's Books), an online fortnightly magazine for people in the children's book industry which originates from Australia, now enters its fourth year. To download a sample issue, go to www.buzzwordsmagazine.com

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Carteret Writers' 2009 Contest is now open for submissions. Deadline: March 10, 2009.

For guidelines, send an e-mail to literary1@mindspring.com with "Contest guidelines" in the subject line.

Founded in 1983, Carteret Writers is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to cultivating camaraderie between writers and promoting the art of writing.

Visit us at: www.carteretwriters.org

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The creators of Poets Contest Corner extend their invitation for poets to take part in our venture in bringing a little unexpected income to you by way of your poetic talent. In these difficult times, when many jobs are being lost and prices are rising, we hope that we can be helpful. Our goal is to begin small. After which, with the initial fees accumulated in our first round, we hope to increase the total of cash prizes and the number of winners.

For submission information and guidelines visit www.poetscontestcorner.blogspot.com

Submission for our 1st round closes February 20th

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Alltop - All the Top Publishing News

I stumbled upon this site and it has great articles and the latest news about what's going on in the publishing industry. Very informative!

www.publishing.alltop.com

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Writers Online Classes

Wow! There are some amazing online classes offered here and they're very reasonable. A friend of mine is taking one now and has nothing but rave reviews.

www.writersonlineclasses.com/classes.html

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The Best Job in the World

Okay, this is just CRAZY! If you haven't heard about this yet, it's a dream job! How would you like to stay on an island for 6 months, stay rent-free in a 3 bedroom house and get paid about $105,000 US dollars just to blog about the island? I know I'm applying and so is my son. I believe they are choosing 11 finalists and you can apply until February 22, 2009.

The title of the job is Island Caretaker and it's near The Great Barrier Reef. You may have trouble getting on the web site because they're accepting applications from all over the world. Be patient, you'll get on. I finally did.

Again, this is real - this is a writer's dream job or anyone's dream job for that matter!

This is the link with all the information to apply: The Best Job in the World

I also found an article about the job as well if you're interested in reading, but I would just go to the site and apply asap. You have 34 days left! Article link: BJITW Article

If anyone gets the job, be sure to let us know!

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Glossary of Publishing Terms

This list comes from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books and although some of the terms are used strictly in children's books, most are general and I thought you might find it interesting.

Glossary from The CIG to Publishing Children's Books

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Triond

Triond is a web-publishing service that allows creative individuals to publish almost any kind of content online easily, including written articles, pictures, audio, and video. Users can increase their readership, gain recognition, and even earn revenue for their unique content as income from advertising is shared with users. Content published by Triond is exposed to the best audience through several niche website placements ranging from offbeat content to business information and creative writing. Triond is also a social media, as users can contact each other and comment on others' work, allowing for peer-review and community involvement.

www.triond.com

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Last month I was interviewed by Lucy Magazine. It's my very first online interview. I was pretty nervous but very excited. If you're interested, you can read it at: Sandy's Lucy interview

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Bobbie Christmas is the "Book Doctor" and Author of Write In Style, a triple-award-winning textbook for writers of fiction and nonfiction, available wherever books are sold. Bobbie loves to receive questions from writers and offer her expert advice. If you have any questions you need answered, please e-mail her at: Bobbie@zebraeditor.com

For the latest Q&A with Bobbie, go to AskTheBookDoctor on the CS4W site.

Sean just redid the Ask the Book Doctor page and it came out so nice, so be sure to check it out!

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If you have an announcement you would like to share with us, please send it to: sandy@coolstuff4writers.com with "Announcement" in the subject line.

I love to hear from you!

Peace,

Sandy

email: sandy@coolstuff4writers.com

phone: 732-276-6573

web: http://www.coolstuff4writers.com