Article writing

I've been doing a lot of article writing of late - trying to get traffic to my site. Really good fun and, I hope, useful to readers. I have challenged myself to submit 10 articles by the end of the month. This is really tanking it for me so I hope I can do it.

The difficult part of article writing is deciding on an angle for each piece. It has to be fairly specific and be about something people might genuinely be interested in. I think I will brainstorm a bit and see if I can come up with some connected topics that might help parents. It should not be too difficult as pre-school education and pre-school educational books are big enough topics with some contentious issues.

I use EzineArticles most of the time. Their submission process is straightforward and they are reliable and efficient. They also give great tips to make article writing easier for their clients.

Better get on with it. Wish me luck.

MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

I have just written a piece about Multiple Intelligences for EzineArticles. MI is about the different ways people demonstrate intelligence, via verbal, visual, logical, kinaesthetic, musical, interpersonal or intrapersonal preferences. While researching this, I came across a couple of blogs where the writers are rather scathing about MI as it applies to educating children. They make some valid points about the difficulties of measuring it, how it may encourage children to misbehave on the premise that they can't learn other than through visual/logical/interpersonal etc means.

I still think MI has some validity and this is based on unscientific observation. I am a verbal/linguistic and visual person. That's the way I learn. I have observed learning biases in children I have helped over the years and consequently I structure lessons in such a way that all the children have an opportunity to grasp the learning material via their particular preference. This makes planning more taxing but the lessons flow better and the children are more engaged for longer periods of time. I take the point that success might be due to repetition of the material to accommodate as many learning style as possible but I'd rather do it this way than take the chance that someone will get left behind.

Squeeze Pages

I am a fan of Mark Widawer. This internet marketing expert gives away great information that is simple to understand and implement. When I started my internet marketing adventure, one of the first things I encountered was the term 'squeeze page'. If you want to know what that is, follow the link for a step-by-step explanation that will clarify everything you want to know about squeeze pages. What is a Squeeze Page? Free Video

I've got to look like Beyonce by mid May!

I am going to a wedding in the US in May and that means hours of vigorous exercise and platefuls of lettuce until after D-day or W-day. I have enlisted the help of my lovely Personal Trainer daughter. This I did with great trepidation. As I said in one of my earlier blogs, said lovely daughter morphs into Attila the Hun at the sight of dumbells or an exercise bike.

I began on Tuesday (Monday was getting-up-the-courage-day). Lovely daughter identified several parts of my anatomy that needed toning, reducing and generally discouraging from their southward journey. What seemed like hours of heaving, sweating, puffing and blowing passed very, very slowly. No amounts of pleas beginning with "But I'm your mother!" made any difference. The torture progressed until lovely daughter was satisfied.

Next, my kitchen drawers were examined. All mixed nuts, Jaffa cakes, lemon sponge cakes and chocolate bars were blithely tossed into the bin. My fridge got similar treatment. Sausages were apparently on the prohibited list as were the packets of cheddar cheese and butter as well as the strawberry trifle which was to be my 'Well done' prize for making it through the exercise session. It seems my diet now consists of fruit, vegetables, chicken and fish and none of it is to be fried.

I have just measured myself and I have not lost one inch. However, I am not one to give up easily. I have decided to persevere until I lose those pounds. But, I have to say, Dawn French is looking more and more like my role model every minute.

Law of attraction for kids

I have read a number of books and looked at a few videos - including The Secret - around the subject of the law of attraction. Basically, the trick is to decide exactly what you want from life and train your mind to have focussed, positive thoughts around achieving your wishes. By taking active steps towards attaining your clearly envisioned goals, you can make your life what you want it to be. Imagination, positive thinking, hard work and expectation are the keys. If you expect your life to be a certain way, you will probably meet your own expectations because you have not envisioned it any other way. Imagine it is possible and you can make it happen.

I recently read a little book about the law of attraction. I was quite taken with it because it was written in a way that might appeal to children. I began to think about how the law of attraction could advance the lives of children in a positive way. It must be a good thing to encourage children to have a positive mind set, to develop a clear vision of what they would like their future to be and think about how they can achieve it. If they can start training their minds from an early age to imagine clearly, to focus on achieving their goals and to live with an expectation that life will deliver what they want, children could have a brighter future than if they aimlessly wandered through life, allowing random events to negatively affect their journey.

Take a look. Click on http://tinyurl.com/c4pypo .

MAKING MONEY

I have decided to take another step in my quest to master internet marketing by dipping a toe in the affiliate marketing waters.

I decided to cut my teeth using a product aimed at people who are new to internet marketing. This turnkey product was designed by Ewen Chia, one of the biggest names in affiliate marketing and one of the people I consider to be serious about giving a decent return for your money. No hype, no fancy footwork, just down to earth advice and products that work.

Ewen Chia's Autopilot Profits is a product that shows you how to make money on the internet without having to spend hours a day on it. It is clear, easy to follow and produces a surprise at the end that makes it a really tempting proposition if you are looking for ways to make a bit more money in these troubled times.

Check out my new website - www.timetomakemoremoney.com

Ezine Articles

I have been spending a bit of time writing articles for EzineArticles.com about a variety of topics to do with young children's learning activities. The titles are:

- How to select books for young children
- How to encourage children to read
- Tips for parents - how to find time to teach young children
- Pre-school learning - strategies to make learning fun

It has been a lot of fun. There are two more in the pipeline and I plan to write more in the coming months.

I love the discipline of writing articles. Thinking of a topic to write about was not as hard as it seemed at first. My passion for education, especially where it concerns young children, gave me lots to choose from. The difficulty was selecting one question to answer that might help readers interested in that area.

For each article, I began with a working title, just to focus my thoughts on the topic I wanted to cover. Writing the article itself was challenging in that the content needed to be concise, interesting with a natural flow yet convey all the information I wanted to put across. It took time to order my words so that there was a logical beginning, middle and end and reworking my first draft required a bit of ruthlessness and willingness to cut out anything that was not absolutely to the point. When I got to the end I went back to the title and spent time deciding on words that would convey exactly what the article was about so that readers searching through the many articles available would not have to waste time reading the first paragraph or so to find out if the piece contained information they were looking for.

All in all, this is something I find very absorbing and entertaining. I just need to find enough time in my schedule to sit down and write on a regular basis. Not easy when you are managing a business, organising a wedding, travelling, attending several seminars and running a home. Still, it keeps me off the streets and, to my husband's delight, out of the shops!

Artlcles can be viewed on www.ezinearticles.com. Just click on the Expert Author logo in the side panel and search for Mary L Anderson.