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Big Time Experience with Small Time Publications (writing newsletter articles) When you start writing, you may have ambitions of getting your name on the front page of newspapers and on feature stories in magazines, but you will soon find out that it takes time to get there. Even the best writers have to make their way through the ranks before making it to headline status. Don’t be discouraged though. Even though you may have been rejected more times than you could have ever imagined, there are still many places that will be accepting. Even if you feel like you’ve exhausted all of your creative power, there are publications that are ready to help you develop even further. The buildup is not leading towards riches or fame, but writing newsletter articles can be a great step in that direction. The first thing that any writer should realize is that there is more to learn. Even knowing all of the grammar and all of the clarity rules will not make you a good writer. Only experience can bring you to that place. Newsletters are a great place to start getting cleaning up your writing and to start learning to write for different audiences. Who Prints Newsletters? Why are newsletters such a great place to start earning publications? There are plenty of organizations and groups that print them. The printing money and the circulation are already in place. The other great thing about writing newsletter articles is that there is almost always a high demand for newsletter writers. The pay is not great and is most often non-existent, but the newsletters must go out all the same. Hit up any organization in town that you know prints a newsletter. Some of the printing is done nationally for the larger organizations, but many will be done locally. Try volunteer and non-profit organizations as well as university and church groups. These organizations will all have news that they need to get to the public. Many of them survive based on public donations. What that means for you is that there is plenty of demand for talented and interesting writers. The Expert in Print If you have any sort of claim to expertise along with your writing skills, you will be a fantastic candidate for writing newsletter articles. One great draw for a reader is the pull of a well researched and authoritative article. Imagine the thrilled group of environmentalists when you approach them with evidence that the developmental process for non-stick pan coating is connected to the decreasing population of Asian tortoises. You’d have a job in no time. Regardless of whether or not you got paid for your work, you can expect that you’d get repeated assignments, growing experience and bylines galore for your next step of job applications. Being knowledgeable about a certain subject will give you many writing opportunities. If you have any experience in a subject area, be sure to add it to your resume. As you write newsletter articles, you’ll only add to you’re your expertise. Other Newsletter Articles If you don’t necessarily believe that you have an area of expertise that is not a problem. There are many other ways to get into writing newsletter articles. A big part of newsletter content is just content. Newsletters need to be made up of interesting and varied articles. There are usually volunteers that head up the projects and they in turn hire various writers to fill in the titles that they choose. If you can be flexible in your writing and if you can find a newsletter that works with a topic you care about, you will be well on your way to building your resume with bylines and great circulation. Writing newsletter articles will probably not be a career in itself because of the low pay scale, but it will take you closer to a lucrative writing career. Think of writing newsletter articles as a type of community service. Even after you have added paying pieces to your repertoire you may continue to write for the newsletters that you care about.

A Top Notch Cover Letter Can Get your Foot in the Door If you have ever looked for a job, then you know that it is tough out there. Competition is always fierce, especially for those “dream job” type of positions – great company, great benefits, and great pay. If you want your resume to rise to the top of the pile in the Human Resources department and you want to get that call for an interview, then you need something to make your resume stand out from the rest. The best way to draw attention to everything you have to offer is to have a cover letter that jumps right off the page and grabs the attention of the reader. The cover letter is your first chance to make an impression, so make sure your cover letter makes you the one potential hire that is definitely going to be getting a call. Before you can get into the content of your cover letter, you have to cover your basics. You should never, ever have a “form” cover letter that you use with every resume you send. Tailor your cover letter specifically to each individual employer, mentioning their company and the position for which you want to be considered. Address the letter to the correct person – if you’re not sure who will be doing the hiring, call the company and ask. Don’t assume you can address your letter to the HR department and have that be close enough. Taking the time to write a personal cover letter to each company lets your potential employer know you pay attention to detail right off the bat. Of course, you should also make sure that your cover letter is grammatically correct and free of typos. A sloppy cover letter is a one way ticket to the trash can for your resume. Once you have your basics in order, you can turn your attention to what you are actually going to write in the cover letter. Your cover letter is your sales pitch to the company; you need to let them know why they should bet on your when they hire for the position. One great way to sell yourself is to show off how much you already know about the company. Let them know why you want to work there by specifically mentioning projects the company has been involved in that you admire or talking about the position of the company within the field. As you show off how much you know about the company, draw attention to the ways you can actively help the company grow and succeed by drawing parallels between your experience and their work. After you have shown that you have done your homework and know about the company, go into some detail about the unique aspects of your work history. Draw attention to any special achievements or awards and any educational background you have that makes you a good candidate for the job. Remember, your resume will be attached to the cover letter, so you don’t have to go into great detail. Just pick out the highlights that will make the reader want to turn the page and delve into your resume. How you close your cover letter makes as much difference has how you open it. State again exactly what job you want to be considered for, and suggest that you come in for an interview. You can also suggest a few dates and time for an interview to show that you are eager to move on to the next step. You should also give a time and date that you will call to follow up on your resume. A pleasant closing and your signature seal the deal on your winning cover letter.

Get Noticed at your Job by Doing it with Flair Doing your job with “37 pieces of flair” may have entered the pop culture vernacular through the famous movie about life working an office, Office Space, but there may just be something to it. You might not need 37 pieces of flair, but doing your job with a little bit of flair and a lot of hard work is a great way to get noticed in the office and to move on to bigger and better things. How do you go about doing your job with flair? The first way to make sure you are doing your job with distinction doesn’t involve much flair at all – it simply involves doing your job and doing it well. Know exactly what your responsibilities are and attend to them every day. Don’t let any of the things that come under your job description fall by the wayside because you think they are unimportant. If you are unsure exactly what all of your responsibilities are, ask your boss for a meeting and discuss your job description with them. You will get noticed simply for your desire to make sure you are covering all of your bases and not letting any of your responsibilities fall by the wayside. Another way to do your job with flair is to add to the good morale in the office. Everyone has at least one person in the office that is like a black cloud hanging in the air. Gloom, doom and pessimism don’t really have a place in the office. Even if you feel like you are heading for a fall with the way a certain project is coming together or because someone on the team is not pulling their weight, look for solutions instead of standing around and complaining about it. When your attitude can help people stay on track with their work and not dread coming into the office every day, you are bound to get noticed. If you really want to add some flair to your work performance, learn how to manage your time and avoid procrastination. Time management is one of the biggest problems all employees face, and when you don’t manage your time efficiently, you are not being as productive as possible for your boss, which never wins you any fans among the management team. If you find yourself always rushing through your work at the last minute trying to meet your deadline, try keeping a journal of all of your activities at work for a few days. When you see how much time you spending doing things like talking with co-workers by the water cooler and surfing the net, you might see ways you can improve your work habits, so you can get things done well before the deadline is pressing down on you. Increasing your productivity by managing your time is a surefire way to earn some praise from the people over your head. Another way to add flair to your work performance is by being a team player. It can be tempting to thing that to have flair you have to go out on a limb and try to do everything yourself, but that is not the case. Employers don’t like to see an employee trying to hog credit for things that everyone has worked on together or trying to one up everyone else on the staff. When you work together with the team, you show your employer that your interests are with making the company a success and not trying to advance you own personal agenda. If your employer understands that you see the bigger picture of making the company succeed, you are sure to get noticed and rewarded.