Persuasive enough? I suppose not, given that I haven’t actually given you any reasons why you should do what I want you to do (which is read this article). But you were intrigued enough to open this post anyway. (Or perhaps you just missed my blog while I struggled with technical difficulties this past week.)

Giving readers a reason why is just one of the tried and true ways to persuade them. So is making comparisons. Getting your readers to want to do what you want them to do is like getting a horse to drink once you’ve brought her to water–if they need what you’re offering and you provide the right opportunity, it’ll happen. And this is true whether you’re writing an email to a friend or marketing copy that will be seen by millions.

Visit Copyblogger for the The Timeless Presuasive Writing Techniques. You’ll be glad you did.

Is that how you feel when it is time to write or provide content for your newsletter? You’re not alone if it is. Without some sort of system to schedule or plan topics, you may be trying to think of topics and find supporting materials just about the same time as your deadline.

Flying Solo has some great suggestions on how to get ideas for your newsletter. Such as having a file in which you store any good ideas that come across your desk, so they’re ready to use when it’s time to start writing.

And these work whether you are flying alone, or with a lot of other people!

What inspires you to write?

Almost everyone agrees that writing the great American novel or finishing that epic poem you’ve been working on since college (like I’ve been) takes inspiration (and some perspiration). And some argue that true creativity needs, at the very least, a garret and some existential angst. But not everyone thinks that writing marketing copy, websites, white papers, or other such business writing is actually creative. It sure does take imagination and creativity, though. And, depending on the topic, inspiration. If it didn’t, everyone could do it successfully.

Some are inspired by music, and while I find music inspiring, I can’t write while I’m listening to it. So I wonder what other things other writers find inspiring. Thoughts?

The Made to Stick blog. Musings on what makes ideas grab hold, good for marketers to read.

Word on the street is that the book is really good, too.

What Pico Iyer recently wrote about travel writing is true of the best writing of any kind, from marketing materials to blogs, from white papers to web pages, from biography to literary fiction:

The…writer’s place is on the threshold, one eye turned toward the reader, one toward the subject.

Read. A lot. Books, magazines, blogs. Anything you can get your hands on. It builds vocabulary and feeds the idea engine.