If you have been following American Idol this season then you know Jason Castro. He’s the hippy looking dude with the dreadlocks that most recently forgot the words to Mr. Tambourine Man. Jason looked almost relieved last week when he learned he was going home. In his own words, “It’s okay if it’s the end, if it’s not okay then it’s not the end.” He remained honest about his mistakes, never let the judges unravel his cool demeanor, and he continued to smile no matter what the outcome. His personality, those beautiful eyes and that dreadlocked hair provided his signature touch. Jason endeared himself to us.

Most of the followers of American Idol have invested months of television viewing, watching these young singers perform each week. Every Wednesday night we watch for an hour to see who will be sent home as they spend 52 minutes teasing us and the final eight minutes of the show revealing the most recent cast-off. Why do we return week after week for months? It’s because we connect with the performers. We cry when they cry and we get excited as they head for the winner’s sofa. We pick our own favorites either by the way they sing, their looks, or their overall personality. The attraction is as much about personality as it is about talent.

Would we be so attached to them if we had just tuned in this past week? I think not. The attraction is carefully grown over a period of months. Week by week we see their vulnerabilty and their strengths until we form an attachment to them. Why? Because they are real people and have allowed us to share their journey on the show. We have a vested interest in their success or failure. We become addicted to the outcome whether or not our favorite contestant wins.

Do your customers have a vested interest in your success or failure? Have you allowed your personality to shine through to those people who have spent money or time with your company? Providing a monthly newsletter may be just the venue you need to let your personality shine through. Imagine crafting copy that magnetically attracts your customers until they become addicted to your services and products. It’s easy once you get your story started. Everyone has a great story, what’s yours?

If you care enough about what you have to write, then by all means get it proofread. How many times have you caught typos on someone’s website or even in a published book? We know those books have been proofread but some of these websites, I begin to wonder if the author ever goes back in and carefully reads through the entire site. If you have a website and you are using it to sell a product, misspelled words or just plain bad grammar could be costing you sales. Potential customers see these flaws and think that your product may be flawed as well. They may wonder about your ability to ensure good customer service and may be wary of any guarantee you offer, if they have to weed through a sea of misspelled words, bad grammar, run on sentences or sentences that lose their direction and meaning. Don’t let this happen to you.

Nearly everyone can read but not everyone can proofread. No person should trust himself to proofread his own work. While you may read over your work and find the misspelled words, you may need someone to read your work to make sure they get the same meaning as the one you intended.

The secret of a winning headline starts with knowing your target audience. Before hiring a professional writer, you must make sure they know the market that your advertising piece will target. Who is your end user? What benefit does your product provide to them? Why should they buy your product? Ask yourself these three questions, answer them and use those answers to formulate your winning headline.

Use customer testimonials to get ideas for your winning headline. Don’t worry about the length as much as the ability of the headline to draw the customer in. In this world of information overload, many times the headline is the only thing the prospective customer is going to read. This is why the headline is so important, if you can snag them in and compel them to read your advertising piece, you’ve got a better chance at getting the sale.

Avoid headlines that are tricky, confusing or incomplete. Steer away from clever headlines that require reading your entire piece to be understood. People use headlines as a guide to tell them whether it’s something they will be interested in, with all the competing messages you want yours to stand out. Make your headline entice your targeted audience to stop and read more.

Before settling on your winning headline, write at least 30 different headlines. I know it probably sounds like a whole lot of writing, but it’s the secret many professional copywriters use when crafting those award-winning headlines that sell.

Don’t forget the sub-headlines and the area above the headline. People will usually scan the article or advertising piece for the sub-heads, only stopping on those areas that have the hook to snare them in.

Your deadline is approaching, you’ve had so many things to do, and finally you sit down at the keyboard to begin your writing. Unfortunately, nothing seems to come. A blank screen and a blank mind, or so it appears. How do you handle writer’s block? There are several references to it on the web and plenty of books have been written on the subject. Sometimes the block is temporary and other times it can last indefinitely.

I have a couple of books that I have started in a fervent hurry. In the beginning, brilliant ideas and poetic words flowed like a fountain from my mind to my pen. Then after a few chapters the ideas seemed to slow to a dribble and my writing became forced. I recognize this same flaw in books that have been published. Page turners in the beginning that lose their momentum after several chapters or endings that seem shallow to the original plot. Proof that writer’s block happens to many writers.

If you find yourself suffering from this common ailment there are a few suggestions that might help you to break through the barriers that are binding your brain.

Changing Your Scenery
This can be a short change, such as taking a nice leisurely walk, drive or bicycle ride, any activity that allows your brain to recharge without too much stress. However, a complete change of scenery, if you can afford and arrange it, may offer just the stimulation you need. A trip to the seashore, mountains or gardens where you can relax and enjoy the beauty of your surroundings could prove to be the perfect anecdote.

Reading To Unleash Writing
Read some material by a writer that you admire. Good writing is a stimulant for new ideas and helps to develop good writing skills. When you read, do you form opinions of the material that you read? Use the momentum of these opinions to begin writing. Try writing an opinion about everything that you read. This exercise will help to break the barrier and release your ideas.

Taking Care Of Business
Are your errands and tasks making it hard to find a good time to write? When you try to write are you overcome with all of the duties that you still need to get done around your house? Responsibilities like these can go a long way in hindering your ability to write. Try delegating some of these tasks to other members of your household or you may need to postpone your writing until the evening when your “to do” list is done for the day.

Writing Your Memoirs
Keeping a journal will help you to develop lucid writing skills by forcing you to write every day. Writing, like most talent, requires regular exercise in order to get stronger. Your journal can be anything that you want it to be. The freedom of that idea alone is enough to make any writer’s pen articulate and powerful.

Is it me or is it I? These two pronouns are apt to be confused by the masses. Frequently, I hear people speaking about a subject and they’re trying their best to sound educated when inevitably the subject matter lends reason to include such phrases as “he and I” (nominative forms) or “him and me” (objective forms). I will hear someone say, “that is between him and I”, or “they left the money with Will and I.”

The easy way to remember which is correct is to take the first person out of the sentence and leave the sentence with the personal pronoun (me, I) standing. Your sentence would look like this, “they left the money with I.” Of course you know that is incorrect.

A pronoun in the nominative case is either the subject of a verb or follows a linking verb. A pronoun in the objective case is the object of a preposition. I is the personal pronoun used when the person is taking action. “I threw the ball to James.” Me is the personal pronoun used when the person is the receiver of the action. “He threw the ball to Daryl and me.”

There are only seven words in the English language that have different nominative and objective forms: I/me, we/us, he/him, she/her, they/them, who/whom, and whoever/whomever.