ITList Information Technology Blog » Time Frame

How to Craft an Effective Speech?

bikram — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:52:03 +0000

Whether it’s at your marriage anniversary or at office seminar – you have to deliver a nice speech, everywhere. It’s the art of delivering a substance of 2 minutes in 2 hours, laced with confidence, good vocabulary, interaction, spontaneity and interesting ideas. Don’t try to mug up the whole speech. Make it spontaneous, relaxed, and natural. Develop a speech which will leave impression behind in the hearts of the people.

Guide to a perfect speech generation:

Map the audience

Find out whom you are going to deliver your speech to, how old they are, and which part of the country they are from. The better you analyze your audience, the easier it will be for you to prepare the speech. It will help you to develop the perfect style, set the mood, and connect with the audience by including relevant jargons. Most importantly, it will help you to pick up the apt topic, as per the interest of the audience. It must add value to their lives whether by solving a problem or setting new goals and vision. Develop an emotional connect with the audience.

Pick a relevant topic

Topic should relate to the audience. Don’t pick up a topic you are not comfortable with. You can turn spontaneous only when you have some command on the topic. Pick up a topic of interest. It can be an outcome of your personal life, general topic, current topic, or a browsed topic from Internet, magazines and newspapers. Unless you are passionate about the topic, don’t pick it up.

Set the objective and time frame

Every communication has a set objective. Speech is not an exception either. Set specific objective like what you want to achieve or want the audience to do. It will help you develop the structure of the speech, limit the content, streamline your thoughts, and march towards a desired outcome. Make important points and elaborate them, but don’t stretch too far. Too much elaboration bore the audience.

Use your imagination and build story

Hues of imagination instill life into a speech. Stretch your imagination and let it fly high. Grab attention of the audience right from the beginning. Use vivid examples while explaining the points you put across. Talk about personal experiences. Make it dramatic and personalized.

Relax and speak

Don’t appear as if you are rushing. Relax while you speak. Don’t talk in too high pitch. Don’t get too nervous, little bit of fear is okay. If initially you are to scared start practicing in front of family, friends, and mirror.

Last but not the least, enjoy!

Confidence oozes when you enjoy the session. It shouldn’t seem like a burden but an enjoyable activity. Make eye contact to appear confident and bold. Be yourself. Don’t get tempted to be like someone else.

And soon you’ll find you are the master of speech delivery.

Why is it Important to Use Sponsored Forum Posts to Market Online?

bikram — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:08:26 +0000

Do you use forum posts to market your product on the Internet?

Well, if you don’t then it is high time to start using sponsored forum posts to promote your business. In a study conducted by PostRelease, it was found that sponsored forum posts in targeted online forum increases the response rate by more than 100% one year after the paid forum posts campaign has ended provided they are:

Marked as advertisement, and
They are posted in the targeted online forums

The study has recorded the click-through rate of sponsored forum posts at various point after the posts has been made. The results were as follow:

The click through rate increase by 40% after 60 days of a sponsored forum post appearance.
The click through rate increase by 77% after 180 days of a sponsored forum post appearance.
The click through rate increase by 103.6% after 360 days of a sponsored forum post appearance.

The read rate of the sponsored posts also saw a rise during the same time frame, but it did not increased as much as did the click-through rate. The read rate results were as follow:

The read rate increase by 28.8% after 60 days of a sponsored forum post appearance.
The click through rate increase by 49.2% after 180 days of a sponsored forum post appearance.
The click through rate increase by 60.6% after 360 days of a sponsored forum post appearance.

Thus, I believe marking advertisement on sponsored forum posts are after all not all that bad.

Why Client’s Feedback Matters for a Freelance Writer?

bikram — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:48:09 +0000

I was talking to a fellow freelance writer yesterday. He was quite pissed on one of his clients as the client has given him some nasty feedback. He was not sure if he deserved it, and according to him he did everything in his capacity to please the client, but it didn’t change his client’s feedback.

I am narrating here my discussion with him because I want to tell the readers that no matter what, feedback given by your client “about your work” matters a lot. His reaction to your personality may not matter, but for the work you have done for him, it does matter.

Having said that, I must say that your client’s feedback is not the final word on the quality you are able to produce. It is just a reflection of the kind of work you have produced for the client. You need to ask yourself where you have erred, and you should try not to repeat the same mistake again with another client. One feedback may not hurt you, but quite a few will blow a serious dent in your reputation.

How to avoid negative feedback?

Ask as many questions as you need to ask in order to understand the full details of the project before you start working on it.
Ask for the deadline, and verify if it is realistic or not. If you feel the time frame for the completion of the project is not sufficient tell him that. And also tell him what according to you should be the deadline for the work. Stick to whatever deadline is fixed.
In case you need extension, tell him days in advance. Calling him on the last day for extension may give you an extension, but will take away your reputation.
Do the best for each of your client. No matter how low or high one is paying. Always remember it was you who accepted the low rate, client did not put gun on your face to do so.
Ask for feedback.

Always keep your eyes and ears open, and welcome feedbacks with open arm. This is how you will grow.

Couple of More Crowd-Pulling Headlines

bikram — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:22:24 +0000

Initially, when I started writing about crowd-pulling headlines, I thought there cannot be more than handful of strategies (formulas) for writing headlines that can build genuine interest in the article. But the more I wrote, the more unconvincing this line of reasoning became, and I ended up writing four posts (including this) on the topic. It goes without saying that I am going to share some more crowd-pulling headlines writing strategies in this post.

Learn… in30 minutes

A headline like this will give the reader a definite time frame in which he or she can acquire the skill or knowledge talked about in the article in question.

Example:

Learn to Disinfect Your PC in 30 Minutes.
Learn Piano in 30-Minute a Day.
Learn HTML in 10 Days.
Learn Photoshop in 30 Days. (Photoshop in 30 Days).
CSS in 10 Easy Steps.

Tried and tested headlines

A “tried and tested” headline infuses credibility in the article. A headline like this suggests that the article following the headline will provide the solution which has been tried by many people and they got benefitted from it. This is a type of testimonial headlines. (Read more on Testimonial Headline)

Example:

Tried and Tested Formula for MLM Success.
Tried and Tested Method to Make Your Abs Flat.

50 best…tips

“50 best…tips, or 10…tips” or any similar headline gives a definitive idea about the length and nature of the article following such headlines. The article following this kind of headline should be written in a list-format. You can also use subheadings (Tip 1, or X tip 1) to write the article.

Example:

50 Best SEO Tips.
10 Media Marketing Tips for Success.
10 CSS Tips.