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Welcome to The VERB!
You
know those flyers you
get in the mail every week, announcing special deals at your local
grocery store? And if you don’t get them in the mail, you've surely seen
them at the bottom of your empty buggy (or cart or rolling
thingy) or stacked by the door
when you enter the store. Do you usually grab one and commence
to scanning it? And if you do, do the ads make you want to stock up on
items you didn’t think you needed or could afford?
Same here.
So at ReadingWriters, we had the
brilliant idea to provide a similar service. But rather than food, of course, we'd focus
on the needs of the writing community.
Announcing... dum diddy dum... the
Wednesday Flyer! Our mission: to stimulate the writing economy by
providing weekly bargains for hardworking writers and readers, and
increasing weekly sales/website traffic for hardworking businesses.
Every Wednesday, we will post new
bargains on the Flyer page. These bargains will be available for one
week. That's right, buyers will have exactly seven days to take
advantage of the deals before they are gone. Kaput. Out of the
warehouse!
But wait a minute, you crazy
ReadingWriters, what about me? What do I have to do to get in on
this?
Glad you asked, O Curious One!
If you have something
to sell to the writing community—books, CDs, DVDs,
classes, webinars, consultations, magazines, conferences, software,
furniture, office supplies or anything else readers and writers might
find alluring—we’d like
to hear from you.
From the
complete guidelines, I give you a brief excerpt below:
1) Choose the product or service you want
to sell. What's your bargain? Whatever you choose,
make it unique. If buyers know they can get the same price
anywhere, and at any time, they won’t consider it a
big deal. Instill a sense of urgency. Offer something they won’t
find any other place.
2) Create an eye-catching headline.
Grab the buyer's attention. Let them know immediately what you
have to offer and how much it will cost them.
3) Write a brief description.
No need for hype here. Simply focus on the benefit to the buyers.
What do they get? How much will they save? Whether it’s learning a
new technique or escaping into another world, tempt them with a
succinct (up to 100 words) description that says,
Buy me now!
4) Provide clear purchase info and contact information.
Since your special offers won’t be found anywhere else on the
Internet, how will consumers buy them? Will you set up a special web page or direct
them to other websites? Ask them to
email you for further instructions? Also, feel free to include a
photo of your business logo, your bargains or yourself.
The weekly
deadline is Monday, 12:00 pm (Pacific),
so mark
your calendars, stick a note on your screen or tie a string around
your finger. Ads received after noon on Mondays will be
posted the following week.
Again, we'll be updating the Flyer
every Wednesday. Be sure to bookmark the page or, better yet, request a
reminder. As a VERB subscriber, you will not automatically
receive these additional emails. You must go to the
Flyer
page and enter your address in the sign-up box. Otherwise, do
nothing. You will continue to receive only The VERB.
Today I posted a special offer,
effective immediately, to give you an idea how the ads will look. The
first official Flyer will be published Wednesday, June 10.
Mmmm... I smell bargains in the air!
Oh,
and just out of curiosity, what do you call that four-wheeled,
food-transporting contraption at the supermarket? In the South, we
always referred to it as a buggy, but in other areas of
the country I've been subjected to outright giggles when I used the
term.
"That," I was told, "is a
cart."
"A cart?" I replied. "That buggy over
there?"
Tell us what you call it. And please include your
region—city, state
and country—so
we can tally up the results from all over the world.
Elizabeth Guy
Editor

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