Author Archives: Tom McKay

Ads for prescription medicines litter the evening news, magazines, newspapers. Their distinctive prose, delicately skirting FDA rules and regulations, are often so ludicrous they practically beg for a good parody. Now it’s here, under the heading “Panexa: Ask your doctor for a reason to take it.” As the spoof explains, the fictitious drug is only […]

Gina Trapani of Lifehacker fame has posted an excellent guide to writing Web content. It’s very different from writing for print or broadcast. Among her best points: Use explicit titles and subject lines. Write a strong lead. Get right to the point immediately Use frequent paragraph breaks. (I’d put it this way: Keep paragraphs short. […]

Writing a compelling cover letter for your resume is a lot like selling products and services. You need to be colorful, specific, and focus on what the reader needs and wants. A business owner who is hiring recently posted some tips on Craigslist for how to write a hot cover letter. His tips sound a […]

So says USA Today, anyway. Home parties are swinging again with products as eclectic as home décor and as common as crayons. Customers are flocking to those gatherings for the personal touch and service they afford. The Direct Selling Association says 74% of us have purchased something via direct selling. Sales, almost all of it […]

Newspapers are hurting soooo bad, in both readership and revenues. Craigslist is killing their classified revenues, and if that wasn’t bad enough, it now looks certain that Google is getting into the act. Classified Intelligence reports that “Google is aggressively moving to include classifieds listings in its organic search results,” requesting direct feeds of listings […]

Since I seem to be in a certain groove lately, here’s just one more post on entrepreneurship, self-employment and the “free” -lance life… John Koten, Editor in Chief of Inc magazine, says there’s a deep-rooted hunger to be an entrepreneur… and to apply creativity to business. Koten called these urges key factors in our economy […]

Congrats and bon voyage to Yaro Starak of Entrepreneur’s Journey. The Aussie blogger has just quit his “real” job at a help desk and made the leap into full-time self employment, which he writes about here. Yaro has entered the “free” world. Of course, if you read his blog (which is well worth your time […]