Dr. Lant passed away April 16, 2023
http://jeffreylantarticles.com/jeffreylant/reflections-upon-the-completion-of-350-articles-of-commentary-in-the-current-series-what-it-takes-to-write-commentary-worth-reading/
Reflections upon the completion of 350 articles of commentary in the current series; what it takes to write commentary worth reading.
It is still dark outside my brilliantly lit Cambridge, Massachusetts office at 5:31 a.m. Eastern time, September 14, 2011. I am happy not only because I have just a few minutes ago completed my article of the day… but because this is the 350th article in my current series. Today’s article was a series of way out on a limb predictions about the 2012 American elections; prognostications at once cheeky and magisterial. Quick, can you say President Rick Perry?
It occurred to me upon the completion of this article that I owed it to my millions of online readers, to posterity, and to myself to explicate my view of what constitutes superior commentary and how to provide it. Incipient commentators will want to know… and it is always a wise idea to record your side of any given matter before successors mangle, distort and rearrange the facts.
Where my commentary is written.
My office is situated across the street from Harvard Law School, a place of renown amongst whose graduates are the current president of the United States, the chief justice of the United States, and 5 of the 8 associate justices. It is a place where words matter and where students are instructed in the writing of limpid, precise, meaningful prose. It is a powerful example to have before oneself every day, and I strive to maintain these standards and be guided by them.
The actual room in which I write is unique. It resides on a piece of property originally owned by the Reverend Charles Follen, Harvard College’s first professor of both the German language (1825) and of gymnastics and physical education (1826). His abbreviated career at Harvard ended in 1827, perhaps because of his advanced political opinions.
Professor Follen was a reformer, an apt example for me. He wished, of course, to bring the latest advances in German pedagogy to Harvard… and he was also a rabid abolitionist at a time before such a viewpoint was acceptable. His views were so extreme they affronted his colleagues and neighbors who were undoubtedly pleased when a boat on which he was traveling from New York foundered on January 14, 1840. Dead prophets are so convenient… and it is safe to name myriad roads and places after them, as they memorialized the deceased Follen who no longer roiled the peace of their comfortable consciences. But here’s what’s important about Follen as far as I’m concerned. He had rage about the status quo, an acute desire to change and improve it, and moral superiority. All are useful to the commentator, and the spirit of Herr Doktor Follen envelope and reinvigorate me.
I call this room the “Imperial Webcast Facility” and that is accurate, if a trifle grandiloquent.
I used the word “imperial” for several reasons. First, it was a major subject of mine at Harvard, where I studied principally European history (from 1969), taking the M.A. degree in 1970 and the Ph.D. in 1975.
Second, I call it “imperial” because of the portraits and signed photographs which inhabit this space along with me. These include the boy Phillippe d’Anjou (born 1640) who became Philip V of Spain. Just 17 when he was made king by the decision of Louis XIV, he became the longest reigning Spanish monarch ever. He was never actually called an emperor but as ruler of 1/6 of the globe we may confer this courtesy.
His portrait by Henri Gascars, portrait painter to the Royal Children of France, Spain and England, is quite possibly unique… for when his Spanish majesty was a mere French duke he was of no importance whatsoever. Perhaps Gascars felt put upon painting such an insignificant subject; if so, I trust he kept his sentiments to himself, for King Philip was of a vengeful disposition. In any event it is a lovely picture of a young man elevated to rule by small pox and God’s will.
Two emperors of Austria hang near their earlier cousin of Spain, Joseph II (reigned 1764- 1790) and his brother Leopold II (reigned 1790-1792). These were just two of the many siblings of unlucky Marie Antoinette. Both pictures of these imperial brothers came to me in shocking condition, but the careful ministrations of my long-term London conservator Simon Gillespie brought them back to majesty.
Joseph’s portrait was by Josef Hickel, a well known painter who fathered an even better known painter son. It’s an artistic rendering that does full justice to the aesthetic man known to history as sublime Mozart’s patron. As for the painting of the Emperor Leopold, it is exceedingly rare because it shows him as Grand Duke of Tuscany, a training position for younger sons of the dynasty.
The room is packed with one royal, imperial, grand ducal and noble artifact after another, including two signed photographs of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, assassinated in 1914 along with his morganatic wife Sophie, the proximate cause of World War I. The 1890 photo of the young Franz is on my desk where I can stare at leisure into the eyes of this man of destiny. It is part of the palpable history that irradiates this special room. But important though this is, it is not the most important thing in this room…
… that would be the essential tools of the imperium, the keyboard where I compose, the screen where I daily webcast… and the unceasing flow of commentary from the one to the other. These tools and the messages are all mine, but the arrangement owes much to the office of another imperator, Napoleon.
When he was a young man on the make, Napoleon met the love of his life, Josephine, a woman made for love and pleasure who adored luxury and never minded the bills; someone, she knew, would always pay. That someone more often than not was her second husband, General Buonaparte. In 1798 he left his faithless wife to seek fame and fortune in Egypt. While he was gone inventing himself and his legend, she purchased a lovely country house neither could afford. She cared not; he was enraged… and so Malmaison, the estate where both were happiest, came to be.
In it, the soon-to-be emperor had an office, not so very much larger than mine. In it were fine examples of the grand and grandiose Empire style, so imposing, including his desk and chair. Of course such artifacts are off limits, never to be touched, much less used. But I knew at once I wanted an office like this… and so, while the slothful guards took a long break I sat down in the chair, positioned myself just so and reviewed every millimeter, opened every drawer… then starred out the window to the verdant lawn on which the couple Bonaparte found happiness together as they strolled and loved each other.
I was happy there, too… and mulled over what Napoleon would add to this room were he alive today.
The answer was obvious for a man who spent his life communicating to manage and administer his empire… live 24 hour a day webcasting … and so that is what I added to my international communications center and from which I talk to the world en masse and to every individual like you. Right now, there are over 100 people here… that number waxes and wanes throughout the day and night, but it is never without visitors. Now you must consider yourself invited for this is a place of culture, humanity, a progressive outlook and a can-do attitude, where learning is valued, solutions sought for grave social issues and personal dilemmas, and where the focus is always on uplifting, improving, enhancing… just like it should always be for every commentator… and is most assuredly the way it is for me.
* * * *
About The Author
Master blog article writer tells you exactly how to write articles that get read and responded to.
http://jeffreylantarticles.com/jeffreylant/master-blog-article-writer-tells-you-exactly-how-to-write-articles-that-get-read-and-responded-to/
pic writing on keyboard
By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
It is a pleasure to have this opportunity to spend some time with you and provide the detailed step-by-step information you must have to get the attention of the people on your list and get them to respond — and rain well deserved compliments on you and your notable blog work.
Let’s dig right in; there’s lots of ground to cover.
1) The purpose of blog articles.
Know much about space travel? Here’s a crucial part that astronauts pay a lot of attention to: the heat shields that protect a space capsule returning to earth. Without these shields the capsule and the passengers within would be fried. The same thing happens when you mail ad copy and nothing but ad copy to your lists. Recipients will get plenty angry plenty fast. They want more from you than just ads, and if they don’t get it, the unsubscribe link is near at hand.
Blog copy is essential because it keeps subscribers on your list by giving them a good reason for staying on your list. In short, like those heat shields, this copy protects the list and keeps it whole, growing, profitable.
2) Don’t publish random articles.
Give your articles increased weight and importance by creating them as part of an ongoing series. When you write good copy, copy of substance and value, people not only want to read it… but they want more, lots more, from you, a person whose articles and opinion they come to respect.
3) Number each article and announce that number along with each article.
As I write (August 6, 2011), this is my 312 article in the series. You want people to know that, not least because they will want to find and profit from the other articles in the series, all the other articles. Furthermore, as your list of articles grows, so will your reputation and perceived standing. In short, you will be an authority, a commentator of renown and repute.
4) Write your blog articles to a certain length, and stick to it.
My daily blog articles (which I produce free for blog owners worldwide) are all approximately 1500 words in length. That is three single-spaced pages. This length gives you ample space to develop an article on any given theme. It is also a convenient length for readers, not too long or demanding; crucial features in our time-pressed days. Once you have developed your format, you will soon start thinking in terms of your available space and will find it easier and easier the more you write to conceive and write articles of that length.
5) Always search for and brainstorm new article subjects.
I am on a dizzing blog article creation pace: one 1,500 word blog article per day. This is a challenging schedule for even the most experienced writers. That means I need 365 article subjects per year, challenging indeed. But even if you decide to write just one blog article per week, you’ll need 52 subjects to write about, nothing to take for granted.
When you write blog articles, you are always and forever in the business of finding hot new article subjects. To start, get the major metropolitan newspaper from your area; (for me that’s The Boston Globe)… and a pair of scissors. Now sit down and review this newspaper with a new eye; an eye that’s seeking interesting, timely, readers-will-love-this subjects.
Make time to cut these articles from the publication. Don’t fall behind with this crucial task. In my case, I review and cut out three times a week, more if at all possible.
Keep a good pair of sharp scissors at hand. Look at each article in each edition to see whether an article on that theme or subject would fit your blog. If so, cut at once and make sure to date everything you cut out. That’s a must.
Then deposit what you’ve found in a large drawer… this is the article subject compost heap and it is essential. In it you will find subjects you will surely want to write about… and subjects you’re watching, to write about at some future date. Cut liberally; you can be sure one day you will have no subject readily at hand. Having all these ideas will then pirove very useful indeed.
6) Select the next subject you’ll write about, gather the information you need to do so.
The creation of articles of substance, articles that draw continual kudos from your readers, is a direct result of knowing where to look for the information you need. The better you become at this necessary task, the better articles you will produce and the faster your reputation grows, too.
Start by doing a search at any search engine (I prefer Google) to see what information is available. Where you are writing an article about a breaking news item, don’t just check the available information, also pay close attention to the time the most recent material was posted (e.g. “7 hours ago”). This is essential for keeping what you write ahead of the news cycle. For timely articles, this skill is required.
Then visit the Wikipedia. The Wikipedia is one of the most ingenious and necessary tools ever invented. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t use it, finding and printing the invaluable information I absolutely must have do my work… one aspect of which is studding my articles with the facts therein so amply provided. This source is crucial.
You will also need to visit the websites of article providers such as Associated Press, Reuter’s, Bloomberg, etc. They are a terrific source of article subjects and timely data.
7) Brainstorm articles.
You and your lifetime of education and experience are also valuable sources for articles. Keep a pad at the ready, or an Internet file, where ALL possible article subjects can be listed. Never, ever rely on forgetful memory for such subjects. Write them down at once.
8) Set a precise date for finishing all articles.
I write and blog my articles daily. I have a precise time of the day when the deadline for the next article MUST be met: 8 a.m. Eastern time. To do this I find all the data I’l need the day before and review it before bed time. Then I am awake and drafting, editing, then finalizing the day’s article by 3 a.m. Eastern time; that is not a misprint! I have found the silent hours of the (usually) uninterrupted night the very best time to write, not least because I am wide awake and full of beans at that time. You’ll find the schedule most suitable for you; set it, adhere to it religiously. You will find if you do that your brain and body will be willing to work at that time, and that is a great benefit.
9) Keep individual files for every article you write.
These files should contain all the printed information sources for this subject as well as all your notes and each draft. Everything pertaining to this article (including the compliments readers email you) must be kept, not least because you may very well decide to write follow-up and related articles for which current data will be most helpful.
Last words.
Blogging is the future of the Internet; that is absolutely clear. And for blogging to work, and your list to be protected, superior blog copy is a must. Now you know how to produce it.
* * * * *
About The Author
http://jeffreylantarticles.com/jeffreylant/how-to-write-web-site-and-article-content-that-sells-2/
How to write web site and article content that sells
It was Bill Gates, the sage with prophetic talents
and the deepest of pockets, who said it first: “Content
is king.” Per usual billionaire Bill was right.
Problem is, he omitted the directions on how to
produce the site and article content you need so much. Humbly,
I rectify his omission.
Here then are the necessary steps for producing
web site and article copy that sells.
1) Know thy audience.
The purpose of creating site content is to build
relationships and loyalty with your designated populations…
and produce content that gets them to RETURN and RESPOND.
Are you, therefore, clear on just who you are
producing content for?
Say you are running an insurance agency and
want to insure more business from people with
large and valuable art and artifact collections.
Before you write word 1 of content, you must know
and WRITE DOWN a description of the kinds of
people you want to attract. Every word you write
thereafter, all the content you produce is for —
them!
2) Write content that brings you business
In this report, I am showing you how to write site
content that sells. For details on how to write the
great American novel, you must seek other counsel.
Thus, your next step towards producing site
content that sells is to brainstorm subjects and to
craft the all-important title.
Again, consider the insurance agent aiming for
lucrative antique collection accounts. He needs a
title like this: “7 things you need to know about
insuring your antiques and collections.” Alternatively,
try this
“7 things you don’t know about insuring your
antiques that make you vulnerable.”
Or, “5 things you can do right now to
decrease the cost of your antiques insurance.”
Note: a title like this peeks reader interest…
the public designated for this content wants to
know, is desperate to know, just where there may be
holes, flaws, and omissions in their policies. Your
content (and your title) play to their need to know,
including fears and anxieties which motivate prompt
response to you.
3) Brainstorm subjects to be included in your article
or site content
The most cogent content is brainstormed and
outlined before a single word is written. First, and
most importantly, sit down at your desk and write
down the topics you want (and your reader must
have) in this content.
Personally, I take one 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheet and
(in my execrable hand writing) detail all the key
points about the subject at hand.
Then, having brainstormed all, I arrange these
points in logical order, thus: first do this, then this,
then this, etc.
Brainstorm and point prioritizing are key to
successful content.
Note: for best results, you should have no fewer
than 5 points in any individual article or not more than
10. The content may appear skimpy and inadequate
if you have too few points while having more than 10
over burdens your reader (and future customer), causing
him to postpone reading — and response!
4) Now write.
You are now ready to write the content, for you have
considered your audience and what they need to know
(and will most thank you for); you have brainstormed
the subjects to be included and arranged them in
the proper order. Yes, you are ready to write.
Sit yourself down in your writing place (you do have
one, don’t you), a place where you can write undisturbed,
inviolate to the crafting of superb content
Go there now. Determine your writing schedule. You
should be able to produce draft site content in 2-4
hours, depending on how experienced a writer you
are. Always set a date and time for the conclusion of
Draft 1. Never leave it open-ended. Things without
deadlines are things less likely to be done.
Note: Remember, what you are writing now
must be a conversation between you and your
reader (who is, let’s be clear, your future customer,
too.) The content must, therefore, be written accordingly.
The word “you” (meaning you, the reader) must
predominate. You must not write for an amorphous
audience of the unknown. You must write instead to
and for the chief benefit of each individual reader…
just as if the reader was sitting beside you and you
were explaining one thing after another of importance
to her. This is vital.
5) Read, review, revise your content.
Now hear this: the best writing is re-writing. Thus,
when you have finished Draft 1, let it sit overnight.
It is the rare, experienced, polished writer who can
write such content, review such content, and post
the finished product all in a day. Some may disagree,
but I remain convinced time and patience are necessary
ingredients in the very best content.
When ready, read your content aloud. No sentence
should be more than one breath. If your sentences
are turgid and flow slowly, awkward, break them into
shorter lines, easier to read. Your tempo should be allegro,
not andante.
6) Revise, revise, revise.
Having finished your first revisions, it is time for…
more revisions. As much time should be spent on
revising your content as writing it in the first place.
This, then, should be your schedule:
Day 1, write the content. On this same day,
do the first revisions.
Day 2, after letting the content sit overnight,
awake early (personally I do this between 5-7 am
because that is when my schedule is clear and
I have the fewest interruptions. In other words, I
can focus.) Then do at least one more content
revision.
3) On Day 3, do a final content review. There
should be few, if any, changes at this point.
Your content should be word perfect, light,
graceful, moving; content that will impact the
reader, because it impacts you!
7) The Resource Box
Now add the crucial Resource Box and About the
Author details. Having written content that helps
your reader and future customer, it is now manifestly
appropriate to include something that helps you…
and that is precisely what the Resource Box and
About the Author sections do. Treat them accordingly.
Be sure to include all the means you wish customers
to use to get in touch with you, including email, URL,
telephone, cell phone, etc. Believe me, the useful
content you have given them will inspire response.
Depend on it.
Exult. You deserve it!
You have now done a useful thing. Your content is
now available for use on blogs, ezines, site postings,
et al. Take a moment to congratulate yourself. You
deserve it.
You have taken what you know and can do and
transformed it into a focused means of generating
new customers and really helping them. You may be a
tad fatigued by your effort; that’s natural. But what
you’ve written can live for years and help thousands.
And that’s a true cause for jubilation.
About The Author
for under 6 CENTS per day…
That’s right, for less than 1 dime a day
You get to have and use EVERYTHING produced by renowned
writer, marketer, promoter and teacher, Dr. Lant.
Flex. Pose. Flex again. And smile. An article you must read if you think you’ve got what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.
http://writerssecrets.com/2016/01/15/flex-pose-flex-again-and-smile-an-article-you-must-read-if-you-think-youve-got-what-it-takes-to-be-a-successful-entrepreneur/
Author’s program note. To be honest with you, I hated working for people. I hated taking orders. I hated doing the things my bosses wanted me to… rather than the things I wanted to do. And as for the word “boss” it made me sick. So, I had only these choices: grin and bear it, working for the man because I needed the bucks… becoming a beach bum… or working for myself. And that, of course, is the alternative I selected… because knuckling under just doesn’t work for me… and I burn way too easily and was always bored laying around outside.
Thus becoming a (rich) entrepreneur was my only alternative. Yes, rich because failure was never an option. But how to pull it off?
Donna Summer helps.
In 1983, Disco Diva Donna Summer, the notorious Queen of every night and desire, came out with a song that forced the attention of every person who saw life and its golden options slipping away while they stayed in the indentured servitude called a job. To get started, Donna had herself run away from everything she knew in Boston seeking destiny. As such she made the choice as clear as clear could be. Keep bending the knee and saying “yes sir” to a jack ass… or exercise your God- given right to fly and fly high. It was your choice, she said. Seize it.
The tune was “She Works Hard For The Money”… and Donna spat it out, challenging the folks in her audience who said they wanted more… but just couldn’t break away from their dead-beat reality.
But I could. I had to. My back was against the wall. The very best position to be in to start one’s trek to success. And so I quit my hated day job as a college administrator and took the Red Line to Park Street. I walked up Beacon Hill, where so many of the aspiring had walked over the centuries and plunked down $100 to file my corporate papers. It was my last, my only $100, and my pride (to say nothing else) made failure unthinkable because had it occurred its consequences would have been unendurable.
And so I embraced success like the life preserver it was. For me, this meant writing. Over the course of my life I have written 18 books and over a thousand articles. But not one of these scribblings is as important as “The Consultant’s Kit: Establishing and Operating Your Successful Consulting Business.” It was the little seed from which everything else grew.
Boston Center for Adult Education.
From the very first moment I arrived in Cambridge in the fall of 1969, I realized that I’d need extra money to supplement the fellowship Harvard gave me to pay for my graduate studies. The easiest way for me to get it was to teach, and so I established a beneficial relationship with BCAE, which soon discovered that my ideas for classes pulled in the students and made them money. Thus, they were always receptive to my suggestions, one of which was a full-day Saturday workshop on consulting. It was popular right from the start. But there was a problem… I talked much faster than the participants could write… and they were always complaining about how much they were missing and “Could you please slow down, Dr. Lant?”
The solution was not slowing down… it was writing, and as quickly as possible, a book that offered every step you needed to take to become a successful, money- making problem-solver. In those dim, distant days this is how I did it: I wrote the book by hand, then typed the pages, a bottle of miracle-working white-out always near at hand. Then I took it to the copy-shop in Harvard Square… where I arranged to pick up 30 copies or so on my way to the workshop. I couldn’t wait to see the fruit of my brain and nimble fingers.
“Dr. Jerry Lant.”
But when I saw the book, bound in heavy blue construction paper, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It said “by Dr. Jerry Lant.” My composure melted…
You see, for my entire life many people have pronounced my name “Jerry” although it most clearly isn’t. And today this error caused real pain and acute irritation. The copy meister checked the work order, saw it was his problem, and went to work with a will, ripping off the covers. “Don’t worry, sir. We’ll fix the problem. How much time have we got? HOW MUCH?” And so I entered the self-publishing business ripping my cherished volume to accommodate new covers…
… which were delivered on time but wet… and smeared… and woebegone.
But here’s the punch line: at day’s end, I had, at $35 per copy, over $1000 in my hand, a fortune. But more important was the fact even in their primitive presentation they sold at a very profitable price, thereby indicating that I was on the right road. The question was whether I would continue to publish the book myself or enter into a contract with a traditional publishing company.
The Agent.
About this time a friend introduced me to a very energetic and hard-working book agent who was looking to build his portfolio and income. He looked like “the cat in the hat” and was as imaginative and insinuating. A consultant himself, he liked “The Consultant’s Kit” at once and asked me if he could peddle it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I agreed. And about as quick as the Emperor Augustus said “boiled asparagus”, he told me he had a publisher for me, a big one. Could I come to New York and ink the deal? I was on the LaGuardia shuttle in no time… and was soon shaking hands with my certain-to-be editor at McGraw Hill, the largest business book publisher in the world. My Harvard- honed ego had the right publisher… or had it?
The publisher waxed poetic, the agent seconded his every word… a sizable advance, which I could well use, was promised… all that was missing was my signature. But the more I heard, the less I wanted to proceed. You see, if the largest business book publisher on earth liked my book, why shouldn’t I keep publishing it myself… getting far more than standard commissions, reaping all?
And so I startled both these gentlemen by saying no. Whereupon the cat pulled me into the corridor and gave me a ringing piece of his mind, I can hear to this day. “Are you crazzeeeee man?” Back in the editor’s office, he uttered the most telling of put-downs: “But you know nothing about publishing, nothing about distribution.” My response, “I can learn.”
And so I kissed the biggest advance of my life good-bye and left Manhattan hearing their lurid predictions and imprecations ringing in my brain.
“This book is better than sex!”, real marketing muscle.
Having made my bed so must I now lay in it, and here inspiration struck. For I had a friend who was always pestering me to help get him a better job than being a waiter. Now I had one… and by the next day, he was outfitted in a skin tight t-shirt emblazoned with a picture of the book and these magnetic words: “This book is better than sex!” His job was to take his hunky physique and show it off in every one of Harvard Square’s then-numerous book stores, posing and smiling until he had an order.
And if there were questions, he was to call me and we’d sort it out as we went. “What is our discount rate?” “What was our returns policy?” We worked it out question by question as he smiled, flexed, and got orders… and, more importantly sales, for this baby sold like hot cakes, even at Harvard Business School where one irritated professor asked me in the snidest possible way why my book, however ungainly, sold where his more learned tome did not. “Because I show them how the real world works and how they can master it for maximum gain… and yours doesn’t.” He left fuming…
Over $1,000,000 in my pocket.
Thus my empire grew and prospered, built on guts, bulging biceps and a willingness to do whatever it took… “The Consultant’s Kit” alone netting me over a cool million dollars. And like Donna Summer, I did it while dancing, for “working hard for the money” would never be enough…. joy and bliss needed to be part of the mix, and with me they always were. Go now to any search engine and listen to the lady and prepare to dance. It’s what successful entrepreneurs do.. and gladly so.
About the Author
http://jeffreylantarticles.com/home-business/flex-pose-flex-again-and-smile-an-article-you-must-read-if-you-think-youve-got-what-it-takes-to-be-a-successful-entrepreneur/
http://mentalfloss.com/article/58543/10-words-difficult-remember-meanings
http://mentalfloss.com/section/language
http://mentalfloss.com/article/73350/40-grandiloquent-g-words-grow-your-vocabulary
=====================
It was a great honor to work with Dr. Jeffrey Lant during his tenure as CEO of Worldprofit. This
article was given to Daniel Fischer while Dr. Jeffrey Lant was at Worldprofit.
Yours In Success,
Daniel Fischer Dano Enterprises
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