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Here, David Letterman style, are what I consider to be the Top 10 most common mistakes presenters make when organizing and preparing their content:

10) Not setting the stage.

An introduction should be more than just "Hello. Today we'll be discussing _____." If you just jump into the content without setting up the presentation, it can get you off to a jumpy, disjointed start. An introduction should give the audience a sense of who you are, what you're there to do and what's in it for them to listen.

9) Using ineffective notes.

It's almost always wise to have some notes handy to make sure you don't forget anything important, but if your notes are hard to follow or are distracting for the audience, they defeat the purpose. Trying to read from a crowded page of word-for-word narrative is a killer because you look down and have trouble looking up for fear that you'll never find your place again. Disorganized papers or cards can be cumbersome and messy. Keep clear, concise key-word-or-key-phrase-only notes handy to simply to jog your memory, not serve as an unnecessary crutch.

8) Using jargon or acronyms that leave the audience bewildered.

When a listener hears a word or phrase he/she is not familiar with it causes what I call a "cerebral derailment". The listener's mind is chugging along happily with you until he/she hears an unfamiliar term and suddenly the mind jumps the tracks to wonder, "What does that mean?" Always define acronyms (even if you're sure they know what the letters stand for) and, when in doubt, define any terms that could possibly be unfamiliar.

7) Planning backwards.

Many people begin to prepare a presentation by thinking, "What do I have that's cool?" (meaning visual aids, support points, stories, examples, etc.) Then they ask themselves, "How can I work it in?" This is backwards. Decide on what you want to accomplish and then ask "What do I have in the way of support that would help me meet that objective?" If you plan backwards you may very well end up with a bunch of interesting information that is of no value to the listeners.

6) Not knowing your objective and/or not sharing it.

In addition to being clear on the point you want to make, you should also be clear on the objective you wish to achieve. Do you want the audience to make a decision? Show them the options and ask for a decision. If you need their cooperation, make sure you explain why you need them and how they can help you. If your goal is to familiarize them with a topic, make that clear so you don't get bogged down in excess detail. Both you and your audience should be clear on what you're there to accomplish.

5) Not providing "signposts".

Imagine that you can get a new set of information two ways: 1) you can read it in a report or 2) you can listen to it in a presentation. What advantages do you have when you're reading that you don't have when you're listening?

You can go at your own pace

You can re-read things that you found confusing

You can skip sections that don't interest you

You can see when a new topic begins (because of section titles or white space)

You can make notes

You can file it away for future reference.

None of these options are available to your listeners. To the audience, your ideas are just sounds in the ether, so to make up for the lack of these advantages, you need to provide signposts to let us know where you are. Visual aids can help, but remember to include phrases like "Now, let's move on to point #2", "That's all for the background, now let's move on to the current status," or "Let me just wrap up." These little phrases take very little time but do wonders for helping your audience stay with you.

4) Having complex, hard-to-read visual aids.

Your visual aids should be just that--aids. They should HELP you get your message across. Complicated, crowded, hard-to-read visual aids compete with you for your audience's attention. Keep them simple enough that listeners have a reason to stick around and listen to YOU.

3) Not having an obvious, logical structure.

Meandering from point to point can be very frustrating to a listener. Have your information laid out in a logical structure and share that structure with the listeners up front so they know where you're headed.

2) Not making the POINT clear up front.

There's nothing more frustrating to a listener than to sit there thinking, "OK, so what's your point?!" Remember, you know your material cold. The listeners don't. Sometimes you have to smack them between the eyes with the point, as in, "If you only remember one thing from my presentation, I want it to be __________________." Don't wait until the end to present your point with a dramatic flourish. Make your point right up front and spend the rest of the time supporting that point.

And the #1 content management mistake. . .

1) Including too much information.

It's tempting to want to cram all the information possible into the heads of your listeners, but ironically, it's possible that the more information you include, the less they learn. Think of a rainstorm. When rain is pouring down, much of it runs off before it can soak into the soil. The water is wasted because there was simply too much of it to take in. Whereas, a slow, steady rain has a chance to soak in thoroughly. It's far better to include half as much information and have them retain most of it, than to squeeze in every imaginable tidbit and have 90% of the information wind up as runoff.

All of these problems are common. Luckily, with awareness and a few simple adjustments, they are easily overcome.

About the Writer of this Article

Melissa Lewis turns traditional thinking about public speaking upside down to give people more comfort, confidence and charisma in front of groups. She is a former comic actress, a certified facilitator of SPEAKING CIRCLES(R), president-elect of the National Speakers Association Kansas City Chapter and author of the soon-to-be-released book, Upside Down Speaking. For more information call (913) 341-1241 or visit www.upsidedownspeaking.com.

Where's All of Our Content

How many web sites have you been to in the last week that sold products, but offer absolutely no other reason to visit? Considering that everyone involved in internet marketing knows that it often times takes between five and eight "contact sessions" to make a sale to a customer, why aren't more people giving the customers a reason to come back? The answer is relatively simple: it takes time, effort, and commitment. Simply having a newsletter that your visitors can sign-up for just doesn't help if you don't have content on your site to tell them about. Now, it's inevitable that some of you are saying, "I sell wind chimes on my site, what kind of content could I possibly have?" Good question! Ask youself what topics people who buy wind chimes might be interested in. Most of them may be interested in home exterior tips, learning about the history of the wind chime (such as how it came to be), or maybe content on some of the best locations for wind chimes outside the home. No matter what you're selling, there is content that your visitors will find useful! So, content is a great way to keep your customers coming back. But, remember, if takes time, effort, and commitment. However, it doesn't mean that you have to sit down and write a five page article with groundbreaking information every week (although, that would just fine). It could be something as simple as passing along solutions to one customer's problem to other customers. For example, if sell software and you've helped a customer make a "tweak" that fits their business better, post a short article on your site and tell your other customers how this made the product better. Start a knowledge base of content for your site, you might be surprised how quickly you'll compile little tidbits that can really add up to quality content. Finally, and this one is big, use your content to get your reciprocal links. Now this "external" content may have to be little different than your "internal" content. For external content, the content we spoke of previously for software "tweaks" may not be as helpful as a general article on how the software helps customers in their business. I absolutely love getting reciprocal link requests that that a good article attached to them. I don't mind giving these people great exposure on my sites because they've added more than just a link to my web site, but they've added value to my web site. We've all heard it before, "Content is king"……it just doesn't have to as hard to develop as you think and the rewards can be outstanding.

Chris Haslego runs a web site dedicated to online marketing and reciprocal linking strategies at www.zeus-online-marketing.com.

3 Tips For Writing Content That Will Make You Sale

Content is king. Without content your web site is an empty shell, a skeleton with no flesh, an empty vessel. Content can redeem the worst designed web site. The right content can make your phone ring off the hook and flood your inbox with people wanting your product or service. Content is the most important ingredient in the recipe for your web site's success. If you have engrossing, valuable and relevant content you are onto a winner..

Tip 1 - Keep It Customer-Focused - What You Like Is Irrelevant

I land on the homepage. I want to buy a bathroom from this company. I want to know what bathrooms they have available. I want to know how much it will cost, when they can deliver, if they have any special offers and what their previous customers have said about them. Instead, upon landing on the homepage I get the following all-time classic;

"Welcome to ABC Bathrooms. Our company was formed in 1985. Our Managing Director John set up the company at the age of 25 after spending thirty years in the position of.."

Who cares?! I want to know exactly what you sell and how much it will cost me. I have 10 spare minutes today to find this information out and if I don't see it on your site in a few seconds I will click off to your competitors so don't bore me with the life story of your managing director. I do not care. Give me content that I like - not what you THINK I would like. Key difference.

Tip 2 - Sell Benefits, Not Features

Potential customers do not want to know how your product was built, how old the production manager is or what colour the wallpaper is in the production plant - they want to know how buying it will enrich their lives. They want to see evidence for the benefits of owning your product or using your service. People don't buy things - they buy benefits and they buy feelings. People buying a Ferrari are not buying a mode of transport they are buying prestige, luxury, envy, success - they are buying a symbol, a way of life.

Think about your product or service from a customer's point of view - what are the real, measurable and provable benefits to them of buying from you? Include these over and over in your content and it will bring more sales for you. Don't be afraid of blowing your own trumpet - stick the benefits right on the homepage for a start!

Tip 3 - Include Calls To Action - Everywhere!

Excellent - you've written killer content and people are coming back to your web site time and again for the information. Your traffic figures are shooting through the roof. It's brilliant! You can't believe you've cracked it. And then you look at the number of orders placed last week - zero. Oh. What happened there? Better to have one person visiting your site each month who actually places an order or produces a sales lead rather than have 1000 people who do neither.

If you don't have clear benefit-focused calls to action peppered throughout your content people will not get in touch with you or place that all-important order. You hook them in with the winning content and then you offer them more information vial email or a free quotation if they phone you - anything! You must have calls to action present throughout your site - combine this with the other two tips and you are on the way to having content that actually makes you sales.

Michael Cheney Sales & Marketing Director, magnet4web.com

Michael Cheney is the Author of The Website Marketing BibleTM:

"High five Michael! Your bible is superb! The world needs to read it and learn from it." - Jay Conrad Levinson, Author of "Guerrilla Marketing"

http://www.web sitemarketingbible.com

Need Ezine Content- Think Holidays

Publishing an ezine certainly has its benefits and rewards, but even the most prolific publishers often need more content ideas, topics and graphics.

One of the best resources for newsletter and ezine publishers is holidays; they are a true gift because they can provide an overall theme, a topic, graphics, as well as content. They can add a little spice to your usual, consistent branded newsletter. The best part is that most of the holiday content is free, and it doesn't have to be in your industry or on your specific newsletter topic.

There are countless holidays to choose from, with varying lengths- Mother's Day, Book Week, American Heart Month.

A common holiday theme is Halloween, which many publishers use as an excuse to add a fun graphic to their ezine. It's an easy one because Halloween images exist in most clip art collections, many can be found online for free as well as for purchase; custom graphics are always an option. Halloween is a fun holiday that brings out the kid in all of us, and is universal enough that no one would question its appearance in an ezine on almost any subject.

Stepping out of the box, when it comes to use of a holiday theme, American Heart Month provides a good example. This holiday is an obvious choice for a fitness trainer or nutritionist, but can be a great topic for other businesses like an accounting firm.

A few ways in which our sample holiday can provide newsletter content:

-Graphics: a heart association logo*; a heart shape; a heartbeat image -Themes opics: healthy heart/lifestyle, recognizing symptoms of heart problems -Tips: diet, exercise/ lifestyle, checkups, recipes -Public Service: Raise awareness, learn cpr, donate

A business like our accounting firm can provide a public service announcement and they can customize the information to their expertise by providing answers to the following questions:

If you join a health club, is that a tax-deductible expense? A nutritionist? Is installing a gym on site for your employees tax deductible? Did you know improving your health can translate to lower premiums on life insurance?

Questions like these can also be formatted into tips, which can then be offered to other publishers as content, increasing their exposure and further establishing themselves as experts. Can't find a holiday to suit your business goals? Create one! All you need to do is come up with a theme and a name, and declare it! Who knows, maybe one day Hallmark will immortalize it with a line of cards to send out for your holiday. In any event, have fun and keep those ezines full of celebrations and great content.

Everyone loves an excuse to celebrate so why not be the inviter; the business that follows is an added benefit to the good will you inspire.

*Please make sure you have necessary permission before using an image or content.

Jane Tabachnick is an e-marketer and email virtuoso. She is the author of Plain Jane's Promotional Planner 2004 http://www.plainjanesplanner.com, the ultimate resource guide for marketers, retailers, ezine publishers, fundraisers and anyone who needs to generate more business; it contains over 2000 holidays and events- each one a promotional opportunity. She can be reached at mail @ plainjanesplanner.com

Creating Value With Streaming Video Content

Having a corporate or promotional video for your company is often viewed as something of an expensive luxury - useful, but rarely considered to be an essential marketing tool. Whilst many businesses can understand the benefits of having a corporate video, all too often they are put off by the perceived cost and subsequently find it hard to justify commercially. Furthermore, the process of making a video can at times, appear complex and intimidating, with an array of technical terms and processes.

Streaming video provides a number of useful opportunities for maximising the potential of an existing corporate video. And compared to other distribution media such as DVD or CD-ROMs it also offers a cost-effective solution for broadcasting a new corporate presentation to a wider audience.

Although streaming video is certainly not a new concept and has been around for some time, it's now easier than ever to add streaming video content to your web site. The technology required to enable video streaming is widely available, it's relatively inexpensive and with the dramatic growth in high speed, broadband internet connections, a growing number of internet users can now view high quality, streaming video on their computers.

In this article, leading corporate video & business television producer, John Howarth, explains some of the ways in which streaming video content can be made to work effectively for your business and produce tangible results.

Provide Compelling Content Try to provide content that creates a real interest for the viewer. Instead of simply informing them of your key corporate values - the typical narrative being 'how successful we are, the great products & services we offer, our featured clients' - why not turn the message into something that is actually useful and engaging to watch.

Take for example a company that manufactures kitchen products. Whilst you could produce a video to establish company values by highlighting such areas as quality of craftsmanship and original design of the product, this information is almost certainly available more easily on the web pages. It could be far more interesting for the viewer to provide them with a series of recipes, which feature the products being used in context.

Another technique is to provide content that is not centrally focused to your company's core products & services. For example, your company sponsors a sports event or art exhibition. How about showing some clips from the event, with company branding around it? By using more recognisable and popular content, you are creating a wider 'reach' for the video, with the added possibility of gaining increased web site traffic.

Re-Package Content Lets say you already have a corporate video, it's around ten minutes long and you currently distribute it on a video tape format or DVD. The most obvious solution would be to have it transferred to a streaming format in it's entirety and loaded up onto your web site. Whilst a ten minute corporate video sequence may be useful as a backdrop display in a trade exhibition or screened to a captive audience in a conference, it's often far too long to use as a streaming video clip on your web site. Who really has the time to sit and watch a corporate video clip for this length of time? It's often far more useful to break the sequence down into a series of individual clips or re-edit into a shorter, condensed version that has greater impact.

Following on from this, you might also want to distribute streaming video clips around different areas on your web site. This way, the clips featured can be targeted to match - and complement - the page content. For example, on a page detailing company clients and case studies, the video clip could feature customer testimonials; situated on a contact details page, the video sequence could feature some generic shots of company locations and building exterior shots.

Brand The Video Whatever streaming video clips you use, try to ensure they are branded with your corporate identity. This could be a small logo in the top corner of the screen or a 'picture frame' wrapped around the moving images. Taking it a step further, you may want to add an introduction sequence with animated corporate logos at the beginning and end of every sequence. Another option is to create an HTML or Flash 'player' customised with your corporate identity. The video clip would then play within this frame and could be complemented by some animated product or service information around it.

When reviewing web site statistics, it is frequently pages featuring streaming video content that are the most 'sticky' and have the longest viewing times by site visitors. Use this factor to your advantage - it's an ideal opportunity to get your core brand values, products and services across to the site visitor.

John Howarth is creative director of Blue Tuna Limited, a leading UK-based corporate communications & multi-media production agency. Past projects include live streaming for leading online bookmaker, Blue Square and the launch of the UK's of the first club soccer channel, Boro TV for NTL.

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Presentation Pitfalls: Top 10 Content Management Mistakes

About the Writer of this Article

Where's All of Our Content

3 Tips For Writing Content That Will Make You Sale

Need Ezine Content- Think Holidays

Creating Value With Streaming Video Content