Working as a freelancer can be a very lonely experience - but don't despair - help is at large. You have just entered the PolarZone!

Contents:
1. Feature Article - Design a Brochure for your Business
2. Software Review - PractiCount and Invoice
3. Recommended Product
     - Ebook: How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator

Design a Brochure for your Business
by Jill Black

There are two types of brochure commonly used in the promotion.

1. Printed Brochures

A printed brochure is a good way to advertise your mail order or online products or services to your local geographical region.

2. E-brochures

E-brochures can be designed with pictures, text, audio sound, video clips, animation, and hyperlinks to preview pages and sales ordering page.

Put the download URL to your brochure in the resource box of email correspondence and on your business cards.

There are several software products available in the marketplace suitable for creating brochures e.g. Microsoft Publisher with Digital Imaging 2003

The components of a brochure generally will include.

Front Cover

- Front cover headline
- Picture of your book cover
- Any sub-headlines

The body of the brochure

- Introductory paragraph or page
- Testimonials from your book readers
- The body copy answering the following questions...

What is the product or service offer?
Who wants it?
Why should I buy it?
Why should I buy from you?
Why should I buy it now?

Back Cover

- Contact information
- Delivery times e.g. Allow up to 10 days for delivery
- Ordering and payment method information

Brochure Design Tips

- Use a vertical layout.
- The name of your offer should be within the top third of the brochure.
- Avoid using reversed text that many readers overlook.
- Include a photo of your product, your carrying out out your service, satisfied customers or business premises on the front of the brochure. This should be placed underneath the brochure title to enhance visual impact when the brochure is picked up.
- Leave adequate margins on all four sides around your text.
- Using colour increases response rate to your offer.
- Keep copy short and simple using plain English.

Distributing of your brochure

Apart from placing adverts in newspapers and magazines, or renting mailing lists, there are several no or low cost ways to distribute your brochure locally.

1. Places specific to your business e.g. If you are selling a product, book or professional service related to herbs approach health stores and herbal groups to sk if they can include your brochure in their newsletter mail out to members etc.

2. On noticeboards e.g. supermarkets, local libraries, community centers, chambers of commerce and so on depending on the nature of your product or service.

3. Use a phamplet delivery service to get your brochures delivered to letterboxes in your area.

Get creative and you will find many ways to use a brochure to get the word out about your services or products.

Author: Jill is a writer and Publisher. For more writing and publishing resources and ideas visit her online at http://www.netwrite-publish.com

PractiCount and Invoice
by Anita Karlson

PractiCount & Invoice is a quoting and billing software for professionals who invoice based on counting words/lines etc. You create a customer database, fill in your personal information, the reporting engine counts up the words/lines/pages and quotes the price based on your price per unit. And there you have it - an invoice is created by the click of a button!

The program is available as a Standard Edition or as a Business Edition and costs USD 59.95 respectively USD 99.95. There is a 15 days demo version available for testing the program.

It runs on the following operating systems: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP

Read the complete review here.

Web page: http://www.practiline.com/

The PolarZone is published by Anita Karlson. For any feedback please send an email to this addresse: akarlson@polartext.com

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