Our sites continue to grow! We are always on the lookout for good translators.

New language sites:

Arabic: http://www.anahena.com/
Russian: http://www.powertochangerussia.com/
Chinese: http://www.chenggongle.com/
Spanish: http://www.poderparacambiar.com/
Japanese: http://www.jinseiokaeruhiketsu.com/

Military site: http://militarylives.com

Coming VERY soon:

Malay
French
Italian

Are you fluent in a language other than English? Keep in mind that we are always looking for translators.

New language sites:

Arabic: http://www.anahena.com/
Russian: http://www.powertochangerussia.com/
Chinese: http://www.chenggongle.com/
Spanish: http://www.poderparacambiar.com/
Japanese: http://www.jinseiokaeruhiketsu.com/

Military site: http://militarylives.com

Coming VERY soon:

Malay
French
Italian

Recent visitors to our sites total over 430,000 in one month.
We have over 100 chat sessions taking place every month.

Our audience visits us from these top 10 countries:

1. United States
2. Canada
3. China
4. Great Britain
5. India
6. Australia
7. France
8. Philippines
9. South Africa
10. Germany

Hello Writers,

A new year is on the horizon! At Truth Media we are planning our 2007 issues.
We’re looking for some more of that great content that YOU have to offer.
Check out our themes for the coming months. Send us your thoughts and submissions. We’d love to hear from you.

Here are the themes for the first 6 months of the new year to get your ideas flowing.
For a complete list please see http://www.truthmedia.com/writing/themes.html

January 2007
Direction/What on earth am I here for?

* *God’s will vs. horoscopes
* Why do we read horoscopes?
* Do you love your job?
* Career assessment quiz
* Success: How is it measured?
* Get to know yourself better
* *Your spiritual inheritance and mission
* *Living as citizens of heaven
* Finding a place that fits
* Relationships that build you up
* *Unrooting worldly things from our lives
* *Sharing the gospel where you are

February 2007
Friendship/Camaraderie

* Alternatives to bachelor(ette) parties
* Boundaries with friends
* Dating: Should you be friends first?
* Maintaining long-distance friendships
* Competition/Jealousy between friends
* Differences between male/female friendships
* Dealing with being burned by friendship
* When you disapprove of your kids� friends
* Friend testimonies
* When friends lead you into temptation
* Spa outreaches
* How should Christians relate to old friends?
* Friendship evangelism

March 2007
Life Coaching

* Accomplishing your dream/Identifying your goals
* Focused exercises, eg. journalling
* Mentoring/ Discipling someone
* How to grow as a leader
* Building personal and family character
* *What is God calling you to do?
* * Writing your story/testimony

April 2007
The Fear Factor

* Facing our private and public fears
* What�s holding you back from living life to the fullest?
* Where peace can be found
* Gaining perspective when disaster strikes
* The sensationalism of news media
* Kids and bullying
* Intimidation and guilt in relationships
* Anxiety disorder

May 2007
Reality Check

* What are you really spending your time, energy, money on?
* What do you really want?
* Are you making progress on your goals?
* Seeing the world through fresh eyes
* Finding ways to change the world
* Things we believe about ourselves
* * Things we believe about God
* *Are you assured of your salvation?

June 2007
Spirituality

* What do we believe?
* Scientific evidence for God
* Atheists, agnostics and other faiths
* Is faith just a crutch?
* Is the Bible true at all?
* Exploring prayer/what should we pray for?
* How does God see me?

The importance of copyright cannot be overstated. Simply put, if you ignore copyright you will hear from a lawyer sooner or later and it probably won’t be later. Find out what the rules are in your country and be aware of the rules in other countries where you share content.

You cannot hide anything online. If you use something without permission someone will find out. Authors regularly check for people stealing their content. (Personally I check once a month and I usually find someone.) Syndication creates a unique copyright situation and we will know more about this as the process is finalized.

Know your rights:

* Have a working knowledge of copyright laws in your country.
* If you are ever unclear on whether or not you have permission to use an article, err on the side of caution.
* Use a reprint release form so that you can document the copyright agreements you have with your writers.

Written by Senior Editor Claire Colvin

Listen to yourself with the non-Christian in mind. Think about talking to your neighbor who is allergic to the things of God. Concentrate on how to rephrase the following common Christian language in everyday, modern terms. Remember, if you have been a Christian for a long time, this language sounds normal to you! It can sound foreign to others. Don’t turn people off… draw them close to Christ.

* Rely on the Lord
* Looking back, I praise God for ….
* Spiritual warfare
* Power of his name
* God had a deeper lesson for me
* Total surrender
* Submission (refers to Christian growth concepts but in the language of our culture it is often negative- especially for women)
* Victory/victorious
* Bed of roses
* He became more precious to me
* Thirst for his Word
* Trials- Instead, refer to difficult circumstance.
* Prayer chain/prayer letter
* Over use the phrase “ The Lord” without identifying him
* I grew up in a Christian family-rather use “family who believed in God/family who went to Church”
* I was blessed with Christian parents ( being a Christian has not been defined)
* Lord of my life
* Fellowship
* He touched me
* The Holy Spirit prepared me- In this age of increase spirituality, we must be careful not to talk about the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost unless we can adequately identify him
* I praise God for…
* The Lord of directed/told me
* God has no grandchildren
* Mountain top/valley experiences- Perhaps use fears, depression, good days and bad days
* Overuse of the word SHARE
* Loving fellowship
* Sisters/brothers in Christ
* Feed his Word-use “study the Bible”
* Saved/ to save a soul
* I had peace- Define the “peace” , such as “ I felt fulfilled” or “there was sense of purpose in my life”
* Share in my walk
* In the Word
* Spiritual eyes
* Servanthood
* Christian community
* Appointment with God
* Look into your heart- Perhaps use “what are you feeling right now?”
* Burden
* Blessing
* Justification
* Righteousness
* Assurance
* Salvation
* Testimony
* Concern about my soul
* Plan of salvation
* Nudge of the Holy Spirit

Language
Never forget who you are writing for. Your audience probably has very little knowledge of Christianity, Christian terms or ideas, or the Bible. The language you use to present the information on the site will go a long way to determining whether or not your site gets read and who reads it. Be careful not to end up with an evangelistic site that all the Christians you know love. This site is not geared for them, it’s geared for non-Christians. Make sure your choice of language doesn’t get in the way of what you are trying to say.

It is difficult for Christians to learn to communicate in non-Christian terms. The language of the church is part of who we are, often we don’t even notice the church-y words that we use on a day to day basis. Writing evangelistically requires that we start to notice and be willing to make changes in the way we communicate.

Take a look at the page on Christian cliches– (Post: Step 2B) it is full of words that should not be on your site. All together in a list they can look pretty silly, but these are all words that a Crusade staffer found people using in their testimonies. These are words and phrases that have no point of reference for a non-Christian audience and so we cannot afford to use them.

Remember that you have to earn the right to be heard. Give your audience quality information on a quality site, convince them that you know what you are talking about and really do care about them and they are much more likely to listen to you when you want to talk to them about God.

Choose your words wisely:

* Edit carefully to remove Christian jargon.
* Find out which terms are acceptable in your cultural environment and use them.
* Educate all writers on words and phrases to avoid.
* Have brainstorming sessions on inclusive ways to talk about spiritual ideas.

Written by Senior Editor Claire Colvin

Quote: To write well, express yourself like common people, but think like a wise man.
Or, think as wise men do, but speak as the common people do.

Author: Aristotle BC 384-322, Greek Philosopher

The best advice I ever received on writing and public speaking was to write or speak as if I were in dialogue with one.
I always imagine myself visiting over a cup of coffee when I write.

What helps you get the keybaord clicking?

Our Marketing Advisors tell us that these are the top 15 key word and search queries from the last 48 hours from the largest Metacrawlers on the web.

What if we used this information to write articles on what people are searching for now rather than writing what’s on our minds?

How would you initiate articles using this information? Let’s share ideas….

Top 15 Searches
1 3338 jokes
2 2932 myspace
3 2902 google
4 2873 cars
5 2783 world cup
6 2462 top 100 baby names
7 2389 paris hilton
8 2325 funny ads
9 2323 ebay
10 2151 yahoo
11 2103 myspace.com
12 2083 games cheat
13 2055 play games
14 1972 summer dresses
15 1857 game cheats for ps

Top 15 Key words
1 211671 google
2 164166 myspace
3 151888 ebay
4 148176 yahoo
5 138522 lyrics
6 118470 myspace.com
7 108291 paris hilton
8 105283 girls
9 101183 golf training aid
10 95530 mapquest
11 90649 yahoo.com
12 82887 games
13 81273 jenna jameson
14 79895 carmen electra
15 78684 panic at the disco