Write it!

Now that the signed contract for my picture book is in the mail and on its way to the publisher, I must work on the second story in the series. I have the verses written, it’s just a matter of deciding on placement. I’m letting it sit because this usually aids in the writing process. When you come at something with fresh eyes, inspiration usually follows.

I have other exciting news! The publisher likes the third story. We are discussing some tweaks but matters look promising. This one I wrote in two days!! Unbelievable, considering that I worked on the first story in my head for over a year, playing with the stanzas and word choices.

Writing is always so exciting. Each day brings something different–and for those who do not like being confined by routine, the writing life is ideal. I am truly living my bliss!

Anyway, I will keep readers posted.

Credo: live your bliss, love unconditionally, be your own best friend and advocate.

It’s been quite a month! I’ve signed a contract for a children’s book and the publisher wants a sequel–as well as other stories in the series.

The last two weeks I’ve been working simultaneously on three children’s books. Exciting to beat all get out! Between getting the contract in the bag and pulling new stories out of my hat, it has been a roller-coaster ride! But . . . a good ride for all that.

My poor boyfriend had two weeks off but, of course, the latest happenings had to take precedence.

On top off that, I heard that one of my health articles has been selected to appear in the Australian Mensa publication.

Sandwiched in between all this have been requests for blog posts and an offer of payment for helping someone to set up a Blogger blog. It never rains but it pours!!

That’s what makes the writing life so exciting. Some days it seems like Christmas!! –or, as Forest Gump would say: “You never know what you’re gonna get.”

If I can get four children’s books in the works this year, my writing goals will be on target.

Please keep your fingers crossed!

Many people were disappointed to learn that Susan did not win First Place. Especially since her last performance was stellar.

Reports have come in that, in some cases, the number that was flashed for voting was incorrect and that those who voted for Susan were in actuality voting for the other two acts. This may have contributed to Susan’s loss on Britian’s Got Talent.

It would be wonderful if they did a recount and gave Susan the recognition and the First Place win she deserved.

Today, I came across a site that allows members to leave messages of support for Susan Boyle .

Please check it out and take the time to register and send a message to Susan: Support Susan Boyle

Today, I want to mention valuable resources for writers. If you haven’t visited already, you’ll want to swing by My Writer’s Circle. This writer’s forum has received 100,000 messages in under two years.

My Writer’s Circle has passed another landmark: gaining 5000 members and making it to #1 in Google. What a way to go!

You can receive support and feedback for all of your writing endeavors from a community of like-minded individuals.

You’ll also want to check out Nick Daws writing blog.

Nick also offers budget-friendly courses that give you the tricks of the trade regarding articles and stories that can net you a good return for the time invested. He outlines other markets that are easy to break into and that may prove more lucrative in the end.

Nick shows you how to write fillers, reader’s letters, or how to write for greeting card companies. Imagine submitting a small five-minute filler and getting paid $50.00-80.00 for your efforts?

Nick discusses discovering niche markets that pay well and that pay quickly.

Once you know how and where to market your work, you’ll see a faster and more rewarding return for the time you invest in writing.

Have you ever wondered what questions Internet searchers type into their browsers? For keyword optimization, it’s helpful to get a handle on hot keyword terms and to incorporate these into your articles.

Now you can do so using the Keywords Labs Keyword Questions Research Tool . Simply type a word into the box to see what searchers are looking for. The keyword tool helps to target questions that searchers type into their browsers.

You can see at a glace 100 results and create articles that answer questions searchers are asking.

Today’s tip: the Google Adwords Keyword Tool

A crucial part of online writing involves the use of keywords. Using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool is an important step in creating content that is assigned relevance by search engines.

I save the Google Adwords Keyword Tool as a shortcut to my desktop.  This way, when I need to generate keywords for an article or choose popular keywords, I have the handy tool readily available with one click.

Starting today, I’m offering a “tip of the day”series at this blog. I’ll be offering short usable tips for readers, to help them to build their brand, increase exposure, and earn online income.

Today’s Tip: OnlyWire

If you bookmark your articles across multiple sites, you can save time using OnlyWire . Once you’ve registered with Onlywire, you submit your article URL and it is automatically entered at top bookmarking sites.

• Using OnlyWire can be a real time-saver for busy writers.

My recent contest over at Triond was a success.

The author contest was held to determine the Triond author with the highest page views for a given article.

Many authors submitted their article URL’s and I was very impressed with the stats.

A number of Triond authors create good quality content and then do the necessary legwork to market it so that they receive stellar page views, which ultimately leads to  decent earnings, at present and down the road.

One author has really grasped the concept of how to write articles that appeal to the masses–but above that, he writes what he calls compiling articles–articles with many links so that readers can bookmark one article and use it to access multiple sites/sources for information.

This author, Nelson Doyle, won King of Content with his winning article, which  pulled in over 100,000 page views. I found  interviewing Nelson interesting and informative.

• I may hold future contests and welcome suggestions for the type of contests authors would like to see.

We are living in hard economic times. It really helps to have a resume prepared ahead of time so that if you need to apply for a job, you have a resume at the ready.

If you face a sudden job loss, you’ll have enough to worry about. Preparing a resume ahead of time can ease some of the pressure.

I’ve included a listing of helpful resume resources over at Write and Earn a Living, which gives the job seeker important information to help in preparing a resume.

As well, I’ve created an article entitled: How to Write a Resume Using Free Online Tools for those who don’t necessarily have the resources to pay to have a resume created for them. I checked out current resume prices and saw figures that ran from $99.00-$200.00, which may not be feasible for someone who is unemployed.

Resumes have changed in recent years and many market competitive resumes now include keywords. Computers now scan resumes and those that include relevant keywords have a better chance of making the grade.

It is my hope that this information will be of help to those facing challenging times.

If you want to get on the bandwagon with Twitter, I’ve written a series of articles that will help to walk you through Twitter.

• Why You Should be Using Twitter –Twitter is a great tool used to network and gain followers for your blogs or articles or simply to make friends and fritter away time instead of working or doing necessary tasks.

• Where You Can Get the Twitter Bird – The Twitter bird is appearing all over the place–and the cute looking bird is a great way to gain followers! You may have seen the Twitter bird on different sites. Where do you get your own Twitter bird?

• Adding Twitter to Your Website –Add Twitter to your site so that readers can keep abreast of your Twitter updates or your articles and follow you.

• How to Add Your Website or Blog to Twitter –How many people are following you on Twitter? If you haven’t included your site or blog, you may be leaving viewers behind and revenue on the table.

Twitter is easy to use and is a valuable tool to get the word out about your site or blog offerings, increasing exposure for your online content.

If you haven’t started to use Twitter, these Twitter articles will walk you through the whole process.

* Did you find this information helpful? Please Stumble it and get the word out. And leave a comment! *

Crafting reader-friendly articles for the Internet

Writing for the Internet is different from writing for magazines. Studies show that Internet readers scan pages quickly, looking for digestible bites of information.

Craft Reader-Friendly Articles

• Come quickly to the point in an introductory paragraph
• Use subheadings
• Use bullets points such as you see here
• Break your article into digestible sections
• Conclude with an ending paragraph that sums up your article’s thrust.

Nix Wordiness

Avoid wordy paragraphs as they may be simply too much for the average Internet surfer to absorb. Think how you can offer usable information as concisely as possible.

Articles That Deliver the Goods

When you are looking for information, are you drawn to lengthy overly-detailed books or quick pages that deliver the goods in record time?

Our world just gets busier and busier. Online writers who recognize this craft reader-friendly articles that are easy to read and deliver specific information quickly.

Online Writing Resources:

• Writing for the Web

• How to Write and Publish Articles Online

I made a promise over at Triond. I pledged that for every author who commented on one of my Triond articles, I would return the favor and comment on one of their Triond articles.

Well, have I been busy today!!

In the past, I’ve tried to comment on others’ articles or on articles I happened to come across when at the Triond site–but so many readers take the time to comment on my Triond articles that I thought it only fair to buy out time to return the favor.

Will I be able to keep up the pace? I guess time will tell.

In the process, I have discovered awesome articles that I would have otherwise missed! I’m Stumbling, Digging, and Buzzing Triond articles that are stellar.

This experience has given me a renewed appreciation for a number of hard-working Triond authors. Some of their work is an incredible resource, which I’m sure will continue to earn for them for months or years to come.

What are your thoughts about Writing for Triond?

• Do you write for Triond?
• Do you plan to?
• Do you comment on Triond articles?

Reselling your work allows you to earn more from your efforts. Most writers don’t make enough from any one piece and reselling your articles allows you to capitalize on work you’ve already done.

If you are a writer who still submits your work to print markets, you should give consideration to reselling your articles. Some feel this isn’t a good idea and they rewrite their material so that it is original; others prefer to resell work they’ve completed because this saves them time and earns them more.

There are no hard and fast rules. Just as each writer has a different creative process, each writer will have to determine if reselling his articles is a good fit.

Reselling Your Work

I’ve had good success reselling my work and haven’t encountered any difficulties.

• Make sure the publication you want to resell to takes previously published material
• In your cover letter, provide details of when your work was published, where, and what publication it appeared in.

Some publishers appreciate a plug and you can simply add a sentence to the bottom of your article, such as: “Petting The Parrot” first appeared in the Dec. 2001 issue of Avian Adventures.

Mentioning that your piece has been previously published lets the publication you are submitting to know that another publishing outfit thought the work good enough to run with. This establishes your author credibility.

In an age of recycling, this concept can be put to good use with your articles. Reselling, for some authors, is a lucrative undertaking.

Do you want to get into online content writing? It’s not that hard to do. Maybe you are blogging and now want to take your writing to the next level.

If you are following this blog, make sure to check out the Work From Home tab up top because these are all sites you can write for–and best of all, you will earn from your online content writing.

Admittedly, you have to create much online content to make real earnings but the neat aspect to writing is that you can do it whenever the mood strikes and work at it over time to supplement your present income.

• Some people write part time for fun, to gain experience, and to earn a little extra.
• Some people keep on going and eventually build a writing career.

YouTube offers some good videos about online content writing and how to go about it. I’m including links to some of these below and hope they provide insights and encouragement.

How to Become a Freelance Writer and Start Online Content Writing

• How I Got Started Writing Articles Online.

• How to Find Writing Jobs Online

• Earn Money Writing Articles

• Write and Sell Web Articles

If you’ve always dreamed of being a writer, you can become one. The Internet allows for writers who are just breaking in to hone their skills through online content writing.

If you ‘ve ventured down the freelance writing path, you are either are sending your work out to hard copy markets or you are engaging in online writing. What are the differences between the two?

Hard Copy Markets

Sending your work out to magazines can be lucrative but it is a hit-and-miss undertaking. You can end up waiting months to hear if your piece has been accepted and then spend more months waiting for payment. In the worse-case scenario, you are told that your piece will be published and then it’s later dropped from the publishing que. If you have been waiting on payment, this can be particularly frustrating.

I had this happen with a piece that I had previously sold. I sent it to another publication and was told they wanted to run with it and I was offered $100.00. But, the promised payment never materialized–and I never heard back. I finally wrote and pulled the piece, which, by that time, was an effort in futility. Writing for hard copy, in the end, is a writer’s choice and it may be a good way to supplement your income if time is not a factor.

Online Writing

Many writers are transitioning or have transitioned to online writing because payment is so much faster and they can submit their work electronically, over having to mail it out. Online writing offers distinct advantages. If you have a PayPal account or some other payment method, you are paid almost instantly, upon completion of work. If you write reviews, blog, or write for content sites, you are paid every week, bi-weekly or monthly.

Some writers do both hard copy and online writing so that they have income coming in and have checks arriving in the mail. Whatever the process, this results in writing earnings.

• What kind of writing do you do?

Today I’m going to discuss free Blogger Training Videos.

We’ve reached our 20th Blogger blogging lesson. If you’ve worked through all the Blogger lessons, by now, you’ll have set up and monetized your Blogger blog and you should be seeing a trickle of AdSense earnings coming in.

Continue to work hard at your blog, adding fresh content and attractive pictures, responding to readers, linking to other blogs and sites, installing neat-looking buttons and badges, networking, etc. and your blog will continue to gain momentum

Lesson 20: Free Blogger Training Videos

Now, it’s time to move from the realm of beginner blogger to accomplished blogger and with that in mind, I’m going to point you to an absolutely wonderful resource! I mentioned that I would steer you to a series of free Blogger Training Videos–how-to’s for everything Blogger.

Free Blogger Videos

These Blogger Training Videos are the real deal, walking you through all stages of Blogger blogging. Free Blogger video training shows you step-by-step how to do almost everything with your blog!

How does 118 free blogger training videos sound? I think this is an incredible resource for bloggers.

Simply sign up for your free Blogger training videos and choose which videos you want to watch.

As well, the site offers radio shows, forums and advice. This is one of the best resources for Blogger bloggers.

I hope you enjoy the free Blogger training videos as much as I have.

Hello everyone. Today we are going to kick off our 19th Blogger lesson by taking a look at feedburning your blog. Why should you feedburn your Blogger blog?

Lesson 19: Feedburning Your Blog

If you’ve been creating good quality posts, you will start to see readers commenting. Now you should be looking at additional ways to make your blog reader-friendly.

Blogger offers the option of installing subscribe buttons in the sidebar. If you’ve been following these lessons you will have done this and some of your readers will be following your blog through subscribing via a reader.

Some people prefer to keep up with their favorite blogs through feed readers; others like to have newly created posts come directly to their inbox. I know that I opt for this option. Generally, I’m simply too busy to have to hunt up a reader and, if a person keeps up with a number of blogs like I do, it’s just so much easier to have those blog posts e-mailed via a feedburned blog.

How do you Feedburn your Blog?

Sign in to Google and go to “My Accounts.” A page will open. Look down to the left, where you’ll see the third heading: “Feedburner.” Click on that. Locate the section: “Burn a feed right this instant.” Type or paste your blog’s URL into the box. If you aren’t sure of your blog’s URL, simply go to your Blogger blog. Sign in and open your blog. Go to the upper left-hand corner and choose “send link” or position your mouse over the page, right-click and go down to where it says “properties.” Click on that and copy the URL.

Paste your blog URL into the box at Feedburner and burn your feed. Once this is done, click on your blog’s title. A page will open with a number of headings. choose “Publicize”and select “Email Subscriptions.” follow the page instructions and make sure to select “use a widget in Blogger.” Save your settings and check your blog to see if the button is installed.

* If you found this post helpful, please Stumble, Digg, or Mixx it. *

Hello everyone. Well, we’ve had quite a journey into the world of blogging. This series of blogging lessons has been like a blogging tool-kit–a comprehensive tutorial covering a wide range of topics.

Have you cracked it open yet? Have you set up your free Blogger blog?

Do You Remember?

Gems from the blogging tool-kit:

• Lesson #1: Setting Up A Free Blog

• Lesson #5: Blogger Settings

• Lesson #7 Free Blogger Templates

• Lesson #9 Setting up a Custom Domain

•  Lesson #14 Mastering Blogger Layout

•  Lesson #15 Google AdSense

• Lesson #17 Widgets

These blogging lessons have been your  tool-kit, allowing you to set up a free blog and tweaking it for optimum eye-appeal and performance. Have you taken advantage of all the great features Blogger offers?

Coming Soon . . . 

• Feedburning your blog–give your readers the option to receive e-mail updates of your blog
• Blogging videos–rather watch than read blogging how-to’s?

In the next two lessons, I’ll be discussing feedburning your blog and, in the grand finale, I’ll point you to some awesome Blogger videos. If you have trouble with written instructions and prefer to learn through seeing, these free blogging videos will help you to get your Blogger blog off to a great start!

With all these great tools at your disposal, you really can set up a blog and join the ranks of successful bloggers. Put these lessons to good use . . . in other words, open the blogging tool kit and get cracking!

• If you’ve found these lessons helpful, please spread the word by Stumbling, Digging, or Buzzing them.

We’ve all seen them: very kewl blog buttons on other blogs. And we immediately thought, where the heck would I grab those?

Lesson 18: Very Kewl Blog Buttons

In today’s lesson, I’m going to point you to some neat sites where you can obtain usable and attractive blog buttons to spice up your blog and polish it, draw readers and help you to gain a following.

Twitter Bird –The first item on your “to get” list is the Twitter bird. This cute little fellow encourages your blog readers to follow you. Once they do, each time you paste a blog post URL into Twitter, you attract readers to your blog!

Hit Counters –Hit counters are neat-looking blog buttons that show your readers that others appreciate your content. And you don’t have to settle for boring-looking numbers, either. You can install hit counters that look like ladybugs or birds, whatever your preference!

Widgetbox –Ever wish you had a tool kit for your blog? Well, now you do! Widgetbox can help you to add an assortment of neat and kewl blog buttons, such as Celebrity News, Baby Tickers, and Cyber-Pets. You can even create your own Blidget–a widget of your blog, featuring your latest posts, that others can install on their blogs. Neat or what?

Entrecard –You join a network of bloggers; you place the Entrecard Widget on your blog; others drop their cards; you visit them back and drop your card; you earn credits; you advertise on other blogs. Entercard is an attractive blog button, advertising your web presence.

I’m sure you’ll agree, these are very kewl blog buttons!

You see a neat widget . . . but how the heck do you install it on your Blogger blog?

Lesson 17: Installing Widgets on Your Blogger blog

Once you start looking at other blogs (and you should be to learn how to format your own), you’ll notice cool-looking widgets that you may want to install on your Blogger blog.

How the heck would I install something like that? you may be thinking. It’s very, very easy.

You see, rather than having to actually go into the template and fiddle with HTML, Blogger allows you to add a number of items to your blog–and takes the guess-work out of it for you.

Usually, widgets will have an install code. Click on a desired widget to visit the site to get your own and look for a snippet of code. Run your mouse over the code to select it or right-click and  hit “Select All” then press “Copy.” Once the code is highlighted, return to your blog and go to Layout.

How to Install Widgets

• At Navbar, click on “Add a Gadget.”
• Scroll down until you come to HTML/JavaScript
• Select that and paste the code into the box
• You can choose a title for the top part of the box
• Press “Save” and you are done!

Check out your blog to see your new widget, proudly showing itself off in your blog’s sidebar!

Installing a widget on your Blogger blog is easy, thanks to the handy HTML button.

• Take a deep breath and reward yourself by going out for some pizza. You are joining the ranks of dedicated, pizza-loving bloggers.

Once you get on to the process, installing widgets can be one of the neatest aspects of blogging.