7 tips to finding paid writing work December 4, 2009

                                                                 
Over the last few days I have continued on my quest. To be honest, I feel like Don Quixote with Sancho Panza on my shoulder. Nevertheless . . .
                                                                                                                                
More things you can do to get in line for paid writing.

• DON”T follow all the bunny trails leading to articles on SEO optimization, blog analytics, etc. You end up with too many questions seeming to ask you if you really can reach your goal of finding paid work.

• Sign up for HARO (Help a Reporter Out). You can sign up as a writer/reporter and as a possible source for reporters’ questions. This will help your platform and help you discover a wealth of helpful information for your own articles.

• Take a look at AppBank. You can write quizzes for them and earn some income when people use them.

• Don’t automatically assume that you can’t blog for companies. Despite the fact that you may not know a whole lot about real estate or kitchen cabinets, the internet is now your knowledge source. Just be sure to verify the information you read. Look for blogging jobs on ProBlogger.

• If you have any technical writing skills, Your Writing Department might be interested in helping you break through the gates into bigger and better jobs.

• Subscribe to “About Freelance Writing.” Anne posts a list of freelance writing jobs 2-3 times a week, and not all of the jobs are for writers with ten years of experience behind them.

• Check Freelance Job Openings daily.

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

The 2009/2010 top blogs on writing November 30, 2009

Michael Stelzner posts a yearly list of the top ten blogs for freelance writers. This year’s list is compiled from hundreds of votes, and here’s where you can find it.

Michael is the author of the very popular “Writing White Papers” blog. He has a book out—Writing White Papers—which tells writers how to write white papers or grow in their skill level. He’s also one of the big dogs when it comes to writing for major clients like Microsoft and Motorola, and he currently has 20,00 subscribers to his blog, so don’t limit yourself to following the top ten list; follow his blog, too.

More about Michael and how he can help you write and market your white paper writing skills.

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

Testimonials and endorsements—new laws for bloggers October 7, 2009

The Federal Trade Commission has recently passed an adoption of revised guidelines for bloggers and other forms of media advertisements. These new additions will become effective on December 1, 2009.

Why the new rules?
The FTC is worried that we, the American people, cannot figure out who is paid for a review or endorsement v. who is doing it out of the kindness of his/her heart. The review talks about celebrities being paid to promote products they never even use, and there is worry we might be duped into believing that the celebrity actually cares about the item he/she endorses. In the same way, there are many bloggers who receive free products to review, and if Johnny Moolah gets a free Xbox 360, we need to know about that before we read his stunning review (in which he may smarm up to the givers of such toys).
                                                                 

What does this mean for bloggers?
If you are paid to endorse a product, you must reveal that fact.
If you get a free book/product to review, you must disclose that.
If you simply review something you bought with your own money and want to tell the world how horrible/fantastic it was, you can do whatever you want.

“Endorsers also may be liable for statements made in the course of their
endorsements.”
(This is only if you make claims about the product that are untrue, e.g. you will lose forty lbs. in two weeks with no exercise if you drink Disappear sodas.)

Is it all on me to disclose what I earn/get for free out of my review?
“The manufacturer should advise him (Johnny Moolah) at the time it provides the gaming system (or car or book etc.) that this connection should be disclosed, and it should have procedures in place to try to monitor his postings for compliance.”

The summary?
Basically you have to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, even if you think your readers can’t handle the truth. You cannot claim that reading my collection of flash fiction made your hair grow, or that reading it in the restroom gave you rabies—stuff like that.

“Endorsements must reflect the honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experience of the endorser.”
                                                                 
                                                                 
Isn’t this all a bit silly?
Well . . . yes, in my opinion. As school is mandatory, and every child is taught some kind of basic education, I can’t see how necessary this really is. With the clichéd “dumbing down of America,” perhaps we now need a whole load of newer laws to cover our newer levels of stupidity. And now, I will shut my mouth. (And no, I was not paid to do that, although all monetary offers to do so will be gratefully received.)

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

Do it all well September 2, 2009

There is always a constant question in my head that I believe sweeps the same dirt into the heads of others: Am I doing everything I can?

A mother wants to recreate every touching moment she has seen on TV, a teacher wants his students to respond in the same way he saw the inner-city teens respond in a movie, a firefighter wants his marriage to be as strong as the one he read about, a kid wants to change the world the way she saw it happen on YouTube. We all have the deep desire inside us, not necessarily to make a difference, but to do all things well; and that’s where our problems lie, because we only have ourselves to do them.

As a writer, it’s not so much that I want to have my name known; it’s that I want people to have something open inside them to more when they read the noodle of words I put together. If I write a helpful article, I want others to feel inspired to run to try what I’ve just told them they can do. If I write a short story, I want its readers to laugh and have a better day, or to cry because I’ve finally hit the spot they couldn’t reach, or to think more deeply about how their lives affect others. I said above that I didn’t necessarily want to make a difference. I lied. I do, but I want to make a difference on the inside of private hearts, not in the outer glimmer and sheen of my life.

Wanting to do all things well can be overwhelming. I can have my checklist so long that it never gets done, even on a good writing day with no one else around. I lie in bed thinking about the number of words I could have written, how far ahead I’d be in my novel if I’d only gotten off Facebook earlier, what I’ll write about on my blog tomorrow.

So how can I fix myself?
The only thing I can do is try to copy the most perfect man ever so I have to ask myself What would Jesus do? Cliché, I know, but very practical.
Would he be on FaceBook? Absolutely! He loves people.
Would he write up his blog every two to three days to keep subscriptions and visitors coming? Dunno. He did go out every day to talk with people.
Would he have a target word count for his novel? I think he got other people to write for him. He was more of a story-teller.
Would he lie awake at night feeling like he’d shortchanged himself and others? No, he got his to-do list in the morning and just did that for the rest of the day.

Jesus lived in the moment and everyone thought he was perfect. Well, he was, but that’s neither here nor there for this discussion in my head. He enjoyed who he was; he enjoyed each person that came his way; he was ready for all the interruptions (even welcoming them as opportunities to love); and he had no worries about the next day, let alone the next year. He didn’t have a house. He had no income. He spoke his mind. He knew he had a lot to give.

Could my life be that way, too? What if I got up in the morning and made my list then? What if the only thing on it was to write my blog and the rest of the day was an adventure? What if I didn’t even have a list? Would I feel safe, secure in knowing that everything that should be done would get done? Would I end up loving others more once they were no longer mentally treated as an interruption to my list?

I think so, and I say that because I’ve tried it recently. Before I even get out of bed I ask what I should do first. Then I do it. I wait again and think about what to do after that. Then I do it. Surprisingly, much more has been done these days, and I have more time for people. I think it’s because I’m living in the moment instead of trying to be perfect.

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

Free blog exposure August 23, 2009

Alpha Inventions.com is a site a techie guy made to combat boredom. Basically, it works like other random-pick sites that flash through blog pages and you click on the ones you like the look of. This site is slightly different, though, in that it rotates the blogs most recently published rather than every blog in existence.

You might see alphainventions as a click-through site on your stats list, even if you did nothing to let alphainventions know you existed. You can, however, sign your site up on the site and get even more clicks, and if you want to have your site rotated more frequently, you can pay a subscription of $9.97 per month.

Here’s a vid. further explaining how it works.

Obviously, just having people see your site is never enough. You must have quality content and hooks—enough material to draw readers in. If you have a writing blog, then your content must be eclectic enough to have people stop and actually read what you have. Yours has to be different, stand out, keep them reading. I’m not going to make any claims to having those qualities in my blog, but at least I have more of an opportunity to have random visits to my blog from unknowns. Now I’m getting free exposure from a kind-hearted dude who was bored.

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

6 Tips for Integrating Your Blog with Facebook and Twitter July 13, 2009

I’ve discovered a few things of late that I’d like to share with you—practical things that computer geeks don’t even bother telling us because it is assumed that we would know such basic stuff. . . .

1) To create a fan page on Facebook, visit Facebook’s section that leads you through this.

2) If you would like to invite readers of your WordPress.com blog to follow your fan page on Facebook:
Go to your fan page.
Click on Add fan box to your site (under your photo).
Copy the code.
Paste it into a text widget.
Add it to your blog column.

The first time I did this, the only thing that showed up were some numbers and letters that looked like this: FB.init(“d7ed0dab25240bf5b8856fa3d408f2d9″);. I went back to the widget’s text box and deleted those. Now, even though I don’t have the photo or the fancy widget that appears on other people’s sites, at least there is a link there that says Inksnatcher on Facebook.

3) To get more readers for your blog, join Networked Blogs on Facebook:
Go to their home page on Facebook.
Add your blog via the button on the top-right corner.
Fill in your profile information.

To learn how to:
–import your feed to your fan page
–add the Networked Blogs tab to your profile wall
–add your blog list to your profile and info wall
visit their information page.

(The Networked Blogs widget won’t work on your WordPress.com blog because JavaScript is not supported.)

4) To get Facebook fans to follow your blog (that is now listed on Networked Blogs):
Visit your blog profile page on Facebook .
Click on invite friends (under the photo of your blog page). Follow NWB’s instructions on how to invite friends to follow your blog. (You are only allowed to invite twenty people a day.)

5) If you want to add a button to WordPress.com for people to follow you on Twitter, you have many sites to choose from. I googled Twitter buttons follow me and found this site. I entered my Twitter name and then had multiple choices of text to copy and paste into a widget’s text box.
Enter your Twitter name.
Choose your picture.
Copy the code.
Paste it into a text widget box.
Add to your blog column.

6) IMHO, The best way to follow Twitter is with Tweetdeck, only once you have it set up, be sure to have settings open all information searches in a new tab—Twitter will freeze your account for clicking on too many names within Tweetdeck. Yes, I sure do have an opinion about this, but today is going to stay happy.
Read more about Tweetdeck here.
Download the Tweetdeck service here.

And an extra tip that has saved me from the Irritated-Facebook-Users Society:
When scrolling down the list of Facebook posts, right-click any links that you want to read later. Pick open in new tab and Facebook will open each page in a new window. You can read these later at your leisure.

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

Bloggiesta: challenge you, I do June 19, 2009

The bloggiesta is a blog effort by Natasha of Maw Books Blog to help us all get our blogs cleaned up, spruced up, and ahead of the game. Sheer genius on her part, I might add. The challenge started this morning and ends on Sunday morning at 8 a.m., which means that I am already behind.

Bloggers know that in order to keep any sort of following, a blog must be updated two to three times a week, but things happen that distract us. Sometimes tweeters just keep on putting up good tweets, and we start reading all the linked pages, or we get invited to Starbucks or a child decides to tell us that his semester-long project is due the next day (without our knowing he had a project at all). It would be bliss to have some blog drafts already written and ready to post.

I’ve cut and pasted Natasha’s list into Word so that I can tick things off as they are done. I hope to have at least five posts saved by day’s end, along with some information on how to fix my page so that I can show buttons.

Have fun!

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM