Please Don’t Feed the Writer

On topic… No, but a conversation I had with my sister today got me thinking about the real estate market and my future home buying plans. As a military family, we really haven’t decided where we plan to end up after my wife’s career in the military is over (She’ll retire at 38, can you believe it!), but it does make me wonder how I’m going to go about looking once we’ve decided where we plan to live the rest of our lives.

As a completely rhetorical thought, say we decided that New York City was our destination of choice. (It won’t be. I don’t think my cowboy boots fit in all that well there…) assuming we’re stationed in California, how am I supposed to get valid and current information on Bronx Real Estate?

I’d use the Internet, of course.  The problem then becomes; which one of the thousands of real estate sites am I going to use?  For me the choice is pretty simple.  If I’m looking for Homes for Sale, I’ll check RealEstateBook.com  first.  Why?  Because I’ve used their magazine in the past to locate apartments and rentals.  I’ve come to trust them, and I take a look there first, then pick a Realtor.

Just my two cents kiddies.  I hope my sister’s house hunting goes well.

If you’ve ever wondered how some sites get to the front page of social media sites like Digg or Stumbleupon and wondered how you can get your content placed there as well then Dustin Brewer might have the answers you’re looking for.  Dustin just penned a post on his blog titled Top 5 ways to create interesting content for social networks which details the methods that he feels will get your content moved from social networking obscurity to current buzz of the day.

While social networking sites will never get you the kind of traffic that good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will garner over time, they can be great for spikes in traffic of anywhere from 20 or 30 visitors to well over 1,000 in a single day. The hope with this surge in attention is that at least some of the people that stop by will sign up for your site feed or bookmark your blog for a later visit, but regardless of the long term results it is an exhilarating feeling to see your page views jump by hundreds or thousands for a day.

If you have no idea what either of these terms mean, then the rest of this post is not for you. If you are among the growing number of bloggers and website owners that prefers the flexibility and power of owning their own virtual server, then you have probably used either telnet or ssh to connect to your server.

If your needs have grown to the point that you need to have multiple people maintaining your system, security starts to play a major roll in your plans. If this has become the case for your enterprise, be it fortune 500 or just a few people, you may want to look into the following Telnet solutions from Pragma Systems. Keeping your data secure is the first line of defense for any web based entity, and you are never to small to worry about it.

One of the most necessary and most often overlooked parts of your web presence is the “About” page. It doesn’t matter whether you are a blogger, an author, a journalist or a company, the “about me” page can either entice the casual reader into returning for another round, or it can send them permanently in the opposite direction, never to be seen again.

I’ll be linking to the most concise article on the topic I’ve yet seen at the bottom of this entry, but first I would like to cover what an “About” page should not be.

Your about page should NOT:

• Read like the author bio in the back of a novel: This format is reserved for books, where it works well. If the format fits what you are doing on the web (i.e., if you are a fiction writer or other form of published author) expand upon the concept. Give your readers more than they will find in the dust jacket of your books, or there is no reason at all for them to read it. In fact, you’ve created an an even better reason for your readers to feel that they’ve gotten all they need from the dust jacket and they will stick with that, not your web site.
• Be a sales pitch: Your about page is there to identify who you are and what you know. It is not there to make a sale. It should only link to a product if said product or publication is relevant to establishing your value to your reader. Don’t make the mistake of trying to turn what should be informative into a push to make a buck. If you do you will be rewarded… By a loss in readership.
• Speak down to your readers: Do not attempt to come across as a “super expert”. This usually results in people feeling that you are being arrogant or pompous. They’re history, and you’re out readership.
• Be Boring: The last thing you want your about page to do is put your readers to sleep! Try to keep it interesting, but not overly long-winded. A little humor goes a long way, Make someone smile today and they will be back tomorrow. Make them snore and well…

Having said all that, I realize that my “About the Author” page is defintely not where it should be. (it’s always good to have a new project!)
For a great example on what your your “About Me” page should address, check out this article on ProBlogger.com

For a few excellent about me pages, see:

• John Chow’s About John Chow
• About Dosh Dosh
• About the Kitchen Wench
• About Simply Recipes

There are many more, but these should get you started. I know they’ve got me thinking.

The chatter in the writing world is still focused on the issue of plagiarism.  The issue currently revolves around authors in the world of fiction, but the truth of the matter is, it’s a real problem for you if you’re writing for the web as well.

I’ve heard some people grousing that no one should care.  I don’t know where they get their idea of fairness , or of ethic, but to me the thought of citing another author that has taken the time to put down original information is more than a little appalling. Weren’t we taught not to do this in grade school?  It is not only inconsiderate but rude, and leads to substandard work on our part, therefore it should never be done.

The simple way to give credit if you are writing fiction is to acknowledge the source of your research in the opening credits of the book.  A line as simple as “I could not have accurately recreated Paris in the 1900’s without the brilliant work of Steven Zdatny from his book “Hairstyles and Fashion, A Hairdresser’s History of Paris, 1910-1920″ is usually enough to stoke another author’s ego and to properly credit your research…  But was it research or plagiarism?

(more…)

Everyone gets in debt sooner or later.  Part of the America ideal is to have at least one credit card and all too often your situation changes and that card goes from being a boon to a burden.  If you’re struggling with those bills as a freelancer, you have the added stresses of never knowing exactly when your next check will be coming in, or what your income might be from month-to-month.  These factors can lead to sleepless nights and lack of creativity and productivity which can further complicate matters.

If you are dealing with these issues, it may be time to check into a Credit Counseling service that can help you to regain control over your finances.  At the very least it might help you get a better night’s sleep.

This blog started as a method for me to chronicle my development as a writer in the traditional sense.  My goal at the time was to write novels.  This goal has changed, and the focus of this blog is changing with it.

I discovered that my particular writing style is best suited to short articles (less than 3,000 words).  I can produce several of these per day, where a full length novel is something that, at least for the time being, is an unreasonable goal for me.  To be honest, I went mercenary.  I like to get paid, and I like to be sure that I am, in fact, going to be paid sometime soon.  It’s easier to shoot for three to six $10.00 jobs per day than it is to slave at a keyboard while always facing the selection process and the chance of rejection at the end of that process.

To that end, I’m refocusing this blog to meet the needs of those of us the rest of the world has dubbed “Pro bloggers.”  I make my living doing this.  I see no reason that you can’t do the same, the world is a big place, there is still a lot of room in it for people to make at the very least a comfortable second income.

I’m going to help you get there.

Wanna come along for the ride?

That would be the stack of writing related articles, tips, tricks and all other manner of good information I think I should be passing along here.  Said stack resides on a document holder at the side of my monitor, and it is something I add to every single day.

So why haven’t I added anything here?

To be honest, I’ve been too busy writing!  Over the past several days I’ve published roughly 12 articles across my varied blogs, including Cookingbytheseatofmypants.com, ADHDFamilies.org and SpunPuppy.com, to name a few.  I’m also in the middle of writing several articles slated for Associated Content, working on a new website for military families and trying to figure out why one of my client’s sites is not functioning properly in an older version of Internet Exploder.  As you can see, I’ve been a busy boy.

Feel free to poke around one of those other blogs itf the topic strikes your fancy.  I’ll be dusting off the stack to add to this little piece of the pie tomorrow at latest.

Until then, Good Writing!