Inspired Writing Research Insider Tips

Squidoo or Squidon't?

Well, my London Fun for Free or For Less lens is about a week old now, and so far the news is good! It is better than I expected actually. Miserable without my laptop in London, I borrowed my daughter's one evening and (desperate to wite something, anything - well, some of you know that feeling - do some work of some kind at any rate) i put into practice something I'd been meaning to trial for a while. I played about a bit with the Squidoo system,and as it seemed fairly easy to use and I was in London anyway, so I decided to write a Travel page.

Naturally enough, the starting ranking was about half a million down! 445,000 ish I think. Competitive by nature, and having taught myself some of the ways in which the internet works - I decided to try and better this. And better it again. And the same the next day. I didn't mind - I was on holiday! (Supposed to be anyway.) I had heard of the Squidoo top 100 and thought of it as some lofty height that squidexperts reach after years.

Not so, my London Fun for Free or For Less web page was ranked at 67 in Travel this morning! Am I rich? The answer is I don't know! Like all these internet things, people say you don't make anything for the first few months. Only time will tell whether it will bring in anything - and the incessant traffic-building is hard work and time-consuming.

I would probably say that Squidoo is worth trying if you love writing and are the master of your own time. As this applies to me, that means that Squidoo will remain on my writing list - and I'll monitor the results and report back. It does seem that it is not a place where a writer can rest on his laurels! Top pages only only stay there if they are kept there by keeping on top of them the whole time and this must be labour-intensive if writers have many pages.

To date then, until the earnings results are available, I pronounce my Squidoo trial a success. For more success (particularly in Travel) it has been suggested that writers 'buy' some traffic. Now that's one thing I won't be doing!

Black and white twins: Brothers from the same mother - The Body Odd - msnbc.com

Black and white twins: Brothers from the same mother - The Body Odd - msnbc.com

Tags: dna, genealogy, genes, genetics, twins, nonidentical twins, dna news,

London Fun for Free or For Less

London Fun for Free or For Less

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Just As Well I Checked on the Raspberries!

Popped over to Helium to freshen up my 'How To Ripple Your Raspberries' article' - just as well I checked! It's rating at Number 1 out of 60. That was a nice surprise.

Although it started off well there this time last year, seasonal articles do rise and fall and the last time I checked it was floating middle to top. I couldn't figure out a reason why it has suddenly shot up again, until I realised that, missing my writing fix over the Christmas break, I had decided to go in and 'leapfrog' a few articles.

This was probably one of them but I can't remember what I did! It was a competition entry, the original title of which no longer does justice to the way in which this article 'blossomed' into a niche channel, so I need to look at changing that.

Anyway, my next task is to customise, refresh,promote and find new markets for it - and to explain the process in a tutorial for my Newbie Internet Writer Training Site www.inspiredwritingresearch.com

This site shares tips I have learned about earning money online for those writers who want to work from home.

I bought the 'Full Season Collection' of raspberries as recommended by Thompson and Morgan, and have been thrilled with all our tasty 'free' fruit right into the early winter, so am happy to recommend that site here.

image flickr creative commons 'algo'

Frogs instead of Blog Slogs!

Latest decision? I'm giving up writing. Surely not, some will say, but why?

Well, oh dear, oh dear summer's here and that means yours truly finding herself edging outside on a pretext of watering the freshly sown runner beans. But you know how it is........ a dandelion needs pulling up, then another, then a columbine could do with moving into a more wooded setting. Before we know it, it's lunchtime and nothing's written.

However, I have a cunning plan for gardeholic freelancers! This week I will be doing a 'stocktake' of all my previously-written articles and blogs and repositioning the seasonal ones from last year.

Articles can be refreshed and updated with the latest studies, research, news and links (inc. shopping!! ) for our visitors - and don't forget to check for adsense relevance too. When 'refurbished' the articles can then be re-promoted, checking for new directories and social networking opportunities.

I will honour my freelance commitments through the summer, but fine-tuning, re-promoting and selling a couple of older articles per day may be a lot less work than non-stop writing and pinging!

Hopefully I will also find time to then work on poems - such as the one inspired by a tiny icy froglet landing on the back of my hot hand as I attacked the dandelions with a trowel!

So which article shall I start with? Well, I see the raspberries are almost in flower. Time to dig out 'How To Ripple Your Raspberries' from last year (google it!) - and maybe make a new web page from it too. (For my newbie coaching website - www.inspiredwritingresearch.com)

image j pockele flickr creative commons

Touchez for Typepad! Trial Taken Forward

      Third Party DNS and Blog Activation was a cinch for me with

                            Typepad this week. Just as well as I don't have a lot of time and can't afford to mess up! Linking blogs to our websites is supposed to be a good idea, generating traffic and the blogs taking on a life of their own as well  - so I thought I had better take some time out from freelancing/website building  this week, get my sleeves rolled and just get on with it.

I needn't have worried about wasting time - a few simple clicks and a short wait to make sure DNS settings were updated and it was done. I was less happy about the fact that I had to upgrade my account, although luckily the increase in cost was not too much and it means I can consider melding the design with my website one above. In order to avail of the third party service, Typepad users have to upgrade from Basic to the next level. The increase was manageable however - had it not been, I would have had to consider whether the outlay would prove cost-effective. After all, I had just decided not to be a serious 'hunched over the computer and pinging away all day' breed of blogger.

So, this remains a 'life in the day of ' kind of a freelancer diary notes blog. Over the coming week, I'll make some decisions as to what goes in it! One thing that probably won't go in is a Tip Jar or Donations Button! The Very Idea! Discussion on that next week - if people find my free sharing of experiences of Typepad useful, for example, I would prefer they showed their appreciation by clicking on my Typepad banner if they're going to do it anyway!

Does She Look Bovvered? Ali Smith The Whole Story - article

April 28th   So what have I been writing? As usual I have been busy with my Short Stories Editor's weekly column at BellaOnline Magazine. This week I have compiled my personal observations of the way in which British author Ali Smith builds tension and atmosphere in her story 'Gothic.'

She tells of 'a bad day at the shop' when a young, inexperienced and none-too-committed bookshop assistant has to deal with 'some unpleasantness' from an odious author/customer.

Her finger hovers over the panic button.....

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art32601.asp

image - james morrison - flickr - creative commons

Being Fair To DooYoo

Message received from DooYoo requesting details of the spam message I received. Might not seem much, but decent service and attention to detail is important to me. So thumbs up for them.

I am assured they will deal with it and the message was warmly personal and courteous - for what it's worth to any newbie internet writers out there?

NEW REQUESTS

Next up ....... how to write a cracking theatre review, by popular demand! Also, why we have to write for nothing and Finding Value Content - thanks for the requests - I'm getting round to them all as fast as ever I can!

WHAT DID I WRITE TODAY?

Ali Smith 'The Whole Story' Review - examining the building of tension and friction in her short story 'gothic' (such a good title!) That poor shop girl! Let's hear it for poor teens just starting out in the rough old world of work. We've all been there, pushed around, disrespected.......

TOMORROW

Adding this blog to my website:

www.inspiredwritingresearch.com

Really must knuckle back down to it!

Let's see how well this BlogIt works from this end, this way round! It has a few drawbacks - what about images, what about pings and editing? Counter-productive if we have to then go all the way back through our blogs!!

Take A Leaf Out Of My Book - Write Micro Fiction?

Perhaps you are more a Creative Writer than a Non-Fiction writer? You can still cast your poems and short stories 'upon the waters' to trial them and get valuable feedback and ratings. Or why not leap in with both feet and just submit something? Leaf Books (UK and global) have a contest running right now (I'm submitting.) Paying sites that accept Creative Writing can be hard to find, but Helium does encourage creative writers. Or if you're in confident form, there's some more in-depth tips about Leaf Books in this article which I wrote for my Editor Site at BellaOnline magazine:

Flash Fiction anthologies make great potted books for any reader in a hurry, and the Leaf books anthology 'Derek and More Micro Fiction' is no exception. Writers in particular will find the collection a gripping read as it allow them a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ look into the writing lives and successes of other authors who are maybe not so very far ahead of them, but who have ‘made it.’

This directory of Micro Fiction competition-winners is made all the more delectable by the knowledge that smug published authors have not 'gotten into print' before novices just by sheer dint of their name and reputation. That greatest of levellers, anonymity, apparently prevails. So read the winning short fiction pieces and weep - or learn!

Derek and More Micro-Fiction is an anthology which may attract those who are automatically drawn to books which have a short, minimalist look about them – even if they are not writers. This slim, black, shiny volume with its lino-print effect, and black photo-negative style image of an empty park bench, looks mysterious.

Perhaps the styling even suggests an instruction like that of the bottle in Alice in Wonderland - inviting ‘read-me, you know you can do it in twenty minutes.’ Perfect for commuters or writers on the go, the anthology presentation suggests fiction which is witty but not too heavy.

Mini stories, 500 words or less, were called for and Leaf Books owns up to the fact that they sometimes admire the shortest – as in ‘a single paragraph.’ But then, that is now their prerogative, being (as they now suspect) a world-leader in Micro-Fiction publishing - and one which specialises in getting first-timers into print.

Some of the thirty-seven crisp shorts carry the dark theme forward, whether through representation of blind senile dementia, or through the enigma of mystery. Many of the short stories have ‘something of the night’ about them.

Readers may even take issue with the choices of winning entries, making perusing the anthology a truly interactive experience. They may find themselves subconsciously, or consciously, comparing the stories, mentally weighing the carats or flaws. They may harbor their own little grudges as they read, carrying their chosen one forward in their hearts to compare with the next story on the list - an intellectual challenge..............

Read more about the writers who actually win short story competitions in the rest of my BellaOnline article or find out about the contest in the forum:

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art47269.asp

MORE TIPS LIKE THESE?

Drop by my website - I'm working on a 'Cut to the Chase' Paid Freelancer Markets Ebook which will contain all my contacts. Learn more at:

www.inspiredwritingresearch.com

Blogging It on Facebook

My newest trial is combining Facebook with Typepad - so hi to all my Facebook internet writing buddies! How's the poetry going? or How's the writing going?

I'm now working flat out with freelancing so wanted to have more time for the more 'social' and 'cultural' side of my writing (like Facebook and Poetry.)

So let's see how this trial works. I will be keeping a log of its performance on my Typepag Blog and will rate it for
a) Traffic
b) Speed, convenience and effort.

Other applications and Paid Writing Sites and Self-Publishing options are being trialled on my Typepad Blog too and results/recommendations posted on my website

www.inspiredwritingresearch.com

(image flickr creative commons Finsec)

Ten out of Ten for my Typepad Blog Contender

....... So - why did I eventually choose Typepad out of my whittled down list of blog-hosting contenders?

1. I made the following list of all the best ones,and whittled it down according to various criteria. Some fell at the first post, and some ended up vying with Typepad for my top spot.

Wordpress (tempting, smart, but less small business-oriented)

Blogger (I already have one of these, doesn't look very impressive,looked up other people who also weren't updating theirs, some very tired dated posts and worst of all - some unvisited comments pages were full of spam messages from other users!)

Myspace (good traffic from my first one, this time I am still waiting for my verification email 2 weeks later!)

Facebook (keeping an eye on this - restrictive - business side not yet active enough)

Yahoo 360 (easy-peasy and fast to use, informal look,no commerce potential in itself,not really a commerce player)

Blue Host (looks good but not good enough to tempt me to look it up - intro offer is more than Typepad anyway)

2. So Typepad runs away with it! It offered:

Free trial

Widgets

Affiliate Programme

Fast, efficient posting

A crisp clean look

Communication Functionality

Three levels - I chose basic

3. That was the Pros, now the Cons (only one small one )

Limited scope for creativity in design/colours at my level (not really a problem, if it is a success I might be able to afford to upgrade!)

Later.....

.... my continued trials with Typepad.