Archive for October, 2007
The Editor’s Introductory Guide to Blogging Profits
A “blog,” as you all know, stands for Web log, At its core and most basic, a diary, in case anyone’s asking. But just like everything else in this world, it’s morphed into something else that people need, in this case a very powerful but yet relatively easy to implement — but more importantly, easy to comprehend — online publishing solution.
Which means that never before has it been easier (and I do mean that quite sincerely) for editors to get into publishing online without doing much in the way of creating new content. Through the use of all this new-ish blogging tech and other resources available today, in other words, it’s now relatively simple for a solitary editor to become a productive (and profitable) publisher.
3 Comments »
No Clips? No Problem
When trying to sell your writing services, at some point your prospect is going to ask you for “clips” or samples of your work to back up your claim that you not only can indeed write, but write well enough to get paid for it.
If you’re new to the game, you probably don’t have any. Not to worry — we all started somewhere, didn’t we?
The New Wordpreneur Look
I just spent the better part of the day changing the site’s “theme” design, which took far more time than I thought it would. Which means I couldn’t get around to writing the stuff I was planning on writing today. Sorry about that.
But let’s see if we can salvage something “educational” from today’s experience.
Wordpreneur Carnival #003
Busy day (leak in the @#$@#^& basement). So let’s get right to work…
You’re trying to make money with a blog that sucks? More power (and luck) to you. But if you’ve come to the conclusion that not sucking is more likely the path of least resistance towards blog monetization nirvana, Inkthinker Kristen King’s It’s Not You, It’s Me(me): 9 Tips for Making Your Blog Suck is an excellent place to start.
Wordpreneur Writer’s Resources
You may have noticed (but most probably have not): Look up at the site’s menu bar. At the right, you’ll see a menu item labeled Writer’s Resources. Click on it and you’ll find my holding place for, well, writer’s resources.
Ta da!
Some Content “Bra Stuffing” Techniques
These techniques work for all kinds of content you’re working on that you need to pad and “make larger” (books, articles, ebooks, blog posts, etc.). You can add:
MyMessageSafe
Not to sound too paranoid… but if you think that email message you just sent is safe and secure, think again. Email is notoriously insecure. That’s just the nature of the beast.
Not that there have been no solutions for secure and private email communications. But they’ve usually been on the PITA end of practical for the layperson (as in, heck, if it’s that much trouble to comprehend let alone to implement the few occasions you need it, just print out the darn thing, stick it in an envelope, put a stamp on it and drop it in a mailbox).
The Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool
I am not an SEO expert — in fact, I’m batting around the idea of hiring someone to handle it so I can focus on stuff I actually want to futz around with, like writing these posts and developing more useful site content — but we do have to deal with it if we want to get our sites some serious play online.
Note to you freelancers who don’t have websites/blogs, eyes glazing over right now and thinking of moving on: You may want to pay attention. There is a fast-growing demand for freelancers who can pump out keyword optimized online articles and content.
Another Way I Use the WordPress AdSense-Deluxe Plugin
Yesterday, I introduced you to the AdSense-Deluxe plugin for WordPress that lets you very easily manage and control your blog’s Google AdSense advertisements.
But AdSense surely isn’t the only thing I use it for.
How to Change AdSense Formats Easily in WordPress Blogs
You may have noticed that the AdSense advertising that usually appears in the middle of these Wordpreneur posts has changed in appearance a tad. Thank my friend William Bontrager for a recent comment he made here on Wordpreneur (more on discovering really useful tips in blog comments).
What you may not have noticed, however, is that the AdSense formatting has changed throughout the blog, in all the posts.
How’d I do that so quickly?
There’s Gold in Comments
My friend William Bontrager reminded me of a couple of things in his unsolicited comment on the latest Wordpreneur Carnival edition. The first, of course, is the tip on ways to freshen up possibly stale AdSense advertising.
The second? That you’ll often find really good and useful tips and information in a blog post’s comments, not just the post itself.
Wordpreneur Carnival #002
Thanks everyone for your submissions to this week’s Carnival. Can’t use all of them since some really just don’t fit into our little slice of the blogosphere.
And an interesting number were little more than “look at this” posts that link elsewhere for the real meat. I’ll link directly to the meat in this Carnival. Although if I didn’t know it existed before and it was your submission that brought it to my attention, I’ll give you and your blog credit.
Contracts 101
I am not a lawyer. So take this post with a grain of salt stamped all over the place with boilerplate “I’m not responsible if you’re nuts enough to think I know what I’m talking about legally” disclaimers.
But what’s so freaking hard about work-for-hire contracts?
Dumb Mistake… Fixed
I was on the golf course the other day — fortunately enough a place I’ve been able to frequent the occasional weekday on top of my usual weekenders — and I was doubly fortunate to be put in a foursome that included a very pleasant married couple. Funny conversationalists with adequate game, it made for a nice few hours.
It also didn’t hurt at all that the guy, it turned out, owned and ran a successful local business. But even better: He seemed genuinely interested in hearing about what I did, and learning more about my services, particularly the ones that revolved around developing and running a blog.
Double Your Money (or Likely More) With Domain Names
For the most part, the basics of this idea have little or nothing to do with writing. But heck, you’re all wordsmiths, right? And you want to know about ways to use that skill/talent/interest to double your money (or more), correct?
Well, OK then, here you go…
Blogging Out a Book
You’ve likely already heard this idea: Pump out your “book project” as a blog. Post by post. Chapter by chapter. Until you’re finished. Then gather up all your posts and hand them over to your publisher.
Voila! Finished book.
NOTE: Assume I’m talking about non-fiction projects. Fiction is just a different beast altogether.
Wordpreneur Carnival #001
Welcome to the very first Wordpreneur Carnival!
What is it? Here, let’s have the good old Wikipedia explain it to us:
“A blog carnival is a type of blog event. It is similar to a magazine, in that it is dedicated to a particular topic, and is published on a regular schedule, often weekly or monthly. Each edition of a blog carnival is in the form of a blog article that contains permalinks to other blog articles on the particular topic.”
Digging for Article and Book Ideas
Want a seemingly endless source of freelance article — or even book — ideas? That’s too easy. How about one that also tells you how popular the “idea” is to readers? Now I’ve got your interest. Clincher: It’s also totally free.
ProLinkz is Now Free!
I can pretty much guarantee that the hammer wasn’t initially engineered for wall picture frame hanging duty, but it sure does come in really handy for that, doesn’t it? Some of the best tools are like that: They are quite versatile, very useful (critical even) for a wide variety of applications.
That’s what I think about ProLinkz’s utility and value. Especially now that it’s totally free.
Extra Service Markups
Here’s an industry “norm” a lot of newbie freelancers aren’t often aware of: You can markup extra services by 17.65%.