Archive for December, 2007
How about the movies? What are your favorite holiday films?
I asked earlier today about your favorite holiday stories and told you mine. Your favorite “stories” may well include some films, but it’s worth asking about as a separate topic.
So what are your favorite holiday movies? I’d have to pick the all-time sentimental favorite, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” You probably knew, didn’t you, that it [...]
Cell phones are great — but what if you need a phone card?
Nothing says family and staying in touch with family like the holidays. As I was writing that post earlier today, I got to thinking about family members I haven’t seen or heard from in awhile — then I remembered the odd, sort of accidentally complicated long distance situation we’re in with our home phone line. [...]
What’s your favorite holiday story? Have you written anything for the holidays?
What are you reading and writing for the holidays? Do you have a favorite Christmas story?
I suppose my all-time favorites for Christmas are Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” the old standby, “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore, Dr. Zeuss’s wonderful “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” and absolutely O. Henry’s wonderful story, “Gift of [...]
Here are some useful tools for writing copy to use on the Internet
Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, if you’re going to put it on a website or a blog, you might want to consider the following helpful tools. They are all free. I don’t have the links handy for downloading them, but you can easily find that by searching at Google or Yahoo. I should explain [...]
Here’s a service that can take the pain out of data backups for you
As writers, we create magic. But in the final analysis, that “magic” is simply data stored on our computers’ hard drives. If the hard drive goes, the data goes, too — unless you have good backups.
I’ve posted in recent days about my loss of website data. But even more frightening were those times when I [...]
Quick lesson for bloggers: Here’s one way to backup your data
As you probably noticed, and as I explained yesterday, there is a serious lack of old posts at this site. I lost most of my WordPress database when The Crash happened to the server where I was hosted. So here’s what I’ve done since then: I have set up a simple backup to my WordPress [...]
Looking for a webhost? Explore this directory of web hosting companies
Trust me on this: Shop around carefully when you make a decision on the company that will host your website.
Here’s a great website, “Web Hosting Choice: Your Guide to Web Hosting,” that will help you in your hunt for a website for your blog or online writing presence. Their web address is http://www.webhostingchoice.com and they [...]
Do you use WordPress? I just reviewed an upcoming ebook about WordPress
I got an email from a friend of mine who is a web designer and Internet affiliate marketer — and an avid blogger who loves WordPress. I’m sure many of you who blog also use WordPress. This woman, Teli Adlam, is quite an expert on the software. She sent out an appeal to her website [...]
If you’re wondering where I’ve been — boy, do I have a tale to tell
I was abducted by a dragon just after midnight Sunday and taken to a far away land …
No? Okay. I’m lying. There was no dragon. I wasn’t abducted. And the real problem started more like 6:00 a.m. on Monday morning. But it has been a harrowing tale, and it is far from over …
My webhost [...]
Here’s my answer to the freelance opportunity quiz I posted yesterday
I posted yesterday about a freelance article writing offer for which I received email. You can reread that post. In summary, the appeal was for someone who would write 10 articles, each article 750 words long. The person wanted the 10 articles split up with two each into five topics, which he described briefly. The [...]
Step one for serious Internet writing, blogging, or marketing: You need a website
It always surprises me when I read messages from people who want to start a business on the Internet, or at least have some sort of website, and they ask something like this: “Do I need to have a website of my own? If so, aren’t there places where I can get a free website?”
Rule [...]
Here’s a real-life quiz about doing freelance article writing for the Internet
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This original post, made before the website crash I reference elsewhere, generated some interesting detailed comments. Unfortunately, I was not able to salvage the original comments, so I certainly encourage those of you who commented to come back and share your thinking on this again.)
One of the many — too many! — email [...]
In love with acronyms — or, one way words are invented
Have you ever thought about where words come from? Have you ever “invented” or wanted to invent your own word?
If you want to invent a word, here’s one way to do it: Create an acronym that gains wide acceptance, and pretty soon you’ll have a word. An acronym, in case you aren’t sure about what [...]
Whether you work for yourself or a company, workplace safety is always important
Remember the last time your company held a routine fire drill? How did you react? I confess that I never took such stuff as seriously as I should have. If you’re like me, you tend to take on-the-job safety training, whether simply a fire drill or more detailed training related to company regulations and requirements, [...]
Getting to the basics: Were you ever taught how to write ‘clear, logical prose’?
EDITOR’S NOTE: I have recovered this post following a website “Crash.” The original brought two or three comments from readers who agreed that the teaching grammar and fundamental English writing skills seems to be disappearing in America. Unfortunately, I have no way to recover those comments and include them with this reconstruction of the original [...]
