I have to ask all of you who blog regularly: Does your blog target the Worldwide Web (www), or is it more of a local blog?
I’ve been reading a lot of stuff recently from some blogging “gurus” (I do NOT consider myself such, although I do a lot of blogging) lately who suggest that the way to make good money blogging is to focus on local blogging, as opposed to a blog aimed at everyone on the Internet. By way of explanation: Your blog may be aimed at a target audience of everyone buying, selling, or investing in real estate — or, it could be targeting Wilmington NC real estate.
Read more on Does your blog target worldwide web or is it more local?…
I have no requirements whatsoever that you be a “member” or that you be “logged in” to post a comment on this blog.
I made the decision some months ago, based on comments from other bloggers at various forums on which I roam, that anyone who chooses to can post a comment here — although I am notified of pending comments and must approve or deny them. I cannot understand, therefore, why anyone would feel the urge to register.
Read more on Heads-up to those who sign up for this blog ……
Some years ago, I clipped a cartoon from a copy of “Writer’s Digest” magazine and pinned it to my office bulletin board. It showed a couple of chubby guys rolling on the ground laughing at the base of a pedestal on which a giant toad was setting. The toad had his huge tongue out slurping across a ream of paper being held up by a laughing third chubby guy.
Read more on Just what does an editor do, really?…
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 appeal also said the articles were needed the next day.
Read more on Here’s my answer to the freelance opportunity quiz I posted yesterday…
Know what I would recommend if I could only recommend one book for beginning writers? Or, only one book for ALL writers, for that matter? (Caveat: I write only in English and I assume the majority of you do, too, but I’ll make it clear that I’m only speaking about a must-have book for those who write in English.)
Read more on Here it is, my number one ‘must have-must read’ book for writers…
For years now, people have Googled their own names surrounded by quote marks to see what sort of information is easily available about them on the Internet — but how vain is it to search for your own name on Google Images?
Read more on How vain is it to search for your own name on Google Images?…
I’ve mused in the past about various opportunities and changing options for all you writers/writer wannabes out there, including me. Here’s a little more musing on some career choices for writers — presented with my tongue lightly nestled in my cheek:
Read more on More musings on career choices for all you writers out there ……
There is tremendous value in using testimonials in your writing, because your readers — this is true for fiction and nonfiction alike — pay more attention to what PEOPLE say and do than they pay to narration of a scene, or product feature lists.
Read more on Value of appealing to testimonials, eye witnesses in your writing…
For all of us copywriters and wannabe copywriters out there, there are lessons to be learned from companies that make and sell breakfast cereal. The entire cereal industry, really, was built on cheap combinations of pressed, caked, soaked, and broken grains. Early “breakfast food,” i.e., cereal products like rolled oats and corn flakes, were inconvenient (some required overnight soaking just to soften them enough to eat them) and unpopular.
Read more on Copywriters: Lessons to be learned from cereal makers…
… and it’s worth a little explanation of how and what I’m doing with older posts, for those of you out there who blog.
I’m using a plugin called the ADPS Reposter WordPress plugin. The purpose of the plugin is to sort of “recycle” older blog posts to bring them back toward the “front” of your blog to make them easier for new readers to find.
Read more on Recycling blog posts? Yeah, I sort of am ……
Writers keep notebooks, “sketchbooks,” and other collections of ideas and scraps of writing, don’t they? Isn’t that what we’re told to do? Won’t those become fertile resources throughout the years?
No, probably not. If your experiences have been anything like mine, you find such materials hang around somewhere on your desk (or desktop?). Then they sort of slip off into a drawer, file cabinet, or box somewhere.
Read more on The real value of those notebooks, notecards, and random scraps of paper…
(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.)
Read more on Here’s a real-life quiz about doing freelance article writing for the Internet…
Shades of Stephen Hunter! Here was a case where real-life Navy snipers put a quick end to that Somali pirate crisis that has dominated world news since last week. I won’t recap all the details of the pirate story here; I’m sure you’ve already read and seen video about the whole drama.
Read more on Shades of Stephen Hunter — real-life snipers end pirate crisis…
In a post last week (I think it was last week), I made the point that writing fiction gives you sort of a license to lie. Not that we need such a license. We have the Internet.
Read more on The word for today is ‘verisimilitude’ — really, it is…
I don’t know if this guy’s considered in that rarefied group deemed to be “gurus” or not, but I’ll guarantee you his free newsletter is absolutely worth gold to anyone wanting to do an online business of ANY sort.
Read more on He doesn’t claim to be a ‘guru,’ but you really need Paul Myers’ free newsletter…
