Stumbleupon Surfing With Writers Block

I was kicking about the internet today with a severe case of writers block. My head felt like it was loaded with soaked cotton and nothing would really gel for me. I clicked on the "stumble" icon on the Stumbleupon Toolbar and looked in depth at three sites.

This was the first stumble. And it delivers on the promise. I clicked through several pages and thought that the ideas presented were really good. I think most would work best for fiction writing, but there are some that seriously give you some great ideas for non-fiction article writing.

Skelliewag.org » Posts » 110+ Resources For Creative Minds: "Tips, tutorials, exercises and inspiration from the fields of visual art, writing, photography, blogging, design and invention. Next time you’re stuck for ideas or inspiration I hope you’ll find something here to get your right brain firing. A tip: sometimes the best sources of inspiration often lie far outside your own creative field.

1. 7 Can’t-Miss Ways to Kick-Start The Writing Habit
Write nothing but headlines. Write crap without feeling guilty. Schedule and show up. Write about problem solving. Edit older articles. Type out other people’s articles. Add your tip. [Tips: Writing]"

The second site has a different flavor to it. I think it originates in the UK. It seems fresh enough that you won't be writing deathless prose in the Shakespearean style. Instead it focuses on core skills. If you need a brush up, then this site can help you.

50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Writing Skills | Developer's Toolbox | Smashing Magazine: "Effective writing skills are to a writer what petrol is to a car. Like the petrol and car relationship, without solid skills writers cannot move ahead. These skills don’t come overnight, and they require patience and determination. You have to work smart and hard to acquire them. Only with experience, you can enter the realm of effective, always-in-demand writers."

The second link had an ad on it for demand studios. I clicked the ad because I wanted to see how they ran the program. There are two ways to get paid. The first is a flat fee, the second is residuals. To apply you click the link and upload a resume along with a writing sample in either .doc or .pdf format.

The site states they are looking for a college degree, or writing/journalism experience. I didn't go to college. And if I had a lot of experience you would not be reading The Freelance Rookie. I didn't apply, but the site is bookmarked for future reference. And if you didn't know it, Demand Studios owns eHow.com

Freelance Writing Jobs | Demand Studios: "Demand Studios

is always looking to add new writers to the team. To apply please complete our online application by uploading your resume and writing sample."

So, feel free to stumble this post and check out those links. It ought to unstick a portion of any block you are working thru. If nothing else it will be entertaining, and in the case of the DS link, you might get a job.

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A Twitter-Like Place: Tipdrop.com

Hi there. I am not really a twitter guy. I admit it, I don't send text messages very well. So, to Tweet during the workday just doesn't get it for me. But, one thing that does get it for me is that micro-blogging might just become a writing sub-genre that pays the freelancer. So, this post is on tip dropping.

Tipdrop.com is a micro-blog where you deliver tips on things with a 250 character limit. If you start the thread and others reply to it, your credibility goes up. It is an adsense sharing site like Infobarrel or Xomba and it has a referral mechanism that pays from the sites share.

I've browsed around the site and I think I can get something going since I write for eHow. If you are in the how-to mode, the writing should be fairly easy. I'll hold back on judging the effectiviness of the adsense shares until I see some money.

Oh, and unlike Twitter...... Tipdrop.com allows you to post videos on your tip sheets. That might eventually be the thing that tips a scale. As of today it's alexa rank is in the 165K range. That is good considering how long its been out. I'm willing to give it a shot and you might think about it too.

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Content Sites and Affiliate Marketing

IF you didn't already know it, I can think of three sites that allow affiliate links. Xomba, Squidoo, and eHow.

Of the three, you need to be careful at eHow and only use the links sparingly or they will get you for spamming and delete the article. Additionally, there are roving bands of eHow purists that will flag articles with affiliate links as spam to bring the "authorities" into the picture. Personally I don't use eHow for affiliate marketing. Just like bulk PM's, the backlash simply isn't worth it.

And, Squidoo is changing the TOU effective in July. There will be a limit to how many links you can have going out. They are also removing X-rated content. Squidoo is slipping in the ratings to other sites and I see this as an attempt to recapture some mojo from Google.

Xomba seems to be wide open to affiliate marketing. Keep your bytes and blurbs PG-13 or better and you will have it made.

Until next time....... Have a good one.

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Working at Allvoices.com

There is a social networking site where you are the reporter. Your writing is freeform and you get paid by the view. Since this is a worldwide site the view count is high. We are looking at 10,000 views to get paid. I want to see how long and how much.

Watch this space for future updates. For now, you can check out the opening submissions

Tuesdays' Economy and Other News
Sonia Sotomayor: The Right Choice for the Supreme Court?
The Realist: Bush, the Worst President Ever? Not.

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It's A Whole New Look

Hi there. I got bored with the old template and decided to tweak it some. I am actually more comfortable with website design than I am with most forms of online activity. I get this urge to take things apart which really annoyed my mom and dad when I was a kid.

I also added some pages devoted to each site that I personally write on. This is still the main page, but, content specific stuff might go to the other pages so be sure to check them out as well.

So far, eHow continues to earn more money for me. But, I find myself intrigued by the challenge of mastering a direct adsense connection. So I am focusing more on IB and XOMBA to see what I can learn. So far I have two observations that I can use to my advantage.

First: Each is a distinctly different site. The Demographic for IB and XOMBA seem to be a younger crowd that is less inclined to read a long DIY article. Instead they seem to want the short version. I've also noticed that the depth of article topics at both sites run a lot more toward the social news category. So, articles about current events in sports, politics, and celebrity gossip just might have an income producing home there.

Second: Xomba is social as much as writing. It doesn't feature forums like eHow, but some articles generate a huge number of back-and-forth commenting. There is room for monetizing that as well as simply being neighborly.

Happy Springtime! See you soon. -Phil

Technorati Tags: freelance rookie, online writing, freelance writing, eHow, Info Barrel, Xomba, Phil, pegwinn, making money writing online

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Cinco de Mayo

I got paid today! Woo Hoo! I am not yet in the megabux club, but eHow is now paying me via paypal regularly. And, since I am new at this sort of thing it can only get better as I learn more and do more. This also motivates me to dedicate more time to the cause as it were. Working two jobs means my free time is very limited. By getting a regular monthly payout I am more willing to donate those extra minutes.

I am becoming more familiar with Info Barrel and Xomba. I love IB's interface for composition. With a bit of HTML you can make the page awesome. The only issue I have is that I will spend too much time tweaking the look instead of actually writing. A bit more self discipline is needed.

I don't like Xomba's input boxes at all. But, I can deal with them. They are unique in that they also accept BBCode which folks rarely see outside of internet forums. BTW, I am looking to participate in writing forums away from eHow. Anyone got any suggestions?

I had to make a shift. I was looking at IB and XO through eHow glasses. These sites are separate and distinct enough that if you do as I did, you will likely lose views on your articles. So, rookie lesson number eighty-six...... go to each site and look at what is allowed and not, read the TOU/TOS. Browse and comment (another thing I am not great on yet) and make yourself known. Figure out the demographic of the average writer, member, visitor, etc. Then look at what you might be able to do at one site that another doesn't allow. This will expand your range of articles tremendously as well.

I've been told that eventually people who write articles for a living, due to the internet influence, will actually have a career path known as Information Marketing. For now, it's like the wild west. There is money to be made, creative needs to satisfy, and little to no regulation. So, if you are not at eHow, Info Barrel and Xomba then you need to be.

The best advice for Tuesday is to read and learn everything. Then write about it and make sure that content is always king. You'll sleep better at night.

C'ya Thursday with a post on increasing your productivity when you are time crunched.

-Phil

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Moving to IB and Xomba

With all the drama going on at eHow, I am moving my deleted stuff to Info Barrel and Xomba. I am not quitting eHow by a long shot. But, I might as well have three articles on the same topic instead of just one. And since we have no idea when and how the eHow purge will evolve... You have to look out for yourself.

The move is not all roses and joy though. Each article is essentially rewritten twice over. This ensures there is no duplicate content. And, IB requires original content just like eHow. I am not sure about Xomba but right now I am not taking any chances.

Since I only have two nights a week to dedicate to this, it might take a while.

I am working on a post that will talk about how to write with limited time. I think it might be useful to each of us.

So, what is on your mind? How is life? How is your freelancing coming along?

Until next time - Phil

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Full Circle or Closed Loop Posting System

As writers we want readers. Since we are online writers, we want those readers to have easy access to our material. My personal technique to meet this challenge is called the full circle or closed loop approach. By using a closed loop system you really ramp up the backlinks and get a jump on promotion.

This approach works best for me when I need more than one article on a generic topic. I tend to be verbose without some self discipline and brutal editing. This allows me the freedom to write the huge article and then break it apart.

The very first thing to do is write your generic information article. This "parent" piece will serve as a good general reference on its own as well as pointing the way to more detailed info via the "child" articles. I did some research and have decided to go with Infobarrel.com as my place to post parent articles.

eHow is great for step-by-step publishing. But, some articles simply don't fit that mold. At IB I can write a good quality generic piece on “things you need”. Each paragraph can give the basics. Then, you provide a link to an eHow piece that expands the generic data to a step-by-step format. This also allows the reader to decide the level of help they want. The best way to visualize this is to think of a textbook that has chapter summaries. The parent article is the executive summary of the (child articles) series.

Honestly, this is not meant as an IB plug, but you need to know that they pay half of all adsense revenues to the author. And it is referral based. If you sign up from my link, my commission comes from IB's part of the pot, not yours. It is not multi-level, no one loses, and the commissions are low enough that writing high quality content is still the only way to make it.

To see an example of the Full Circle or Closed Loop Posting System in action please read this article at Infobarrel. Within the article there you will see the links to my latest eHow's as the children. I didn't write a full article on each link either. I figured some would end up so short that I could not add any helpful info other than a link to use. I might be losing a bit of money on that though.

Please let me know what you think. I really am excited about this approach and the interactive nature of blogging allows a discussion with no RRCR pressure. Have a great weekend. - Phil

Technorati Tags: infobarrel, eHow, online writing, freelance writing, adsense, SEO, backlinks, blogging

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