Dealing with Publishing, Blocks, and Slow Loading Blogs

I wonder how many writers give up because of the publishing game? You need agents, you need a publisher willing to give you a look, and you need timing. I've never tried to publish a book in the traditional sense. But I have a copy of The Everything Guide To Writing A Novel and the game you play for publishing doesn't sound like fun to me. So this first website is bookmarked for the day when I want to finally hold my book in my hand. Enjoy

Book Publishing Companies - Publishing Books - WEbook Online Company: "So you want to be a writer!

Once upon a time, writers were solitary creatures, agonizing in isolation over every word, waiting for the day when their books would get noticed by an agent and wind up on the shelves of bookstores around the world.

No longer! In the brave new world of all things digital, there's more than one way to skin a cat - and more than one way to write and get published. WEbook is a community of writers who come together to write, give and get tough, honest feedback, and maybe make a few friends along the way. WEbook is transforming the landscape-one writer at a time."

There's a bit more after the jump.

I get writers block all the time. One of my key techniques for dealing with it is to simply write on a tablet with an old fashioned input device called a pen. Here is another take on how to simply get words out without distraction. I think if you try it, you will like it.

DarkCopy - Simple, full screen text editing: "DarkCopy is for anyone who enjoys the simplicity of a typewriter, and wants to increase productivity by focusing only on writing. It was created as a free, web-based clone of WriteRoom."

If some of your writing involves a blogger blog, I would like you to leave a link. Karma is a good thing y'know? And if your blog seems to be a slow loading one, here is an excerpt and link from Blogger Help that ought to help you track down the problem. That's all for today, Write on Folks - Phil

How can I make my blog load faster? - Blogger Help: "The most important content of your blog that catches readers attention should load the quickest. To help you identify which items are taking the longest to load you can use Stopwatch. To use Stopwatch, enter your blog's URL into the text box and click 'Start StopWatch'. Stopwatch will then open your blog in a frame and will record the time it takes for everything on your blog to load, including images, videos, widgets, etc. Take note of the items that take the longest to load and modify them appropriately using our suggestions."

Technorati Tags: writing, writing websites, writing techniques, writers block

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How to Write an eHow Article That Should Not Be Deleted

Everyone writing for eHow has seen or been hit by the purges. This is where your prize article gets deleted for no apparent reason. You, and I, took the time to craft what we believed was an article that would inform, be useful and unique, and earn some revenue as well.

Then, one day, often out of the blue the article is gone. Your title links to an "editor" article that often is substandard or only peripherally related to the original topic. eHow has improved by sending us emails to tell us about the deletions. But they have yet to tell us "why". After lurking and talking on the forums I think I have a template that will help all of us avoid the binge and purge. Check it out after the jump.

Step 1: Create a title that is a grammatically correct sentence starting with the words "How To". Don't use titles like "How To New Car Accessories". It may be keyword rich, but it sounds ignorant. Also in addition to being grammatically correct, the sentence should be action oriented. It needs to imply that something is getting done. Our incorrect sentence example could become "How To Find New Car Accessories Online".

Step 2: Build an introduction that briefly describes the problem you are going to solve. This follows on the "tell em what you are going to tell them" philosophy. The introduction should be long enough to clearly support the title and lead your reader logically to the "How To" steps that follow.

Step 3: Write one single action oriented sentence in each of the "step" boxes that will sequentially lead the reader from problem to conclusion. Why only one sentence? Because discussion on the forums indicates that many articles are deleted for not having actionable steps. And, if those steps are not in a logical order or are garbled that is a minus as well. By limiting yourself to a single sentence you address both of these discussion points.

Step 4: Write a complete paragraph following each of the sentences you wrote in Step 3. This provides the additional information to make each actionable step complete. One technique that appears to be gaining in popularity is to write the sentence in step three, then in the same text box start a new explanatory paragraph. This technique ensures that a reviewer cannot miss the actionable step.

Step 5: Write your list of items needed. Limit this to items needed to accomplish the "How To" task. Mention the item in the appropriate step. This creates linkage between the two sections of the article and ensures that no one tries to say that you are merely selling the "items needed" list.

Step 6: Write your "Hints and Warnings". This section is optional. Do not use it to include or elaborate on the actionable steps. Instead, think of this as the "Good to Know" section where the actionable steps are "Need to Know".

Step 7: Write the "Who Can Help" section. [b]Do not include affiliate links[/b]. The reader may not care that you included an Amazon link. But, the membership may use that as an excuse to flag you for spam. Or, the reviewer may decide that your inclusion of the link is spam. Spam is not adequately addressed in the TOS. But, discussion on the forums reveals that eHow and most of the members have decided that any obvious advertising is spam.

HINTS AND WARNINGS:

• Don't write on topics that advocate the use of a single product if you can help it.
• Don't write on topics that may be considered easy to find information.

I know that those seem to eliminate a huge number of potential articles. But, both have been cited as reasons for deletion on the forums. There will be exceptions to both rules, but you will want to incorporate the explanation for the exception in your article so a reviewer doesn't give you the axe.

Thanks for reading. I hope you found this to be useful as you write for eHow. Please feel free to bookmark and pass it around to others who may find it helpful as well. And, if I missed anything please let me know. I'd like this to contribute toward eHow creating an "Official Writing Guide". - Phil

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Productivity Tools I Use and One That I Want

I gotta tell you that time is my most precious asset. There just doesn't seem to be enough of it to go around. My issue is that working two jobs leaves very little time to write anything. And it always seems that I just can't take the time to do it right. So, the question of the day from me to y'all is: What things do you do to increase you productivity when time is crunched? My answers are after the link ...

My number one productivity booster I is a Palm M500 PDA. This is an older model that is great for two things. The first is reading eBooks and the second is writing. When ever I get five minutes free I can write. This is real writing since you are hand writing stuff to be converted to editable text. For me that works great since I tend to be wordy when typing. I have written the entire rough drafts of various articles on this. I got mine on Ebay for $20.00 plus shipping.

Number two a pen/paper. When driving I jot down ideas, outlines, sketches, and simple keywords for future analysis. That way on the nights off I have a jump start. This has worked so well that I recommend it for everyone. Don't try to be organized, just let the stuff flow. It won't be neat and pretty, but you will have some great core ideas going. So, this will give you a leg up when your precious free time is't there.

And, on my list of things to get is Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred Mobile. You can get speech to text converters for little to no money. But Dragon Naturally Speaking is the standard that all others try to emulate. I am looking hard at the mobile edition because it includes a voice recorder that will transcribe your dictation when you hook it up. I can see myself driving along and dictating something into the recorder. Then, back at the house, not having to put on the headphones and mic to transcribe it. Yep, this is for sure on my list of things to get.

As always, Thanks for Reading.
-Phil

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The Writing Process

Do you have a writing process you use to compose your articles with? I do. Because I am new at this I often discovered "a skipped step" as I was trying to research why I am not overflowing with eHow and adsense money. So, little by little, I am learning from experience. So this article is part writing help for newbies and writing skills evolution for rookies. Hopefully some of the veteran writers will throw in their own writing help tips.

I've listed the steps that I am following for all new articles. I will also be trying to retrofit the already published ones into this mold if possible. Again, this is also about writing skills evolution. If you have a better writing technique or any tweaks to what I wrote by all means share them if you will. Thanks.

Conceptualize the Article: For this step in my writing process I rely on Google Suggest & MS Commercial Intent. These are my personal favorites when I need help finalizing the concept for an article. All artistic thoughts aside, we write for two audiences most of the time. The first is the reader who will gain something from us. The second is usually Google Adsense bots. The tools mentioned above each have a different function. The first one tells you what people are looking for. The second one tells you what they are buying. It may not be art from a purist writers perspective, but the days of making a living by getting paid to write have changed drastically. Whether we like it or not, I am discovering that to make money online requires an article that is part editorial, part advertising copy, and a bit of "spark" to humanize it.

KW Research for the Title: Titles are so important nowadays. They are the first thing the ad and searchbots hit. And they carry more weight than any single part of the article. I have learned on eHow that my titles tend to run a bit long. So I try to locate a primary and secondary keyword that gel for the title.

Assign Title: Using those keywords I assign a title to the document. I use the title to remind me to stay on the topic. Every paragraph should somehow move the reader toward the final desired result which is hopefully called out in the title and description/opening paragraph.

KW Research for the Body: I take the keywords in the title and use them to generate a list of synonyms both at the keyword and key phrase levels. Repeating the same keywords over and over is apparently a google no-no. But, repeating the same keywords a bit, and packing in synonymous alternatives seems to be fine.

Rough Draft: With KW stuff handled I can now sit down and write. The artistic writers may sniff in disapproval but I really believe that it takes more of the "write stuff" to produce high quality content that is SEO optimized. My roughs tend to be long winded and meandering. That's ok for a start since some brutal editing will fix that... I hope.

Initial SEO w/Google Adwords/Sites and SEO Workers: I have a blank blog. It has nothing in it. There are no widgets, no adsense, and only the bare minimum formatting to allow it to publish. I post my rough to this blog. Then I run the URL through the Adwords Keyword Site and I also use the SEO Workers Extension for Firefox on it. What I get is an SEO report on my content as opposed to the eHow or IB page that it is on. There are far less keywords listed, no related articles, no extra links, IOW.... nothing but (for better or worse) me. Between the two I get a pretty good picture of how the page might fare in the real world. Normally, it needs some help.

Final Draft: Help has arrived. I make the edits that the rough and SEO work has shown me to need. I read the article out loud several times to make sure it flows. I spell check it on every platform I intend to publish from. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: I DOUBLE CHECK THE TOS of the publishing platform. I started doing that after the eHow Binge and Purge.

Final SEO with all the previously mentioned tools: The reason I do this is that in all the writing, the message can become blurred and fuzzy. This is the final sanity check.

SEO Tweaks Edit: It's pretty likely that you gained some insight that needs an edit or two. Since we are writing for two audiences, we have to have quality going both ways. Hopefully at this stage of the articles birth it won't be but a tweak or three.

Publish: By now I've done everything I can to show the world my high quality content. So I go ahead and publish it on the platform of choice.

30 Day Review: This is the time to look at the articles performance over the last month. How many views did it get? Did it earn anything? I would strongly suggest a spreadsheet or database to track your stats. I like numbers because once I "get it" I can make intuitive leaps. So, I have gotten really good at making database templates. I could care less about the reports and the bells or whistles though. I want the data, formatted for my brain housing group, right now. I'm laughing as I type this since I am building the database as we "speak".

Final Edit: After the 30 day review I plan to make any last minute adjustments and walk away. It's all over. The article is complete and parked. The SEO is done and I am simply waiting for it to fully mature.

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My Basic Writing Formula

Hey there folks. Well I have not been very busy on eHow due to real life taking up all my time. But, I was wondering what process you go thru to bring your ideas from Inspiration to Publication. Do you have a formula that you use?

My formula is simple. I get the idea and then write the article without any thought to keywords or SEO. Then I post it up and run the SEO Workers tool over it. From there I will tweak it and run it through the Google Adwords tool. Then, I publish. I will usually wait a week or two and see what I can do then to improve it. Now, since I am not a huge money maker I am open to y'alls ideas or suggestions.

Oh, and I finally made payout for the first time! Woo Hoo!

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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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