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Why I set up my own hosted websites

Having a simple blog on blogger.com may be free and all but if you plan on blogging for a long, long time and you want to do more with your blog such as turning it into a website, why not get your own domain and set up a Webhostingaccount?

After all, getting a good and dependable web host is rather easy. I am a blogger who earns money online so merely having blogger sites is not enough. That's why I set up quite a few other websites with specific domain names targeted at attracting traffic according to my target keywords.

Of course there is the hassle of looking for a dependable host. We wouldn't want the server crashing all the time and your website inaccessible. That's why I will do some reading and check up on reviews available to find the best option. There are so many web host companies available such as ipage host reviews. Thats the wonder of the Internet. You do not need to step out of your house to check up on stuffs and to shop!

The other day, I was just reading up on justhost hosting reviews and it helped me made my decision on the web host to choose. Hosting your very own sites give you so much more freedom. You can set it up as a blog. Or you can set it up as a static website. You can use it to set up affiliate site. A shopping site with a shopping cart. Anything is possible when you set up a website with you own web hosting account.

Things for writers to do when stressed out

We all have days when we are extremely overburdened with work and so stressed out thinking of ideas and combining words into sentences for our writing projects, not to mention dealing with difficult clients, that sometimes we really need to get away from it all. And we are not even talking about getting rid of writers block.

What I usually do in situations like this is to:

1. Surf the internet - reading up and catching up on our industry is a good way to de-stress and at the same time learn new things.

2. Online shopping - as long as you practice some self-control, I guess it is a good way to 'pamper' yourself with some stuffs that you have always wanted. That's what I call shopping therapy!

3. Be young again - what's more mind-numbing than some fun video games? The Nintendo Wii of course! Getting into some action-packed game could be a great stress reliever, just don't overdo it and forget everything. The great part about this is that you can download a variety of games with just a click of the mouse and yes, the games are pretty affordable too so it won't burn a hole in your pocket at all.

4. Read a book - as writers, it is always a good excuse to pick up a book and spend hours lost in it because we are actually 'working' by reading. It is all in a day's 'research', doncha think so?

5. Go for a massage and spa treatment - that is the ultimate pampering solution to de-stress and get all those tension and knotts in your shoulders to dissolve and go away.

6. Do a spot of yoga - why not grab your yoga gear and head on to somewhere peaceful and quiet for a great yoga workout to relax the body, mind and soul? Yoga has been known to help you maintain your agility, reduce stress and yes, even help you lose weight.

7. Blog - I know it may sound weird to be blogging in order to get away from all your writing stress but we writers tend to feel better after getting it all out through words and what better way than to blog? When blogging, you do not need to worry about deadlines, clients' needs or anything like that. It is just purely therapeutic to let it all go!

So, there you are. The 7 things I do when stressed out. If all else fail, I guess, you will be in need of the ultimate de-stress solution of all time:

Go for a holiday!

Where to find your writing muse

As a writer or author, we are pretty dependent on our muse to get the writing juices flowing and the ideas tumbling out like an endless waterfall.

So, what exactly is a muse? Contrary to what people would like to believe, especially in fantasy fiction, a muse could be anything and need not necessarily be a mysterious invisible being sitting next to you, injecting creativity and flair to your subconscious as you write.

Granted, it is a pretty good idea. Imagine, we just need to have this lucky Muse sitting next to us and we'd soon be tapping out the next Big Thing and be the next bestselling author. However, in real life, it does not work that way.

Nope. We, mere mortals, will have to depend on our own wits and ideas to find our own Muse. Or to create one, if need be.

A muse could be anything. It could be a watercolour painting your child drew for you. Or the overstuffed, comfy armchair in the den. Or the breathtaking scenery from your picture window. Or even the soothing tones of classical music. Anything at all.

You see, a muse's main responsibility is to give you inspiration. To keep your fingers tapping, your brains busy churning out beautifully creative ideas, for articles or books or blogs. Whichever area of writing that you need to get done!

A muse will come in handy to get rid of your writer's block and yes, it will definitely get your creative juices going in a jiffy. So, how do you know which item (or person, for that matter) is your muse?

Well, you don't. Sometimes your computer may very well be your muse but you didn't notice. So, you will really need to open up and build an awareness of your surroundings and things around you.

The best way to find out is when you reach one of your writer's block episodes and then move around, try various methods and trust me, you will soon find your muse and the block will be long gone!

Happy writing and may the muse be with you. ;-)

Is article marketing worth the trouble?

It takes time to write, post & submit your articles to the article directories. Considering everything else that a good Internet Marketer has to do is article marketing worth the trouble?

No!

Not if you are wanting instant traffic to your website. For instant traffic you really want to spend your resources (including money) on PPC. Of course, you stand to lose a lot of money if you don't do PPC correctly. Whereas if you write an article incorrectly it costs nothing more than the article submission software you may have purchased.

However, you don't even need article submission software to succeed with article marketing. All you need is a good list of places to submit your articles.

The advantages of article marketing are numerous.

As you write more about your niche, you build yourself into an expert in your own right within your targeted field.

Each article is like a new sales agent running through the Internet telling people about your website.

As you increase the number of writings your website has you morph your website from an entity to a resource. People are more likely to return to resources than they are just another website.

As long as you are willing to wait for your articles to mature and take root on the Internet it is indeed worth your time and resources to write articles. Especially if you use strategies like bum marketing and linking your blog and website together as one.

You don't have a blog yet? Two resources people like to use on this front are…

* Blogger.com (my own personal favorite) * WordPress.com

There are others, but if you have a website it's a really good idea to have a blog as well as blogs increase the interactive nature of your website.

Therefore, next time you ask yourself is article marketing worth the trouble? You'll know the answer.

- Guy Siverson

Benefits of being an author

Apart from the immense joy of seeing your words come to live and sitting pretty in major bookstores, being an author has the below benefits:

1. Authority - Notice how the word "author" is in Authority? That's right, being an author makes you look like an expert in the topic that you are writing about. People will look to you for answers and even quote you for related topics. Develop a name for yourself as an expert in your field. Over time, you will develop a reputation and may be sought out by others for your expertise.

2. Creative exchange - Share your creativity, opinions, talents and interests with people from all over the world. It’s wonderful to receive feedback from like-minded individuals who have connected with your words.

3. Satisfaction - It is incredibly gratifying to birth a book. From being impregnated with ideas to the end result of holding your "baby" in your hands, the journey may have ups and downs but is nothing short of exhilarating!

4. Passive income - The rewards extend to the monetary. You work hard for a while and get paid for the rest of your life. Your book royalty is like an annual bonus from a generous company...year after year.

5. Springboard - You are able to branch out to different avenues - you can organise seminars related to writing or your expert topic, be a consultant or sought-after speaker.

6. High esteem - You join the publishing industry and people hold this circle in high regard. Every year, publishers churn out thousands of books on a myriad of topics from relationships to business management which are lapped up by millions of people.

7. Build your literary reputation - Writing a well established and respected book, gives you the platform to develop a literary reputation for yourself. As your literary reputation develops, your chances of acquiring work as a freelance writer or selling your work will also improve.

8. Boost business - Link your book to your personal or business website where you sell your products or services. This will increase business and is an effective promotion of your services.

- Pearlin Seow

Writing poetry

Is no easy task

But it

Is not impossible

As long as you

Let your feelings through

Forget about

Rules

Stanzas

Rhymes

Rhythm


Concentrate on

How you feel

Describe

Express

In

Words

Expressions


All you need

Is

A spoonful of

Creativity

A bowl of

Feelings

A pinch of

Luck

And stir

With a pen

A keyboard

Anything

To get the words

Flowing


So, if you want to

Write

Poetry

Remember

There are no rules

Just feelings

Warm

Or Cold

All put on paper

Or typed into computer

Let it all go

Let it spill

And then only

Will your succeed!

Your online freelance writing resources

When you are freelancing, it is often quite difficult to find great sites with freelance writing resources, jobs, gigs or merely to connect others in the same situation as you. It is usually very nice to connect with other writers, bloggers or freelancers who are struggling (or successfully) earning a living through the skilled art of writing.

I've been going around quite a lot of websites and blogs and joined quite a few writing communities (which I barely have time to even participate most of the time) and here are some freelance writing resources which I found in my course of gallivanting around the web.

1. http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com - This site offers writing tips and posts very frequent writing gigs or jobs available for freelancers or even those looking for full time writing jobs. However, some of the jobs posted are sourced from other sites such as Craigslist.

2. http://www.writingcareer.com - This site also offers articles on writing and tips. It also has a job board and again, some of these are sourced from other sites such as GetAFreelancer.com

3. http://www.mywriterscircle.com - This is basically a forum for writers to connect and exchange tips and experiences. The good part is that there is also a job board to check out freelance writing gigs.

4. http://www.freelancewritingtips.com - This is a blog on writing with posts about writing and everything about writing!

5. http://www.journalismjobs.com - This is mostly a job board with full time to telecommuting to freelance writing gigs of all types.

6. http://www.mywritingblog.com - This is another blog by a writer who sometimes posts job opportunities but mostly his posts are on writing and tips.

7. http://www.freelancefactor.com - Another site with more writing tips and the occasional jobs.

8. http://www.dailywritingtips.com - This blog offers quite a lot of complete writing tips for freelance, fiction or non-fiction, so it is really a great place to hone your writing skills.

Hope you learn quite a few tips from these sites. Enjoy and most importantly, continue writing!

Driving traffic to your blog

Is not really easy if you do not join any forums, blogger groups or blogging platform. You seen, to drive traffic to your blog, you need to put in a lot of work.

Firstly, you need to write really good, interesting content. By this, I mean content that people want to read and not only meant for search engines. Also make sure your content is posted on a regular basis so that your readers won't feel as if you had abandoned your blog or something.

Once you get your content in place, next in line is a lot more work than producing content. It is marketing your blog.

Now, marketing and promotion is the most important factor in driving traffic to your blog. Because, without spreading the word about your blog and what type of content you have in it, then it is not easy for readers to find your blog.

So, how do you market your blog?

There are several ways to do it. Let me list it out in point form:

- you tell your friends, family and anyone who'd listen to you brag about your blog. Make sure you repeat your website address often enough to get them to go into your site.

- you submit your blog to search engines and then submit to all high ranking blog directories

- you join some blogging platform like BlogRush and social networking and start blog hopping and making new blogger friends. Soon, they'd come visiting your blog often too.

- you join forums to offer expert advise and remember to add the link to your blog!

- you can also submit expertise articles to article directories for some link love.

Try these out and tell me how it turns out.

Happy blogging!

SEO tips

Any blogger or webmaster worth his salt knows all about SEO and its importance to get his website or blog high up in the search engines. After all, without being highly visible to the public, it is not that easy to get random traffic without the search engines ranking.

So, I am sharing with you some of my SEO tips. I may not be an expert but I've learnt quite a bit about it and just providing tips that I personally use:

1. When you write the blog post or article, do always choose with a keyword you plan to optimize. Say, you want to optimize the word 'SEO tips' like this blog post.

2. You start your post with the keyword within the title.

3. You also insert the keyword into the post, preferably once in the first paragraph, once in the middle and last one in the final paragraph.

4. It is important to remember not to overdo it and use the keyword for every sentence because the search engines may think this is not a real post but one to cheat them.

5. Even the tags for you post must have the keyword

6. Finally, remember to keep the post real, logical and something a real person would appreciate reading and not full of gibberish to 'cheat' the search engines because traffic are real people and if you want them to keep coming back, offer them something they like and chances are they will keep coming back if they really like it!

I hope my SEO tips is useful to you. Since I am far from a pro-blogger and still learning the tricks of the trade, it is just something I learned as I blog along.

Make money blogging

Make money blogging is now a common term that every blogger knows and many do strive to earn something through blogging.

I, for one, am doing the same thing. No, not making a LOT of money from blogging, just enough to pay for some of my blogs. I know this blog is a free blog so this blog's cost is pretty much zero except for the time I need to put in to promote this and keep it updated.

Well, I do have several other domains and I use Wordpress as a blogging tool. However, recently, I started on a membership blogging site.

This site has been promoting itself as a platform for bloggers to make money blogging. The catch? Each blogger needs to pay monthly membership fees and their fees will go to the bloggers that they read. Similarly, they will be paid by the visits by other bloggers to their blog.

Or something like that. I don't know how to explain the full math of it but to put it simply, your membership fees will go to the bloggers whose blogs you visit and vice versa. It seems a pretty fair plan. Your fees are distributed fairly to the blogs you visit and like while you will get a share of the fees from those who read your blog.

I kinda like the thought of that. So, I joined. After a few days, I have earned a grand total of $0.01!!! LOL. Shocking, huh? Oh well, I went back to read the FAQ and realised that total earnings are counted differently as in it will be counted at the end of the other blogger's 'fee cycle' or something like that. It seems like we will only know our true earnings from blogging there after several months.

Which I think is reasonable. After all, it takes several months to build up traffic too. And it also takes several months before we could register for those paid post programmes.

So, what do I blog about over there? Well, I've started two blogs there, one on dieting and losing weight and another one is a general one on my life experience. I truly believe we could make money blogging and this site is one of it!

Do check it out here:

Where to get inspiration to blog

I blog on a daily basis on my various blogs (although not as often as I'd like in this blog) and sometimes, I do go blank and don't know what to blog about. It is not because I am really out of ideas but more like I had 'forgotten' most of what I planned to blog earlier.

It happens a lot. This could be due to having to keep track with so many blogs and since I write in different styles in those blogs, sometimes, my writing styles sorta gets mixed up. And sometimes, I get so overwhelmed that I don't know what I wanted to blog about. Yep, bloggers also get writers block.

One thing about blogging, we have to be consistent. I noticed that ever since I lagged behind in this blog (four months to be exact!!), traffic has slowed to almost non-existent. That is really not good.

What good is a blog if no one wants to read it, right?

So, what do I do to get started?

Here are some tips on how I get about plunking out five to six blog posts each day:

1. Browse and read other blogs for ideas but DO NOT COPY because that's plagiarism.

2. Read the news for funny ideas you can blog about

3. Draw on your own recent experience which you think is great to share with your readers

4. Check out social networking sites like stumble upon, digg, etc for the current 'hot' topics

5. Get a writing buddy / blogging buddy to help out by exchanging some ideas

6. Worse comes to worse, take part in one of those memes which is fun and also a great way to meet tonnes of other bloggers (and add traffic to your site!)

Best of luck getting some inspiration to blog and happy blogging!

Missing in action for four months..

I feel so darn guilty about neglecting this blog for so many months...it is almost as if I had quite forgotten all about it.

Of course, it is always in the back of my mind, nagging me, reminding me that this is my first ever consistent blog, that is until I became quite inconsistent in recent months, this year to be exact.

The reasons for that is simple. I have started several other new blogs. I now have a food blog and another socio-political, bitchy, rant-filled blog and a more localised blog on where I stay. You can check out my food blog at The Food Site. It is a blog reviewing places to eat and also with recipes and sometimes, some trivia on foods we eat each day.

I had half a mind to get rid of this blog and realised that I did not have the heart to do it. It has been around for me for quite a long while already so it is very much like a good friend to me. I can't possibly cast this aside just because I have, er, feelings (??) and good memories with this blog.

So, yep. I am keeping this blog and I will try to post at least an entry a week just to keep things going. This blog will be all about my writing projects, the finished and unfinished ones...

So, till then!

Broken glasses

I just made my third pair of prescription glasses this year. Although very much a contact lens person, I also do wear glasses at night and for the past few months I have been going through each pair speedily.

No, it is not because my eyesight was getting worse. It is largely thanks to my son who seemed intent on destroying each pair he came across with much glee.

So, where do I shop for my glasses? I was too busy to actually go down to the store to get new ones and decided to surf the net for solutions. Then I came across the $ 8 Zenni Optical Rx Eyeglasses promotion online.

It is an affordable, easy and highly convenient way to buy prescription glasses! The site offers extremely funky frame designs for a variety of prescription glasses. You will get to choose from beautiful frames to go with single vision lens, sunsensor lens, tinted sunglasses lens, bifocal lens and progressive lens.

Given the myriad of choices, one would think it would probably cost a bomb but you'll be surprised to find that getting a pair is as affordable as say, eating out. That is because ZenniOptical made its own frames and you are actually getting the frames direct from the factory at factory prices!

This may be a sponsored post but I do genuinely like the site. So, go ahead, check out the site and you won't regret it!

More lies...

This is it.

I am officially fed up and extremely pissed.

The elections is really driving me up the wall.

Note to politicians: It is one thing to lie in order to win votes but to publicise it every few hours, every bloody day is enough to make any sane person go nuts!

So, I have had it. I am sure my countrymen (who are not politicians) are equally fed up.

In case you are curious, I am referring to the government's media blitz. Every time I switch on the radio, I bloody hear a sickening advertisement on how great the government is. It is enough to get my blood boiling and give me an immediate need to strangle the bloody government! Except that I can't do that. It would means strangling quite a lot of people including the hantus and the whatnots. Besides, I do not want to dirty my hands touching such undesirables.

Won't you get mad that the bloody irritating advertisement extols the many values and wonderful qualities of our country from the harmony and unity to the high public safety rate to the equal opportunities for all when the opposite is true?

How can there be harmony and unity when people of different races are suffering an under the surface tension which threatens to boil over at the slightest indication? How can there be unity when different racial groups nowadays mixes with only their own race more than with other races out of choice? How can there be harmony when there is blatant racial discrimination sanctioned by the government, creating vast dissatisfactions and ripples of discontent amongst the people?

And public safety... how can there be a great public safety rate with a wonderful police force (as advertised) when crime rates continue to climb? What is public safety when eight-year-olds can no longer play in a playground near their homes without being kidnapped in broad daylight? How can there be public safety when the police sometimes could not even be bothered and takes up to 30 minutes to turn up if someone did make a distress call? CCTVs only record events and images, how in the world does it prevent a murder / rape / kidnapping? Even if a policeman watching the CCTV saw a murder and immediately alerted his colleagues on the ground, does it prevent it from happening? Nope, all it does was just to inform the police that something had happened! So, what is the point? Is that public safety? Err...I don't think so.

I do not want to go into equal opportunities because it would make this entry longer than a 300-page book. If there are equal opportunities here, then, I can safely say there are purple flying elephants and blue slim pigs with angel wings running around my country.

Enough said, I think all these advertisements will only work against them because if it pisses me off, I am sure it pisses a whole load of other people too! So, what do pissed off voters do? They mark on the boxes that do not favour the advertisers of course!

Oh yeah, I recently heard a priceless joke about two of the infamous politicians here. I guess it could be applied to any politician, you only need to replace the names of the politicians. Here it is:

An elderly priest has been ill for quite a while and one day, when he knew Death is almost upon him, he told his close friend that he needed to see two people before he die.

"Who do you want to see, father? I will bring them to you," his friend asked.

"I want to see KJ and Samy Velly at the same time," was his weak reply.

His friend was puzzled but he obliged and went out of his way to contact KJ and Samy. When contacted, both men were somewhat puzzled that a dying priest had wanted to meet them before he died.

So, both of them arrived at the same time and went to the priest's room.

"I want to thank you both for coming. It really meant a lot to me," the priest told them, tears glistening in his eyes, as he gestured for them to stand next to him, one on each side of his bed.

The old priest took their hands in each of his hand and a look of contentment and utter peace settled onto this face.

Puzzled, they asked 'Father, we are wondering, why of so many people in this country, you chose to see us before you die?'

His reply...

"Our Lord Saviour Jesus died in between two lying thieves and it is an honour that I will be able to die this way too."

Politicians and lies

I am sick of politicians and politics.

Seriously, I am.

I mean how many lies can a person actually come up with? Well, after almost two weeks of tailing all sorts of politicians, let me assure you, the one main attribute of a politician is the ability to lie. Let me list out the many 'wonderful' traits of politicians I have come across in recent times (due to the elections).

1. Arrogance - Don't even let me get started on this one. Sure, sure, you were an elected representative, you hold an important government post, you represent the people, blah, blah, blah. But did you ever stop to think and reflect that you are elected by the people and you are elected to represent the people, not to turn your snotty nose into the air and act as if you are King (or Queen) of the World? Probably not.

2. Stupidity - Sad to say but it is true. Many of the politicians I met are sadly lacking in the upper floor department. I mean, it is okay if you do not know about current local issues by heart, it is even okay that you do not know what is going on in the country but you do not even know about your own constituency, could not speak a modicum of good English, could not even do your maths properly and worse of all, give speeches in horrid grammar (for whichever language) and interspersed with wrong facts. And you expect the people to elect you? I think I will pass and perhaps, I'd vote for the garbage guy who probably knows more than you.

3. Power crazy - sure, we all know that the reason you are in on this is for the power but isn't your main goal supposed to be the one to fight for the people's rights, to represent the people, to whatevercrapyouaretellingyourvoterstowinvotes? That said, why should we even vote for you when you openly display your greed for power more than your so-called sincerity in wanting to represent the people?

4. Outright lying - I know, I know, it is highly impossible to find an honest, sincere politician. But a girl can dream, can't she? I suppose there may be a few politicians who do not lie most of the time but I have yet to come across one. Why is it so difficult to tell the truth? Isn't honesty the best policy? Oh yeah, I forgot. It is the politician's policy to lie. Sorry, my bad.

5. Discrimination - whether it is intentional or a campaign tactic, I just find any form of discrimination against the elderly, the disabled, the women, the different religions and the different races extremely distasteful. Regardless of who or which political party it is you are up against, can't you keep your campaigns clean of discriminative attacks? What is your problem, anyway? Does it make you feel superior to belittle others based on their disabilities, gender, colour of their skin, age group? You may not say it outright but the double meaning slotted in between your speeches is already bad enough. So, stop!

6. Empty promises - please, please, please, stop making those empty promises. I beg you! I have had enough of all these 'I promise to give you a whole mountain of gold if you vote for me' crap. Enough is enough already. We do not want words. We want real gold, not visions of gold. Period.

7. Glorification - Okay, so you did a bit of this and a bit of that but hello, it is from using tax-payers' money isn't it? So, what's the big deal? We paid for it so it is not completely your doing at all! It is your job after all, isn't it? Why else would we vote for you? So, stop already with the glorification of what you did for us. We expect you to do it because we hired you to do it. So, there is really nothing great about it!

8. Missing in action - You have not even been elected yet (for this elections anyway) and you are pulling a fast one by disappearing really fast. Sure, elected representatives are supposed to be policy makers and not to hang around their constituency...but this is the campaigning period, isn't it? Aren't you supposed to be showing your face around instead of disappearing to God-knows where? And what's with the sending representatives to represent you? What the heck was that? Why don't you just let the representatives be the candidates? If we can't expect you to be here at this period of time, how sure are we that you will be around to listen to our grouses after you are elected?

So, there. I have many more pet peeves but I shall not list them all. It is just too long a list. Please bear in mind that I am not a supporter of any political party. I am pretty much a fence sitter and I seriously do hate politics. With a vehemence. I just find it too darn dirty and full of lies and well, dishonest.

Time management to solve it all

When I started this blog, I planned to be very consistent with it by posting as regularly as I possibly could but somehow, it always ended up as a victim of neglect. Given my new resolution to become a consistent blogger (well, at the rate I am going, I doubt that I can even dream of becoming a ProBlogger!), I am thoroughly ashamed of myself for the neglect I subject this blog to!

What can I say? I have been spending way too much time on my other blog, my website and my freelance work that this poor writing blog got chucked aside as the fourth priority. I have also neglected my other writing places such as Hubpages, Helium and Shvoong.It is not because I have writers block or anything. Even if I have that, we all know, I have my very own tips to get rid of writers block. Nowadays with even more work at my day job (and more stress too), I could sadly say I have very little time to indulge in my private pet project: fiction writing. All these are on top of time for my family.

So, what do I do? How do I ever do so many things in so little time? Well, time management is the key. I know, I have posted an entry of my hopeless attempt in time management before but I have since come up with a system to try to get everything done in times when my plate is too full to handle.

The steps I take:

1. Prioritize - Divide my tasks and assignments by priority. Example: set aside compulsory family time everyday, then write down a list of tasks and assignments I have to do. Write it by priority, the top being the most in want of attention. Sample:

1. Family time
2. House chores
3. Day job writing assignments
4. Two freelance articles due by Friday
5. Research for two more articles for next week
6. Search job boards to bid for more freelance work, place bid
7. Update blogs
8. Research for website and update of website
9. Learn up more about internet marketing, etc.
10. Research and write fiction projects

2. Divide the to-do list according to the available time each day - for example, I will be spending between 8am to 7pm on my day job (including commuting time). From 7pm onwards, I will have to divide the time to do the ten things in my list.

3. Keep to the timetable created from above and avoid all distractions - yep, that means no TV, no online chatting (unless it is for work), no hanging around gossip forums for hours and most importantly stay away from Facebook, Myspace and similar social networking sites (unless it is to keep in touch with your freelance clients). These are the worst time-waster ever!

4. Let your family in on it - ask your family members to cooperate by giving you peace and space to do your work without interruptions. They could also help out with some of the house chores.

5. Use pockets of available time wisely - you know when you have to wait for the computer to boot up or while waiting for a page to load, don't just sit there staring at the screen - use that time to do other things like organize your paperwork or write down new article ideas or even read books as part of your research.

6. Multi-tasking - the reason for high-tech computers is to make our life easier so use it to multi-task. Do your research and check your emails at the same time, just open more windows.

There it is. I have been applying it and though I am still a bit behind schedule on some things ( like this blog), at least I am getting there. The day will come when I will be able to do everything efficiently and even drop by at other blogs to read and leave comments (as I should have done for ages!) in a return favor to those who have dropped by here and left comments.

How to write a press release

As a journalist, I come across a lot of press releases to process on a daily basis and I noticed quite a lot of these releases are, well, too full of fluff. I have recently written press releases for a buyer as a freelance writer and with years of experience of choosing press releases to use, I could safely say I know roughly what most newspapers want in a press release.

However, instead of listing down what should be included in a press release, I will list down all the no-nos which I feel makes the press release less attractive to a newspaper editor / journalist.

DO NOT:

1. Start with a sensationalized headline with no substantial backing to it - this will only serve to alienate the editor/ journalist looking through it as he/she will definitely feel cheated and annoyed that they have wasted valuable time reading through a release which does not live up to its claims as per the headline.

2. Use too much purple prose and flowery language - if you read the daily newspapers, the news are all about facts in good simple English. Nothing too complicated and definitely no flowery words fit for a poet. So, stick to the format and use good simple English, the journalist/editor will thank you for not complicating the whole press release with unwanted flowery words.

3. Write as if you are writing a marketing piece - a press release may be used to market your product / business but please, do not write the press release as if you are selling your product / business to the newspaper. It will certainly put off the journalist / editor and the press release will end up in the bin. Do it subtly by merging it into the whole storyline.

4. Assume that the newspaper know about the industry you are writing about - it is always wise to add your company background at the end of the press release and pepper the whole press release with facts about the industry you are writing about. This will save the journalist / editor time from having to do thorough research on the industry before using the press release. It is true that they will still check out the facts you presented but at least your efforts in putting in the facts will put you in a better light with them.

5. write a thesis - a press release is suppose to present facts and news of an event / product / business and not a whole book about it. So, keep it to the point and as brief as possible but make sure all the facts are there such as the who, what, where, why, when and how.

6. make any grammatical / spelling errors - though newspapers do not expect press releases written in perfect English, it is always good to ensure your press release is clean and clear of mistakes. It will only endear the journalist / editor to you.

7. write a press release on a non-newsy event - many people make the mistake of sending a press release just for the sake of sending one so they make up topics to write just to promote their business/ product. Many journalists/ editors can see right through them and these often end up in the bin too. So, make sure when you do send a press release, it is about an event that may interest others, or a new product that may interest the readers or even a discovery that may interest people. Do remember, the newspapers or magazines have readers and their articles target their readers. So ask yourself objectively, as a reader, if you are interested to know about this event / product you are writing about in your press release.

These are but the main few no-nos. There are actually more but I guess these few should suffice. Writing a press release is not that difficult. You just need to be more targeted and careful.

Writing foreign topics

For freelance writers, especially newbies, getting writing assignments and winning bids at freelance job boards can be quite a task. In fact, it is an uphill struggle most of the time to get enough to pay the bills, at least in the beginning.

So, for me, I usually put in a bid on as many projects as I possibly could. However, some of the topics are not something I am familiar with. So, what do I do? It is time to break out the research skills and lots of creativity!

Here are some of my tips on what to do when it comes to writing about things we are not familiar with:

1. Even before you put in a bid, do check out the details of the project and what is needed. Is it a long or short article? Or is it an ebook? A blog post? A press release? Then, look at the topics on hand. Is it something you have never written about before? Note all these down and work out how many words or how much facts are required. But why before bidding? Simple, it is so that you will know how much time you will need to put into it and be able to place a bid that covers the time you spent on it.

2. Armed with the initial requirements for the project, you conduct a simple research into it. Then you find out if :
a. it is a topic you could easily understand (not too technical and beyond your understanding that you find it hard to grasp the concept without reading an article about it three times)
b. it is something you could comfortably write about once you have the facts without having to struggle over the technical terms
c. it is something you could complete within the timeframe required with time to spare
d. it is something you could easily find the facts about

3. Once you feel that you will be able to complete the project, then submit your bid. If you win the bid, do bear in mind that you are in for a lot of research before actually starting on the project. However, you have already got your basics covered as you had already done the initial research before placing the bid. This time you will have to do thorough research on the topic. If it is something that relies on facts and figures, you better make darn sure you do your research well! This means really thorough. You can't just go to Wikipedia and extract the information from there.

3. Make full use of all three major search engines, Google, Yahoo and MSN. You can even go to Ask and About. If the topic is about local issues, check out the local media and look for local sites. It is important that you get as many references as possible and double and triple check all your facts to be sure that the facts are right. Sometimes, facts gathered from a site may differ from another site so it is best you check at least three or four other sites for more accuracy.

4. Use specific keywords and phrases in your searches. If the topic is about 'breeding of St Bernard dogs', then try searching for the whole phrase and from there search some more. Possibly, you could start with St Bernard and if it comes with too many unrelated sites, then try to narrow it down with more specific phrases such as St Bernard dogs or the whole phrase. Otherwise, you could also look up 'Pets' or 'Dogs' and from there you can search through pet sites and dog sites for more information on St Bernard. This exercise may take hours to do but the preparation is well worth it.

5. The writing starts. I could not really tell you how to start writing except to let your creative juices flow and use the facts as the skeleton of the project. It you are still stumped, do drop by for help at writers' forums or better still, go get some inspiration by reading articles by others. Get a feel of how others write it and perhaps you will somehow manage to get your article in motion. Now, please DO NOT do the unthinkable of copying and pasting! It is called plagiarism and your buyer may end up not paying you or worse, you could be sued for copyright infringement!

6. Double check the facts and compare you work with others on the internet. This is your own editing and proofreading process to ensure that your work is no less professional than others. You also do not want to sound too green about the topic even though it is your first time writing about it. So, the best way to see if your article is on par or not is to compare it with others.

7. Deliver it and offer one or two rewrites. Since you are new to the topic and despite much checking and cross referencing, your article may come out different from what the buyer wanted. So, do be professional about it as to offer free rewrite of up to twice but not more. I usually offer one rewrite.

8. When rewriting it is best to first ask the buyer specific questions as to what is really required so that the rewrite will be according to what the buyer wanted. You do not want to waste more time doing a second rewrite. Usually the buyer have no qualms answering whatever questions or uncertainties you may have. The golden rule here is, ask when you are not sure. It is better that you get the rewrite done correctly this way than trying to work it out on your own.

Of course we never aim to do rewrites as it would take up more of our time and at the same time create a really bad first impression on the buyer. But of course, most buyers are understanding and will not decide to drop you just because the article does not suit their taste. As long as the article is written articulately, presented in a format required by the buyer, is factually accurate and does not contain any grammatical mistakes, you are quite safe.

Again, these tips are gathered from my own personal experience so it may work for some people and not for others. Whichever it is, I do hope it helped! Happy writing.

The art of bidding at freelance job boards

If you are a freelancer and have been burnt many a time at job boards especially when others outbid you, you are definitely not alone. I have my bids turned down and declined so many times that I almost gave up!

However, I did win some bids (and am up to my neck in projects now...though I am not exactly earning big bucks for it!) and thanks to a really good buyer who gave me a really great review rating, I am able to get noticed more often in my bids. So, how did I win those initial few bids when I do not have any reviews?

Here are the steps that I took:

1) Find out the name of the buyer : I always try to address the buyer by his/her name when submitting a proposal. For example, when I see a job I am interested in, I will first check out the profile of the buyer. If it reveals a name, I will take note of it.

2) Be polite, professional and brief: When I submit a bid, my proposal is always polite, professional and to the point. I start it by addressing the buyer and then I state out in brief, why I could provide the services required. I always end it with a thank you.

3) Pricing: There are a lot of firms / freelancers out there who could submit really low bids from $1 per article to $3 per hour of work. We could never go down to that level of pricing (or else you'd be earning peanuts for a lot of work!) so DON'T! Instead, stick to your original pricing and search out projects which have higher budgets. It is not wise to reduce your prices as it would only lower your standards. If the buyer do contact you about your pricing and asking for a lower bid amount, you could do a bit of adjustment but not much. If possible, offer the buyer a few options as in a range of pricing for certain services. Example: $5 per hour for basic data entry work, $6 per hour for data entry and basic research work, $10 per hour for research and writing of articles, etc. This way, the buyer have a choice and may even accept your bid.

4) Close the deal: Sometimes, the buyer would send a message asking you a few specific questions. Sometimes it is to test your skills, sometimes it is just to get to know you and sometimes it is just to check out your response time. So, ALWAYS check your message board/email on a regular basis, if possible, a few times a day to ensure that you did not miss any new messages. ALWAYS reply to a message immediately and again, be polite and professional about. If it is a test, do your research first before answering the questions. If it is a sort of interview, answer it as eloquently as possible and be genuine and honest. Do not claim to be able to do this or that when you can't as it will only backfire on you later. Buyers always appreciate frank, polite and professional responses to their messages. It reflects that you are serious about your work and that you are professional about it.

5) Get a good review: If you are awarded a project, congrats! But before celebrating, the crucial point is to ensure you deliver the project. Be sure to do it according to the buyer's requirements. Adhere to whatever schedule they set. Always report back to them (if they required it) and always treat them with the utmost respect and professionalism. Remember, they are your clients and you do not want to drive away your clients! Follow instructions and importantly, put your best into your projects. It may be paying you only $15 per article or $9 per hour but it is still payment for your services. Be your own worst critic and go over all your work carefully before submitting it to your client. Once you have a satisfied client, you will get a great review!

These are but a few of my own personal tips. I do hope it helps! Happy bidding out there.