Copyright is literally “the right to copy” and the laws that govern the reproduction of material. Reproduction of your work without your knowledge is a violation of copyright law. Copyrights may subsist in a wide range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms or “works”. They include poems, plays, paintings, sculptures, photographs, musical compositions and other forms of literary work. The authority of selling, renting or copying the work is restricted to the owner, manufacturer or the creator of the work.

Although there are laws regarding copyright, one can actually take approximately 300 words from a book or any other lengthy work of writing and use it, or you can quote 150 words from a magazine article. If you wanted you could also use 50 words from a newspaper article (generally considered fair-use), without a fee. Even if you’ve taken some words/material from the document(s), then this should be mentioned in the bibliography/references/acknowledgements section; this commonly referred to as ‘fair dealing’.

The use of discretion is very important and one should be careful not to copy the entire work of the author and claim it as your own. One should not paraphrase a substantial amount of the authors work (writing or a theme) without due acknowledgement. If one is writing from a newspaper or a magazine, then a request should be sent to the editor of that particular newspaper or magazine to use “borrowed” material from it. This is also true in cases of borrowing extracts from books, where permission should be acquired from the author and the publisher of the book. You should give them as much information as possible about your article or book, your publisher, as well as other books or articles written by you. If you want to use quotes you can tell them the reasons behind using a particular quote from a book. If you say that you will give them due acknowledgement in your writing, they will generally oblige.

Even providing content for your web pages requires it to be original and not something that belongs to someone else. If you do not own text, graphics, music, audiovisual or other intellectual property that you want to make copies of, or use for your projects (such as Web pages), you will need to get permission from the owner. Now, when you have uploaded content to your website, you will not want copying, so make sure that your website has a copyright notice, as this reduces the possibility of material being used from your site on someone elses.

Copyrights are generally for a variety of lengths in many different places/areas of jurisdiction. It also depends on whether a work is published or unpublished, and also which category the work is in. In most of the world, the default length of copyright for many works is generally the life of the author plus either 50 or 70 years. A copyright in general, always expires at the end of the year concerned, rather than on the exact date of the death of the author. In the United States the right to reclaim a copyright–or “terminate the transfer” of a copyright–commences and ends on the anniversaries of the exact dates.

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Plain Business Etiquette

I’ve mentioned previously that I have been spreading my wings and venturing into new areas looking for business. Primarily this has been based around the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) knowledge I’ve been accumulating, but it has brought home to me a reminder of my very first weeks writing for pay. Making initial approaches for work and how to handle queries and the assignment itself are probably more important than what you actually produce at this stage.

When making an initial approach for an assignment don’t pussy foot around. Ask for the work; spell out your idea, or how you will deal with the subject matter and most importantly how you will manage the work and what can be expected.

Below is a real bid I made for ten articles recently:

“Hi - this supplements my bid of $60 for 10 x 400 word (min) articles. The articles will be delivered within 24 hours of receipt of instruction. They will:

1. be 100% original and Copyscape tested prior to submission;
2. in US English or British English as you specify;
3. grammatically correct and free of typos;
4. optimized with the keyword/phrase to your specification;
5. written by me - a native English speaker who splits his time between the US and UK.

I’ve attached a sample of my writing below and you will find my contact information within this if you wish to discuss this prior to awarding the work.

Recent online examples of my work are to be found at:

http://acceptbyphone.com
www.yourhealthreporter.com/blog
www.supaproofread.com/blog

I note that you have 2 of these projects and I shall bid for this other project also with the same terms.

Regards

Karl “

You may have noticed that it is not personalised and that is simply because I did not know the identity of the project provider, but the rest is straight forward and to the point. I attached a writing sample with this bid, but the bulk of my bid is not concerned with writing per se, it tackles the issues of what, quantity, cost, quality and when the product will be delivered. Some may consider my terse bidding style to be too cold or “in your face”, but in fact it is a clear cut approach that leaves little room for doubt as to what I will be providing.

Notice that I have pretty much covered all aspects of the project and provided samples for the project provider to check without having to dig around. Do not put potential clients in a position where they have to do some digging to find out how good you are. Always place your name, email address and any contact telephone numbers at the top of any writing sample that you send out to prospective clients. Invite potential clients to discuss assignments with you prior to awarding the work, as this will show that you actually do care about delivering content that fits their needs.

You may notice that I state the articles will be written by “me” which may seem like stating the obvious but in reality it is not. There are a huge number of content providers that are operating as nothing more than a brokerage or battery farm with people churning out content. I’m a native English speaker and writer, the sample attached is my work and I wanted to make it clear to the client that I was not going to be sub-contracting the work out elsewhere, they were paying for “me” and I was being delivered.

In this particular instance, the bid was successful and I have busied myself writing on the delights of colonic irrigation for the past few hours. Delivery of the work was completed and the client is so pleased he’s awarded me the second project that I was bidding on and paid me.

One thing before I leave, after my internet research on colon cleansing products there are memories of images I wish I did not have!

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Really Simple Syndication

RSS is an acronym that has by popular demand become known as “Really Simple Syndication”. Originating from blogging platforms, RSS has spread to other online media to assemble, categorise and distribute content to users interested in the topic area that is being covered. A working definition of RSS is that it is a means to notify you of news updates without using email and can be delivered to your PC or Mac via a web page, email inbox or a PDA.

The fact that RSS does not rely on email to deliver updates, avoids the problems that are associated with Spam filters blocking the information from being delivered. I tend to think of an RSS feed as the ticker tape banner that you see running on news broadcasts on the TV.

RSS is important for web writers, due to its effectiveness in broadcasting your work and reaching new and larger audiences, rather than passively waiting for a visitor to happen upon your article or post. The problem with RSS is that for many (including me) it strikes you as being technical and complicated when you first come across it. Truthfully, it is not so complicated that any novice writer with minimal web experience cannot use it and to prove the point, here is a simple five step tutorial on how to set up RSS feed for your work.

Step 1

Find an RSS Newsreader which will manage the RSS feeds you subscribe to. I recommend Newsgator and Bloglines as they are the ones I use and am familiar with, but placing “RSS Newsreader” in your search engine will uncover many more of these “aggregators”. Newsgator will integrate with Outlook email software and in this instance the updates are delivered to you by email - I strongly suggest that you set up an email account that is separate from your regular email inbox to receive RSS feeds, and so avoid getting extraneous email cluttering your inbox. So first off, head over to Google or Yahoo and sign up for a free email account - mine is bizbloggerRSS@gmail.com to give you an idea. In order to keep this tutorial platform neutral we’ll use Bloglines, as it lends itself for use by both PC and Mac users without deviation from the following steps.

Step 2

Install Bloglines on your machine - simple to do and use the RSS email you set up.

Step 3

The web address or url of your content is not the same as the url for the RSS feed - to input an RSS feed url look for the RSS icon and right click on it - that is the RSS feed url, so right click and copy it with your mouse.

The url for an RSS feed will look something like this:

http://www.supaproofread.com/blog/feed/

http://www.yourhealthreporter.com/blog/index.php/?feed=rss2

Paste that url into your Bloglines url dialog box for subscriptions – you need to be sure you have the feed url, so look for “rss2″, .”rdf”, “.rss”, or “feed” in the url address.

Step 4

For blogs and sites that you wish to subscribe to, finding the RSS feed is quite simple, as the RSS aggregator will usually locate the feed for you. Sometimes it is not so easy and you have to click around to find the url, a good tip is to look in the “Meta” section of a blog or website.

With Bloglines, sign into the service with your email and password information, find the “Easy Subscription Bookmarklet” and install the bookmarklet in your internet browser (simply follow the instructions Bloglines gives you depending on the type and version of web browser you have).

Now you’re ready to add sites and blogs to your feed so go to a blog you wish to subscribe to - try this one:

http://www.supaproofread.com/blog/

Once you’re there, click on the “Add to Bloglines” icon in your internet browser toolbar - you will be offered options for subscribing to the feed and I suggest you click on the option that ends in .rss and add that to bloglines.

Now scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the “Subscribe” icon - if you don’t do this step you will not be signed up and the subscription feed will fail to be delivered.

Step 5

Now you have set up an RSS reader and subscribed to blogs and sites that you are interested in, you need to be able to access the feed and see what updated news and content is being generated. This is simply a matter of going to the “My Feeds” icon in the Bloglines interface and you will be taken to a plain looking page that will contain a date ordered series of excerpts from the sites you’ve subscribed to. Selecting one of the feed excerpts will take you to the original post and it is as simple as that.

Now you’re done - that’s all you need to do to sign up for the RSS services, but a question you may have, is how you use RSS for distributing your own work?

Blogging platforms such as Blogger and Wordpress have RSS feed tools already built in to the software and it is easy to set up by following the instructions (Blogger has it enabled as a default setting when you set up a blog). For non-blogging RSS distribution, I have previously covered two sites, Zimbio and Squidoo where you can post your content and there are a set of instructions to get your work RSS syndicated - you can find that post here.

No matter what the technical expertise you acquire, there is no substitute for delivering well written and imaginative content in a professional manner. Supaproofread has a wealth of resources for helping writers on any subject and any level produce well-written articles and content no matter how experienced.

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Twisting ideas to promote your client

By now, if you have been reading my posts, you will have gathered that I am not a so-called “creative writer”. I do not produce literature. I have no burning desire to write a novel, unless it’s guaranteed to be a bestseller ,which will keep me in the style to which I sincerely wish to become accustomed. I am a commercial animal, I write for pay and I look at writing as a means to earn my living and to form the bedrock of a business I am building.

That said, it does not mean that I am not imaginative nor creative with the ideas that flow and am used to delivering work products for my clients. It certainly does not follow that I am in any way less passionate about what I am doing, while I also have a fierce pride in my work, and delivering the very best I can provide for clients. Some of my work is “mindless pap” as I often say to enquiring friends and family and in my honest opinion it is just that - advertising and promotional rubbish. Nevertheless, it is good advertising rubbish and I can say that because it performs the task that my clients wish to achieve and I get paid for producing it.

Today, my work for the most part is not “mindless pap” as my clients and the projects have become more interesting. Writing assignments has started to exercise my mind and imagination to a greater extent, than figuring out how to get 800 words on a paper dealing with Japanese “Geta” shoes, or producing a dumbed down series of articles on alternatives to Viagara. Even when you are confronted with a topic that readily lends itself to a simple churning out of some more advertising rubbish you can exercise your imagination and tackle the subject from a different perspective. I firmly believe that the confidence I have acquired in two years of commercial writing has encouraged me to take alternative approaches to handling a client topic.

Earlier this week I had to write a series of blog posts for a site called Your Health Reporter which promotes altenative therapies, amongst which is the use of a slimming pill derived from a cactus in the Kalahari Desert, Hoodia Gordonii. Your Health Reporter, is a relatively new client for me and initially I started off with the “Lose the keg and get a 6 pack” style of posts for the slimming and fitness products that are being promoted. Last week I altered the style and that produced some incredible results.

Hoodia Gordonii is a Hollywood slimming pill of choice with Ophrah Winfrey and a host of other celebs jumping on the bandwagon. It blocks the appetite receptors in your brain, so you feel full all the time and it is highly effective at helping people to lose weight. Initially my research and writing all focused on the features and benefits of Hoodia and how you too can get a slimmer shape you’ve always dreamed of, fit into that skimpy bikini without feeling self-conscious and lose weight for a long, healthier life. I think you have the idea by now and that was the approach I took until I broke one of my own rules regarding time management and started reading a post on the BBC website, which actually broke the news behind Hoodia back in 2003.

Rather than writing about Hoodia itself and what a great weight loss pill it was, I posted a brief story on the blog about how the royalties from the Hoodia are changing the lives of the San Tribe of the Kalahari, where the cactus originates from. Royalties from US sales are turning an aboriginal tribe that does not have any concept of money as a medium of exchange into millionaires in one of the most backward, impoverished and harshest environments on the planet. So novel is the idea of money to the San Tribe, that the trustees of the millions of dollars for the San openly stated that they don’t think that the current generation of San will actually directly benefit from the money. It will only be when the next generation of “newly” educated children reach adulthood that the trustees think that the money will be used and controlled directly by the San.

The readership of that post has turned the Your Health Reporter blog into a success for my client. Traffic before the post was very small, but then it had only been going a week; however, that post has been the primary route for new readers and visitors to the Your Health Reporter website. My client is happy with the increased traffic, I’m happy because I have a happy client and I also produced a good piece of work as evidenced by the increased audience.

I’m not a “Creative Writer” but never ever think that I’m not trying to write creatively for my clients, my audience and myself.

Supaproofread provides writers with a range of resources for creative, imaginative and original content.

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There are many ways with which we can fuel our interests and writing. For instance, we all have our favorite hobbies and tastes. Let us take them one by one and research them. Whether it is chocolate, dogs, sports cars or butterflies, let us dig deep into our objects of adoration and find everything we can in our exploration. This work will include looking into encyclopedias, documentaries, journals, collecting articles, interesting representative mementos, collecting photographs, recording video and audio snippets….anything and everything.

Generally, we cannot conduct research of this kind during our daily schedule. Divide your time into two parts - the first being the research and the second on the different kinds of write-ups that you will be doing later.

Research

Start to research your topics of interest until you have an entire gallery of facts, fiction, definitions and documentation. This of course, will take a bit of meditation and engaged persuasion, but do not stop until there is enough information for igniting your creative high. After you are satisfied with your treasure trove, being full of objects, articles and information, play around with them, mixing and matching them to create articles and ideas. For example, you can use genealogical information of your favorite chocolate brand, with a description of their early wrappers, in the form of an autobiographical monologue of that brand. Or, you can use hundreds of butterflies to create your own little short fairy tale. You can even keep information of a particular item, which you have researched. These types of writing, with technical or purely informational ideas, combine with fictional bits form an “imagist writing”. So, with practice, you can explore and learn this brand new style with ease.

In any case, you will be able to write one or more researched essays on your favorite subjects, and the whole idea is to keep these researched materials, mementos, scraps or whatever information you have, in separate labeled cardboard boxes as your own personal paraphernalia on that subject. These will come in handy to fire your imagination anytime you need them. Just rummage through them whenever you want to spruce up an idea, find some new ones, or are feeling burned out in creative fluid. Use your self-created paraphernalia to fuel your own imagination when you need it the most. Think of it as a ‘think bank’ where you can store your best ideas. Also, it is important that you keep adding and restoring this bank with your interesting ideas, by replacing them with newer ones as they occur.

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