Squidoo & Zimbio

There are so many writing resources online that you can’t shake a stick at them all. When it comes to getting yourself noticed there are some online tools that are invaluable but they will take some time and effort for you to acquaint yourself. There are two sites that I’m going to deal with in this post - Zimbio and Squidoo. I use both of these sites frequently to promote articles and clients because they deliver traffic to the sites and blogs my writing is promoting in turn. Better still, both of these sites are completely free, indeed with Squidoo there is the opportunity to actually make passive revenue from the site.

Zimbio provides an article and wiki showcase where you can post up an article, edit the presentation to include headers and footers with hyperlinks to other web pages, such as your client web landing page or blog post. Zimbio provides a platform for submitting articles and blog posts, which are then blended in with “real” journalism and media while allowing for syndication of your work. Here you will find news and media output from recognised writers, TV, newspapers and magazines running alongside bloggers, active writers and non-professional sources, while readers are able to rate content and help good work gain wider exposure.

Here is an example of a Zimbio article I recently wrote for a client. At the top and bottom is my plug for the client website which helps for click-through traffic and rather than creating a new wikizine I’ve added it to an existing topic thread. I’ll deal with some on-site optimisation after we deal with Squidoo.

Squidoo provides a very similar service to Zimbio; however, they use “lenses” rather than a wikizine. For each article you submit through Squidoo you will need to create a new lens, and they can be looked on as being a mini-website within a much larger one. Within a lens you will be able to post your article or blog post, but you will also be able to add various optional extras such as a blogfeed, an RSS feed, eBay module that links to eBay to display auctions that pertain to your article content, as well as a comments module and much more. Once you have mastered the general concept the process of posting your content and creatings, a lens is pretty quick and straight forward.

In both cases, while you are still logged in you should take the opportunity to perform a little self-promotion. Finding posts and lenses that deal with a similar theme to your own article, is easy to do and leaving a comment with a link to your own content is a good method of attracting some readers. It does not have to be an in-depth analysis and I tend to use something like:

“Hi, interesting piece and I agreed/disagreed with your point on [whatever] which I’ve covered in my own article [insert hyperlink to your own lens/article].”

Make sure these comments are posted to relevant material and there is no need to overdo it, one or two comments is fine and flattering the ego of other writers and is a surefire way of getting them to comment on what you produce.

Optimising the posts for gaining exposure off the Squidoo/Zimbio sites is easily done by plugging into the RSS feeds that are already set up. I’ll deal with RSS and blog feeds in a later post, but for now just think of these tools as a way of gathering new content, categorising it and managing distribution to the rest of the world. Once you have used the on-site RSS and blog feed tools you need to tell the world about what you have done, and you achieve this by “Pinging“. Once Squidoo/Zimbio have set up your RSS feeds they will give you a url, copy the urls and paste them into PingoMatic or Pingoat and hit the “ping” icon. What you have just done is to notify dozens of RSS and blog feeds that you have put some new content up on these sites and they will now come and visit that content and arrange for it to be distributed to anyone who has registered an interest in the subject matter of your post. Consider RSS and blog feeds to be a tickertape running across the TV screen during a Sky News broadcast and you have the idea.

Finally, to help you gain some immediate traffic to your posting, sign up for some of the social sites such as Delicious, Digg and Reddit and place some short comments with a hyperlink back to your articles - this is known as “linkbaiting” and is a recognised means of gaining some visitors.

Following these steps will provide your work with immediate exposure and recognition that will grow with time. As you repeat this process for new work, you will find an increasing number of visitors from which you will gain a readership following. What has been described here is quite involved, but once you have mastered the techniques you will be able to perform all of this in a matter of a few minutes. More importantly, this series of processes is something for you to tell your clients about - it is an extra piece of value that you will be adding for your clients and something that will help you stand above the competition when bidding for work.

Remember that your work will reflect directly upon you - take the time before submission to proofread and correct it.

Supaproofread provides a wealth of writing resources and services for presenting your work to best effect.

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Are words best written alone?

I’m pretty sure that my title is not an original one. Writing requires concentration and effort especially if like me, writing has been something to do as part of a job rather than something performed for pleasure. The truth is that as a professional writer, and by that I mean I write for a living, my working life is spent alone with no colleagues to bounce ideas around and joke with at the coffee machine. I never get to see my clients as they are dotted around the world as far afield as North America, the Far East and Australasia, so email and Skype are the communication tools.

Does any of this matter with your writing?

Unless you are a hermit by nature, the straight answer is “Yes” it does matter.

To my mind there are two principal reasons why isolation affects your writing, firstly the effect on your own general state of mind and secondly, writers thrive on ideas and I find many ideas from my social networks. When I have been key bashing 20,000 words on Androgenic Alopecia (baldness to you and me) the sense of cabin fever that pervades is palpable and a break has to be taken; by that I don’t mean a cigarette and coffee break - a real break away from the keyboard and your office.

In earlier posts I’ve covered the need to manage your time and your environment in order to deliver quality copy to deadlines for your clients. I touched on the need to manage yourself while writing; however, taking a step back from performing the actual work itself, very little is actually said of keeping your greatest asset in shape - your brain, your imagination and your mind. Writing while depressed or unhappy is not going to produce great copy that will sell Rogaine or Anadin Extra though you may be able to get Morrissey to buy it and rework it into a Smith’s revival tune. Write while tired and your writing will be tired and this aside from the increase in grammatical errors which multiply exponentially. Never proof your work while fatigued as that is a recipe for disaster.

Virtually all the resources I have encountered deal with the “How to” of writing, a substantial minority deal with the “Why” and there is nothing that I have found that deals with “You”. Going into some form of writers purdah, a neccessity for me personally; however, is to be aware of the medium and long-term effects that such self-imposed isolation will bring. In order to continue producing quality content to order, you need to maintain yourself and that for me requires frequent diversions that do not include the keyboard.

Do not forget your friends and family, do not skip meal times (your brain consumes the largest amount of the calories you take in), and do not get into the mindset that the writing controls you - it is you that controls what appears on the blank page. Look after yourself physically, exercise frequently and tire your body naturally with a visit to the gym, digging the garden or walking the dogs. The idea is that when it comes time to lay that weary head upon the pillow, you get some sleep without the synapses firing away and revolving around a writing project.

Drinking tea and coffee forms a major part of my day; however, too much of either and I start getting a caffeine rush that simply destroys the ability to focus properly on the topic at hand. I have changed my habits, so a coffee is part of my writing ritual at a set time after I start work. I also only drink decaffeinated beverages once I’ve started work so my mind remains sharp and focused.

Part of my apprenticeship as a writer has been to take stock of my own life and how I live it. In my early writing days (a short two years ago) I would write endlessly on anything and everything with little thought about how and why my own mind was functioning. I noticed after six months how very tired I was and spending a short holiday in Cyprus led me to the realisation that I simply was not looking after my brain and inner self. This appreciation has spawned a new approach to writing work, as I place boundaries on writing time and ensure that other aspects of my life are not neglected. I do not miss meals with my family and cook the Sunday roast, I perform the “Dad’s Taxi” chores that anyone with children between the ages of 5 and 80 is all too familiar with, and I make it a rule that once a month we all dine out at a good restaurant.

My title may not be very original, but the thoughts and opinions are all my own. Read the interviews of famous writers and you will find the questions follow a common theme regarding ideas, imagination and motivation. Reading the responses will let you form your own conclusions about how writers of any description have to come to terms with the isolation of being a long distance writer. The words may very well be written in isolation but your ideas, inspiration and motivation will come from those around you.

Writing is only a fraction of the time you need to spend on creating high, quality work - research before you start and reviewing and editing after take far more time and energy.

Supaproofread editing and proofreading services are a key tool for producing the finished article.

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Often, potentially brilliant pieces of writing are discarded because they seem amateurish and lack a ‘final polish’. We often end up spending very little time minute details, as silly mistakes can make even an amateur’s work look like one written by an expert, so long as it is edited correctly. Do not let your manuscript be an example of sloppy work, deep down you know that there is always room for improvement, even when you think you have given it your best shot.

Free your work from errors, even if you feel that you should leave your work, you might not notice that blatant mistake on page 54. Typing errors and bad sentence construction can serve as a source of humor to your editor, but it will never make them accept your work. I am sure it is more important to you to be accepted rather than to make people laugh! Hence, make sure your work is free from spelling and grammatical errors. The readability of your work will diminish if your writing is laden with them.

Sometimes, spelling and grammar checkers don’t help you with certain minor issues, like when to use quotation marks and how to punctuate around brackets. What I want to say here, is that it is important that you have your work proofread by a professional, such as one of the Supaproofread editors. You might ask me how that makes a difference. Well, it won’t make too much of a difference where these minor mistakes don’t matter to you. However, if they do, an editor can help you identify those little mistakes, which most people fail to notice. Using an editor from Supaproofread will not only enhance the quality of your work, it will make it more readable, logical and coherent.

I believe in the fact that writing stems from thinking, and that clear thinking leads to perfect writing. However, as much as you may aspire to be perfect from the very beginning, it just isn’t possible. Let’s face facts, no one was born a great writer, it is purely through constant practice and passion for writing, which allows you achieve perfection. So strive for perfection, and don’t ever be satisfied with your first draft.

Many people have difficulty in writing with confidence, as they feel that they are complete failures when it comes to writing, as all of their words aren’t perfect, but, that is simply not true! It is their first draft, which lets your ideas flow freely without worrying about spelling and grammar. It does not mean that you do not need to erase the mistakes later, but certainly, it’s the first draft that gives you a basic idea about your storyline. It’s the first draft, which ignites passion in you and makes you create stuff with your vivid imagination. Therefore, it’s no big deal if you write something initially and edit it a bit later. Besides, if you love writing, it’s never too late to become a better writer!

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Writing Blog Posts is Short and Sweet

I think I mentioned in one of my previous posts that a writer needs to be opinionated and forceful if they are to be successful. When it comes to writing blog posts you really must be awake to the audience you are writing for and this writers maxim definitely applies. A web surfer will spend seconds on your page if you are lucky, so what you post there needs to hit the mark fast - here are some tips from the bowels of my experience.

Tip 1: Be Opinionated

The more opinionated the better, as opinions are what readers are looking for. Do you think Ford is better than Vauxhall, Liverpool better than Manchester United, should homosexuals be allowed in the armed forces, is Gordon Brown the right man to fill Tony Blair’s shoes?

Remember a blog is accessible, so be prepared to have your opinions challenged and there is also a difference between being opinionated and posting inflammatory comments.

Tip 2. Less is More

Keep it Simple Stupid.

Tip 3. Use Lists

Like this one.

Tip 4. Use Headlines and Sub-Headers

Read This Now!

How Blogging will Change Your Life!!

(Ask yourself if your eyes were drawn to this bold headline before reading the rest of the post – if they were that’s my point)

Tip 5. Check your Work

There are two things you need to be checking. Firstly, proof your post for grammar and spelling, what I call the usual suspects, and remember that blogging is still paid work – be professional.

The second thing to check are your facts to back up the opinions and the stand you have taken. Blogs have comment facilities and if you are lucky you’ll get some comments winging your way.

The best piece of advice I can give you here is to write several blog posts all in one sitting and then use the time stamp utility that WordPress has, or save the posts in draft form until you are ready to post them live. The reasoning is simple, you get into the writing groove and are able to stay on topic and in the style you adopt for that particular blog project, while your readership simply see a new post appearing each day. Like this one

Writing for Profit is Serious - but you can also have serious fun too!

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1) As a writer you need to be very clear in your mind about what you want to write about. If the concept and purpose of your intended material is steady and clear in your mind, then conveying it becomes simpler.

2) The second most important aspect in writing, is lucidity of thought and expression. No one is going to have the patience to read your work if it’s something that doesn’t make a lot of sense. We cannot go on rambling now, can we? The stream of consciousness method ought to be left alone to the professionals in this field. For beginners, lucidity is the key. Let it be your mantra, have – lucidity – lucidity – you get the drift.

3) Checking out your facts and information when writing on any topic is a must, as you don’t want to look a little (well, a lot!) silly. The material could be read by thousands, so a blooper in any information would get spotted straight away and reported! Believe me, if you’re not going to sell yourself, attract positive attention and gain a prominent reputation as a writer, if you don’t watch those mistakes (did you spot that one?), then you should look for a different avenue.

4) Grammar, typos and punctuation marks better stay pristine. We’re not text messaging our friends, now, are we? It also pays to brush up your language when you’re writing. What may sound right when you’re talking to others, might not mean the same when you write it.

5) The primary focus and responsibility of a writer is to make the writing an original production; a stamp of your own mark and style. It is the ethical responsibility of any writer to be conscious of plagiarism and it is also interesting to note, that more often than not, a particular writer that we associate well with, will influence us in our own writing style. You will need to ‘break out of the mould’, and let your distinctive style emerge, don’t ‘copy’ your favourite author’s idea in the world; you have a fantastic world ahead of you in your writing career, with many ideas I hope.

6) As with any writer, every scrap of information that you come across will embody a bank of knowledge and inspiration, so it is important that there should be no substitute to reading by the ton. When we let our imagination flare, anything can prove to be an inspiring idea. You, as a writer, will also need to be open to travelling, meeting new people and engaging in stimulating conversation.

7) It’s a good idea to note down interesting ideas, scraps, dream images, lines of inspiring poems and conversations.

There is also no substitute for developing an interesting and varied vocabulary. Over-used words read ‘booooooring’ and limit your expression. A widespread and well-worked vocabulary pays in many ways.

9) The best way of making your words an interesting read is by editing them over and over again until you are entirely satisfied with your work. Spending as much time as you practically can revising your work is a good idea. With experience and practice, you will become more aware of your need to say “enough is enough” and stop.

10) You also have to know where to limit yourself when you are writing about something you are passionate about. Don’t become carried away when writing for a topic which captures your interests. Sticking to the form and bearing the image of a wider array of readers will often do the trick.

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