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WritersNotes.Net: Helping Writers Follow Their Dreams Through Information, Inspiration, and Encouragement!
Freelancers' Holiday Visions
With both the holidays and the end of the tax year drawing nigh, freelancers tend to have a slightly different version of the line from the popular poem, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas on their minds. For us, Christmas is the time when "visions of tax returns dance in our heads"!
Some Helpful Links to Lighten Our Mental Load
So, to help take a load off our minds this Christmas, I've listed links to some really helpful info on filing taxes for freelance writers. Some are lists of links to other resources about income taxes, and others are discussions of tax-related topics of interest to freelancers. (You'll find some very slight overlap in these offerings.) My hope is that knowing we have these great resources at our fingertips will help us to have a merrier Christmas this year, as well as an easier job filing when tax time rolls around in just a few short months.
Excellent Online Tax-Time Guidance
Debbie Ridpath Ohi's Tax Tips and Resources for Freelance Writers
Write Stuff's Tax Tips for Writers
Freelance Factor Tax Tips for Freelance Writers - Articles by Julian Block
Deborah Ng's Weekend Discussion: Tax Tips for Freelance Writers
Amy Derby's Blog Post: Donât Sweat the Audit Threat
Chris Bibey's Blog Post: Health Insurance for Freelance Writers and Other Self-Employed Professionals
A Great Head Start
No doubt there are many other great online tax resources for freelancers; but these links ought to give us an excellent start in preparing for tax day 2008!
If you know of any great tax-related resources for freelancers, please feel free to share them with us in comments!
Here's to smooth sailing at tax time!
Jeanne
This is not a sponsored post.
Did you enjoy this post? Have any of your own tax tips, techniques, experiences, or resources to share? We welcome your comments!
Feed Rinse Cleans Up Your Feeds
K-IntheHouse, over at ShanKri-la, wrote an excellent blog post a while back (which I just discovered today) called How to Overcome RSS Feed Overload? Just thought I'd share this really comprehensive introduction to and explanation of a fantastic free online tool that can help you organize your feeds, selectively filtering out the items you aren't interested in and "filtering in" the ones you are! This powerhouse of an RSS-feed organizer--which can be thought of as a spam filter for RSS feeds--is called Feed Rinse.
Too Many Great Blogs!
I don't know about you, but I know that I, for one, have not yet gotten a handle on my feeds; simply because it seems as though I'm always too busy to keep up with them. Lately, it's all I can do to visit and comment on my favorite blogs, much less go through all the posts of the significant number of other great blogs I've subscribed to so I wouldn't lose track of them. If you tend to have this problem, you might want to check out this free resource. It can help make a difference. Haven't tried it myself, yet, but K-IntheHouse has, and he seems to feel it's worthwhile.
I'm certainly thinking of checking it out. How about you?
To cleaner RSS feeds!
Jeanne
This is not a sponsored post.
Did you enjoy this post? Learn anything new? Have anything to add? Please feel free to comment!
A Great Article on How You Can Develop Confidence as a Business Writer
The following article was written by my friend and fellow blogger, Joanna Young, of Confident Writing. This article is offered for free distribution by EzineArticles.Com; so I thought I'd share it with my readers to help you become a more confident business writer, as well as to highlight the wonderful content you'll find on Joanna's blog. (Many of Joanna's tips and techniques also apply to other types of writing, as well; so bear that in mind as you read, and look for places in your own writing where you can practice these helpful principles.)
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Business Writing with Confidence - An ABC Guide
By Joanna Young
Confident writing is an essential part of effective business communication. Most people would agree with this statement but how many of us have the skills or the confidence to put it into practice? Anxiety about grammar rules can leave people tongue tied. All too often business writing is seen as a barrier, a stumbling block rather than something that can add value to your contribution at work.
But hereâs the thing: you donât need to learn the rules of a grammar book to write with confidence at work. You just need to work on three basic elements of good business writing: authenticity, brevity and clarity. Itâs what I call the ABC guide to confident writing at work.
Writing with authenticity
Writing with authenticity means being real, sounding human, sounding like yourself. Itâs great for creating rapport with other people, whether thatâs your colleagues, customers or potential clients. Most people want to do business with another human being and itâs even better if thatâs someone they feel they can get to âknowâ and trust.
To make your writing more authentic:
* Make use of plain, everyday words: go for short, simple words; avoid jargon and clichés; use everyday words rather than corporate or business speak
* Use a conversational style: this doesnât mean slang â it does mean feeling free to use short sentences and contractions like âIâmâ or âweâllâ or âletâsâ (all great for the flow)
* Find your own words: spend a little bit of time jotting down your own words for the things that are most important to you (ideas, your business purpose, your values) and start to work them into your writing. This is a great way to sound like you really mean business!
Writing with brevity
Most people are drowning in information overload. So much for the paperless office â most of us are suffering from too much paper, a deluge of e-mails and more reports than weâll ever have time to read. Youâll really start to win friends and influence people if you keep your writing short and to the point. Your readers will thank you for the time and effort saved, and youâll also make your message more punchy, powerful and memorable.
To write with brevity:
* Keep each sentence short: aim for an average of 18 â 25 words a sentence. This is good writing practice and will get you into the habit of writing less
* Cut out excess words: go back and edit your work once youâve written a draft. Cut out as many excess words as you can. Then do it again (and again till itâs done.) Enjoy seeing your message emerge more clearly!
* Write within limits : set yourself a word limit and practice working to it. Itâll improve your skills of writing with brevity and help you stick to the point
Writing with clarity
Youâve got something important to say so you want your writing to stand out. Clear writing makes it easier for people to read, follow and understand what youâre saying. Now this is the place where grammar does come into play because there are some rules â whether you like it or not â that are there to help us understand your meaning. You need to master these basic rules if you want your message to be clear and easily understood.
To write more clearly:
* Know your point : be clear what youâre trying to say, and why, before you start to write. Boil your message down to no more than 10 words. Thatâs your message: focus on that and it will shine through your writing
* Manage your writing: work out which grammar points are stopping you from writing with clarity (like use of apostrophes). Ask a colleague or friend to help identify them. Then take responsibility for learning and applying the rules. There are plenty of books, websites and writing coaches who can help with this
* Keep it simple: use short sentences, cut out excess words, use plain, everyday language
I donât know if you noticed some common themes running through these writing tips. Keep it short, keep it simple, use plain language, know your point and stick to it. These are the fundamental rules of good business writing and if you apply them you will find it easy to write with authenticity, brevity and clarity. Effective business writing neednât be hard â it can be as easy as ABC.
Joanna Young is a writing coach who helps people to write with confidence - to realise the power of their own words. You can find out how to work with Joanna or read more of her writing tips at Confident Writing.
Article Source: EzineArticles.com expert=Joanna Young
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Hope you've enjoyed these great tips on confident writing by a very confident writer! Don't forget to visit Joanna's blog for more great content on writing confidently!
Happy writing!
Jeanne
Did you enjoy this post? Was it helpful? Have anything to add? If so, please feel free to comment!
And, while you're at it, why not visit Joanna' s blog and do the same?
Today, I thought I would bring you this fascinating article on how to improve your Alexa ranking, compliments of Marketing Scoop. Check it out! You'll find some interesting strategies here!
7 Proven Strategies for Improving Your Alexa Ranking
By Michael Fleischner | Marketing Expert | Internet Marketing Secrets*
After spending two years building my own website, I was very disappointed that my Alexa ranking was still higher than one million. Alexa ranks each website based on the number of visitors it receives. The top ranked website, Yahoo! has an Alexa rating of 1 or 2. Less popular sites could be ranked up to 5,000,000.
In order to improve my Alexa rating, I spent about three weeks combing the web to find tips, secrets, and proven strategies for increasing my Alexa ranking. Unfortunately, many of the sites offering advice didnât even have a high ranking themselves. Finally I discovered a number of sites ranked within the top 100,000 that were all applying the same âAlexa techniquesâ to improve their ranking. Iâve begun implementing a number of these techniques and have improved my Alexa ranking by 250,000 spots in just one week.
Hereâs what you need to know. The basis for many of these techniques is the fact that your Alexa ranking is based reach and page views. However it only counts those who visit your site and have already downloaded the Alexa toolbar. Anyone can download the toolbar for free which is automatically added to your browser and tracks the sites youâre visiting. Increasing visits from those who do not have the Alexa toolbar installed will not help your Alexa ranking.
Iâve summarized the 7 strategies that Iâve discovered and applied to my own website to increase my Alexa ranking. Apply these strategies to your own website and see your ranking climb towards the top.
1. Download the Alexa toolbar and use it every day to visit your own website. Alexa even gives you the ability to co-brand the toolbar with your own logo and give it away. You can download the toolbar here: http://www.alexa.com/site/devcorner/associate_toolbar.
2. Use Alexa redirection whenever you can. No matter when or where you provide a link to your website, be sure to use the equivalent Alexa redirect URL. For example, when providing a link to my website, I use http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?marketingscoop.com/. If you copy this URL into your browser, it will take you to MarketingScoop.com. To use this technique, simply replace the name of my website (marketingscoop) with yours.
3. Encourage your website visitors to add their positive testimonials on Alexaâs detailed listings page for your website. This can be done by placing a link to the appropriate Alexa page on your website and asking visitors to âClick here to rate this websiteâ. You can find your detailed Alexa page here: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/?url=marketingscoop.com. Again, just replace the name of my website (marketingscoop) with yours. By clicking on the URL, visitors will be able to reach your detailed rating page and write a review using the review link located on the left hand side of the page.
4. Write your own site reviews on the top 100 rated Alexa sites and include your redirect URL. The top 500 domains, according to Alexa can be found at http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500. When you write a review, be sure to use the redirection URL we discussed in number 2 above specifically for your website [http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?marketingscoop.com].
5. Download the Alexa ranking button, traffic history graph, info links, and other traffic counters onto the page of your website that receives the most traffic. For example, at the bottom of my home page http://www.marketingscoop.com, Iâve added the Alexa ranking box. You can do the same for your own site by visiting http://www.alexa.com/site/site_stats/signup. Youâll notice that I havenât added the traffic history graph. This is because it wouldnât look appropriate on my home page and because Alexa is only providing detailed history on the top 100,000 sites. So if youâre not in the top 100,000, site stats would not be available.
6. Take an inexpensive advertisement out on the ExactSeek search directory for only a few dollars per month at ExactSeek.com. Search engine results are directly correlated with Alexa rankings. Youâll notice that if a website is highly ranked on ExactSeek, chances are that it will be highly ranked on Alexa.
7. Get listed on as many search engines as possible by placing a free listing in DMOZ. This is the largest human edited directory on the web and is co-branded among hundreds of thousands of sites. Be patient though, it often takes up to 5 months before you see your website listed after submission. Even though it takes longer than it should, you have little say in the matter because itâs so widely used across the Internet.
These simple Alexa strategies are easy to implement and will make a huge difference in your Alexa ranking. Ultimately you want visitors to do more than visit your home page, you want them to interact with your site. Be sure to optimize your home page for SEO purposes, ease of use, and interaction. Creating a positive user experience will get visitors to return again and again.
*Michael Fleischner is a marketing expert and the president of MarketingScoop.com. Visit today for free marketing information and marketing blog directory. Michael has more than 12 years of marketing experience and had appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. Visit his marketing blog for further details.
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The above article is reprinted, with permission, from the Marketing Scoop website. Hope you find it helpful!
Happy Alexa-tising!
Jeanne
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Freelancing Journey, a blog which refers to itself as "The Road to Business Success for Writers & Bloggers," is literally loaded with info, tips, links, leads, techniques, advice, and other resources that can help you, the freelance writer, make the most of your own website or blog. Covering many different aspects of the freelance writer's creative, professional, practical, and even personal development, this site has something for everyone interested in any type of freelance writing.
One post, "Page Rank, Back Links and Blogging," posted June 22nd, 2007, explains why page rank is important and provides tips on how to obtain quality backlinks to your blog. Another, more recent post, titled "Definitive List of Paid to Blog Services," dated June 28th, 2007, links to a very comprehensive discussion of the subject found in a post on another helpful blog. In addition, Freelancing Journey's "Roll of Honour" includes a long list of links to other blogs about writing--and blogging--as well as numerous other writing resources, markets, and marketing blogs.
Freelance writers are busy people, whose time is often severely limited. But taking a few minutes out of your busy schedule today to pick up some timely tips and advantageous advice could just save you a great deal of time and trouble over the long term.
So, check out Freelancing Journey, and see if you don't agree that this blog contains some helpful literary and marketing signposts to guide you along your freelance writing travels.
Bon Voyage!
Jeanne
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If you're looking for a site that will help you master the writing craft and/or prepare you for your own personal journey on the path to publication, Writing-World.Com has a great deal to offer!
This site is chock full of great information for the aspiring--or practicing--writer! Some examples:
~An interesting variety of books on the writing craft itself and on marketing your writing, including volumes containing specific markets for your work. (Their book inventory also contains a few books on subjects other than writing.)
~An impressive list of more than 600 writing-related articles that can be read right on the site. These articles are all well catalogued and categorized for easy reference.
~A contest database featuring a wealth of info on entering--and not being scammed by--writing contests.
~A list of certain selected markets for your work.
~A long list of links to other online resources for writers.
~A call for articles on writing that they will purchase from you to add to their database, complete with Writer's Guidelines.
~A "Guide for Launching Your Writing Career," containing a wealth of great advice that can get you started on the road to a successful freelance writing business. (This section also includes a lot of great advice on the real nitty gritty, down-to-earth, seat-of-your-pants aspects of writing.)
~A great section on how to avoid writing scams, presented along with info on copyright issues, rights, and contracts.
~A free monthly newsletter, containing many great feature articles, as well as recurring topical columns that you might find helpful.
As far as payment for articles is concerned, here's what they themselves have to say: "We pay 5Âą/word for original articles, to a maximum of $100 (regardless of word count; thus, a 2500-word article is still paid only $100). We pay a flat $25 for reprints, and we definitely welcome work that has appeared in other publications (especially print). Payment is on acceptance. For humor, we pay a flat $15 per item. We will also exchange advertising space for editorial."
That doesn't sound half bad for an online market! So, if you enjoy writing about your craft, check out their Writer's Guidelines and try submitting your work. But be sure to check their article database to be sure your topic hasn't already been covered. You can do this via their Topical Indexes or their Master Article Index.
Take a peek at what Writing-World.Com has to offer. I think you'll be impressed!
And good luck!
Jeanne
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Last time, I gave you four great websites where you can get your work published: Creative-Poems.com, MoonTownCafe.com, Helium.com, and AssociatedContent.com. A few helpful hints about each of these will make your experiences with them more pleasant, more productive, and less frustrating. In this post, we'll cover some of the idiosyncracies of Creative-Poems.com.
The Creative-Poems website is a wonderful site, where you can receive recognition for your work through member comments, weekly Featured Poetry Awards, and monthly Poetry Contests. They do not pay for the poems they post, though they do offer prizes in their monthly Poetry Contest.
At Creative-Poems, non-premium (free) members--as well as trial members--are allowed to place up to five posts on their site in a 24-hour period. (Premium members are allowed eight.) This is somewhat misleading, though, and requires a bit of clarification.
At first glance, it would appear that you'd be able to post up to five--or eight--poems to the site every 24 hours--and this can, indeed, be the case, provided you are very careful not to leave any typos or other errors in your poem, which might require its modification after it's been posted! The reason for this is that, should your poem require editing after posting, you will be resubmitting it after making your corrections--just as if it were a new poem--and thus you will be using another of the finite number of posts you are allowed daily. (This can be a bit frustrating.)
If you're anything like me, you could use an infinite number of posts to edit, modify, correct, and improve your poems to your satisfaction before final submission! But, alas, this is the real world, and every website is set up differently. So, always preview your work before submitting, to be sure your formatting is the way you want it and your work contains no typos. (Occasionally, you'll miss something and need to resubmit--we're all human--but at least you'll know that you aren't wasting most of your posts simply correcting errors!)
Another important point about formatting, while we're on the subject: At Creative-Poems, the default setting--for both poetry submissions and member comments--is centered. So, if you want your poem or comment to be left-margin justified (which is generally my personal preference) you'll need to select your text--if it's already been entered--and click the appropriate icon. (You can also simply click this icon before entering your text with the same effect.) Both regular and premium members may save, for later posting, up to five drafts in addition to the five--or eight--poems they may post in a 24-hour period, in case they aren't quite ready to post their work when they must leave the site.)
With a little prior knowledge of the workings of this great site and the obstacles you might encounter there, you can be well on your way to a long and fulfilling relationship with a dedicated group of site administrators and moderators who are friendly, helpful, responsive, and eager to showcase your work!
Creative-Poems.com is a fabulous forum for your work and a great community of friendly poets, who will help encourage you along the path of self-expression through that most magical of mediums: Poetry! (A very small word with a very big meaning!)*
If you are a poet and haven't yet visited this site, I would definitely--and without reservation--recommend that you check it out!
You'll be glad you did!
Till next time,
Jeanne
*I've written a short article on exactly this subject entitled "Why is Poetry So Difficult to Define?" Why not drop by AC and take a look?
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