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Writer's Notes - By Jeanne Dininni

WritersNotes.Net: Helping Writers Follow Their Dreams Through Information, Inspiration, and Encouragement!


My First Northbound Post Is Live

My post, Magento E-commerce: Why Open Source Is the Best Solution, is up at Northbound Interactive Marketing Blog. I'll be posting there once a week, sharing SEO, branding, marketing, technology, and design info and research to help you optimize your website or blog, improve your marketing methods, and make the most of your professional brand.


A Few Words About Straight North

Northbound is owned by Straight North, a top-ranking Chicago Internet marketing firm, which specializes in creative branding and design, SEO, PPC, website and e-commerce development, and other areas of strategic marketing.

The company recently hired my blogging friend and colleague, Brad Shorr, already well-known for his blogging at Word Sell. Brad has assumed the duties of Director of Content Marketing at Straight North and, in addition to continuing his blogging at Word Sell, is the main blogging voice behind Northbound. Because his new job keeps him so busy these days, however, he's asked me to help out by contributing one post a week to Northbound, in addition to the posts he's already commissioned me to write for Word Sell, and I was more than happy to accept the offer.


A Few Words About Brad's Work

I'm very honored to be asked on board by Brad, a blogger and businessman I've always admired. Brad is an excellent writer, accomplished social media expert, and incredibly savvy businessman. If you haven't been reading his content, you're definitely missing out! So, visit Northbound and Word Sell as often as you can. After reading Brad's insightful posts, you'll definitely come away with knowledge you can use to further your writing craft, grow your business, and develop your brand.


A Terrific Team-Up

As many of you know, Brad and I have worked together before, co-blogging at The Whoa Factor, the business blog he penned for Whoast, Inc. before the company merged with Straight North about a year ago. Now, SN has revived the blog, complete with a new name, new theme, new domain, and lots of brand new content. (They've also retained the solid collection of archived posts from the Whoa Factor days to keep readers busy and benefiting from all the helpful insight and info Brad has been penning at TWF/Northbound since 2006, and the work I contributed to TWF between December, 2008, and June, 2009.)


Stop by NB and Take a Look Around

I hope you'll stop by Northbound, read my post (at the link in the first paragraph), and take a look around. Be sure to check out Brad's excellent content, as well.You'll learn a lot--and there's certainly much more to come, as Straight North continues developing the blog and making it even better!

See you at Northbound!
Jeanne



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DataBanq: The Blog of DataBanq Media Network

The DataBanq Media Blog covers topics such as technology, social networking, and SEO. These are all subjects that affect not only businesses that market their products online, but also writers of online content--or writers who market their writing online.

Posts on this relatively new but popular Internet Blog are informative and well-written. One that stands out in particular was penned by DataBanq president David Bayer and presents an in-depth assessment of the current and future realities of social networking.

Another fascinating topic addressed by Bayer on this insightful Technology Blog is "orphaned pages" (i.e., pages that, due to changes made to a website, no longer have other pages linked to them) and how such pages can negatively impact a website's other pages in search results.

The Databanq Blog presents highly informative content for anyone who is interested in knowing a little more about the inner workings of the often-mysterious world of the internet. And there are few people today who aren't in some way affected by the realities of the WorldWide Web--writers included.

Thanks for reading,
Jeanne



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Blog Day 2007 Badge - red


Blog Day 2007: Celebrating New Blogs Worldwide

Today is Blog Day 2007: A day to celebrate new blogs all over the world! In honor of Blog Day, bloggers have been asked to list, describe, and link to five new blogs--preferably representing a different country, culture, or focus than our own.

Here's what the Blog Day website has to say:

BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. On that day Bloggers will recommend other blogs to their blog visitors.

After writing our Blog Day posts, we are also asked to notify the bloggers we've chosen, which I plan to do via a comment on each one's blog.


Five Great New Blogs You Should Definitely Visit

Here are my choices (in no particular order) for five of the best new blogs from different parts of the U.S. and around the world. (Well...only one is currently outside the U.S: Confident Writing, which comes to us from Scotland; though one will soon be moving to Germany: Content Done Better. Yet, for some of you, the U.S. is on the other side of the world!) All these blogs are either only several months old or under new ownership.

I will let the bloggers who create the magic of the written word on their blogs speak for themselves, via quotes from their About pages and blog posts.


Pro Blog Design

Pro Blog Design. Michael Martin has this to say about his very helpful blog and also about blog post formatting:

I have been designing websites for a few years now, and enjoying every minute of it.

Over time, I’ve learnt a lot about working with blogs, and through Pro Blog Design I hope to share that knowledge with others. Content on a blog is of course, King, but does the King get the attention he deserves when draped in ragged garments? Of course not! In the same way that the grandeur of the King is crucial to his success, your blog’s design is crucial to yours. (from Michael's About page)

As bloggers, we write pages upon pages of content each week. We spend hours promoting the articles, choosing the right words and trying to get our point across as clearly as possible. How can formatting be used to further improve our posts?

There are a few basic tools that you will have heard mention of time and time again, such as bolding words. The first section re-explains their purpose, and the second will explain how to perfect your usage of them to achieve optimal formatting. (from Format Blog Posts for Readability and Legibility)


Confident Writing

Confident Writing. Joanna Young says the following about her quality site and about why she writes:

Hello I'm Joanna Young, The Confident Writing Coach...My aim is to get people writing with confidence. To realise the power of their words. How we work is partly up to you - but my approach is based on a blend of coaching, teaching, editing and writing - tailor made to your needs. (from Joanna's Welcome and Work With Me sections)

(Post Title: Why Do You Write?.) For me, it's something to do with the power of connection: the connections we can make with other people, the connections we develop between our own ideas, making sense of our experience, pulling together spaghetti strands of random thoughts and creating something new, connecting back to our roots and our selves and coming out with a stronger sense of who we are.

But then again maybe it's that thing I call realising: the sweet, slow dawning of realisation. Recognising the things that you always knew to be true. Recognising - with a jolt - your self in your words. Realising the power of your words, and taking responsibility for their power and impact: on yourself, on other people, on the world. Grounding yourself with the specificity of words. Validating your experience with words which are not real - but can make us feel that our experiences are. Allowing ourselves to be changed by the words that we write. (from Why Do You Write?)


ChrisBlogging

ChrisBlogging. Chris Bibey describes himself and his insightful blog and shares a few words of wisdom on freelancing:

For more than three years I have been earning a full-time income online. My main sources of income include a wide range of freelance writing projects, and of course, blogging.

But although I do not know the first thing about web design or coding, I still earn three times as much as I did as a corporate slave.

The goal of Chrisblogging.com is to show you how I make money, how you can join me, and much more! (from Chris's About page)

There is no denying that a few big jobs make up a large part of my monthly freelance writing income. But guess what? I also believe that smaller jobs are every bit as important. Sure, I would love to work on high paying jobs only, who wouldn’t? But the reality of the freelance writing industry (at least for me) is that this is not always possible. For this reason, I always think twice before I turn down any small jobs that I am offered. (from Don't Always Turn Down the Small Jobs)


ProBloggers Matrix

ProBloggers Matrix. Mark gives us this inviting welcome to his blog, and some great info about blogging (taken from one of his excellent posts):

Hello, I’m Mark.

Welcome to ProBloggers Matrix. I’ll be sharing blogging tips. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to post them in the comments. (from Mark's About page)

If you’re like me, you love to write, you love to publish great articles on your authoritative blog and you also enjoy reading excellent articles in many fantastic blogs. That can be very time-intensive, but you need to get out and exercise! Get the blood flowing! Get into The Zone! (from How to Stay in the Zone and Keep Wowing Your Readers with Spectacular Articles)


Content Done Better

Content Done Better. Michi Beck's blog has an intimate, inviting atmosphere, due to her personal, engaging writing style. Her Under New Ownership section tells us this about her background, followed by an apt quote from one of her posts:

During her career she has written many informative articles on various subjects including economics, technology, local happenings, and human interest stories.

In addition to the newspaper and Internet work, Michi has had poems published and is currently working on her first novel, of which the first draft is nearing completion. She enjoys both fiction and non-fiction writing, and often takes the time to write about the smaller things in life, as she believes those things have lessons behind them that most people do not realize. It is not only the big things that are important in our daily lives, and since she is often reminded of that it appears frequently in her particular style of writing. (from Michi's Under New Ownership page.)

(Post Title: When It Rains, It Pours.) Have you ever noticed that? You could be in a ‘dry spell’ in your work life and then all of a sudden things go crazy, and you’re left shaking your head and wondering how you’re going to get it all done.

I mention this because it happened to me, rather recently. I’m not sure whether to be overwhelmed and annoyed that everything showed up at once or happy because of the work and income. Hmmm…..I think I’ll go with “happy because of the work and income.” (from When It Rains, It Pours)


Five Great Blogs to Bookmark and Visit Again and Again!

Be sure to visit the above blogs soon--and often! And don't forget to give these hard-working and insightful bloggers a little link love! It will be more than worth your while, as you continually enjoy their latest words of writing wisdom.

Congratulations go out to these five new bloggers for making their blogs places where we can go to pick up the best info, tips, techniques, and advice, to make us all better, more responsive, and more productive bloggers!

Happy Blog Day!
Jeanne


Technorati Tag: Blog Day 2007


P.S. I realize I posted this a little late in the day--particularly for those of you on the opposite side of the world to the U.S., where I live! My apologies. But, I believe I did manage to post it in time--though barely! If I missed the deadline in anyone's time zone, Happy Belated Blog Day!







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Another blog I ran across at BlogCave (via MyBlogLog), which looks as if it might prove pretty helpful to bloggers is called Blog Smart Resources. With posts on free backlink builder script, trackback tools, Blogsvertise, various social networking sites and different SEO tools, info on the 2007 Blogging to Fame Awards, and more, there's a great deal that's of interest to bloggers here.

If you're a blogger, you'll want to make it a point to visit this blog when you have a bit of time to check out the many resources it offers to help make your blogging experience an easier, happier, and more productive one.


Happy reading!
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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