If you’re like me, you may have realized that freelance writing can be a great way to make a little extra cash while honing your writing skills. Perhaps you’ve posted a profile on a site like WriterAccess where freelance writers go to vie for freelance writing gigs. WriterAccess is a great site for presenting yourself and your work and showcasing your particular writing specialties. It is also a great way for potential employers to search for quality writers depending on the subject matter for which they need content.

While doing a writer search for an ideaLaunch project the other day, I noticed that some writers were better at promoting themselves than others. When using a site like WriterAccess, providing as much professional information as possible about yourself and your writing is the best way to guarantee that you will catch someone’s eye and land that freelance job. Based on what I saw the other day, I have some tips for WriterAccess newcomers or to an existing writer whose profile could use a facelift:

1.       PLEASE avoid spelling errors in your profile. This is probably the fastest way to get someone to hit the “Next” button. Who would hire a writer that doesn’t even proofread his own profile?

2.       If you have a specialty or a particular subject you are able to speak on authoritatively, then own it! When you list 20 topics under your specialties, someone may be hesitant to contact you and may instead move on to someone else who demonstrates a more concrete specialty.

3.       While we’re on the subject of specialties—if you list two or three topics you have particular knowledge in, don’t post writing samples that have nothing to do with those topics. If you specialize in health-related topics, don’t post an article you wrote on finance. People read your writing samples because they want to see how you write about health-related topics. We probably won’t  be contacting you if you don’t market yourself well.

4.       Upload your resume! This falls into the “include as much info as possible” category.  I look at the resume of every writer I’m considering, and it is helpful to have that summary of your work written down on one page. Most writing assignments require you to be well-versed in a particular subject, so including your resume in your profile will help confirm your experience. Going one step further—if you have a blog centered around your specialty, include the link! The more well-rounded your profile is and the more information you provide, the more we have to go on when it comes time to contact writers.

5.       Don’t be afraid to use humor. The best writers are able to step a bit out of their comfort zones. If you have a dry profile, you may come off as stiff and boring. One writer that I plan on contacting used humor and personality in her profile. She came off as engaging and fun, while still maintaining my belief that she was truly well-versed in that subject.

6.       Remember that your profile is the one chance you have for a potential employer to get to know you and your writing. You need to market yourself, showcase your particular, relevant talents, show us a bit of your personality and prove to us why we should hire you for an assignment. That’s a lot to accomplish in one profile! Put the necessary time and effort into your profile, and all you will have left to do is let the offers come rolling in.

Good luck!

 Image from academicknowledge.com

While I was still at Emerson College, I ventured into the basement of the Little Building to use the gym, and I watched a disturbing newscast on “Webspeak.” This article more clearly spells out (pun intended) the worrisome aspects of this coded language, specifically because of the divide it creates between parents and their children, let alone intelligence and its counterpart (I also learned that NIFOC is code for “nude in front of computer”—what unnecessary information). Apparently, middle school and high school kids, the likes of which I had long been separated from, had taken to using IM and text message shorthand (i.e. BRB for “be right back”) in their academic papers and even in their SAT essays. I actually said, “WHAT?” out loud as I walked on the treadmill. I had just transferred from Georgia State University to Emerson to study Writing, Literature and Publishing. I had taken out an ungodly amount in loans (the first of several) in the quest to make language my life. I wanted to figure out how to say things that everyone could understand and relate to via my fiction. At GSU, my fiction classes felt like training for a hobby, something to do on the weekends when I had grown tired of crocheting or needlepoint. I had come to Emerson to reach out to the world that knew that fiction could be so much more than mindless entertainment; in fact, that it was essential to keeping life from becoming one big mindless pursuit. And here were these kids fighting against everything that my ideal profession stood for. If they’re busy creating this new language that automatically excludes a large portion of the population, what is the point in trying to communicate anymore? If everything could be reduced to their first letters, why write stories or novels or poetry anymore? WHY WAKE UP IN THE MORNING?

I eventually calmed down and found the silver lining to seeing this unsettling newscast: I couldn’t go to the gym anymore. But mainly, it made me hyperaware of the usage of these abominations to the English language (a similar, though not equal, offense to overuse of hyperbole). I should say that Emerson College is home to the people in the world who didn’t quite fit into normal molds. Not a bad thing, though not necessarily a good thing, this is the reason for most of the sarcasm and irony that encases Emerson almost as much as the cigarette smoke in front of the buildings. So it came as no surprise that many of the students would occasionally exclaim, “BRB” as they were walking away or “LOL” instead of Actually. Laughing. Out. Loud. And though it was hilarious, whatever that means, the first five thousand and two times these ironies were voiced, it quickly got old. And older. I’m of the religion that ironic over usage cancels itself out and becomes, simply, usage.

So, this rant is just to say: be careful. Be very careful. And even if it’s spelled wrong, spell out what you want to say. And if something’s funny, do us all a favor and just LAUGH.   

As of late, I’ve begun to get over my fear of social media.  Ok, maybe “fear” is a little melodramatic… let’s go with “discomfort.” 

It’s not the idea of online networking that I found unsettling; in fact, the summer before I started college in 2005 (back when Facebook was for college students only), I was dying to get my college-issued .edu email address so badly that I went to Emerson’s website and tried typing in variations of my name and default passwords, just hoping that an email address would materialize and subsequently allow me to join Facebook (a little sad yes, but don’t judge me—admitting this makes me vulnerable).

I also remember the day when, upon logging in, my good friend Facebook asked me, “What are you doing right now?” Well, looking over my shoulder and wondering, “Is the voice coming from inside the house?”

And then the updates started happening. At first, they just sort of awkwardlytrickled in and hesitated to reveal much detail. “Person O’ Personson is at the library.” “That weird guy from high school who picked his nose a lot is in class.”

It didn’t take long for these updates to become both more detailed and more frequent. “Dude McDudeBro is going to class, then might get some coffee, then has a podiatrist’s appointment, then will do homework and probably eat something and then go to bed.” At this point, however, the updates were still about pretty superficial things.

But then they started to look like this: “Something something isn’t sure what to do about life right now,” or, and this one’s my personal favorite, “Someone someoneton is.” Whoa. That just got real.

Anyway, the point of all of this is that I’ve always assumed that nothing that I do is interesting enough to justify broadcasting it over the Tubes. I’ve since come to realize that, yes, Facebook, Twitter, etc. can be effective networking and marketing tools, which is one of the main reasons why I feel more comfortable with them now (although I still don’t have a personal Twitter account).

A few days ago, I ran into a friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in a while. She Twitters frequently and links her Twitter account to her Facebook, so I see the updates. The day before I ran into her out in the world, her updates went something like this: “Someone someone’s world just fell apart,” and then, “…is trying to get my mind off of this,” and finally, “…is done with men forever.” Based on these updates and subsequent comments from her friends (“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry. Let me know if you need anything”), I deduced that she and her boyfriend had broken up.

So I run into her and start, as many people do, by asking, “How are you?” I did this even though I knew what had happened and that she wasn’t happy about it. Her reply: “Oh, well, Blah and I broke up.”

I wasn’t sure how to reply. Should I pretend that I had no idea? It felt a little creepy that I knew that, but she put the information out there, so why should I worry? But if I acted like I knew nothing about it, wouldn’t that be lying?

I decided to take the latter option and feign ignorance, and yes, as it turned out, it did feel like lying; I felt dirty all over and it was all Twitter’s fault.

So take this as a warning, readers. If you haven’t already faced an awkward, Facebook/Twitter-induced personal interaction, be prepared, because it’s going to happen sooner or later. Just rest assured that it is possible to pick up the pieces and move on. 

These are the questions on everyone's mind. What is BING? How will it affect my SEO strategy? What does this mean to all of the hard work I have put into my content and optimization?

Here are some of the guidelines we have seen pop up so far with regard to Bing and how it categorizes search listings. 

First of all, there is much talk that Bing, as an engine, is smarter or "more aware" than Google bots are. (Oh my God, this is it. The robots have become self-aware. This is my ultimate nightmare.)

Bing appears to not only "find" your content, but it makes intelligent decisions regarding what your content is, which are driven by a slightly different set of rules than Google uses. (Be aware that this is speculation. I have no hard facts or proof.)

Bing appears to weigh the "age" of a domain more heavily. The longer you have been around, the more street cred you carry as a website.

Bing likes content. But not just some content, loads of content. Bing appears to respond better to pages with at least 300 words of text or more.

Google has not placed as much weight on bloggers in the past. It is said that Bing is a friend of bloggers and may weigh blogs quite heavily.

Bing appears to like great titles that are directly relevant to your content. So don't phone in your titles, you lazy shlub.

Keep your URL's simple. Bing hasn't got time to read your URL manifestos. He is a busy guy with places to be.

Lastly, Bing likes outbound links, contrary to Google that has, in the past, prevented websites from posting too many outbound links out of fear of lowering their rank.

Make sure your website allows MSNbots to crawl your content. If you don't know how to do this, go find your IT guy. Those guys are magical.

It only took 1,500 years, but the English language welcomed its one-millionth word this week with the addition of “web 2.0” to its already crammed lexicon. As someone who makes a living out of words, I wholeheartedly welcome the term, and hope that someone, someday, can actually tell me what it means.

I don’t begrudge “web 2.0” for being meaningless. Having a meaning isn’t necessarily a precondition for acceptance into the English language anymore. As someone who has worked in a corporate environment, I’ve heard plenty of meaningless words. For example, can someone can tell me the definitive definition of “best practices,” “synergistic energy” and what exactly “turn-key” describes?

Before you throw the party, understand how this milestone came about. The Global Language Monitor, a Texas-based group of academics, that “documents, analyzes and tracks trends in language the world over, with a particular emphasis upon Global English” in their spare time, came up with an algorithm to scan thousands of print and online publications. Once said algorithm sees a group of jumbled letters occur 25,000 times in a search, it is designated as a word.

I’m guessing by that standard, “John and Kate Plus 8” will be word 1,000,001 based on mentions in US Weekly alone.

Image-conscious celebrities have long tried to control their personal brand. However, the rise of the internet has made that job much tougher. A few years ago, publicists were scrambling to snatch up and register celebrity domain names (for example, “britneyspears.com”), sometimes paying off industrious domain squatters who had beaten them to the punch. Now, that battle is playing out all over again on Twitter.

Exhibit A: Pop superstar Kanye West is extremely upset at the microblogging service for allowing an imposter to claim the Twitter handle “KanyeWest.” AP reported (via TwitterBacklash) that the real Kanye posted an exceptive-filled essay on his blog (in all caps!) lambasting “THE PEOPLE AT TWITTER” because they “KNOW I DON'T HAVE A (ed: bad word) TWITTER SO FOR THEM TO ALLOW SOMEONE TO POSE AS ME AND ACCUMULATE OVER A MILLION NAMES IS IRRESPONSIBLE AND DECEITFUL…”

Kanye then demanded Twitter suspend “kanyewest” and similar accounts; a request Twitter was happy to oblige.

Exhibit B: This one may not have the same happy ending. The AP also reports that St. Louis Cardinal Manager Tony La Russa is suing Twitter, “claiming an unauthorized page using his name damaged his reputation and caused emotional distress.” In this particular case, the imposter tweeted comments disrespectful to diseased ex-players. Though the account has since been deactivated, the lawsuit claims the comments damaged La Russa’s trademark rights.

For its part, Twitter is apparently attempting to implement account verification, according to co-founder Biz Stone. The question is, how can they possibly implement that system?

The bottom line is for all the publicists and would-be celebs reading this, please go register your official Twitter account before some prankster with an axe to grind does it for you.

As for me… I kind of hope someone poses as me on Twitter. It would make me feel important.

I have recently undergone a re-evaluation of my internet identity. Almost as important (arguably more important) as one’s real life identity, internet identity is exciting in its malleability. Two years ago, as I was ushered around the Emerson College campus, my tour guide informed us that soon we’d be able to access the Emerson’s WiFi as far into the Common as the gazebo. I was stoked. I envisioned myself lying in the grass, my computer in front of me, attaching the latest short story I’d written in an email and sending it out to all of the literary magazines eager to publish me. At that point in time, this, in addition to the occasional Facebook visit, was the extent of my internet usage. This fact, and past, dark experiences of having my time wasted, contributed to my initial resistance to Twitter. Even now, after my resistance has waned a bit meaning I have an account that I update more than once every six months), the little byline that pops up when you search “Twitter” on Google, “What are you doing right now?”  makes me uneasy. At first, I didn’t see the point. “Twitter is nothing more than Facebook updates” is a sentence that I’ve said more times than I can count. Generally annoyed by information that is useless to me and unnecessarily shared, I saw Twitter as just another way for my generation to destroy whatever respect we’ve gained.

What turned it around? Curiosity. What else? I initially signed up when my sister, on the verge of having a baby, and my brother-in-law insisted that I stay updated on the progress of her labor via Twitter. I guess you could say the miracle of birth got my foot in the door, but it was the consistent emails (“So-and-so is now following you on Twitter!”) that finally nudged me to update and follow my friends’ accounts. I also have a little to owe to the blog post by one of my fellow ideaLaunch-ers, Brindey Weber, and her blogpost, which sparked my interest even more by revealing the practical uses of the site. I tend to stubbornly boycott things that the masses support (i.e. Twilight), so realizing that Twitter can be used as a launching pad to other things rather than solely for the point of tweeting/Facebook-status-updates opened my eyes (and online heart) to new possibilities. One of my first return tweets (a term that still makes me cringe because it sounds like it’s referencing drug use) was something along the lines of “Melanie Yarbrough forgot Twitter existed.” I stick by my initial argument that the majority of tweeters (including myself, most times) are sharing less-than-necessary information. And though I haven’t quite reached the point of text messaging my tweets to the website, I couldn't go much longer resisting something even God uses. That will not be the case if he ever reads Twilight.

Faced with an online culture that promotes openness, sharing and expression, news organizations are now scrambling to restrict the online Twitter, blogging and Facebook habits of staffers. According to various industry trackers, big publishers like The New York Times, Washington Post and Bloomberg have all informed employees to watch it when it comes to Web 2.0.

For example, according to LA Observed, Washington Post reporters were told via memo to, “Consult your editor before “connecting” to or “friending” any reporting contacts who may need to be treated as confidential sources.”

Bloomberg employees can no longer “publish Web sites, blogs other online journals that discuss companies, people or topics covered by Bloomberg News…” according to Valleywag.

The New York Observer (via Valleywag) claimed that New York Times editor Bill Keller opened a recent newsroom address by warning attendees not to tweet the proceedings:

Before we get going, I'm going to say something I perhaps should have said Monday, when we did our digital update in this auditorium...You wouldn't Twitter something you overheard at the coffee cart without asking. You wouldn't Twitter the Page One meeting (although it would probably get you thousands of followers.) So I'd be grateful if you would lay down your Blackberries and iPhones, and treat this as a conversation among colleagues.

It will be interesting to see if this crackdown results in any high profile violations and terminations. The whole crackdown reminds me a bit of how reluctant the film and music industries were to embrace new technologies and distribution methods like Napster and bit torrent.

Of course, “news” is a less tangible product than a song or film, but if authenticity and transparency are driving force behind success in the blogosphere and social media realm, how narrow is the vision of media outlets trying to rein it in?

LifeTips is proud to announce that our LifeTips Book Series will now be featured in stores soon! Up until now, we have offered our 40+ titles on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders and LifeTips websites, however, due to increasing demand, we will now be offering our books for in-store purchase through various retailers. We are currently offering our books through Porter Square Books in Somerville, MA and Book Review in Huntington, NY. And our list of participating bookstores is growing by the day.

Congratulations to our most recently published authors on their latest book sales!

101 English Garden Tips by Sheri Ann Richerson

101 Author Tips to Creating a Successful Book Campaign by PJ Campbell

and

101 Tips on Healthy Eating, Naturally by Emily Davidson

Stay tuned for more book updates as Holly and Amanda take the book publishing world by storm!

We also encourage you to send all book proposals to Holly@LifeTips.com and Amanda@LifeTips.com.

For any Site Gurus, authors or those interested in either of these programs, Amanda Smyth and Carolyn McKibbin hosted the Monthly Writer's Call for May. The mp3 recording of the call is available on your main guru page after you've signed in. You will see listed on the left hand side of the page "mp3 Recordings," and for anyone who missed the call, you can listen to the recording here.

We covered topics ranging from "What the Site Guru Program is" to "how the Book Department is changing for the better." We also covered many FAQ's such as "How do I track my Chitika payments" and  "how does the Site Guru Program benefit me?"

If you have any further questions about the Site Guru Program or the Book Department, you can email me at Amanda@LifeTips.com or for technical book publishing questions, you can email Holly Bauer at Holly@LifeTips.com.

And don't forget to follow us on Twitter for job posting updates!

Amanda is LifeTipsEditor

Holly is LifeTipsBooks

Carolyn is LifeTipsLady