Saturday, June 26, 2010

Whats a Swipe File?

A swipe file is for days like today. I'm writing for six places, it's early, the coffee hasn't kicked in yet. I have to get my creative juices flowing. If I had a swipe file, it'd help me out while my mind is still in Zombie land.

You can create your own swipe file to help generate ideas and inspiration very easily. You can use your computer to do it on or offline, or you can create a physical swipe file, or both. Create it in Google notebook, an office document, or a shoebox under your bed. Whatever works for you.

A swipe file is a place to put all kinds of ideas you like, to look back at for further inspiration later. You should probably create different sections, to help organize the clippings you'll save. If you keep your eyes open through the course of your normal day, you'll find lots of things to put in it.

Possible sections might be.....

Amazing Titles
Article Topics
Interesting Quotes
Great Openings
Tips
Moving Closings
Appealing Offers and Deals
Images that made Me Look
Videos that Made Me Watch
Songs I listened to 100 times
Inspiring Poetry and Lyrics
Story Ideas
How to Outlines
Related to My Blog 

You can also create different files for subjects that really interest you. Your own swipe file can have anything you want in it. It will become highly personal, and linked to the kinds of writing you do. A Steampunk fiction writer might have a file called "Inventions that Would be Cool", and a seamstress who blogs about costumes might have a file called "Costume Ideas" .

A swipe file is intended as a kick-start to your own writing. By collecting examples of what inspires or moves you, you may have examples of what draws peoples attention. You can learn a lot about what works and what doesn't by taking a look at a good idea, and figuring out what makes it interesting or useful.

A swipe file can also be very useful as a way to mix and match components of great ideas. Say you have a great article idea, and you don't know what you want to call it. You may be able to look at your page of title ideas that are totally unrelated to your subject, and find catchy elements you can reuse in a new way.

It should be noted that a swipe file is intended to help you get inspiration and ideas to do your own work from. Nothing you're copying to look at later should be plagiarized or used inappropriately. It's just a way to more deliberately try to learn from other people who are good at writing. It will also be useful to make note of where you found things you decided to clip into your file, in case you decide you want to use it as a direct credited resource.

If you work with other writers, it can also be interesting to set up swipe files that can be shared with one another. Different people will stumble across different things that may be useful to others as well as them. Since we all have different experiences and perspectives, each person will notice and save different kinds of things. Sharing swipe files may be a way for writers to share the components of effective writing with each other. Using Google Notebooks or Docs would be one easy way to do this and keep the information accessible to everyone online.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Using Images from Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons is one place you can get free images that you can legally use along with your articles, blog posts, and wherever you like. This can be very helpful, as articles and blogs with images often seem more dynamic and interesting to the visitor.
 

New Orleans is my favorite city in the World. It is so full of art, music, and culture that if you visit there you'll never run out of interesting things to do.


The photo above is a historical sign that tells a little bit about the history of the Crescent City.

It's also an example of a photo I found on Wiki Media Commons, to use as an example. The photo was taken by Justin Watt and can be found on Wikimedia if you do a search for New Orleans. It can also be seen along with some other great photos here: Spring Break in New Orleans.

It's important when using images from Wikimedia to scroll down and read what kind of permissions are granted. This one is free to use without any stipulations, but I mentioned the photographer above because it's generally considered proper etiquette to mention the source if you use artwork, photography, or writing that came from someone else. It's more friendly, whether or not it's required. Wikimedia is free to use, and if you sign up you can also share your own work if you like. Your spring break photo's may help another writer, artist, or teacher somewhere down the line.

In my case, I have another blog that happens to be about New Orleans. When I get into playing with that one, this is a good example of a photo I might use, particularly if I was making a post about the history of the city. If you'd like to see that blog, you can find it here: Keys to New Orleans . It could also be useful, if I was writing an article for Associated Content, or one of the other places I write.

In any case, check out Wikimedia when you get a chance, if you don't already use it as a resource.

Another Day in the Life

My writing sample got accepted at Experts 123, and now I'm just waiting for them to approve my profile so I can post some articles and see what happens. I was particularly delighted, because they sent me back a very nice acceptance letter. Of course, I can't be sure if that's what they send everyone- but it's nice when someone compliments your style.

After reading some reviews by other folks, I decided to also give Bukisa a try. They are very similar to Associated Content in terms of submitting content, but the payments work a little differently. Unlike AC, they don't offer up front payments. However, the rate they pay on the number of page views is a little more than twice what AC pays.

I'm not sure which of the available online publishers is "the best" to be honest. That's one reason I'm trying as many of them as possible. Another reason is the concept of cross-linking. As long as the links are relevant and make sense, it can only help. Different people will find your writing in different online venues, and may follow the links if you have other related content.

For instance, I have a short article on making money with Amazon Mechanial Turk posted here and on Associated Content. It focuses on some of the pros and cons of using it. Say I wrote another related article, on how to get better qualifications and offers on AmTurk. I could post it on Bukisa, and then link it to my AC article and vice versa. In theory, people interested in the subject would likely go on to read the other article. Because each service caters to a different crowd, one could conceivably get a lot more exposure by publishing in multiple venues.

If you've never heard of Buksia before and want to try it out yourself, you can join here:


If you stumble through here and have experience with these different places to publish your work, leave us a message and let us know what kind of results you've had with each. :-)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

A Day in the Life

How do I find freelance writing gigs that actually pay? The answer is that I'm constantly doing research and writing. To be able to make money online as a freelance writer, you have to do a lot more than just write in your free time.

You have to know where to submit your articles, and what kind of payment arrangements each online publisher offers. You should probably be writing in more than one place, and link those different places together through a blog or a website that serves as an online portfolio. Or several. This helps to market your work, which you are primarily responsible for when you try doing this kind of work.

Can you make a living at it? Yes. Is it easy? Not so much. Let me take you on my journey today, at least what I remember from it.

I checked my account at Associated Content, which I usually do after I get up. Still "author clout 4", but closer to "author clout 5" because I had a few more readers last night. My article on "How to Sell Books Online" went up, and was even given a small up front payment. (Woo-hoo! Hippies makin' money, who would have thought it possible?)

I had also sent a note to one of the community admins, asking for help editing a mistake in another article. I was extraordinarily happy that they fixed the errors in my "World Steam Punk Expo" piece. I had a lot of fun checking that convention out, and apparently a lot of other people are interested because it's gotten a lot of views. I didn't want to promote that article much until the errors were fixed, basically because I was embarrassed and didn't think it would look professional. ( The first paragraph made it into the published copy twice, with spacing and spelling errors in the first version viewable! Aaack! ) It happens, even to great writers.

I also noticed that my fun little articles about the Sims 3 game and the New Orleans Blues Musician Coco Robicheaux are getting more views, too. That's important if you write for Associated Content. Part of how they pay you is based on how popular your article becomes. I've only been with them for about a month, but have about 20 articles up already. I'm noticing that every time I publish a new one, it helps reader find the things I've already written and my page views go up.

That was all just in the first hour. Then I did a bunch of research on other online writing opportunities. It's Tuesday, and every week an online a newsletter called "Morning Coffee" is posted on freelance writing.com . The newsletter lists current freelance writing opportunities. I followed one of the links to the problogger job board , where I reread a notice about Experts123 looking for people to write articles.

Initially it hadn't really seemed like my thing, but I decided to take another look. It looks like they may offer better pay than a number of places I'm experimenting with, so I did my application and am waiting for approval. I'll update in the future about how that goes.

See what I mean? We're only at hour two, and I've already done a lot of things. I feel like I have to start a new post, because I want to showcase some other great sites I found, and don't want them to be lost on short-attention-span theater. :-)

Monday, June 14, 2010

Win Stuff While Doing Article Research!

No sh*#, it's real?! If you haven't already- go ahead and give Swagbucks a whirl.

What is Swagbucks and how is it useful? Swagbucks is a search and win service. Basically, you use their search field instead of going to the Google or Yahoo page, and the results come from Google and Ask.com . I'm skeptical about most of that sort of thing, but I did the research on it that makes me comfortable telling my readers that it's legit.

With a lot of sites that offer prizes for surveys, games, searching and other things you read a lot about all the great prizes they give out, but when you search you can't find much in the way of proof from real people who use it. What I found while looking into Swagbucks was kind of the opposite. Screen shots of prize orders, blog posts that are clearly personal, and even videos of people opening boxes with things like Nintendo Wii and Xbox game consoles and games.

I'm not saying you should devote a significant portion of your day to geeking out with swagbuck searches, or that you're going to get rich with it. However, lots of people have earned thousands of dollars worth of Amazon gift cards; actual money, and pretty cool prizes.

I'm using it now, I mean- why not get rewarded for searching for stuff online? Just by doing the normal searches I do anyway to research a lot of things I write about, I'm racking up points. Eventually I'll trade them all in for something really cool, or do my holiday shopping with all the accumulated Amazon gift cards.

I suppose this post isn't really about freelance writing- but if you are writing online you are probably also doing lot of research like I do. For me, it was kind of a no brainier, particularly since they seem to be fairly spam free. Click on the link below to sign up and give it a try. Remember where this blog is. If you do well with it, pop back and let us know what you got! :-)

Search & Win

Sunday, June 13, 2010

It's Social Networking Week: Welcome to Gather

If you are reading this blog, chances are it's because you're another writer. Like me, you look for ideas and pointers everywhere, and are hoping you'll find something useful here. I hope you do too, otherwise keeping this blog would be pointless- LOL. ;-)~

Social Networking is a buzz phrase these days. If you want to write and make something of it, you have to have readers. One of the best ways to show people who you are as a person, and as a writer, is to be actively involved in social networks. Many of the people who read my articles and blogs stumbled in through Face Book and other similar places. Most people are aware of Face Book and My Space, and I think we all know that they both have some high points and some low points.

A social network that has been gaining a lot of popularity you may not have tried out yet is called Gather. It's especially gaining notice from a lot of people in their thirties and up. It seems to be a fun forum for sharing, but has a more adult edge than some of the other social networks. They also reward the participants with points that can be used for gift cards and other things, and offer some opportunities for those who would like to commit to regularly writing. If you haven't already, I think this one is worth joining.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Video Game Reviws on Associated Content

I am experimenting with a lot of different topics and styles of writing on Associated Content. Video Game Reviews are popular, and games for PC and console game systems can be a lot of fun. I played with Sims 3- Ambitions for the first time recently, and decided to add a review of the game to my published content on AC.

The publishing menu for video game reviews on AC is set up nicely to help the writer add useful information. Here's my article about Sims 3 as an example of how to write a video game review on AC, if you'd like to check it out. I added information about the development and production; my thoughts on the game play, system requirements, information about game testing cheat codes, and links

Sims 3 Ambitions Review on Associated Content

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Share Photography on Associated Content

Another thing you can do on associated content is share pictures through a slide show. Like with published articles, you'll get paid a small amount from people checking your slide show out. If you're using associated content, a slide show can be a good idea because people are often more initially drawn by vivid photo's. You may increase your page view for other articles by adding slide shows. Do take note of the rules about photo submissions, and have fun with it.

Here's an example, which is the first slide show I published on Associated Content. It shows some of the cool displays at Henry Ford Museum. Please check it out! :-)

Great Pictures from Henry Ford Museum! :-)