Back Up Your Writing : A Repeated Learning Experience

This morning's reminder is to back up what you write, submit and post- at least if it's something you might want to see again.

My example today comes from a much earlier post, where I talked about travel writing on a website and community called Ruba. It was a pretty neat idea, a social interface that allowed people to join and share travel photo's and tips, creating their own guides to favorite places in various cities. I remembered posting a lot of cool stuff there when I came across the post I mentioned it in here,and went back to that site to have another look. Instead of finding my profile, I found a note from the creators of that site that they've moved on to bigger and better things.

The site was so well put together that I thought it would be around for a while. Whoops! Oh, well. It's not like I don't remember all the places I wrote about, or couldn't put my own similar guides together without the use of a site like that- in fact, some of my articles on Associated Content are travel guides about fun things to do in some of the cool places I like.

But it does remind me to keep copies of everything I submit anywhere that could in some fashion be useful later. It's why I have a 'hidden' blog, where I keep copies of submitted articles, so I can go back and use the information in them for further research. It is also one more way to prove authorship, a time stamped record.

My first two articles on Associated Content just got accepted, and are live. :-)

Please check them out!

How to Read Tarot- The Basics , by Nicolette Stevens

Simple Ways You Can Help in the Effort to Clean Up the Gulf Oil Spill, by Nicolette Stevens

* note: the article about the gulf oil spill clean up includes information about Matter of Trust, an organization that was collecting hair to make mats and booms to soak up the oil. Unfortunately, underwater the booms seem to soak up too much water and sink- so they have now stopped trying that method. Please don't send hair, instead, volunteer or make a donation to the Audubon Society if you want to help.

Associated Content: Writer's Market for Articles

Associated Content is another writer's market for articles that is worth checking out. You can earn money writing articles for Associated Content in a variety of ways. Some of the revenue for authors is performance based, and as more people take interest and read the articles you submit your earnings increase. They also offer assignments targeted to the writer's skills which pay specific amounts. If your writing is very good, they may select your work for up front payment rather than performance based payment. Like with Constant Content, you can make choices about weather you are sharing specific articles exclusively, or whether you'd like to retain the right to republish wherever you want.

To try it out for yourself, go to Associated content, create a profile, and start sharing your writing.



As I explore Associated Content, Constant Content, Ezine Articles and other organizations that help writer's promote their work I'll be reviewing the pro's and con's of each here. If you stumble through and have exeriences and ideas you'd like to share, feel free to comment.

Promoting Yourself with Ezine Articles

For a budding freelance writer, getting involved with Ezine articles may be another good idea. Ezine does not pay you for your work, but sharing some of your work through Ezine gets a lot of exposure for some people. Authors post articles on whatever they would like, and a team of editors reviews the material to determine that it's quality work and follows their guidelines.

You'll probably remember having read someones article about something on Ezine at some point, and that's a good sign if you want people to read and be aware of your work. Ezine stores the articles shared there and makes them available, free of charge, to people who want content for their blogs and websites. People using content from Ezine can select up to 25 articles per year to share in their own projects. They are required to leave the name of the author on the article, publish as written without editing, and include the author's "resource box" with the article. In the resource box you can share links to information about your topic, links to your blog or website, and ways to contact you. Allowing others to share your work in this way gets it out there, and interested readers may find their way to your work elsewhere in this fashion. Whether you are trying to get clients for freelance gigs, or people to check out your web based business, this kind of exposure can ultimately lead to good press and new opportunities.

If you keep a blog or have a website, you may also be able to use good articles you find on Ezine, to add to your own unique pages. Sure, if your readers like what they see, they may go off and check out the writer's other haunts on the web- but that's not always a bad thing. If your site is that useful they'll be back, because they know you have fresh and helpful material. If it's not useful or interesting, well then, maybe you need to improve. *wink* Cross linking such articles can also give you an opportunity to befriend other writer's, -which often leads to link sharing, more traffic, and the joy of having people to chatter back and fourth with once in a while.

To start sharing articles on Ezine, simply go to their site and create a profile. You can link your blogs and website's to your author profile there, as well as share a short biography and other information. When you post your first article you'll learn more about what their rules for posting are. You will save yourself some time by reading and understanding the guidelines. For instance: it's okay to put a link in your author' resource box to a website that sells products and services in your own business. It's not however okay to write an article that is really a sales pitch for your products. You're limited on the number of links you can add, so pick wisely. At first, you can submit up to ten articles. If you're somewhat prolific and good at writing, the powers that be at Ezine will raise that- so make sure you share useful and well written material.

http://ezinearticles.com/

Have fun! If you stumble across this post and have Ezine articles you'd like to share, feel free to leave a link in the comments.