Using a Traffic Counter

StatCounter is such a useful, and fun, little traffic counter- and it's free. If you have a site that will take a little javascript, you just paste in the code and you're good to go. I have it on all of my sites, though the ones that won't take javascript just have the html version. If you can use the javascript version, it comes with a fun little link that let's you see where your traffic is coming from. This includes the city your visitors are coming from, and often the link they use to get there.

I love to see all of the international visitors that find it through Google searches, and the domestic ones who usually come in through a link somewhere. Using the StatCoutner, I saw that within half an hour of posting my last blog post, both Elance and the guy who stole work from me both visited my 'lil blog. Imagine that. Such a small world, isn't it?

Elance Fees

A lot has been said lately about the increase in Elance fees and how difficult it will make it for writers and translators to do business with them. I figured that since the new memberships come with a certain (small) number of "connects," I would go ahead and use them for projects that sent me an invitation. I've used them all for the month and I seriously doubt I will ever buy more. The amount they provide every month will probably be enough for my purposes.

But, the Elance fees that I've been the most concerned about are the over $50 in fees that have been taken from me for a job that was never paid for by the buyer. I sent several invoices, at the request of the buyer, and he never paid any of them. Of course, Elance still charged me the commission. Since I wouldn't pay Elance directly for the privilege of being stolen from, they took it out of the next few projects. But, today they actually refunded those fees! I am extremely pleased that, though it took weeks, they have refunded all of the fees I was charged for that nightmare of a project. This is the first time in a long time that I've been happy with Elance. They can act in a fair manner if you take the time to pursue matters with them.

Hotel Reservations

I've used Expedia and Travelocity before, but until recently had not heard about Hotel Reservations. The prices they offer are extremely competitive, and several of the destinations have special internet rates that are guaranteed to the the lowest rates available.

The site has more than just hotel reservations, however. There are also a number of vacation rentals available, which can be extremely difficult to otherwise find without going from site to site. They also offer deals on vacation packages, flights and car rentals.

The destinations that I've searched through hotelreservations.com, including New Orleans and London, brought up surprisingly low rates. The last time I went to London I paid a lot more than many of the rates available through the site. For the same price as my tiny room with a four-flight walk up, I can get a four-star hotel in the heart of London through hotelreservations.com. In addition to the range of hotels available, they also include hostels, giving travelers a wider variety of price ranges to choose from.

This is a sponsored post.

The Book Market

It's amazing how hard it can be for an unpublished book writer to break into the market, especially considering what's out there. Literary rejections on display is right on the money with its commentary about the current publishing climate. So many agents and editors turn down works that they like and think are useful, but that would not be commercially popular enough.

Oddly, I think that the non-fiction work I've been querying is very marketable. The subject matter is popular on the shelves, and at least one large publisher is actively looking for titles on the subject. Not only that, but I actually found an angle that has never been covered by any of the current books on the subject. I found an agent that recently sold a book to the very publisher I've been eying, and he did ask for a book proposal. But, since he never got back with me, I'm assuming he's passing.

It strikes me as strange that it can be so hard to break into the market when there are titles like this book that are selling. Oh yeah- I went there. That's what publishers are buying right now, apparently. And, it's doing very well. Who knew?

No More Text Speak

Ok, so I'm old. Well, not super old, but I'm not a teenager anymore. I don't text message. I don't plan to text message. I don't want to get an email written in that cheesy text-speak language that teenagers think is their super-secret decoder ring language. And, I certainly don't want to read that stuff in forums or in blogs.

Only slightly less repellent is the trend toward extreme-conversational style full of slang. In other words, a style that screams "I'm an old person desperately seeking a younger audience- please like me!!" The problem with it is that it won't last, and if the website does, it's soon outdated.

Conversational writing is just a part of most web writing, and because the audience is likely to be all ages, it makes sense. But too many writing sites warn against formal writing- even in your own blog. If you're blogging about something serious, shouldn't the writing be formal? And isn't your blog your own space to write however you like? Silly me, I thought it was. And, these sites don't always take their own advice anyway.

If the subject matter and potential audience calls for formality- write formally. If it calls for a more conversational style- write conversationally. The truth is that there really aren't any rules etched in stone on any mountainside. This is true especially for blogs- until now, that is. I'm going to go ahead and etch a rule about text speak in stone today. If you're text messaging your friends about the homecoming dance and don't want old Mr. Witherspoon to catch you, have fun with cryptic speech. But if you've already turned 18, it's just never appropriate.

Terry Pratchett

I read this morning that beloved fantasy star Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. It's all the more shocking when you consider that he's only 59 years old. Terry Pratchett is quoted as saying that early onset cases of Alzheimer's are rare, but the stats I found show that 5 to 10 percent of Alzheimer's cases are considered early onset- starting before the age of 65. That's about 200,000 cases in the U.S. alone.

I am incredibly saddened, as Terry Pratchett is one of the best fantasy writers in the history of the genre. Like a lot of people out there, I have a family member with Alzheimer's and I know how awful the disease can be. Here's hoping for a few more books from Pratchett and a timely cure for Alzheimer's.

I signed up for PPP!

I just got approved at Pay Per Post, so I hope I can justify continuing my blog now. A personal blog doesn't usually make any money, and it can take a considerable amount of your time away from paid writing. But, just about any type of blog, personal or business, can sign up with Pay Per Post and make a little extra for sponsored posts. I first heard about the site from someone on a writer’s forum who runs several blogs and uses Pay Per Post to make money on all of them. There are a lot of bloggers out there who make quite a bit each month with their paid posts. I probably won't be one of them, but a little bit now and again couldn't hurt.

Pay Per Post is an interesting site, and I've learned a lot about blog monetizing by reading the many post offers that are available to members. There are offers from a wide variety of sources- more than enough for just about every blogging category. The blog has to be at least 90 days old and you have to have at least 20 posts to qualify. It also can’t be a blog about illegal activities and/or porn. So, if you have a non-pornographic blog, sign up to get paid to blog.

I Don't Want to Buy a Vampire

"Wesley, werewolves buy vampires because someone is selling them. If no one was selling them, they wouldn't be buying them."

What the heck is that? I have no idea. That was the last line of a dream I had, and the only part I can remember before waking up today. I love those in medias res lines that you can sometimes remember when you wake up. If you keep a notebook next to the bed, you can record lots of weird snippets and strange ideas before they fade away. I have one, but unfortunately the pen wasn't working today. So, I had to repeat those lines over and over to myself as I raced down the stairs to find a pen. Thank God no one was home at the time.

If you have a bit of weirdness to start with, random lines and scenarios can be a starting point for short story or just a creative exercise to get your mind working in the morning. Just seeing what your mind is capable of coming up with is a good way to keep yourself unblocked and ready to write.

Sitepoint, Non-Payers and Plagiarism

I saw an interesting discussion on Sitepoint the other day. A potential website owner wanted to run a news site but didn't have the budget to either hire writers to write news stories or to go out and buy the products that he wanted to talk about and write them himself. Of course, that's a clear indication that he shouldn't do it at all. Surprisingly, person after person told him to simply plagiarize someone else's work. After all, he wants the site and can't afford it.

This case isn't the only one that I've seen like it. Many people tend to get defensive about their budget, even if their budget isn't enough to pay for the thing they want. I'd like to own a Domino's, but I don't have the budget. Should I steal one? Um, no. I can't afford one, so I'm not getting one. For some reason, people can see this clearly when it involves a brick and mortar business. But, when it comes to an online one, many people believe they are entitled to have one even if they can't afford one. This leads to plagiarism, content scraping and people who outright steal other people's work and then refuse to pay for it.

So, what happens if they can't afford to pay their writers, or can't afford to populate their site with any content? They should go out of business, just like any other business person who can't get the capital together to keep going.

It's kind of the same way that I see the fast food industry and minimum wage. If minimum wage was raised high enough to give workers something closer to a living wage, fast food restaurants claim that they'd go out of business. Great! If you can't afford to pay your workers a decent wage then you should to go out of business. If the fast food industry disappeared, teenagers would stop spending half their week doing low wage labor and perhaps go back to their studies. Adult workers would be forced to look into some of the free job training provided by their county (just about every county in the U.S. has training centers free to low income workers) and stop working at a dead-end job. Customers would have to put some thought into their meals rather than buying the cheapest, fattiest food available just because it's convenient. You'd have less obesity, less poverty and fewer hideous fast food restaurants littering the roadsides. It would be better for everyone.

The same is true with websites. If the people who couldn't afford to go into business stayed out of it, the bidding sites wouldn't be littered with weirdos hoping to find someone willing to work for .01 a word. You wouldn't have junk websites hiring people to write garbage in the hopes of making .50 a month through AdSense. This too would be better for everyone.

Cybersquatting

It's been a wacky week in freelance land. The wackiest day of the week came when eBay sent me an email threatening to sue me for cybersquatting. I wrote a fairly short ebook about selling on eBay, which I sell regularly on eBay itself as well as having a ClickBank listing. I thought it might be nice to have my own site to sell it on as well in order to avoid the steep fees that I pay to both of those sites on each sale. Well, apparently they are going after everyone with a domain name that has the word eBay anywhere in it, and using the cover of cycbersquatting law to scare people into taking their sites down. The cybersquatting law was started to prevent people from buying domain names that are the names of existing companies and then offering to sell the domain to the company at an increased rate. Obviously I didn't do that.

They also said that someone might confuse my piddling little site with one that was owned by eBay, which was also untrue. I have no discernible web design skills and the site was extremely plain, consisting only of a page about the ebook and a link to buy it. I can't imagine anyone believing that it was in any way a part of eBay. The example they used in the email was their successful blockage of the domain "ebaysecurities." I don't have any proof, but I believe that was an attempted phishing site being used to trick people into giving up their personal information. I didn't do anything of the kind. I would have likely won in court if they had decided to take it that far, and I am incorporated, so I can't see them getting much more than my laptop, some office paper and possibly my giant box of Bic pens even if they won. But, in the end, I decided not to mess with it. In an uncharacteristic backing down, I erased everything from the site. I just don't need the aggravation and I don't really have the time to do much promotion for the site anyway. I may have an obnoxious streak, but I don't mean any harm to anyone and don't want any trouble.

If you have a site with any company name in it, you might think about checking with the current cybersquatting legislation just to make sure you're on the right side of the law. There are other companies shutting down domains, but so far none of them have been tiny sites selling an ebook.

How Words and Letters Effect Everyone

I think we all realize how words can affect us, from the words we use to the words we hear and read from everyone else. The PC notion was started with good intentions- to reduce the sexism and racism that was present in some of the everyday language that was common. No, "man" does not mean human anymore than "woman" does. Specific words hold strong distinctions that can affect us subconsciously, though the entire notion has gotten extremely out of hand. Merry Christmas!

But, I found out recently that even the letters we are attracted to are letters than have significance to us. The initials of our names create a preference for words that start with those letters. This has been found even in GPAs, with people with names starting with A and B getting better grades than people with names starting with C and D. People choose their brands with a preference for ones that start with their initial letters. Since reading that, I've noticed how many of the brands I'm loyal to start with an S- there are a lot.

That's how deeply words can affect us. We see the words around us as being personal and connected to us, even when we don't realize it.

More Queries

Since getting my rejections from a couple of children's book agents, I really believe that the project would better be pitched directly to a publisher. But, I am choosing right now to concentrate on a non-fiction book that I think has a lot more market possibilities. The question for this one, of course, is whether to query agents or publishers. I's rather try to get an agent to do a lot of this for me, but I think I might just query publishers right now and try to get somewhere that way. In the end, there is the distinct possibility that none of it will matter and no one will be interested in this book. My time would probably better be spent on seeking new freelance clients.

Will that stop me? Heck no. There's nothing like a book project to get me feeling creative and excited. Most of my fiction has been abandoned at some point because there's really no limit on what can happen in the book. I can go on for years with fiction, tooling and retooling a piece of dialogue or adding scenes that I thought of while in the shower. But, a non-fiction book has a much more distinct flavor. There's an actual stopping point with non-fiction. At some point, the topic has been covered to your satisfaction and the book ends. So, win or lose, this is my project and I'm going to try to get it noticed. I'll post when I start getting rejections.

A Gush Over Fareed Zakaria

Anytime I read anything, and that includes cereal boxes, I always consider how I would reword some of it. I don't think I'm better than everything I read, I just always find passages that I think could have been better. Sometimes it's awkward phrasing, sometimes it's a cliche, and sometimes it's just a crappy paragraph.

The only modern writer that I can read without ever doing that is Fareed Zakaria. He's a Newsweek columnist as well as being Newsweek International's editor. He sometimes pops up elsewhere, but I mainly know him from reading Newsweek. One recent pop up was on The Daily Show, which really freaked me out. Who knew my hero was popular enough to go on The Daily Show?

Fareed Zakaria's writing is so superb and so nuanced that it feels completely effortless. It's like stepping into bathwater that's exactly the right temperature. Nothing in his writing ever feels forced. He uses facts and figures in the perfect places without ever coming across as aggressive or snotty. His complete understanding of what he's writing about shines through. He keeps his own opinions visible, though they aren't the driving force of the work.

He is simply the most amazing columnist I've ever read, and I would so marry him if he asked me. If I met him on the street, didn't know where we would live or whether he snored or smoked cigars, I would still marry him. Is there a Fareed Zakaria fan club? If so, I would welcome wearing a t-shirt with his picture on it and possibly putting a bumper sticker with his head on it on my car.

Here's this week's column, which is entirely flawless: A New French Revolution

Last week's was one of my very favorites, since he talks a little about his own experiences. At first it feels like he's doing it to start off in a conversational tone or to use a holiday reference to start the column out slowly. But after reading it a couple of times, it looks like he uses his personal experiences to establish himself as a outsider (born outside the U.S.) who understands the immigrant experience, but also as an insider who loves America and is therefore free to criticize it. Move over, Mark Antony.

The Seven Things Meme

I was tagged for a meme challenge by two people yesterday- same challenge. Those have always looked like fun- that's for the tags! The rules are to reveal seven things about yourself, link to the ones who tagged you and then tag seven other people and post the links to their blogs. Here goes:

I was tagged by Easing Chronic Pain and Anything Parenting.

1. I LOVE Beauty and the Geek and Project Runway. They are the only reality shows I can stand.
2. I usually write until about 3 a.m. and then take a nap in the afternoon.
3. When I get strapped for time I use voice recognition software and dictate my work.
4. I have a cage full of anoles.
5. I am a huge Anglophile.
6. I have big curly hair and look kind of like Bob Dylan.
7. I am a Trekkie to the point that I sometimes think- what would Kirk do?

I am tagging:

Web Writing Info
Geek Parenting
Slacker-Moms-R-Us
Drawing on Words
Writing on the Wall
Work at Home Mom to Five
Fiction Writing- The Passionate Journey

You've been tagged!

Rejected by Two Literary Agents - Woo Hoo!

I've gotten two rejections from literary agents already, which I thought was pretty impressive. The first came the day after I sent the query. Since most agents I looked at advise waiting up to six weeks for an answer, that was an agent who definitely knew what she didn't want- me. I expect to be rejected by all of them, since the project I was pitching is very weird and there's nothing really like it on the market.

To get it published I would probably need to send it directly to publishers, and I have another book project that I would rather spend that time on. But, now that I've gotten my feet wet with agent queries, I expect to be much less nervous when pitching my much-more-marketable book. And hey, there are still six or seven other agents out there who haven't yet responded. There's always the chance that one of them won't hate my weirdo book. Isn't there? Maybe not.

At the End of My Rope With Cliches

Keeping cliches out of my writing has been a struggle that I think I am finally starting to win. I had a problem in high school and college with being heavy on the cliches, and it took a lot of awareness and editing to get myself out of the habit. For a long time I would skim over my writing and take out the cliches, replacing them with a phrase that was a more personal representation of what I was trying to get across. I think it worked well and I think I have cut them out of my writing in most cases.

The problem lies in what is considered a cliche. There are as many answers as there are writers, and some phrases that I never considered to be a cliche are considered by others to be so. I found this mega list of cliches, and some of them I certainly don't consider to be anything other than a couple of words that are often used together. And as for the one word examples- um, no. A cliche, in my opinion, is something that is an easy way of expressing something, and expressing it in a way that is far too common.

Sure, "asleep at the wheel" is a cliche. But, is baby boomer? That made the list, but I've used it several times to describe that specific generation, and I would not cross it out as being a cliche. What is the line between language that slows down the copy and language that is simply accessible? It can be touch and go to cash in your chips an call a spade a spade in these instances.

What Tone Should Your Writing Have?

I love it when clients give you the tone they want- conversational, highly technical, comical, positive, evil- whatever they want. But when they don't give you a tone, what should you do? I use one of two techniques, depending on the situation. I can either analyze what I know it's going to be used for and set the tone to what those readers will likely want to read, or I use my "magazine tone."

Figuring out the context can be helpful, but sometimes the client had something else in mind that you didn't now about. Normally, I don't discuss much about what a client asked for or told me, but since this guy never paid, I feel pretty free to do so. He contracted with me for a handout for office workers. Now, not being given a tone, but knowing that it was for office workers, I settled on a fairly straightforward style that was something that a high school senior could read easily. He ended up wanting it redone, saying that he wanted it at a 5th grade reading level. He then sent samples he had gotten from another freelancer and directed that it be written along those lines.

The samples were indescribably bad. Really, really, really bad. They were nowhere near 5th grade level- more like 2nd or 3rd grade. Something like that would be insulting to an office worker. When I worked in an office, if I had been handed something like that I would have been pissed. I reworked the thing to make it as simplistic as possible, but it was almost painful to do so. When the client wants something that you know isn't going to go over well, you just have to bite the bullet and do it, even if you know that the tone and complexity should be something else. But, without a guideline or any direction, I had done the best I could. Usually simply looking at the potential audience works very well.

My magazine tone, as I call it, is for when I am given little direction and don't really know what the articles will be used for. That is a tone that is technical enough to give the work credibility, but is conversational enough so that it doesn't feel inaccessible. This tone is what most people end up wanting for their work, and it fits in probably 90 percent of the work I do. I think it's a good, readable tone that works for most web writing.

The Amazon Kindle

I had never heard of the Amazon Kindle until yesterday, but when it rains- it's constantly thrust into your face until you have to write about it. Heading to Amazon yesterday, I saw it proudly described on the front page in a letter from Amazon's founder. Then, later in the day, it arrived on the cover of my Newsweek. Today it still commands Amazon's full front page and it's being compared to Gutenberg's press in the media. So what is this thing?

Basically, the Kindle is a small, light book reader built to be ergonomic and easy to hold with one hand. It can hold hundreds of books, making it much easier to lug a lot of books around with you. It's also supposed to have lighting that reduces eye strain. It's not backlit, and if you view the demonstration of it, the lighting looks pretty pleasant- not a blinding white but not dim enough to cause strain. The Kindle is brand spanking new, but it's already sold out and Amazon is now taking advance orders. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, seems to have a lot of hope for the device, as do the many customers who have jammed the site with orders.

At first, I frankly thought it sounded stupid. I like the tactile experience of a book. I don't care if the book is worn, I don't care if it's heavy, and I don't mind lugging a separate bag of books on a trip. I don't know if I can ever convert to some type of electronics over a physical book. But after viewing the video about it, I have to say it does sound pretty cool. It isn't just books- you can get a newspaper sent to it, and carry around as many books as you like anywhere you go. I don't know if any of that is necessary- the newspaper still comes to your house and a book can still be put in your purse or pocket, but it's a neat idea.

It's kind of the iPod for books- have access to hundreds of books anywhere you go, just like iPod people have access to their thousands of songs. Neither of these is a pressing need, but could be fun to have. The price is a but high right now, but it does come with a few perks. New-release books for it are $9.99 apiece, which is a lot less than most new releases, and the books get stored in your computer as well in case anything happens to your Kindle. On the downside, of course, it's a lot of cash. You could buy yourself a room full of used books for what this baby costs. It all comes down to personal preference- do you need to have your books with you all the time, or do you travel a lot and hate carrying lots of books? Or, are you the low-tech type who always has a handful of paperbacks nearby and wants to keep it that way? I'm definitely the latter, but if the price should ever fall by a few hundred dollars, I might be willing to give it a try.

Sending Query Letters

This week I've been working on sending queries to agents, among other ongoing projects. The thing about query letters is that no one can really tell you how to write one. I went through about 10 websites and read about how to write one and then read the sample letters. It sounds simple until you notice that every site has a different set of instructions and samples that are completely different from each other. My Writer's Market came on Saturday, and that has additional information about query letters. I tend to trust them more than a lot of other sources, but many of these sites have letters that actually got them an agent or a publication deal.

Most of the resources I've seen have a paragraph-by-paragraph plan for putting together a query letter. But, is that really wise? As long as the basic information is there- the name of the book, the basic contents and the writer's credentials, does it really have to follow a specific paragraph order? Is there no room for creativity? The point is to generate an interest in the work, so I'm hoping to do that, even if the result is simply what I think works best rather than a four paragraph clinical analysis.

I haven't sent query letters in years, so the biggest surprise this week is that many agents will now accept email queries. That makes it easy, perhaps a little too easy, to send queries quickly and to keep track of them. I worry now that the ease may have resulted in my sending queries too early, before I have perfected the letter itself. Having agent email addresses in front of you is a lot like having left over birthday cake. It's a lot of temptation, and thought and care should be taken before giving in.

Elance Changes Redux

Elance has made some changes to their changes, a play that may or may not have been choreographed in advance. The raise in prices now doesn't sting quite as much as it did when the price hike was even higher. It's a great psychological ploy for the writers, who are having their prices raised more than other providers and who have been the most vocal complainers.

It remains to be seen how high the prices will really be, as the main hike will be in what it costs to bid on projects, and many providers are leaving the site. It may be that with fewer providers, fewer bids will have to be placed and the price won't be as bad as it now seems. It may also be that they will use the increased fees for marketing, bring in more providers and the cost will continue to rise for providers. I am not taking on new Elance clients right now, so I am not as worried as I would have been a year ago. But for the people who make most of their living through Elance, and there are many of them, this must be a nasty blow.

If anyone were to create a site that had the customer service and free bidding of RAC and the range of projects of Elance, they will have created a super-site with the potential to drive all other sites out of business, take over the world and colonize new planets.