I Haiku You

It is National Poetry Month once more. I was happy to feature hometown (San Diego) poet, Rae Armentrout, last week. She's the most recent winner of a Pulitzer Prize for poetry.  Soon I'll publish FOR THE FIRST TIME ANYWHERE an original poem by a dedicated -- and possibly unpublished except for DIY and community sites -- poet. Wait for it ... wait for it ...

In the meantime, here is my annual, perpetual spring haiku:

Faking It The California Way

Shall I sweep or blow
Drifting pear tree petals
Look like SoCal snow

Alrighty then, moving along:  you may have noticed the possibly cryptic previous message about something called "Posterous" (a preposterous name for a website/service, no?)  I'm trying it out hopefully as a method to keep this RSS stream active after Blogger axes FTP uploads at the end of the month. (Just can't let go ...) Please note the correct use of an adverb.

If no silly LOLcat posting appears on May 1 -- or is it May 2 (hard to tell what Blogger.com is really going to do) -- we'll know it isn't working. Maybe.

Isn't this exciting?

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Online Ghosting Pays

Ever wonder how much $$ we could make as blog or Twitter ghosts? It's a matter of much controversy and strong opinions aired in forums like #BlogChat. Equally ephemeral is information about "standards" and how much to charge.

Whether you think ghostblogging is "a lie!" or "just a job," find out what's really going in in this article The Ghost Speaks - Entrepreneur.com:

Ghost rates vary, but generally, it costs far less to create a ghosted blog or Twitter account than to launch a traditional PR campaign. McCord charges $18 to $32 per blog post, and $150 to $500 a month for multiple daily tweets. Lindsay Manfredi, a social media strategist in Indianapolis, charges $75 to $100 for a blog post, a fee that includes research, writing and editing.

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Mein Fuhrer, Blogger & FTP

This is about how I feel towards Blogger these days. Little by little they are nibbling away services. Rinky-dink little aggravations like slow uploads, no more deleting spam comments (or any for that matter), glitchy image uploads. I could go on and on. Oh, and the "edit post" button has disappeared.  But I may have found a White Knight in Erik Aronesty. PAGING DR. ARONESTY, PLEASE REPORT BY EMAIL TO EDITOR @ THIS DOMAIN NAME. I may have a job for you!

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Write a Best Blog

What to do while writing. More writing! But this more writing is for marketing and promotion purposes. If writing is a lonely task, then why do we find many top writers engaging in Social Media (SM) activities? They are promoting themselves, building platform and marketing their products. Don't cringe--your stories, poems, articles and novels are as much a product as detergent and dog food are.

Blogs were among the first and remain a linchpin in writers' SM strategies. (the fate of AWE notwithstanding). Beginning bloggers often fail to see the advantages of blogging, laid out so well in "Why Should Writers Blog" by The Urban Muse, Susan Johnston. That post was one of Top 10 Blog Posts for Writers (The Best From The Best in 2008!).

If you're still not convinced, take a look at the Beginners part of the Blogging Your Brand free ebook where Dan Schawbel lays out what a blog can do for you. The book proceeds to advanced level blogging, so there's something for everyone.  Get yourself started with his advice, then graduate to How to Write a Better Weblog from A List Apart. 

One product For Bloggers | Zemanta Ltd. I've not used, but seen the results in other writers' blogs. It can be an impressive shortcut to help plump out posts. Marko Saric also offers help getting started and I found 58 ways to build a better blog very useful.

Ted DeMopoulos' Secrets of Successful Blogging is another free ebook that offers 101 tips on running your blog like a business. Download the podcast about it. And if the experience grabs you, look over his new book What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting: Real-Life Advice from 101 People who Successfully Leverage the Power of the Blogosphere

Finally, when you get your blog going, trimmed and tuned, there's even more free advice from Leo Babauta on, let's call it, the zen of blogging at Branding 101: How to Promote Your Blog Like the Big Guys Do | Write to Done. There you have my creme de la creme of info about blogging. These are resources above and beyond what you'll find from the usual suspects like Copyblogger and Problogging (both great for when you want your blog to be your business).

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More Blog to Book

Alarming trends are evolving in the digital writing world. Major publishers are using more Demand Media material.

The "Blog to Book" phenom raises it's tempting head once more, as chronicled by Iris Blasi in The New Farm System: From Blog to Book | Digital Book World. "What about getting a book deal from a blog?" Here's a summary by the Union Square Press editor:

1. Consider your category. The web is a goldmine for humor writers in particular. “If you’re funny and your voice is unique, people will come to it,” said Mulligan.

2. Pay heed to tradition even in a digital environment. The best way to catch the attention of an agent or editor? “A good, old-fashioned, well-written query,” said Lee. “There’s really no substitute for that.”

3. Think ahead. In standard publishing contracts, the burden of obtaining permissions for reprinted material falls on the author. For sites dependent upon reader submissions, do yourself a favor and have readers surrender rights to their content prior to posting, as TextsfromLastNight.com smartly does at sign-up.

4. Don’t show all your cards. Added value is essential to publishers, as they don’t want to reproduce what is already available for free online. Be mindful from the outset about holding back some add-ons that might work best for the book.

5. Show you can drive traffic. If a blog launches in the forest, does it make a sound? Great content will only get you halfway. Focus on links from other websites, as they act as a kind of endorsement and quality control, demonstrating your proven ability to promote.

Easy peasy, huh?

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Roundup of Book Info

Dealing with potential loss of MyBlogLog and Blogger use: a roundup of links to current book matters.  Actually, I'm trying to clear out my "Draft" posts list. Aaargh! Another loss: the ability to "Send to" my blogging account any web page or snippet from one and save it as a Draft post!

As I was saying, I scarcely have time to blog for dealing with issues surrounding blogging! Here are some of the golden eggs I was sitting on, hoping to hatch nice posts:

*  If you are thinking about writing a book, Folio Literary Agency offers a great guide to getting published, written by Jeff Kleinman.

*  If you want to research trends in new books published, by subject, check out Bowker's IndustryStats2009.pdf. Worth noting is the last entry, "OnDemand, Short Run,and Other Unclassified" (read: self-published) with a substantial rise for the last three years reported (2002-2008).

*  When your book is published, the next big hurdle is marketing. Seth Godin tells how in Seth Godin, "10 Bestsellers: Using New Media, New Marketing, and New Thinking to Create 10 Bestselling Books video of his presentation at the O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference.

*  If you are thinking about an e-book, you might want to review Why (and How) Apple Killed the $9.99 Ebook: "The print industry is swirling down the toilet, and apocalypse-era publishers minds' dance with hallucinations of digital salvation via iTunes for print. It's the iPod for books. What Amazon was supposed to deliver, but now maybe never will."

*  And finally, a topic so complicated that I have never tackled it here--the Google Lawsuit and Settlement. The latest I've read from Publishers Weekly:  Justice Department Says It Still Has Problems with Revised Google Settlement. The beat goes on.

If you would like to follow-up any of these leads and write up a summary, you can have a guest post spot here.

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The Book Haven Blog

Cynthia Haven launched "The Book Haven" a blog all about the written word last November. She's a humanities writer at Stanford University.

Every year, books pour out of Stanford University by the scores, if not by the hundreds. From biography to poetry, science and public affairs, it is a river of the written word. Yet as newspapers cut back their pages, column inches devoted to books and the literary life are the first to go – in recent years, book sections have been the canary in the mainstream media's mine.

"Given the reduced coverage on books and book news nationwide, it's only logical that book lovers change the way we cover books and book events," Haven said. She is widely published on literary topics and has written for the Times Literary Supplement, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times Book Review and others. She has a forthcoming book on Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet Czesław Miłosz.

The blog will continue to cover books, readings, lectures, book events, publishing news, library events, literacy studies – anything to do with the written word. Sort of like A Writer's Edge has done for the last 5+ years.

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Is the Blog Era Over?

I'm having a very bad month, so far. What with the confusing brouhaha with Amazon, iBooks from Apple, Macmillan and other publishers over the price of e-books, Blogger.com forcing us to quit using FTP to upload posts, a summons for jury duty the same day contest judging is due, taxes looming ... not only can I not get ahead, I can't even catch up with myself.

Shall I quit blogging? The "migration" proposed by Blogger.com is unacceptable. So is installing WordPress and learning how to use yet another complicated program. I'm trying to find an easy one to create my own RSS feed, but even with that, the technical aspects of blogging on your own are daunting.  It would mean creating three or more web pages for every post.

Another thought is to take the blog private and deliver it weekly by email, incorporating my weekly "Inspiration" jotting. Or maybe IT'S A SIGN!!! Time to quit, slow down, smell the flowers and let my mind gel into cliches.

Twitter is so much easier, more fun, more connections, chats.

Is the blog era over for all of us?

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Blogger Threatens FTP Blogs

Blogger is eliminating FTP blogs. That includes A Writer's Edge, unless I can duplicate myself to have time to comprehend what they want us to do. To wit:

...we are announcing today that we will no longer support FTP publishing in Blogger after March 26, 2010. We realize that this will not necessarily be welcome news for some users, and we are committed to making the transition as seamless as possible. To that end:

* We are building a migration tool that will walk users through a migration from their current URL to a Blogger-managed URL (either a Custom Domain or a Blogspot URL) that will be available to all users the week of February 22. This tool will handle redirecting traffic from the old URL to the new URL, and will handle the vast majority of situations.
* We will be providing a dedicated blog and help documentation to provide as much information as possible to help guide users through the migration off of FTP.
* Blogger team members will also be available to answer questions on the forum, comments on the blog, and in a few scheduled conference calls once the tool is released.

If this blog disappears, you'll know why. Oh, please, Lord, don't make me migrate to Word Press ...

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Top 100 Blogs for Writers

How could I have missed this? Top 100 Blogs to Improve Your Writing in 2010 includes A Writer's Edge. The Universities and Colleges organization issued the new list at the beginning of this week. My apologies to Scott Johnson, who wrote:

Thanks for creating such great content, and we look forward to seeing even more this year! If you know of any other great writing sites that we missed, we'd love to hear about them as well.

It would be difficult to find better company, for the list also includes ProBlogger, former Writer's Digest editor Maria Schneider's Editor Unleashed, the top writing site Writer's Digest and 96 others worth a look. These are mostly complete websites with the top blogs embedded, so they offer even more assistance than just blog posts.

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Yahoo Closing Your BlogLog?

I can't believe it. Well, yes, I can. When Yahoo took over MyBlogLog, the service immediately began having technical failures. I didn't think the sale to Yahoo boded well for us members. In the Twitter #BlogChat last night I learned that Yahoo is probably closing down MyBlogLog, a social networking service for bloggers. Sure enough, the company acknowledged the possibility less than a month ago. The paidContent.org has a brief report.

The move is part of a greater divestiture of companies Yahoo probably never should have acquired. For example, it is shutting the door to its shopping services soon. Sounds like utter capitulation to Google's superiority.

In the meantime, what to do? I shudder at losing the connection to nearly 500 people who joined the MBL community for A Writer's Edge. First, I am rushing to fulfill hundreds of pending Contact Requests in my account. I had ignored that part of the system to concentrate on building community membership. 

Next I'm going to take advantage of the ability to send a message to all of my community's members. I'll encourage them to sign up to receive these posts via either of the three RSS feeds this blog offers (one of them the FeedBurner that Google now manages) or by email through a FeedBlitz service. 

Then I'll mention my Twitter account that they could join.  And many of them already belong to the BlogCatalog community, too, so I'll encourage that move for the rest of them.  What a boon this will be for that service!

What about you--what's your bailout plan from MyBlogLog?

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More Blog Traffic

How can I attract visitors, new bloggers ask, right after they ask what to blog about. Techniques to promote a blog are legion: list it in all directories, register with major search engines, get a domain name, host it yourself, use keywords, put the URL in your signatures, and interact with other bloggers to name just a few.

Let's focus on the latter. We are drilling down here, so pay attention. Take notes. One way is to build relationships with other blogs and their writers including joining blog groups like MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog, both featured at A Writer's Edge. Exploit those services to their fullest. Visit other blogs and offer to write guest posts and invite those bloggers to do the same. Engage in #BlogChat on Twitter (Sunday at 6 p.m. PT). Most of all, comment on posts in other blogs.

I'm not going to leave that last suggestion just hanging because too many times new bloggers simply race about the web, leaving anonymous comments like "me too!!!" or "I agree" on any blog they encounter. Why is this WRONG? It violates the big three of commenting to build traffic:

1. Always use the same identification (name, image, brand, signature, blog URL). This practice builds interest and the consistency raises your visibility as well as reputation. People will know who you are and what your blog is about.

2. Be quick and clever. The most useful comment is one of the first on the latest post. Leaving comments early and often on blogs with the greatest numbers of readers and interactivity will drive more traffic your way than helping out a dozen other newbies get going. Still help your fellow newbies, but don't forget how to help yourself.

3. Add value to the post. The brief comments cited above are obviously only meant to attract attention (if not anonymous) or sometimes to fuel a flame war. Try to contribute additional information or provide your view of the posting or the subject. Once you have a backlog of posts on your own blog, you can occasionally refer to one of them, but only if it is relevant to the post that you are commenting on. Learn how to code links into comments.

Remember, these guidelines are for those who are serious about building traffic to a particular blog. I welcome "me too" comments from my "Dear Internets" as my dear Internet friend, Paige in Paradise calls her blog buddies. Even more, I welcome viewpoints that oppose what I have written or suggest a different way of looking at a topic.

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New Digital Deliveries

A Writer's Edge blog goes even more digital with the new year.


Amazon offers it for the Kindle:

A Writer's Edge (Kindle Edition)
editing/writing/publishing
No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
Monthly Price: $1.99 & includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet.


Kindle Blog Subscriptions

* Kindle Blogs are auto-delivered wirelessly to your Kindle and updated throughout the day so you can stay current.
* It's risk free—all Kindle Blog subscriptions start with a 14-day free trial. You can cancel at any time during the free trial period. If you enjoy your subscription, do nothing and it will automatically continue at the regular monthly price.
* Don't have a Kindle? Get yours here.

Then there is the syndication offered by Bloggapedia for the AWE listing.  Thusfar only Barnes and Noble is to provide the best of the best in blog content, for its Nook users as well as other devices that B & N supports - iPhones, Blackberries, Motorola smartphones, Macs, and PCs. It lists books, newspapers and magazines in electronic formats, but no blogs yet (that I could find).

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10th Annual Bloggies

Hard to believe that the Bloggies are ten years old. Nominations are open in quite a few categories, and you can nominate the same blog in different categories. Nominations continue until Tuesday, January 12--so, hop to it. Voting will take place Jan. 21-31. The Weblog Awards ceremony will be held at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, USA at the Trade Show Day Stage. Note that the nominations page scrolls horizontally to show all the categories and entry forms.

The other weblog awards contest in which A Writer's Edge was so kindly nominated is defunct. Apparently the planner failed. That's okay, the Bloggies have more and better categories that fit this blog!

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Improve Your Blog

5 Quick & Easy Tips For Improving Your Blog from the December Blogcatalog.com newsletter:

1. Purchase your own domain. This will dramatically increase your design and functionality options.
2. Connect with other bloggers. Forming these connections can help inspire you, get you over hurdles and provide a sounding board for new ideas.
3. Try a new theme. While content is king, looks are important too. Catch readers attention with a slick new theme.
4. Find clarity. Clearly defining the purpose of your blog will make decisions about content and design simpler.
5. Always be writing. Good writers are always writing. It keeps your mind limber and gives you a stock pile of good post ideas.

Number 4 is the logical starting point. Too many people feel an urgent necessity to blog but have no idea what to write about. Then they whine and complain about it, about a lack of readers, followers and comments. Why would anyone besides the writer's mother read a blog with no focus? The goal need not be overt, but it guides and shapes your writing.

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Discount and an Upgrade

Don't be shocked. I've upgraded the looks of the emailed version of A Writer's Edge to more closely resemble the blog pages. A Writer's Edge uses FeedBlitz to manage some email deliveries. I'm thinking of switching all email subscriptions to this service.

Now that I am using FeedBlitz at an "elite" level, I am happy to be able to offer readers a special, time-limited 10% Lifetime Discount on FeedBlitz services. All you need to do to secure a 10% lifetime discount is to sign up for FeedBlitz using this promotional code: Writer's (yeah, not my choice!) before 21 January, 2010 (US eastern time). Use it for sign-ups and to automatically send anything you want!

How it Works

1. Start an evaluation account before January 21, 2010 at http://www.feedblitz.com/f?NewAccount using the promotion code Writer's.
2. FeedBlitz automatically applies a lifetime discount.
   
   Small Print - Limitations and Restrictions
   

• The discount is available to new accounts only.
• The lifetime discount applies to all FeedBlitz paid services for that user, until and unless the user cancels their account, there is a payment default or the user later switches to a different FeedBlitz plan.
• The offer must be used before 21 January, 2010.
• Once this offer expires it will never be made again to the readers of A Writer's Edge.

If you don't receive this blog via email, and you'd like to, visit http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=349955 to sign up.

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Amazon Integrates With Blogger

Santa arrived early for some bloggers! Today Amazon announced Amazon Associates for Blogger, a direct integration between the site's sales service and Blogger. This new collaboration enables Blogger.com bloggers to monetize their content by adding relevant Amazon products to their blog posts without interrupting the blog editing process. I can attest that hopping over to Amazon to find a book cover photo, adjusting and adding it to a post and monkeying with the associated HTML is a pain and takes too much time.

Amazon Associates who don’t have a Google Blogger account can set up a free Blogger account with their Associates ID right away. The new tool allows Blogger.com bloggers to add links and images to their blog posts in just two steps:

1.Highlight the relevant text and the Amazon Product Finder will search Amazon’s millions of products and recommend the ones that are most closely associated with the text

2.Insert a link or image to that product which includes their Associates ID, enabling them to earn up to 15% in referral fees from Amazon

You will also be able to show dynamic content in their blog sidebar using a new set of integrated Sidebar gadgets, such as gadgets for MP3 clips from the Amazon DRM-free music store, an Amazon Deals gadget, and an Amazon Search box.

So they say. I haven't tried it yet. I'll let you know how it works for me.

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Social Media Marketing Contest

Awe+Some=Blog-Off2 Prizes offered by The Community Marketing Blog. One prize I see: following the entries to learn from the best and worst of them.

Andrew Ballenthin says: "This is your chance to really shine (or shine some more) and show how excellent you are as a marketing and/or social media expert in practicing the skills you apply every day for your clients or your company or yourself."

Simply competing will grow your writing and blogging skills!

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Weblog Awards Nominations

Remember these things? They finally got going.

Nominations Nov. 3, 2009 - Nov. 20, 2009
Finalists Announced December 28, 2009
Voting January 4, 2010 - January 11, 2009

A Writer's Edge is already nominated in the Best Humor Blog and Best Twitterer (I did it myself), and My Dear Paige von Liber added it to the Best Literature Blog category. This is a high honor from a woman who just said about herself:

I will just keep on being me ~ the one ~ the most awesome Paige that you know. Yes the Queen of my Paradise Valley. Remember that echo when I’m falling over the edge and laugh, laugh, laugh.

I'm thinking that I should nominate her blog for Best Humor! [Done!]

Please note that voting does not begin until next year. If you want, though, you can sift through the lists of nominations and click on the green button to second, third, etc.--not that it counts, as I understand.

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Twitter Means Business

Why does my Twitter page have a higher PageRank (5) than AWE's main page (2)? King content still counts. Does this mean there's more rich content in my carefully crafted one-liners than in my carefully crafted blog posts?

Whatever Google's PageRank algorithm and the Internet community's perception of PR, I think this adds to the case for businesses participating in social media.

Rethinking Facebook for the sixth time.

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Blogs as Communities

Must a blog be a community? That was the question I kept asking in a recent Twitter blog chat. The topic was community building. I should probably stop questioning premises and stick to the subject ... but here I can ask it. Can't a blog be just a blog? Must the definition of a blog evolve? Sure, blogs have evolved with widgets and gadgets galore.

Early in blogging history (a few years ago) the focus was on getting started, then drawing viewers, then getting comments, then turning the comments into conversations and now followers, subscribers, "community"--whatever that is. When the marketing bloggers discuss this issue, it sounds more like a hub and spoke, star/fans model.

The potential uses of blogs are far wider than this narrow focus on interactive engagements. I suspect the notion of community also plays into the latest tide of "branding" (more stardom). Certainly the blog owner can supply a forum, or the blog may be part of a ready-made community like Facebook or Ning provides. I'm still thinking Google Wave.

Every additional feature built in or tacked on to a blog requires additional investments of time, thought and energy. If you can entice the audience to contribute (unpaid) such expertise, so much the better. Just don't forget the basis of good blogging: providing rich content. That also takes time, thought and energy.

Is your blog a community? Do you want it to be? What is a community? If you build a community, what part does the blog play and can it get lost? What might you lose? What might your original readers lose? What are the gains? Your contributions in comments are most welcome. Please, do converse and while you're at it, sign up to receive this blog by email or add the RSS feed to your reader. Have I left out anything? Seriously, what about community?

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AWE & Me & BlogCatalog

I have enjoyed being a supporter of BlogCatalog lately, as the lovely logo indicates. And I just posted to my Shoutbox there:

Now that Technorati diminished my Authority rating to 1 and took away the fans, I really appreciate all 214 of you here who signed up "A Writer's Edge" as one of your Favorites. Thanks so much!

If all goes well, you can see the fans on their special page. Hi, Guys! *waves madly*

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Nominations Not Yet

Ready to go nominate your favorite blogs for this year's awards? Wait! There's another delay. You can string people along only so far, and then they tend to lose interest, huh?

Hint to Kevin: Start programming earlier in the year.

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Weblog Awards

Weblog Awards nominations begin tomorrow Nov.2. The schedule:

Nominations Nov. 2, 2009 - Nov. 20, 2009*
Finalists Announced December 28, 2009
Voting January 4, 2010 - January 11, 2009

Once again, no category for writing or writer blogs. Sigh! Far be it from me to say so, but ... the only place A Writer's Edge appears to fit would be Best Literature Blog or moi as Best Individual Blogger (I think not). Oh, I suppose Best Liberal Blog would fit, too, but this isn't a political bash. AWE finished in the final 19 in another competition, but not in the top ten. Not yet.

*Note: schedule slippage reported

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BAD Reminder

Not a reminder to be bad, but that BAD arrives next week. At this point, on October 15, 4,182 sites and 10,146,402 readers will participate in this year's Blog Action Day to raise awareness about global climate change. By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.

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Ad Network Apocalypse?

What if they gave an apocalypse and no one came? Riffing on an old anti-war slogan, Advertising Age asks What Happened to the Ad-Network Apocalypse? If you're unfamiliar with what ad networks are, they're companies that partner with advertisers and publishers to buy and sell ads on sites they don't own themselves, similar to Google AdSense.

Warren Lee thinks only 15-20 of the 300-400 ad networks really matter, but the decimation predicted last year has not occurred. Some factors he cites include a growing but fragmented audience for increasing numbers of sites and the economical aspect of online advertising.

I thought this was interesting for bloggers who are always looking for ways to "monetize" their blogs (websites, web pages). That means make some moolah to help defray site costs, at least. And most bloggers start out with Google's AdSense, only to discover they aren't allowed to use any other ad system on a page that displays Google's. Until now.

A couple of weeks ago, Google notified AdSense clients that you will

soon be able to allow multiple ad networks to show on your pages, which means that advertisers from external Google-certified networks will be able to compete with AdWords advertisers for your ad space.

There are a few restrictions, and the email didn't list the "certified networks", but ads from these networks will compete with Google ads to show on sites, and the ad generating the highest revenue for publishers will be displayed, Google says. Since pictures (with audio) speak louder, here's a video on the subject:

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Online Spelling Improves

I see improvement online in grammar and spelling. One of my earliest posts was a rant on bloggers bringing their illiteracy into the Web:

It's my contention that blogs are a form of writing. (It's my intention to exploit this form of writing for fun and profit, if possible.) What I don't ascribe to is the apparent notion by many other bloggers that spelling and punctuation are unimportant in this format. Admittedly, I know of no other blogger who is as antique as I, however, that's no excuse for not even using a spell checking program or feature on entries. I feel certain it would catch "ever" spelled "evar" and the confabulation of "purpose" and "proposing" into "purposing". Why do these people expect to be taken seriously? How do they expect to find employment? Am I seriously out of touch with the real world? (July 15, 2004)

As the flood of blogs gained volume, the quality of writing in them has gradually improved. Even beginners are now cognizant of a necessity to write English more correctly. Twitter may degrade us a bit, forcing compression and tempting us to abbreviate and drop articles (an, a, the), but I feel that the cliché-ridden tide has turned.
Blogging itself has matured into an accepted form of journalism (and advertising, marketing propaganda, disinformation and public relations tools). Last night, participants in a Twitter chat learned that in some Middle East countries, bloggers are more respected sources of information than traditional media. Also, the founder of MideastYouth.com, Esra'a Al Shafei, explained that Western bloggers' opinions influence some ME governments who only care about their images, not necessarily about their citizens' welfare.

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Another Writer Blog Contest

Contests for writers' blogs run rampant across the 'net. Now Maria Schneider has decided to hold one. Nominations due by September 1 at: Editor Unleashed (http://editorunleashed.com/2009/08/11/nominate-your-favorite-writing-blogs/#respond). Rules read:

Please include the following with your nomination:

• The blog hyperlink (writers-edge.info/Blog.html)
• Why it should be included
• Category

The five categories are:

Fiction Writing
Freelance Writing
Creativity
Marketing & Social Media
Publishing Trends

When Maria chose A Writer's Edge for her Project 20/20 (populating her blogroll) she said:

Georganna is perhaps even more obsessive/compulsive than I am in keeping up on publishing industry trends and news, and she shares freely, along with her own writing tips for success.

I guess that would put this blog in the running for the Publishing Trends category, but I like to think it covers all bases, so feel free to choose any of them.

Now, I'm going to pop over and ensure that Lori Widmer's Words on the Page, and Paula Berinstein's The Writing Show get nominated... Later: I did, but the comment did not show up. I hope it is being held for ransom review.

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Week of Contest Nominations

What a week this has been for A Writer's Edge! First, nominated to the 4th Annual Top 10 Blogs for Writers Contest -- more noms (votes) needed. Don't forget to include the URL: http://www.writers-edge.info/Blog.html and a reason--thanksabunch!

Now comes a message from Michelle at The BBAW Awards Committee of the Book Blogger Appreciation Week competition:

Dear Writer's Edge,

I am so thrilled to inform you that you have been nominated for a Book Blogger Appreciation Week Award in the category Best General Review Blog.

This year it takes place September 14-18. If you haven't heard about this contest, that may be because it is fairly new. The site explains:

Book Blogger Appreciation was started by Amy Riley of My Friend Amy in an effort to recognize the hard work and contribution of book bloggers to the promotion and preservation of a literate culture actively engaged in discussing books, authors, and a lifestyle of reading.

The first Book Blogger Appreciation was observed in the fall of 2008 and occurs every September. The week spotlights and celebrates the work of active book bloggers through guest posts, awards, giveaways, and community activities. Book Bloggers are encouraged to register their participation for inclusion in a database of book bloggers.

If anyone practices promotion and preservation of a literate culture actively engaged in discussing books, authors, and a lifestyle of reading that would be me with this blog, reviewing books, and wrangling the Tierrasanta Book Club in real life. Next step: hook it all up with a literacy program encouraging book reading by upcoming generations.

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Top 10 Blogs for Writers Contest

Michael Stelzner has opened nominations for his 4th annual Top 10 Blogs for Writers Contest over at his Writing White Papers blog. When I just looked to see how many people had commented (191), my eye caught on this one from a "Paula B":

Eeek, how can I choose between Michelle Rafter and Georganna Hancock? Okay, this year I'll nominate Georganna's A Writer's Edge at http://www.writers-edge.info/Blog.html. Next year it will be Michelle.

I never get tired of reading Georganna. She always seems to come up with new angles on issues of interest to writers, and she's a hoot besides. Full of personality, but not that awful snarkiness you find so often these days. A truly original thinker.

*screams like a girl* TY, Paula. I know who you are! I've been waiting four years just to be nominated! Now I must run over to see Michelle's obviously excellent production.

Nominating is apparently the same as voting. Stelzner's instructions:

How to Nominate Your Favorite Writing Blog:

1. Reply to this message with your nomination (bottom of list)
2. You have only one vote (only your first will be counted)
3. Please include the web address of the blog (http://www.writers-edge.info/Blog.html)
   
4. Explain why you think the blog is worthy of winning this year’s award?

To make the cut, a blog must be nominated more than once.

Nominations must be received by September 11, 2009.

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Slanting Topics

If the Cheapskate Mom got together with The Ultimate Cheapskate, can you just imagine the frugal children they would have?
I spotted the Mad Boastings of a Cheapskate Mom in the Blogs of Note on my Blogger Dashboard this morning, took a look, and thought about the difference in approach she takes to the same topic from Jeff Yeager's. They both offer information on saving money and the planet. The Mom's is evident in her blog's title and badges and posts with labels "green" and "planet". Jeff has recorded video segments on the cable channel "Planet Green" and made audio appearances on satellite radio programs.

Jeff started with a book, threw up a sadly neglected blog site, and moved right into big media with his publisher's help. He has an upcoming TV program, while Tamara Niewolny hurled herself into the blog scene and utilizes her status as chick/Mom in the New Media.

Jeff likes to persuade you to spend as little money as possible; Tamara teaches how to spend wisely. She reviews products and makes the most of her Internet connection, passing along tips on making money from home. I love her tag line: "Hugging Trees and Taking Names." Both are on Twitter: Tamara and Jeff, whose best tweet IMHO is from July 22: Am I the only one who wants the recession to end so that - most of all - Suze Orman and Jim Kramer will stop yelling at me on the TV?? See his slant toward financial management?

This technique of slanting material is one of the more difficult learning hurdles for new freelancers. It might help to study how different writers carry it out long term and in a broader spectrum than just a few articles. Starting with these two writers would be a good beginning.

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Zemanta Betters Blogs?

Any of you bloggers using Zemanta? According to Blogger Buzz:

Here's how it works: while you write your blog post in Blogger, Zemanta opens up a sidebar next to the Blogger post editor. After you've written a few sentences, Zemanta analyzes the words in your post and suggests images and video that are relevant to your post; with one click, it inserts them into your post.

It is a downloadable plugin, extension or bookmarklet for most browsers and the top blogging softwares either as clientsides or serversides. It can also jazz up your email messages. All with no registration, the site's info page for bloggers says. The section on reblogging interested me:

Your readers love your content - but do they link to your posts? Make it easy for them to quote you with a single click of the ReBlog button. You'll get full attribution and a backlink.

Zemanta recommended tags are SEO optimized, helping you boost your search engine ranking while easily organizing your content.

This helps you get more links, more readers, and boosts your Technorati rank.

And where would we be without the mandatory video:

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Writers,Technology, Web 2.0

Etiquette in this new wired world hit a nerve. Look at all the comments, wouldja, on yesterday's blog post. All that's out of my system, however. This one is about live contacts, in which people practice courtesy. We're moving on to an update on my social/networking life. At the beginning of the month, I listed everything on my social calendar. The month is half over, and most of the events have taken place:

Read The Reader in a few hours
Went to book club to discuss it
Attended both live events last night

Joining Facebook is still facing me, and the writer's guild meets Monday. In the midst of this madness, I'm working almost full time, editing a client's book and producing two newsletters, a news release, daily blog posts and Twittering. Oh, and monkeying around with the front page of A Writer's Edge, hoping to curry favor with Technorati. Then there were the boring appointments with doctors and the dentist--but you know how those things go.

The peak of this whirl was last night (I hope! Anymore and I'll explode.) Spending real life time with still print-oriented editors and then bloggers who can't talk without thumbing their mobile devices was an exercise in cognitive dissonance. Editors were amazed when I described using Web 2.0 for the editing business. One didn't understand how I could tweet without a cell phone. I was astounded at how un-techy most are, even the technical editors. But I made a new friend to help me with a troublesome MS Word document.

Zip down the street to a cafe/bar awash with San Diego bloggers. My Twitter starter, Steve, and I had a nice chat, and I learned he's also an Internet marketer. Ran into a fellow I was in a critique group with several years ago, and we caught up. Met more girl geeks, including one who freelances for the local rag and one who immediately followed me on Twitter. She writes about women entrepreneurs and has two businesses. Need to follow up on that name! Reconnected with another writer from a different writing group to learn of potential markets with a growing local online publication.

Writers and technology. Heaven.

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Blogger Block Tips

Find five tips to fix Blogger's Block in this blog post written by Ted Demopoulos: Blog : Blogger Talk. You all probably know that blank, bleak feeling when you stare at your blog and can't think of a thing to write about. I had it this morning, glancing down my list of saved drafts. They are mostly links; seldom half-written posts. So, I click on a link to remind myself why I thought it would be post-worthy. It turned out to be this one from Blogger Talk, dated but still dependable.

In summary, Demopoulos suggests:

1. Read old posts
2. Read other blogs
3. Blog from a different location
4. Play with Google
5. Just write

And for over 100 tips on successful blogging, download the free ebook Secrets of Successful Blogging by Ted Demopoulos, also author of Blogging for Business and What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting.

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1900 Posts on Writing

1900 posts on writing in the Archives--this log in info greeted me today. Thanks to hypertext, they're mostly all searchable by good engines. A post doesn't need have the label of the search keyword, either. I try to keep up with advances in search technology suitable for use with and on a blog. That's the reason the engine of choice at the top of the posts' column on the blog page changes with annoying frequency. I am not impressed with Bing, and I haven't seen a "personal" version available.

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Monetize Your Blogs

Who wants to make money with a blog? Hands up all around. No matter if you blog just to prime the creative pump, to keep in touch or to market another product--most everyone would like for the blog to at least pay for itself. The simplest goal might be to obtain a return on the time spent posting.

The latest scheme I've heard is Bloggapedia's syndication plan, wherein a blogger would receive 30% of 30% of a minimal amount every time someone downloads A Writer's Edge to a mobile device. Do you want to read blogs on your phone? I'm doubtful, but I could be very wrong and miss the boat with this one.

Other more tested strategies include hosting advertising on your blog site. I prefer outrightly selling ad space over installing AdSense or one of the other pay-per-click scams plans. When you sell straight ad space, you get paid up front and only need to display the advertising as agreed. Get that? YOU GET PAID. First. Period. In God We Trust; All Others Pay Cash.

Nonetheless, if you're intent on taking the easy way, joining blog networks is another option. They make money by distributing advertising across networks of website properties, sharing earnings with site owners, based on the amount of traffic generated. For your blog to qualify, it needs to have a good visitor rate, display fresh specific content and you must keep up the pace of posting. Networks you can explore include:

451Press -- http://www.451press.com/

9rules --http://9rules.com/

B5Media -- http://www.b5media.com/

BeautyBlog Network -- http://www.beautyblognetwork.com/

Curbed Network -- http://curbed.com/advertise/contact.php

Glam Media -- http://www.glam.com/

SBNation -- http://www.sbnation.com/

SkinnyMoose -- http://skinnymoose.com/network/

Weblogs Inc --http://www.weblogsinc.com/

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Blogger's Folly

Before Blogger's Brain, comes Bloggers Folly, the most common cause of writers' deaths in the United States. (Third is Social Overload--same referenced post). Blogger's Folly occurs when bloggers, usually newbies, advise others on a subject with which they have little experience.

One of these incidents happened last week or so. A blogger, who appears never to have been otherwise published, expounded on something related to editing. Another editor commented that the blogger's points are invalid. I entered a comment supporting the other editor, and I added my views and a few suggestions for a more useful technique.

Apparently the blogger moderates comments. Mine has yet to show up. I know the system received it, because when I tried to enter it again, I received an error message that the same material had already been sent.

I asked yet a third writer/editor what she thought of the post, just in case my brain had been on hold when I wrote the comment. (It happens!) My experienced friend said:

What did you say? I think her recommendations are pretty terrible too, but one of the other commenters offered some good objections.

Here's the folly: not taking your lumps. It's O.K. to make a mistake. Being embarrassed and/or angry is natural. It's not acceptable to duck and run. That makes your writing junkjournalism--the worst kind. I would not be surprised to find the post or even the blog soon gone. The next person she does this to may not be so kind as not to out her.

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Writing Valuable Content

"Indispensable" was a feature of the Twitter #editorchat topic recently. I queried "like 'rich content'?" Now I find 6 Steps to Valuable Internet Content by Yann Gourvennec, originally published at BNET UK. I'd call the post indispensable reading for anyone serious about website/blog writing and about monetization of a site. Consider that

"...Marketers are now finally waking up to the idea that pre-formatted communications aren’t the right way to engage with customers...by valuable content? I mean content that brings value to your visitors, which could possibly initiate discussions, questions and comments (I’m talking about articulate comments, not cyber-babble)."

In short, the six "steps" are:

Step 1: Short text is a myth

Step 2: Spice up your text with images, not the other way round

Step 3: Hypertext, hypertext, hypertext

Step 4: Good content shows in the title

Step 5: Keywords mean a lot

Step 6: Writing with a reader in mind

Whether you're a content writer or writing content for your own promotion or marketing use, this article is a condensed learning experience (or a great reminder for some of us). The slide show version is from the article version at the Marketing & Innovation blog, a team effort which includes Yann Gourvennec.

6 steps to valuable Internet content

View more OpenOffice presentations from Yann Gourvennec.

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Housekeeping @ A Writer's Edge

If you've noticed problems with the RSS delivery of this blog in the last week, it was a combo of me changing the template and rearranging posts, as well as some Blogger problem that is supposedly now fixed, FeedBlitz announced. Online viewers, notice the difference? O.K., but the page should be easier to read, less cluttered, and provide for slightly longer posts.

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Making Rounds, Social Overload

"Making the rounds" holds various connotations, depending on whether you're a doctor, drunk, boxer, reporter, or intrepid onliner. I made up that last one because I can't think what to call that burgeoning aspect of my life. Virtual life has become real life for many of us.

When I worked for a large health care organization, I qualified to attend "Grand Rounds." I had visions of trailing along with interns through hospital wards. Instead, I sat through a presentation about the growing threat of tuberculosis. First and last Grand Rounds.

As a news reporter, making the rounds meant that early in the morning I visited city hall, the police station, the county offices, and the high sheriff to pick up news releases, copy information from any public documents filed or business conducted since the previous morning, and collect tips from informants. Fortunately funeral homes phoned in obituaries, and medical information was private, so those stops were omitted. Then I went to work.

Now I hit my email, blog, Twitter, and accounts at MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog. Each usually involves further actions that glue me to my desk chair, sometimes for hours. Twitter, especially, has tipped making rounds into Web 2.0verload. Am I too, too polite for acknowledging each person who signs up to "follow"? I must look at their information anyway to see if it is someone I want to follow (no, that's is not automatic with me--another social media faux pas?)

Likewise, I try to acknowledge every type of contact that someone makes with my accounts at MBL and BC. Sometimes I trip over myself, posting in haste only to find I have already acknowledged a contact because it appears in the list of visitors to the blog AND I receive an email from the services or find new faces in my accounts as members joining my groups. With one of these hitting 400 members, is it any wonder that I forget now and then? How do the "biggies" manage thousands of followers and daily contacts?

We have a new disease, Social Overload, to add to Blogger's Brain. BB occurs when you post so much that your mind is always in posting mode, moderating all sensory input into a media message. Where's that wireless brain-to-Twitter link? Oh, right! They haven't developed one for blogs either! C'mon technology, I'm way ahead of you this time.

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Huffpo Wants You to Pay

"Jumpstart Your Career in the Blogsphere With An Eye Opening Internship at The Huffington Post in New York or Washington"

After promoting Writers Worth Day yesterday, I couldn't resist a sadly amusing follow-up about the rich blogger wannabee who has bid $13,000 for an internship at the Huffington Post. I'm not kidding! The digipub, according to Nat Ives at the Silicon Alley:

features tons of content generated free by bloggers and celebrities just happy to have a platform. HuffPo did recently start a fund to employ some laid-off investigative reporters, but the company thrives primarily on "citizen" journalism and news that other outlets spend money reporting.

In a cogent comment at Bloggasm, Simon Owens opined:

I know that this is for a charity and so I’m perhaps being too cynical, but given that Huffington Post has raised over $25 million in seed money so that it can continue to profit off the work of thousands of unpaid “citizen journalists,” you would think they could afford to just write a check for the damn $13,000.

Interested in paying to be a writer? You have until May 28, 2009 at 1:16:00 PM EDT to place your bid. If you do -- SUX 2 B U!

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Visionary Blogging--Tweet!

If you're serious about blogging for yourself or a business, dip into Visionary Blogging by Easton Ellsworth. Of course the first post that caught my eye was 50 Ways to Mix Your Blog and Twitter--something I should have read before I started tweeting all possible newbie mistakes.

Sure Twitter, like blogging, can be just for fun, social activities, and I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. Men like to play games with/on computers. Women like to connect, communicate. Surprise--men like to communicate, too, when they discover that aspect of techiness.

I'm seeing comments about how stupid or useless or time-sucking Twitter is. Others complain about stupid tweets--just as I say about blogging, if that is your reaction you are following the wrong people or blogs. For those of us who want to use new social media for business or education purposes, we can't offer incoherent messages. I look forward to learning all I can from people like Ellsworth and applying it to my offerings.

If you're on Twitter and want to see someone who is a Queen of terse, sane, useful tweets, go @AnnCurry. She is prolific, but I don't want to miss even one of hers! Seeing mine on this blog page will have to wait for the anniversary design update, coming June 1. In the meantime, you can subscribe to my Twitter Feed.

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Bloggers Unite For Hunger And Hope

From Unite For Hunger And Hope // Bloggers Unite:

• Right now, more than 500 million people are living in 'absolute poverty' and more than 15 million children die of hunger every year.

• World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the population is underfed and another third is starving.

• Even in the United States, 46 percent of African-American children and 49 percent of Latino children are considered chronically hungry.

A true story from Heifer International:

In a 'passing on the gift' ceremony of Heifer International, a basket of rabbits was being passed on between two women. Both were in tears as the empty basket of one was being filled and the other was being emptied. As the two women continued, the one giving the gift shared through her tears that she felt wonderful because it was the first time she had enough to share. The recipient was holding her chest, patting it slowly.

When asked why she said, “I understood I was to receive these animals and as I went through the training Heifer gave, I understood what it would mean to me and my family, but now my heart is full. This is what hope feels like.”

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Foiled by Technology

I need to create a read feed for those who like listening to A Writer's Edge. The "Listen to this article" link doesn't display in the feeds (there are three flavors from this blog). I said it is an experiment! This is beta testing third-party technology. Incidentally, you should be able to create an audio version of any RSS or Atom feed at Talkr.com, and if you need to brush up on RSS, take a look at Kikolani.

This morning's mail brought the following message, which I felt I should pass along:

Hello georganna,

Unite For Hunger And Hope is tomorrow, have you written your blog post yet?

Unite For Hunger And Hope
Wednesday, April 29th 2009

All you have to do to help end world hunger is to join thousands of others bloggers on April 29 and write a post about world hunger.

To view more information about the event, follow this link:
http://www.bloggersunite.org/event/unite-for-hunger-and-hope

Thanks,
The Bloggers Unite Team

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Listen to A Writer's Edge

Want to listen to this post? Instead of reading these messages, you can hear a digitally-generated voice read them aloud. The voice sounds chillingly like the way I do to myself when I talk. Well, maybe she pronounces some words a little strangely. For example, I had to take my first name out of the RSS feed, because even I couldn't recognize it.

I'm experimenting with this new service, provided by Talkr.com--let me know what you think. The link for listening is located at the end, between the post's labels and the bookmark widget. I put it to the right, trying to balance the appearance. Who knows what it will look like in the feeds!

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I am up to

my knees in tweeps! Not twerps nor cheeps. Tweeps is Twitter-talk for people who follow you. I love it. I feel so ... wanted! And true to trying to model what I teach, I respond to each new follower with a "thank you" DM (Twitter-talk for Direct Message). The service is a little glitchy, though, and messages sometimes wander into the hinterlands of cyberspace, never to be seen by the intended recipient. And the sender doesn't know, either!

Heads up! Only three days until Bloggers Unite to write about Hunger and Hope. There is still time to join and blog on Wednesday about ending world hunger--missions and messages of hope. This is not to be confused (as I did) with Blog Action Day, which takes place on October 15. I found a thread on Twitter about it. This reminds me, as a perk for participating last year, I received a copy of CAUSEWIRED, a fascinating chronicle of the rise of social networking for causes. It is so rich, that I am creeping through it slowly, trying to absorb every bit and byte before reviewing it.

And in between all this chatter and matter, I sandwiched an interview for Shawn Hessinger the Post Ranger who asked me about writing for the Web and especially blogging. See what I had to say at PostRanger.com and leave a comment there, please, so it looks like I have some cyberfriends other than my tweeps.

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50 Blogs for Writers

You might want to check out the links in 50 Useful Blogs for Writers at The Word Blog by Randy Ray, a horror bookstore owner. They are divided into writing tips, word of the day, and grammar blogs. Some of them aren't really blogs, rather article collections.

This list has been bookmarked and cited all over the web. It misses A Writer's Edge, of course, but you're already here, and that's all that matters!

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Hot Chick Writer

Occasionally a Google Alert on this blog's name turns up an exciting link. I was mildly flattered when I saw these words: Hot Chick Writer Writes! » Blog Archive » A Writer’s Edge. Moi? I thought. A Haute Chic? Then I clicked on the link to read, "We’ve all seen them–books with a woman in sexy lingerie and a lascivious title on the cover."

Admittedly, I was a little nervous at this point, but the blogger (who must be the 'hot chick' referred to in the title) continued with, "How do these writers shoot their books to success? They have a writer’s edge! This blog is useful for any writer," and so on, in a flattering and literate manner.

Then I looked for a link to this site. There is none. The post title is an internal link. The "sexy lingerie" links to a lingerie site that would fulfill any voyeur's fondest fantasies, I'm sure. I have mixed feelings, to say the least.

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Nice Networking Opportunities

I almost didn't attend the SD Bloggers Meetup last night at the Sophia Hotel in the heart of downtown San Diego. Why? Several reasons:

driving at night
possibility of rain
expensive to park
getting dressed up
too much input

So before deciding, I reviewed Carol Ross' Nine Biggest Mistakes When Networking. She had me at #1. "Networking is a continuous effort, in good times and bad."

I'd only been to one of these bimonthly meetups. So I dressed up and went; made super contacts; had a fabulous fun time, two and a half free drinks, and yummy noms; won a metal travel mug from Voice of San Diego; reconnected with people I'd met in February and met quite a few new ones (like the bunch from NBC, the WordPress Boot Camp guy from L.A., perky Peggy); thanked Steve Eisenberg for his recent LinkedIn connect and heeded his urging to "just jump in" to Twitter; and found a nice little place to hold an Absinthe Party (Currants in the Sophia Hotel stocks several brands). Whew! Oh, and all it cost me was a little gas and $5 for three hours of valet parking.

Note: I'm not really a social person. For those writers who say the same and just stay home hiding in the corner of the closet--force yourself to get out and about and mingle with your peers (and betters). You never know what opportunities are going to present themselves, and if you don't play in that traffic, good luck will never strike you, no matter how well-prepared you are.

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Ethics in Media

Two newspaper articles trigger questions of contemporary ethics. One explores how the Gates Foundation attempts to influence the public by paying to embed social messages in entertainment, e.g., stay in school, prevent AIDS. The other concerns unauthorized use of Associated Press stories on websites (including blogs).

What's the difference between taking money to include material from someone else in your production and taking someone else's material without paying for it to include it in your production?

As the LOLcat would say, "Ethical or nawt?"

No matter how politically correct or socially magnanimous, I resent deliberate attempts to influence my attitudes and actions in advertising-supported entertainments. It's like the rants some stars indulge in when accepting major awards. Perhaps I'm super-sensitive to the efforts because of my mind's analytical bent. Maybe most others don't even notice. Do you? Do you resent/appreciate the efforts?

I must admit to having used (and credited) snippets of AP material occasionally. I could never find an AP website with the stories, but I did notice the AP's copyright/licensing legalese. I didn't realize, however, that when I quoted part of an AP story and cited a newspaper's site, that the site may have been using it without paying, especially if the source was a search engine feed or other news aggregator. I felt uncomfortable in the past. Now I feel bad. How do you feel about this situation?

Musing about these ethical dilemmas, I realize that the points would be moot if everyone were creative enough to deliver original content. It would also cut down the noise.

Source: New York Times News Service via The San Diego Union-Tribune

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Casual Friday Jitters

It's casual Friday and I'm too rattled to write intelligently, I fear. Not that it ever prevented me from spouting off in the past. Why am I all shook up? Several reasons:

* first Inspiration message just went out
* someone said this webpage has "too many icons"
* partly into 2666 I'm liking it (895 pp.)
* 2666 is due back to the library Monday
* invite to 376 MyBlogLog Fans to sign up for Inspiration left out the fact that it is #FREE#

This is how I calm myself (in addition to avoiding Starbucks and caffeine today):

^ newsletters seldom receive positive feedback
^ continue plans to add more space to the page
^ relax and enjoy the book I thought I'd hate
^ see if the library will renew the lending period
^ sigh!

Sorry, today that's all I got.

Oh, incidentally, I spotted an error in 2666 on p. 305. Describing the landscape of northern Mexico, near the border with Arizona, it reads "Past the hills, he guessed, was the dessert."

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VerveEarth for Writers

When Clayton Brown, CEO of VerveEarth contacted me about his new service for bloggers, which plots the content of the internet on an interactive map of the world, I asked him what's in it for writers?

VerveEarth is an entirely new way to surf the net. It shows spatial and geographic connections that a blog search engine could never reveal. He also told me:

VerveEarth provides a gateway to find bloggers around the world, and for writers to get noticed. On VerveEarth, a blogger in Fiji has just as much chance of getting noticed as a blogger in New York. The search interface we provide breaks down a lot of the barriers on the internet that make it tough for a lot of writers to get noticed. You can also find some really interesting and inspiring material as you cruise around the globe checking out blogs.

So there it is, straight from the mouth of the prez himself: get noticed and get inspired. Once the feeds from here were working again, VerveEarth allowed me to register. Looks like an interesting addition to the Web 2.0 world. See my widgetal thingie that I haven't yet figured out how to put into this blog (or any other place, for that matter).

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Plink a Post?

From the Buzz Blog:

The fact that there are tens of thousands of results for "blogger's block" suggests that more than a few of you have struggled to think of what to say on your blog at one time or another. If that sounds like you, you might want to take a look at Plinky.

Every day we provide a prompt (i.e. a question or challenge) and you answer. We make it simple to add rich media and share your answers on Facebook, Twitter and blogs.

Depending on the prompt, answers contain rich media elements like maps, photos, lists and cover art for books, movies and albums. It's easy to tell Plinky that you use Blogger and all your answers posted through Plinky can go right to your blog....

What's next? Widgets that deliver ready-made blog posts directly into your blog? Oh, wait. That was invented several years ago, producing thousands (millions?) of the most uninteresting content sites in cyberspace!

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Blogger Blogging Tips

Blogger lacks underline and strikethrough features, at least in the antiquated version that I use. So how did I accomplish doing just that? In a moment. Strikethrough is written as one word. In typography, it's also called strikeout and underline, underscore. In blogging, strikeouts express a first thought or a notion or emotion you want to reveal on the sly. Use in moderation, like adverbs.

To accomplish such typographical feats, you must be able to handle HTML code, but this isn't difficult. If you only write posts in the Compose mode, click on Blogger's "Edit Html" tab to see the code that creates links and special effects in the text.

I can't remember how to display the source code within the post, but to accomplish an underline, surround the text with "u" tags and for strikethrough, the tags are "s". HTML tags are special codes enclosed by <> to open and the same with a forward slash (/) to end. Learn more at Wikipedia Strikethrough. It has links to good pages on typography and HTML coding.

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Web 2.0 as Weapon

Every once in a while I carp about having posts scraped from my RSS feed and showing up on other's blogs with no links or permission, complete with copyright symbol. I usually send the violators an invoice from PayPal. (Most recent is a guy in China--slim chance there of getting paid!) See Fighting Against Blog Scrapers for more prevention and remedy possibilities. F'rinstance, I had not thought of "social sabotage" as a way of fighting back. Hmm. Yet another reason to sign up with Facebook and Twitter, especially. Web 2.0 as weapon.

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We Has Changes

Cheezburgers! We has 'em! (Like LOLcats)
Changes! We has 'em too, but you need to look at the blog's home page to see anything. You'll note, I hope, all the additions to the Reciprocity list down in the right column. Soon as I finished scouring the Web for new links and reconstructing this template to accommodate them, four more popped up. Why? The additions will be:

Antje's Notes
Blue Mango Books
Momentum of the Muse
The Night Country

Or am I so addled that I'm beginning to duplicate entries?

A new search engine graces the top of the same column. This one is supplied by BlogCatalog. It allows topic searches of this blog and displays them in a BlogCatalog window, along with a tab that gives the option of performing the same search in my social networks. Be sure to open it in a new window or tab, so you don't lose the connection with A Writer's Edge, just in case I forget to go back and adjust the script.

I found a semi-permanent setting for the Blogger's Choice Award badge at the top of the left column, by adding a text link for LinkedIn at the end of the menu beside my mug, completely removing the badge:
What else? Following up on Lori Tiron-Pandit's complaint the other day in the post on Blog Bloat about difficulty going back in the current posts because Blogger uses an Archives system, I moved 'em down to the bottom of the column...closer to where you'll be if you read posts to the end of the page and want to go farther back in time.

But more change plans are in the works. As I bounced around the net last night, I spotted a greatly reduced Archives feature: reduce them to a drop down menu/form. Of course I can't remember where I saw it, nor did I study the underlying code, but hey! How hard can it be? *she asked naively*

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Blog Bloat

Here it comes again, like when I forget to take lactase before drinking milk. BLOAT is overtaking the main page of this blog. Like Miss Marple's Nurse said in Murder by Death, "I can't help it. I'm old!"

The longer I blog, the farther the Archives list extends. There must be some alternative to omitting it entirely. Omitting it partially? (A very little joke on myself there. Avoid adverbs.)

I realized this problem, creeping up like the rising tide, as I pondered where to put the latest bling, the badge for the Blogger's Choice Award nomination. Don't worry, I'm not going to mention it every day. Would once a week be too much? Monthly? Should I check the stats daily? Am I obsessed? No, overjoyed!

Seriously, if I try to follow the advice I give others about a web page not forcing readers to scroll down more than two screens, I wouldn't be able to fit in all the Reciprocity listings, let alone everything else I want. Too much blog bling? How do you feel about blog pages that just go on and on?

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Vote for A Writer's Edge

Isn't this just the cutest little thing?

You can actually read the words if you visit the page. Many thanks to the fabulous Lori Widmer (who I do not even know) of Words on the Page (from which I'm learning lots) for nominating A Writer's Edge for a Blogger's Choice Award. She selected the category of Business Blogs, thereby saving me the embarrassment of nominating my own blog as Best Blog Evar!

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Best Blogs Awards Again

Best Blogs is once again hosting the fabulous Blogger's Choice Awards in a variety of categories, none of which A Writer's Edge fits into, unless you count "Best Blog Design" or "Best Blog of All Time" (I doubt).

They greet us with:

Welcome to the Blogger's Choice Awards, the most popular user-generated blog voting site on the planet! We are now accepting nominations for the 2009 competition. Sign up and vote for your favorite (and least favorite) blogs to help determine the winners for next year.

Take a look and tell me what you think. Last year's winners are available. It's a long scroll. And if you feel so inclined as to nominate A Writer's Edge, please let me know that you did and in which category. Send that info to writers.edge[AT]gmail.com and you will win a bribe prize!

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