Why you shouldn’t read blogs?

The correct headline should be: why you should not read too many blogs. And the answer is because reading too many blogs takes time which else could have been devoted to taking action. Reading too many blogs would paralyze you. There are so many blogs out there, each one of them presenting different point of view, calls to different part of your mind. How can you respond to all?

How many should you read?

As many as you can in maximum two hours of time. I know I have been very liberal in allotting time to blog reading and I should have only asked for one hour. But we need to go slow when persuading people to change habit, or else our effort will not bear desirable result.

In the beginning, you should read and understand fully as many blogs as you can in 1-2 hours every day. Not a single minute extra should be wasted on this activity. But over time, you should reduce this time spent on blogging to 45-30 minutes.

What should you do in spare time then?

You should read books, industry journal, watch documentary, do research, or talk to people. In short, you should engage yourself in activities that give you more benefit. It is more about ROI on time invested. Some good blogs, like this one, do give you higher ROI on your time, but surfing through low-quality blogs take away from the overall benefit you get from reading a blog post.

Reading blog can be advantageous, and it often is, but indulging too much into it will reduce your productivity. So be judicious in your time allocation.

So what is the bottom line?

The bottom line is this: you must read various blogs, but your reading should not be limited to blog reading only. You should read from other sources as well. The varied your sources will be, the richer your experience will be.

Time management tips for freelance writers

Tip 1: Fix schedule for each client

The very first thing a freelance writer can do to manage time is to set a schedule, client-wise. Let’s say you have three full time clients and one or two one-time clients. Fix one proper time for each permanent client and keep one-time projects floating in between them. For instance, you can work from nine to eleven on Client A and then from one to three on Client B and from four to six on Client C, and keep the other one-time projects floating in between them depending upon when you get time. Do not follow my two-hours to one client timing. You can vary the duration of work according to the amount of work given to you.

Tip 2: Make a weekly list of articles to write

If you have a permanent client who needs so many articles each week then you should take one day out, probably Saturday, to make a list of articles’ titles that you should write in the coming week. This will save you a lot of time cracking an article idea at the time of writing.

Tip 3: Use Word 2007 for blogging

I am writing this post using blog feature of Word 2007. This is very handy. You can use it to write and publish blog posts. All you need to do is add accounts using XMLRPC link to the client’s blog. IF you do not have word 2007 then you can also consider using other offline blog editors. It will save a significant amount of time.

Tip 4: Install Clutter Cloak

On computer, it is quite easy to get distracted, and it is equally easy to save yourself from distraction while writing. You can save a lot of time by installing clutter cloak or any other similar application on your computer.

There are many more things that you can do to save yourself the horror of missed deadlines. Stick to these and see the improved performance.

Become a Blogger

Blogging is to writing novel what net practice is for a FIFA World Cup. In both the cases, you practice, practice and practice to fine tune your skills, and you do it daily.

Use self-imposed word limit

Do not become verbose. Gone are the days when people had ample time to spend idly, and hence they loved long, very long fictions. Now the time has changed, and even if it had not, a well-written work is never verbose. Put a strict word limit and follow it.

Let the criticism help you grow

Critics are your worst enemy, and like any enemy a critic will find the weakest spot in your defense, in this case writing, and will attack you there. What to do to stop them from attacking you? Remove the weakest spot, and for that you have to listen to critics to know your weaknesses.

Read, re-read, and re-read your works and fix the problems that you find.

You are not required to read all your works, if you write profusely. Just pick a piece or two every week and do as instructed.

Your friend and relative is your best reader

No one outside your close circle will like to read your work until you are Sir Salman Rushdie- I suspect, no one even in your close circle will like to read until they are forced to- hence they will need a little pushing before they agree to read what you write. Ask for their honest feedback as it will make you a better writer.

In the next blog post, I will show you 5 more ways to improve your writing.

Know that writing an article will give you an opportunity to showcase your expertise in your chosen industry.  This will allow you to gain recognition from sources that you otherwise may have been unavailable to, and it’s a fantastic way to get your name out there.  But make sure you know your stuff, because writing an article will also expose any lacking knowledge that you just don’t have.  Nothing looks worse than when you’re supposed to be writing an informative article when you’re not an expert in the points you’re trying to get across.

So first choose a concept that you want to focus on for an article.  Just one, so that you’ll find it easy to stay on topic and not get away from the point of the piece.  Then focus on writing an informative article, in your unique voice, displaying your unique expertise.  Remember that you have something worthwhile to say, that’s why you’re writing in the first place.  Carry through that confidence into your words and formulate something you would want to read.

From there, just use the typical writing guidelines to improve your article.  In editing ensure that all of your sentences are concise and make a good point.  Make sure you stay on topic, and make sure your article isn’t too long.  You want people to be able to take something from what you’ve written.  The only way to do that is to edit your piece successfully so that the end product is a concise informative article.

In short, a brilliant way to showcase your talents, and create interest in the unique services you can provide.  And in fact, a successful blog can even get contractors to approach you for consultations or even jobs.  But how do you get to that stage, where your blog can be found among the helpless rabble of a million pointless blog entries on the entirety of the internet’s blogosphere?

First off, your professional personal blog needs one thing more importantly than anything else, to be taken absolutely seriously.  This is a facet of your job, a way to sell yourself, and nothing will turn off a potential buyer like wasting blog space on your latest theory as to what’s going to happen in the final episode of Lost.  You want to stick to work related topics, and something that demonstrates your talents, and experience, or for lack of experience, then the educational experiences that make you a worthy professional.

And don’t forget, as with any blog, you don’t want to sound stiff or boring.  You want to take an appropriately humorous tone to educate as well as titillate.  This isn’t a resume, just your writings about the industry and your experiences therein.

Which brings me to another glaring error a ton of people make.  Never bash colleagues or companies you’ve worked with, as that also is a great way to make yourself undesirable as a worker.

Also, take advantage of putting yourself out into the Blogosphere by making contact with other bloggers in your niche.  Network yourself, read other blogs, learn from them to develop your unique blogging voice, and in turn see if you can exchange links by linking back to their site.  Linking is probably still the best way to grow you blog’s audience, and remains one of the most important aspects of building a successful site.

Follow those pointers and you’ll be off to a rollicking start by making yourself look like an excellent future employee to any hiring company surfing the net.  And they do that a lot more often than you’d think.

At present, ecommerce expands steadily as more consumers discover the convenience and perks of shopping online. Consumers can attest to obtaining more savings through discounts and coupons versus the traditional purchases in stores and shopping malls. More than the convenience and the savings, there are ultimately more products available at the click of your mouse. This growth goes hand-in-hand with more opportunities to make money through advertising and marketing. Following are ways that people can take advantage of online opportunities:

Affiliate Marketing – Success stories of those endowed with marketing prowess proliferate in the web by serving as affiliates of major websites offering products and services online. Some set up their own website, blogs (online journals), or online magazines and advertise products and services. Income can either be a monthly fee or commission-based, or a combination of both.
Blog Advertising – Those who have the gift of writing set-up online journals and get paid for articles that advertise products or services. Payment is made per article with fees that vary depending on the popularity of the blog. The more viewers and readers that your blog has, the higher you can charge for each article. Famous blogs charge as high as $500 per article and are known to earn thousands per month on advertising.

Job Opportunities – There are websites that bring together part-time or fulltime job seekers and contractors who need jobs to be done. Payment can either be fixed or on per hour basis for computer programmers, web designers, graphic artists, writers, and many more.

Other than collateral business that ecommerce brings, some also make money online via foreign exchange trading or stock and options trading. Of course, these are high risk opportunities and suited for those who have experience in the finance industry. More than opportunities, they can also be classified as high risk investments. Just as many have flourished, many have likewise perished.

However, let us provide a word of caution to those who will dare to venture the internet in the hopes of increasing their earnings. Similar to any growing industry, it is also a place where thieves and scammers operate to steal the hard-earned money of honest consumers. Whether you are investing or taking on a job, do your homework and learn as much as you can about the risks involved. Get feedback from those who have entered the same venture or ensure that the reputation of those you do business with is flawless. Learn about internet security and identity theft. Discover the scams that have already been made. With the limitless information the internet offers, data and even advice from the wise will not be difficult to find.

WYSIWYG view

WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) view allows knowing exactly how a blog post will look like before actually publishing it. This saves a lot of time spend in republishing the articles again and again after modifications.

Customizable API

Windows live Writer provides a customizable SDK (software development kit) that allows developers to have additional content types thereby extending the functionalities of the software. E.g.: Product thumbnails, tags, embedded videos etc.

Photo Sharing

Windows Live Writer allows uploading photos, customizing and publishing an easier task. You can modify the size, borders; perform text wrapping and many other things. It publishes all the stuff automatically when you post.

Embedding video clips

Easiest way of embedding videos is provided by Windows Live Writer. The code needs to be copied straight away and it is recognized in a flash.

Map Publishing

It is a special feature for traveling blogs and sites that allows publishing maps in your posts and can also customize them to provide different views.

Screenshot images

If need arises to insert screenshots into the blog, Windows live writer lets you do it without using any third party tool. You can just Print Screen and paste it in writer and use it.

Wider platform support

Writer supports almost all the blogging services like Live Journal, Word Press, blogger, Type Pad etc. and the endeavor is to support all and sundry.

Live Writer Backup

Live Writer Backup utility allows carrying settings of writer if you are continuously changing your workstations.

Dictionary

Most of the times, you come across common words like blogger, phishing etc, which are not recognized by editors, you use. Windows Live Writer overcomes that obstacle and saves time on editing.

Dynamic Templates

For more tech savvy people, dynamic templates allow to do variety of experiments with Windows Live Writer like user data input, adding date instantaneously.

Auto linking

Windows live Writer provides the feature of auto linking for those who usually link web pages to their posts. So when you type in a familiar word, it automatically links to the appropriate web page.

This tool is currently available in 6 different languages and is going strong. Windows Live Writer makes the entire experience of blogging far more easy, powerful and intuitive. It is such an easy application that even a novice can make use of it and take the benefits. That’s why they say, “The best things in life are for free” and so is Windows Live Writer. Go ahead and download it now and start writing your own stories online.