Your Own Writing Site - The Next Step on Your Travels To Success

Writers need websites to get to the next level. I started for free and you can too but when you're ready to take your writing career up a notch, you need your own website. If you're on the fence about it and worried about taking the plunge for technical reasons or for financial reasons, this post is being written to talk you into starting your own website. Trust me, you will not regret it!

Yes, the link below has my affiliate button for Host Gator. Host Gator costs me $10 a month through Paypal. I pay quarterly. The Baby Croc plan was recommended to me by a fellow writer and I'm so glad I took the plunge. I now have 7 different sites hosted on it. I can add unlimited sites to it provided I stay within bandwidth limitations and I am having no issues whatsoever with my 7 websites, eight blogs and two forums. I've had to stifle my URL buying not because of my hosting service but becuase I'm running out of time in terms of having enough time to build and maintain all the sites I have ideas for. Not only has Host Gator given me a professional services website for my freelance writing business but it's helped me do more than dabble with affiliate / internet marketing too.


This is what those sites are doing for me:

I have DanaPrinceWriting.com. This is my main site on the hostgator account. I now have a professional services website. I used to point potential clients to blogs and my free google page and e-zine articles but now I have a place to show them my work. I also host a customer focused blog on this site for no extra charge that helps me get search engine traffic for specialties. I have had this site running for just a few months, have a high page rank and am getting clients from it that are finding me.

Let Clients Find You

One of the best benefits of having a client find you is that a) you quote your rates and they are already interested in you and b) you can set up a payment page or list your terms for up front deposits which helps sift out non-payers from the start.

I've also added a not yet active forum in case my team grows large enough that I need a secure and private place to communicate with them and this site has the potential for being very interactive and useful with other tools I've not even activated yet.

Affiliate Marketing income. I've joined Pepperjam, Clickbank and Commission Junction and am now making money in affiliate marketing. Each of my domains has cost me less than $10 (except for 1 that's a .ca so was $15). I can host all my sites from one panel and it's very easy. I am getting a lot of value for my $10 a month and I'm getting tools to track my keywords and analyze my traffic and SEO practices as well.

Bonuses of Host Gator - You Don't Need to be Technical

I'm not technical and I don't need to be. Host Gator answers all my questions, no matter how silly and a few times when I've messed things up, they have quickly fixed it for me for free.

Main accounts can use a site building tool with many template options and you can also add Wordpress to your site as well as create an e-store with open source OSCommerce tools.

As a writer, I operated for over 1.5 years without my website. I've done a pretty good job of getting my career going with no investment but as I mentioned in the past, there comes a time when you need to invest a little in order to take your writing career to the next level and for a $35 start up fee because I found a coupon code, I got a domain name and three months of hosting. I also know my investments in my website are tax deductible. If you're planning to get started this month, the june hostgator coupon code is BEACH which will save you 20% off.

Favourite Writer Tools by Google

Writers love tools like pens and thesauruses and this writer loves online tools to help me. I'm a Googler. I love Google and many things about it. Here are a few Google tools you might or might not be using to help in your writing.

Google Alerts
I love this tool. Go to google.com/alerts and create alerts for your name and for other things you are interested in that are in Cyberspace. Google will e-mail you when something new comes up. This can help you see where you're being talked about, help you understand what is getting indexed under your name and see if someone is posting your article directory work. You can also use it to watch for information on any subject such as a writing project you are working on. One of my team members manages blogs for a client of mine about news in a particular niche so she gets alerts to deliver the news to her inbox. Great time saver! I am helping another client with SEO and am getting alerts on his website so I can see what's working well. It's a great tool for many purposes and very easy to use.

Google Calendar
You can use Google calendars to help you manage your time. Many uses for this tool can benefit you including booking appointments months out, managing deadlines and reminding yourself to touch base with old clients to see if new business is available and more.

More Advanced Google Searches
If you want to search other countries, you can do this. You can also search for news specifically as well. Learn to do boolean search, learn to search Google in different countries (such as Google.co.uk for UK searches, Google.co.uk/news for UK news searches) and use the tilde operator (Googlesearchterm~)to get synonyms and help yourself with Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI).

Google Page Creator
If you don't have a website yet (or even if you do) Google Pages are a great way to create an online resume. Google indexes them well and they're easy to put up and look professional. Here's my GooglePage. It still indexes ahead of my business website for my name even though my business website is doing well in the search engines.

Gmail / Google Mail
I read several e-mail address accounts from Gmail. This way I don't have to open up seven seperate e-mail accounts to keep track of e-mail. It's got unlimited storage so is a great way to back up my work. I don't have to delete anything and I can put labels on things before I archive them in order to find them quickly later on. Gmail is a great tool.

Google Docs
You can share documents and collaborate with others online with Google Docs. This can be helpful when working with clients or with teams in the writing business.

Web History
If you have a Google account you can track your web history. This means you can go back ages and pull up old research information and see where you've been. It'll log everything on your browser if you set it to do that so it's very helpful.

Google Reader
Google Reader lets you keep on top of industry news and all kinds of online subscriptions in one place. It's a great organizational tool.

Google Adsense
Google Adsense is accessible from your Google account to track earnings if you subscribe to Adsense. This is great for pro bloggers or those who dabble in internet marketing.

Google Talk
If your clients or colleagues are on Gmail as well, you can have an IM chat directly in your e-mail. It's not as robust as other instant messaging applications but it's helpful because it's in your e-mail and it archives all conversations so can be helpful, especially with clients.

Google Trends
This tool lets you run reports on internet search trends to help you with SEO or help you come up with article writing ideas.

I'm sure this isn't a complete list of writing tools by Google but these are a few that either help me or that have been recommended to me. Which Google tools are most helpful to you as a writer?

Free Writing Newsletter, Writing Lab News

This is just a quick blog post this weekend to plug my friend and mentor Sharon's free writer's newsletter. I've done some guest articles for her in the past and been a subscriber since almost the beginning and just wanted to say that if you want to be fed some great writer tips directly to your inbox on a monthly basis, Sharon's newsletter offers a great mix of articles and tips on freelance writing success. Sometimes she tells you how to overcome an obstacle, other times she prints interesting articles she's found and she often addresses issues that face freelance writers and those who want to break into the business need to know.


Visit www.getpaidtowriteonline.com and sign up from the main page.

Last month's issue #21 included the following:
-Keeping Fresh as a Freelance Writer
-Three Ways To Improve Your Time Management
-Five Ways To Kill Your Blog
-Who Owns My Writing?
-Ghostwriting Ethics: Do You Have Any?
-Diary Of A Working Writer December 2007

Sign up & you won't regret it!

Dress Your Blog For Success

If you blog as a writer, you know your blog can be a great tool for getting your writing out there. Many writers are full-time or part-time bloggers.I blog professionally for several clients but it makes up less than 25% of my work so I consider myself a p/t blogger. I also earn successfully with Google Adsense, which I know many new bloggers do not. I've heard many vent and say they haven't hit payout and joined two years ago or that they got turfed from the program for click fraud. To earn money at Adsense you have to really do some homework about effective blogging and be very cautious about how you manage your blog. It's not too difficult, though. I know many bloggers who earn regularly through this program. I know bloggers who earn a full time living blogging thorugh multiple income sources and I, myself have earned a few thousand dollars in the last 18 months across several blogs.

Here are some tips for a successful blog.

-Make it look nice. Play with colours and graphics and make it look appealing so people will be drawn to stop and look if they land there.
-Diversify your income. Beyond Google Adsense ads, add some affiliate marketing banners or referrals too.
-Add a blog roll. Share some love with fellow writers and they will probably do the same. You can also add your other sites to your blog roll.
-Widgets! I love widgets. They're neat and can be unique and dress up my blog. I have some that are functional and others that just dress up the site.
-Regular content. If you only update it once a month, you'll be lucky if you get a few readers. Update regularly to ensure people come back because they know they'll find something new
-Don't overdo it on the paid posts. I have a blog or two that I have plenty of paid posts on but consider the paid posting my main income for them. I don't fill all my blogs with these as too much can hurt your readership. People don't want to come 'just' for ads. I try to respect my niche on most of my blogs as much as possible.
-That brings me to the 'find a niche' advice. The only way you can develop a following and subscribers will add up is to find a category for your blog so people can find you.
-Tag, Ping and social bookmark. Spend some time doing these things and your readership will rise and your CTR % will too!
-Plug your blog! Put your blog url in your signature line for forums and for when you comment on other people's blogs. This will help more people find you.
-Read and comment on other blogs in your category. This can bring you links and more readers.
-Blog Catalog and MyBlogLog. I use both of these and they are an excellent marketing tool. I think I'll blog about them later this week.
-Polls, pictures, scrolls, banners...you can find many online for free or small fee that can help dress up your blog too.

I also came across a great blog with helpful information. Give your blog a Blog Checkup on a regular basis.

Another good idea is to read John Chow and Darren Rowse regularly for advice.

Spend a few minutes every day or an hour every week promoting your blog and in no time, you'll see a difference!

Write Really Great Keyword Articles

When you get an assignment that involves ten of the same keyword or twenty or more,it can feel like a bottomless pit at the start. How on earth can I write 10 keyword articles about a common word such as Google with a 1.5% keyword density?

Here's what I do:

Get information on the keywords you are looking at. Look at the search engines and figure out what the competition is saying about those keywords. Those are the people that your client is trying to outrank and outdo. Look at their meta descriptions and think of a way to make yours stand out more AND offer quality to the reader so that they will 'click'. This is a great way to also research your subject!

Use extra related words wherever you can. I use search tools to help me. One free one is http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/. I try to use a few of the top words related to my search term and pepper them through the article. This not only helps your customer optimize for their keywords but also looks at the Long Tail of search engine marketing which means you are actually giving them more value for their money which can get them coming back! If my keyword is a phrase, I try to not only use it as is but also to break it up as well.

Look at your long list of keywords and try to come up with an idea for each word. If you just start writing without a plan, you will get repetitive and struggle to come up with ideas. Instead, try to come up with as many different ideas as you have articles (if there aren't too many). If my keyword were Google and I had to write five articles, I might tackle it like this:

-A Brief History of Google
-How Google Changed Search Engine Dynamics
-What Is In The Google Lab?
-What did we do before Google?
-Is Google Trying To Take Over The World?

Your articles will be easier to write because you have a focus. The keywords will flow in the articles naturally instead of you having to struggle to sprinkle them in to articles about nothing.

After you are done, look at a keyword analysis tool to help you determine if you've hit your mark. (Here's one: http://www.live-keyword-analysis.com/)If your articles are easier to read, they'll look better to the human readers. If they're at the right level with keywords and related words, the software readers will like them too and you'll get through your project easier and be beloved by your client.

Why Writers Need A Community

As a writer, my community is what helps to sustain me through craziness. I have several communities I utilize. Being a wahm requires that I work alone without the water cooler and that can leave you feeling isolated. A community can help you find out what's going on in the industry, give you leads about jobs, warnings about scams and problems with potential buyers, a hand for overflow work if you become swamped and it can help you have a water cooler environment to vent, to learn and to feel like you have colleagues. It can take the isolation out of being in front of the computer every day.

I have a friend, colleague and I work for her as well that at least a few times a week we have an email conversation about our workload or family life. It's a great thing! I have a forum I visit a few times a day to read about the life of other working writers who are balancing the juggling act. I have a Thursday night chat with a team of writers that all collaborate on a project. Sometimes we spend half our meeting having a fun chat as well as talking business. I also blog at a great community that shares resources and provides revenue sharing.

Here are a few links to some of my communities. I know there are many writing groups out there and you should find one or more if you are serious about writing for a living. Feel free to join any of the ones I've mentioned below.

Communati, a great great blogging community. I'm marleymauve over there. The owner Mark Whitbeck is the best community blog owner I've seen so far. Not only does he give more revenue sharing than many but he is an active member in the community unlike some others. This results in problems being resolved faster and the community's wishes being actually listened to!

Inspired Author is a place I am a topic editor for. I have a blog there, read other writer blogs and several of us post within a specific topic such as:
How To Write A Novel
Self Promotion
Get Started (This is my topic!)
Fantasy Writing
Freelance Writing
and there are other topics as well. There are free friday night workshops as well that are hosted by an array of people in the industry. (Friday night at 7:pm est)

Novel-Writer.com is a growing and still under construction community but is definitely a great place to visit and share. There's a great forum there too that I moderate at.

Find yourself a few communities to hang out at and you'll find you're getting more leads, more industry information and feeling like part of a community which can take the isolation out of working at home.

Cheers,
Dana

Great Expectations In Writing

I glanced at my blog yesterday and looked at some really positive posts from myself lately. My positive attitude seems to be paying off! A client gave me a raise today, I have some interesting work on my desk and I'm feeling creative. I have some great expectations for the coming months. I'm also getting ready to embark on an interesting fiction project. My last year has been filled with non-fiction so I'm looking forward to the change.

This week saw the relaunch of inspiredauthor.com. I have been training under Suzanne James for about a year or more learning a lot from her and have launched my topic, Getting Started (as a writer) on the newly designed Inspired Author website. Have a look when you get a chance, there are several talented writers that share information about the craft there. I have great expectations for this site and look forward to contributing to it.

I continue to be amazed at how sharing and open other work at home writers are. This isn't an industry with a lot of cliques or big kept secrets. Writers seem anxious to look out for another. Mothers are anxious to help one another too so WAHM writers are especially giving and sharing.

Writer Tools of The Week

Here are my finds for the week. Happy Canada Day this weekend to all my fellow Canucks and Happy 4th of July to my U.S. buddies next week.

Here's a great blog I recently came across called Writingforfood.com. There's some great info here!

I also came across a great list of paid blogging resources at Six Figure Writers

And, I'm happy to say my health blog is starting to get some traffic and indexing. To help it along a little further, I think I'll show myself a little link LOVE

Some great things are coming in a few weeks with my www.inspiredauthor.com role. Watch this blog for more details. The site is getting a face lift and I'm finally launching my 'Get Started' topic there that shares the journey of a newcomer to freelance writing. Mosey on over if you want to check out the work of some of my talented writer friends like Nikki, Sharon, Suzanne, Donna, Lori and Sue. Once our site is live, I'll stop back here to link their names to the new profile.

Happy Friday everyone,
Cheers,
Dana

Writing Tools: Text Analysis

A fellow wahm on the wahm.com forum turned me on to this pretty cool tool that helps you with your keywords. This tool has exhaustive analytics that can help you determine your keyword density and much more.
Check it out if you get a chance. It might be a bit too advanced for my uses at the moment but it's free and I'm sure with all the seo work I do, it'll come in handy.

Sharing Some Writer Resources

I'm here working my fingers to the bone and smelling fresh cut grass through the open window. The gentle putter of the neighbour's lawnmower is strangely soothing. It's going to be a busy weekend for me here at the desk instead of outside staring at my lake but I might take a half hour tonight for a camp fire and some s'mores with my boys :)
While I'm here for a moment, I thought I'd share some resources.

Here's a great new source for freelance writing job listings if you haven't found it.
It's goldenprose.com and I blog at a sister site there called writeniche.

Have you discovered Deb Ng's freelance writing jobs yet? I've blogged about it before but it's a great place to get work and talk about the biz.
Find Deb at Writer's Row

I've found some interesting leads through mybloglog.com too. When you're visiting someone's profile, there are popular links on the side. If you are visiting a freelance writer's blog, there are related links like jobs and resources and other freelance writing blogs. Same goes for other topics. If you aren't using mybloglog.com yet, check it out. I love it!


Last week I found a great writer's forum at WAHM forum and there's lots of info to share for writing wahms as well as anyone looking to do just about anything from home. Check it out.

Back to work I go. Busy busy bee today :D

Cheers,
Dana

My Name is Dana and I am a Widget Junkie

Don't you just love widgets? I have a few I'm looking at and a few I already use. Going on a widget hunt for me is like a bit of feng shui for my blog. I play, I arrange things, I fiddle. I think I'm on design # 3 or #4 for this blog and I'm happy at the moment as long as I keep finding new widgets to display.

I found a widget the other day on wink that I'm in love with. I think it's the most useful one I've come across lately.

Here it is:

where i'm at...

people search by

make your own Wink Widget!

Don't you love it?
You can play with the colours and fonts (mine is just the standard)and you can change what people see on it by altering your wink profile.
I expect this one to be a permanent placement on this blog!

Writer's Tool of The Day, MyBlogLog

As a writer, I write regularly about things I like using such as stumbleupon, myspace, onlywire and other writing tools. Today I wanted to mention mybloglog.com

If you look down the side of my blog, you'll see a few faces, those are some of my recent visitors. When I go visiting the blogosphere, anyone who has a mybloglog account can see my face on their blog as well. This is a great tool. There's a paid version with extra bells & whistles but at the moment, I'm using the freebie.

Mybloglog helps me to:

-see who's visiting my site
-find other blogs to read
-allows dialogue with other bloggers privately
-can be used like a guestbook
-let people look at all my registered blogs (that I list) from one spot
-allows me to leave a breadcrumb trail to help others find me

and more..

I can honestly say that this has been most helpful for attracting visitors here that I might not otherwise have. This is still a relatively new blog for me and yet I'm getting lots of traffic and I get to see where some of my traffic comes from. By using it like social networking and by visiting other blogs, I leave people my fingerprint and if they're so inclined, they can quickly stop my blog and see what I'm about. They can also look at my profile which shows a snapshot of my other blogs and provides contact information, etc.
Members can leave messages publicly and privately and find like-minded community members and see what they are reading/writing/enjoying.

Cool tool!