Once upon a time I had a webmaster who did everything for me. Then I had another webmaster. At first she did everything for me, but then she encouraged me to be my own webmaster…unless I needed help. Now, I have control over my own websites  as well as over my own blogs. (I have two websites and three blogs.)

Once upon a time I thought I was too stupid to do anything on the Internet. I was afraid to manage my own website or blog. I found doing anything on the Internet daunting. So, I let other people do my work for my online. Now I spend a good deal of every day promoting myself on the Internet via my blogs, websites, social networking, article marketing, etc. And, because I have been willing to take on the job of  ”Internet marketer and promoter,” even though I’d really like to just be writing my books, I’ve driven a tremendous amount of traffic to my websites and to my blogs. In fact, I’ve built a platform, and I might have more readers online than I could ever drum up for a book.

And, guess what? I kind of enjoy my time working online. I love blogging—and the fact that the more I blog the more readers I have. I enjoy social networking. I don’t mind writing articles and posting them to directories. I even kind of like working on my websites, which is easier than trying to explain to someone else what I want done.

To whom do I owe this knowledge, experience and revelation? To Linda Lee, my sometimes webmaster, always friend and an expert at helping writers develop a web presence and take control of their online life.  The founder and owner of AskMePc-WebDesign and SmartWomenStupidComputers, Linda Lee is a writer, speaker, educator, and website designer. Today, she offers a WNFiN post filled with great information to take the fear out of any writer who knows in their heart they must take the leap and create an online presence via a website or blog…no matter how much they don’t want to do so or fear doing so.

All nonfiction writers absolutely must have online presences today, and this presence becomes a necessity before their books hit the bookstore shelves not afterwards. So, read Linda’s advice and take action before November ends. If stating a blog or website ends up being the only WNFiN project you take on this month, so be it. Even if you don’t finish it by month’s end, you’ll at least have gotten started. (Just be sure you finish…)

Promoting Yourself Online for Writers:
How to Get Started Without Losing Your Mind
By Linda Lee

Writers often hate the promotion part of their job. Even non-writers can understand this emotion. Unless you have a “sales” personality, promoting yourself can be awkward and difficult.

Writers must face this fact that in today’s publishing world, no matter what kind of writing you do, you will need a website at some point to promote yourself on the Internet. This allows people to find you and your work.  Having a website also represents part of building your platform. Agents, publishers and your own readers expect to find you online. Gone are the days when you could say, “I don’t go online or use the Internet.” It is best to embrace this reality now, and get started as soon as possible.

Alleviate Your Fears of Working Online

Beginning your online promotion can be a creative and fun endeavor.  Even if you are a technophobe, you can do this. I have helped hundreds of people who had no computer skills or knowledge at all—and many writers as well—start a website or blog. They now enjoy the perks of having a web presence and are proud of themselves for pushing through their fear of getting started online.

Getting started consists of several components that ultimately create an online presence for you as a writer. Developing this is not as hard it may appear to you. People have lots of fear around working online. Almost daily I hear people say, “I am so stupid with computers,” “I don’t know anything,” and “I am a technophobe.”

You can alleviate these fears, however. When you work on the computer, no matter your current skills level, do the following:

1. Realize that you can do it. (Please, do not tell yourself you are stupid; you aren’t.)
2. Take it one task, one item, at a time.
3. Take a break when you feel frustrated.
4. Google for help. (I find answers to almost every question I encounter while working online simply by searching for it on Google.)
5. Stay focused on what you are trying to accomplish.
6. Do not compare yourself to others online. (You will reach their level of expertise.)

Stay Focused on What you Want to Accomplish Online

During the last 10 years of working online, the most important lesson I have learned is to stay focused on what you want to achieve. When you work online, literally millions of things clamor for your attention. Suddenly you begin to notice numerous internet marketing ideas, “get rich online” schemes and this tool and that tool. Then your friends start telling you about things you simply must do, like Twitter and  Facebook, and tons of things you may of never even have heard of! Everyone will tell you that they know best, and that you must try this or that. Before you know it, you will feel overwhelmed and frozen by your fear and confusion.

Right now, find an index card or a note card and write this down:

What am I trying to accomplish online?
Is what I am doing right now getting me closer to that goal?

When your head starts to spin with information overload, take out this car, close your eyes, take a deep cleansing breath, and read it. Then answer the questions honestly. This will help you stay focused and prevent you from getting distracted from your primary purpose.

I also suggest that you do not start buying internet marketing products until you have at least gotten a website or a blog up and have spent some time developing content.

No matter what your goals, focus always constitutes the first thing you have to learn. Staying focused on the basics allows you to get a little experience before you invest in Internet marketing products that have an entirely different learning curve and can be complex and a distraction from your purpose.

What You Need to Create a Website or Blog

As I said, to promote yourself as a writer, you need a website or a blog. Here are the basics you need to get started online:

1. You need a domain name.

You can buy a domain name from a variety of places.
The pricing varies from 6.95-14.95 a year.
Places that offer a very cheap price initially for a domain name will charge you full price upon annual renewal.

2. You need to select a hosting company.

This is where your website will live, or be “hosted.”
Be sure to look for a company with telephone support and a control panel, so you can login and work on your website yourself.

3. You need a website or a blog.

Once you have gotten your domain name, selected your hosting company and set it up, you are ready to create your website or blog. Both blogs and websites are websites. Blogging started out as more of a journaling tool, and the name blog comes from “web log.” An exciting medium has evolved out of this initial tool. WordPress, which has become the major blogging platform, now is more powerful then most websites in what it can do for you as a website.

WordPress functions as what is called a “content management system.” What this means is that you, as the user, have control over your website. You can login and add articles, or “posts” and “pages,” images, videos, and audio on your own without the need to pay a webmaster.

I encourage many of my clients to select what I call a “blog website” vs. the traditional straight website.

4. Get Started Right Now With a Free Blog

You can sign up for a free blog at WordPress.com or Blogger.com. I recommend WordPress.com, since they are the number one content management system out there. Plus, if you learn the system in their free version and later decide to host your own site, you will be able to transfer your work over to you own self-hosted blog and domain with ease.

Many of my clients ask me to explain the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. WordPress.com hosts your blog, and they run the entire site, which is full of blogs. You are in control of the content, but your site “lives” with them. This is fine when starting out and if you want to get used to blogging for free. WordPress.com has its own communities you can join. They get great results in the search engines. If you are on a budget or want a great place to learn, I think this offers a perfect choice. You can’t beat the price!

WordPress.org is for people who are self hosting their own blogs. This is a support community with people who use self-hosted blogs helping each other.

5. Maintain a Traditional Website and Add a Blog

Many of my clients already have a website, and they want to add a blog. This allows you to maintain your website with your webmaster, and you can update pages on your blog yourself. Blogs get lots of “search engine love,” because they are fresher and updated more frequently. If you add a blog to an existing website, you will see your traffic increase almost immediately.

The Writers’ Advantage Online

Remember every journey begins with one step. Did I mention that working online can be a lot of fun too? As writers you already have a huge advantage over most people, since you already know how to write.

There is a saying online: “Content is King.” No matter what your site looks like, in the end it what you have written that brings in the readers. Just think of this as another opportunity to showcase your writing and attract new readership and attention,  and you will be building your platform online in the process.

About the Author

Linda Lee is the founder and owner of AskMePc-WebDesign and SmartWomenStupidComputers. She is a writer, speaker, educator, and website designer. She is currently working on her book Smart Women, Stupid Computers, A Savvy Guide to Getting Started Online. Available for consulting and coaching, she helps people launch blogs and websites and trains then in how to get traffic to their sites and to maximize their website presence with the use of blogging and search engine optimization of their websites. Linda is passionate about empowering people to take charge of their computer, showing clients with laughter and enthusiasm that they can make it work for them.

http://www.askmepc-webdesign.com
510-582-2837

Help writers find the wonderful information and resources at Write Nonfiction in November all year:
Vote  WNFIN One of Writer’s Digest’s Annual 101 Best Internet Sites for Writers

Please visit www.copywrightcommunications.com and sign up for the free newsletter to receive a gift at the end of the Write Nonfiction in November challenge!

Don’t forget to sign into the WNFiN social networking and chat room and tell us what you are writing about or start a discussion.
http://writenonfictioninnovember.ning.com/

It makes you wonder why we spend the time, energy and effort on websites when blog’s seem to have the same effect.
What is a website but to have a venue in which to display the assets of your company? Can a blog site not do just that?
For example, every time in the past when I have had a new spot or billboard I wanted to show on the site I had t track down the designer, wait for him to be available then pay him to update it. All of this when it is as simple as:

Voila!
The idea actually came to me when my 16 year old niece sent me her new fashion blog: http://mackenziej10oda.edublogs.org/ and I realized that I loved the look. It was clean, simple and very much got her point across.
OK, before all of my web designer friends form a pose and come after me, I guess I should also say that I will most likely find within the next month as I am updating my website that it is very time consuming to try and maintain your own blog. However, for now, here it is and I am digging it!

Wanneer je een artikel schrijft voor je blog, dan mag niet zomaar een afbeelding plukken van het web – op de meeste foto’s en afbeeldingen berusten immers auteursrechten.

Er zijn gelukkig ook veel afbeeldingen en foto’s die je gratis mag gebruiken, voor al dan niet-commerciële doeleinden, mits vermelding van de maker ervan. Dat zijn dan afbeeldingen die vallen onder een Creative Commons licentie. Maar hoe vind je die afbeeldingen?

Wel, via Google natuurlijk. Het is niet meteen beschikbaar via de beginpagina, maar via deze posting bij GoogleSystem kan je afbeeldingen meteen selecteren via verschllende Creative Common licenties: hergebruik, hergebruik met commerciële doeleinden, hergebruik met wijziging, commercieel hergebruik met wijziging.

Wellicht weet je al dat je met wat Googel hocus-pocus veel betere zoekresultaten kan krijgen – het is te zeggen: met gebruik van de juiste syntax krijg je veel gerichtere zoekresultaten.

Zo bestaat er een simpele manier om in de zoekresultaten ook de datum van publicatie van het bewuste artikel te laten vertonen. Vaak krijg je immers in de lijst van resultaten websites die in 3 jaar niet meer aangepast waren, of waarvan het nieuws jaren oud is.

Geef eerst bij Google de gewone zoekopdracht in – bijvoorbeeld het trefwoord fotografiemuseum. Je krijgt een lijst met zoekresultaten.

Bovenaan in de adresbalk staat de syntax van deze zoekopdrachtals URL. Voeg nu achteraan dit webadres de volgende syntax toe:

&as_qdr=y15

Nu krijg je bij elk zoekresultaat tevens een vermelding van de datum van de website of het artikel.

Handig, niet?

Na installatie van de Sage extensie voor Firefox krijg je in je knoppenbalk een extra button met een groen blaadje.

Klik je die aan, dan krijg je links in het venster van je browser een nieuwe kolom met volgende buttons: vernieuwen, zoeken, en Options. Een van die opties is: Organise Sage feeds. Die is erg belangrijk, want daar beheer je eigenlijk de verschillende feeds. Je kan ze bijvoorbeeld indelen in groepen, de naam wijzigen zodat zij voor jou duidelijker werken, enz.

Na installatie van de Sage extensie voor Firefox krijg je in je knoppenbalk een extra button met een groen blaadje. Klik je die aan, dan krijg je links in het venster van je browser een nieuwe kolom met volgende buttons: vernieuwen, zoeken, en Options. Een van die opties is: Organise Sage feeds. Die is erg belangrijk, want daar beheer je eigenlijk de verschillende feeds. Je kan ze bijvoorbeeld indelen in groepen, de naam wijzigen zodat zij voor jou duidelijker werken, enz.

Kom je voortaan op een website die een RSs-feed aanbiedt, en je klikt op het RSS-logo, en dan krijg je dit scherm te zien, en kan je je van daaruit abonneren op deze RSS-feed.

Om dit uit te leggen kunnen wij best de volgende vergelijking gebruiken. Stel: je hebt een twintigtal favoriete nieuwssites of blogs, die je elke dag bezoekt. Bij de oude methode klik je dan een voor een je bookmarks aan, om naar die site te surfen, en te kijken welke nieuwe artikels er zijn.

Er bestaat tegenwoordig een simpelere methode: RSS-feeds. De meeste nieuwssites bieden tegenwoordig zo’n feed aan, dat je kan herkennen aan het RSS-logo.

Bezoek je een site die een RSS-feed aanbiedt, dan zal je dit logo ofwel ergens op de website zien staan, ofwel in de adresbalk van je browser. Klik je op dit logo, dan krijg je de optie om je op deze site te “abonneren”. Daarvoor heb je dan een speciale “feedreader” nodig, maar daarover later meer.

Voortaan moet je niet meer alle bookmarks naar je favoriete sites aflopen, maar zorgt je feedreader ervoor dat alle sites op een lijstje komen. Klik je een site aan, dan krijg je een lijstje met de koppen van de laatste artikels. De feedreader zal zelfs onthouden welke artikels je al gelezen hebt en welke niet.

Welke feedreader te gebruiken? Wij raden je “Sage” aan; dat is een simpele extensie voor Firefox, die gewoon in je browser geopend wordt en waarvoor je dus geen apart venster moet openen.

Hoe je tewerk gaat met Sage vertellen wij je morgen.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/77

I’m working on what I hope to be new style social networking site.    I’m going to keep the details on the DL, but am looking for anyone who can help move this forward.   The forums (forums.collabstation.com) and wordpress integration (collabstation.com/blogs) are just the beginning of what I hope will have centralized features to make user projects easier.

Feel free to reply here or even better at the blogs there.

I’m looking for flash/xhtml/cgi/api/forum admins and designers who can be trusted and would like to start a hobby that will hopefully become the next big thing!

p.s. as you can tell im not very flash savy lol…

Through out my SEO research in my organisation, I was lucky to find new and upcoming solutions for ranking higher in search engines.

Around 2 years ago, I was the one in my organization, who found about a very creative and innovative idea of preparing blogs for boosting our website’s traffic. At first when i told my idea to my directors they were not too enthralled by me thinking. But (as i am a well respected professional in terms of my work done) they allowed me to got ahead with this attempt of making as many blogs as possible. The one blog i liked in terms of ranking SERP’s as well as design is WordPress. I started my blog http://bharatbook.wordpress.com and soon started getting more website traffic through it. As its a e-commerce website so in response we started getting a 1 enquiry about our products (online reports) regularly. Then many institutes as well as organizations started enquiring as well leading them into successful orders. Just a few months back, i decided to hand over my blog (http://bharatbook.wordpress.com) to my colleagues in our SEO department. Now i am extensively promoting the blog http://bharatbookbureau.wordpress.com and the same sort of response (enquiries turning into orders) has been achieved at a reasonably quick time.

Throughout these years, i have come to know that for any newbie blog creator starting with his personal or for that matter a professional blog, WordPress.com’s free blog is the best solution. Along with wordpress there are now a number of very easy and non-feasible free blogs that help in bringing extensive traffic and improve the oribinal websites value in a search engine market.

Below are a few blogs that were helpfull to me and might be needed by you :

Blogabond.com - A site dedicated to travel blogs with map integration and more.

BlogCheese.com - A video blogging website.

BusyThumbs.com - A blog site specifically for your text messages and camera phone

Blogetery.com - Offers multiple templates, anti-spam, free sub-domain and more.

BlogRox.com - Runs on WordPress and offers 50MB of free online space.

Blogsome.com - Based out of Ireland, this site uses the WordPress MU platform, large

Blog.com - Offers free blog hosting with unlimited bandwidth for their free package, more benefits for paid members.

Blog Ladder.com - All blog entries show up on the main ladder as well as inside your own blog.

Blogger.com – A great starting site to get a taste of blogging, very easy to use.

Blogr.com - Allows you to blog, host photos & videos, and podcasts.

BlogSpirit.com - It’s a european based blogging site, offering 30-day trial and subscription thereafter, but offers quite a bit of storage.

Blogster.com - It offers free image hosting in addition to free blogs.

BlogYx.com - It’s a blogging site with extra features such as chat boxes so you can interact with your readers.

Bloki.com - Lets you build a blog site and even open it up for collaboration.

Bravenet.com - Free blog hosting with RSS feeds and more.

ClearBlogs.com - Free blog hosting and offers templates, friends only posts, IP-Banning and more.

Edublogs.com - WordPress powered blogging for educators.

Etribes.com - Based in Europe, allows you to create all sorts of websites including a blog.

Freevlog - Designed for video blogging and completely free.

GreatestJournal.com - Based on the same software as LiveJournal, offers free voice posts, 1GB of photo hosting, and space for up to 2,000 user icons.

InsaneJournal.com - Another site based on the Danga software that runs LiveJournal, offers free and paid accounts, paid benefits are only enhancements.

JorunalFen.net - Runs on the Danga platform, very much directed towards various “fandoms” (i.e. Harry Potter, various Television shows) and is meant for users 18 and older.

LiveJournal.com - One of the most well known of the blogging hosts. Offers multiple account types such as ad-supported and paid. The center of a few controversies recently.

Multiply.com - Mixes blogging and social networking, with photo galleries and more.

Netcipia.com - Free blog and wiki for private or public display with 2GB of storage.

Open Diary.com - Offers unlimited storage and posts, low cost subscription rates for advanced features.

ShoutPost.com - This is fabulous platform for creating blogs with a focus on generating traffic.

SoulCast.com - Have something you want to talk about, but want to say it anonymously? This may be the blogging site for you.

Squarespace.com - Lets you build your blog with numerous themes, also allows you to add other site features.

Terapad.com - It offers blogs as well as features such as an integrated store and also permits ad-sense for revenue.

Tooum.com - This is a fully integrated blog and forum which allows for seamless discussion between the two.

Tumblr.com - This is a a blog platform with a focus on allowing media-rich posts.

Trippert.com - Create and share blogs of your travels.

Ufem.com - Blogging site specifically geared towards women. Offers multiple themes and plugins.

Vox.com - This is a part of the Six Apart family of blogging sites, very much geared towards the personal journal types of blogs.

Word Count Journal.com - A new blogging format that is also part challenge. Write one word on the first day, two words on the second day and so on, at the end of the year you’ll have written 66,795 words.

WordPress.com - Not only can you install WordPress on your own sites, you can use the same software on their site and save yourself all of the technical work.

Weebly.com - This is a that allows you to create a site and blog, free hosting and change designs on the fly.

Windows Live Spaces - This is a free blogging service with your MSN account, only drawback is readers have to have an account also (not adviced).

Xanco.com - Another moblogging site for you to share all your mobile communications with friends and family.

Xanga.com - This is a part social network, part blogging, all free.

Yahoo 360 - This is a part of your Yahoo account and features easy publishing.

Zoomshare.com - It offers free blogs hosting with around 250MB of free storage space.

I hope this above mentioned blogs list will be helpful to you.

Stay tuned for more helpful techniques and tips on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Marketing.

Zonet heb ik een nieuwe functie toegevoegd aan mijn blog.

In de zijbalk kan je nu, naast mijn “recente foto’s” van op DeviantArt en mijn “recent gespeelde songs” van op Last.fm, nu ook een lijst bekijken met posts op andere blogs en nieuwssites die ik recent gelezen en interessant bevonden heb.

Voor de onwetenden, even een uitleg hoe ik dit gearrangeerd heb:

1. Maak een account op Del.icio.us. Dit is een website waar je bookmarks kan opslaan (die dingen die in je browser onder “Favorieten” staan). Het leuke is dat je deze bookmarks nu van op eender welke PC kan bereiken of via een RSS-feed kan doorgeven aan een andere website of applicatie. Tijdens de registratie zal Del.icio.us je voorstellen om een plugin in je browser te installeren om het toevoegen van bookmarks makkelijker te maken.

 

2. Iedere bookmark die je toevoegt aan je Del.icio.us-account kan je voorzien van meerdere tags. Spreek bijvoorbeeld voor jezelf af dat je iedere webpagina waarvan je wil dat die in de lijst komt op je blog, voorziet van de tag “blogpost”. Op die manier kun je je Del.icio.us-account ook voor andere (normale) bookmarks gebruiken, die dan niet in de lijst zullen verschijnen. Natuurlijk kun je ook je bookmarks nog extra voorzien van tags die iets zeggen over de inhoud.

 

3. Voeg in WordPress een extra RSS-widget toe aan je zijbalk met een RSS-feed die wijst naar je bookmarks met de tag “blogpost”. Deze link kan je vinden door gewoon naar je bookmarks te gaan in Del.icio.us, op de gewenste tag te klikken (in mijn geval dus “blogpost”) en onderaan op “RSS feed for this page” te klikken. Natuurlijk is het filteren op tag niet echt verplicht en kan je ook rechtstreeks linken naar je hoofdfeed.

Ik hoop dat iemand hier iets aan heeft, het was een functie die me ineens te binnen schoot en wel handig leek. Het resultaat, dat voorlopig eigenlijk enkel maar Lifehacker-posts bevat, kun je alvast bewonderen in mijn zijbalk.

Hartgrondig haten doe ik ze, WordPress-themes die niet de volledige breedte van je browser-pagina gebruiken. Daarom een nieuwtje ingesteld, mét bijhorende achtergrond in kakakleur.

Echt perfect is ie natuurlijk niet, maar het kan ermee door. Kan ik ten minste foto’s posten zonder ze geresized te zien, of achter één of andere zijbalk ingeschoven te zien worden.