I talked about exposure in another post, and I got several comments and questions about that. One of them was, “How do you turn a gig that isn’t paying into something that pays.” Well then, that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? Here are my thoughts.

Going From Unpaid to Paid

Quite simply, you either think of yourself as a paid writer, or you don’t. Don’t be shy about asking to be compensated for your time. There are times when writing for free is okay. We talked about virtual tours and guest posts, and charity also falls into that.

But if you’ve been working consistently for a magazine, newspaper, company, or organization, and you’ve been writing for free and they are continuing to ask you to do more articles, then it’s time to change tactics.

First step: Ask to be paid. Here’s how you do it.

“I’ve enjoying working with you, and hope I can continue to do it. From this point on, I am searching for paid assignments, so if you have something like that in the future, please feel free to contact me.”

Then you leave it as is. They know where to find you. If they say they can’t pay, you tell them again that you’ve enjoyed working with them in the past, and hope you’ll get the chance to do it again one day. Your point is made, there’s no need to apologize for it or beg. If they can’t pay you, move on to someone that can.

Don’t Believe Sob Stories

I used to be a sucker for sob stories with magazines, “we’re small,” “we’re new,” “we’re hoping to be able to pay one day,” and then I realized that these places did have money to pay others. They have to pay people to do layout, printing, editing… so why not writing?

When someone says they can’t pay what they are really saying is that they won’t. That doesn’t mean they won’t pay others on their staff, however. Don’t get sucked into a sob story, because unless you’re independently wealthy, you need money to pay your bills, too.

Counteract the Exposure Claim

Listen, sometimes writing opportunities really are that good that they will automatically give you a boost in your exposure. There are reasons for writing for free, but you really need to be careful about this, because when you establish yourself as someone that writes for free, it’s very hard to make the transition to get paid.

If someone says they are giving you exposure, do your homework. Things you can do to help you decide if it’s worth it:

• See if they can give you a Google Analytics report on their traffic. Understand the difference between hits and unique visitors.
• Find out their Alexa ranking.
• Get their subscriber numbers.
• See how many Facebook likes they have.
• See how they use Twitter (not just the Twitter numbers they have.) You can have someone with a lot of followers, but if they don’t use Twitter often enough they won’t have the same influence as someone that uses Twitter the right way but has less followers.
• Ask if others on the staff are being paid. (That’s bold. I know. But you’ll surprised at what you hear. One site told a friend of mine that they did pay “certain writers.” If they can pay some writers, they can pay them all.)

If someone is really paying in exposure, they can do it in more ways than just giving you a link with your article. They can help promote the article and you. See if they regularly retweet their writers links, if they help promote in other ways, etc.

Be Ready With a Price

If you do ask to be paid for articles, you might be surprised when they agree. It happens. So before you even ask, have a reasonable idea in mind what you think you should earn, because they may ask you, “What would you like to be paid?” or “What do you think would be a reasonable fee?”

Do your homework and confidently give them a price. Don’t be shy or uncertain about it.

Here’s more info on getting paid to write:

• What If You Get Paid on PageViews Along?
• Types of Payment for Writers
• Get Paid From Companies to Write
• Lessons From Plumbers on Setting Freelance Writing Rates
• How to Raise Your Rates

Image: Naypong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

There’s writing for free, and then there’s writing for free. What I mean is, there is a difference between exposure for exposure’s sake, and backlinks. We all write for free these days occasionally, but there is usually a good reason for it. You’re guest posting to get backlinks, you’re doing a favor for a blogger friend, you’re promoting your book or blog, etc. After all, much of what happens on a virtual tour is free writing in the form of guest posts on other people’s blogs.

But then there’s the notion of exposure, and that’s what I want to talk about here. The other day I saw a note on one of those places where writers look for resources and interviews, and this person posted about needing “contributors” for their “upcoming magazine issue.” What I found made me mad. Let’s talk about it.

Pay in the Form of Exposure

It took me several clicks at the magazine’s site to discover that they were strictly an online mag that charged a hefty monthly fee to subscribers. Nothing wrong with that, and at first I thought it was encouraging because with a large fee they must pay their writers. Right?

Wrong.

They paid in the form of “exposure.” Their site looked terrible, so maybe they were a startup. Still, though, they were going out to recruit writers for several free articles for their magazine for February in a variety of categories.

Now, the question is, should you write for them? What’s the difference between doing a virtual tour or guest post, and writing for exposure?

Virtual Tours

I want to focus on virtual tours for a minute because so many authors are doing them, and I can attest that they are valuable if you have a book to sell. They give you plenty of backlinks that stay long after the “tour” is over. In many cases on these tours you’re writing specifically about something related to your book, so you get to talk about it, link to it, and get readers interested in it.

Is this worthwhile for writers? Absolutely.

Guest Posts

Guest posts are trickier, in my opinion. I still do them occasionally, especially for other bloggers that I’ve gotten to know or people I’m trying to get to know. For example, when I first started writing about friendship, I was asked to do a couple guest posts from other friendship bloggers. (One was about understanding about your girlfriend’s healthy problems at Girlfriendology and the other was about “What I Know Now” about friendship at Girlfriend Circles.

These bloggers were “competitors” of mine to a degree, but we decided to band together and help each other out. (Which is just one reason I love other bloggers. They get that we can all benefit from helping each other.) Another scenario with guest posting is when you’re trying to just get some backlinks, or get to know other bloggers, or establish your name in the area in which you write.

Is something like this worthwhile? You bet.

Before You Do Guest Posts

Before you do a guest post, however, you need to be clear about your goals, and this is where the distinction will come in when you’re comparing guest posting to writing for exposure only. In guest posting (virtual tours, etc.) you’re able to link to your website (and if you’re not, why the heck are you doing it!), you’re able to give a short bio of yourself, you’re probably blogging about a subject you have chosen and really enjoy, you’re probably able to talk a little bit about something near and dear to your heart, and on and on. You need to decide what the value is in a guest post for you.

For example, when I first started out as a freelancer I needed to accomplish a couple things. I needed people to come visit my website and I needed to establish my name as a serious blogger. I wasn’t a hobby blogger, but no one knew it back then because no one knew me. I’m not famous now (that’s not what I’m talking about), but I do have a reputation as being a serious blogger and freelance writer. One thing that helped me establish that was guest posting on various places where I could show that I was an expert in things like lifestyle and relationships. I made sure that the sites I chose were getting decent amounts of traffic, and had an influence of some sort with the audience I was trying to attract. If I wrote a guest post that helped me with the criteria I wanted most, I did it.

Writing for Exposure

Magazines or sites that hire, search for, and recruit writers to work solely for exposure, though, are tricky. They are more tricky than guest posts, because if “exposure” is all you’re looking for, you need to make sure that the site is really going to give it to you. As I said, when I clicked through to that online magazine in question, it was obvious they were new and probably didn’t have much traffic. Will that get you exposure? Doubtful.

Also, if exposure is what you want (and that’s not a bad goal), you can always get it other ways than just guest posting. Think about offering yourself up as an expert for radio or TV shows, get exposure in your community by volunteering to teach a class at your community center, enter a reputable awards contest, get interviewed by another blogger, and on and on. There are a lot of ways you can promote yourself if you want exposure.

Getting Experience

The other argument with writing for a rinky dink magazine for free is that you get “experience” and writing credentials. Well, yes and no. I did this too when I first started out, and anywhere I wrote for free didn’t hold a lot of weight with the people I was trying to get a paid job for. If you write for a non-profit for free, that’s something different. What I’m talking about are those magazines who actively recruit writers on job boards and on places like HARO for work, promise a lot, and don’t deliver. It can be difficult, especially when you’re new, to protect yourself against them.

• Before you take a job writing for free, ask yourself:
• Is this an opportunity that is better (traffic-wise, pay, connections) than if I posted on my own blog?
• Will doing something for free for this person help me get other paying jobs? (In other words, is the editor really connected where they would hire you again for a paying gig down the line? Do some checking.)
• Will doing this gig establish that I’m willing to write for free. (That’s a hard precedent to break.)
• Will doing this gig take too much time away from promoting myself in other ways?

More on Guest Posting:

• How To Market Your Business With Guest Blogging
• Guest Posting Secrets-Building Business With Guest Posting On High Traffic Websites-AAA+++
• Virtual Book Tours

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Guest post by Cynthia Kocialski

You were thrilled to be handed your diploma. Your school years were behind you, and, most likely, you were excited about starting your first job. This was the launch of what you believed would be a rewarding and glorious career.

But something unexpected happened on the way to your flourishing career: it didn’t happen. You took your first job. You expected to rise through the ranks quickly. Instead you are doing exactly what your boss tells you. You receive good performance reviews, but you are still stuck in the same job.

What happened to the thriving career you anticipated?

The school system imparts factual knowledge.  This training might land you a job, but it can’t create a successful career. The rules of success changed dramatically after they handed you that diploma, but no one bothered to tell you.

1. When you were in school, it was easy to distinguish who were the better students.  Everyone in the class was given the same test, and everyone was ranked in relation to everyone else.  The workplace is not objective. No two workers get the same assignment; everyone gets a different piece of the puzzle to complete.  When it comes to promotions, awards and raises, you are being compared with your coworkers like apples to oranges. Whether the apple is better than the orange is a matter of perspective. It depends on what your boss values or who was given the better assignment.

2. “Keep your nose to the grindstone” is not necessarily a good career strategy. You expect that as long as you work hard enough and with enthusiasm, you will reap the rewards for your efforts. Employers want workers to put in longer hours and get more work done. When I started in engineering, I was asked to work double shifts to get an important project completed on time. I know new hires in law firms that are asked to work long hours to meet clients’ deadlines. We aren’t paid any more for our efforts, nor does it make our careers move forward. The problem is that there will always be another project to be done. So when do you do the work that creates a career and not a job? This is the fallacy of “working hard, but not working smart.”

3. “It’s not whether you win or lose that matters. It’s how you play the game.” Winning really does matter. Would you hire an attorney who loses all of his cases? Would you want to go to a doctor who never cures his patients?

4. “Money can’t buy you happiness.” Maybe it can’t, but once you get out of school, you find out that money really does matter a great deal.  Some of your dreams require money, and money does make your life easier.  This is coupled with the ridiculous notion that if you do what you love, the money will follow.  Just ask an artist about this one. My daughter’s summer school teacher was a sculptor with graduate degrees in art. He was teaching elementary kids pottery – and he definitely was not cut out to be a teacher. So now that he’s spent all those years in college, he’s realized that he can’t make a livable wage doing what he loves to do.

5. Every year in school, teachers ask you what you want to be when you grow up. Did anyone ever follow that up with the question, “So how do you plan on doing that?” One of the biggest missteps is not setting and planning goals beyond your diploma. Did anyone ever teach you how to plan out goals? Most of the time, I find that people engage in forward planning. They start with today and then plan out the next step and what’s after that.  When is the goal reached? Do you make vice-president when you turn 90? Planning backwards acknowledges where you are today and pegs your goal out in the future, working from the goal backwards to today. This way, at least you’ll have a chance of making vice-president by 40!

______________________________________

Guest post by Kirsty LaVier

If you’ve kept up with any of the latest marketing trends, you know that Facebook marketing is big – and only getting bigger. After all, how can you ignore a website that has more than 800 million users?

But just because you’ve created your own Facebook page doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s working. Here’s how you can tell if your Facebook page is a success – or a dud:

1. You’re making more money

This is what Facebook marketing boils down to – profits. If your Facebook marketing campaign is truly successful, you’ll see a boost in profits. How you see those extra profits, however, can vary. You might just notice little things – like more traffic to your website, an increase in email subscriptions, or an increase in phone calls to your store. At the end of the day, though, it’s all going to translate into more money!

If you really want a good way to keep track of Facebook-related income, add a shopping cart to your page or offer Facebook-only coupons.

2. You have quality fans

Having 50 highly-targeted Facebook fans is better than having 500 fans that aren’t part of your target audience. While you should always be looking for more fans, just having any ol’ fan isn’t good enough. If you want to make the most money off of your Facebook page, you need quality fans that have a legitimate need or desire for your products and services.

And, if that number of quality fans keeps increasing on a steady basis, that’s the best you can hope for!

3. People are always commenting and “liking” your posts

When people take the time to comment on what you’ve posted, that’s a great sign. Not only did they make it all the way through your status update, picture album, embedded video, or outside link – but they also thought enough of it to share their thoughts! Even if people just take a split second to click the “like” button, it means you’re making an impression on them.

Conversely, if you’re the only one who ever participates on your Facebook page, you’re doing something horribly wrong!

4. You update your page – but not too much

By updating your Facebook page on a regular basis, it shows that your business is anything but stagnant. However, that doesn’t mean that you need to add something new every few minutes. Even if you just update your Facebook page once a day, it shows people that they need to come back frequently and check out your new stuff. And, let’s face it – even the busiest businessperson can find time to do a daily update!

Kirsty LaVier is editor for AShop Reviews, and loves social media just a little bit too much for her own good.

More on Facebook:

• The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Facebook, 2nd Edition
• Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day
• Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (And Other Social Networks)

Image: creativedoxfoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Guest post

When you’re working on a creative project, it can be very easy to get caught up in getting your work perfect, ignoring deadlines and overlooking the importance of what you are doing. Although aiming to get your work as good as possible is important, especially if it will become a major part of your body of work upon which you will be judged, it is also important to bear in mind that perfection is impossible. This is vital if you want to dodge the horrible spiral of avoiding work which you think can never be good enough, which can lead to extreme forms of procrastination, from watching youtube vidoes of cats sneezing to desperately trying to win just one game of solitaire.

Procrastination can be even worse when using an online CMS such as WordPress as you already have a browser open and so are one click away from a distracting website. The best use of your time is just to get the work done and send it in. But how can you avoid that nagging feeling at the back of your head that it just needs to be that much better?

Trick Number One: Think Statistics 

The key to this trick is to make up numbers. Grade your own work: give yourself a percentage. Then think about how much an extra hour, or two hours’ work would add to your overall grade. Is it worth it? Will it increase your ‘grade’ a massive amount, or just a little? If you decide at this stage that the extra work will be worth it, then do the work. If not, do something more productive with your time.

Trick Number Two: Get Proofread

When you have finished your work, hand it to someone else to look over. It doesn’t matter if you think it’s dreadful, just do it. They will probably find some mistakes or areas where you can improve which you would not have thought of, and furthermore can serve as a little bit of a confidence booster. Your work is probably not nearly as bad as you think, and other people will be able to tell you that, saving you worry and time.

Trick Number Three: Think about what you need 

The important thing is to remember that your work is a means to an end. The end might be to win a project, or it might be to boost your CV. Don’t let yourself get distracted by the one thing you feel ‘must’ be perfect. If there are other areas which you need to concentrate on to meet your goals, then don’t neglect them; see how much improvement you need to make on your work, and if your time could be better spent working on something else then make sure you do so.

Trick Number Four: Think about the future

This adds on to thinking about what you need; now you need to see the even bigger picture. If you are really worried about the quality of your work, think about how irrelevant this project will be in five or ten years’ time. Then do the work!

Trick Number Five: Focus on the body of your work

Sometimes the difficulty in working creatively can be simply getting started. The beginning of your proposal or paper needs some of the most work to look polished and professional – so leave it until you have the time to perfect it. If you begin in the main body of your work, you won’t need to worry about style to such a degree, and you may have a better idea of what to put in the introduction of your work – so you won’t need to spend even more time going back and changing it.

Trick Number Six: Take Little Steps 

Don’t get stressed by trying to do too much. Instead of planning to finish things or doing something ‘perfect’, set yourself small goals. Think about spending a set amount of time on your project uninterrupted, or writing a certain number of words. Make sure they are small: you need to be able to fulfil your goals, and not get disillusioned. By taking these small steps, you know that by the end of the day, you will have achieved something, even if it is not perfect.

Silicon Beach Training in Brighton provide some of the best SEO courses in the UK. People come from all over the world to attend their technology and business training courses. Constantly updating courses to meet industry demand, Silicon Beach Training now provide Mobile App Development workshops in Brighton, one of the most exciting and colourful cities in the UK.

More on Getting Past Procrastination:

• Procrastination: Why You Do It, What to Do About It Now
• Time Warrior: How to defeat procrastination, people-pleasing, self-doubt, over-commitment, broken promises and chaos
• End Procrastination Now!: Get it Done with a Proven Psychological Approach

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’ve done quite a few interviews over the past few years, and most of them are really great. As an introvert myself, I’m amazed at people’s abilities to chat away in a carefree manner, to interrupt people (when they need it), and to basically think aloud. During a radio or TV interview, those are important skillsets (which I definitely don’t have.) But there have also been interviewers that have veered off-track during the course of our time together. So then what? Do you as the interviewee interrupt them? What do you do to get things back on track?

Why Things Veer Off Course

Some people are chatty by nature, and this means they happily chirp out their thoughts without much regard to whether or not what they’re saying is related to their show. This isn’t a bad thing, because sometimes you can get spontaneous moments that leave an impact. As an interviewee, though, you can’t afford to have your host chat happily away from your topic.

Other times a host may veer from the pre-determined topic based on something that happened in the news recently. That happened to me with a radio show I did last year. It was a live show for the top-rated morning show in Atlanta. The producer asked me to prepare three points (related to the topic of online dating) to talk about, and when I came on to do the interview, the host completely changed the topic based on something she heard on the news that morning.

Don’t Panic!

In the example with the Atlanta radio show, I didn’t panic. Whenever I do radio or TV, I tell myself to go with the flow no matter what happens. That sometimes means I’m not “on” with promoting my book, but willing to chat about other things if they come up. The reason I’m open to this (and I do really have to psyche myself up about this ahead of time) is that I believe when you make an appearance of any kind, you are selling yourself, your brand, and your book, just by showing your personality. If you show that you’re knowledgeable but also willing to loosen up and have fun, you’ll leave much more of an impression, and chances are people will look you up. At the very least, they will remember you the next time another piece of your overall marketing puzzle shows up (like a Tweet or blog post).

In the case of this Atlanta radio show, I chatted about the topic she wanted to talk about, and then related it to my own topic. I answered her questions, and then said:

“I’m happy you brought this up. I think it relates to the dating world very well because…”

and then brought it back to my topic. In the end, we managed to hit some topics related to dating, but not the ones the producer asked me to prepare. (Yet another reason you need to be an expert in your topic if you go on radio or TV.)

Avoid Saying “In My Book”

You might be tempted to try and get things back on topic by talking about the real reason you’re doing the interview: your book. (Or blog, or whatever else you’re trying to promote.) Be very cautious about this, because if you bring up your book too much, you’ll turn people off and they won’t listen to you anymore.

Instead, avoid saying “in my book” at all, and instead say “I always tell people,” or “I would advise people to” and then talk about points relevant to why you’re there.

This might sound confusing, so let me give you an example. In one TV interview I did on the subject of Internet dating, the interviewer chatted with me before air time. She asked me the one thing that everyone who has never dated online seems to ask, which was “Do people lie online?” I said no, for the most part I thought people were who they said they were.

When the cameras came back on and we went live, however, she said (right into the camera) “We’re talking here about why people lie.” Then she turned to me, “Why are so many people dishonest in the world? They cheat on their taxes, they lie to their husbands… why do you think this happens?”

Uh…..

I was a newbie at interviewing back then and probably looked like I was caught in the headlights. Why did this happen? I assumed it was because the interviewer had a lot going on and couldn’t remember what we were there to discuss. (Or, she was just a moron.) Either way, I wasn’t going to miss out on TV time when it came to discussing my topic.

If I wanted to be obnoxious (which I’ll admit was very tempting considering how the rest of the interview went) I would have said, “Well in my book I talk about that. In my book, which is why I’m here, I mention that it’s an urban legend how much people lie on their profiles. In my book, which you should read because you obviously know nothing about this subject…”

But I didn’t do that. Luckily, I recovered, and said:

“I don’t know why some people lie, but in the online dating world, which I do know a lot about, I’d disagree that people are dishonest.”

Suggest a Question

Another tactic to use if the interviewer gets totally off-track is to suggest a question related to your topic. This happened to me once when someone was interviewing me about my diabetes book for a radio show, and asked me about being a Green Bay Packer fan. I happily answered questions about it (because I certainly don’t hide the fact that I love football), but then the interviewer went off on every trade and bad call he’d witnessed in the last ten years.

It got worse. He then started talking about salary caps in the game, and that led to lost draft opportunities, and before I knew it the talk was totally about football and not about diabetes.

When he finally took a breath, I just pretended that we had been talking about my topic all along. I said, “Oh, it’s true, so many frustrating things when you’re a fan that you have no control over. When you’re a diabetic, there are also things you can’t control. One question diabetics typically ask me is…” and then brought it back to the subject I was there to discuss.

I paused to see if he would pick up on the hint, and he did. (Hey, interviewers are human, and if they go off on an unrelated rant, forgive them! But do bring it back to your topic.)

Don’t Get Ticked

I’ve had quite a few interviews where the person seemed to interview themselves more than they did me. I usually find this hysterical, which is good because a happy interviewee comes off better than a ticked off one. You might have flown or driven to the TV station, carved out time in your precious schedule, and even created special questions or topics to chat about (all of which will be a “waste” when your interviewer gets off track), but don’t sweat it. If you get pissed, your anger will come through and not your message.

Instead, laugh it off. Pretend that you’re having a great time anyways and eventually you will. Don’t look at it as a lost opportunity, because I promise you that good things build slowly from the interviews you do, no matter how much you get to talk about your book. They do make an impact, even if you don’t realize it at the time.

Remember that Atlanta station I mentioned? I kept my cool even though the topic got twisted on me, and after the interview another station (who had listened to it) called me up to be on their station. I got a second interview that was much more on point, just because I was able to roll with things with the first one. Things like that happen all the time. Look at the interviews you do as building blocks. Some of them will get you immediately book sales, while others will just be a piece you use to secure your brand. Either way, you can’t lose.

More Ways to Promote Your Book:

• 21 Ways to Promote Your Book on Twitter
• Virtual Book Tours
• Publicize Your Book (Updated): An Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Book the Attention It Deserves
• The Frugal Book Promoter: Second Edition: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher.

Image: Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Guest post

Do you have a passion for photography? Would you like people to appreciate and acknowledge your work, but you simply have no clue where to find the right people? Finding the right people is absolutely necessary for you to do more, or else your talent will go wasted, without the much needed appreciation.

Photoblogging is an excellent way to find the right people. Photoblogging has picked up in the past decade and you can get a heavy traffic onto your blog, if you can understand and implement these effective tips.

Skill Check

Firstly, it is very important to have a few tricks up your sleeve. You must have already introduced yourself to Adobe Photoshop, if not master it. Apart from Photoshop, you may try to learn some other photo editing software; whichever you are comfortable with. However, it is recommended to opt for professional software, if you are trying to woo the experts.

Get an Idea

Secondly, before you start a photoblog, surf around and go through some renowned photoblogs of professional photographers. And only ‘surf through’; do not try to get over-inspired by their work, because you are going to mess up your originality. Hence, the bottom line is- Surf, get swept away, but come back to your senses as soon as you close the blog. Remember that your photoblogging skills are rated majorly on its uniqueness.

The story behind the photo

Next, you need to know what to write and how to write for each of the picture that you post in your photoblog. You cannot take a beautiful photograph and simply call it, ‘my best pic’, ‘I love this pic’, ‘it was taken at such and such place’ etc kind of things. As an upcoming photographer, you should also understand that there is a story behind every picture that you take. If not, create one!

Keywords are the Key

Having said that, you should recognize that you are not expected to write a novel about the picture; you are simply expected to write where and when did you take the shot. Explain the viewers what’s happening in the frame, as there could be international visitors who could be oblivious to other cultures and would draw a blank as soon as they see the photo. Use descriptive words as your photo filenames. This will enhance your chances of improving your page rankings, because search engines work on one major principle, i.e., keywords.

All ‘About Me’

As you keep writing, you will get the hang of it. Nonetheless, you are also expected to have an ‘about me’ or ‘about the photoblog’ page. This page will define you and your work. You may upload a cool profile picture of yours with your camera, just to make the page look more authentic. Once again, choose your words wisely.

To keep yourself updated about your visitors and the blog traffic, you need to be familiar with some analytics tools like WordPress. If you simply cannot take in the SEO process and are ready to approach a professional SEO firm, you can go ahead. But then, think again. Can someone professional computer techie understand your passion? Will they share and comprehend the interest and zeal that you possess?

This is a guest post provided to us by Jeet. He started following many photoblogs around 2005, some of these blog make a lot of money by selling posters and t-shirts through zazzle, cafepress etc. He runs a link building services company from Mumbai.

More on Photography Blogging:

• The Photographer’s Blogging Book: The Easy Way To Build Your Blog and Start Attracting Traffic To Fill Your Photography Business With Customers
• Expressive Photography: The Shutter Sisters’ Guide to Shooting from the Heart
• Digital Photography Essentials

Image: africa / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’ll admit it, I love watching those reality shows where people sing and then other people judge and then someone gets critiqued and/or voted off. I love them because they are fun to watch but also because I see some similarities between shows like that and being a writer.

Finding What Your Strength Is

The most common thing in common is that people are judged for their creative work. With singing, judges can determine if someone was off the mark, if their performance was perhaps not technically the best but inspiring nonetheless, or just brilliant. Sometimes, judges differ on this, which goes to show that creativity is very personal and subjective.

The same is true with the writing world. While we all need to know the “rules” and “mechanics” of writing, we also need to know what our own personal strengths are and how to make use of what we’re best at. When we know what we rock at, we can capitalize on it.

Taking Criticism

One of the things that amazes me is how gracefully (or not) some of these contestants take their criticism. I know, it’s hard. Believe me, I know! But you have to take it all in stride, because if you lip off at the judges, that’s what they will remember about you instead of your performance.

With writing, one way to deal with criticism is to expect it. This isn’t a defeatist attitude, but realistic. You can’t get everyone in the world to like your writing, no matter how great it is, because they have a preference for something else. Here’s how I deal with criticism:

• Anticipate it. Based on the reality that there will always be a certain percentage of people who won’t like what you do. (In other words, don’t work to please them, but let it go and focus on pleasing those who will enjoy your words.)
• Shake it off. Everyone has an opinion, and one person’s opinion isn’t more important than someone else’s.
• Remember The Four Agreements. The Four Agreements says that you should never take anything personally, even when someone makes it personal. Even when someone says something good. When someone makes their criticism personal (i.e., “you’re a terrible writer, you’re stupid, you’re… etc.) it’s not about you. It’s about them.
• Remember that not everyone can articulate their displeasure. So when you get a bad review that says “it sucked,” just roll with it. You know your writing doesn’t suck, but perhaps the person reading it just couldn’t put into detail why they didn’t like it. Maybe they didn’t want to put it into detail. That’s their choice.
• Look for the helpful or constructive parts of criticism, and think about them. This doesn’t mean that you necessarily need to change your writing based on negative reviews, but it does mean that if there is a nugget in there that is true, perhaps you should consider what it means for your writing.
• Know that everyone gets criticized sooner or later. Consider yourself part of a club.

Get the Crowd Involved

Have you ever seen a singer get ripped by the judges, and simply say to the crowd, “I had a blast with you guys tonight!” or “I think my fans enjoyed it!” They know that what the judges say is important, but what pleases their fans is even more important. Take your focus off the “judges” and the criticism and focus on your fans. If you don’t have fans yet, focus on the people you envision to be your fans.

Come Back Out Strong

Have you ever seen one of your favorite singers just completely suck at one performance, and then make it another week and have to try again? They have to shake off the bad performance and give the next one their all. They have to act as if they never failed, and instead have a new opportunity to do something great.

You need to do this, too. Forget about the criticism, and when you sit behind that keyboard, know that you have another chance to get it right.

The list function in Twitter has really been a lifesaver for me. Many people complain that there is so much info on Twitter it’s almost too confusing to use. I think it’s a good resource, and the way to manage it all is with organization. Lists are one way you can do that.

Following Someone Else’s List

If you click on Working_Writer’s Twitter page, you’ll see that I follow three different people’s lists.

These are from:

• @Girlfriendology/friendship-circle
• @kdawnbyrd/acfw-friends
• @Bookgal/fabbookpeople

They’re all related to writing, but in completely different ways. The Girlfriendology list has blogs in our Friendship Circle, which is a group of bloggers who regularly write about the topic of friendship. I’m with this group because I write for friendship at About.com.

The second list is from another writer in ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers). This isn’t a complete list, but rather an informal listing of writers that @kdawnbyrd/acfw-friends has noticed are on Twitter and are also a part of ACFW. Since I’d like to follow a list like this myself, I followed her already made list (saves you from having to create your own.)

The final list is from Penny Sansevieri, otherwise called @Bookgal. She is a wonderful resource for writers, so anyone she thinks is “fab” is someone I probably want to follow.

To follow someone’s list, you click on their profile name, and then way over to the right you’ll see the word “listed.”

See how mine says 175? That means I’m on 175 (at the time of this writing anyway) lists. If you click on the “listed” link, it will pull up all the people following you (or whoever you are trying to get list info for.) Once you do that, click on the “Lists” link that is directly beneath the profile info:

You’ll see lists by them and lists that they follow. You can follow any of these lists.

Creating a List

Creating a list is easy too. Hit “Home” and then “Lists” and you’ll see an option to “create a list.” You can name it and then search for and add people to it. Or, you can create a list and then just add people here and there as you remember and come across them.

For instance, if I were to add my other Twitter account to a list, I’d click on the profile, and then the little person icon, which brings up the option to “Add to list.”

I then have the option to add the person to an existing list, or create a new one from there.

How I Use Lists

I love Twitter lists for two main reasons. It helps me to be a good Twitter friend, and RT some of the links I really like from people, and it also helps me to find relevant info. I can locate tweets more easily from different groups or people. If I want to focus on tweets from ACFW writers, for example, I can easily do that with a list. This is especially good if you have people who constantly RT you. When you want to return the favor, you can locate them easier (like those in my friendship circle for example) with the help of a list.

In the past, I’ve created different lists relating to books I’ve released or writers I wanted to get to know. Lists are easy to create and also disband. When you’re done with one, simply delete it. Your contacts stay but you don’t have the list anymore if you don’t want it. Lists help you zero in certain topics, which, when you’re trying to promote a book or blog for example, is extremely helpful.

Do you use Twitter lists? What are some of the ways you’ve found them helpful?

Guest post by Emma Bell

My life has been filled with books since as early as I can remember. My mom’s a retired English teacher, and as opposed to force-feeding us into developing a love of reading, she simply gave my family easy access to the classics. Books were always there – and without the pressure to read this story or that my siblings and I just naturally grew up to be avid readers.

As a young child my favorite book was one that my older brother had sent off for, a Flintstones sort of mystery caper that had me as the protagonist. Because of my age I didn’t realize how this magical thing had happened, with my name and my siblings’ names laced throughout the story. I was aware enough to know that this brother whom I often thought didn’t care, did. And this was long before the advent of digital printing and personal computers; it took some doing, mailing off the information and money required to personalize a children’s book.

Technology took story telling into unimaginable realms, where as a kid I never could have predicted Ebooks and various digital downloads. I only knew what I had grown up with, words on paper in books that had weight and value to me. I still love the smell of books, both the new and fresh and the musty and old. I also love the convenience of being able to store countless stories on a hard drive too, but my heart still holds physical, tangible books as something sacred. Even as I minimized many of my possessions there were some books that I simply couldn’t part with because in many ways I view them as friends who have helped shape my way of looking at the world. And to see a child’s eyes light up when they spot one of their beloved books and then bring it to you to share is simply not something that technology can replace. Well-loved books are dog-eared and worn and everyone knows that “real” cookbooks are those riddled with stains from various delicious ingredients joined together in meals that helped woo lovers, cement friendships and also share in thanks with family.

Books have been banned, burned, reviled and revered; why is that? Because books make us think. Books don’t spell it all out in black and white; we as readers play an active part in visualizing the scenes just so. The story’s the thing, no matter how you ingest it, be it through eyes, ears or fingers; stories that expand minds, sway opinions, unite seemingly kindred spirits. They teach us, entertain us, make us feel connected just as others describe feelings of isolation and despair.

However you take the time to “read” a book, whether listening to an audio book on your morning walk or by curling up in front of a fire with a cup of tea – take the time for yourself to hear someone else’s story, you’ll be a better human for it.

Author Emma Bell writes for Coupon Croc. Want a personalized story for your child? Look here.

Influence Someone by Writing Your Own Book:

• How to Write a Nonfiction Book: From Concept to Completion in 6 Months
• Write That Book Already! The Tough Love You Need to Get Published Now
• You Can Write Children’s Books

Image: Phaitoon / FreeDigitalPhotos.net