It’s time for another rousing speedlinking session here on Beyond the Rhetoric. Each week, I try to feature some great blog posts from around the ‘net, so if you want to be mentioned in an upcoming edition of What’s Up Wednesdays, you’ll want to keep me in the loop. You can either do this via the comment form or by following me on Twitter.

Off to the races!

First up, we have fellow dot com mogul Shawn Knight. Like me, Shawn works from home and he has come to rely on his electronics as his source of income. When the computer goes down, we can’t exactly make any more money. That’s why he is determined to protect his electronics and increase productivity. Battery backup is the key!

Robert Janelle of Freelance Switch enjoys the multi-monitor setup of a good desktop computer, but what do you do when you’re stuck on just a small laptop? Simple! You can enjoy the joy of virtual desktops. Apple does it with Spaces on their MacBooks and now you can do the same with Windows machines too.

Over in the far end of the pasture is John Cow. When he’s not munching on grass and getting tipped over, he’s making money online. While it’s nice to associate with successful types, it’s going to be fat and lazy people who will make you rich. They don’t want to do anything (but they’ll pay you to do it for them).

You might be wondering about the title of today’s post. Well, the first half comes courtesy of Optempo. Over on that blog, you’ll find the top 10 rock and roll blogging tips of all time. From Weezer to Spinal Tap, rockers have blogging tips to share with you.

The second half of today’s title comes from Pink Tentacle. While it’s fairly common to see pigeons in the city, it’s another thing altogether when there is a wild monkey loose in Shibuya Station. If Ed Lau wasn’t back in Vancouver, I’d swear that they just mistook the him for the Japanese macaque.

What do dot com moguls do for fun when they’re not scarfing down on Vietnamese noodles? They wow the crowd with their toy guitar and drum-playing skills, of course!

On Sunday afternoon, a group of us went over to Greg’s place for a rousing session of Rock Band. For some strange reason, Stephen seemed very bent on getting me to sing Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld. I guess he was so impressed with my performance at the Vancouver International Game Suimmit that he just had to experience an encore.

Also joining in on the fun were Rock Band newbiie Gary Ng, Susanne, Greg’s brother Mike, and the freshly back from Tokyo Ed Lau. Fun was had by all, even though Stephen is one massive fail on the drums. I swear he was going to break Greg’s drums.

Now the question is whether I should “invest” in Rock Band 2 or if I should buy Guitar Hero: World Tour. Both have their strong points — both games will have at least one Linkin Park song — and both have their weaknesses. I guess I’ll just have to wait for the reviews to start coming out. That, or I’ll just have to review both myself! Ah, the trials and tribulations of a freelance writer!

Just as carpenters have hammers and doctors have stethoscopes, freelance writers have a few tools of their own as well. While the first writing tools that come to mind are usually things like pens, pads of paper, and a laptop computer, quite possibly the most important tools of the trade are not physical items at all. Given the nature of the Internet and how the vast majority of my freelance writing work is online, it’s understandable that some of the tools of greatest value are those that you can find online.

In my experience as a freelancer, these are some of the (free) online writing tools that I have come to use. It would be impossible to name them all, so I’ve limited the list to just five.

Online Word Count
http://www.javascriptkit.com

You may have noticed that when you copy and paste text from Microsoft Word into Wordpress, you occasionally get some rather odd characters that don’t display correctly. For this and some other reasons, I actually prefer to do most of my writing in Notepad. Yes, Notepad, possibly the most basic of Windows applications. One of the (many) shortcomings of Notepad is that it does not have a built-in word count. Thankfully, there is an online word count tool that accomplishes this little piece of functionality. It’s not fancy, but it gets the job done.

Common Errors in English
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians

Do you know the difference between affect and effect? How about when you should use whom instead of who? English can be a very tricky language, filled with all sorts of rules and then exceptions to all those rules. A professor from Washington State University has put together a webpage that lists several common errors in English. Chances are that if you have any uncertainty or ambiguity about how something should be worded, that page will clarify the issue for you.

Wikipedia
http://www.wikipedia.org

It depends on the topic and you may be able to get the most exhaustive of explanations, but Wikipedia can serve as an excellent source of information. Just be sure to take the articles with a grain of salt, because Wikipedia is known to have some random people messing up the pages. By and large, though, they get the job done. It was through Wikipedia that I learned more about Boom Boom Satellites (Bun Bun Sateraitsu).

Firefox Web Browser
http://www.mozilla.com

Remember how I said that I typically use Notepad for composing my freelance writing articles? Another shortcoming of Notepad is that it does not have a spellchecker… but Mozilla Firefox does. The whole multi-tab browsing thing and del.icio.us bookmarks integration (via a plugin) come in really handy too.

All Things Google
http://www.google.com

You knew that Google was going to make the list. You can use it to get your news from everywhere around the world. You can use it to search for information on just about anything. You can even use it to organize all your email in one convenient location. Going further, there are Google Docs, Calendar, Maps, Image Search… the list goes on and on. We may fight with Google over SEO and some of the company’s practices, so for this reason, Google is simultaneously my best friend and my worst enemy.

As I said, it is impossible for me to list all the free online tools and services that I use for my freelance work. There are some great stock photography sites, for example, that can come in handy when composing a feature keyword article. What are some of your favourite online freelance writing tools?

For this week’s episode of Ask Palpatine, the dark lord decided not to answer a question, but rather to invite Darth Dracus onto the show to review the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated movie. Most of his podcasts are funnier than this, but I figured I’d post his most recent. Enjoy!

In this day and age, you can gain access to a lot of information from a wide variety of sources. We are bombarded by new stories from just about every direction, so it’s just as easy to find out what is going on with the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing as it is to find out the daily special at your local greasy spoon diner. In fact, it’s arguably easier to learn the former than it is the latter.

Keeping in touch with popular culture, world affairs, and the latest technological developments is easier than ever and you’ve got a lot of options. With that in mind, which news source is the best?

The Evening News

This is where a lot of people turn to stay in tune with the rest of the world. The good thing about the 6 o’clock news is that you are exposed to a brief overview of the entire world. They’ll cover the top stories, entertainment, weather, sports, and more. Unfortunately, you have no control over which stories are covered and none of the stories are ever covered in-depth. You get an introduction and then they move on.

Late Night Talk Shows

You may find that the regular evening news is a bit of a snooze fest, so it’s much more entertaining to hear about some news through late night talk shows. It’s just more interesting to hear guys like Conan O’Brien and Jon Stewart mock the daily happenings. This is especially true of political coverage.

Newspaper (Dead Tree Edition)

There’s just something to be said about a physical newspaper. Although I spend the vast majority of my time online, I’m still inclined to pick up a free newspaper on a (near) daily basis. Like the evening news, the (dead tree) newspaper provides a comprehensive overview of what’s going on in the world. Unlike television, however, you can skip stories that don’t interest you and read more into stories that do.

Professional and Personal Blogs

The Internet being what it is, everyone has a voice these days. No longer are you restricted to official news sources for your information and that’s partly why we have become virtually addicted to the Internet. I’m much more inclined to hear about video game news from Kotaku and car stories from Autoblog, rather than having to wait for a monthly magazine. That’s because these professional blogs are truly on the cutting edge, getting stories out well before the newspapers, magazines, and TV programs. Want to know about cell phones and mobile tech? Check out Mobile Magazine.

Google News and Online Newspapers

Continuing with the online trend, you can gain access to virtual newspapers from all around the world all from the comfort of your home computer. Google News is particularly powerful, because it collects the top stories from all around the globe, seeing which news items are being picked up by the most news outlets. Like personal and professional blogs, the news can be very timely as well.

Radio Shows

While I do not need to put up with a daily commute, those who do may be inclined to get their news through radio shows like those hosted by Buzz Bishop. In addition to the tunes that these deejays pump out, they also inform you of cool contest, local happenings, and top stories too. There are also radio stations that are 100% dedicated to news.

The Water Cooler (Virtual Too!)

Make use of your friends and colleagues! Living in cubicle land, you can gather at the water cooler and discuss just about anything that is on your mind, whether it be Sex in the City or Barack Obama. If you work from home, you can also make use of this dynamic through “virtual” water coolers like Twitter. Following the right people, you can stay up to the minute on all the big news stories.

So, where do you get your news? A combination of all of these?

Freelance writers and other online entrepreneurs are perpetually faced with quite the conundrum. Because we can work at any given hour of the day, we oftentimes feel like we should be working at every given hour of the day. This is the slippery slope toward burnout, because it can difficult to find yourself completely off-duty. Work is always on the mind.

As I’m sure you realize, your work should not dominate your life. It’s important that you take part in different leisure activities. It’s important that you find enjoyment in your hobbies, especially those that are not directly related to what you do for a living. These pleasure activities are just as (if not more) important than your work-related activities. They deserve your time.

Making Time to Have Fun

While freelancers enjoy a certain level of freedom, we still have to get our work done. We may have to book appointments to meet with our clients. We may be faced with pending deadlines, forcing the issue of getting a particular project done on time. These kinds of items easily find their way into our calendars.

If you find that you never have enough hours in the day and it seems like you are working yourself to the bone, it might be in your best interest to schedule some leisure time. Determine a time when you would like to just relax and mark it on your calendar. This “appointment” or “meeting” bears just as much weight as any other appointment or meeting. Don’t let your leisure time get bullied. Your time is your time.

Good Planning is the Key

Some people seem to think that freelance writers and online entrepreneurs enjoy an incredible level of freedom, being able to leave work at the drop of a hat. This may be true for some individuals, but for the rest of us, proper leisure time requires some planning and preparation. It was because I pre-wrote some of the work for the day that I was able to attend Dot Com Scooter Gang (pictured above). It was because I planned ahead that I could go out to Langley to ride (and crash) a Segway.

If you are having a hard time finding life-work balance and can’t seem to find the time to relax and have fun, try scheduling your “spontaneous” leisure time. And stick to that appointment. This also works for people with regular jobs as well; book out that time in Outlook so that you can attend your daughter’s dance recital. She’ll love you for it.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not terribly familiar with the finance and banking industries. There are a lot of terms that are thrown around that I do not necessarily understand. Given some recent happenings in my life, I got to learn the difference between a few different kinds of “secure” money vehicles, so I thought that I would share these with you today. If you’ve ever wondered what’s the difference between a money order and a certified cheque (certified check), and how those relate to a bank draft, then I’ve got the layman’s response for you.

A money order can be acquired from a number of different locations, including the post office. You do not need to go to a bank to get a money order. All you do is provide the representative with the funds, as well as the name of the recipient, and you will be presented with a money order for that amount. There is always a fee involved, usually a few dollars, for this service. The limitation of a money order is that its value is typically limited to $1,000 or less.

A certified cheque (or certified check, if you prefer) is just like a regular cheque/check from your bank account. You do not need a special form and a certified cheque will largely look like any other cheque. The difference is that you can take your cheque to the bank to get it “certified”. What this means is that the bank guarantees that there are funds in your account to accommodate this cheque, typically setting the money aside so that it cannot be touched. However, many banks do not provide this service anymore.

A bank draft functions in much the same way as both a certified check and a money order in that the money is guaranteed to the recipient. Instead of going to a post office or providing a personal cheque, you get a bank draft by going to your favorite financial institution and providing them with the funds directly. Unlike a money order, there is virtually no limit on the size of a bank draft. Although you do provide the names of the sender and the recipient, you are told to treat the bank draft like cash.

In essence, all three of these things — money order, certified cheque, and bank draft — serve the exact same purpose and come with very similar fees. There are obviously alternatives as well, like the email money transfer, direct deposit, PayPal, and bank wire transfer. The critical elements in all of these are two-fold: first, a record/receipt is provided to the sender and second, the money is guaranteed for the recipient.

Now you know. And knowing is half the battle… you know the rest.

As if by magic, we find ourselves in a Wednesday once more. In order to survive hump day, that means that it’s also time to see what everyone else is discussing this week in the blogosphere. We’ve got quite the varied crowd this week.

Betshopboy knows a thing or two about finding balance. When he’s not making money online, he’s attending some massive gaming tournaments, taking pictures and videos along the way. He also happens to have a contest going on to celebrate his blog’s one year anniversary.

Freelance Folder reached out to its readers to see what they had to say about succeeding in the world of freelance writing and design. The net result is a massive list of killer tips. From brand strategy to the best gadgets, there’s a tip in here for everyone.

Enkay Blog has noticed that while everyone is jumping into the video blogging thing these days, not everyone is giving the videos the attention they deserve. That’s why he has put together a guide that differentiates good and bad video editing. Are you using transitions? Music? Hand puppets?

Buzz Bishop is a Vancouver institution, so he knows a thing or two about our favourite sport: hockey. While most people in this town are obsessed with Roberto Luongo, Curtis Sanford is the goalie who needs your help. You can design a new helmet for him and win an autographed jersey in the process.

Carl Nelson is safe and sound in Asia again after visiting the Dot Com Pho in Vancouver for pho and scooters. Before he completely settles back down, however, Carl is paying a visit to the land of the rising sun. He’s not staying at a regular hotel, however. Instead, he’s finding a Ryokan in Japan. Say hello to the tatami mat!

Just as actors may have a certain method to approaching certain roles, freelance writers also have methods for approaching different kinds of work. When it comes to feature articles, I tend to go through the same progression of steps, regardless of the subject manner. I am not necessarily stating that this is the best method, per se, but it’s the one that has served me quite well in my freelance writing career.

Before I dive into my procedure for writing feature articles, it’d probably be a good idea for me to define exactly what a feature article is in the first place. Generally speaking, a feature article is an article that is written to entertain or inform the reader. It may be related to current events or it could be a topic of general interest. The line between a feature article and a keyword article can also get quite muddled, because the two can really be one and the same. For example, I wrote a Nintendo DS walkthrough a short while back for LoveToKnow Video Games. That is a keyword article, but it is also a feature article.

So, how do you go about writing a feature article? Let me describe my personal method.

1. Research the Topic

Before you can write an article of any value to the reader, it is imperative that you research the topic. It certainly helps if you are already familiar with the subject matter, like when I wrote about Guitar Hero for the PSP, but it’s still important to gain as much knowledge on the subject as possible. Don’t overdo it — that’s a waste of time — but research enough that you’ll be able to produce an intelligent, insightful, and useful article.

2. Stop and Think about What to Say

Before I get down to any actual writing, I typically step away from the computer and just do a little brainstorming. I consider the angle that I am going to take with the article, what points I want to discuss, and how I will be able to make my feature article stand out from other articles that are covering the same topic. Depending on the subject, this moment of thought can last anywhere from a couple of minutes to half an hour. For more intense topics, I may even sleep on it and write the article the next day.

3. Produce a Very Rough Outline

This varies considerably from topic to topic, but it is sometimes helpful to produce a rough outline. By using the inverted triangle for introducing the subject, adhering to an academic essay style of writing, you can be sure that your article is coherent and logical. For blog posts like these, my outline is comprised of the section headings only.

4. Complete the First Draft in One Sitting

Whenever I write a feature article, product review, blog post, or whatever, I make an effort to complete the first draft in a single sitting. I do this for two reasons. First, it forces me to just get it done. It’s not important for the first draft to be absolutely perfect; it’s more important to get your thoughts down on paper (or on the computer screen). Second, by getting the first draft written in a single sitting, the “voice” of the article will be more consistent. This is also why I tend to write my articles from beginning to end, rather than hopping around the different sections. This way, the transition from one section to the next is smoother.

5. Proofread, Edit, Revise, and Alter

If time allows, it is often a good idea to revisit your feature article with fresh eyes on a new day. I realize that this almost contradicts the previous point, but by looking at your work with new eyes, you may be able to catch errors and inconsistencies that you may not have found otherwise. Edit and revise as you see fit. When you think you are done, read the article through from beginning to end once more to make sure that it is still coherent, logical, and entertaining.

6. Be Satisfied and Move On

Believe it or not, it is impossible to write the perfect feature article. You can write a good one, even a great one, but it will never be perfect. One of the greatest keys to freelance writing success is being able to produce good articles in a timely fashion. If you get hung up on the tiniest of details, you will never get your work done. Be satisfied with what you have accomplished and then take a well-deserved break. It won’t be long before you’ll have another feature article to write.

We live for the honeymoon phase.

You may have noticed that when you traded in your old clunker of a car for something a little newer and better equipped, you felt like the king of the world. It may have been exhilarating to have those extra horses at your disposal or maybe you were more interested in all the creature comforts found within. This novelty factor, however, quickly wears off and the car soon feels like it’s not quite as fast as when you first got it. The truth is, the new car didn’t get any slower; you just got used to it.

When you set a specific goal for yourself, you may set out a plan as to how you are going to achieve it. If the goal is something monetary, like saving up enough money to buy the latest cell phone or video game system, then you may create some sort of savings plan. You are motivated to stick to this plan, because you want to get that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But what inevitably happens when you actually achieve this goal?

A Moment of Bliss, Then… Now What?

The fact of the matter is the reward is not so rewarding once it has been rewarded. You can work for years to achieve a certain success and you will be filled with overwhelming bliss in the moment, but once that moment passes, you could be left feeling slightly empty and without direction.

The Olympics are probably one of the best examples of this. For all intents and purposes, it is nearly impossible to win a gold medal. It’s hard. Really hard. Many of the athletes train for almost their entire lives just so that they can have that one shot. Just so that they can put it all on the line for the single fastest lap in the swimming pool.

Winning a gold medal can provide one of the highest highs a human being can ever experience. I can’t even begin to fathom the kind of elation you’d experience at that moment. However, after holding the medal in your hands for a while, you may start to question whether it was all worth it. It’s becomes a “Really? That’s it?” kind of moment. I know that’s how it felt for me at my university convocation.

The True Purpose of Goals and Rewards

The real reason why you should set goals for yourself is not so that you can earn some sort of reward when you achieve these goals. You can use the reward as your motivation, to be sure, but that’s not where the true value lies. Instead, goals and rewards are there to provide you with direction in life. This way, you can keep walking forward, rather than wandering around aimlessly.

I realize that this is going to sound incredible cliche, but it’s all about the journey and not the destination. The happiest and most emotionally-charged moment you will ever have is that moment right before you receive the reward. With the reward in your hand, it soon becomes time to seek another. Keep moving forward.