A Blogger's Books

Use Freelance Blogging to Get a Job After Graduation

2012-05-29T14:23:00.000+01:00

It's sensible to use freelance blogging to get a job after graduation because bloggers come in all shapes and forms. If you’re a current student, blogging may seem like a waste of time, or something that just won’t work with your schedule. But, if you do some freelance writing work that doesn’t take too much time away from your studies and social activities, there are actually plenty of ways you can use that experience to help in your post-graduation job search. Here are the top steps to set up a great record of experience, and even make a few connections as a student blogger.

Use freelance blogging to get a job after graduation

1. Concentrate on building a reputation in one niche

Many freelancer writers try to expand their repertoire to include as many different subject areas as possible. You may see one blogger writing about anything from travel to finance to parenting, and this is fine, but if you want to actively create a name for yourself as a new blogger, it helps to stick to one or two relevant niches where you feel most comfortable. The best way to do this is to think about what you would write about if no one was reading. What do you love? What do you have an opinion on that friends come to you for advice on? Once you know what comes most naturally to you, try to stick to writing within that vein. Using freelance blogging to get a job after graduation has to start small, and picking one niche makes this easier to build on.

Writer's Manifesto

2012-05-22T01:03:00.000+01:00

I recently came across an image on Pinterest that had me sit up and take notice. It was a collection of quotes and advice for writers. The ideas were simple, but the effect overall was huge. We sometimes forget as writers, how important it is to be what we are. We lose ourselves in the process and forget the point. Sometimes, we even forget to write. Here is a selection of the 20 tips that form a writer’s manifesto:

Writer's Manifesto

Make time to write every day

Set realistic goals

Embrace the joy of writing

Read

Follow your heart, not the market

Don’t just start stories, finish them

Dream big

Learn the rules, follow the rules, break the rules

Solicit, accept and manage constructive criticism

Forget your ego

Writing is a journey

Give back

Write scared

Remember you are the master, not the slave

Send your writing out into the world

Don’t be lazy: outline, research, rewrite

Build a life that supports your writing

Love what you do

Write with joy

Remember why you started

Inspirational Memoir: Sunday's Child

2012-05-16T16:13:00.000+01:00

Sunday's Child is my memoir. It's the inspiring, true tale of a little girl struggling to rise above appalling living conditions, poverty, violence and abuse (published by Pulse Publishing). It was released on May 22nd, 2012.

About Sunday's Child

Sunday's Child tells of the harrowing systematic abuse of a little girl by her grandmother, while giving the reader a glimpse of the political and cultural climate of 1980's Guyana.

In a desperate economic crisis, Guyana is forced to resort to food and energy rationing. Acclaimed author Anne Lyken-Garner's tale picks up on the humorous aspects that the young girl experiences while forced to spend hours in food lines, simultaneously unfolding the sadness and desperation that is her everyday life.

How To Stop Procrastinating And Get Writing

2012-05-15T01:05:00.000+01:00

How to stop procrastinating and get writing is a guest post by Samantha Gray.

Research papers are a vital part of the dialogue that moves the scientific community forward, and an inevitable part of an online degree program — they can also be personally intimidating and a chore to write. Just the thought of putting pen to paper can sometimes seem so gargantuan and so unpleasant that you will put if off and put it off until the pressure is on to complete your project.

Student researchers are often prey to needless delay, self-sabotage, and any number of other behavioral manifestations that fall underneath the umbrella widely known as "procrastination." But writers of every kind can identify with procrastination struggles, regardless of field, style, or form — even bloggers are all too familiar with procrastination.

How to stop procrastinating and get writing

Actually start writing

There has been a surge of interest in the source and correction of procrastination across the social spectrum, with students being highest on the list. But much of this research is purely quantitative and doesn't offer concrete solutions to the problem of procrastination - especially in writing.

Build Your Blog's Credibility: For Beginners

2012-05-08T10:53:00.000+01:00

No matter if you're a journalist, novelist, or blogger, there's one thing you must have in order to build a successful career as a writer: credibility. Credibility will help you make a name for yourself and acquire loyal readers. But credibility isn’t something that is obtained over night; it's something that's earned over time. There are some starting points that can help you earn that credibility however, especially if you're starting with the very basics: a blog.

Build your blog's credibility: for beginners is a guest post by Jane Smith

Build your blog's credibility: for beginners

State your source to build your blog's credibility

First and foremost, you must always state your sources. It's always encouraged to come up with a blogpost entirely original—something that has never been written about before. Originality alone can earn you credibility. But since there are so many bloggers out there, a lot of topics have already been covered. And chances are you'll end up writing an article that you were "inspired" to do after reading someone else's blog or news site. That's fine. Tons of creative people get inspiration from other people's work. However, you need to ensure that you don't come off as a plagiarizer and actually give credit where it's due, especially if the articles appear too similar.

Promo Day 2012

2012-05-08T10:52:00.000+01:00

THE event for the writing industry is back!

Promo day is an annual event for people in the writing industry dedicated to promoting, networking and learning. This years event will take place on Saturday 19th May 2012 at the brand new website

The online event organized by Jo Linsdell has evolved since its humble begins on the writers personal website and grown into a world-recognized event attracting thousands of visitors from around the globe.

The 2012 event promises to be the best yet with the launch of the new website and internationally renowned workshop presenters. The program is filled with fabulous and knowledgeable presenters and workshop topics are ones you can sink your teeth into. You'll be sure to come away with valuable connections via the networking areas and have opportunities to promote your own work and services throughout the day.

This unique event is completely free to attend and registration is now open via the website homepage. Once you're signed up you will be emailed the password to gain access to the forums where the conference takes place.

Since its inception in 2007, Promo Day has been incredibly successful and is a 'must-attend' for everyone in the writing industry.

PROMO DAY

Saturday 19th May 2012

http://www.promoday.info

http://promoday.blogspot.com

Ripper, My Love: A Novel By Glynis Smy

2012-05-04T10:41:00.002+01:00

Today writer/poet, Glynis Smy adds author/novelist to her name. Her debut novel; Ripper, My Love, is launched in ebook format and paperback. The genre for this love story falls into the one of Historical Romance Suspense.

Ripper, My Love

Growing up in late nineteenth century East London, Kitty Harper’s life is filled with danger and death – from her mother, her beloved neighbour and the working women of the streets.

With her ever-watchful father and living surrogate family though, Kitty feels protected from harm. In fact, she feels so safe that while Whitechapel cowers under the cloud of a fearsome murderer, she strikes out on her own, moving into new premises to accommodate her sewing business.

But danger is closer than she thinks. In truth, it has burrowed itself right into her heart in the form of a handsome yet troubled bachelor, threatening everything she holds dear.

Will Kitty fall prey to lust – and death – herself, or can she find the strength inside to fight for her business, sanity and her future? And who is the man terrifying the streets of East London?

Recycle Old Posts On Your Blog

2012-04-30T13:08:00.005+01:00

This article will show you how easy it is to recycle old posts on your blog, by just clicking a button. This is not to say that you should simply regurgitate old articles (or posts) on your blog as a norm. Your regular readers won't thank you for it. This article is about re-using your old articles to make your blog rate better in Google and increase your blog traffic by churning out the best content possible. Some reasons you may want to reuse old posts:
-not enough views on the articles
- posts not well-written the first time round
-no optimised pictures in post
-going on holiday and not enough time to write new articles
-old posts needs revision because they're no longer relevant, etc.

You may have articles you wrote in the past before you knew about keywords and what makes a blog post popular. These posts may have been well-written and helpful to readers, but hardly anyone has viewed them so far. Now you know a little more about keywords and express yourself better. You can spend a few minutes to edit your old articles and simply recycle and repost them on your Blogger blog - with the click of a button.

Create Subheadings in Blogger

2012-04-27T10:15:00.000+01:00

You can now easily create a subheading in Blogger with appropriate h1 and h2 fonts without adding extra coding.

See this page for the total list of Blogger new, updated features to help you blog better and improve your site significantly.

Create subheadings in Blogger

create subheadings in blogger - click to enlarge

The first thing you would've noticed when you attempted to write a new post since the updates was the new tools bar in 'post composition' mode. We've had to do without h1 font size for a long time. As you know, this size of font is very important for SEO on your blog. It's the biggest size font you could have on your blog. It tells search engines that whatever is written in that font is very important to the page and indeed to the entire site.

Romantic Fiction Publisher

2012-04-23T13:19:00.000+01:00

Romantic Fiction publisher calling for submissions. Are you a romantic fiction writer? Have you got a romantic fiction manuscript hidden away in the forgotten drawer? I recently gave you some news about Bang, crime novel publishers on A Blogger's Books. I hope that those of you with crime manuscripts were able to submit yours to them. This week I have a new publisher of romantic fiction to tell you about.

Romantic fiction publisher

Choc Lit is an independent publisher for romantic fiction. They've recently made the call for new submissions. All submissions must be previously unpublished. Here's a snippet of what they've said on their site:

Create Custom 404 Page For Blogger

2012-04-20T20:39:00.000+01:00

It's great news that Blogger users can now create and customize their own 404 page. This is the page your readers arrive at when they click on a link that no longer exists on your blog. You want them to know they're in the right place, but more importantly, you don't want them to leave and go search elsewhere. Your 404 page should be informative and enticing enough to encourage your readers to hang on and look around your site. A 404 page couldn't be easier.

See this page for the total list of Blogger new, updated features to help you blog better and improve your site significantly.

Create custom 404 page for Blogger

Go to Dashboard. Click on the blog you want to work on and choose, Settings. It's the last option on your the right of your screen (in new Blogger dashboard).
Now choose Search Preferences. (Click on image to enlarge).

create a custom 404 page in Blogger

Publisher For Crime Novels

2012-04-11T20:40:00.000+01:00

I've just come across Bang publishers. They publish crime novels, are actively calling for submissions and are looking to work with unpublished crime writers. If you're a crime writer seeking to get your foot on the first rung of the publishing ladder, then this may be your lucky break!

Calling all crime writers

This is what Bang publishers have said on their website:

BANG! Publishing is looking for aspiring authors to submit manuscripts for first novels that have

the potential to become a series of novels. All submissions will be carefully reviewed and if a

manuscript makes it through the review process BANG! will offer a contract for publication based

on an advance and royalty structure via our digital platform.

How To Add Alt Tags To Blogger Images

2012-04-11T20:39:00.003+01:00

Blogger users would be pleased to note that Blogger has introduced some great new features in uploading pictures and adding alt tags. This article is simply to point out the new changes to you and help you utilise them fully to benefit your site.
A person viewing your images knows exactly what they're about. However, even though Googlebots can read the text on your site, they can't read images. The only way Google and other search engines can know what your image is about is for you to tell them. When someone searches for the image of a white rose in the search panel, you can have the best white roses on your blog but your pictures will never come up in the search results unless the search engines know you've got them on your site. How do they know this? By alt tags! And this is why it's so important to know how to add alt tags.

See this page for the total list of Blogger new, updated features to help you blog better and improve your site significantly.

How to add alt tags to Blogger images

See here to read why optimizing images is important to your site. With these new updates, not only can you now add pictures from your mobile phone, you can do all sorts of other clever things that help with your SEO.
Click on the image icon in 'compose new post'. Once your chosen image has been uploaded to your new post, click on it. You'll see a pop up box that now allows you to add an extra large image (a new feature). It will also show you 'properties'. Click on this. From here you can add a title to your picture and an alt text easily!

Write Search Descriptions For Blog Posts in Blogger

2012-04-11T20:39:00.001+01:00

Being able to write search descriptions for blog posts in Blogger gives bloggers a great way of getting the best from search results.
The search description shows up in search results, so you can grab your opportunity to tell your potential visitors exactly what your post can offer them. New Blogger updates allows you to do this quite easily.

See this page for the total list of Blogger new, updated features to help you blog better and improve your site significantly.

Write search descriptions for blog posts in Blogger

write search descriptions for blog posts and pages

Create Meta Tags For Blogger Blog

2012-04-11T20:39:00.000+01:00

Blogger's new, improved features means you can now create meta tags for Blogger blogs. This is something new bloggers had a difficult time doing, since the only way to add meta tags to Bloggers was to edit the html - something well avoided if you knew nothing about html. Here's how you can now have your meta tags with ease.

See this page for the total list of Blogger new, updated features to help you blog better and improve your site significantly.

Create meta tags for Blogger blog

Blogger has also introduced some great new features in setting mode, which are extremely important for your PR rating and SEO. Please don't leave these for later. Do them now. Go to Dashboard - Setting -; Basic; then look at your Description. Make sure you have a description that includes your keywords for your blog before we move on. Don't leave your description panel empty. Also make sure your privacy setting is set to allow search engines to find your blog. Save your work.

My New Blog Roll

2012-04-11T20:38:00.000+01:00

Here's my new blogroll page. I've done it this way because a lot of the sites I want to recommend to you are Wordpress blogs. These sites do not show up properly on my current blogroll, where new blog post updates are concerned.
The following writing/blogging niche sites are the ones I read and have subscribed to myself. I can wholeheartedly recommend them to you. I've separated them into smaller groups for easy access, but a lot of the sites below deal with two or more aspects of the writing/blogging niche.

Beneficial reading: How to Write An Article

Earn money writing/blogging sites

How To Write For Traffic and Money

Make a Living Writing

Chitika Insights

2 Create A Website.com

Happy Easter

2012-04-08T21:15:00.005+01:00

To all A Blogger's Books friends, readers, subscribers and those just wandering by. I'm away from my desk at the moment, but just want to wish you and your families a very happy Easter!

See you around soon.

Writers Beware!

2012-03-30T17:10:00.003+01:00

Writers beware of the new Internet scam directed to writers, editors and bloggers. You will receive an invitation to write an article, create a blog post or edit a piece of work - usually in reference to a 'good work' to tug at your heart strings. You will be given the details of the work, and told when it's to be delivered. You'll also be asked how much you'll charge, and whatever price you quote won't seem to be a problem.

After all this has been established, you'll be asked for your address and phone number (which you'll refuse to give, obviously). Plans will be made to send payment to you, but at the last minute, you'll be told that the money has to be sent by cheque because the person doesn't or couldn't open a paypal account. You'll then be forced to grudgingly give your postal address because you've started the work, and want to be paid for your time.

Up to here: this happened to me. I had a gut feeling it was a scam and even asked my husband what I should do about it.

Blogger Great New Features

2012-03-24T13:42:00.004Z

Have you seen Blogger's great new features yet? I think Blogger has made great advancements because these new features are extremely important blogging tools, which have been sorely missed by Blogger users. In my last new features update I showed how Blogger had introduced 'Stats' something which bloggers welcomed with open arms, especially the fact that it allowed you to see where your traffic was coming from and what your popular keywords are. Blogger's great new features this time are bang on! Let's have a look:

Warning: please do not skim this post. There are so many important details you MUST do with your Blogger blog now.

Write Your Own Guide Book

2012-03-22T11:30:00.002Z

Can you write a guide book? Well, if you can, there's a good chance you could be published. Cicerone are looking for guidebooks about popular and not-so-popular places. This is what they've said on their prospective author page:

Write your own guide book

We are always looking to develop new guides to the best walking, trekking, mountaineering and cycling regions of the world, and to keep our existing guides up to date.

There are three questions to think through if you are contemplating writing a guide.

How I Lowered My Bounce Rate

2012-03-17T17:14:00.002Z

This article will show you what 'bounce rate' is and the 3 things I did to lower my bounce rate in a three month period. I'm continually going through my old articles to fix them so that I can take my bounce rate down even further (see the copy of my Analytics proof at the end of this post). For those who need more explanation, you can easily check your bounce rate by going to your Google Analytics account and looking on your dashboard. The higher your bounce rate, the worse it is for your Google rating. You work hard to get traffic to your blog, only to find that they leave as quickly as they came. You want to fix this now.

How I lowered my bounce rate

Common Spelling Mistakes On Your Blog

2012-03-10T17:58:00.001Z

We all make common grammar and spelling mistakes on our blog. Even the best of us forget how to spell words or how to make a subject agree with a verb sometimes. People who's mother tongue is English have difficulty spelling the following words - let alone those who're struggling to write English as their second language. This is not surprising though, because for every spelling or grammar rule in English, there are several exceptions.
The Internet is a hugely competitive place. We have to try hard to get those eyes on what we're saying, not on our mistakes. Here are a few common spelling mistakes I've seen on the Internet and some brilliant ways to help you remember not to make them.

Continue reading

Alltop: What Can It Do For You?

2012-02-28T20:08:00.000Z

When I first heard of Alltop I didn't think anything of it. I figured it was just another blog directory. I thought I'd add my blogs to Alltop, just like I have to many others. I thought I would get a few spammers asking me to follow their blogs because they had followed mine. You know, just as normal. I was dead wrong. Alltop is nothing of the sort. BTW- this is not a paid or sponsored article. I don't even get points or any sort of reward if you add your blog. I simply wanted to share this with you because it can help you with your blogging.

I first started noticing Alltop properly when it kept appearing on my Google Analytics figures. Within a couple of weeks of having my blogs approved, Alltop had become the top 10 traffic source of all 4 of the blogs I added there. Now, a little over a month later, and Alltop is one of my biggest traffic source.

Continue reading

Computer Quiz Questions

2012-02-25T16:17:00.004Z

Computer quiz questions link up: I planned this year to regularly link up to fun and interesting things happening around on the Internet. I know you love books and so do I. Many of you also come by to check out the writing and publishing tips featured here on A Blogger's Books. Have you looked at my updated writing jobs page recently? I've been paid for writing for some of them, so I know you won't regret having a look. You don't have to be a writer. If you're good with verses, cards or tips you can also get a steady income from all the places I've sourced there for you. I've recently finished my How do I write an article series and am very excited about it. You can bookmark and share the entire series at the link.

Coming back to fun things, here's a link to another computer quiz designed by top blogger Mitz, from Tips4PC.com. I know you'll enjoy this one - even though I failed it :-) Let me know how you did. It can't be as bad as me!

How To Write An Article Online: Importance of Networking

2012-02-23T22:12:00.000Z

How to write an article online: the importance of networking is the last in the series of A Blogger's Books' popular How to Write An Article series. As you know, this series was designed to help writers and bloggers improve their skill. It's especially useful for new writers and bloggers, but because it deals with online article writing, it brings insight to older, more matured writers, helping them adapt and modernise their writing to fit in with today's article writing requirements. This last article in the series deals with the importance of networking for writers. The rest of the series can be found and bookmarked here:
How to write an article online

How to write an article online - 5: the importance of networking with other writers

The first question we need to clear up is this one. Why have online writing friends? Why do I need friends if all I’m doing is sharing my work with the public?