Crayon Writer

Daycare is work, let me tell you!

After just three part-time days a couple of weeks ago, my daughter got a knock-out cold. Not wanting to stress her out (being in a new place while sick), and not wanting to expose her to more germs while her immune system was compromised, and not wanting to get others sick, I kept her home.

Week one came and went. The doctor said she had a sinus infection. So I’m stuck home another week with not only a busy, play-with-me-all-the-time toddler, but a sick one too. On top of that, I got the lovely cold the second week. It knocked me out for the count too. Lovely.

On the bright side, I did land a temporary gig that will allow me to focus on getting a permanent “day job” without worrying about money for a minute. If you’re a freelancer looking for a part-time or temporary thing, try promotions work. The gigs are usually pretty easy, and if you go through the main company (rather than where they outsource), they can pay pretty well. I’m working on a promotion with AMP Agency.

So things are looking up. And I have enough energy to blog again, now that my cold is on its way out.

Oh, and I finally upgraded to WordPress 2.5. Not bad. I got my visual editor back, and I get to play with a new toy. I love new programs. They keep me on my toes.

Do you blog well when you’ve got a cold? Have you upgraded to 2.5 yet?

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Writing a blog on a regular basis can be difficult. You have to think of something to write about constantly, and every so often you get blogger’s block.

I recently read a wonderful post by Graham Jones that is really going to make my blogging life much easier (if I make myself take his advice, that is).

Basically, Graham likens blogging to being the publisher/editor of a major publication like a newspaper or magazine. You have certain columns that are written on a regular basis. You know what I’m talking about. Like “Dear Abby,” letter to the editor, horoscopes, etc.

To translate this for your blog, you come up with the type of story you want to write each day for a week, month, 2 months, or whatever timeframe you like. I’ve noticed a lot of bloggers have “Wordless Wednesdays” where they post only a picture for that day. Or Thursday 13. Perhaps you’ll save Fridays to announce your projects for the week. You get the idea.

What makes this appealing to me is that I won’t have to come up with a topic all the time. It’ll be mapped out for me in advance, even if I don’t have the actual post written. I’ll just know that today is Copywriting Tip day, or that tomorrow is New Poll day.

Do you have a blogging schedule? How does it work for you? Or do you write by the seat of your pants, like I tend to do? What’s your preference if you’ve tried both methods?

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When you write a blog post or a marketing piece for a client, do you write like you talk?

Generally, I write Crayon Writer the way I think and speak. You may notice the words “so”, “but”, and “and” a lot, for instance.

I also write like a writer (or maybe I think like a writer). When I talk or think, I see the commas, periods, hyphens, and apostrophes in my head. Weird, huh?

Is it a good idea to write like you talk? I think it depends on how correctly you speak or think. If you know that you’re prone to mixing up the subjective and objective tenses, or you know that you don’t spell while you’re thinking, you might want to take a step back after you write something down. A second pair of eyes might be a good idea, even.

But if you know the basic rules of grammar and punctuation , there’s nothing wrong with sounding like a normal, everyday human when you write. Complete with sentence fragments, run-on thoughts, and even colloquial errors.

Above all, have fun when you write. If you spend too much time nitpicking you may sound like a robot. At the same time, make sure others can understand what you mean in your writing.

Here’s an example of a writing faux pas. I saw a truck the other day, driven, I presume, by a woman. There was a cute message written on the window that took me quite a while to figure out. The layout and the missing punctuation were hard to decipher.

Silly boys trucks

are for girls.

Huh?

First I thought, “What are silly boys’ trucks? I guess she’s driving a silly boy’s truck. Interesting. But why are silly boys’ trucks for girls? Why are the trucks silly?”

Finally it dawned on me that she was mimicking the Trix commercial, “Silly rabbit! Tricks are for kids!”

So she did two things wrong. There should have been some punctuation after the word “boys” and the “trucks are for girls” should have been on a line by themselves at the least.

So (didn’t I tell you I use that word a lot?), be careful when you write like you talk, but have fun! You won’t be getting a grade on your blog, but your clients may have something to say about it if you get it wrong.

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What do you do? I’m having problems with WordPress, so I’m not blogging. That’s my solution. Maybe it’s not the best, but it’s no fun writing a blog post when the visual rich editor isn’t working.

Any WordPress 2.3.3 or 2.3.1 experts out there who might be able to help? Everything was working fine one day, and then it stopped the next, with nothing changed on my end (as far as I know).

So, stay tuned. I’ll be writing again when I can indent my posts, switch between code and WYSIWYG, etc. Thanks for your patience.

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Photo by Zsuzsanna Kilián

Just like most bloggers, I use a spam catcher (Akismet) for the comments.

The only problem is that sometimes, oftentimes even, legitimate comments find their way into the spam net. It’s weird, because some are from people who have commented before. In general, I’ve noticed that it catches comments that include a link, and comments whose email addresses are similar to the writer’s website. Strange.

Also, if you haven’t commented before, your comment has to be moderated first. I generally accept all comments. But if the comment is offensive, rude, or something I think is unacceptable for me or my readers, I won’t approve it. That doesn’t happen often, though (maybe 5 in the past year). Feel free to ask.

So if you make a comment that didn’t go through (and the comment was polite, didn’t have curse words, and wasn’t offensive), please feel free to contact me to find out what happened. I do check the spam catcher periodically, but sometimes I don’t get to it before they’re deleted.

Finally, thank you all so much for taking the time to leave comments on my blog! I really appreciate it. Comments are what keep me blogging. Knowing that people actually read what I write (and sometimes even compliment me) makes it all worthwhile. Thank you.

Anyone have a suggestion for a better spam filter that really does “learn” as it goes along?

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If you’ve been reading the comments, you might remember the discussion about whether writing for PayPerPost and other paid review sites is a wise idea.

I argued that I’ve seen an increase in Google traffic since my PR was dropped from a 3 to a 0. I also argued that this is my site, not Google’s, so I can monetize however I see fit. There was praise for my courage, and concern that I would never get PR (I thought “never” sounded like a mighty long time, sort of like “life” and “forever” (Prince fans know what I’m talking about)).

Well, I found out that, as opposed to being “slapped” by Google, I’ve been lightly caressed. I now have a PR2! Interesting, especially since I’ve stepped up my paid reviews.

Was all the Google hoopla just a scare tactic? Did Google make a mistake that they’ll soon fix? Will Google really banish the thousands of paid reviewers to PR0, despite the age of our blogs and the incoming links?

While we ponder these mysterious questions of the Googlesphere, I’ll take advantage of the increased pay from reviews that a PR2 will bring.

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Lately I’ve been wondering what readers think about Crayon Writer. Why do you come back to read more? What interests you? Who are you? How’d you find my site?

Luckily, a wonderful post on PureBlogging, 99 Ways to Improve Your Blog, reminded me about polls (it was lucky number 13 on the list). I quickly downloaded the poll plugin, and voila!

Check out the sidebar to place your vote. You can choose up to three options, and you can of course choose “other” and just leave a comment with your answer(s).

This first poll ends Friday night. I’d like to know what you’d like to see on Crayon Writer. Then, stay tuned. I’ll be changing the poll frequently to get a better idea of who my readers are.

Now, if only I could figure out how to put the poll directly into a post…. Maybe next time.

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I mentioned a while back that I joined Entrecard, and I thought it might be time to tell everyone how much I like it.

Entrecard Pros

One of the best things about Entrecard is that I’ve met a lot of other bloggers. I’ve made some new online friends, I’ve found some really great blogs, and I’ve even made some money.

With the influx of traffic comes clicks on my sidebar items, so I’ve made a few sales and some Adsense money. I’ve also written several guest posts, which has brought me even more traffic. Recently, a cool site started a contest that featured my blog. (Thanks Leisa!)

I’ve also decided on an Entrecard philosophy for dropping cards. I don’t drop cards on blogs that I don’t want to support for whatever personal reasons. I like the idea that Entrecard popularity could wind up being a democratic process, so I do my part by not “voting” for some.

Entrecard Cons

Entrecard can take a bit of time, because you have to visit a lot of sites to drop your card (which earns you Entrecredits). And if you’re like me, you can’t help but read some of the posts as you go along.

Besides the amount of time it takes to maintain a high position or to grow your site, I have one more complaint. Though Entrecarders do visit often and even leave comments, my subscribership hasn’t budged.

I also gave up offering my writing service for Entrecredits. For now. I wound up taking on too many projects, and I wasn’t sure that the amount I was “charging” was really worth my time and effort. I wound up refunding (plus interest) several buyers’ credits. My time is probably better spent trying to get new clients that pay real money. Now that Entrecard is starting a service for buying and selling credits for real money, I might start again, but I’ll only do one project at a time.

Have you tried Entrecard? If not, why not? If so, have you noticed any particularly good or bad things so far?

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Well, sort of.

Crayon Writer was started in February 2007, I moved it from Blogger to WordPress in March 2007, and I moved it to my own domain in April 2007.

In any case, Happy anniversary, Crayon Writer! I’ve learned a lot this past year. I had never blogged before, and Crayon Writer introduced me to a whole new world…the blogosphere. It’s been quite a ride, and I’m not stopping any time soon.

I’m curious. How long have you been one of my readers? Let me know if you think you’re one of the oldest.

If you’re new here, welcome! Please take a look around, comment, and subscribe if you want to read more. I’ve found that I never remember to go back to a blog, even if I plan to, unless I subscribe to it.

This week would be a great time to go back to the beginning to see where it all started. Personally, I’ve noticed that I’m still dealing with some of the same conundrums I started with. For instance, I still haven’t enrolled my daughter in daycare, but I consider it almost daily. But now that she’s a year older, I may finally be able to handle it .

Enjoy traveling down memory lane with me, and feel free to add comments to some of my earlier posts. They’re quite empty.

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If you’ve been reading Crayon Writer for a while, you know that my primary method of getting new clients is via cold emailing instead of cold calling.

I’ve never gone into much detail about how I do cold emailing, and I also wanted to discuss the anti-spam legislation as it relates to cold emailing.

Thanks to my Entrecard travels, I met a great blogger who asked me to be to his first guest blogger. I was honored, and the article I wrote is up and running. Of course, the guest post I wrote is about getting new clients using cold email.

A big thanks to Marcus Hochstadt from the Internet Business Guide for this wonderful opportunity. His blog has some very helpful information about building an Internet business, so definitely hang out there for a while. And enjoy my guest post too.

If you get a chance to check it out, please leave a comment here or on Marcus’ site (or both). We’d love to hear your thoughts! 

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