Beth's Pick of the Week

Mark November 20 on your calendar. That's the day of the first ever Writing Etc. teleconference.

The topic? Marketing Your Writing Biz and Jumpstarting Your Freelance Income.

I'm taking your questions and revealing my personal system for creating a predictable inflow of work as well as a consistant income.

And what'll this first ever teleconference set you back? A mere ten bucks. (Actually, it's 9.95.)

PLEASE NOTE: If you're a Creative Mindset Newsletter Subscriber, this teleconference is free. Just e-mail me at the addy at the bottom of your latest issue and I'll shoot you all the details.

So, get a pad and paper set to go. Line up your questions.  I'll answer them first come, first served. We've got one hour.

I'll see you on the 20th!

(Sorry. The date has passed. Link removed.)

P.S. Just in case you're wondering, I've banned upsells. You won't hear any pitches either. Just pure freelance marketing  information.

Link removed.

P.P.S. I'm processing all your orders by hand. I like knowing who'll be on the call. Once you sign up, you can expect a welcome e-mail from me with a link with all the specifics as well as my personal e-mail addy where you can send your questions. And yes. I'm recording the call so if you're out of town or busy on November 20, 9:00 pm Eastern... you'll get a free MP3 download. :)

The October Issue of The Creative Mindset Newsletter

This month's all about marketing.

Freelance writers face some interesting challenges when it comes to marketing their writing skills, books, articles... heck, even crafting an effective query can be more of a challenge than you ever imagined.

In this issue, I cover some essential information you need to get straight before you pen one word. Then I launch into the secret structure every single persuasive piece possesses.

Sign up today and get your own issue mailed to your physical address, free meditations, teleseminars, downloads, and more.

Here's the link: http://filbertpublishing.com/creative.html

P.S. Did you know that every single subscriber to the Creative Mindset Newsletter will receive Filbert Publishing's latest meditation CD? You missed the last one, don't miss the next. It's guaranteed to blast through writing blocks. Also, you'll get in on every single Writing Etc. teleseminar absolutely free. The first one, as a companion to this month's topic is called "Markeing Your Writing Biz." Sign up today to get all the juicy info.


Cool Tools for Writers and Marketers

www.3chix.com

www.rosendahlwrites.com

The Net is stuffed to the gills with so many choices for tools and software packages designed to streamline your business that it’s hard to decide which ones will be right for you. Here are a few we found that work really well - and some of them are free!

Web Hosts

Whether you’re new to online marketing or a seasoned vet, sometimes you come to a point in your career where you need a different web host. If you’re like me, you have more than one website working for you and will need something called a bulk or reseller account and I really like HostGator (http://www.hostgator.com) for that.

When you go there, you’ll have the chance to buy either a reseller account or go with a shared plan. While the shared plan is cheaper - and more attractive in some respects - do yourself a favor and go with the reseller account. It’s $10 a month more but you get a lot more flexibility in adding websites. Don’t worry about the word “reseller”. You don’t have to be in the business of selling web hosting programs to have a reseller account. Believe me, I went with the shared plan at first - I thought I was so clever! - and ended up having to upgrade to do everything I wanted to do which took time and a bit of money to do.

HostGator comes with Site Studio which is a web site builder. It’s $2 extra per month per site to use it but it’s worth it. It’s WYSIWYG so you don’t need to know html and there’s a publish button so you don’t have to worry about transferring files via an FTP server. You can easily upload files to your site at HostGator via file manager if you do them in another web building program.

Project Organization

Are you someone who does better with a visual map or chart in front of you? Me too. I found this cool software that let’s you create visual charts with notes, attachments and even website attachments. It’s called Mindjet, http://www.mindjet.com.

You can download a free 21-day trial to see if you like it and the tutorials walk you through how to use most of the features. I recently used it to map out a new copywriting project and it worked like a charm.

Link Cloaking and Tracking

If you’ve done any affiliate marketing - or are thinking about it - there are 2 tools you don’t want to be without: Click Audit and Tiny URL. These two help clean up those long and gross-looking affiliate links and assist in the details of testing.

Click Audit: You can set up a free account and start tracking which ad campaigns are working and will know instantly which aren’t. If you know you’re going to be sending out one ad campaign to several different places, set up a group for that ad campaign and create separate links for each publication.

For instance, if you’re doing an article that you’ll submit to Ezinearticles.com and Netpreneurnow.com, set up two different links so you can see how many times your link was clicked in each publication. Make sure to set up different links for each place you’re running an ad to test it as well.

Tiny URL: This is an indispensable item for any marketer. It turns long links into short ones and also masks an affiliate link. Some people won’t click a link that is an obvious affiliate link. It’s free to use. Head to http://www.tinyurl.com to check it out. I love it and use it all the time.

Microsoft Word Toys

If you do any writing in your business and would love to be able to have a split screen to go back and forth between drafts, here’s the best thing since, well, Windows. It’s freeware from Microsoft for XP that allows you to have two, three or four virtual desktops.

It’s called Virtual Desktop and lets you split your screen into as many as 4 separate screens at a time. I usually only use 2 at a time but you can keep opening screens and they’ll lie atop each other.

Go to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx and look on the right side of the page for the Virtual Desktop download.

After you’ve downloaded the freeware, find a blank space on your XP toolbar [the one at the bottom of your screen where all your startup icons are], right click to find tools, click that and look for Desktop Manager. Click that and you should be set. There’s also a read file for these toys that will guide you through the quick setup.

This should avoid the expense of two monitors or another video card.

Well, we hope these suggestions help you. Please feel free to get in touch with us if you find some cool tools.

~~~
Victoria Rosendahl (along with Donna Doyle and Beth Ann Erickson) are the 3Chix. Check us out at http://3Chix.com

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I Recommend:

Writing For Dollars! The FREE ezine for writers featuring tips, tricks and ideas for selling what you write. Receive the FREE ebook, 83 WAYS TO MAKE MONEY WRITING when you subscribe. Email to subscribe@writingfordollars.com -*-

http://www.WritingForDollars.com

WRITERS FIND MARKETS EASILY - Worldwide Freelance has a NEW fully-searchable Markets Database. Discover writing markets from North America, Europe, Australia and other places. It's free, so come and try it out

here: http://www.worldwidefreelance.com

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