Notes from Minnesota
Cold. Horribly cold.
I awoke to -20, that's air temp, not wind chill. The high is -5 today.
Jake the Min-Pin seems to frozen the tip of his little ear. Funny since he's outside just long enough to go “good boy” then he scrambles back in. Now he wears a sock (yes, the toe's cut off) on his head to keep the ears from touching the devil-cold.
Good thing my office is warm. I'm writing up a storm and l-o-v-i-n-g it.
This is a year of transition for me, and Filbert Publishing. I can feel it all the way to my marrow. For far too long, I've felt my writing career veer off course. But the last few months have caused me to ponder my future in this biz.
I don't know if you've ever felt this way... you wake up one morning thinking, “What the heck? How did I wind up here?” If you've ever pondered your writing career and come up with that answer, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
It's a pretty interesting situation.
More on all this later, along with how you can learn from my mistakes a bit later. For now, I have to run and pick up my wonderful boy from college. Yeah. His car wouldn't start this morning. I don't blame it. :)
Onward and upward! Here's to an exciting year.
Best,
Beth
P.S. Enjoy the feature article. It's a hoot. I love the website names. You'll know what I mean when you get there.
Beth's Hot Pick of the Week
Writers fear 'em. Artists angst over them. If you've ever experienced one, you understand frustration unending.
I'm talking blocks... writing blocks, creativity blocks... whatever you call 'em, you will inevitably deal with 'em.
But what if these little critters serve a purpose? How would your creative life change if you supposed they carried an important message?
This is exactly what I explore in my latest meditation CD called, “Dissolving Blocks.”
Highly recommended. Click here for more details.
February Events for the Creative Mindset Community
Here are the latest events to get your keyboard humming and profits rising:
This month you'll receive our second meditation CD called Dissolving Writing Blocks. Watch for it in your regular Creative Mindset Newsletter. Fun news? My new “Blue Snowball” microphone arrived and WOW! Talk about incredible. The difference in the quality of recording is astounding. I've re-recorded everything and am tickled pink at these new CDs. If you podcast or record directly into your computer, this microphone will rock your world.
Notice:Our February Call: Our Freelancer Round Table Discussion takes place on Thursday, February 21 at 9:00pm Eastern. We're talking Internet marketing techniques. You can get all the call-in information at our private Yahoo Group. If you're a member of the Creative Mindset Community and haven't gotten in, e-mail me and I'll get you the link. Just use the private e-mail addy at the bottom of your issue of the Creative Mindset Newsletter.
If you'd like to join the Creative Mindset Community, you'll receive monthly discussions, a fab newsletter, regular meditation CDs, a private Yahoo group, and much more. You can get all the info you need at the following link.
http://filbertpublishing.com/creative.html
Want to get published? Do this.. Part II.
I’m going to suppose you’re a green newbie and are starting your website from scratch.
If you’re a seasoned vet, I’d recommend that you still read through these next few pages because you just may find a number of nuggets you can plug into your existing website to make it far more profitable.
So let’s get running.
First, you need to pick a website name.
I know. Sounds elementary.
But I’m amazed at some of the website names I come across. I mean really? Were these people asleep when they chose their names?
Don’t make the same mistake I did: I chose the name FilbertPublishing.com NOT realizing that most people don’t have a clue what a “Filbert” is.
By the way, it’s a nut. Also known as a Hazelnut.
If I had a nickel every time I’ve had to spell “F-I-L-B-E-R-T Publishing.com… no… it’s F-I-L-B-E-R-T… like the nut.. yeah… No. Not Filbert.com. FilbertPublishing.com. It’s F-I-L-B-E-R-T…”
You get the drift.
Don’t spend so much of your time in this stupid frustration. Choose a good name.
I’ve run into the same dilemma with my other website name: BethAnnErickson.com
Yup. People can’t spell “Ann.” Nor can they spell “Erickson.”
I can’t imagine the nightmares from folks who choose names like:
Xlibris.com, Sasquatch.com, quincunx.com
Each of these names can easily be misspelled. Imagine years of spelling, spelling, and spelling (even when you’ve got the URL clearly written on a business card).
Worse yet, are those who haven’t taken a moment to take a good look at their website name. Imagine building your writing biz around any of these names:
NOTE: Please be aware, some of these names are unintentionally racy. If you feel you may be offended by an occasional racy term, skip this section.
1. This website called “Who Represents” helps you find agents “who represents” various celebrities. Their domain? www.whorepresents.com
2. Experts Exchange is a place where computer programmers come together to share ideas: www.expertsexchange.com
3. Therapist Finder becomes www.therapistfinder.com
4. Mole Station Native Nursery in New South Wales came up with this name: www.molestationnursery.com
5. Art designers came up with this catchy name: www.speedofart.com
Ouch.
Make your domain name easy to remember, not susceptible to typos, and not inadvertently silly (like those above).
It’s also a good idea to not hyphenate if possible.
For example, www.beth-ann-erickson.com would be even harder to explain than BethAnnErickson.com.
Remember, the name of the game here is to make it effortless for people to get to your site.
I also suggest that you try to nab a .com extension rather than .org, .net. or any of the other ones.
Do this for (at least) your main site. If you want to tinker with other extensions on some of your “play” sites, go ahead and have at it.
I know of someone who purchased www.copywriting.tv because www.copywriter.com wasn’t available. He’s now “playing” with the site with a fair amount of success. But this is NOT his main site. It’s simply a side money-making venture.
Choose .com for your main site. And in retrospect, if I had to do it over again, I’d choose something like:
Beth.com
Bethwrites.com
Or…
BethTheWriter.com
Something utterly simple, rather short, and easy to remember.
Now, you’ve got a name. What next?
Well, you need to find a place to host your site.
I’ve heard good things about www.GoDaddy.com although I’ve never used them. NetworkSolutions.com has a solid reputation and is a good (although fairly expensive) place to both host your site and register domain names.
I personally use www.1&1.com for both my domain registrations and website hosting. You can find a handy link to them on the resource CD. Or you can simply type in their URL into your browser.
I’ve heard some say that you shouldn’t host all your sites (assuming you have more than one) at any one place. The theory goes that if your hosting company goes out of business you could you’re your site in limbo for quite some time.
That’s probably good advice. So if you decide to maintain more than one site, spread the wealth. Go to a number of hosting companies as well as domain registration sites.
Now, you’ve got a name and a place to host your site. What’s next?
Well, that would be develop your website.
First things first: You need to ask yourself what you want your website to accomplish.
If you want to sell books, then design your site to do this.
If you want to sell your writing services, then you need a totally different design.
If you want to become a one-stop-shop for all important knowledge in a particular industry, then you need yet another different design.
Whether you want to inform your readers or persuade them to adopt your opinion, each of these goals will be reflected in every aspect of your website.
Don’t try to make your website do something it cannot do. An effective website will accomplish one task and one task only. To ask it to do more than this will only confuse your reader.
For example, FilbertPublishing.com is designed to be a valuable resource for freelance writers. That’s it. Writing Etc., (our free e-mag) complements this goal. All our books complements that goal. The free e-courses do this as well.
Everything we do on that website complements our one goal.
BethAnnErickson.com is currently designed to attract copywriting clients. That’s it.
I plan on a re-design for 2007, but it’s a major overhaul because my focus is about to shift big time. But I do know that my focus will be single minded.
So before you do one more thing, you need to sit down and decide what exactly you want your website to do. What do you want to accomplish. Then as you add pages, you can review whether the new information will enhance your goal or hinder it.
If it hinders anything, it’s time for a rewrite or potential elimination.
Just as an aside… as a writer you are responsible for making sure every piece of information you distribute is as accurate as you can possibly guarantee.
This means you don’t just distribute information willy-nilly. There's a very important part of your job as a webmaster that you probably haven't thought of yet.
I'll spill all the details next time... :)
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Beth Ann Erickson is the “Queen Bee” of Filbert Publishing. She’s also the author of numerous titles including “101 No Cost and Low Cost Secrets To Turbo Charge Your Freelance Income.” Pick up your copy today at http://filbertpublishing.com/101.html She’s also a busy copywriter, speaker, and publisher of Writing Etc., the free e-mag for writers.
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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
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here: http://www.worldwidefreelance.com
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