Tag Archives: blogs

advice, gear

Image Tools For Bloggers

Are you a newcomer to blogging wondering where you can find the right tools to make good images? I personally use two excellent pieces of software–three if you count Paint, which is standard equipment for Windows PCs and laptops. Paint is so basic that it’s almost not worth mentioning–with one notable exception needed for WP blogs that aren’t hacked to include an automatic white (or black if your theme design is dark) border around the right-hand edges of text.

You need that little white border to keep the text from butting right up against the image. Yes, we know we’re guilty of this in some cases-I’m working on it with some remedial training of my non-Paint usin’ collegues, heh.

 All you have to do in Paint to add that little white border?

  • Open the image
  • Select any draw/paint tool
  • Make sure your primary color for that tool is white
  • Click on the bottom right corner of the image and pull diagonally a tiny bit
  • Watch the white space grow as you drag

Another excellent tool you will need as a blogger is found in MS Office 2007 and above. Continue reading Image Tools For Bloggers →

gear, lifestyle

Gizmodo on Wi-Fi Harassment, Er, Marketing

Gizmodo, one of my favorite gadget blogs, has accidentally come up with a brilliant marketing idea. Intended as a spot of harmless fun, the entry “Harass Your Neighbors With Your Wi-Fi Hotspot Name” advises people to rename their wi-fi networks all kinds of amusing, snarky things including “ISawYouNaked” and my favorite, “KeepThatNoiseDown”.

Funny thing is, this can also work well for marketing your writer’s blog or resume site. Do you have a short URL? FreelanceZoneDotCom might just fit, though I haven’t tried yet. How many people are within range of your wi-fi network? You might just discover a sympathetic neighbor, or even a fellow freelancer lurking in your ‘hood.

Of course, you can always resort to “YourDogWon’tShutUp” but isn’t a nice friendly chat with the offending neighbor a better way to go? Especially when you’ve got shameless self-promotion to consider.

editorial

John Windsor on Techno-Lonliness

I read a great post just now by John Windsor on his Cultural Radar blog. Windsor made some observations about people who are so tied to their cell phones, PDA, e-mail, and instant messaging that a new phenomenon seems to be emerging. Techno-lonliness is what he calls that feeling of being cut off from the rest of the world because you can’t or aren’t allowed to access your gadgets (mid-flight, for example).

What really got my gears turning was the reply by a reader discussing the expectations of people who employ you (freelance writers, take note). For some–myself included–it’s that expectation of an editor or client who assumes instant access to you any time they want.

This can be a dilemma for those of us who are at once serious workaholics, but also want to take time to enjoy life outside of the 15-inch screens that dominate our world.  Just today I caught myself contemplating the purchase of a Palm Treo so that I could stay on Skype while out to lunch and dinner…the better to communicate with those clamoring for my freelance attentions.

At some point, you have to draw the line and say “enough!” and I think that while my intentions are noble, the Palm Treo idea is a bad one, at least for now. Circumstances may dictate otherwise at a later date, but for now I am keeping my worlds seperate. Kudos to John Windsor for a great post, and for reminding me NOT to give in to all my workaholic urges.

resources

FreelanceWritingJobs: Your Monday Morning Market Source

Just the right gimmick for a fun, unique read? That is one thing I love about certain writing sites, including FreelanceWritingJobs. This site’s hook is the Monday Markets section. Bloggers, take note. You really only need one strong feature like this to encourage net-weary types like me to keep coming back for more.

It seems I’ve had FreelanceWritingJobs on my radar for a while, but for some reason suddenly the Monday Markets hook has got me, er, hooked. Brilliant idea. There are many ways to present standard features, and while I am sure other writing sites also use a similar approach, it’s not widespread enough to be a cliche yet. At least not to ME.

Kudos to FWJ for catching my eye with inventive strategy. Also, the Cover Letter Clinic made me pause but sadly hasn’t been updated since early in the year. Overall this site is a great resource, and don’t be fooled by the name–you won’t find it if you just type FreelanceWritingJobs.com–the URL is FreelanceWritingGigs.com. I add this fact for semi-luddites like me who often just type the addy from memory.

Ahh, this cluttered internet of ours…

resources

The “Just Say No” Thread Continues…

mar-dugan-ganesh1.jpgMark Dugas wrote an interesting post at FreelanceSwitch.com on saying no to low-paying freelance work you don’t feel is worthy of your skill and experience. This makes me think of a post I recently raved about at WritingHermit which touches on the same notion.

I had some painful choices to make in 2007, and the agony of cutting loose dependable, but ultimately time-wasting gigs is very real. You wind up accumulating some serious time-waster projects if you aren’t careful. My dilemma was that I was earning just barely enough to justify the work, but the time investment was actually costing me money. The strange thing about freelancing–at least in my world–is that it usually pays off when you go out on a limb, treat yourself right and say no to money that isn’t worth the effort. I found much better projects to replace the ones I ditched, and fairly quickly!

You’re probably wondering what the relevance of the above photo is–it’s a still from Mark Dugas’s documentary, Ganesh. Something I’d be interested in seeing as I’ve always loved the Ganesh imagery. Being a fellow documentary filmmaker doesn’t hurt either, so in the spirit of cross promotion, please take a second to have a look at Dugas’s site. Doc films don’t get enough love at film festivals in my opinion–though it’s been several years since I submitted one, so maybe the tide has changed. But I digress…

advice, editorial

Google Yourself

1 Comment

I recently stumbled across freelancer Daniel Brantley’s blog and decided, based on his most recent entry to take his advice and run a Google search on myself. Lo and behold, I was quite pleased to see that I’m in the top five results on page one for my very common name. Not bad for a humble freelancer with a bit of net-knowhow, eh?

Something more disturbing–a blog post rife with cringe-making spelling errors, and nighmarish violations of Strunk & White’s “omit needless words” law which should be reported to the feds. This blog post was NOT written by yours truly, but it’s so badly written and assembled that this guy’s hamfisted attempt to credit me as a source for a drunk driving statistic actually makes it appear as though I wrote the damn article. I know that’s a stretch, but it’s true.

I’m not going to embarass this poor halpless doink by linking to the badly written slop. He got plenty of bad comments about the awfulness of the article and in light of that I think he’s been punished enough. But the moral of this story is, you really ought to Google yourself to see what’s being done in your name on the net. In my case, it looks pretty rotten–if you read this blog post and assume that it’s written by me, you would never hire me to polish the brass on the Titanic.

Fortunately for me, this crapola is buried three pages deep in the Google results. Anybody looking for me on Google will find my GOOD stuff and move on long before getting bored enough to click over to page three at the bottom of the pile. That said, I know plenty of people who have had work “borrowed” for other web sites who didn’t learn about it until they randomly Googled themselves out of boredom. If you don’t know how your name is represented on the web, take a moment and pull up Google.com and give your own name a spin. You could be shocked by what you find. Cheers to Daniel Brantley for reminding me to have a look…