PUBLIC MARKS from user rappinhood

When I applied to write tips about leather (I had all kinds of ideas for that one!), I got a nice rejection that said I had to write 10 tips for one of their public service sites instead, kind of like paying my dues (and honing my skills). Off I trotted to the Lifetips site to see what was available. I knew nothing about safaris or Stockholm, so in the end I opted for fruit, a good choice as I'd recently completed a juice fast (without the juice, but that's another story).

Launch of new blogging community for Barbados and the Caribbean

Remember when I told you to Feel The Fear ...? Well, I took my own advice and submitted a few poems to RITRO. The first of them was published today. It's called Rain.

This week, I've had emails from another paid to blog site (I'll tell you about that in another post - or you could search this one for a clue), a site that wants me to blog about freelance writing, and someone who wants me to write a parenting article and is prepared to pay decently for it. This week I feel as though my decision to go freelance was the right one.

A couple of weeks ago I did a post on whether writing could be seen as art. The answer from all of the WritingUp denizens was a resounding yes. I expected that, as there are some very talented writers here, including those who don't see themselves as writers.

Sometimes it's difficult to keep the writing momentum going. With all the writing I'm doing for InspiredAuthor and other sites, I don't have as much thinking time as I used to. Plus, there's the not so small matter of my very active toddler. Thinking time is essential for writers. Good ideas often need time to percolate before being put on paper or sent out for public consumption. This is not true of everything, of course. Sometimes writers just have to write to meet a deadline. But for many of us, having the time to think and polish is essential.

list of paying markets

Sharon Hurley Hall is a freelance writer, ghostwriter and editor. Sharon has been writing all her life and loves the written word. She has worked in several countries and speaks French, Spanish and German. Sharon has lectured on journalism and media issues and has also done research into media education. Get in touch to see how Sharon can help with your writing, editing or design projects.

A few months ago I was asked to co-author an ebook based on the content of two websites I had helped to create. That was fine. The ebook was written in record time and was ready to go. I even coped with getting it approved by Clickbank. Then I was asked to write the sales letter to go with it. Panic!

I've been doing some reassessment of the way that I spend my time - and something's gotta give. Last July I signed up with Elance. I very quickly realised that if I wanted to have a shot at any decent jobs, I needed to move up from the basic level. As I had a bit of money in the bank, I decided the risk was worth it. I upgraded (at a cost of about $25 a quarter) to the next level - for which I received the princely (NOT) total of three free leads a month. Anything over that, I would have to pay extra for.

New freelance writers often wonder how to make sure they get paid fairly for their writing. Although writers may work for very little while they are building their profile, writers who don't earn a decent wage will not be able to freelance for long. There are three areas that writers need to cover to decide what their ideal hourly rate should be. Assess Earning Needs

Numbers are not my strongest point - that's why I tend to stick to writing. Yes, I can add and subtract (and occasionally multiply and divide) but that's as far as it goes. But even as a writer, there's no escape from numbers. People always want to know quantities and they often like having statistics as another way of figuring out what's going on in a story or article.

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New parenting wisdom from my pal Sharon Hurley Hall: Toddlers' parties are notoriously noisy and messy — and someone always ends up in tears, possibly even a parent. This article gives tips on planning a successful preschooler's party while avoiding the mess and hassle.

As I write this, my daughter, T, is desperately trying to get me to play a Santa game with her. This consists of emptying the paper recycling bag all over the office floor and handing out bits of paper as presents to everyone here - everyone being my mother, my husband and me.

As writers, we spend more and more time on the Internet, whether we're researching articles or story ideas, looking for work, or just browsing for fun. As we do this, we often find information or websites that we think will be useful later. The old way of doing this was to use your bookmarks or favourites to keep a list of these places. You could even use scrapbooking tools such as those built into Opera or available for Firefox to keep notes on useful pages. But these tools mimic an old style of working, which is not as intuitive as it could be. Enter social bookmarking.

I really want to celebrate my mother. Although I do this every day anyway, it's nice to have a special day as well. My mother is a strong woman, who saw my sister and me through the vagaries of a life with an alcoholic dad

Many writers earn their living by writing feature articles, but writers need to do more than this to make a success of freelancing. A key aspect of successful freelance writing is building a relationship with editors. In other words, you need to get them to love your work and to think of you first when they need to commission an article. There are three ways that you can impress an editor.

Everyone's afraid of something. I've always felt confident about writing articles (at least, once I'd stopped being red-penned by my first editor). One day I may even finish my novel. Yet despite writing lots of poems, I'd never shared them with anyone. Part of the reason was that I could still remember the voice of my snooty English teacher. She tended to play favourites, and I was definitely in the OUT crowd.

Nine months ago I relaunched myself as a freelance writer. To do that effectively I needed a website and I needed people to see my website. Here's how I put my site on steroids.

Writers need to be able to take criticism, constructive or otherwise. Not every editor will like your writing style, and some may even take exception to the content of your article. A professional freelance writer will take it on the chin, analyse any mistakes and present the editor with new, improved copy.

My three year old daughter came home from nursery school the other day and said to me: 'Mummy, you're brown, aren't you?' 'Yes,' I said, wondering if we were about to have the race discussion a few years earlier than expected

My three year old daughter came home from nursery school the other day and said to me: 'Mummy, you're brown, aren't you?' 'Yes,' I said, wondering if we were about to have the race discussion a few years earlier than expected.

I've started a new gig for a writing website. (Sneak preview is available here.) While I was checking over my articles, I noticed that some strange characters had appeared in the text. I knew immediately that the error came from Microsoft Word. Word is one of the best of Microsoft's programs, but all its functionality relies on special codes which usually mess up your formatting. (Don't, whatever you do, write and upload HTML pages from Word. Your code will be messy and will break in some browsers.) I've known this for a long time, which is why I usually use Notepad or Wordpad to write my articles. However, both these programs have two major failings: no spell-check and no word count.