I’m always interested in reading books about writing, so I was pleased when Andy Hayes asked me to review Write Right Online. Andy’s a travel writer and the 30 page book shares what he has learned about online writing.

Who The Book Is For

This book is aimed firmly at the new online writer. In 18 short sections, Write Right Online takes you through everything you need to know about online writing. What I love about the book is that it is a model of simplicity – anyone can follow it – yet it somehow gives new writers information – and examples – they can take away and use to improve their style, their visibility and the reach of their content.

Best Feature

For me, the best feature is the checklist, which goes with the book. Each point on the checklist relates to a tip in the book, so you can easily refer to it if you need a refresher. Even experienced writers will benefit from pinning this checklist up on a notice board in their office, as we all need a reminder some time.

Summing Up

What’s great about this book is that you can read it very quickly and start applying the lessons immediately. If you’re a new writer and want to get it right first time, then £17 ($27)  is a small price to pay.

(Disclosure: I have not been paid for this review, though it does contain affiliate links.)

Write Right Online – A Review is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

Today’s task for the 31DBBB project is to feature a reader. That’s something I’ve been planning to do ever since I published my Getting To Know You Post and I want to start with George Angus, aka Tumblemoose. I ran into George somewhere online sometime in the last year, I think, and we’ve stopped by each other’s blogs a few times since then.

George’s site is called Tumblemoose Writing Services and it’s a well laid out site with lots of information that’s easy to access. And although it wasn’t my primary purpose in visiting his site, I’ve picked up a couple of ideas which I plan to implement here – more on that another time.

There are two reasons why I have enjoyed my interaction with George . First, he always leaves well thought out and thought provoking comments on my blog. Second, he’s got some really great posts which have the same effect. Posts of note recently include:

• Are You A Writer Or An Author? - An author ‘conjures up visions of secluded cabins, late night furious writing sessions, tweed sportcoats with supple leather elbow patches and straight stemmed pipes.’
• Use Flash Fiction To Move Your Writing Forward
• The Art Of Being Nice – ‘nice does not mean spineless’

And, from the archives:

• Ten Health Hazards For Writers
• Do You SEO?
• Finding Your Writer’s Voice

There’s not much more to say about George other than: read his blog. It’s fun!

Tumblemoose In The Spotlight is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

 

One of the writing blogs I’ve been enjoying recently is Freedom Writing. My feed reader’s been overflowing for some time and I haven’t added any new blogs in a while, but this one keeps coming up, because of the thought provoking posts penned by author Kim Ferrell.

This is a new blog. It’s been live since September 2008 and the first post – which was also the first one that grabbed me, is called Writing Without A Niche. This is her rationale for writing about the various roles which she fulfils, so that this is not just a blog about writing.

One of the interesting series on the blog is Kim’s Zen Koan Writing Series, where she shares the writing lessons she has learned from the Zen Koan stories. I particularly liked If You Love, Love Openly, where Kim urges us to send our writing out to the world.

Writing Builds Community highlights the service that writers provide:

We reach out and communicate via ink on paper (or type on a computer screen.) We inform, enlighten, and entertain our readers. After they have read our words, they are changed. They have benefited from our knowledge and experience. They have become a part of our community.

In January, Freedom Writing looks stronger than ever with some great posts including:

• Be Found in The Online Community With SEO
• 12 Better Blogging Tips
• Balancing Freelance Writing and Blog Writing

For me this blog is a great mix of writing about writing and writing about other issues relevant to us as freelancers, bloggers, women and people. I’m looking forward to seeing what else Kim posts this year.

Freedom Writing Review is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

When I’d finished reading the Ultimate Guide To A Successful Freelancing Career, my first thought was: is that it? Twenty-nine pages doesn’t seem enough space to provide an ultimate guide to anything. Written by experienced freelance writer, Glen Haskell, the book aims to talk about freelance writing in the real world, for writers who may have to juggle other commitments with their writing careers.

What’s Inside

In fairness, the book is full of common sense advice, including links to places to look for jobs, advice on getting those first writing gigs under your belt and much more.  There are a couple of pages each on some of the important issues for freelancers, including finding writing markets, removing roadblocks to writing, looking beyond magazine work, copyright, tax, setting prices and marketing.

Sample Contracts

The book also includes a few sample letters, contracts and agreements which will be useful for the new freelance writer. There are handy reminders of the key points in a column alongside each chapter, as well as prompts to make you consider the main issues, so there are multiple opportunities to get the information while reading.

Bonus Ebooks

However, I couldn’t help thinking that the author was asking a lot to expect you to part with $49 (reduced from $140) of your hard earned cash. For that price, you do get several bonus ebooks, which may provide additional value.  At the time of writing these were:

• Writing For Fast Cash
• Breaking into Freelancing
• A Fickle Muse
• Writer’s Bootcamp
• Goals and Deadlines

The Verdict

I think Ultimate Guide To A Successful Freelancing Career works as an introduction to the issues that freelancers face, but I’d want to see more detail on almost every area for it to justify its name. If you’re new to freelancing, then check it out. If you’re not, you may already know much of what’s inside.

Ultimate Freelancing Guide Review is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

I love discovering new freelance writing blogs and one of the blogs I’ve discovered recently is Quiet Rebel Writer. The rebel writer is Amy Lillard, who says:

Writers have to be rebels. We have to take the idea of normal and turn it on its head. We have to examine the status quo and the world that exists around us, analyze it, question it, and present it to our readers in ways that make them think and see and feel.

This is just what she tries to do with her blog:

I look at writing as a self-sustaining, necessary activity that leads to effects both good and bad, and at the things from which my creativity and writing derive, all the ingredients for that strange brew inside.

The blog looks at freelancing, marketing, publishing and creativity, with a few rants thrown in. There’s also an intriguing section on word porn, which is designed to delight those who love the written word, and which digs out ‘wicked, wonky words’ for our delectation.

Here are a few of the posts that have caught my eye on this fascinating blog:

Rant: Writers Aren’t That Desperate
Madonna and Freelancing: An ‘AHA’ Marketing Moment
Quitting And Freelancing: When The Brushoff Is Sorely Needed

Amy’s posts are interesting and make full use of the complexity and wonder of the English language, so they appeal on many levels. This blog is a great place for a fun read on freelancing.

Quiet Rebel Writer Review is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

Men with Pens is one of my favorite new blogs. It’s the successor to the Web Content Copywriting blog which I mentioned last year. Run by James Chartrand and Harry McCLeod, this is a writing blog with a difference. These guys really know how to write unique blog posts. It’s refreshing to read new perspectives on the issues we all face as freelancers and that’s why it’s one of the first blogs I read every day. Since moving to its new home, Men with Pens has kept up the quality that attracted me to the old blog, but the blog design is way, way better. It looks great, you can find lots of great posts from the home page, and the navigation is clear. The blog offers ‘web business tips for writers, freelancers and online entrepreneurs’ including:

• Will Content Kill the Web?

‘PLR content drives down the market value of web content. Why buy pricier work when nearly-free (and sometimes free) is right there for the taking?’

• Handling Your Perfectionism

‘One of the biggest problems perfectionists have is setting realistic goals. I never realized I set the bar too high for myself. Halfway through whatever I was working on achieving, when nothing went according to my vision, I would give up in frustration.’

• What a Camera Can Teach You About Customer Service

Sorry, you’ll just have to read this one. No excerpt would do it justice.

There is so much good stuff in there it’s hard to give you a flavour of it. The blog focuses on blogging, business, design and writing, and currently has a great series on fiction writing. Just to round out the list, here are some posts with great titles that made me stop and look:

• Bloggers That Fake It
• Don’t Be Efficient if You Want a Successful Business
• Knitters Never Comment!

Over the past year, posts from this blog, and its predecessor, have turned up regularly in my links roundups, which shows how consistently readable it is. If you haven’t done so, check it out.

Technorati Tags: writing,blogging,reviews

Men With Pens Review is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

It’s always nice to know you’ve made a difference to someone, so I was very pleased when I realised that Rebecca Laffar-Smith had reviewed Get Paid to Write Online. She’s said so many nice things about this blog – and me – that I’m blushing, and she’s also highlighted the ten posts that she thinks her readers will find most useful. Thanks, Rebecca.

Writer’s Round-About Reviews This Blog is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

The other day I noticed that there was a new link to my blog from a site I didn’t recognise. I followed it and discovered a new writing blog. Even more surprising was that the author had been reading my writing advice for the last couple of years. I’m betting that I knew Marshall Krueger under an alias at a blogging site that went bust, and that’s probably why I didn’t recognise his name. However, I’m glad he linked to my blog, because now I’ve found another great writing blog to tell you about.

The site is called Freelance Writing Career (don’t you wish you’d snagged that domain name?) and it’s got a wealth of information about the business of writing, including a blog. There are pages on learning to write and becoming a writer, and much more, all from the perspective of a work at home dad.

This is a new blog, so there are only a few pages at the moment, but I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on it.

Who’s Reading Your Blog? is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

I’m not sure quite when Caroline Middlebrook’s blog caught my notice. It couldn’t have been that long ago, as it’s only been running since August. However, since that time Caroline a software developer turned online entrepreneur, has created an enormous amount of buzz about her blog. That interests me, as I’m always trying to find new ways to promote and to improve on the old ways. When I realised that I had bookmarked three of her posts in the space of a week, I knew it was time to review her blog.

Let’s start with a bit of show and tell. Some of the posts that caught my eye were:

• So How Did I Double My Subscribers in a Week?
• Want To Quit the Day Job But Can’t Afford To? Maybe You Can…
• A, B or C? Grading Potential Niches / Markets

The titles are self explanatory. This blog is a mine of information on making money online, promotion, business and blogging and her most famous series is the Twitter Guide. Although this is not a writing blog, I know that many of you, like me, are concerned about promoting yourselves. Caroline’s blog is bound to give you some ideas.

Technorati Tags: blogging,promotion,caroline middlebrook

Reviewing Caroline Middlebrook is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

I’ve been visiting Yvonne Russell’s Grow Your Writing Business blog for some months, and there’s always something worth reading there.  Her tagline is ‘For freelance writers who mean business’ so you can see why that appeals to me. The main topics on this blog are writing know how, blogging know how and business and marketing, and I think every freelance writer can learn a lot from Yvonne.

One of Yvonne’s recent innovations has been her Weekend Writer’s Cafe spot. This is very popular with freelance writers around the world. When Yvonne does the weekly post, she includes some topics that we might like to discuss, but it’s an open forum for discussing all sorts of issues to do with writing, from advice on a book cover to making the most of social networks.  It’s very quickly become an essential part of my weekend routine and I subscribe to comments so I don’t miss anything.

What’s inside the blog? Here are three examples that I enjoyed:

• How to write good blog posts more quickly
• What a school French fiasco taught me about writing
• Fake testimonials and the ethics of freelance writing – check out the comments thread

Enjoy!

Blog Review: Grow Your Writing Business is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.