A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about some of the changes I’d made on the site, but I’ve been doing a few more things that you might not have noticed.

• The sidebar now features buttons to point you to some of the best content on this blog (along with those questions I mentioned earlier).
• I’ve highlighted the latest posts in some popular categories. I’ll change these from time to time so no-one gets bored.
• I’ve created a new list for those who want to get posts by email (signup in the footer). Now, if you’re already getting posts by email as they happen via Feedburner, that won’t stop. But if you’d rather get a roundup every time 3 posts or more have been published, then sign up using the form in the footer.

Introducing CommentLuv Premium

The biggest change is that I’ve enabled CommentLuv Premium. I’ve always been a big fan of CommentLuv both as a blog owner and a commenter. When I commented on other blogs, I could get links to my latest posts which people could visit and I was happy to offer the same to readers of my own writing blog.  That hasn’t changed, but CommentLuv Premium now offers much more for both blog owners and commenters:

It includes:

• Growmap Anti-Spambot Plugin – my spam fighting plugin of choice for a while now, which allows commenters to click a checkbox to identify themselves as human.
• KeywordLuv – which lets people comment as name@target keyword. In CommentLuv Premium, this is called Keyword Name. I have mixed feelings about this plugin, but I’ve enabled it for now.
• TwitterLink – which allows commenters to add their Twitter ID in a comment field or box. This works much better than the original implementation of TwitterLink, which I tried on this blog and had to remove, so I’m happy it’s back.
• Plus the functionality of a few other plugins I’ve been able to replace

Social Rewards

If you’re a natural social sharer, then you’ll enjoy another CommentLuv Premium feature. Instead of just having access to your latest post, when you share, tweet or +1 a post, you’ll be able to choose from 10 posts and decide which one you want to share. And even if you don’t share (but please do), you’ll get  do-follow links from this blog to yours after you’ve left 3 comments or more (not to mention my gratitude for taking the time to say something.) And for people who install the plugin on their own blog, they get to include additional posts and pages in the drop down list they see on other sites. It’s no wonder creator Andy Bailey calls this awesome sauce!

I was lucky enough to get access to the beta version of CommentLuv Premium at an insanely low price, and you might be able to do the same. From Tuesday September 27, for one week only, creator Andy is putting CommentLuv Premium on sale – and after the end of the sale it will never be available at that price again!

My Recommendation

I suggest that you get on the mailing list now, check out the video which shows what’s new and bookmark this link so you can get CommentLuv Premium at the sale price from Tuesday.

Now, you know me; I only recommend products I believe in. I’ve been impressed by the level of support for the plugin and the new features and tweaks that are constantly being introduced to make it even better. So I’m happy to tell you to buy CommentLuv Premium. No blogger should be without it!

Disclosure.

If I’ve been quiet, it’s because I’ve been working behind the scenes to make a few changes to the site. The first of those is obvious – I’ve gone back to using the Thesis Theme, spiffed up with the help of Hesham Zebida’s Silver Skin, from ThesisAwesome.

One of the great things that does is give regular contributors a nice author bio – see Dan’s here. Meanwhile Chris Hoole, who’s contributed a couple of posts in the past, will be posting here occasionally (welcome, Chris), which I think is a great addition to the team. On the front page, you can now see more posts, along with author details, comments and tweets.

You’ll also notice some changes in the sidebar. The most recent posts in our most popular categories are near the bottom. The Ask Sharon box is gone, mainly because most of the people using it wanted me to hire them (sorry, I’m not hiring). Instead, I’ve added some of the common questions asked, with links to resources on this site. If there’s something you want to know that’s not answered there, then by all means contact me via the site or ask me on Twitter, my Facebook page or my Google+ profile. You can find links to subscription options and social profiles in the top navigation menu and in the sidebar.

I’ve still got a couple more changes planned, to make some of the nearly 800 posts more accessible. For example, I’m looking for a better way of displaying the sitemap and also linking to some of the series we’ve published here. If there’s anything that would make this site more usable for you, contact me and I’ll be happy to consider it.

I’m pleased to announce (in case you’ve not already heard through Twitter) that Dan Smith will be joining the team at Get Paid To Write Online. I met Dan online earlier this year, when he launched a blog recommendation service for new blogs called Find A New Blog and profiled Get Paid To Write Online. Dan’s been a fixture around here ever since, commenting regularly on our posts. He’s also written some of my favorite posts on writing on other blogs I read, so I’m particularly happy that he will be contributing one post a week to the blog.  Look out for Dan’s first post on Wednesday.

The folks at PrintRunner ha ve offered to give away 250 free business cards each to two readers of Get Paid To Write Online. The cards on offer are full color, glossy or matte, front + back printing, though you will have to pay for shipping.

About PrintRunner

PrintRunner offers a wide range of products including business card printing, full color catalogs, brochures with multiple fold options, glossy or matte postcards, flyer printing, custom stickers, and more.  In 2009, PrintRunner was named to the INC. Magazine list of the 5,000 fastest growing private companies in the U.S.

Entry details

To enter the contest, tweet a link to your favorite Get Paid To Write Online post, followed by the hashtag #gptwo (Example: Are You Still Relevant? http://bit.ly/7PEWcQ #gptwo) or tweet about the contest using the #gptwo hashtag.

The contest will run until 7 February 2010 (midnight, ET). Winners will be selected via a random number generator and will be announced next week.

Official rules:

• One entry per person
• Open to U.S. residents only
• Must be 18 and over and not an employee or a relative of an employee of PrintRunner LLC
• No purchase necessary

Good luck!

Get Paid To Write Online provides free information and for most of the content, I get no compensation at all (unless someone decides to make a donation). However, in some cases I use affiliate programs for monetization.

Occasionally someone asks me to review a product such as an ebook or piece of software. I sometimes keep the product, but do not get any monetary compensation for the reviews. The receipt of a review product does not oblige me to write a favourable review – or any review at all.

When you click on links to the sites and products I recommend and buy something, I may receive a commission. I only recommend products that I have used, read or researched, because my integrity and reputation are important to me.

I also use Google Adsense and paid sponsor ads  to monetize the site. These appear within posts and in the sidebar. I do not endorse the products and services in these ads and these companies have no affiliation with Get Paid To Write Online.

If you wish to know more about my affiliations, please feel free to contact me. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

A couple weeks ago, I put out a call among my contacts for someone to contribute regularly to Get Paid To Write Online. The reason? I’m happy to say that my writing career is thriving, but that means that I haven’t posted on the blog as often as I did before. In looking at my writing schedule and trying to think about balance, I had a couple of options. I could have sold or abandoned the blog, but it’s my baby and I didn’t want to do that, so instead I’ve found someone to contribute regularly to it.

Many writers will already know Dana Prince, who writes for several successful blogs including The Writer’s Blog (which is on my must-read list), the Work at Home blog and many more. Dana and I have known each other for years. We started our blogging journey together on a now-defunct site, then worked as colleagues on a writing team and became writing buddies.

I couldn’t be more delighted that Dana’s joining Get Paid To Write Online. Starting in October, she will be posting once a week on Wednesdays and will bring her extensive experience of freelance writing to the blog. Dana’s been an active member of what is now the Get Paid To Write Online community since I started this blog’s predecessor in 2005. I’m sure you’ll enjoy her posts.

It’s been a heck of a week on Get Paid To Write Online. In fact, you’ve probably noticed some changes around here. Hope you like them. It all started just over a week ago when I decided to upgrade to WordPress 2.8, hoping to solve some problems with my installation. That didn’t work and I then had to:

• roll back to WP 2.7.1
• create a test site and database with a clean WP 2.8 install
• get Bluehost support to troubleshoot my WordPress export file and import it to the database
• fix  category and tag problems – there were some empty ones after the import
• venture into PHP MyAdmin and change a couple of lines so that the domain name pointed to the new database
• hope and pray

It worked, but I decided to make a fresh start in another way by finally installing the Thesis theme I bought about three or four months ago. Although it’s taken some time to get my head round it, I can honestly say that I think this was a good decision. Features I like include:

• you only need to customize two files and if you keep a backup you won’t lose your theme customizations when you upgrade
• there are lots of tutorials out there
• the DIYthemes site and support forum are excellent

Thanks to these resources I have been able to:

• add a widgetized footer to the theme
• add a nifty tabbed box to display different kinds of content
• integrate my Twitter stream into the site
• colour the popular posts box
• highlight lots of my content through the Killer Recent Entries widget
• and more

Admittedly, it took me a while – more than a day – to get everything done. But I am pretty happy with the result and am sure that it will be easy to make additional tweaks when I need to.

In my quest to improve your reader experience, I’ve been going through the blog checking on dead links. Thanks to a handy WordPress plugin I have removed most of them. The down side is that some of my old link posts may have fewer links than you expect, because sites have changed their permalink setup or disappeared all together. The up-side is that if you see a link, it should work (please tell me if it doesn’t).

The Tumblemoose blog has just published my guest post on:  Six tips to avoid being an overworked writer:

When you focus on the financial bottom line, it’s too easy to forget to take care of other important areas of your life, such as friends, family and yourself. And that can do long term damage to your relationships and your health.

Check it out!

I’m always looking for ways to improve this blog for readers. The other day, while visiting the Tumblemoose blog, I spotted some handy ‘Listen Now’ buttons. The blog had an audio feed. I thought this was a great idea, because sometimes people want to listen to posts at their leisure rather than take the time to read them.  If you’re one of those people, then I’m happy to tell you that there’s now an audio feed for Get Paid To Write Online, courtesy of Odiogo.

Visit this page to listen to the last 20 posts and to get a feed that works with Itunes, Zune, Juice and podcast enabled RSS readers. Or you could simply search for the post you want to keep and listen to it from the page itself. I have to warn you that the voice doesn’t sound like me at all – instead, it’s a strange man, but he does a great job of reading the posts, most of the time.  Have a listen and let me know what you think.

If you’re browsing this site from a mobile device, there’s no need to feel left out. You can view Get Paid To Write Online for your mobile on this page.