E-mail Subscription Option Now Available

When I announced that I was moving this content to Wordpress, I didn't have the e-mail subscription option set up.

It's ready now, and I invite you to go to Wired to Write, Wordpress version, and sign up. The link is on the right-hand side at the top of the sidebar.

I've recently added posts about Windows Live Mail and FeedDemon that may be of interest to you.

Moved to New Location

I started this blog on Wordpress because I liked the static page feature. I transferred it to Blogger last fall, because I was more familiar with Blogger, and I thought it was easier to use for regular posting.

The decision to go back to Wordpress came about just in the past couple of weeks, and it doesn't have much to do with Blogger's ease of use. I still think it's easiest for a beginning blogger. Many professional writers use Wordpress and host their own sites. I chose to transfer to Wordpress because I want to follow the model established by other writers.

Eventually, I will combine all my blogs and my Web site (www.emilyakin.com) using Wordpress to do the design. Right now, I use Front Page 2000 to design my site and the site for Kentucky Christian Writers Conference. Designers proficient in Front Page can do wonders with it. See what John Dunker does with it. He is proficient in Front Page and regularly designs sites for churches and businesses.

City of South Fulton
Obion County Public Library

For a writer like me (who doesn't want to design sites for a living), Front Page is not that hard to learn, but it's hard to keep your proficiency level when you don't use it all the time. And, I have to deal with the hosting details. When I set up Wordpress with private hosting, I'll be working with a hosting company that knows Wordpress and can help me when I get stuck. More details on this at some point in the future.

Meanwhile, the URL of this same blog on Wordpress is www.wired2write.wordpress.com. I don't have e-mail subscription set up yet, but you can subscribe by RSS feed now.

Online Video Help for Beginners

Are you new to the Internet? E-mail? Blogging? Need to learn how to follow other people's blogs with RSS Readers? Don't know what I'm talking about? Well, don't worry. There's Butterscotch.com, a site that provides a number of online video tutorials to help you learn what you need to know to be a more informed Wired Writer.

For e-mail, there are tutorials on Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo. If you've heard Mozilla Firefox mentioned as a great alternative to Windows Explorer Web browser but didn't know how to find out about it, there's a tutorial for that. Learn how to follow blogs on with the RSS Feeds and Google Reader lesson. Social networking is covered, too. Take your own personal beginner course for Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Visit the tutorial page to see the rest.

Butterscotch's sales pitch for the tutorials says: "Butterscotch tutorials are your step-by-step guide to maximizing your tech potential. Our tutorials offer tips and tricks explained in plain English, without the jargon. Short, sweet and to the point, we offer practical PC advice you can start using right away to save time, money and headaches. We help you get the most out of your computer and gadgets."

There's no time like the present, so link on over to Butterscotch tutorials right now and try it out. Be sure to turn your audio on. Not only will you get to watch each step, you have an instructor describing it throughout. If you don't see the play bar for the video, mouse over the bottom of the video box and the play bar will appear. You can adjust volume some there, too. If you have difficulty and/or have questions, feel free to e-mail me at akinemily(a)gmail.com.

Got a Blog?

Writers aspiring to publication know they should have a Web site, but most don't even think about having a blog. The Web site doesn't necessarily have to come first. While there are other ways to have a free online presence, a blog is probably the easiest.

I have four blogs of my own, plus I do the blog for Kentucky Christian Writers Conference. My marketing blog has a post about blogging which went up today. Link over to my marketing blog, read the latest post and spend some time browsing the older posts for marketing ideas. Then check out the others, Tennessee Christian Reader, which is a book review blog, and my devotional journal.

If you have a Google or Gmail account, you can start blogging on Blogger right away. There are several designs to choose from. Some of the blogs I follow use Blogger and add their own unique design. This blog is a basic Blogger design with my own graphics in the heading. Others get really creative with their designs, still using Blogger:

Kathy Carlton Willis Communications
Little Nuances by Lee Warren
Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent
The Writing Life by Terry Whalin

Get started blogging today! Set it up and practice until you're ready to let the public know about it. Meanwhile, I invite you to subscribe to any and all of my blogs.

Free Web Sites Revisited

Last fall, I posted my evaluations of free Web site services, Tripod, Freewebs, and Blinkweb. You might want to review those posts before continuing this one:

http://wired2write.blogspot.com/2008/09/free-web-site-offerings-part-one.html

http://wired2write.blogspot.com/2008/09/free-web-site-offerings-part-two.html

Since then, I’ve worked with Tripod, Freewebs, and Blinkweb to the point that I’m ready to make a recommendation on which one I think is the best choice for a freelance writer wanting a brochure-style site with a blog attached. But, first I have to tell you about a new one I encountered.

Recently, I learned about Viviti, which, unlike Freewebs and Tripod, offers sites with no ads on your display. I set up my own experimental free site and have fiddled with it a bit. Take a look: http://emilyakin.viviti.com/. The templates are creative and colorful, but I found the sitebuilder hard to manage. Also, I wanted to put a bulleted list in my blog post, and I could not find that feature. I became frustrated all too easily while trying to set up my simple experimental posts. The design choices are acceptable, but I just don’t think a novice website builder will find this one user-friendly.

So---back to the others I previously evaluated. I’ve totally ruled out Tripod, because the ads are just too intrusive. Here’s my test site: http://emilyakin.tripod.com/. I really like the design templates in Blinkweb, which features no ads. However, I found the site-builder just a bit less frustrating than Viviti’s. Take a look at my Blinkweb site: http://emilyakin.blinkweb.com/.

Drum roll, please! Now we come to my final recommendation. For someone wanting a simple site with plenty of design choices, a blog, and an intuitive sitebuilder, Freewebs is the way to go. Actually, the name has been changed to simply Webs.com. I’ve worked more with Freewebs, because I have my own experimental site at http://www.freewebs.com/emilyakin/ and another site for my music club at http://www.freewebs.com/philharmonicmusicguild/.

The Freewebs text editor works much like a word processor and has more design features than the other free sites mentioned above. Also, you can now have a blog with Freewebs. The Freewebs ads are less intrusive than Tripod, and you can get rid of them entirely if you want to go upgrade to paid plan, about $10 a month, as is the case with all of the free sites.

Keep in mind that you do get more features and benefits with a paid plan, but, for a freelance writer establishing his or her first Web site, Freewebs is the way to go. Play around with it and be creative, but keep it business-like. Choose a design with no graphics or with graphics that suggest you are a serious writer. Pass up the cutesy designs and any add-ons that distract from your message.

If you're a writer aspiring to publication, you need a Web site, so go on over to Freewebs right now and get started. It's free, and nobody knows it's there unless you tell them. Keep it under wraps until you're ready for your grand opening.

E-mail: Webmail or Outlook?

Do you prefer webmail or an e-mail client like Outlook? Do you use an e-mail address associated with your Web site? I use both webmail and Outlook, but I am no longer using the e-mail addresses that come with my Web site. I'll share the reason for that in a minute, but, first, I want to cover the pros and cons for webmail and Outlook.

Webmail: I've tried Yahoo, Hotmail (Windows Live), Gmail, Mail.com, Lycos, and AOL webmails. They all work pretty much the same except for Gmail, which has a totally different operational model. All are free services, so you can sign up for an account and try them out. Gmail is the only one that allows you to send and receive from Outlook or other e-mail clients without paying for the privilege. Just sign up for the free Gmail account and go the Help section to see how easy it is. The others can be set up in Outlook only if you pay a fee of anywhere from $9.99 a year to $19.99 a year.

The biggest drawback for webmail, in my opinion, is the fact that your info is not on your computer. If your ISP goes down, you can't get to your messages until it comes back. The biggest drawback, though, also offers a perk. I use one of my webmail accounts to store backups of my drafts of writing projects in the works. If I should lose the file or if my computer totally crashes, my Word documents are safely stored in an archive file in my webmail account (free backup). I do use other backup methods, but this is quick and easy for work in progress.

Originally, I went exclusively to webmail e-mail addresses because I live in a peculiar spot for Internet service, and I changed services almost once a year for a while. Each time I changed, I would have to change my e-mail address on all my accounts and send out that dreaded message telling everyone to change my e-mail address in their address books. Now that use webmail addresses only, it doesn't matter what ISP I use. I never have to change my e-mail address again.

Outlook: I prefer Outlook when I have a lot going on, because I can work on messages offline and go online for sending/receiving. If you have a dependable high-speed connection, this might not matter so much to you, but I've never had an Internet service provider that was 100% dependable. It's easier to keep your files organized and search for messages. Also, recently, I downloaded an update for my browser which caused a major conflict with my firewall. The result was very slow performance on webmail until I was able to solve the problem. I could still work on my e-mail in Outlook and send it independent of my browser during this time.

If you use e-mail addresses provided by your ISP, you can probably choose to use their webmail or set up in Outlook. I stopped using my e-mails provided by my hosting service because a friend of mine had her e-mail hijacked and her Web site was shut down for a long period of time while she was proving she was not the person doing the questionable stuff with her e-mail address and domain name. That's the one and only reason I stopped using my domain name's address, but there is also the possibility at some point that I would want to drop my hosting account. At that point, I would lose my e-mail addresses anyway.

I chose Gmail for most messages, mainly because I could use it Outlook without paying for that feature. However, I recently discovered that Hotmail (Windows Live) accounts can be synched with Outlook 2003 or 2007 if you own the Microsoft Office package. I recently purchased MS Office Small Business 2007, and I was able to set up my Hotmail (Windows Live) account in Outlook 2007 using a free download called Outlook Connector.

Now, I use my Gmail account for my writing projects and for my work with Kentucky Christian Writers Conference while I reserve my Hotmail account for personal messages. It takes a little effort to get it set up, but, when I need to concentrate on work, I check only the Gmail messages. When I have time to do personal messages, I go to the Hotmail folder without having to access the webmail. It's great. I highly recommend that, if you have MS Office in one of the newer versions and a Hotmail or Windows Live webmail account, you get the Outlook Connector. You can still use the webmail when you want.

Submission Tracking Methods

Freelance writers need to track their submissions to print and online publications. I’ve always used a card file, because I could keep it handy on my desk, and the box was not subject to computer crashes or lightning strikes. Thinking I should probably be tracking on the computer instead, I have checked into various ways of tracking submissions electronically. Here’s what I’ve found and what I think about each option.

Microsoft Excel File (Spreadsheet): I set up a table in landscape view with header row containing these labels: Article/Story, Publication, Contact, Word Limit, Pays, Date Sent, Response In (time period stated in guidelines), Number of Pages, Postage (if any), Reply Expected, Responded on (date), Accepted (date), Amount Paid, Date Paid, and Notes. Once my file was set up, I just entered the data for each submission when I sent it out. When I got a reply, I’d update the listing. This works pretty well for tracking your income for the year as well as keeping up with your submissions, but you have to know how to use the spreadsheet software.

On the “pro” side, this is highly customizable. I can add columns any time I want, and it’s easy to sort by title or by date. If I’m selling reprints, I can sort by title and see at a glance how many times a piece has been submitted and to what markets. It’s easy to backup just by sending the file to my webmail and storing in the archive folder. The single “con” for this method is that I have to remember to back it up regularly.

I'm willing to share my Excel template with anyone who e-mails me and asks for it.

Writer’s Market Online Submission Tracker: The online version of Writer’s Market published by Writers’ Digest contains a section entitled “My Manuscripts.” This replaces the submission tracker that was offered before a recent upgrade. See FAQs.

I never considered using this feature because I may decide to let my subscription lapse, and I don’t want to have to go online every time I want to check submission details. I only mentioned it because I want to make you aware of it. It's possible that the newer version is downloadable, too. I have not checked on that.

Free Submission Tracking Software: I recently downloaded Sonar to see if it would work any better than my home-made Excel file. The headings in the database are less detailed than in my Excel file. Header row contains: Title, Latest News, Sold, Published, Income, Words, and a large empty cell for whatever other notes you’d want to make. It might work well for you if you aren't handy with a spreadsheet. I think there's plenty of room in the Notes section to add any details that aren't included in the default categories. It's free, so why not check it out.

Life Journal Software: I recently purchased Life Journal for Writers from the Life Journal site. A submissions category is included in the package, and you can track your submissions from Life Journal. My problem with this is that I have a lot of previously submitted material, and I don't want to copy and paste all of the content into Life Journal just so I can track it. You can download the trial version of whichever edition you want to try. After the trial period, you can purchase it or let it go. The developers periodically offer a free webinar on how to use the software. It's worth taking the time to try it.

My Preference: I'm sticking with my file box, but I want to eventually have everything in my file box entered into my Excel file. That way, if the box is destroyed, my backup of the Excel file will be in the archive folder in my webmail.

Comments are welcomed on this blog. If you know of another method, please share it by commenting on this post.