Archive for April 2008

Although Twitter hasn’t done much for my writing business, it keeps me in touch with friends and colleagues. It did contribute to my previous post. I decided to ask twitterville what they did whenever they become lethargic when they need to write. It worked well.

As much as I’d like to regularly ask questions, overdoing it could lead to the opposite results.

Also picked up a few more tips — in addition to the seven tips already posted — to make Twitter work for you.

1. Pick the right name that’s short as possible and stick with it.
2. Take care in using Twitter tools like Twhirl or else you won’t get work done.
3. Ask open-ended questions.
4. Skip the “tile” for the background image in your design unless you like to make people dizzy or it works (but very few people make it work).

Most importantly, keep participating (already mentioned in the first seven twitter tips). Twitter doesn’t work if you sit there hoping someone will @you.

That name thing came from a lesson learned. First, I signed up on twitter as “ContentMaven” since Meryl was taken. After using twitter for a few days, I realized that people might not know who I was as my name showed up no where.

Sure, the URL to my Web site was there, but you have to go to that person’s twitter page to see it. Besides, we don’t always pay attention to URLs. I changed the name to “MerylKEvans” since most people used first and last names. Another dumb move, but too late to change again.

Problems…

1. Many people misspell “Meryl.”
2. They might not notice the “K” in there. Call me weird, but I need my K! My middle and maiden names both start with K and “Meryl Evans” looks like it’s missing something.
3. It’s long for remembering and typing @name on a phone or without checking twitter.
4. Names count in the 140 character count when people @respond to you.

Changing your name is almost like starting over. So, pick the right name and as short as possible.

What twitter tips have you picked up?

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ web site dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. Apr. 21th: 40% off on Yahtzee Texas Hold’Em

Tue. Apr. 22th: 50% off on Dragonmania

Wed. Apr. 23th: 70% off on SkyAces 1918

Thu. Apr. 24th: 60% off on Summer Spin

Fri. Apr. 25th: 50% off on Nanotech

Sat. Apr. 26th: 70% off on Caribbean Pirate Quest

Sun. Apr. 27th: 50% off on Warblade

Last week, my schedule contained too many appointments not related to writing work. So I planned to work whenever I had the chance to be at my desk… at least, that was what I told myself. Myself decided to rebel.

Unmotivated. Uninspired. Un-everything. I couldn’t and wouldn’t budge. I spent this time clicking “Check e-mail” and guilt-tripping myself.

Don’t you hate days like this? You want to work, but your writing fingers and brain just won’t tune in. It isn’t a case of writer’s block… more of a writer’s body refuses to do anything productive.

Unless you’re fortunate to have a partner or underlings, writing is a solitary business. My dog has no desire to motivate me, so I’m stuck being my own cheerleader. Rah rah turns into blah blah. “Cut it out,” I think to myself.

“Nuh uh,” myself responded like a stubborn toddler.

The first thing I did was agree not to work on one of the client assignments. Whenever I decided to work on this assignment for the day, it tended to make me freeze and this affected all other clients because I told myself I would do that assignment.

OK, well, I needed to work… so assignment removed from task. Barrier removed and myself cooperated and started working. Obviously, I should drop this assignment, but for various reasons… I can’t.

This situation meant removing a barrier. Other situations may call for something else. What could that be? How do you deal with days like this?

I asked Twitterers this question and got nice responses:

“Push through by doing brain stimulus things that will get my brain flowing on ideas and material. I watch Christian videos on TBN through their video portal. Also, read articles similar to my book’s topic. Another thing that I do is play word games such as WordTwist or Scramble online via FB.” Kim Beasley

“Wait until Monday? I’m kind of joking, but, honestly trying to work when my heart and mind aren’t in it is usually a waste.” Keith Robinson

“I don’t do it unless it’s a matter of life and death, i.e. too important.” Moshin Naqi

“Go outside, read something awesome, talk on the phone with someone who makes me laugh, then try again.” Chelle Parmele

“Take a nice walk and don’t think about anything but breathing.” Virginia DeBolt

Inspirational quotes on not giving up.

• The economy can’t be down games as video games immune to US slowdown. W00t!
• Video game sales soar in March. W00t again!
• EA extends deadline for Take-Two tender offer, lowers price
• Build your own MAME cabinet.
• The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies: Microsoft beats Nintendo and Sony. This stinks. What you think?

I had a blast playing Build-A-Lot and couldn’t believe it when I heard another was on its way. The game even hooked my “rarely plays games” husband. The game was innovative and original. So how do you make a great game better? It’s possible as Build-A-Lot 2: Town of the Year proves it.

The real estate development game not only gets rid of one of my least favorite features in the original (taxes), but also adds enough new features to enhance the game rather than make it more of the same.

To refresh memories and introduce those who have never played it, Build-A-Lot contains various types of towns (western to desert) where you — as the build — work for the mayor of the town. You work for the town for a few levels with each having different goals from building x number of homes to earning x number of dollars.

Meet all the goals before the gold ribbon clock runs out and you earn a gold ribbon. But as long as you satisfy all goals before time runs out, you can move on.

As expected, we build new types of buildings including parks, shops, and a recycling center (the game goes green — bonus points!). The best feature — worker efficiency training. It costs $75,000, but it’s worth it because building, upgrading, and maintaining activities move faster.

Like the original, you work in different towns for a few levels each and meeting their goals. Build homes from the little bungalows to the ginormous palaces, and start collecting generous rent money or sell them for big profits so you can build more.

A new element enters the game: the appeal rating. Not only do you care about making enough money and building enough homes, but they must appeal or no one will buy them. This resembles real life where homes near problem areas such as airports and factories tend to sell for less because they have less appeal.

Meeting high appeal ratings creates a enjoyable challenge — much better than dealing with taxes and that awful sound effect that boomed whenever it was time to pay taxes. As if we don’t have enough problems with taxes in real life.

This time we get to paint houses, which boost the appeal of a home as do having houses next to the park. In addition to changing the look of the houses with a little color, we also get to do landscaping. The landscaping looks the same for most homes, but it’s a nice way to change the outside of a house and gain more appeal points.

The buying and selling part of the game now comes with the opportunity to lowball or asking for a lower price on a house. Using this strategy takes practice, and I finally figure it out late in the game. Although, it gets old hearing the mayor remind me of what it takes to low ball or buy a house for less every time.

The shops and parks need help on occasion. They post a “Help Wanted” sign or show a broom letting you know the park needs a clean up. You lose a crew member whenever you fill the job. If you don’t … down go those appeal points.

Most of the money you earn comes from rent money and selling homes. This time, you can also earn profit share from the shops and oil on a monthly basis. The variety of profit potential and interaction with the houses and shops keeps the game from ever feeling monotonous. The best games — including the original — can fall into the monotonous trap, but this one doesn’t.

Build-A-Lot 2: Town of the Year has a learning curve and it tries to ease players in by starting with small tasks and building up. A new mode appears in this one — sandbox mode — for building freely in any town. Newcomers to the game might try this before jumping into campaign mode. Sandbox mode provides several goals and you can do whatever you want to make them happen as fast as possible. Do well and your name might show up on the high scores list.

If you haven’t played Build-A-Lot and start with this one first only to find yourself wanting more, playing Build-A-Lot 2 won’t feel like a step backwards as many original games do once you play the improved sequel. So go ahead and start with the second one, and you should still enjoy the first one. Just be ready to become more annoyed with taxes.

Whether real estate interests you won’t affect your feelings for the game. I’ve got zero interest in real estate (except for my own roof and envying beautiful homes) and I stay up past my bedtime just to play this game. Oh, and I love the game doesn’t end when you think it does.

• Five Words You Can Cut: Blogged about this in the past… cut modifiers such as “really, very, much” is a good start. I use “just,” but more to add “conversation” to writing. If it’s an article or something formal, I omit it. [Link: John]
• 35 Essential Elements for a Newsworthy Release: 35 is a bit much. Useful info.
• Landing Page Tutorials and Case Studies. One resource should do the trick for your landing pages wanna knows.
• Polish Your Writing to Professionalism: Three tips to self-editing. My number one tip is to use an editor… but that’s not always possible, so these three will do.
• 5 Business Decisions You Will Be Proud Of: “Does doing all of these things guarantee anything? The answer: YES.”

And the fun stuff because you’re allowed.

• ABC book in 3D. For a moment, I wished I had this book when my kids were younger. But then I realized… they’d tear it up. This one looks too fabulous to ruin.
• Jewish Bread Toilet Seat Cover: In honor of Passover, which starts this weekend.
• 10 annoyingly brilliant office interiors: No depressing gray found here.
• The 10 Most Underrated Consoles

I admit it. For a long time, figuring out rates and providing quotes was a weak area for me. It took time, practice, and hard lessons to arrive at the point where I can confidently and calmly provide a quote. Before, I’d be figuratively biting my nails as I submitted my quotes and second guessing myself.

John Hewitt has the answer I wish I had when I started freelancing as a writer. It works for every freelancing career. Well, except the per word part. Just remove that or substitute with “per page,” “per design,” etc.

1. Start at $20 an hour or $.20 a word. This is a fairly low level. Feel free to start higher.
2. Increase your fee by 5 ($25 an hour $.25 a word) with each successful gig.
3. When your prospects start telling you that you charge too much, don’t raise your rates for six months.
4. Try raising it again.

Too simple and sometimes the best answer is the simplest one. The day before a state-wide math assessment test, my husband asked our oldest who takes algebra, “Do you remember how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide?”

She responded, “I don’t know. When I do a math problem now… if the answer is simple, I think it’s wrong because it has to be more complicated than that.”

Uh oh. Her mind is starting to work like an adult’s. We forget the answer can still be simple. It reminded me of a riddle I read years ago where kindergarteners (five and six-year-olds) easily answered the riddle while educated adults struggled or didn’t get it. I thought it was this one:

Question: What is greater than God? What is more evil than the devil? The poor has it. The rich need it, if you eat it you will die. What is it?

Answer: Nothing

But research says it was this one where the kids outscored the adults.

I turn polar bears white.
And I will make you cry.
I make guys have to pee
And girls comb their hair.
I make celebrities look stupid.
And normal people look like celebrities.
I turn pancakes brown
And make your champane bubble.
If you sqeeze me, I’ll pop.
If you look at me, you’ll pop.
Can you guess the riddle?

Answer: No.

True or not — the point is clear… we sometimes overlook the obvious.

Simple Doesn’t Come to the Rescue

I’m working on a quote for a client. The problem is I can’t determine how many articles I can write per week. Sometimes more. Sometimes less. Charge by article? Well, that wouldn’t work either as it could be 300 one time, 700 another.

Charge by the hour? I try to avoid that. What would you do?

Recently, I lamented about the many blogging features available. I interacted with the blogosphere more than I usually do to see what works and what doesn’t. What took me so long to discover CommentLuv, I don’t know. But I did.

Since I use WordPress, it was a breeze to install. The plugin doesn’t even need you to copy code into your template or anything. If you’re not familiar with the plugin, just scroll down to the comment form to see it.

The CommentLuv automatically appears in the comments. The plugin retrieves the commenter’s latest blog post (if they have a blog), and links to it. Cool, eh? It’s nice to reward commenters.

I also added ShareThis, but not sure if it’s worth keeping. MenWithPens believes ShareThis should be replaced by Sociables. I asked why because ShareThis has one little low profile icon while Sociables contains however many social sites you pick, which can build a small crowd at the bottom of the post. James explained why use Sociables:

Social Media is for both the blog and the reader. Readers who use social media to find better content referred by others means they want to see their preferred social media icon so they can click and share.

The problem with Share This is that it’s one click too many. Every click you force a reader to take reduces the chance that they’ll actually take action and follow through. I think the numbers are something like 7% of potential loss with each click (don’t quote me).

So Share This means one click to open and one click to search for your social media and one click to send. With Sociables, you eliminate that. One click. That’s all you need. It’s right there for you.

Also, how many people actually email blog posts to friends? It’s more common to share links or URLS, which makes Share this a little unnecessary.

Excellent point, Gangbanger James (he goes on drive through shootings — legal ones… you know… shooting blog problems). Now I wonder if I should even use anything because ShareThis and Sociables benefit the blogger more than the reader (promoting a blog entry).

What y’all think? Shoot ShareThis? Add Sociables? Forget social anything?

What about the fact if you come here (thank you!!) on the blog’s main page or the home page and you have to click once or twice (from the home page) to see the full entry? I thought I was doing y’all a favor by keeping the entries short on the blog’s home page so you can scan. But then it adds a click if you want to see the full entry.

Frustration builds while reviewing this week’s calendar. Every day this week has something not routine and not work-related scheduled (and most of last week, too). I can only reschedule one appointment, but it’s not enough to lighten the load.

So what does a lone freelancer do? To prevent myself from going crazy and sacrificing sleep (if I do this, then I might as well mark myself as unavailable for the entire day after a short night’s sleep), I work through my fewer hours than usual:

• Cancel or reschedule appointments, if possible.
• Prioritize (Duh!)
• Contact regular clients notifying them of my reduced availability.
• Cut time spent on self-assigned work like blogging, Twittering, and social network sites. While these sound like time wasters — they aren’t. It’s part of the freelancer’s marketing toolbox.
• Be strict about fooling around on the Internet (This is the time waster.).

Even with deadlines, the freelancer should be able to plan the week to meet them while saving less urgent work for later. Most of the time, the freelancer meets the deadlines and then has time left over to work on the lower prioritized stuff.

I feel better knowing I will accomplish a few things this week, though less than usual. It’s better than panicking and getting nothing done.

• Create a Rock-Solid Tagline That Truly Works: Want the next “Just do it?” Try these tips.
• 3 Ways to Appeal to Readers and Skimmers: I think many places go overboard on bolding including this article, but otherwise its tips are on the money.
• Should You Write What You Don’t Know? I think it works well for some situations. In other cases, it could cost you more time (for researching and understanding). But if it’s a topic you’d love to learn about — then it might be worth the tradeoff. [Link: Writing Resource Center]

And for fun because you’re allowed.

• Top 10 amazing chemistry videos.
• Add interaction to videos with Asterpix.
• Photoshop Disasters: Dang good stuff. How the heck do they find so many when I can’t find one?

Ooh pretty brightly-colored laptop desks ($49.95 each). I have a couple of these (not the colored ones, mind you) and they’re wonderful. Keeps the heat off my legs and gives me better access to the keyboard for doin’ lots of writing.

Choices,too. Pick clear or black rubber feet and choose between matte and semi-gloss finish. You can vote on the next design. Tough choices. If the sticker price is a bit much, spend less by sticking with the original gun-metal gray ($29.95).