Content Creations

Well that depends, is it for business or for personal use?  That may sound like a no brainer but many people use the same picture on their Linkedin account that they did on their Myspace account. As a general guide for a business profile picture:

1. No pets
2. No anime or comic book characters (No matter how cool)
3. No enigmatic shots of inanimate objects or strange locations
4. No group shots

The following YouTube video is not only very funny but illustrates many more picture types that you don’t want associated with your business. View it here.

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I had to take a break after my writing challenge, it is surprising how much it takes out of you. While my writing muscles were recuperating I started looking into grant writing. I already knew the generalities of the subject but after talking with a friend that runs a non-profit, I started looking into it more seriously. I like the idea of helping charities get money to further their good works and in addition to doing something worthwhile, the pay is pretty good. So, I thought I might let my readers in on some of the resources that I have been researching. read more »

I have come down to the wire on my writing challenge, the deadline is tomorrow night. The headache I have had for the last two weeks has been worth it because I have learned more about my craft in the last month than I have in all the assignments I have had. Here is a summary of what I have learned: read more »

Not the Hickory Smoke flavored meat log, I mean your email spam. How many times have you went to download a piece of software or register with a blog but they force you to give them your email? I can understand that they want your email for marketing purposes but by requiring it they are forcing you to go through all the trouble of going to a free email host and making yet another address that you will forget about in a day or two. read more »

This is another article that I wrote a while back but since it has some good information, I thought I would give it an encore. I do a lot of web site content work and in the process, I have gotten to know many different types of web designers. Some good and some bad. I wrote the article below to help people that are new to the subject make the right decision. read more »

As I mentioned in the first post, this blog has went through many format changes. One thing that has remained constant is the Q&A section. I have done a lot of things in my career and some of the lessons learned have been painful. So, if by sharing my knowledge I can help my readers avoid the same stumbling blocks, I am more than happy to! Also, when the ideas are not flowing, it helps me to have a subject to blog about So, if you have any questions about Writing, Computers, Networking with people or Marketing, email them to me and I will see if I can answer them. For the moment, just use the form on the contact page, I may add a direct email later on. I searched through my archives to see if any of the questions are still relevant and I found a couple that are worth repeating. read more »

As you can probably see from the eclectic subjects that I blog about but here are a few themes that I tend to keep coming back to: Writing, Self Improvement and DIY projects. I will find a new project and obsess on it until I have either perfected it or had to surrender to my inability. The up side for you is that I can tell you all about the fun ones and gloss over my failures. I read Lifehacker religiously, there are always new things to learn and test out. Recently they published a list of their most popular DIY projects for 2008. read more »

I tried out the free-writing technique that i mentioned in my last post. it was a blast and I highly recommend it. I was a little stuck after my first chapter because the main character was about to start searching for someone but I/he had no idea how to get the search started. So, I set a timer for one hour and then started to type. No editing or second guessing and I wouldn’t let myself stop typing for more than a few seconds at a time. read more »

HELP! End of transmission… Well not quite but it is definitely not as easy as I thought. I recently had an epiphany and threw out my old novel idea. I discovered a new one that has really intrigued me and I thought that writing it in a month would be a breeze. read more »

How many of you have watched the fourth season of Doctor Who on the BBC? If you haven’t, please send me an email with your address so I can send goons over to beat some sense into you. It was by far the best season of TV I have ever watched. I don’t want to take anything away from the actors but it was mainly the writing that blew me away. Russell T. Davies is a genius. I just finished the book he wrote called Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale which was essentially a treatise on writing. It consisted of the email correspondence between Russell and his interviewer for the past year. granted it was skewed more toward writing a script but I think it has benefits for writing in general. If you call yourself a writer of any sort you have to read this book. read more »