Bzzing SOL

I'm a bzzagent. If you've never heard of it take a look at bzzaagent.com. It's a fun program that allows you to try something new and rewards you for creating buzz. Right now I'm bzz'ing Sol beer. I got a few coupons for some free six packs and report to the central hive on what people think of it. I'm not sales pitching anyone and negative bzz is fine if you feel negative about the product. It's a fun program.
I've also bzz'd toothbrushes, mayo, frozen dinners and soy milk for them in the past.

I'm not much of a beer drinker but everyone I've had try them has enjoyed them.

Cheers,
Dana

a few of my favourite online hangouts part 1

Here are a few of my favourite hangouts online lately.


www.communati.com was born out of the demise of writingup. Many of my fellow blogging friends also hang out here. I haven't figured out what my niche is there yet but it's a great place to see what some of my online friends are chit chatting about.
It's also a great place to tell some of my writing friends that I have posted something I feel is worth reading from another blog.

Another favourite place lately is mybloglog. It tells me how people are finding my site in the site settings, has a cool widget that puts my face o nblogs I visit and others' faces on my blog as well.

Stay tunes for some more of my favourite places. I have plenty of blogitives to fill in this weekend :)

Writing Adaptibility

Adaptability in Writing
Sometimes I need to hear only the clicking of my keyboard when I’m writing. Other times I enjoy background music or birds chirping. Sometimes I can be very creative while my kids giggle in the next room or while my husband strums his guitar and sings at the top of his lungs. Adaptability is important when you are a freelance writer. Sometimes you can’t have your ideal conditions though which can make it hard to write and hit a deadline. Today I have a heavy load and am enjoying the background music.

Sprucing up the work at home area

Working at Home
My writing environment isn’t always the most conducive to creativity. When I’m feeling irked about my surroundings, a bit of a desk tidy up does me wonders. A fresh glass of something to drink, music in the background and opening the blinds so I can see outside can often change my perspective if I’m feeling stifled creatively. I can’t wait to invest in a laptop so that I could go write under a tree or staring at the lake in the backyard.

Last Minute Jobs

I am coming out of the famine, I think but am getting a lot of rush jobs. My kids are away for a holiday with their grandparents so instead of wanting to sleep and rest, I want to write and earn as much as I can while the getting is good.

I took on a few rushes this week and am enjoying the busyness of it all. I think I'll rush through these jobs today and tomorrow and take a half day off the next day to lay in my years with a good book and stare at the lake for a bit. Read any good books lately?

Second Chances

Today a client asked for a second chance. It was nice. They did burn some bridges with me a while back but not past the point of reconciliation and today asked for another chance and told me I was one of their best writers and they wanted me back. It felt good. I hope that it works well this time. Lack of working with them has left a gap in my pocket as they were decent paying and the work wasn't difficult.

I also applied for two gigs today that I'm hoping will pan out as there's one I've got right now that I'm almost itching to quit but am concerned about the financial gap so hopefully I'm nearing the end of the famine and am going to be able to gear up for some feasting and having some choices for a chance!

Do you forgive easily? I guess I do but I don't forget. Once you mess me about, I might give you another chance but I will be watching closely to make sure I don't get burned again :)

Cuckoo for Coconuts and Gaining Pounds

I wrote about coconut oil recently on my health blog and am interested in all things coconut.
Did you know that coconut water is considered sterile enough to be used as an IV drip?
Coconut isn't just for dessert, that's for sure.

If you're interested, read up on my HealthNiche blog.

I also wrote about gaining weight for a change. My husband is getting fit and he had a discussion at the gym with a friend about how to gain weight. He asked me about it because he knows I'm a health research junkie. The minute I hear about something new related to health, fitness or wellness, I'm googling away.

Want to learn how to gain weight?

Tools for 06/27/07

Here are a few writing tools that can help you in your writing work.

-A thesaurus. If you feel your work is sounding stale, pick a few words you use several times in your pieces and find synonyms in your thesaurus.

-If you need help with your keywords and seo, check out http://textalyser.net/.

-Social bookmark with onlywire.com an aggregator orbookmarklet that lets you bookmark on multiple websites at once

-Find some blogs to frequent. I found one yesterday called www.sixfigurewriters.com that had some great information and dialog about the craft of writing.

Write on....

Dana

New Labels

Today I've created two new labels for this soapbox blog. One for my sponsored posts (that I get paid to write) and one for the filler that goes in between. One blog client of mine requires several posts between their paid ads so when they give me a few assignments in a row, I will have to create short posts in between them. Some of those might be a rant or a writing prompt or just a thought for the day. I hope to keep them interesting enough that they don't seem like wasted space on my blog.

Of my several blogs, this is the only one at the moment that I'm doing sponsored blog posts on so if you want to read more of my work that won't share space with blogs of this type, have a look at my blog roll and stop by my writer's blog and my healthniche blog. IF, at some stage sponsored posts become less obtrusive I may consider posting there as well but for the moment, this soapbox shall share space with my paid to blog efforts.
Cheers,
Dana

Weekend Fun

This weekend I didn't write for most of the weekend...we had guests for about 24 hours and as I made a conscious effort to not check e-mail every fifteen minutes all weekend. I was well aware of the computer sitting in the corner though. I logged in last night with a quickened heart rate half thinking some wonderful new assignment would be waiting for me that would have a great invoice rate and allow for a vast amount of my creativity but alas I only had a handful of e-mails and none related to work.

Hopefully my break will help me tap into some fresh inspiration this morning as I embark on 80+ travel articles and a long list of how-to articles.

Hope you had a nice weekend!