Recommended Resources Archives - Page 9 of 10

Gary Vaynercuk’s Crush It: A Terrific Guide for Bloggers!

Posted on July 24, 2011 Written by Pinar Tarhan

It is not a shocker that I didn’t discover Gary’s sites through my enthusiasm for wine. Frankly, I can’t stand the taste or smell of any wine most of the time. But I am always on the lookout for a good resource about social media and blogging, and I came across Crush during one of my book hunts.

Considering that Gary Vaynerchuk has been a famous online figure for quite a while, my discovery was a little late. After all, this guy has been on Conan and on Ellen and a lot of other places and yet I had no idea who he was when I bought the book.

And after reading, I didn’t find it strange that this guy was this popular.

For one, he uses a conversational tone, and he really knows what he is talking about it. He also has great pieces of wisdom to offer to any blogger/entrepreneur on every level.

Not to mention, Crush It! is recommended by guys like Tim Ferriss (author of The 4-Hour Workweek ,which I also covered on pinartarhan.com) and Kevin Rose (founder of Digg.com).

After having read the whole book, including the appendixes and all, I can safely saythe book is by no means just for bloggers. It is for anyone who wants to make money out of doing what they love (yep, including writers), who wants to make a brand for themselves-even though they are not selling or producing anything (let’s face it, we all sell our CVs at the very least).

So yes, Crush It! is for anyone who wants to take advantage of the internet, social media and the new age in marketing.What does Gary say in this book? I highlighted a lot of stuff and used some serious magic markers on i. Below are some of my favorite quotes from Gary:

“Skills are cheap. Passion is priceless.”

“There is room for everyone in the world of social media, which is the same thing as saying there’s room for everyone in today’s business world”

“…crying about how things should be instead of embracing how things are doesn’t do anyone any good”.

He proves his points by showing you what you can do with a blog-whether audio/video/written- what you can and should do with twitter and facebook. He lists resources, and names sites we should be keeping an eye on. And by sharing true stories, he proves over and over again why he is the right guy to write this book.

At 142 pages, it is a page-turner, but it doesn’t mean you should read and then do nothing. Take the advice, take the action. When you read his life story, you will understand how much he accomplished and so can you.

I am big on self-improvement books in the business area. And being a writer in the web-dominated age, I learned a lot from him.

* Gary blogs on Wine Library TV and you can check out his website Gary Vaynerchuk.

P.S. I love e-books, but I still prefer paperbacks. Yeah, I am one of those people who print out their e-books whenever they can:)

P.P.S. I used affiliate links for Crush It and The 4 Hour Work Week.

: Author Gary Vaynerchuk. Image via pinartarhan.com/blog

8 Awesome (Free & Paid) Places to Find Market Guidelines

Posted on July 4, 2011 Written by Pinar Tarhan

Writer’s Market – (from Writer’s Digest)

Writer’s Market 2018 can be found at the newsstands, or you can access the online Writer’s Market database. It is a paid resource, and some writers complain that it is not as up-to-date and extensive as it should be. I agree to a certain point, but I wouldn’t give it up on it just yet.

It offers some solid information, such as when the magazine was established, how to submit, who to submit, how much of it is freelance written, its response time, length and much more. However, you need to check the information yourself, as publications change editors/websites/pay rates, and many even cease to exist.

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I bought the VIP program which cost me $49.95 – it gives me a year’s subscription to the Writer’s Digest Magazine, a year’s access to the database, The Essentials of Online Marketing & Promotion Webinar, 10% off all Writers Online Workshop courses and 10% off all Writers Digest Shop purchases.

Remember that Writer’s Digest also works with freelancers, and you can find the submission guidelines here.

Susan Johnston’s The Urban Muse Guide to Online Writing Markets

Susan Johnston is a published author who runs her own blog The Urban Muse. Her e-book, The Urban Muse Guide to Online Writing Markets. She offers the website’s name, its attitude and who it targets. It also includes its pay rate (if it is specified), the topics covered and a link to the masthead/contact page/submissions page wherever possible.

At the very least, you have the link to the magazine’s main page where you can do your own digging. The book also features the reasons you might want to write for the web, how to approach the editors, and Susan’s own successful e-mail queries, including the background stories of these queries.

The book costs $17.99. I bought it after seeing it recommended on Carol Tice’s Make a Living Writing blog. I think it is a must for web writers, as her listing includes online publications in diverse areas, including web design, social commentary, relationships, parenting, stock markets, writing and more.

She also lists other resources where you can search for online writing markets.

Writing for Dollars

Writing for Dollars has its own free guidelines database, as well as a free newsletter that comes with useful articles on writing. The newsletter also contains a group of markets, but to find more, you need to dig in to the database. As far as free resources go, it is pretty good. For instance some of the publications writing you can find on the database include Freelance Market Writer’s News, FundsforWriters, WOW! Women on Writing, The Write Markets Report and more.

You can search according to the subject, market name, pay rate, submission style (simultaneous or not) and payment time (on acceptance or publication).

The markets are divided into three according to their pay: High (over $500) Medium ($125-$500) and Low (less than $125).

Writing for Dollars is itself a low-paying market. It starts from $10 (for reprints) and goes up to $25 for solicited articles. You can read its guidelines here.

Freelance Writing

Freelance Writing.com is a wonderful website that it comes with its own free (albeit) small markets database, job listings, writing contests and resources (such as useful articles and free e-books). If you subscribe to the newsletter, you will get freelance writing jobs. Currently they have free e-books on writing persuasively, writing good sales pages, online copyrights, time management, creativity and many more.

Towse’s Links to Online Submission Guidelines

Towse’s Links to Online Submission Guidelines is a quite comprehensive (and free) guide to submission guidelines (listed alphabetically) and agents (also listed alphabetically).

Writer’s Weekly

Writer’s Weekly is a wonderful e-zine that comes with a free newsletter, free guidelines database, news from the industry and free articles. Just like Writing for Dollars, it is also a paying market itself (in the subject of writing of course). It pays more than Writing for Dollars.

Freelance Market News

You can subscribe to Freelance Market News Magazine at £17 for 6 months (6 issues), and £29/year (11 issues). The site offers a free sample issue. The magazine is also a paying market. You can find its guidelines here. The pay ranges from £40 to £50.

Worldwide Freelance

WorldwideFreelance.com offers a free newsletter with useful articles, links and some market guidelines. Their premium database costs 24.95/year and 39.95/2 years, and it is supposed to have 2.500 writing markets. The site also offers e-books on writing, blogging and writing markets. Market List E-Books (such as 50 Women’s Writing Markets or Travel or 50 Traveling Writing Markets) cost $6.95 each.

As you can guess from the website’s name, you can find info on markets from Canada, Australia and the UK as well.

This is all from me for now. Please feel free to add your favorite resources.

*Note: Only Amazon links and Susan Johnston’s e-book link are affiliate links, so I make a small commission when you buy through them.

Matthew Stibbe’s 30 Days to Better Business Writing

Posted on June 13, 2011 Written by Pinar Tarhan

I decided that additional bookmarking efforts (in the way of writing a blog post about it) will help me keep the resource in mind, say thank you to the writer and help inform you at the same time. So here’s killing a couple of birds with one stone: Review for Badlanguage.net’s 30 Days to Better Business Writing (free) e-book:

A quality free e-book simply rocks, both for the writer and the reader. It rocks for the writer because it is a great promotional tool. It helps him brand himself as a helpful authority. It helps the reader to gain knowledge without having to pay for it. Writing better is an important step to making more money as a writer/blogger and Matthew Stibbe’s e-book does help you do exactly that.

Don’t freak out or be bored by the “Business Writing” part of the title. It provides great tips that you can use in all types of non-fiction writing. Hell, you can even apply some of it to fiction.

The book consists of 116 PDF pages and 30 chapters, all offering concise tips in an engaging style. Each chapter begins with a related and interesting quote. It moves on to inform you and ends with an applicable exercise.

I printed out the book. I am reading and going through it all, although not necessarily in Matthew’s written order.

For instance, I am not interviewing anyone yet, and I am not required to prepare presentations. So I am concentrating more on the chapters about writing well and in style, picking the right words and structure and that kind of stuff. And don’t worry, he mentions blogging too.

So print it out and attack with markers and post-its. And read all the chapters, even though you’ll be needing some more than the others. It will be great to keep it handy for future reference.

He also features links to book reviews on his blogs as well as free resources.

Strongly recommended. And you can’t beat free.

You can follow Matthew on Twitter too.

Intelligent Productivity for Freelance Writers by John Soares -UPDATED

Posted on June 8, 2011 Written by Pinar Tarhan

UPDATE: When this post was published, the book was being sold through John Soares’ website. Unfortunately, he has taken it off the market. However he told me that he’ll be back with an even better productivity resource for writers. In the meantime, you can continue getting your dose of productivity tips from his website, Productive Writers.

It took me a whole week to go through the whole book, and I am not yet finished studying. John Soares’ e-book Intelligent Productivity for Freelance Writers consists of very informative 179 pages, and while the language is flowing enough to finish reading at one sitting, I certainly recommend against rushing through the pages.

Because, like all good e-books, this one needs to printed out. and passages need to be highlighted. You should also return to the chapters that are most relevant and helpful to your life. Without knowing the content, it might be very easy to dismiss this one as “another e-book on productivity”. Don’t make that mistake.

Not only the book is full of wonderfully applicable advice for all aspects of your freelance writing life, it also involves some great insights & tips on writing better (such as how to conduct an interview or when, why and how to work with co-authors) and making the most of your marketing as well. However, please keep in mind that this book is essentially a productivity book, so even the tips on interviewing (people) well or marketing your work are primarily focused on productivity and efficiency.

Content Breakdown- Below are some of the subjects featured on the book:

* Conventional and out-of-the box tips for storing data on multiple locations (as well as the reasons and how-to information for these methods),

* Many valid and relevant examples from the writer’s own writing habits and career,

* Ergonomics (that also includes the time you might feel like going into the woods by yourself!),

* Organizing (your files, your notes, your office),

* Effective and efficient research (online & offline),

* Online & offline networking

* When to hire others to work with/for you (and how to calculate the costs, and what to pay attention to during hiring (actually you can also benefit from this part if you are considering to work for/with other freelance writers as well),

* Goal-setting, and sticking to these goals,

* Managing the non-writing aspects of your life,

* Tips for a better memory

* Faster reading

* Healthy living

* Healthy mind

and more…. Oh, and the book is just $17.

Intelligent Productivity for Freelance Writers is the ultimate productivity book for freelance writers. It includes everything you need to do to become healthier, happier and richer. It is also feels interactive as each chapter features questions to be answered by you. You simply need to have it if you are interested in leading a better life in general.

Please note that I bought this book after reading Anne Wayman’s review, using her affiliate link. I used my affiliate links for this review.