In the last 8 days, I’ve given two separate private WordPress lessons to people I know. It got me thinking: As online writers, not only do we know the basics of stringing words together, we also know a thing or two about the technologies of our trade. In the old days, I suppose writers gave typing lessons to their friends. Today, we’re teaching our friends about WordPress, Microsoft Office, article marketing, article directories, keywords, social media, and more. . .

What have you taught one of your friends lately? Share your experiences here.

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By Celeste Stewart

Have you ever received an article rejection notice from Constant-Content.com that says, “We can accept only content that is able to be verified as original to the author”? That one’s frustrating because you know you wrote it. You know it’s yours.

Trouble is, Constant-Content doesn’t know it. This can happen if you originally published the article under a different byline or when a byline doesn’t exist at all. It can also happen when your article appears in multiple places online with several byline variations.

For example, let’s say you posted an article on EzineArticles under your own name and you think it would be nice to post for usage rights on Constant-Content. If you use a pen name on Constant-Content, the editors may not be familiar with your real name. Technically, they could look it up, but then there’s that finicky issue of allowing your content to appear with two different bylines. In addition, even if you use the same name for both submissions, if the article has been on the Internet for any length of time, it’s possible that the article appears some place other than where you originally posted it. In our EzineArticles example, people are allowed to copy and paste your article. While they’re supposed to leave your byline intact, it’s not unheard of for some publishers to omit it. Guess what? Your article won’t be easily verified as original to you the author anymore!

While frustrating when it’s happening to you, in a way, this is a safeguard against the content of all of us Web writers. I know I wouldn’t want someone copying and pasting one of my articles and then trying to resell it on a site like Constant-Content.

To avoid this issue in the first place, make sure that any articles you submit for usage only on Constant-Content are clearly attributable to you. Not that I’d ever try to submit this blog post to Constant-Content, but if I wanted to, I’d put “By Celeste Stewart” up at the top of the post as I did for illustrative purposes above. I’d also submit it to Constant-Content.com as soon as possible to ensure that I beat any content scrappers that might copy and paste the content and make the question of originality just murky enough to lead to a rejection.

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I stopped blogging regularly! I always thought the idea of setting up an editorial calendar was a great one (and for some it might be), but when I finally got around to sketching out a blogging plan, I ended up barely blogging at all!

I had it nicely laid out in Excel with specific topics to write about on specific days of the week. Since I have several blogs, I mapped out a plan for all of them. It looked great on paper but reality was a different story. Suddenly, whenever it was time to blog, I had to refer to my spreadsheet. Suddenly, blogging became overwhelming instead of fun. So, as of a few days ago, the editorial calendar is now history.

Just as it’s important to set goals, it’s also important to evaluate what isn’t working and adjust as needed. The editorial calendar simply did not work for me so it’s gone. How about you? What do you need to change this year?

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Happy New Year! As writers, it’s natural for us to come up with writing-related New Year’s resolutions. I’m particularly fond of them because back in January 2006, I resolved to “make money with my writing” and here I am happily selling words for a living ever since.

Here are a few of my writing resolutions for 2011:

• Master the principles taught in the book Made to Stick and use them to communicate more effectively (My brother gave me that book for Christmas and it’s awesome – thanks Bro!)
• Create a vision and strategy for my writing business
• Prioritize and focus (I tend to want to do too much, all at once)

What are your writing resolutions this year?

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As writers, we all understand the importance of picking the right words, using proper grammar, punctuating correctly, and editing and revising. And that’s just the beginning. We must also contend with structure, style, and voice. Of course there’s more: plot, characterization, theme. . . And then there’s the different usage requirements specified by style books such as the AP Stylebook and Chicago Manual of Style.   It’s no wonder that we’re constantly working on the craft of writing. What’s on your writing bookshelf? Me? Among my favorites are:

• Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style
• Noah Lukeman’s A Dash of Style
• Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary
• The Yahoo! Style Guide
• The AP Stylebook 

I also loved reading Stephen King’s On Writing. What are your favorites? What are you going to ask Santa to bring you this year?

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