Ramblings-n-Writings

Archive for the ‘helpful posts/products’ Category

Today, I’d thought I share a few of the little treasures in bloggy world that I’ve found recently via Entrecard…

• Daisy the Curly Cat – These often humorous, daily posts feature photo sessions of Daisy and Harley, both cats. Almost every day I get a giggle out of the silliness. My favorite so far has been the Groundhog Day joke and Daisy laughing at the end.
• Golden Prague – This blog is all about living in the city of Prague. Personally, I love reading this blog because my maternal grandfather grew up in Dubrava, Slovakia. (It was Czechoslovakia then.) And while my maternal grandmother was born in the USA, her parents both came from that region too.
• Life from My Laptop – I love Alyssa’s tagline: “Juggling my life. Relying on my faith.” Alyssa found me on Twitter awhile ago, but I’ve only recently started reading her blog. She’s an aspiring writer who is doing quite well in reaching her goals. She’s an inspiration to me.
• The Virtual Dime Museum – This blog is a collection of old photos and newspaper clippings as well as the stories behind them. Great for history buffs especially if you’re looking for the unusual. Also great for plot ideas.
• Modern Historian – Want to know what happened today in history? This blog doesn’t give the usual fare of political history.

I have plenty of others in my Google Reader that I’ll share another day. What blogs do you like reading?

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about Entrecard, a blog traffic generator. After about 6 weeks or so of use, I still enjoy Entrecard. I’ve found a lot of great blogs that I enjoy reading each day. Some give me a chuckle, and others give me something to think about.

A common practice with Entrecard users is to post their “top droppers” at the end of the month. These are the people that visited my site the most and, hence, earn the title “top dropper.”

So without further ado…

By the way, now that I’ve participated in Entrecard for a full month, I checked my traffic numbers. I compared January to November. I know I’ve done a couple of other things besides Entrecard to gain traffic, but my increase was 79%!!!!!!!

And in case you’re wondering, my traffic increased 30% from December to January. I started Entrecard midway through December, so that’s why I went back to November to see just how much my traffic increased.

Have you seen Christian Writers’ Market Guide 2009by Sally Stuart? What an amazing resource with a wealth of information! In previous years, I’ve used the regular Writer’s Market (I actually just got rid of my 2003 edition), and I have to say that the Christian Writers’ Market Guide 2009 is easier to use by far.

The guide breaks the writing market into three broad categories – book publishers, periodicals, and specialty markets (greeting cards, gifts, software, games, CD/DVD/Video).

The book publishers section starts with a listing of topics and the names of publishers interested in that topic. Over 150 topics are included ranging from autobiography to fiction for teens to marriage to self-help to worship resources. What a great way to find publishers to target!

Following the topical listing is a detailed listing of each book publisher. The alphabetized listings detail contact information, basic guidelines, special needs, and lots more for each publisher. A separate section is devoted to subsidy publishers. Those publishers that do not accept unsolicited manuscripts and require an agent are noted along with those who accept book proposals via The Writer’s Edge and Christian Manuscript Submissions.

Next is a list of book distributors followed by a market analysis. This section is useful for the discerning writer who wants to target the best publishers. The analysis covers the number of books published, what topics are most popular, and who had the most bestsellers.

After book publishers comes the periodical section. The divisions are similar to publishers – topical listings, alphabetical listing, and market analysis. The major difference is within the alphabetical listing, the periodicals are alphabetized within their type, such as children’s, pastor/leadership, music.

Because of this method of organization, when I found a periodical in the topic listing that I was interested in, I turned to the index for finding the detailed listing of the magazine. Otherwise, I would have to look in each periodical type for the name.

The back section of the book contains valuable information for writers – conferences and workshops, writers’ groups, editorial services, literary agents, and contests. With the exception of literary agents and contests, the groups are organized alphabetically by state location.

As a special bonus, a CD is included with the book. This CD is perfect for the writer that travels frequently and doesn’t want to lug around the actual book. What’s on the CD? The entire book in a searchable format along with additional resources for writers! I could spend hours pouring over the additional resources and have barely comprehended all that is included. To say that the CD is priceless to a freelancer, a beginning writing, or an author doing his own promotion would be an understatement.

The big question on my mind about Christian Writers’ Market Guide 2009 was “Is it usable?” Not having an immediate project that I needed the guide for, I put myself in the shoes of a friend of mine who recently wrote a short story and needed possible magazines for submission. The problem is her story is a little longer than what the average magazine accepts.

I flipped to the teen section of periodicals since her story is geared for that age level. A couple of minutes of scanning gave me information for 2 magazines that will accept her word count. Then I looked at the topical listing section for periodicals, cross-referenced the names to the alphabetical section, and found another possible magazine for her. Two of the three magazines are ones that I’ve never heard of so probably wouldn’t have found otherwise.

If you’re concerned about the cost of a book that will go out of date in a year, realize that the detail listings for most companies include their website addresses. While the contact information, such as the editor, might change over time, a website address will probably remain the same and give you a good starting point for finding the current information in the future.

If you are a writer interested in the Christian publishing world, buy your copy of Christian Writers’ Market Guide 2009. You won’t regret it!

Product Details:
List price: $34.99
Paperback: 560 pages
Publisher: WaterBrook Press; Pap/Cdr edition (January 13, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307446433
ISBN-13: 978-0307446435

Entrecard is a word that I heard on Twitter about a month ago. Someone said that Entrecard increased their blog traffic, so I was curious to know what it is. Who doesn’t want more traffic?

Here’s the blurb from Entrecard…

Entrecard is a free blogging network that truly brings visitors to your blog. By joining our network, you can earn Entrecard credits which allows you to display an ad of your blog on other blog sites within our Network.

How does Entrecard work?

Basically, every blog that participates in Entrecard has a special button in its sidebar. You can see mine under “Blog of the Day” (right underneath my button for Garden Vines and above my Twitter updates).

When an Entrecard member visits my blog, they click on the “Drop” button and leave a “calling card” in my Entrecard inbox. The “calling card” allows me to see who visited so I can visit their blog in return. To drop my “calling card” on another blog, I click their “Drop” button and I earn one Entrecard credit.

After accumulating a couple of credits, I’m able to purchase one day of advertising on someone else’s Entrecard button on their blog. My advertisement exposes my blog to readers I might not otherwise find.

(The thousands of blogs on Entrecard are broken into categories, so it’s fairly easy to find bloggers with similar interests.)

Does Entrecard take work or a lot of time?

I average about 45-50 drops a day, but I also don’t drop every day. Making 45-50 drops takes me about 20-30 minutes. I visit each of the blogs that I “drop” on and read their new posts.

I’ve also created a group in my Google Reader for Entrecard blogs so I can routinely drop on those blogs that I like.

The number of drops is limited to 300 per person per day. Personally, I’ve never achieved that many and really don’t plan to.

Another way to earn credits is to post regularly on your blog. I’m not 100% certain about this but I think each post earns 25 credits. It might be each day that you post that earns credits – so if you post 3 times today, you’d get 25 credits for posting, not 75. I’m not entirely clear on how that works so if someone knows, please tell me in the comments!

For me, the hardest work is finding blogs that I want to advertise on and that I can afford with my credits.

Has Entrecard increased my blog traffic?

Most definitely! I’ve seen a significant increase in traffic over the past week as more people are being exposed to my blog via my drops and the “advertising” I’ve done on other sites.

Since I started about a month ago, my traffic has gone up by at least 30%, possibly more. I’ll have a better idea when January is finished.

If you have Entrecard and I haven’t dropped on you, let me know in the comments so I can visit you!

Yesterday I mentioned that I was no longer happy with Bloglines, the RSS feed reader I use. I went on a hunt for a new one and discovered Google Reader (GR). Here’s what I like about GR and how it compares to Bloglines:

• I was able to easily import my Bloglines subscription list (including my folder organization) to GR. Having never imported a list to Bloglines, I assume that it is just as easy. But if you are worried about switching to GR, it’s quite simple!
• GR is web-based so I can access my feeds from any computer. Bloglines is also web-based.
• GR shows all of a blogs previous posts so I can easily browse the list to find a post I want to re-read. Bloglines removes the post when you read it, unless it is marked to save.
• I have the ability to “star” posts that I think are important for future reference. I can look at my “star” list to find a post and don’t have to remember who wrote the post. Bloglines saves marked posts but only files them under the original blog so you have to know which blog it came from to find it.
• GR recommends blogs I might like. (I found a couple of nice garden blogs that I’m now subscribed to.)
• GR tracks trends and shows me graphs and stats about my usage and about blog activity. Not entirely necessary in a reader but interesting to look at for people like me. =)
• My Firefox GR add-on shows the number of new posts. Bloglines required a mouse-over to see the number.
• The Firefox add-on also has a mouse-over pop-up that shows the name of the updated blogs. I like this feature because when I notice there’s a new post, I can see if it’s from a favorite blog and one I want to take a break to read.

So I’m glad I made the switch. If you use Google Reader, what features do you like?

By the way, did you know that you can subscribe to Ramblings-n-Writings? It’s really easy! In the far right column, there’s a “Subscribe to This Blog” feature. Just choose your RSS reader. Help me grow my subscription numbers!!! =)