All About Writing

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Posted on August 19, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Triberr & Writing

I joined Triberr originally for my other twitter account @dailydishrecipe, and was pretty excited when I got my first pick on tribes I applied to. I got hooked within the first week, became super active and felt like I had gotten to know many people pretty well. I eventually added my @simplywriting  twitter account and added the RSS feed for this blog. Then I set out to find some writing groups.

My whole goal with Triberr was to meet new people and become friendly with other bloggers. It definitely happened, but so did many other things along the way. I thought I would share some advice from my month on Triberr.

- When you first join Triberr – do not join another tribe, or create another tribe, until you have been a member for at least 2 weeks. This will allow you time to get used to the site, learn all the features and not make any mistakes along the way. (okay that’s silly because I’m sure you’ll make mistakes…. we all do.)

- When you do finally join new tribes, try to find out as MUCH information as you can about the tribe. Triberr has the settings set so that you usually can’t see who’s in a tribe until you get into it, nor can you have any idea what the frequency of tweets, etc will be in there. I learned this the hard way. I could see that there were 13 people in one tribe I joined, I thought that seemed manageable and small, which was what I wanted – only to find out that 3 out of the 13 people were deal & giveaway bloggers and they posted like 20 times a day. Yeah, talk about a clogged twitter feed.

- You can set the frequency of how often you tweet from Triberr. I usually have my set for 15 minutes, and then at night, I will up it to 5 minutes if there’s a lot scheduled. Also, remember that all of the posts in your stream from your tribemates are TENTATIVELY scheduled to go out at that time, does not mean they actually will. Triberr JUST added a “Tweet Now” button which as been WONDERFUL for me. I sometimes have huge gaps in my stream between posts/tweets, and posts that are clustered together, etc. This way, I can simply click the TWEET NOW button and it gets sent immediately. The only thing that would make it better is if we could schedule tweets for a certain time LOL.

- Don’t join whatever tribe sends you an invite. Don’t try to join every tribe. After I started paying attention to what tribemates were posting, I realized that there was a lot of stuff going out that wasn’t the type of information my followers were looking for – nothing like mixing yummy recipe posts with disgusting poopy diaper posts. Yeah, not really my thing.

- If you have a question, or a problem – and you ask a question in the Bonfire area – that’s okay. But don’t get mad when you don’t get a response right away. Both Dan & Dino have full time jobs and are extremely attentive during their off hours, but they have wives, girlfriends and a life. You’re not paying for the site, so just be patient. It’s still new, it’s going to have growing pains.

- Don’t be sucked into the numbers game. Many start paying attention to “reach” which is the number of people you “reach” with your post when it is tweeted to each of your tribemates. It’s hard not to notice it, but I don’t even pay attention to it anymore. Many want to have the highest, biggest reach – but by far this doesn’t mean anything and what it usually does is turn your twitter stream into a spammy mess, because in a tribe of 20, if everyone posted once a day (and trust me, many of these people do nothing but post ALL day) = that’s 20 posts that are going to go through your twitter stream in one day. Join more than once tribe and that number continues to climb.

- Which reminds me, make sure you pay attention to your twitter stream. Look at what you’re posting. Then think about if you were one of your followers, would you find that info useful? Or spammy?  Some of these “general” tribes are full of the giveaway gals, as I call them. They do nothing but post about deals, coupons and oh my goodness – the giveaways, all day. Which means, you do nothing but tweet about their posts about the deals, coupons and the giveaways. See? Great if you’re a giveaway gal, not so great if you’re not.

Don’t get me wrong – deals, coupons and giveaways are great but some of these gals were posting upwards of 6-10 times a day (most of the time more). I post MAYBE once a day. It was too much.

I don’t regret Triberr in any way, shape or form. I have grown as a blogger since day 1, I continue to pay attention to what is being tweeted, and I’m still having a great time. There’s been some snafu’s along the way, and they are what they are. I’m good with them.

So, with all the said – if you are writer, and you are interested in joining our tribe Writing Warriors, let me know (send me an inbox nicole AT nicolehumphrey DOT net, or send me a message on twitter. I do have inbreeding unlocked so if you are already on Triberr, I have you covered too.  We’re a friendly bunch with quality content – you do however need to have a writing blog where more than 75% of your posts are related to writing. But other than that, any genre, topic, etc.

If you have other tips & tricks for Triberr members or newbies, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

Wanna join my tribe? Shoot me a message! :0)

Have a great weekend!

Popularity: 6% [?]

Posted on June 9, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Pinterest Addict

It’s official…I am an addict. I have made the move into Pinterest and I have unpacked my bags. I’m not leaving anytime soon. Absolutely in love with that website. It’s so much better than book mark apps, etc. I can just save a photo, which reminds me of whatever it was I wanted and voila – a beautiful photo board of visual goodness.

These are just a few of my boards on Pinterest. Every topic under the sun is covered on Pinterest too. And you can add your own things complete with comments. I have found some amazing stuff on there.  Are you on Pinterest?

Popularity: 10% [?]

Posted on June 1, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Day 1 – Write an Elevator Pitch

A couple of days ago I mentioned that I am participating in a month long challenge to build a better blog. I have the workbook, I joined the group and now I’m taking off with the first days challenge.

I have to write an elevator pitch about my blog. It has to be 140 characters or less. Well, that’s cool, I’m a Twitter Pro. LOL Right?

I spent the past few days trying to think about what I wanted to say, and I came up with four. I have no clue which one to use, but I’m probably going to have to resort to playing eenie, meenie, miney, moe so I can choose.

1. Humor - YA & Romance Author and busy mom of five, shares her life and the road to publishing, while hooked up to a continuous coffee IV.
2. Lots of Info – Personal – YA & Romance Author. Mom to 5. Love books & photography. Addicted to sushi, coffee & chocolate. Writing about life & the road to publishing.
3. Straight Forward & Simple – Author and mom of 5 serves her crazy life up one blog post at a time, while helping other writers on their road to publishing.
4. Simple Non Sentences – Mom of 5. Author. Writer. Photographer. Sushi Addict. Drinks too much coffee. Writes Too Many Words. Shares her crazy life.

I realize they are all similar, mostly because I want to keep the same elements. But there are things about each one I love.

Here are my thoughts.

1. I like # 1 because it has a twist of humor at the end, while still explaining what the blog is about. It’s simple, yet has a twist which shows my funny side. (yes, I realize I’m probably the only one who thinks I’m funny)
2. I like this one a lot, because I think I was able to cram more info in it, while keeping it fun and light and still direct about what it is.
3. This might  be my least favorite, but the reason for this is because I feel like it is lacking personality at all. It’s cute, simple and kinda boring. I don’t know.
4. I do this a lot. Write with the stops. So I am drawn to this one too, but it reads too much like a Twitter blurb (hahaa it reads a lot like my twitter blurb) than I’m comfortable having on my blog. That doesn’t mean I don’t still love it though.

Arghhhhh!!!!  Glad you people aren’t at my end to laugh at me actually getting irritated. hahaha If I had time to put a poll up (plan ahead Nicole, it works better!) I would ask you guys to vote. Instead, just leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite one is, what your thoughts are or if you came up with a better one.

Why does all of this matter anyway? Because I am hoping to make it the description/tagline to my blog. That is all.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Posted on May 29, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Blog Facelift

In honor of my pledge to build a better blog in 31 days, I have given my blog a few small, minor tweaks – a face lift if you will.

What do you think?

• I created a new header, and since its a rotating header, I removed all other headers and only included this one and then one that matches it. One  has a subtle pink middle on the daisies and one does not. That’s the only difference. Probably not noticeable to most and I’m okay with that.
• I removed a ton of widgets off my blog. Some of them were annoying, they seemed too cluttery and it just looks neater. I felt overwhelmed by how much info I was providing or sticking in my sidebars, so I cannot imagine how it felt to others visiting my blog. I also removed the “welcome” text box that welcomed visitors to my blog. That info can now be found on my about page which is something else I plan to “facelife” sooner rather than later.
• I moved my left sidebar over to become an additional right sidebar. I didn’t used to like this look, but for some reason its working much better for me now. I don’t know why I like the look, but I do.

So please, be gentle but be honest – I’d love to know if this looks better to you and seems less cluttered and more clean?

Popularity: 4% [?]

Posted on May 29, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Let’s Do It – June 2011 – Problogger: 31 Days to a Better Blog

Awhile back (more than a year ago) I purchased Probloggers: 31 Days to a Better Blog workbook. I read through a bit of it, realized I did NOT have the time to devote to it, and it literally just got lost in all my files on my computer. However, back in January, I remember seeing a group of women putting on a month long challenge to complete the workbook. I was disappointed because by the time I discovered it, it was already halfway through. And we were so busy, I just couldn’t jump in, even late.

I am happy to announce that they are doing it again, in June 2011. Starting date, June 1. I am a lot less hectic and a lot less busy right now, and I feel completely positive that I can do this. So I signed up. I’m ready to have a better blog in 31 days. Definitely.

The thing I love the most, is that there are two options and ways to participate.

Starting in June, you can choose between two options:

Option 1:
Work through each of Darren’s assigned tasks Monday through Friday in The SITS Girls discussion forum. Because we will not be working on weekends, you’ll be done with the program about mid-July.

This option is for those of you who really want to work through everything the ProBlogger program has to offer. Starting June 1 under the 31DBBB June group, we’ll publish key points to discuss, a task to work on and questions to answer daily. Rest assured that your blog will improve. And you know I will be with you every step of the way to answer any questions you might have and even keep you going with a giveaway or two.

Option 2:
Focus on only a handful of the 31 activities. The plan is to slow down the program more than ever. On Mondays and Thursdays, we will publish a post in the Education channel on SITS, bringing you some of our favorite ProBlogger tasks. While we won’t be working through all 31 activities, we’ll be focusing on a handful of activities in detail and ensuring that everyone has a chance to complete them. What’s more, because the SITS Girls plan to run the 31 Day Challenge several times a year, you can join again and again as we work through different sections of ProBlogger’s book.

 

If you are considering doing this, you can check out February’s Winter ProBlogger Challenge Wrap Up post to see what you are going to be expected to work on during June. (and to see if you have the commitment to go with it).

If you have decided to do this, leave me a comment and/or follow me on twitter so that I can A) visit your blog and start commenting more often and B) follow you back on twitter and hopefully make new friends out of this whole experience.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Posted on May 16, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Outdoor Writing

Finally today we have a beautiful day. It was nice enough for me to gather my laptop and all my writing materials and move outside to my back patio. I wish I could say why writing outside is so inspirational for me, but I just love everything about Spring and Fall weather, and if its nice enough, I want to be out in it.

I already have about 5000 words for the day, and while I have edited some – my words are much better today than they have been in past days. It’s a nice balance, and I am not done. I just wanted to take a break and blog.

This is the view just to the side of my laptop.

Probably not that exciting to many, but I love that rose garden. My husband planted it long before I arrived on the scene, and has taken such good care of it each year. I love the different roses, and he loves telling me about them. (kinda shows that softer side that my better half has, that sometimes I forget is there).

And just ’cause I’m such a dork… I kept snapping photos of all kinds of things, and I got this …
I call it, Breakfast on the Patio *snicker*

So, just curious, where is your favorite place to write? Tell me in the comments.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Posted on May 13, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Enter to win a doodled ARC of Possession by Elana Johnson

So…..

I really want this. The idea of getting an ARC of any book is usually pretty awesome. BUT. Getting a DOODLED Arc of Possession is far better in my opinion. Dying to see what Elana Johnson added to the book that personalized it and made it more awesome than you know it already is.

Random-ish is hosting a contest to win this coveted Doodled ARC of Possession.  Oh yeah, and you also get an autographed bookmark and a $10 iTunes card. Have you entered to win?

I was determined to at least get a good chance, I never win anything but ya know Friday the 13th’s are my lucky days so…

• I am following Random-ish – Puts my name on the list
• I blogged about it +5
• I tweeted about it (and have scheduled to keep going until tomorrow night at closing) +8
• I facebooked about it (and have scheduled to keep posting about it until tomorrow night at closing) +8
• I have added it to both my Goodreads and my Shelfari site +3
• And I commented on the post. +1

You can get additional single points for anything else you do to spread the word, so be sure to count that too.

Did you enter to win?

Popularity: 2% [?]

Posted on March 15, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Why Do You Write?

This morning, I stumbled across Amie Borst’s post titled Why Do You Write?

I’ve asked that question before, on my blog, on twitter, on facebook and I really enjoy reading others reasons. I related so much to what Amie’s post said. In my words, here is why I write.

• I write because I exist when I write. I don’t know really how to explain that, but I am betting other writers can relate.
• I write because I have to. I mean, honestly – I feel incomplete when I have gone any length of time without some good writing time. It’s compelling. It will fill my mind until I cannot possibly think of anything else but sitting down with my laptop and typing for hours.
• I write because the world feels right when I do. I create my own world, and all these scenes and ideas that seem to swim around in my head constantly sometimes clutter my other thoughts. When I get them out, I feel free.
• I write because I couldn’t live without it. It is what gets me up in the morning (okay, in addition to the kids). It is the only thing I have ever really wanted to do, and if I lost it, I’m pretty sure I would not feel whole.
• And much like Amie mentions in her post, I’m pretty, fairly certain, that I write because it is an environment I can control. It is a story I can tell and I decide who lives or dies, who falls in love or who doesn’t. I write the words that create the world. I write the words that create the character and then the story.

It is for all these reasons I write. So tell me, why do you write?

(and if you posted a blog entry like this… link to it in my comments so I can come read too!)

Popularity: 6% [?]

Posted on December 13, 2010 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Talking About Freelance Writing

Once upon a time, I remember hearing about a newish venue for freelancers to apply to write. I had accidentally come across the site, more than once looking for something else. I remember thinking, hey, it might be fun writing for them. I didn’t apply immediately though, I paid careful attention to what I heard about the place first. It took a bit, but after a good year of them being around, I remember going through all the motions – sending in a bio, a resume, samples, a list of future ideas, all the stuff you do to get a freelance position. I also remember asking for a particular title based on where I live. I was accepted, but they told me that at that time they had no plans to create new titles that didn’t exist and that I would need to except a broader based title they offered. Okay fine, I accepted it. I had unintentionally snagged up another person’s title who had let it lay dormant for quite some time (nearly 9 months if I remember correctly).

I really didn’t need another writing job. I already had two, and I had let most of my others go to focus more on my noveling. I was happy with my decision to spend more time with my noveling, so when I considered this place, I did spend some time questioning my sanity before I jumped in feet first. LOL But the old adage for freelancers is “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”, so what’s one more site?

After a whole bunch of emails, getting everything set up and learning the basics, I wrote a couple of pieces. I was elated as I usually am when I get any job and get going. I was excited and positive, and directional even with my topic. I thought it would be easy, and while I had no idea what kind of money I would wind up making or even if I would make any money… (because money talk was very hush hush around those parts), I did know that if I had to use little effort and could pop a few things up there every week, I might have a nice little residual income coming in. I didn’t need it, I just wanted it so we could save up for certain things. I’m always willing to add to my resume, and I so enjoy writing that I am always on the look out for further opportunities. Extra cash is an incentive too.

Flash forward to a week after I published my very first piece with said site. By this time, I had probably published four or five pieces or so. Yes, I know – that’s not much. Again let me repeat, this was not a big “job” for me… it was just a nice way to get my name back out there again, and connect with new people. But still I spent that whole week (at least 15-20+ hours) writing those pieces, editing them, publishing them, posting my link, getting my title and url out there all over the place, publishing my article links on any site that would let me publish the link, using twitter, facebook and any other social networking resource I could, stumbling, tweeting, linking and repeating.

I felt confident, because I have been writing on my given topic for the past 9 years and make quite a bit of money doing so. Within that first week though, we heard that in order to get paid the good money, the articles need to have a local twist… well okay, that can’t be so hard. Right? I mean, I know my area well. Never mind that the topic I was given was for an area that is about 45 minutes away from my house. While I am familiar with it, it isn’t my immediate “home”. Well, it didn’t take long for me to figure out that it was hard.

I felt like my articles were struggling, they were definitely not my best work and I’m quite sure if I asked my former editors from other sites to take a look, they would agree – they didn’t even sound like I wrote them. I know I’m probably my biggest critic, but they felt forced, because I had to figure out a way to tie in my topic to my area, and that in itself was challenging. I feel like the articles came across that way too.

During this struggle, I was in constant contact with my manager explaining, researching and providing examples of why having the area I was writing about, moved to my immediate area, was a good idea. I write on that area on another website and the numbers were high for page views. A screen shot was all it took and my manager was convinced, but she had to convince the higher ups. Impressed, she took it to those people. After she assured me that she would look into it and let me know something within a week, I heard from her just a few days later. The powers that be had apparently told her that my area was too small to give it its own section on the site at this time. Uhm. Okay. I figured it was because they were still only a year old or so, and were just waiting to see what would happen with the site. I understood all that.

So I let it be, but she also promised me that they had said if and when it came available or was an option, I would be first in line. Score 1 for Nicole, or at least I thought. I continued to write about three more articles and then within a week, I quit writing articles for them. I think I popped one more up at the end of the month and just gave up. Why?

Well, during that time (yes, only a week after my first article was published), suddenly I had a new manager (not the girl I was in contact with), while normally that wouldn’t bother me (and is the reason I popped one more up at the end of the month) is because about two or three weeks later I had yet another manager.

In my opinion, it was getting crazy. And then to go even further, they started changing things – the way they paid, the way the publishing platform worked, etc. They released a huge upgraded website that was not ready to be released, was full of bugs, the publishing system didn’t work most of the time, etc.

Well, I’m not big on change to be honest, but I can normally deal with it. I told myself I would wait a few weeks and see what transpired before putting anything else on the site. I was irritated since I had spent the first week or two learning all of their tools, their publishing system and everything else that goes along with starting at a new freelance job. Only to have it all change. Within 2 weeks after I started. Wow… really?
Yeah, so call me a quitter… LOL I am. It gets even better than that later on.

As a freelance writer for over 15 years now, having worked for countless sites across the Internet and even local magazines and publications. I have been burned a few times, and I couldn’t help keeping a watchful eye out for the same thing to happen at other venues. This was one of them. I didn’t know enough to get to the bottom of things, so I figured I’d just sit back and watch for awhile.

Well, awhile turned into about a month or so. I watched, I read the forums, I still read others articles and then all of a sudden one day, there was an article about a local venue. I clicked to read it because I was familiar with the venue. I check out the authors name and then I notice something. She has my title. The title I coveted, the title I wanted, the title I had been promised – you know… the one that was based in my area and not 45 minutes away. Wait… what? While her articles weren’t bad, I felt I had been let down. I was told that I would have that position if it ever came available. A month from that date, there it was and my name wasn’t on it. Wow. I was mad at first, and then after a few days I realized it wasn’t fair to be that mad about it, because with all the changing managers, nobody but the original actually knew how badly I wanted that title.

At that point though, I completely stopped visiting the site, and did not support it anymore. I removed any trace of the links, the facebook page I had created, the twitter account I created – all of it. Anything that I had used to “help” them (which was supposed to help me). So flash ahead… it’s now been about 8 months, and I’m actually glad it didn’t work out at that time. I was able to focus on my noveling and I completed two manuscripts in their entirety. This is what I wanted to do.

Except that, on December 18th I received an email from the site I was a former freelancer for. So I signed onto my account and was surprised to see that I still had access. I was even a bit startled to see that my original topic/title was still mine and that someone else had not swooped in and taken it from me, as I had done to another writer who had previously let it go dormant. I even accessed the publishing system to see if I could post an article. Affirmative. I browsed around for awhile, peeked into the forums and then started reading a bunch of the articles. What happened is, I found myself missing this side of writing. The freelance side. In fact, I looked all over the place for any negativity about the site, and couldn’t find anything recent at all. Seems as if they fixed everything and their writers were now happy. Do I want to rekindle this topic of mine and begin to write for them again? Maybe. Actually, no. I don’t want this topic. What I did want, was that other topic. The one they gave to someone else. What do I do….

There were several factors that got my interest peeked again, including a deal they made with Reuters, adding a local incentive program and a few other things that were beneficial to a freelancer (considering of course, that my topic was locally based).
I did a quick search for the title/topic local area I wanted… it was there. But so was the lady. She hadn’t written in a short bit, but it was still very much there.

I decided to contact my manager last night and find out what was going on. I got a response back within about an hour about it – she said that if I was interested in the two positions that were based in my area, to send her my samples again, and a future topic list. I did so, quite quickly and now I’m seriously waiting. I hate that its a weekend. I hate that I didn’t think about doing this earlier. I spent last night writing 5 more articles and now I have about 20 articles that I could post right this very minute… half are what freelance writers and content sites refer to as, evergreen.

What is evergreen?

It refers to content that “never goes bad”… meaning that it is always of interest no matter what time period. It almost never refers to news or current events. It would be essentially like an article titled “10 Ways to Save Money” – more than likely, those 10 ways are going to be good today, tomorrow and even 10 years from now. Providing of course, I don’t say something like “sell your clothes at (insert store name here) ” and then said store closes a year down the line. Obviously, then the piece becomes less evergreen. Understand?
Good.

This waiting game is killing me. I feel like writing all the time now. I can’t focus on my noveling at all. Oh yeah. Now I remember why I gave up most of my freelancing! :p
What in the world am I doing?

Popularity: 7% [?]

Posted on August 24, 2010 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Looking Back…

I’ve noticed that I am left without much time to blog lately. I think that is mostly because I have a tendency to run myself dry and stretch myself like a rubber band that is about to snap. I wish I could say that it would change and I’d suddenly find myself with all this free time, like maybe when the kids go back to school or something. But yeah, I’m being realistic here and I know that when the kids do go back to school, which is like, pretty much right around the corner – I’m going to be spending my time playing catch up on my writing that has been neglected, and some seriously over due editing on one of the manuscripts that is way too many words for my liking.

See, being the realist I actually am, I can tell you that I will try better. And I will. But that certainly doesn’t mean it will be more often, maybe just more witty? Nah, probably not. And the realist in me, also has been known to utter the words “I will just stop taking on as much.” but even that is ridiculous too, because anyone who knows me knows that I will continue to take everything that comes my way, even if it does mean the aforementioned rubber band is about to snap.

What I can say, is that once the kids go back to school, and I am in more of a routine, I might start posting more. I might be a little witty here and there, and I might find some otherwise unknown to me free time to actually get something I really want to do done, rather than what I need/have to do.

Other than that, be patient. And if you’re hungry, I do have new recipes that go up near daily over on The Daily Dish, so feel free to check that out. I’m also all over the place, so if you want to friend me on twitter or facebook, I’m sure I’ll show up there, more than here. I’m working on fixing that, but in the meantime, don’t give up on me.

Popularity: 2% [?]