Blog round-up

Photo by: Paul Kelleher

I feel that I’ve had a very unproductive week. A long weekend followed by PC problems, so I’ve decided to do a round up of some of the other blogs that I love to read.

From Leo Babauta’s Write to Done is an appeal to our qualitative side in Write Just One Thing Today, and Write It Well. I particularly rate the importance of writing your goal. And writing it the night before. In fact, I find my productivity is much higher if I plan my important tasks the night before.

Chris Bibey over at chrisblogging.com has an article extolling the virtues of patience for the freelance writer. I feel that I’m being very patient at the moment, when I have so little to show for my efforts! It’s good to know that it’s a good thing for a freelancer. The article is Every Freelance Writer Needs Patience.

And finally, I loved the article over at Freelance Switch on 10 Phrases Every Freelancer Should Kick-Out of Their Vocabulary. I am personally a disaster for “Umm…uh” and for a start would have offered everything cheaper, just to get something out there. It’s an entertaining and insightful article.

And now I’m off to plan what I’m going to write about tomorrow. Getting my goal in early.

Ubiquitous capture

I don’t know if other people have had the same problems with Windows Vista as I have, but since I got my new PC in December it’s been nothing but trouble.

The latest was at the weekend in Dublin when it started crashing with the BSoD or Blue Screen of Death, which is infamous in Windows. But when I got back to Ennis I tried to fix the boot from my reinstall DVD. But it didn’t work, and when I called the helpdesk I was told to reinstall windows. So all day yesterday was taken up with that, and I’m still not able to use my wireless connection. It’s been a nightmare.

Anyway, all of this reminded me of the importance of Ubiquitous Capture which is a very important step of Getting Things Done or GTD. It basically means a method of capturing every little idea, prior to putting them into a trusted system, so none of those good ideas are lost.

Over the last number of days without my PC and being unable to work, I was reminded of the importance of ubiquitous capture. There are good articles about it. Think Smarter By Capturing Your Ideas by David Allen, the inventor of the GTD system. Tips for GTD’s Ubiquitous Capture by Leo Babauta over at Zenhabits, and Provide context for better ubiquitous capture at 43 Folders.

While off computer, I capture everything on my Pocketmod, a simple booklet made of one folded sheet of paper.

All I need to do today is process everything I captured over the past five days.

Photo by: Leonard Low

Information from Freelance Market News

I subscribed to Freelance Market News a few months ago, and I only sat down to read it the other day.

It’s a UK-based publication, and it’s filled with really relevant and interesting information for the Freelancer.

There is a profile of new publications on the front page, with Editor’s name, address and contact details.

Inside, there are details of competitions, a letters sections with a £10 prize for the Letter of the Week, 4 pages about publications giving a short description of what they’re looking for and contact details, and then a page each on publications that print fillers and letters and overseas markets.

There is also a feature in each issue, and this months is about submitting pieces to publications and coping with rejection.

I haven’t had to deal with rejection yet, because I haven’t yet sent anything off!

Photo by: Eamon Mack

I feel like such a newbie

It’s a long time since I’ve felt so new at something.

Most of the blogs I read are presenting information from experts. If it’s about blogging or writing, a blog entry will take some element of the craft and give a list of important points.

I don’t yet know enough to do this. I feel that this is a blog that’s looking for information, rather than giving it. I hope that will change in time.

In the meantime, here are some articles that I found interesting.

I’ve been following chrisblogging for a number of months now, and love the short, fact-filled entries. His recent article Day One of your Freelance Writing Career which couldn’t be more appropriate for me right now. He points out the importance of having a business plan and a marketing plan. Needless to say, I have neither.

Damyanti was an early encouraging commenter on my blog, and in her blog Amloki, she has a very interesting article Web freelance writing opportunities, which I also found really interesting in identifying the different jobs I can aspire to.

Photo by: Augapfel

Linking my domain to WordPress

My final step was to link my domain to WordPress.

When you sign up with WordPress you get a name with wordpress.com as the address. For example startwritenow.wordpress.com. But I wanted to use the address www.startwritenow.com, so that in the future I could move it, either using wordpress.org or just to some other hosted blog. To do this you need to use domain mapping from WordPress.

When I set up my domain name with novara.ie I just took all of the default options. However, when I tried to link www.startwritenow.com with wordpress I realised that I had to change the domain nameservers on my registration.

The nameservers as set up were:

• ns1.novara.ie
• ns2.novara.ie
• ns3.novara.ie

I needed to change them to the wordpress nameservers:

• ns1.wordpress.com
• ns2.wordpress.com
• ns3.wordpress.com

I logged onto Novara and clicked for ‘full details’ of my domain. This shows the domain details. I selected ‘Click here to Configure Nameservers/DNS’, and tried to change them to the WordPress ones above.

I got an error message for each of the three nameservers.

The domain startwritenow.com does not appear to be set up on the nameserver ns1.wordpress.com. Please make sure this domain is setup on the nameserver in question first before attempting to change nameservers.

I didn’t know what to do, so I sent an email to WordPress, and told them the problem. They said that some registrars require that WordPress make their changes first. They then added my blog name, and when I tried on Novara again, I had no problem.

Now I’m set up. The only thing that I don’t like is that when you come through www.startwritenow.com you are redirected to startwritenow.wordpress.com (as you see above).

But it will do me for now. And now I’ll try to turn my attention to the content and away from the technicalities.

Photo by: jurek d.

My first step - choose a name and register it

Ok. So I’d decided to start this blog as my first step. These are the first decisions you have to make in setting up your blog.

1. To host or not to host.

   The main decision to be made here was whether you want to use a website that manages blogs, like blogger or wordpress, or to go with a web host where you get a company just to store and allow access to your blog, but where you manage it. The WordPress comparison of the difference between wordpress.com (where they manage it), and wordpress.org (where you do), gives a good review of the pros and cons. The vast majority of professional bloggers use wordpress.org.

   I decided that I’m not ready for the whole process of hosting, so I went with wordpress.com.

2. Choose the name.

   A good name is very important for any blog. The biggest problem is finding a name that hasn’t been used already. You can check if domain names are available online.

   I put a lot of effort into choosing a name that went well with what I was trying to do. I brainstormed for a couple of hours and came up with www.startwritenow.com.

3. Register the name.

   You need to use a registry site to register your chosen name.

   I used the register.ie website, because I’m in Ireland, but there are many to choose from. There is a charge for having the name. I paid €14.99 for a year.

So now you have a name, and nobody can take it. Next we’ll look at linking your name and WordPress.

Photo by: powerbooktrance

I suppose I’d better Start Write Now

I called my blog Start Write Now, because I think there’s no substitute for just getting started and learning as you go along.

That said, I haven’t stuck to my own advice. So to avoid all the procrastination, I’ve just decided to sit down and start right now.

My name is Eamon Mack. And I’m a writer. At least from now, I am a writer. My background is 20+ years working in IT in a large financial company in Ireland, and then just over 2 years teaching English in Costa Rica.

I love to travel, and although I’m back in Ireland now, I am planning to relocated to Asia for a couple of years. I want to supplement my teaching income with some writing. Writing here on my writing blog, and also freelance writing.

Will I make money it? I haven’t the slightest clue.

Will I enjoy it? I have no idea.

Will I even know how to do it? I really don’t know.

So, this blog is going to follow my progress. I hope it will keep me accountable for my actions, and diminish the procrastination that I bedevils my life.

I hope I enjoy the journey, and that anyone who reads this will find it instructive.

Photo by: Laineys Repetoire