3 year Blogging Anniversary of quirkybooks.wordpress.com

Hi everyone

Fantastic news. I got Daisy’s test results yesterday, her lumps were fatty tissues, not cancer. I am over the moon with joy.

Second piece of good news, it’s my 3 year blogging anniversary today.

Write soon

Sandra

What are the advantages and disadvantages of writing guest blog articles for businesses?

Hi everyone

You may have noticed that I haven’t been posting quite as many blog posts on this blog lately. That is for two main reasons:

1) I also write regular blog posts for http://www.beatredundancyblues.wordpress.com and http://www.beatredundancyblues.co.uk and a News and Inspiration page for http://www.beatredundancyblues.com

2) I have recently written a guest blog article for Sage One and I am currently writing one for Pay Justice.

So what are the advantages of writing guest blog articles for businesses?

1) It’s a challenge, having to come up with new and fresh content that will fit in with the content of their previous blog articles and be suitable for their customers.

2) Your creative muscles are stretched.

3) Your writing skills are improved.

4) It boosts your profile as a writer.

5) Increased SEO for your sites, if the businesses put links to your sites at the end of your articles.

6) The articles show off your expertise in a given subject or range of topics. This is fantastic if you are a non-fiction writer as it enhances your credibility.

What are the disadvantages?

1) It can be very time consuming and mean spending less time on your own writing projects.

2) Not only do you need to do research for the article content but you also need to do research about the company whom the blog article is for. You need to find out what the company’s mission is, what they are about, what their point of view is and what previous blog article content has been published. Again, this can be very time consuming.

3) Often there will be no payment for guest blog articles.

4) You may receive a very vague brief or no brief at all, as to what to write about. This means you will need to use your research of the company, as previously described and your imagination, to come up with a blog article idea and create some great content from it.

5) When you write the blog article content, you need to ensure that there is no conflict of interest with your own online profile, business, or blog content.

6) You need to target the article to the said company’s target market, not your own. Although you may find there are some overlaps.

I hope you find this information useful for your own writing ventures and to assess whether or not, blog article writing for businesses, is right for you.

Until next time, write soon.

Sandra

Guest Blogger Sandra Bellamy On Sage One

Hi everyone

I am thrilled to have had my guest blog article published on Sage One – The accounting company.

It is called “Have you got the guts to run your own business?” Providing useful information for anyone who is unemployed and interested in knowing if they have got what it takes to run a business.

Here is the link:

http://uk.sageone.com/2013/08/23/guts-to-run-your-own-business/

Please let me know what you think by commenting below and if possible, by commenting on the blog itself.

Paul Lancaster asked me to write it, he is in charge of the blogging for Sage One and I met him at The Business Show in London in June. He is also an author for Wiley who write the Dummie books. http://www.dummies.com

At present, Wiley have a book proposal from me under their division of Capstone. http://www.thisiscapstone.com Any positive comments I get on the Sage One blog itself, should help towards persuading them to publish me, so I would appreciate any help that you could give me.

Thank you in advance and many thanks for all of the lovely comments that I have received about this blog and about me. I appreciate your support, love and care.

Write soon

Sandra

Hold On to Your Shorts!

Hi Everyone

I am pleased to announce that today I have the writer and published author Jennifer Owenby as my guest blogger.

Jennifer lives in the northwest of the united states on the pacific ocean with her husband and children. She is a published author of short stories, a freelance writer, and some days will attempt a novel.

“One thing I’ve learned, is that the craft of writing is an ongoing project. If I’d realised that when I started, I wonder if I would have continued. Now, I can’t stop. It’s as much a part of who I am as the air I breathe.”

As Jennifer is a short story expert, I thought it would be fantastic to find out more about the appeal of short story writing and this is what she had to say…..

Hold on To Your Shorts!

I love writing and the more I do it, the more I love it. Like many others, it’s a part of who I am.

Any form of writing is great practice but I feel the value of working on short stories is often overlooked. Here are three great reasons to write and hold on to your shorts.

They are a great tool for working on “problem spots.
They force you to tighten up your words
You can publish them in between novels

I attended a short fiction class and during that time students wrote a new short story. After completion, the instructor worked one on one with us. Together, we looked at the story in sections, fixed problem areas and discussed why the changes were made. Working on a smaller story and understanding how to fix the issues, then allowed me to apply that knowledge to my novel. I learned faster dealing with a smaller story. It was easier to identify, understand and correct the problems, rather than be overwhelmed by a novel sized story.

Another reason to write short stories is it teaches you to choose your words carefully. It forces the writer to think about each word, especially if there’s a word limit. This helps to eliminate wordy sentences and is a great way to practice throwing out adverbs and replace them with action verbs.

Have you noticed that authors who have published books through traditional publishing companies and self published authors are creating short stories and novellas in-between books? This allows the author to pull in additional readers between projects and gives fans new material to read. These shorts are either separate stories that involve a character’s back story, or some other link to their published novels. This also allows the author’s name to remain on the book list instead of fading into the back ground.

There are several great books on writing short stories including, “Let’s Write a Short Story” by Joe Bunting and “Schaum’s Quick Guide to Writing Great Short Stories” by Margaret Lucke, but if you have a good outline and understand the mechanics, as long as you are writing, you are only going to get better. So, hold on to your shorts and thanks for stopping by!

A huge thanks to Jennifer for this insightful post. I have to say that I don’t think I will ever look at short story writing in the same way again.

Jennifer can be contacted on jenowenby@live.com

Her most recent magazine publication is:

“The Long Road Home” short story for Chinook 2012 literary magazine in print and online: http://www.ojc.edu/chinook/Chinook_2012.pdf

Jennifer owns ONB Freelance Services, specialising in writing articles and online content for businesses and entertainment. Her experience includes the publication of several short stories in print, as well as contracted freelance work. Jennifer states, she offers low rates for content, articles, set up and maintenance of blogs.

Her online portfolio can be viewed by clicking any of the links below:

www.jenowenby@wordpress.com

www.mockcresttavern.com

www.greeleyavenue.wordpress.com

Until next time, remember to write soon

Sandra

quirkybooks – Is Shining Brighter Than Ever Before – Two Shine On Awards

Hi Everyone

I am pleased to announce that I have been awarded the Shine On award twice in recent weeks. One from Oasien at http://oasien.wordpress.com and the other is from Alastair at http://kattermonran.com

As always, with any award, there are rules to follow, so here they are:

1.) Show appreciation of the blogger/s who nominated you and link back to them in your post. Done.

2.) Add the award logo to your blog. Done.

3.) Share 7 things about yourself.

I love films with robots in them.
If I have the choice to see a movie in 2D or 3D, I always choose 3D, I love it.
I prefer a MAC to a PC and I recently upgraded my Mac operating system to Mountain Lion.
For those of you who missed a blog post, I am going to St James’s Palace on the 15th of July, to celebrate CSV’s 50th Anniversary. (Community Service Volunteers.) In the presence of Her Majesty The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.
I am a Health Buddy for CSV. My job is to spread health messages about taboo topics, encouraging people to go for screening and work towards the 5 Ways To Wellbeing.
I am also a member of BID (Be Involved Devon) that is part of CVS (Community Volunteers Services.) We have meetings relating to Mental Health organisations and the NHS.
I have written 2 articles for the BID newsletter that featured on the 5 Ways To Wellbeing page.

4.) Nominate 5 – 10 or so bloggers that you admire. As I won it twice, I will nominate 10 people.

womenmakingstrides.com

subhanzein.wordpress.com

hopeoflight.wordpress.com

galuri85.wordpress.com

mikesfilmtalk.com

ladylovelyblogger.wordpress.com

bbanublog.wordpress.com

lanternpost2012.wordpress.com

followmyfreedom.wordpress.com

thedailygraff.com

5.) Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know

6.) Optional questions – Here are my 7.

Do you prefer whipped cream or clotted cream?
Do you prefer land or sea?
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
If you could be any animal what would you be and why?
What is your favourite children’s book and why?
What is your very favourite blog and why?
What is your favourite book ever and why?

I look forward to reading the answers to my 7 questions from the above nominees. Congratulations to all of you and may your blogs continue to Shine On.

Write soon

Sandra

Double Recognition – Two Liebster Awards

Hi Everyone

I have been thrilled to receive a number of awards over the last couple of months, including these two Liebster Awards . I have already been given a pink Liebster Award and now I have a blue one and a white one to add to my collection. Although I have noticed that the white Liebster award is not the same as my previous pink award or the blue one because it states Liebster Blog and then a heart to symbolise love. So I guess with the third award I am getting some serious blog loving.

The Blue Liebster Award is from Rohan rohan7things.wordpress.com

I received this Liebster Blog (Love) award from mikesfilmtalk.com on March 26th 2013.

Thanks to Rohan and Mike for these two beautiful blog awards. I am very grateful for each and every award that I receive and I feel honoured that people have taken the time to read my blog and are enjoying the content.

As there appears to be some discrepancies between the rules for theses awards I am going to use the rules that I used for my first pink Liebster Award on the 10th of November 2012 quirkybooks.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/the-liebster-award-thanks-and-nominations for both of these awards.

For this award I need to:

Answer 11 questions from the nominator. As Rohan hasn’t asked me any questions, I will answer the ones from Mike.
Nominate 11 other people to receive this award (It is meant to be for people who have less than 200 followers but I don’t mind who you nominate. It’s the thought that counts.)
Create 11 questions for the new nominees to answer
Place the blog award on my blog
Link back to the people who nominated me for this award
Inform my nominees of their award from me

My 11 questions to answer are:

Are you a cat or dog person, and why? Although I like cats, I am a dog person. My best friend when I was young was my cocker spaniel called Purdy. Nowadays my guineapigs are the love of my life. They are so cute, loveable and gorgeous. (Smaller poos to clean up too.)
If you were stranded on a desert island, which three celebrities would you choose to be with you? Kylie Minogue, Fred Savage (If you remember him from The Wonder Years) and Bruno Mars.
What’s your favourite film of all time? I have 3, You got Served, Grease, Dirty Dancing. All dance and music films. You Got Served is hip hop and has a great story line.
Is there anything that you collect, and if so what? Erasers. (Some may like to call them rubbers but to avoid confusion with condoms, I like to use the word eraser.) I tend to buy them from the places that I visit and any I find that are unusual. I also collect eeyore things , from Winnie the Pooh. If you click on the link you will see a short video of eeyore: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMDAY8H5yIw
What is the strangest or most inventive thing you’ve ever dressed up as for a fancy dress party? I haven’t been to a fancy dress party as such but I have hired a witches costume and been in the audience of a Deal or No Deal Halloween special. I wore the costume on the train to go to the studios on my own from Exeter to Bristol. A couple commented that I was brave to do that.
Are you a Windows or Mac user? I am definitely a Mac user. Although I do use Windows for Mac.
What is your favourite place to go? To go on holiday I like Disneyland Paris or London. I love being busy and going to fun places. I especially like going to theme parks, zoos and aquariums.
If you could keep any animal in the world as a pet, what would you choose and why? My 4 beautiful guineapigs. They are the best thing ever.
What is your proudest moment, like, ever? I have a lot. My latest one is being singled out for an official Special Recognition Award for my http://www.beatredundancyblues.com website prior to its launch. It is signed by Womens Development Unlimited and Devon County Council. (There is no apostrophe in their spelling of womens)
Do you have any weird nicknames? No. My strangest one when I was at secondary school was “Sange”.
If you could be anyone for a day (dead or alive, real person or a character, animated or real) , who would you choose and what would you do? If I had a previous life, I always used to think I was a tortoise, don’t ask me why, I have no idea. It may be because I had one for a pet. I guess I wouldn’t mind being a bird, so I could try out flying for the day but I would need to have a different mind because I don’t like heights and would spend all day on the ground. I like my mind so think I will stick to being me.

My 11 questions are:

Do you prefer black or white and why?
What do you like most about rain?
If you could publish any one book that you are currently writing, which one would it be and why?
If you weren’t a writer, what other job would you be doing and why?
Do you prefer poetry or prose?
What is your greatest writing moment to date and why?
What is your favourite genre to read and why?
What is you favourite animated film?
Do you prefer How to or self-help books and why?
How would you like people to remember you?
What are your three most positive words.

I nominate the following bloggers for the blue Liebster Award:

I nominate the following bloggers for the white Liebster Blog (Heart) award:

Some of you may have over 200 followers but like I said, it’s the thought that counts.

Happy Easter to all of my fellow bloggers. Thanks for your support.

Have a fantastic Easter weekend.

Write soon

Sandra

Best Moment Award

Hi Everyone

I have been awarded the Best Moment Award for my About me page on this blog.

I want to thank http://www.momentmatters.com for this honour that you have bestowed upon me.

I will post my acceptance speech below and pass on this beautiful award to some others. So many wonderful blogs choose from. I will post the rules below and make my nominations.

Best Moment Award, web awards, blogging awards, winners, nominations

Awarding the people who live in the moment,
The noble who write and capture the best in life,
The bold who reminded us what really mattered –
Savoring the experience of quality time.

RULES:

Winners re-post this completely with their acceptance speech. This could be written or video recorded.

Winners have the privilege of awarding the next awardees! The re-post should include a NEW set of people/blogs worthy of the award; and winners notify them the great news.

RESOURCES:

What makes a good acceptance speech?
- Gratitude. Thank the people who helped you along the way
- Humor. Keep us entertained and smiling
- Inspiration. Make your story touch our lives
Get an idea from the great acceptance speeches, compiled in MomentMatters.com/Speech
Display the award’s badge on your blog/website, downloadable in MomentMatters.com/Award

ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

I accept this award with gratitude and heartfelt appreciation.

For any person who takes the time to look at my blog, I am truly grateful.

For every person that likes my blog, I am thankful.

When a person leaves a comment on my blog, I am inspired to continue blogging.

For each person who interacts with me, I am elated.

For any person who Follows me, my face lights up with pleasure.

For every blogger who shares their knowledge, wisdom and thoughtfulness, I am blessed to be in your company.

Every moment in life is precious, so make sure you do everything you can to cherish and enjoy it.

THE WINNERS OF THE BEST MOMENT AWARD ARE:

Don’t forget to celebrate with your followers! Tweet your success with hashtag #MomentMatters. Congratulations, winners!

For each of my nominees, I have carefully selected a page of theirs for the Best Moment Award.

Write soon

Sandra

How To Put A Blog Award On Your WordPress Blog

Hi Everyone

I have recently been asked for the third time, how to put a blog award on a WordPress Blog, so rather than email you individually I have decided to put the instructions in a post. I hope you can understand them and follow them. I have a Mac and have tried to make the instructions applicable to a PC aswell.

I have written these instructions as if the person were trying to put the One Lovely Blog award on their blog but if it’s another award then you just use another award instead and give it the appropriate title.

I have broken the process down into two stages. There may be quicker a way of doing it but I am no tech genius so if you have a quicker way then please share it. Let me know how you get on and what you found difficult to understand.

Stage One:

In WordPress, under Posts, click Add New, to create a new blog post. Give the Blog post a relevant title and click on the Draft save button.

Go to the post in which you were nominated for the award. To do this you can either open a new window or click on the comments symbol in the top right of your dashboard then click on the post link and go to it. Scroll down the post until you come to the image of the award. The simplest way to make the award visible on your post is to highlight the award and hold CTRL and click on C to copy the image, then go back to your blog post and hold down the CTRL button again and click V to paste it directly into your post. Alternatively, highlight the award usually by right clicking on it and save it somewhere such as your media library, my documents or downloads folder, remember to give it an identifiable name, such as One Lovely Blog Award and the format should be jpeg.

If you haven’t been able to copy and paste it directly into your blog post then you will need to upload the image from where you saved it. Click on the Add Media button under your Post Title, find the image you want from the folder you put it in and highlight it, then click the upload button.

Stage Two:

Left click on the image in the top left corner and click on the little picture icon that says Edit Image. A new box will appear. You can change the size of the image. If you need the image to fit in with your sidebar width, you may have to play around with the sizes in the Advanced Settings screen by clicking on the Advanced Settings tab. In the normal Edit Image mode you can choose to change the alignment of the award. You can give it a title – One Lovely Blog Award and it’s best to type this in Alternative Text too, to enhance your SEO. You can write a caption in the caption box such as “I Won” if you want to.

Very Important – In the Link URL section, click the Link to Image option and this will come up with a long code, highlight the code and hold CTRL and click on C to copy it. Then click on Update to save the settings.

Click Save Draft to ensure you have saved the image into the post.

Go to Appearance in your Dashboard and click on Widgets. On the right hand side you will see a list of Widget Areas and to the left you will have a list of Available Widgets. Go to the Image Widget and click on Add. This will bring up two boxes, one is asking you for information about the Widget. Here you can input the following:

Widget Title = One Lovely Blog Award

Image URL is usually the URL address that you would re-direct people to if they clicked on the image. You may want to do this if you have another site that you would like your followers to visit.

Alternative Text: This is for SEO, I would just type One Lovely Blog Award the Image Title is usually the same and I don’t necessarily use that aswell.

The Caption is what else you want to say, such as “I Won”.

You can change the Image Alignment and the size. To be honest, sometimes I find it easier to make the adjustments in this screen rather than in the previous one.

Very Important – Put your cursor in the box under Link URL and hold CTRL and V to paste in that code that you copied from the previous screen.

Finally, decide what Widget Area you want the award to be in and click on the arrows to choose its position. Then click Save Widget. If you don’t save it, you will have to repeat this process again.

If your Widget Area Positions are full then you will either need to let the image over-ride something else or choose to have a page for your awards.

Ensure you click on the Read Blog option from the drop down menu under your name in the top right of your dashboard, to see if you have successfully put your award where you wanted it to go. You may have to go back and change the size if it is not in alignment with the other widgets displayed in that area of your page.

As you probably know, it’s polite to follow all the blog rules and to do a blog post regarding your award. This will encourage more traffic to your site and increase your followers.

I hope this is helpful?

Write soon

Sandra

quirkybooks is an Extra Lovely Blog – One Lovely Blog Award

Hi Everyone

I have some awards catching up to do. Today I will start with the One Lovely Blog Award.

I am happy to announce that quirkybooks is an extra lovely blog because it has been nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award for the Second time.

Thank you to everyone who has liked my blog posts, left a comment, joined my blog or Liked my Facebook page. Your support is hugely appreciated and I thoroughly enjoy interacting with you and reading your blogs too.

I was awarded the One Lovely Blog Award by the awesome Casey Roach from: http://caseyroach.blogspot.co.uk Who was a winner in our Write-A-Thon competition. She received a signed copy of Write-A-Thon from Author and Writing Coach Rochelle Melander. Check out her blog.

I am extremely pleased to receive this award, which to date, is my second One Lovely Blog Award and means a lot to me. It’s great to know that people are enjoying what I am writing about.

There are a few rules which come with the receipt of this award and they are as follows:

ONE LOVELY BLOG AWARD RULES:

1. I need to thank the person who nominated me.

2. Share 7 things about myself that you still may not know

3. Nominate 15 bloggers.

4. Notify the nominees that I have done so.

5. Put the logo of the award on my blog site.

Having already completed steps 1 and 5, that leaves me with 2,3, and 4. So 7 things about me that you still may not know:

When I was younger I use to have a tortoise called Fred.
When I was younger I kept stick insects and they had babies that escaped from their home and covered the kitchen ceiling.
My favourite colour of the rainbow is orange but I don’t like to wear that colour.
I like “Animal” as a brand of clothing.
I have an A level in English Literature and Media Studies.
I obtained a Certificate in Sound Recording.
I acquired an NVQ Level 4, Higher National Diploma in Administrative Procedures/PA Course.

I hope you feel you know me a little better now. If you have any questions or comments about the above, please feel free to share them.

Now to nominate the One Lovely Blog Award to some other well deserving bloggers:

utesmile.wordpress.com
kattermonran.com – Now you will have a pink one to match
rohan7things.wordpress.com
whistlingpassion.wordpress.com
acflory.wordpress.com
thegreatamericanlandscape.wordpress.com
darlenecraviotto.com
jessicaschaubbooks.com
inspire1life.com
thewhyaboutthis.com
bbanublog.wordpress.com
bookmust.wordpress.com
dailylifeimpressions.wordpress.com
mjwrightnz.wordpress.com
simplymejustbe.wordpress.com

Congratulations to all of you and I look forward to reading more about yourselves to strengthen our blogger bond.

Happy Blogging.

Write Soon

Sandra

Special Opportunity to get more Traffic to your Blog

Hi Everyone

I just had to share this post with you. Wendy from http://searchingforthehappiness.wordpress.com came up with a fantastic idea to put links to our blog sites, on her own site and she encourages us to visit other blogs and support each other.

Since I did this, I have to say that my followers have increased in numbers and I can only assume it is because of her kindness. Thank you so much Wendy. I will put a link to your site on my Friends page and say I admire how you help and inspire others to be the best they can be and live a wonderful life.

Special Opportunity to get more Traffic to your Blog.

For those of you who have nominated me recently for awards, I haven’t forgotten you and I am so grateful for the awards. I will thank you in a future post and make my nominations.

Write soon

Sandra