What milestones have you reached lately?

[Lysis]

Celeste, ah, so true. I tend toward OCD when I find something as rewarding as CC

Antonia,
I set up my twitterfeed so my newest articles show up on Twitter (thanks, forums for the tutorial!), and built a basic web page to use my widget (http://www.dmgenterprises.com/cc.html). I think I have 5 followers on Twitter (woohoo!) and I doubt anyone has seen my web page so I guess I need to learn how to generate followers and steer traffic to my web site. Any advice would be great! I know someone here knows how to do it since I keep seeing those articles on the sold page

Debbi

That's me who always writes the SEO stuff. I learned from the best - Google and their TC's!
I'll give you some of my handy dandy advice that I drop on google without my trademark snarky comments I'm so known for on there. LOL

FYI: If you see web-sniffer in your logs, don't be alarmed. That's me. I don't run any antivirus so I don't really read pages much through a browser when I'm helping. However, I did go to your page and it does not render well in Chrome. Chrome apparently does not honor the "center" tag. You might want to use a div tag instead.

Here's my advice for your web page:

1) You need meta tags. google ignores the keyword tags, but the description tag is what's used to describe your site in the search results. Google "meta tag html" for an example.
2) I see you used h1 tags for the header (good job!) but I think "free lance" should be changed to "freelance." H1 tags are used as an indication of page content, so your keywords that are most important should be in that tag. Since people search for freelance and not free lance, I think it'll work better.
3) Do the same in the title. You need to use your keywords in the title. Google has you indexed with the title "dmg-web-remote" which is no good.
4) Web pages with pure images don't do well. You need content! Google is huge on content!
5) Create a site map and submit it to Google's webmaster tools at google.com/webmaster. You'll need to verify the site by adding a tag to the home page or uploading a blank html file that's named using the key generated by the tools. this is the fastest way for google to see your page although you are already indexed. Webmaster tools gives you feedback on any errors google finds. It's almost a must now for webmasters.

Anyway, those were the few things I noticed. You have no doctype at the top of the page, which should probably be remedied also. You might also want to nofollow the links on the home page, but I can see you don't have any link schemes, which is good. I don't think you'll get backhanded by google for those two links, so I think you're fine in that area.

[Debbi]

Lysis,

Wow, thanks so much!

I have a couple of questions though. What is "nofollow" and "link schemes"?

I know my whole dmgenterprises site needs to be re-done. That was actually a class project for PhotoShop/ImageReady two years ago and I haven't touched it since. I just threw that cc.html page up there, mainly so my mom could follow my latest articles. But I do want to start marketing myself better, so I will revamp it all per your advice!

Thanks again! Oh, I do love it here at CC.

Debbi

[Zabrina]

How much time a day do you spend writing?
I can't quite measure that very well. I sometimes write nothing for CC, and sometimes spend a few hours. I have been trying to get (and successfully getting, thanks to my CC portfolio link! Woo hoo!) some other writing gigs, so it depends whether I'm doing anything else, and... well, I'll admit it... how lazy or distractable I am that day.

Are you all also juggling writing with a full-time job?
Nope, I worked full-time until June and then quit because 80+ hours a week were killing me (almost literally; doing in my health!). Now I work "full-time" writing, though if I were honest, I'd admit I'm doing more part-time hours. I'll soon be juggling writing with university, so we'll see how that goes.

Any tips on how to move faster?
Forbid yourself from checking IM's, email, or... *gasp* CC forums/recently sold list/my sales/my content pages until you finish a piece. Then stick to it. Shut off your internet, if you have to. xD

[Debbi]

I kind of write all day long - inbetween playing with my dogs, talking to my granddaughters after school, getting distracted by interesting tangeents while I'm researching an article, fielding calls form friends and relatives who think working from home means you have all the time in the world to chat, and various other distractions (including CC forums, etc.) I have a hard time avoiding. So it would be impossible to figure out how many hours I spend writing. Sometimes when I get struck by a great idea I sit here typing until my eyes fall out of my head and my wrists ache long into the wee hours of the morning. I think I am writing all the time, running ideas, phrases, metaphors through the back of my head, even when I'm not actively thinking about it.

Shut off the internet! The few times my power has gone out and I didn't have that connection to the world, I sat around twitching like a junkie needing a fix, so no.........

Debbi

[canywriter]

D, Z - thanks for sharing. I get down to writing after a day's work, and then home and family, so it's usually late in the night when I'm almost brain dead. Ideas keep flitting in - and out - through the day - I think it's time to get that good old jotting pad and hang it round my neck. The idea of not checking into CC till at least one article is written sounds good, guess I'll try that out.

That said, I did post 4 articles in the last couple of days, so yeah, I'm feeling kinda good about that.

CW

[Lysis]

Lysis,

Wow, thanks so much!

I have a couple of questions though. What is "nofollow" and "link schemes"?

I know my whole dmgenterprises site needs to be re-done. That was actually a class project for PhotoShop/ImageReady two years ago and I haven't touched it since. I just threw that cc.html page up there, mainly so my mom could follow my latest articles. But I do want to start marketing myself better, so I will revamp it all per your advice!

Thanks again! Oh, I do love it here at CC.

Debbi

No problema on the advice. I can tell it's just a page you wanted to throw up, but I thought I'd drop some helpful advice just in case you ever wanted to market it.

"nofollow" is a property of the link tag. For instance, <a href="some_domain_you_link_to" rel="nofollow"> The reason it's important is because you don't pass pagerank with nofollow. Back in the day, when Google created pagerank, the calculations were done by evaluation how many links were pointing to your site. What people would do is buy links on sites with higher pagerank to boost traffic. Google is anti-link-buying and they penalize sites when they catch them buying links. When you put nofollow in the link tags, Google does not calculate pagerank for the domain you're linking to, so it prevents you from being penalized.

Link schemes are the "link to me and I'll link to you" pages people put up. Link schemes are probably one of the biggest reasons innocent people get penalized since there's so much bad information out there. Innocent people do it not realizing Google penalizes for it. I guess link schemes rank up there with buying links. You don't want to buy links. Google penalizes for that too. People buy links thinking they'll get away with it. You'll probably rank high for a few months, but if Google catches it, it's not worth the months and months it takes to recover.

Those two things are for people who are trying to spam the search engines. It's extreme for your little website for mom to view articles. LOL But, I just like to get rid of all that bad info out there.

[Debbi]

Thansk so much, Lysis,

That page was originally intended for mom but then I thought maybe I could get some referrals from it and market my articles at the same time, while letting people know about CC too. So all your advice is really useful!

Maybe I should check out the Google Webmaster forums. I have a kids' web site, http://www.kidskorner.net, that I've done as a hobby for ten years, but I want it to make money. Even though I think I've done well at CC for my first two months,, so far it is not going to help me keep my three dogs in the manner in which they are accustomed (or me either for that matter). Diverse revenue streams, I say!

Thanks again! I checked out your profile page and saw your article on favicons. I do have one for my kids' site already, so I guess I'm doing something right

Debbi

[Lysis]

Thansk so much, Lysis,

That page was originally intended for mom but then I thought maybe I could get some referrals from it and market my articles at the same time, while letting people know about CC too. So all your advice is really useful!

Maybe I should check out the Google Webmaster forums. I have a kids' web site, http://www.kidskorner.net, that I've done as a hobby for ten years, but I want it to make money. Even though I think I've done well at CC for my first two months,, so far it is not going to help me keep my three dogs in the manner in which they are accustomed (or me either for that matter). Diverse revenue streams, I say!

Thanks again! I checked out your profile page and saw your article on favicons. I do have one for my kids' site already, so I guess I'm doing something right

Debbi

Cute site! Just let me know if you want any advice on it. PM me and let me know and I'll go through the pages. Posting on the webmaster forums is probably the best thing since I miss stuff sometimes and Google's top contributors are really good, but just be forewarned that we can be a brutal bunch.

Here's a link too that will help you get started too: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot. ... guide.html Download the starter guide. It's pretty helpful.

[Phil]

Does anyone have the link to the forum post that tells you how to set up a twitter feed for CC? And, if anyone wants to look at my blog and tell me all the ways I am not doing good I would appreciate it. Right now all I can offer is good karma, best wishes, and a cup of coffee to be financed later.

For Ed and the Admins. I've banged around the site long enough to come to a conclusion. Great Job. Supportive as all get out and apparently without the drama found on some other sites forums. Way to go guys. -Phil

[Celeste Stewart]

Here's the link describing how to set up Twitterfeed: http://www.constant-content.com/forum/v ... =9&t=14574

Tweet!

[Phil]

Thank you Celeste, you rock.

[Lysis]

Does anyone have the link to the forum post that tells you how to set up a twitter feed for CC? And, if anyone wants to look at my blog and tell me all the ways I am not doing good I would appreciate it. Right now all I can offer is good karma, best wishes, and a cup of coffee to be financed later.

For Ed and the Admins. I've banged around the site long enough to come to a conclusion. Great Job. Supportive as all get out and apparently without the drama found on some other sites forums. Way to go guys. -Phil

Phil, of course I will take a look if you'd like. Blogs are different since there isn't as much stuff you can edit. I warn that I do not know blogs very well, but if you want me to look, I can do that. Just PM me. I'd love to help a fellow CC person.

[nichewriter]

Well, my recent milestone is today -- I sold my 200th full rights article I'm excited to reach another milestone soon -- 400 articles submitted to CC, considering I was a very slow starter. I signed up in July 2006, but between that time and May 2008, I had only submitted 8 articles. Looking at the dates in my articles, my 8th CC submission was in April 2007, so I really didn't do anything on CC for more than a year . It wasn't until my husband and I were traveling overseas from May to September last year that I resumed writing for CC and started growing my portfolio.

~Sherry

[Zabrina]

Well, my recent milestone is today -- I sold my 200th full rights article I'm excited to reach another milestone soon -- 400 articles submitted to CC, considering I was a very slow starter. I signed up in July 2006, but between that time and May 2008, I had only submitted 8 articles. Looking at the dates in my articles, my 8th CC submission was in April 2007, so I really didn't do anything on CC for more than a year . It wasn't until my husband and I were traveling overseas from May to September last year that I resumed writing for CC and started growing my portfolio.

~Sherry

Wow! 200 full rights articles sold is fantastic, a big congrats is well-deserved!

[nichewriter]

Thanks, Zabrina. I'm inspired (and spurred) by all the energy and enthusiasm you and the others have been showing lately here in the forum. Oh yeah, and I read your article on comedy podcasts last night. I'm about to start my search for family-friendly comedy podcasts and give those a try -- perhaps they'll keep me entertained on long road trips. I love slapstick comedy (I grew up watching reruns of the Three Stooges) and I could be laughing for hours about something funny I saw or heard.