Emily M. Akin » Blogging

Article Roundup

emilyakin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:17:26 +0000

I’ve found so many good items of interest to Wired Writers that I’m sharing them with you rather than writing a new post myself.

Specifically for Writers

Web site for Newbie Writers (appears to be based in UK, but About link is not working for me today.

20 Hi-Tech Tools and Resources for Writers

Web Sites and Blogging

Author Tech Tips: The Top 5 Author Website Mistakes

New Rule for Book Review Bloggers

Online Security

5 Essential Tips to Keep Your PC Safe

Publishing Industry

Options in the Price War Over Books

If you have articles or Web site URLs to share, please post a comment. Next week, I hope to be done with my evaluation of the free brainstorming software, Personal Brain 5. If you have used this software, please contact me at akinemily(a)gmail.com.

Got a Blog?

emilyakin — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:24:00 +0000

Writers aspiring to publication know they should have a Web site, but most don’t even think about having a blog. The Web site doesn’t necessarily have to come first. While there are other ways to have a free online presence, a blog is probably the easiest.

I have this blog, plus I do the blog for Kentucky Christian Writers Conference. Check out the others, Tennessee Christian Reader, which is a book review blog, and my devotional journal.

If you have a Google or Gmail account, you can start blogging on Blogger right away. There are several designs to choose from. Some of the blogs I follow use Blogger and add their own unique design. This blog is a basic Blogger design with my own graphics in the heading. Others get really creative with their designs, still using Blogger:

Kathy Carlton Willis Communications
Little Nuances by Lee Warren
Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent
The Writing Life by Terry Whalin

Get started blogging today! Set it up and practice until you’re ready to let the public know about it. Meanwhile, I invite you to subscribe to any and all of my blogs.

Following Blogs

emilyakin — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:02:00 +0000

Today, I decided to count the number of blogs I’m currently following. The total number is 41! And it doesn’t take as much time as you might think.

If you are a writer, there are some publishing industry blogs that you really should follow. I won’t share my entire list, but here are the ones I find most valuable for myself as a Christian writer.

Sally Stuart (Christian Writers’ Market Guide): http://stuartmarket.blogspot.com/

Jim Watkins (Author, Editor, Speaker): http://jameswatkins.wordpress.com/

Terry Whalin (Author, Agent): http://terrywhalin.blogspot.com/

Michael Hyatt (CEO Thomas Nelson Publishing): http://www.michaelhyatt.com/fromwhereisit/

Christian Authors Network: http://canblog.typepad.com/canbookmarketing/

Some of my other favorites are:

Lawrence Wilson (Wesleyan Publishing House): http://www.lawrencewilson.com/index.htm

Ron Ovitt’s Devotional Blog: http://devog.wordpress.com/

Jerry Brecheisen: http://brecksong.com/

When I talk to other writers about following blogs, they often ask me how I find time to follow so many. I use the feeds feature in Internet Explorer 7 favorites menu. There’s a tour of the feature on the Microsoft site. What I really like about this method is that I can see my whole list of blogs at once. The blog names that have updated material appear in bold type. I check my favorites first, and, if I run out of time, I come back later to check the others. Information on how Mozilla Firefox’s readers are here.

If you use an older version of Internet Explorer, you should be able to upgrade to IE7 on the Microsoft site. I don’t use Mozilla Firefox myself, so I don’t know whether you can upgrade from older versions or not.

The only downside of following blogs on your Web browser is that you can’t access your list from other computers. Next post, I’ll discuss some of the online feed aggregators I’ve tried.

Meanwhile, feel free to comment on this post and share any knowledge you might have on this subject. I invite you to subscribe, too.

Blogger vs. WordPress

emilyakin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:51:00 +0000

For my first blog, I chose Blogger because I knew someone who used it, and I thought it would be easy to get help from my friend if the Help file was not adequate.

I’ve noticed many other writers like WordPress or Typepad. My primary criterion was that the blog service be free. Next, I wanted it to be easy to use…”intuitive” in Geek-speak. Typepad costs, or at least it did when I was doing my evaluation, so I didn’t even consider trying it.

I’ve decided to stay with Blogger after experimenting with WordPress. Although WordPress does have features that Blogger doesn’t, I think Blogger is easier to use and has more features that I want for my purposes. There’s plenty of help available through the regular Help channel and there’s a blog on using Blogger, too.

I’ve done some research on what others think about this subject. Here’s some info that helped me make my decision.

http://pulsed.blogspot.com/2007/07/blogger-wordpress-chart.html

http://www.jonbishop.org/2008/05/blogger-vs-wordpress/

Many writers are using blogs in lieu of a Web site to promote their work. I’m not sure it’s a good substitute, but it’s working for some people.