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12 Books in 12 Months

writing books and blogging about it

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blogging

Everyone’s A Critic

I’ve had the same comment from three different ‘people’ today.  It goes like this:

Hello Web Admin, I noticed that your On-Page SEO is is missing a few factors, for one you do not use all three H tags in your post, also I notice that you are not using bold or italics properly in your SEO optimization. [ Gosh, really? Boy is my face red… ] On-Page SEO means more now than ever since the new Google update: Panda. No longer are backlinks and simply pinging or sending out a RSS feed the key to getting Google PageRank or Alexa Rankings, You now NEED On-Page SEO. [ I can’t begin to describe how little I care. 12 books in 12 months is a writing experiment, not a statistic. ] So what is good On-Page SEO?First your keyword must appear in the title.Then it must appear in the URL.You have to optimize your keyword and make sure that it has a nice keyword density of 3-5% in your article with relevant LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing). Then you should spread all H1,H2,H3 tags in your article. [ buh? ] Your Keyword should appear in your first paragraph and in the last sentence of the page. You should have relevant usage of Bold and italics of your keyword. [ what, like this? ] There should be one internal link to a page on your blog and you should have one image with an alt tag that has your keyword….wait there’s even more Now what if i told you there was a simple WordPress plugin that does all the On-Page SEO, and automatically for you? That’s right AUTOMATICALLY, just watch this 4minute video for more information.

I am not linking to the aforementioned video, of course.  But thanks Kraig Vangorp, German Thurlow and Gabriele Vorhies for bringing my terrible SEO skills to my attention.  Your names will probably come in handy as characters someday.

Interview: Jen Newby, Commissioning Editor

Freelance writer and commissioning editor of Pen and Sword books Jen Newby answers a few questions about publishing, social history, and blogging.

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Checking In

Since posting that interview with Jane Bradley, I have mostly: started a new job on the Edinburgh Fringe Festival doing considerably longer hours than I’ve ever done before (72 last week – but I love it), written an entry for the Pictonaut challenge that I failed to actually post, neglected to write my August column for the Broughton Spurtle, failed to write any blog posts for Ten Tracks, kept a pinkie finger grip on Homespun stuff (we got a five star review from Fest magazine, woo hoo!), had a short story accepted for a podcast, and turned 27.  It’s been a busy couple of weeks.

However, this post is really to tell you that the new job combined with further Homespun stuff essentially means things continue in this vein till the end of August.  I had originally planned to do lots of posts about the Edinburgh International Book Festival, but I’m now unsure how much stuff I’ll actually be able to go to.   However, I will do my very best to pop along when I can and those of you who follow me on Twitter will be the first to know if I actually manage it!

In the meantime, I will be posting an interview with Jen Newby (who wrote a guest post for me a few weeks back) tomorrow, and I’ll post July’s Pictonaut at the end of the week (the build up doesn’t really match the content, but nevermind).  You can also read a post by me on Dorky Mum’s blog about the joys of putting together a Fringe show across a 400 mile distance, if you like.

Oh, and kindle owners – Beyond the Horizon, a book of short stories (one of which is mine) is now available electronically for the princely sum of £4.11.  If you buy it, I get actual royalties – about 70p last quarter.  So much for those stories about penniless authors, eh!

Interview: For Books’ Sake Jane Bradley

In a sort of addendum to the Book Blogger files, I spoke to freelance writer and editor of women’s writing zine For Books’ Sake Jane Bradley about gender imbalance in literature, genre snobbery and reading recommendations.

Continue reading “Interview: For Books’ Sake Jane Bradley”

Inspirational Animals

One of the things about the internet is an upsurge in the number of inspirational quotations one sees in daily life.  They pop up on social networking sites all the time, and I’m pretty sure there’s been an inspiration increase in merchandise like T-Shirts and magnets and even in graffiti (especially on the walls and doors of pub toilets).

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How Not To Write A Blog Comment

I received the following helpful comment on the Blogs You Should Read post and thought I might highlight it so others would feel the benefit.  I’ve written about spam on a few occasions (here, for instance), but this one is just perplexing.  Also I’ve had a busy weekend so don’t have anything meatier to talk about today.

Continue reading “How Not To Write A Blog Comment”

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