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Never has there been a time in human History that it has been so easy to make a freelance income from work you do at home. This blog is dedicated to those that are ready to earn more money in the digital age. It works side by side with the forum at www.freeelanceonlineworkforum.com
Hi all,

Just a quick post tonight to explain how to add a Twitter share button to your Orble blog. I know some don't see the value of Twitter and some love it, but I honestly believe that Twitter can be a really solid traffic source. There are several main ways to get visitors from Twitter to your site or blog. Most are manual, ie you have to manually promote your blog/site via your tweets or profile. This way of promoting on Twitter requires no donkey work provided you offer valuable information.

If you are a good writer or provide solid content on your blog people love to share it. So instead of expecting Twitter users to manually log into their Twitter, compose a tweet (which can be hard with only 140 characters), then send it to followers make sure you have a one button solution. All my recent posts on Orble have a button to share my post via Twitter and it has increased traffic.


Heres how:

Add This For Twitter


Go to Addthis and you are presented with 3 questions and a confirmation:

1) Select Your Service

I answered website which works fine with Orble

2) Select Your Button Style

I chose the third one down, which shows Twitter/Facebook icons

Twitter Facebook Blog Share



3) Analystics

I chose no, just give me the button

4) You're done with a block that says "Get Your Button"

Once you see this, just copy what's in the rectangular box to the left. Save it somewhere convenient. Every time you post a blog post paste this code at the end with before the text and after it

Twitter Facebook Source


It really is that simple, and whenever a Twitter or Facebook user enjoys one of your posts they can share it with friends with only 2 clicks.

I hope this has helped, please feel free to contact me if you require extra info

Chris

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Freelance Online Forum is now online

March 16th 2010 22:33
After much deliberation I have finally created a forum for freelancers. I had always intended to create a forum here on Orble, however, the script is no longer available. So I have bought webspace and registered a domain name. I have also uploaded forum software to the domain.

Freelance Online Work Forum
Freelance Poll


Now I am getting advice on what sort of information people who freelance are requesting. I have had several queries but I would prefer to get information my followers need to move forward.

Anyway, please could you let me know what you would like here: Forum Poll


and feel free to advertise your services here:
Advertise your services here

All the Best

Chris

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Given the recent recession and tough financial times I have decided to launch a forum for connecting Employers with Freelance Workers. This service will be hosted on my FreelanceOnlineWork.com blog and will be free for all users.
This discussion board will contain sections for Employers to post Freelance Vacancies and sections for Freelance workers to post links to their Website or Business Card.
There will be sections for the following freelancers:

**Freelance Writers
**Freelance Article Writers
**Freelance Copy Writers
**Freelance Graphic Designers
**Freelance Programmers
**Freelance Data entry jobs

Please let me know if you would like me to include any further freelance opportunities, as it will be easier to add them while I am setting up the forum, instead of after it is launched.

Thank-you for taking the time to read and please feel free to comment

All The Best

Chris


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I am delighted to be given the chance to expand this blog, I have been a reader for a long time and I hope that I can build on Lynne Smythe's success. I have always found her writing very good and she has always been approachable.

My aim is to develop this blog from a freelance writer's blog, to a blog that helps all freelancers. I will also cut down on the external linking to other writing sites, because after all an Orble blog should be an entity in itself, and not just a bookmarking opportunity.

Please feel free to offer any freelance related feedback.

All The Best

Chris

PS Heres a PLR article that I think somes up a freelancer

"" Everyday hundreds, thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people decide to investigate the idea of working from home or starting their very own home-based business. They have heard of others that have done so who have been very successful...maybe even wildly successful at it.

Some of these people are very computer savvy individuals. They may even have the ability to build their own webpages. They certainly know the ins and outs of operating a computer. Others aren’t all that computer savvy but they think they have a great idea for an Internet business and are sure that they can find a way to follow their dream.

The Internet really is the great equalizer. The level of formal education that a budding Internet entrepreneur has doesn’t seem to have much bearing on the degree of success that they can achieve on the Internet or how much of a failure they can become. There are those who have reached dizzying heights of success who never finished high school and those who have hit rock bottom who have multiple college degrees.

The commonalities of those who succeed in either working from home or running a home-based business are:

They are all self-starters.

They have a positive attitude.

They are willing to learn.

They develop the necessary survival skills....it really is a jungle out there.

If you are considering starting, or have already started working from home or a home-based business, you are obviously a self-starter.

You wouldn’t have even considered such a venture if you didn’t have a positive attitude.

You are apparently willing to learn, you are reading this book.

The world of Internet business is the electronic equivalent of a jungle. In words made famous in “The Wizard of Oz”, “There are lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” Survival and success aren’t based on education. They are both based upon the mastering of survival skills. ""
Freelance Online Work -New Author
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Wordpress VS. TypePad?

January 7th 2009 22:39


My Bike Diva blog is one year old this month. I have it hosted on the free Wordpress.com site. I would like to be able to add Google ads, and other paid ads to the site. But I would have to upgrade to Wordpress.org and find a site to host it for me.

My grand plan for being a freelance writer is to start a Diva Blog network. But instead of switching over to Wordpress.org, I'm thinking about signing up with TypePad.

Just wondering if anyone prefers one site over the other? TypePad offers a 14 day free trial, so I'll probably sign up with them, and see how I like their blogging software.

Diva Domain Names
With my long term writing goals in mind, I just purchased the following domain names today. None of these sites are active at the moment, so I'm not providing links to the URL's at the present time. A couple of my first choices for domain names were already taken, so I decided to get these domain names while they are still available.

Run Diva
Tea Diva
Writing Diva
Conspiracy Diva
Horror Diva
Craft Diva
Cuisine Diva
Backyard Diva

I'll probably start the Run Diva site first. It will be pretty similar to my Bike Diva site, but with a focus on running and walking events, rather than cycling events.

I'll let you know how my progress goes for these other sites, and post up the links when the sites go live.

Take care,
Lynn Smythe
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PR Newswire for Freelance Writers

November 7th 2008 21:00

PR Newswire for Journalists
If you are a freelance writer or journalist, you should definitely check out the PR Newswire website. Go to their main page, then click on the PR Newswire for Journalists link, on the top left menu bar.

I registered with the site around one month ago, and setup my profile to have press releases, related to my topics of interest, sent directly to my email address. I'm using information from the press releases to write posts to the Bike Diva, Charity Mile and Charity Fitness Events blogs.

Create Opportunity
Another fantastic feature of PR Newswire, is the ability to setup media search campaigns, if you are looking for specific information. I setup two separate campaigns within the past few weeks for my two main areas of interest.

Herbs & Spices Campaign
One campaign was a request for information and news related to herbs & spices, along with a request for review copies of herb cookbooks and samples of herb related merchandise.

So far my herb campaign has resulted in receiving review copies of the books Field Guide to Herbs and Spices by Aliza Green, and The Flavor Bible by Karen Page & Andrew Dornenburg. I have also received a box of Truvia, nature's calorie-free sweetener, to sample. I will be writing reviews of the two books for the Suite101 website - I am the Herbs & Spices Feature Writer for Suite101. And I will be reviewing Truvia for my I Love Herbs blog, right here on the Orble blog network.

Cycling & Fitness Campaign
I also created an opportunity for my other main interest - cycling and fitness. I requested information on cycling and fitness news and events, along with samples of cycling related books and equipment. Here are the results of that campaign so far:

1. Hydrapak - 2 hydration packs and a gelbot water bottle
2. Oakley - sport performance eyewear
3. ZICO - case of 3 flavors of pure coconut water
4. VE2 - package of VE2 Energy Gum
5. Nexcare - 5 boxes of waterproof sports bandages and tapes
6. Vital Action - 4 flavors of their sports performance water
7. Detour - 10 varieties of their sports activity protein bars
8. YogaFit - yoga DVD for Cyclists
9. EKHO - WM108 and WM128 heart rate monitors and Bee Fit pedometer
10. Dr. Jeff Spencer’s bookTurn it Up! How to Perform at Your Highest Level for a Lifetime
11. Todd Crandell’s book Racing for Recovery: From Addict to Ironman and DVD Addict: Racing for Recovery, The Todd Crandell Story
12. Tom & Jerry Caraccioli’s book Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.
13. Expresso Fitness - I’ll be traveling to a local gym to try out their upright stationery bike.

I will be sampling and reviewing all of these products during the next few weeks. Then I will write reviews and articles on all the products for the various sites I write for.

PR Newswire has many more features available than what I'm detailing in this post. I'm just mentioning the services that I find most helpful.

Take care,
Lynn Smythe

P.S. Let me know if you know of any sites that are similar to PR Newswire, and I'll check them out ASAP. I would also like to hear from other writers that are using PR Newswire.
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Article Marketing with Videos

October 16th 2008 15:17

Everyone knows that submitting articles to article directories is a great way to get high quality links and traffic to your website. But what about reworking your article into a video?

You'll need to have a way to create an audio for your video; and, then create the video content. Using your preferred method for creating the article, you will read your article. Then it's quite easy to use Microsoft Power Point to create template slides and you can use Windows Movie Maker to put the audio and template slides all together.

You want to create at least 3 to 5 slides with key bullet points in your article. When you create your slide make sure to save them as a picture file like "jpeg" so that you can import them into Windows Movie Maker and build your video.

Now you're ready to start submitting your video to video submission websites. Everyone is aware of Youtube.com but did you know that there are hundreds of other sites like GoFish.com, Revver.com, Sharkle.com, etc?

If you have a blog, after you have uploaded your article video to YouTube, you can copy the video code into the code section of your blog. Next you can copy your written article and post that in the view section of your blog. Then you hit the publish button and that's it!

Last but not least, now you can take your audio file that you created and turn it into a podcast.

Tip offered by Susan Gilbert, AME's Search Engine Marketing Expert and Web 2.0 company owner, http://www.JoomlaJump.com, which provides Social Networking websites and services.

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. Really Long Link
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Do You Twitter?

August 8th 2008 19:24
twitter logo
Twitter Logo

TWITTER
Is anyone else signed up with Twitter? Twitter is yet another social networking site. I didn't really know too much about Twitter until I started getting emails from a few friends and writing contacts that mentioned they use Twitter all the time.

ANOTHER SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE
Initially I was a bit reluctant to sign up for Twitter. I already belong to a TON of social networking sites and I don't even have enough time to keep up with all of them. So I didn't really see the need to sign up for yet another site that I would hardly ever use.

In addition to being a freelance writer, I am also a cycling nut. The latest company to sponsor me is Freestyle Watches. They said I had to sign up for a Twitter account so we could keep in touch with each other. So a few days ago I signed up for a Twitter account - http://twitter.com/thebikediva.

LET'S TRADE TWITTER LINKS
If you have a Twitter account, add your link to your Twitter page and I'll check it out. My Twitter page is located at http://twitter.com/thebikediva.

Let the Twittering begin!!!

Take care,
Lynn
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Add Your Blog to Blog Burst

July 23rd 2008 17:06
Blog Burst Logo
Blog Burst Logo

BLOG BURST
Anyone that has a blog should consider registering it with the Blog Burst site. It is free to list as many blogs as you would like. Your blog has to be setup for full RSS feeds, not just a summary of each post you make to your blog.

I have my Bike Diva site, which is a Wordpress.com blog, registered with the Blog Burst site. I have been getting a good amount of traffic to Bike Diva coming through my link with Blog Burst.

MEDIA EXPOSURE FOR YOUR BLOG
BlogBurst places blogs on nearly 100 top-tier news and media sites including Reuters, USA Today, Gannett, McGraw-Hill, Fox News and more.

I just checked my Bike Diva stats on the Blog Burst site earlier today. Here are a few of my Bike Diva posts that have been picked up in the last few weeks by other sites:

Reuters - Bike Diva Future
Chicago Sun Times - Bike Diva Biking Articles
Computer Shopper - Go Pro Digital Cameras
Livestrong - Century Ride Tips for New Cyclists

If you have a blog, list at Blog Burst, and see an increase in traffic to your site. It's also cool to brag to your friends that Reuters, and other popular online sites, have picked up your news feed!

Take care,
Lynn AKA the Bike Diva
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My Personal Blog

April 24th 2008 17:01
freelance writer lynn smythe
Freelance Writer Lynn Smythe

My Writing Website
I used to have my own domain name setup for my personal webpage. I could never really figure out the ftp file uploading and always struggled to keep the site updated. I decided to setup a free site on Blogger to keep track of all my writing projects.

The site is located at: Freelance Writer Lynn Smythe.

RSS Feeds
I write for quite a few online sites, so I placed RSS feeds of the 5 latest articles for most of the sites on the main page. I still need to setup a page with my resume of print publication articles.

More Links
I don't think I'm going to keep a resume of all my online publications on the site. They currently number in the hundreds - information overload. Guess I should add links for each site I've had articles published on: Suite101, Associated Content and Helium are the main ones.

Your Site
Do you have a personal website setup to keep track of all your online and print publications? Please share the link to your site and I'll check it out when I get a chance.

Take care,
Lynn
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Squidoo Logo
Squidoo Logo

Every time I write a new article, I list it with certain social networking and bookmarking sites. Most of these sites require that you set up a free account in order to access their services. I see quite a few page views to my articles coming in from Digg and Technorati.

If you can get an article listed on Stumble Upon, you should see a HUGE increase in page views. However, Stumble Upon limits the number of links it will accept from a certain website before it blocks you from adding anymore links from that site. So, instead of trying to link every article I write on Suite101 to Stumble Upon I just link my main page.

I've also had great success listing my latest articles on the various message board forums I belong to such as Absolute Write and Accentuate Writers. These are two freelancing websites that contain tons of useful information in addition to the message boards.

My Social Networking and Bookmarking Sites


All About Steak
www.allaboutsteak.com
I just registered with this site and started bookmarking all my food related articles to this site. Don't let the name scare you, you can also add vegetarian and other non-steak recipes to the site.

Ask
www.ask.com

Blog Upp
www.blogupp.com
If you have one or more blogs, you should use this service. Register your blog with Blogupp in exchange for placing a widget on your site. Great way to drive more traffic to your site for FREE!

Classmates
www.classmates.com
Great way to find old high school and college classmates. However, the free account is a bit limited. To enjoy all the benefits this site has to offer, you would have to sign up for one of their subscription accounts. I haven't done this yet, trying to decide if it would be worth the $$ or not.

Digg
www.digg.com

Facebook
www.facebook.com
I like this site much better than MySpace. I link all my articles to my Facebook page. I get quite a few page views coming from my links on Facebook. Lots of bells and whistles that can be added to customize your personal Facebook page.

Google
www.google.com
Google should eventually find your article. But why not get an early jump on driving traffic to your articles by visiting Google and adding a link to your articles as soon as they are published.

Linked In
www.linkedin.com
Great site for adding general contact information, staying in touch with business contacts and even high school and college classmates. I list the main sites I write for as current jobs. I found quite a few of my college classmates and business associates on LinkedIn.

MyBlogLog

www.mybloglog.com
Part of the Yahoo family. Register with My Blog Log and find out who is visiting your blogs.

MySpace
www.myspace.com
Add a blog or bulletin about your latest article to your MySpace page. Now that I have a Facebook account, I rarely use MySpace anymore.

Squidoo
www.squidoo.com
Create a lens on Squidoo to keep track of all your latest articles. You can add a RSS feed for each online site you write for to your Squidoo lens.

Stumble Upon
www.stumbleupon.com
Limits the number of links you can add from each site.

Technorati
www.technorati.com
In addition to being able to add bookmarks to each of your articles, Technorati also allows you to claim and track each of your blogs on their site.

Yahoo
www.yahoo.com

Yardbarker
www.yardbarker.com
I link all my sports and fitness related articles to this site. I am an avid road biker and have started to write articles on road biking and road biking events.

Zoom Info
www.zoominfo.com
I honestly don't remember why I signed up for this site. I forgot I even had an account with them until I received an email from them the other day. I signed up for a free account with them back in late 2006. This was before I started writing for online content providers. Guess I need to update my profile on this site or just delete the account.

Other Networking Sites
There are tons of other social networking and bookmarking sites available. I don't have any experience working with these other sites. But thought I'd list a few of them in case you want to research them yourself.

Blinklist
www.blinklist.com

Delicious
http://del.icio.us

Furl
www.furl.net

Hub Pages
www.hubpages.com
This site is a bit like Squidoo.

Newsvine
www.newsvine.com

Reddit
http://reddit.com

Spurl
www.spurl.net

What Sites Do You Use?
Are there any other social networking and bookmarking sites that you use that aren't on this list? Add a comment to the end of this post and let us know what sites you like to use.

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Writing.com

April 4th 2008 17:08
Writing.Com is the online community for writers and readers of all interests and skill levels. Whether you're an enthusiastic, creative writer looking for the perfect place to store and display your writing online or a casual reader searching for a good story, Writing.Com is the website for you!

With 608,473 members and 1,309,677 literary items created since inception, this community is bursting with activities, inspiration and creativity.

Free memberships are available to everyone. Each membership includes an online writing portfolio, numerous writing tools, email services and the chance to meet and bond with fresh creative minds, just like you! No other website services the Writing world better than we do.

Visit the Writing.com website to learn more, or to sign up for your own account.
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Sold My First Reprint

March 29th 2008 16:45
Artisan Cheese
I sold my first re-print of an article I had previously published online. The Editor of The Heart of New England online magazine saw my Vermont Artisan Cheese article on the Associated Content website. She emailed me on March 8th requesting permission to reprint it on the magazines website.

It's kind of funny, it's one of the lowest page view articles I have ever written for Associated Content. But I guess the editor thought it was the perfect fit for The Heart of New England Magazine.

I received $15 for the reprinted article - way more than I've made in page views over on Associated Content.

Here is a copy of the email I received from the editor:

"Hi Lynn,
I'm publisher & editor of The Heart of New England online magazine. I would like to publish your article about Vermont Cheeses. I pay $15 per article. Please let me know if this is okay. Thank you!

Marcia Passos Duffy
The Heart of New England online magazine
www.TheHeartofNewEngland.com"

Invoice for Payment
She asked that I send the article to her in word format as an email attachment and to send her a seperate invoice to be paid. I use Paypal so I sent an invoice through Paypal to the editor for $15. I received payment the very next day.

On March 14th I received another email from the editor with the link to my article reprint: Vermont's Artisan Cheeses.

Now if I could only figure out how to sell reprints off ALL my articles, I might be able to go on that trip to Hawaii!!!

Free Reprint
A million years ago, my first few articles were published just so I could start collecting a few clippings to show to other editors. I had a few articles published in the Essential Herbal Magazine. No payment, but I did receive a free copy of the magazine.

About a week prior to selling the chesse article reprint, I was contacted by the Editor of The Essential Herbal Magazine. Here is a copy of her email to me:

"Hi Lynn,

I'm in the process of putting together the first five years of The Essential Herbal into 2 volumes. One will encompass Spring/Summer, the other Fall/Winter. The first three years are almost completely sold out, and there was a lot of great stuff in there. So I'm writing to ask if you will give me permission to reprint the articles that you submitted to the magazine. Proper credit of course - and you may want to change the credits to reflect your lynn smythe creations site.

Please let me know at your earliest convenience.
Thanks!

Tina
www.essentialherbal.com"

I gave her permission to reprint the articles asap. I updated my contact information, so you never know, I could be receiving more reprint requests in the future.


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Team in Training

March 28th 2008 18:49
tnt logo
Team in Training Logo

Cocoa Beach Century Ride
As some of you might remember, last year my husband Rob and I raised money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through their Team in Training program. The event we trained for was the 109 mile El Tour de Tucson, which took place on November 17th, 2007. We were the mentors for the Palm Beach County cycle team. It was a phenomenal experience, both the ride, and working towards raising money for such a worthy cause.

This year, Rob is going to be the coach, and I will be the mentor for the group training for the 2008 Intracoastal Waterway Century Ride. This 100 mile road bike ride takes place on October 26th in Cocoa Beach, FL. We are looking for people to participate as a member of the Palm Beach County TNT cycle team.

This is a great way to get the support and structure you need to get in shape, meet new cycling friends and achieve something many people haven't - riding 100 miles on a bicycle in one day! The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is a charity that does much to further research towards cures, and ease the burden of those battling leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, lymphoma and myeloma along with improving the quality of life of patients and their families.

In exchange for the support and training, you commit to raising a certain amount of money. The participation minimum for this ride is $2100. This might seem like a large amount, but you'd be very surprised at how quickly and easily this amount of money can be raised. Last year Rob and I raised over $6,500!

ALL CYCLISTS WELCOME
Last year's team had everyone from very athletic road bikers, to recreational cyclists, to diehard couch potatoes, to a 63/73 year old couple riding their tandem bicycle. EVERYONE is welcome, no matter what prior road biking experience you may have. The Palm Beach County cycle team will have a coach, and a mentor to help you out with your training and fundraising goals. Each training ride also includes a SAG vehicle, filled with snacks and goodies, that sweeps the ride route should anyone have a mechanical problem or any health issues.

INFORMATION MEETINGS
Information meetings will be starting in Palm Beach County over the next few weeks. Rob and I will be attending most of these meetings, and will spend a few minutes at each meeting talking about our experience with the Team in Training program.

BOYNTON BEACH - Monday, April 14 - 6 pm - West Boynton Beach Library

JUPITER - Monday, April 14 - 6 pm - Jupiter Community Center

WEST BOCA RATON - Wednesday, April 16- 6 pm - Fleet Feet Sports Boca

EAST BOCA RATON - Monday, April 21- 6 pm - East Boca Community Center

ROYAL PALM BEACH - Tuesday, April 22- 6 pm - Royal Palm Beach Library

WEST PALM BEACH - Thursday, April 24- 6 pm - South Florida Water Mgmt District

PALM BEACH GARDENS - Saturday, April 26- 9 am - NIKE Women, The Gardens Mall

WEST PALM BEACH - Saturday, May 3- 9:30 am - The National Croquet Center. This is also the Fall Season Kickoff for all TNT events including the Accenture Chicago Triathlon, The Nation’s Triathlon, The Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Nike’s Women’s Marathon and the 20th Annual Intracoastal Waterway Century Road Bike Ride.

If you are interested in joining the TNT program, know someone who might be, or would like more information, please drop me a note.

Lynn Smythe
Team in Training Cycle Mentor
Thebikediva@yahoo.com
www.bikediva.net

For more information about Team In Training and the Palm Beach Area Chapter, visit their website at www.teamintraining.org/pb or give them a call at 561-775

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