Comments on: FWJ Community Project: Share Your Favorite Resources

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:07:44 +0000

I have started doing more academic writing, and have come to love this site:

http://www.easybib.com

It creates bibliographies in the proper format. All you do is click what source you are using and then a template comes up and you fill it out and then it gets listed in the proper format. For each new citation, you just click on the source and enter the data. When all is done, you have a perfectly formatted bibliography/works cited page.

By: Misti Sandefur

Misti Sandefur — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:37:06 +0000

Coffee Break for Writers E-zine (Shamless plug )
http://www.coffeebreakforwriters.com/

Duotrope’s Digest (Great resource for fiction writers)
http://www.duotrope.com/index.aspx

Nielsen/NetRatings
http://www.netratings.com/

The Free Library
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/

By: Deb

Deb — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:21:23 +0000

Awesome links, friends. I can’t wait for this weekend when I have time to pour myself a big fat mug of coffee and visit all these links.

@Jenn – I only use Firefox. One of the regulars did give me some instructions for replacing my bookmarks but I haven’t yet had the time to follow his advice.

By: Rochelle

Rochelle — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:47:54 +0000

For articles with great tips, classes, a good message board, an editorial calendar, freelancer parties, and more: Mediabistro.com

For some cool, free virtual classes on travel writing: http://blog.viscape.com/viscape-university/

For masthead contact info: http://mediaphonebook.com/index.php?title=Magazines

For asking and answering questions related to writing and editing: http://www.linkedin.com/answers/browse/marketing-sales/writing-editing/MAR_WED (really useful for building contacts, too)

By: Michelle Kafka

Michelle Kafka — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:37:06 +0000

Here are some writing resources in no particular order:

Freelance Writing Organization-Int’l
http://www.fwointl.com/

Writing-World.com
http://www.writing-world.com/

HowStuffWorks
http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Infoplease
http://www.infoplease.com

Refdesk.com
http://refdesk.com/

firstwriter.com
http://www.firstwriter.com/

snopes.com 25 Hottest Urban Legends
http://www.snopes.com/info/top25uls.asp

Writing Fix
http://www.writingfix.com/

HistoryNet.com
http://www.historynet.com/

invoice journal
http://www.invoicejournal.com/

free-minder.com
http://www.free-minder.com/

Thanks

By: Jenn

Jenn — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:36:31 +0000

Deb, what browser are you using? The same thing happened to me using Firefox – one day all my bookmarks disappeared.

They’re not actually gone though, in fact, it’s pretty easy to get them back. (If it is Firefox assuming you’re using a PC and not a Mac.)

Look in C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxx.default\bookmarkbackups and import the latest backup.

Hope this helps
Jenn

By: Michelle Kafka

Michelle Kafka — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:21:11 +0000

Here are some links in no particular order:

Freelance Writing Organization-Int’l
http://www.fwointl.com/

Writing-World.com
http://www.writing-world.com/

HowStuffWorks
http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Infoplease
http://www.infoplease.com

Refdesk.com
http://refdesk.com/

firstwriter.com
http://www.firstwriter.com/

snopes.com 25 Hottest Urban Legends
http://www.snopes.com/info/top25uls.asp

Writing Fix
http://www.writingfix.com/

HistoryNet.com
http://www.historynet.com/

invoice journal
http://www.invoicejournal.com/

free-minder.com
http://www.free-minder.com/

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:03:11 +0000

Phil — I am helping a friend with a press release and am wondering if you have any recommendations of FREE online distribution sites? I know there are a lot of them out there (I currently have a list of 20) but am wondering if you know of any that are better than others?

A few resources:

100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes at Smashing Magazine
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/08/100-excellent-free-high-quality-wordpress-themes/

Now free in ebook form, The Street Smart Writer: Self Defense Against Sharks and Scams in the Writing World by Jenna Glatzer and Daniel Steven
http://www.wowio.com/viewer/reader.asp?nBookId=2646&rnd=303.379737537101

Freelance Switch’s hourly rates calculator:
http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/

Google Keywords Lookup
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Cute PDF for turning docs into pdf (I used the paid version, but they have a free one)
http://www.cutepdf.com/

By: tjwriter

tjwriter — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:27:11 +0000

What service do you use that holds the bookmarks? My parents were using ATT Yahoo DSL, which keeps the bookmarked sites on their side when the file used to retrieve bookmarks went corrupt or something. I managed to locate and save the file with the data in it, but Yahoo fixed the problem on their end and all was restored before I had bothered to mess with it.

If you are saving favorites in Internet Explorer, the links are saved to a folder on your hard drive. Copying the folder to flash drive lets you take your favorites with you whereever you go, or allows you to swap the info when getting a new computer.

Lots of good links I’m going to have to follow up on.

By: Phil

Phil — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:03:39 +0000

Brian,

Zoho is good. I’ve done some work for their PR firm

By: Dani

Dani — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:00:35 +0000

By the way, thank you, Deb, for this! I have already bookmarked this in my important writing links folder.

By: Dani

Dani — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:42:28 +0000

Free Tag Generator for Your Text Free SEO/Keyword Checker Free Online Plagiarism Checker Writers Rates Free Online Calculator Current Average Rates for Writers and Editors Rate and Bid Info for Writers All About Blogging on About.com Freelance Writing at About.com Accentuate Writers Editing & Proofreading Hints & Tips How to Set Your Freelance Writing Rates Freelance Writing Jobs - YOU ARE HERE lol. It was on my list, too! I have tons of other great links, but I will stop for now so I don't have to officially change my name here to "Dani the Verbose". :-D

By: Dani

Dani — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:28:50 +0000

@Deb:

I must drive you crazy with #4! lol. I don’t know why it seems more natural and simple to use ‘their’ instead of s/he. I honestly hate assigning a gender to any piece, though. To me it seems like whichever gender I use could come across as sexist. (PCers have me paranoid lol)

#5: if you use Microsoft Word you can easily make a word count button for your toolbar so you can just click for total word count (and other info) or you can highlight a section of the text and then click for word count (and other info) of the selected text. If anyone is interested and it is ok, I will post how to do it – or you can email me for it.

I did a small list of links for writers on Vimu (FWJ is on it as well), but I think that might get ad revenue for me if anyone goes there (I am not sure if I am in that program or not), so I will post the links here in a little bit, instead of a link to that list.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:21:09 +0000

Where to start?

Ok, not including places to find jobs:

http://www.LessAccounting.com (for keeping track of business)
http://www.ZohoBusiness.com (for keeping track of projects and contact)
http://www.sxc.hu/ (royalty free images without too much hoop jumping) – MS Office onlin Clipart works good too.
http://www.zyn.com (for grant writers)
http://www.docstoc.com (for templates – usually for ideas or for tweaking)
office.microsoft.com (for Office templates)
http://www.smashingmagazine.com (for design tips and ideas – mostly for things where I’m also the desktop publisher in addition to the writer)
http://www.arcticllama.com/blog (shameless plug
http://www.feedburner.com (make RSS feeds for your site)
http://www.bookmooch.com (use this site to trade in your books for other people’s books – I use it to get new project management book or business books or finance books when I’ve finished reading the one I already had in order to know what clients are referencing)

Whew…back to work…

By: Ann G.

Ann G. — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:44:34 +0000

I always kept Copyscape in my bookmarks until recently. About six months ago, I had a long time client vanish without paying me for four press releases and one travel article. So I was using Copyscape to check daily to make sure she didn’t post them (their 5 cent search deal). They never caught them. Then I came across the free plagiarism detection site – http://www.plagiarismdetect.com and ran them as a test to see what I thought of the software. It found all five had been posted back in March when I wrote them. So I wasn’t happy with Copyscape and since then I’ve stuck with plagiarism detect.

By: RobinMarie

RobinMarie — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:27:59 +0000

Unfortunately, I replaced my computer a few months ago when the screen started turning pretty colors. It was charming, really. So I lost all my bookmarks, too. But this is one I use fairly frequently. It can be used to find all the information you could ever need about any college or university in the US. You can search by subject matter or location: http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/

By: Eric Wyatt

Eric Wyatt — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:07:24 +0000

I use the Random Name Generator often:

http://www.behindthename.com/random/

It comes in handy when writing fiction and you start to feel like you’re using the same character names over and over, or you want an ethnically specific name

By: Leigh

Leigh — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:59:14 +0000

Darnit, Deb, I JUST cleaned out my bookmarks folder. Guess I will be filling it up again. Thanks for all you do here.

By: Phil

Phil — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:16:36 +0000

PR Newswire for press releases and experts on various industries.

http://media.prnewswire.com/