There are a mix of strategies people use, and each of them starts with having a professional website. Once you have this though, you do need visitors to have a chance of landing a new client through your site. Getting ranked high in Google can be hard, and I’m always on the look-out for new ways you can improve Google rankings and outsmart the competition.

In the ‘old days’ of the internet, directories popped up where you could register your website and increase the numbers of visitors to your website. Their popularity has tapered off a bit, but there is one in particular you should be aware of and really consider signing up for: “Best of the Web” (or BOTW).

BOTW has been around since 1994, making it an internet dinosaur. This also makes it still trusted by Google, which is basically the search engine we are all trying to impress.

Here are the five reasons you should list your site with BOTW. Google Tutor also posts discount coupons and promo codes for BOTW here.

The benefit I like most about listing with BOTW is the fact that most competitors will not bother doing this. Google also likes the directory, so you’ll automatically boost your ranking. I call that killing multiple birds with one easy stone.

When researching an article, or a possible article idea, how far will you go for research?

I marvel at journalists who are courageous enough to throw themselves into areas of war and conflict. However, it is not just the war correspondents who are brave… albeit less life threatening, it does take a certain amount of courage to sprawl yourself naked onto a table and be enjoyed as a human platter, like this ‘sushi model‘.

For me, being a writer allows me to crawl into a different skin once in a while, and escape from my own identity. Perhaps we write to have an excuse for a thrilling adventure, or we feel the need to chronicle these escapades… who knows. Either way, some of the best stories require the most interesting research. Getting up close and personal is generally a must for a good article, and this makes me wonder: how far are you willing to go for a story idea?

Yesterday I remembered how I used to bring my books to the dinner table and continue reading while eating at the same time. As I looked back at my childhood, I pitied my mother who was forced to eat in silence because I was unable to put down my books. So much for quality time, eh?

There were times she told me to put the book down and just eat. But often she would let me do as I pleased and as a result I ranked up an impressive list of read books. Then I went to university and topped reading literate altogether. My bachelors degree was in Biotechnology and Economics, so when I actually got around to reading my textbooks, and I was done, there was little time and energy left for one of my passions: literature.

Then technology started to catch up and I subscribed to audible. Always on the look out for more ways to get some reading done, I found DailyLit. This website sends you a short installment of a book by email or RSS feed either daily, every weekday, or three times a week. If you are already spending too much time on your computer, here is another reason to stick to your screen even more. However, it is an incredible way of getting some ‘forced’ reading into your day. The installments are relatively short, so they don’t take much longer to read than an email. The real reason I think it though is the ability to read it one a mobile device, such as a BlackBerry or iPhone. Now we’re talking literature on the go! It’s like the Fast-Food of Literature!

Although, if I’m at home, I still prefer curling up with a good book on the couch, in bed, or in a bubble bath. Reading is a treat for me, and although I don’t read at the dinner table anymore, I can still shut out the world for hours at a time with a good paperback.

One more reason to get you reading: DailyLit has a number of free books? Mostly the classics of course, but worth checking out. I just signed up to receive “Die Leiden des jungen Werther” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Which book are you currently reading?

This morning I stumbled across the Ad Generator. A nice little tool developed as part of an MFA thesis by Alexis Lloyd.

The Ad generator basically randomly pairs words from big advertising campaigns with images from Flickr. Even though the phrases are cut up and randomized, I am sure you will recognize a few famous campaigns among them.

I loved this tool because it

• It is a creative way to procrastinate
• It’s a nice way of taking a break from writing and getting some different stimulation
• Believe it or not, I find it actually inspiring.

Here are my absolute favorite randomly generated ads by the Ad Generator.

Writing is a business, and increased productivity is as imperative to a writer as it is to any other professional. Aside from writing faster, there are other ways you can pump up your output, and keep more free time to yourself (or just take on additional projects).

1. Mobile Writing Tools

Depending on your lifestyle, you might get some good use out of writing tools you can take on the road with you. This can be simple, such as a (paper) notebook, BlackBerry, or a ‘hipster PDA keychain‘ (pictured above).

The benefits of a tool like a BlackBerry is the fact that you can check your Google Reader on it and use it to keep on top of the latest news and articles. Of course that’s aside from the benefit of being able to write down notes and even edit articles on the road.

2. Increase focus, improve your writing

I came across a neat little program called JDarkRoom. It helps for people who are easily distracted and do better when they just type without having to deal with any pop-ups or email notifications. JDarkRoom makes your screen completely black, and allows you to focus just on your writing without the temptation of checking your email obsessively.

3. Simple Accounting Tools

I recently signed up for BillingBoss, which is a fantastic tool if you routinely send out invoices. You can keep track of your income, outstanding invoices and paid invoices.

You also need to keep track of your spending. Writing related courses, office supplies, or even literature are tax deductible. Instead of dealing with an avalanche of receipts at the end of the year, just open up a separate bank account, and get a separate credit card, for your business expenses. Have financial institutions actually do some work for you by doing your bookkeeping for free. As long as you separate your finances completely, you’ll have painless tax filing, and you will know how much you are actually making.

Seems easy enough right? Well, I had not actually fully mastered this skill yet. It is my new year’s resolution though, so today I went out and opened a new account. For six years I successfully managed my business without strictly separate accounts, but tax time was never a happy time when it comes to making sense of my deductions (I did always obsessively keep track of earnings, so that’s never a problem).

4. Stay posted on Writing Markets

There are tens of thousands of writing markets you can sell your work to around the world. Knowing where to submit your articles, or other writing, if a first step to your next paycheck. Although the Writer’s Market is a fantastic resource (and the online version takes up no real shelf space), there are great free resources that supplement a Writer’s Market subscription as well. One of these is Funds for Writers

What is your favorite writing tool? There are endless things that can be put to good use by writers, and this overview is just a bare-bones beginning to the tools any writer cannot do without, but which has really fueled your productivity?

Happy new year! And happy writing in 2009! I’m setting some lofty new years resolutions for this upcoming year of writing, and I’m sure some of you are too. To help out with this, I tried introduced you to writing really fast yesterday, but today I stumbled across an interesting website with yet another strategy to get your writing. It’s called “1ne, 2wo, 5ver” and describes a strategy that helps you get started on writing. It starts with one word. Basically it sounds like it could be just any word, and is meant just to get you started onto the second word, and then onwards to the next X words.

Why I like it

I always have a lot of trouble getting started with writing. Being the perfectionist I am, I do not always follow the rules of writing fast, but use the excuse that I just don’t have the right wording to not write at all (on my own projects, of course). As a consequence, the book I’ve started has spurts of movement forward whenever I come across some good writing strategies that completely discredit my procrastination strategies.

This is one of them… it basically comes down to the advice I always give:

Just sit down and write….

Thanks to Stumble, I just stumbled upon a really neat site. Beware procrastinators though, this website is sure to keep you busy for as long as you want to be!

Here’s the quote that popped up on my screen when I stumbled it:

“Right now I believe that people are too wrapped up in loving others when what they really need is to love themselves a little…”

I second that thought…

Today BloggingTips.com published a great guide to commonly used abbreviations in the English language. Funny enough, they are all actually derived from Latin. Having studied Latin for five years, it was nice to read some of these expressions again. Particularly the ones I don’t use, or don’t use very often.

Maybe it’s time for me to revisit some Latin texts again, just for fun. In the mean time, for anyone who is interested in the correct uses of “i.e.” and “e.g.”, I highly recommend this list.

Any business with more than one employee, and more than one resource to share, will benefit from some sort of scheduling method. Although not much is wrong with old fashioned pen and paper, it is definitely easier to schedule resources from anywhere in the world, and have the information available from any other computer as well.

If you have a projector, a meeting room, or even a car that needs to be shared, you can use Google Calendar to schedule every particular resource.
Basically, each resource will be given its own calendar and shared with all interested parties.

To set this up, first you need a Google Account (this is the same as your Gmail account). Then, you need to make sure the Calendar you are creating will be set to
“Auto-accept invitations”.

How to set to Auto-accept

1. Create a calendar in Google calendar dedicate to your resource, for example ‘meeting room 1′
2. On the left of the screen there is a calendar list, select ‘meeting room 1′ calendar and then select ‘calendar settings’
3. Select the ‘calendar details’ tab
4. Enable “Auto-accept invitations” by selecting “Auto-accept invitations that do not conflict.”
5. Click “Save.”

How to Share your Resource Calendar

1. Click on the down-arrow next to the calendar you created and select “Share this calendar.”
2. The calendar is shared by email, so enter the email addresses of the users that will be sharing access to meeting room 1.
3. Select the level of shared permission. This has to be set to “see all event details” or higher.
4. Last step: click “save”

This doesn’t only work on the business front, but also at home. Imagine, if you have two kids who have to share a car. Avoid or eliminate the constant conflict between the two by having a car-schedule, where each one can reserve a time slot to use this resource.

If you are already syncing your Google Calendar with either iCal, or your Blackberry, you will always have access to the most up to date resource schedule.

Managing a large project, or scheduling multiple projects, can be more challenging than it needs to be with a traditional calendar. When you are in a meeting, being able to quickly map out a time frame within which a project needs to be completed, and perhaps delegate who will tackle it, can really move things forward.

Although not a substitute for your regular calendar system, Compact Calendar provides you with a spreadsheet that can easily be printed out and used as a global overview. Time is shown in ‘blocks’. You can easily block off a period for a particular project, and add notes in the side-lines.

The major advantage of Compact Cal is that time is shown horizontally, and ‘distance’ on the calendar equals time directly. Traditional calendars show time divided into months, or weeks, which makes it more difficult to have a clear overview of time on a continuous basis. When dealing with projects that span multiple months, this can be a great tool to doodle out progress and time lines.

You can download a Canadian version of CompactCal, or the US version directly. For other international versions, see the official Compact Cal website.