The Article Writer

Today, I have been spending part of my time updating all 7 blogs that I manage mostly because 4 of them I have been neglecting for some time and they have begun to look a little bit abandoned. Why has this happened? Let’s just say that a real need to work on some project proposals has been trumping everything lately.

Thank God, as I am now lining up work that should carry me through for the next several weeks, perhaps months if one of my new clients decides to use me more frequently. I would say that the summer doldrums have finally given way to autumn’s steady pace of life and work.

Just in time too because as the colors of the leaves are beginning to change so must I do likewise in order to adapt to fresh projects and new clients.

Technorati Tags: freelance work, writer, editor, writing projects, LLC

A friend of mine, Bobbie Sullivan, who runs a site benefiting the flying community called Air Crew Health sends to me from time to time links to some nifty sites or discussions about SEO, site management, site analysis, and more. I must admit that I like to click on these links and check out what others have to say about these particular topics. If I am not careful I can be on these sites for the better part of an hour as the information contained therein is usually quite useful.

Naturally, these “distractions” can take away from what I should be doing which is writing for clients or managing my own sites or sites for clients. Yet, I find these types of distractions invigorating enough to help me do my work better. Sometimes it is nice to see that other people share the same passion about their sites and follow what they do to better prepare them to reach more visitors, bring in additional customers, build up PR, and more.

Okay, I’ll stop teasing you. Visit the Google Analytics blog from ROI Revolution to see what I mean. If you are like us, you’ll spend too much time surfing the blog for helpful information to use for your websites. Happy surfing!

Technorati Tags: Google Analytics, ROI Revolution, Air crew health, site analysis, website management

Like so many people who are self employed, I run my business on a limited budget. I don’t have a huge repository of funds to fall back on and I don’t have independent funding from an angel investor propping me up. Therefore, when I find some useful product that costs me little or nothing to use, I will try it and then make mention of it here.

For some time now I have discussed the advantages of using PHPBB forums; the merits of Firefox the web browser; and the usefulness of a variety of Google freebies including GMail, Google Checkout, Google Analytics, and more. If it is a freeware or shareware program, I want to know about it.

Last week I downloaded a copy of AntiVir PE Classic, a freeware antivirus software program. My subscription to Norton was coming due and I simply did not want to dish out the funds to pay for yet another annual subscription. Therefore, I did some research and discovered that “AV” — as it is nicknamed — protects computers effectively from more than 50,000 viruses.

So far, so good as the virus protection device updates itself at least once per day. It isn’t completely intrusive, meaning a small window will open at the top right section of the screen, but it will allow you to continue with your work as the update finishes its work.

The program comes with an easy to understand panel where you can view quarantined files, set a scheduler if you prefer the product to scan your computer at different time, and more. You can also purchase a paid premium edition that helps reduce email spam and includes an adware blocker. Naturally, I use GMail for the former and Spybot Search and Destroy for the latter so the premium edition is not necessary for me.

Technorati Tags: AntiVir, Spybot, GMail, antivirus, freeware, shareware