Sugar and Spice - Just a little naughtiness for women. Bring your own batteries

A new newsletter! Fresh and untouched. No one will even be subscribed as I type this. I expect that to change, well at least I'll subscribe myself. That way I won't be too lonely. I talk to myself all the time. Just don't tell anyone.

Moving right along... this is a newsletter for women who like being sensual, reading the odd bit of erotica and viewing the odd naked male. Yes, just the odd ones. The standard males are the ones we married, we can see them any day.

Be warned there will likely be some teasing, tormenting and now and then a touch of male bashing going on in here. You can't be nice all the time! That would be boring.

I started reading "Guerrilla Marketing for Writers" yesterday. One thing that struck me as was this: "You can show your involvement with your fans by being cordial when you contact them, by being helpful to them, and by asking about them."

Almost no one does that any more in the great big, fast, condensed world of email. Yet, I think most people have felt short changed by some one sentence, abbreviated email reply. Why don't we show an interest in the people we email with? Especially if you are writing to someone who has shown an interest in you, or whatever you are selling. Is it so greatly time consuming? Is it too hard to write over the one sentence quota? Or do you really just not care?

The advice from the Guerrilla Marketers is good advice. You really can win people over if you show some interest in them. Maybe they have just read your book or something you wrote on a website. First of all, it's pretty amazing that you got feedback at all. Not may people bother to send a note. When you have the chance to reply to feedback, take it.

Make the most of the chance to connect with someone. Send them your promotional spiel, your upcoming books, articles and where you are writing online but also send them answers to their questions and some questions of your own. Give them a reason to write back, or at least remember you.

There is a lot of email flying around out there. Adding HTML and graphics isn't the best way to make yours stand out. Ordinary, old fashioned chit chat is free, takes up a lot less bandwidth and is far more impressive.

People seem to still be asking what is it about blogging? Why do you blog?

For me it's a bit ego, a bit instant (imagined) fame and a bit of a release of feelings and a chance to put them in order while I type. It's a catch 22 that way. I write things I don't really want anyone and everyone to know or read about. Yet, for me writing them is a way of getting rid of them, or at least re-sorting things inside my own head.

Anyway, the next question, not that the other one is out of the way. Next, people tend to ask what is a blog, how is it different from an ezine?

That is tricky. What makes one site an ezine, another a newsletter and yet another a weblog? Maybe it's too tricky and should be left in the realm of things that don't really need to be defined, just enjoyed.

However, for those who are curious...

My take on a blog over an ezine is that a blog is still a journal while an ezine is usually professionally geared in some way. When people try to pigeonhole BackWash they call it a blog community. I don't agree. It's too complex to be filed under blog. There are more than just personal rants, soapboxing and such going on here. We even have newsletters!

What is and is not a blog? Maybe the world will never know.

I run a website for writers: HerCorner. The site includes articles about writing, in fact those are the main content. So, I read a lot of what other people are writing about writing. Well, ok, I skim it. Anyway, most of the contributed content (free to reprint in ezines and newsletters) is full of the same thing over and over and over again: web promotion and selling.

I think it's great that people are writing articles and then contributing them to sites like mine in exchange for their own promotion, it's self syndication. It seems like such a great win - win situation. I just love those.

But, it's not working as well as it could be. Unless you can find a source for articles geared to the content you are looking for (writing, space travel, parenting, etc) you will end up wading through endless articles and only find one which you really, strongly feel you want to use. It's not that the articles are not well written, they just cover the same old stuff all too well.

Most of the articles I come across (on several email lists for contributing content) are geared to web promotion/ selling. I don't think many of the people looking for content are looking for that kind of content. There are so many sites covering that and each of them seem to write their own articles as a way of promoting themselves as an authority on the subject.

The original writer of the article isn't creating anything unique that could be used by most of the ezines and sites out here. I bet a lot of writers decide this form of promotion isn't workable. But, it is, if they would just look at the ezines out here. There are so many different topics covered with endless angles and styles. Look around, find a topic you really have an interest in or want to become known for writing about.

In a perfect world this self syndication would be one of the best things about the Internet for a writer. Until then, we just have to work with what we have or write our own content. Which I do, on occasion.

However, I really like publishing another writer's work. Mainly because this way it's not just me talking. My readers get another point of view and my site looks healthier. A site with just one writer does lose something. To grow, a site manager needs to keep exploring, developing, creating and searching for fresh content and points of view. It really helps if you can find an article someone else wrote to reprint on your site.

So, that is my point in all this: writers looking for that self promotion/ syndication from contributing content need to work outside of the box. Find out what web publishers are really looking for. Take a chance and try something new, something uniquely you!

Want to be famous and trendy on the Internet? Join the personal publishing era - get blogging.

Weblogs are part scrapbook, part magazine, part journal, part soapbox, part obligation and part fantasy. Anything that can be typed on a computer keyboard or made into a digital file (images, sounds and scanned items) can be part of a weblog. People (bloggers) with a scanner or digital camera can include pictures of themselves and the objects they write about. Links to other websites are what really make a weblog a digital twist to the old fashioned scrapbook. The best weblogs are those with well-written journal content, interesting links and an eye catching design.

However, don't get the idea that weblogs (blogs) are just another personal home page. News and commercial sites use them too. Blogging software makes updating simple and quick. Just open the program, add your content and click. Automatically the software puts your entry into HTML, sets up the navigation (layout, date, etc.), and publishes it to your website.

Some blog software will have more features. Movable Type is very popular but not simple to install. Blogger.com is simple but unreliable due to high use. As a new blogger, you need something easy to use with dependable technical support. Almost all blog software is free for personal use.

There is a group online called GTA Bloggers, for people with weblogs in the Toronto area. Join the email list or read the website if you need help, inspiration, ideas or just want to chat with other bloggers. I also found a webring for Ontario bloggers. Take a look online for blogging groups in your own area.