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.

One thing anyone reading this newsletter has in common is that we are writing online. Its a different market/ medium from print, obviously. But not always in obvious ways. The language is different. The rate at which content needs to be refreshed is much different. The problems with having content stolen are also different and more challenging. But, there is a huge audience out there, if you can lure them in. You don't have to be a big ticket item like Woman's Day, Cosmo or National Geographic to pull in readers. But, you do have to find a way of pulling them in.

One other difference that not a lot of writers take advantage of is self promotion. You can set yourself up as the controller of your own little empire. Add all the clips you want, promote them everywhere possible and even break into new markets by offering free content to other sites.

But, you do have to take those first steps and get yourself out there, into the community. A big part of doing that is a personal/ professional website. You really do need a place to hang your hat online, an address to send people to when they want to know more about you, see what you know and how you think. Also, of course what you have that someone else doesn't already have.

One important thing is balancing personal and professional. Unless you have a couple of separate websites You need to make sure your website isn't saying too much about you. There are some hobbies, collectibles, activities, political leanings you might not want to offer up right away. For me its Wicca. My sister was looking over my resume and was astonished that I had left in a reference to my BackWash column, Bewitching Vagabond. She strongly suggested I take it out. I decided she was right and I have removed it. The resume is now loaded onto my site. Though in an HTML file it lost all the formatting I had done in Lotus and again in Word.

Anyway, I am having to revamp my personal site again due to the Witchiness of it. The easiest solution is to remove that section to a secret location on my domain. In other words just take the link off my front page. That is probably what I will do. All my clips and essays are still there but only available upon request or to those I choose to share them with.

What about your own site? Is there anything there you need to consider a problem area? Assuming you have a site, of course. If you don't the links below might help you get started.

Add a resume to your site too. Just don't be careless about leaving your street address and phone numbers on there. Blank them out or just delete them.

For now, I'm giving up on installing Movable Type myself. For now, I will just de-blog. Hey, if you can de-plane you can de-blog.

I am still working on getting bring as an accepted standard short form of webring too. Maybe I will just set up a Blog Bring on RingSurf. I'm thinking about it. Mostly I'm thinking do I REALLY need one more thing to do that doesn't bring in any cash. Probably not.

Here for your bloggish amusement are several links describing blogs, software for blogs and for those who think I'm typing in some odd foreign language (Canadian?) you can even read about that a blog is.

Once you've had blog you never go back.

This is the newsletter, you are the guinea pig.

It is so easy to slip into my mind and spill out the Home and Garden newsletter, finding the links is an adventure of sensual pleasure. I draw on my memories, my spirit and my basic likes and dislikes and the newsletter is built, it all comes together.

This one though... I lack focus, maybe I'm too close to the topic to be able to stand back, take a deep breath and just let it come to me. I want to force it. As if I have to prove myself each time.

So here we are, another week and a jumble of links culled from BackWash. The links are good, I checked most of them. Something is just not hitting the mark and you are my guinea pigs until I figure out just what mark I'm missing.

Send suggestions, comments, feedback. There are no cheap seats juts cheap shots.