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.

Once upon a time a signature wasn’t much more than a show of good penmanship. Now a signature can be plain, just links, maybe a quote. Signatures in HTML are colourful and fancy but too clunky for downloading with email. I like ASCII art signatures best of all. ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, your basic everyday keyboard characters. Its become a tradition for ASCII art to only use the characters you can actually see on your keyboard. If you get into the alt key the art becomes ANSI art.

ASCII art has been used for more than just signatures. MUDs, IRC chat, ezines and of course newsgroup and email postings have used ASCII art and emoticons (smileys). Some people have printed out the bigger pictures for kids to colour. One thing all ASCII art has in common is a monospace font. This keeps it looking the same for all computers. If you are seeing ASCII art all warped, jumbled looking, try changing your font to FixedSys or Courier New. When ASCII art is included in a webpage it needs the HTML tag pre and /pre to keep the characters arranged with all the spaces in place.

Signatures should be short but not too cluttered. If you can keep it under 5 lines you’re doing great. I’ve made some which are four lines, the acceptable standard. I think the netiquette police aren’t so concerned with the length of ASCII signatures now that HTML is getting more popular. Still, you don’t want to annoy people with your signature, usually. Keep signatures less than 75 characters wide. Longer signatures can wrap and then they just look like a mess of text. Don’t forget to include your URL and if you use ASCII art, the artist’s initials.

In July 1996 while still a Net newbie, I thought the pictures made with keyboard characters were amazing. Making the pictures myself seemed so out of reach. I didn’t even know what they were called. I searched for keyboard art, typewriter art, anything and everything I could think of. I didn’t find what I was looking for. Finally, I found a site answering newbie questions and they emailed back and told me: ASCII Art! The mystery was solved!

I made my first keepable picture January 1998 (with the help of Albert and Joan on the Sig-List). ASCII Art became my special outlet for the drawing I have always wished I could do. Its been a few years and a lot of ASCII later. I have some signatures I especially like, some art I enjoy sharing on my personal site and a few really great ways of promoting my projects online. People notice ASCII art. Not everyone has my appreciation of it, but it does get noticed. Some people, like my husband, say it’s outdated, a throwback to the 70’s. Little does he know, ASCII Art is still evolving and it started on typewriters, not computers.

ASCII art isn’t using a program to turn a graphic into ASCII text. Anyone can open a program, that’s not art. ASCII art is created when someone uses a minimal amount of data to represent an object. Of course, its not always easy to see, the whole eye of the beholder thing… But its really impressive what some people can do with just a few keyboard characters and a lot of imagination and creativity.

This was originally posted to the BackWash site, October 12, 2001. I wrote there several years before the site closed.

The Writer

Writing and publishing online and still putting in time on my regularly scheduled life.

I was born in the Year of the Dragon, more than a few years ago. 2000 was another year of the Dragon, in December I married Todd, moved to the US and became an expatriate. I work as a freelance writer online and in print. My favourite colour is deep, dark red. When I'm having a bad day going outdoors always makes me feel better. I'm reading the same book I started 6 months ago: Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd. I'm not especially musically inclined, I can turn on the radio and be happy leaving it in the background.

"One who says it can not be done, should not interrupt one doing it." Chinese proverb.

posted by Laura T. at 10/3/2001 07:55:48 AM

Found some ornament making projects on a felt makers site. I really like to make Christmas ornaments. posted by Laura T. at 10/3/2001 07:57:47 AM

I'm still here in Ontario, Canada. Or back here. I went to Montreal for the MosaicCulture plant sculpture show. We also saw the botanical gardens. My favourites were the Canadian exhibits, although the Chinese dragons were great to see. I took pictures, as many as I could with the disposable camera. Its such a shame I forgot mine back in Illinois. posted by Laura T. at 9/8/2001 03:41:29 PM

The Ex was good. Not as great as when I was a kid going down there with my brother and sisters. So much is commercial now and very little free stuff for kids or adults. I bought some things for the husband back in Illinois. Its his money so he should get something from it. :) I bought a couple of small things for myself and a lovely angel/ fairy for the Christmas tree. posted by Laura T. at 8/24/2001 02:20:12 PM

Its been awhile since I last wrote. I'm typing from my parent's home in Toronto, Canada now. I'm here to get the dead zone computer fixed. IBM is still finding ways to do nothing.

Anyway, tonight I read a quote I liked from Evhead's blog "To be an artist is a personality/ attitude/ spirit - not an occupation." Evhead.

I'm writing for BackWash now, 2 or 3 journal entries a week so far. I'm going to start a second one for BackWash Kids.

The ASCII Art column for WZ.com isn't going anywhere soon. They seem to be too busy to approve new entries. Todd has been waiting a long time for his to get off the ground. I write to the editor and get things done but its a very slow process. Makes the prospects slim for promoting it. How can you go wild promoting something that isn't there yet.

Just the opposite of HerPlanet where its only because of me that the site isn't already up and active. I'm looking forward to having that one (HerCorner) going. There is so much I can do with it and so many web writers I can help get the confidence to start.

Anyway, I think this will be it for now. I want to get to sleep for all that walking at The Ex tomorrow. posted by Laura T. at 8/22/2001 10:22:21 PM

Found a weblog I like today, Poundy. She even lives somewhere in the midwest. I'm sticking the URL here so I won't forget where I found the site. Doesn't look like anyone is actually reading this blog. It doesn't matter a lot. But it would be nice to have my moment of fame. lol

Talked to my Mom this morning. Graham, my brother, is on his way down here from Toronto. He is going to stay awhile, be here for Todd's birthday this weekend and then I will go back with him and get my money back for the dead computer. I think that is the best way to do things, still not sure entirely. But if I get the money back there will hopefully be enough to buy another new computer here on the US side of the border this time. I went to look at a couple of sites. Gateway seems the best way to go, too bad the closest store is about a hundred miles away in St Louis. Maybe Todd would consider making a trip of it. Though it might mean waiting as long as my birthday, Christmas and wedding anniversary in December. Still, if I can access the net and my HerPlanet site using Todd's computer that won't be too bad. Of course its a pain not having my own computer. I fee like an online transient.Suite 101 is having a really great event now. I think they could have done better in picking links but that they did it at all is pretty impressive. Oddly enough, its the same idea I had for a column. Full-Figured Women: Healthy Mind & Body. posted by Laura T. at 8/2/2001 12:32:21 PM

The Coffee Ring is a blog from a Canadian woman planning her wedding. Nice to read about someone else going through all that, especially when its not me!!

Another site I've ben keeping an eye on is BackWash, the internet organized by personality. I'd enjoy doing a column there but I just don't think I can handle the time commitment. You have to write a fairly good sized article and then add links (not related to your column or each other). That's quite a chunk of time for something you don't get paid for. I don't begrudge them not paying I just think I should put that kind of time into something that pays or has prospects of paying. posted by Laura T. at 8/2/2001 01:00:25 PM

SheBazzle: Julie's Motherhood Journal. This is a good blog, anyone with a scanner or digital camera does have an edge in blogging. Todd hinted that he is getting me a scanner for my birthday/ Christmas. I'll have to get all those pictures developed finally! I'd love to have a scanner. posted by Laura T. at 8/2/2001 01:08:43 PM

I like the name Darla for a girl. Maybe its too girly but I still like it. I hope Todd and I have at least one kid. Two or three would be a lot better, at least two anyway. I don't think Todd wants to, he certainly isn't co-operating sperm wise. I don't know what my life will be like if I never have a kid. It just seems to be the meaning of life, something I can contribute to my ancestors and life, the future and everything. Its important to me personally, I want to raise a child, a person. I want to pass on my thoughts, genes and good and bad times. I want to be part of the world and show another new person all that the world is. There is so much amazing stuff in the world. Not everyone can see it, sometimes they forget to look or forget how to look. posted by Laura T. at 8/2/2001 01:14:28 PM

I'm having a creative day. I made two new ASCII pictures and wrote book reviews for HerCorner. Still waiting for the ezine to be approved for the WZard site. The URL has my byline up already. The editor is just busy with a lot of other new WZards/ writers. Looking forward to seeing my site up and functioning.

The Zeal directory is a mess. I can't see myself putting in any more time there. Its not listed by topics but by country. Which just makes no sense and is bordering on annoying since everything is listed under United States really. Just a little too US centric for this Canadian. posted by Laura T. at 7/27/2001 04:31:55 PM

My computer died on June 27th. I just realized its been a month to the day. We finally found out that its the motherboard that needs to be replaced. I will have to take the computer back home with me when I go to Toronto for Sarah's wedding. It will be great to have my computer back and working again. I miss all my files! Its been terrific of Todd to let me use his computer for checking email and the odd bit of stuff I can still do without my hard drive and its contents. Sarah came up with the idea of transplanting my hard drive into Todd's computer but I can see that Todd is reluctant to allow this brain surgery. So it looks like I will have to hope my hard drive survives another trip back and forth to Toronto. Its about 17 hours on the bus, with a 4-5 hour wait in Chicago. Not a lot of fun. Also, for going there I will need to go to the INS building and get the advanced parole. I will be so glad when I'm finally free, or at least a bit free. The only time anyone is really free is when they are a baby. At the time don't really know it and would likely laugh at anyone who said it. They likely wouldn't consider themselves free, can't do anything they see everyone doing. Must be boring being a baby. Time to get ready to go out tonight. I'm really hungry, skipped lunch. We planned to go to the Chinese buffet tonight so I won't be hungry for long. :) posted by Laura T. at 7/27/2001 04:56:18 PM

Still no computer for me. Todd doesn't want to put my hard drive into his computer. He hasn't said that but he hasn't done anything about doing it. I would do it but its his computer and if he doesn't want to do it, that's up to him. Sarah put up pictures from her birthday BBQ, online. Great to see everyone, wish I was there. posted by Laura T. at 7/20/2001 08:22:26 AM

Here is something I wrote last night. Todd and I had a bad night. Not that he knows about it. I feel like I'm in too deep and the little light at the end of the tunnel is just my imagination. If I try to get to it, it just won't be there. I can't feel motivated. I used to think it was because I was afraid of putting a foot wrong. But now I think its more than that. I think I'd rather do nothing than try anything. Its easier to put nothing, to invest as small a part of myself, my knowledge, talents, personality, etc into whatever the end result will be. Knowing its far more likely that I will hear I've done something the wrong way, not enough, etc. posted by Laura T. at 7/20/2001 08:29:59 AM

I wish I could find my old backscratcher. My shoulder blades are almost always itchy. I've read that itchy skin is caused by dead skin cells needing to be scraped off. I'm not sure that's right. Why am I always itchy in the same spots then and not in others. Just another of those little things. I'm about to go make coffee and get dressed. Hopefully I will hear from someone with good news about my computer. The only thing we've made progress with is to find out that its the motherboard that needs to be replaced. posted by Laura T. at 7/20/2001 08:33:19 AM

Today is the big day at Zeal. They launch the new site, merged with LookSmart. Once I have my coffee on the go I'm going to have a look and see if my login still works. posted by Laura T. at 7/20/2001 08:35:14 AM