anEditor’s Blog

It wasn’t totally my idea, but after an upgrade crashed the old design, I sought out something a little more stable. Maybe it’s even a little more professional looking, too, but it’s not as colorful. (Of course, I’m still somewhat bitter over losing nearly twenty hours of work time!)

Let me know what you think; drop a line to ImYourEditor@hotmail.com

Though I’m still swamped with some pretty good projects, I’ve slowly taken some time this spring to begin the process of refreshing and reviving a few of my specialty Web sites. These are sites that I use to advertise particular services that I offer. They were still drawing traffic, but over the past few years, the sites had grown stale and—to be blunt—boring! Most of them were just plain HTML sites (and, I do mean plain HTML) that I used to learn Web site coding and meta-tagging several years back, back when sites were primarily information based and didn’t have to be so pretty to attract potential customers and hold their attention long enough for them to read a couple of lines of text!

As you know, those days are long gone!

My first primary Web site went live in 1987. As archaic as it was, it did have some design elements to it, and it even enabled me to venture into full-time freelancing. Over the years, I tweaked here and there and added pages as I added services and clients. Believe it or not, I used that site until 2005. For the second generation site, I decided to hire a Web designer—after all, I figured, I was only schooled in instructional design; how could I possibly learn Web design? Well, like many of you, I fell into quite the learning experience with that adventure. Needless to say, that iteration of the site lasted only a year before I gave up and found another designer. And, while that experience was much more pleasant, it was also educational: I was reminded that if you want something done "right," you’d better do it yo’self!

So, I practically did. I worked with that designer to create a template for the site and to move the text into the template. Then, I learned HTML and tweaked to near-perfection. (That is the third generation of http://www.the-freelance-editor.com, which is live today.) As I experimented and learned about HTML and XML and codes and tags and CSS and SEO and keyword enrichment and the secret advantages of publishing online, I also began work on my network sites—primarily for fun. Little did I know that those sites would turn into active doorway pages.

Regardless, I am proud to announce that two of those sites are completed, and I hope you take time to check them out. You’ll find them at http://www.theWebPageEditor.com and http://www.theBlogEditor.

So, this will be the third time I’m trying to get serious about blogging, and perhaps it will be the time that takes. As a warning, though, since so much time has passed between messages from anEditorsBlog, don’t sign off because you don’t remember signing up! You are receiving this notice because you’ve signed up previously, you’ve been a client, or you’ve expressed interest in keeping in touch.

Now let’s see how this goes . . .

I’ve missed you! The months of May, June, July, and now almost half of August have slipped by without any new posts. I would apologize, but the business world is full of apologies and you just don’t need to hear another one! The truth is that I’ve been busy with several big projects that have not allowed me to take time for this blog.

First of all, the design and SEO company that I hired shortly after New Years Day finished with the third-generation of my primary Web site, www.the-freelance-editor.com. They are still working on the revised search engine optimization part of the site, but I took several days in May and June to replace the older headers and tags that the designers removed. The old ones had been doing a pretty good job, anyway, and they matched the existing text (the revisions will likely require some rewriting of text on the site—a project I don’t have time for in the foreseeable future). Please take a few minutes to visit and let me know how you like the new look.

While working on that site in May and June, I was offered a banner advertisement on the American Association of Museums (AAM) Web site. The offer was too good to refuse, so I worked for another several days rebuilding the old museum division site so the ad would have something attractive to link to. If you want to view the ad, visit the AAM site and click on "Museum Marketplace" then do a search (the bargain rate was for the third tier down), say for "editorial services," and then refresh the site until my ad comes up. When you click on the ad, you should link to www.anEditorForMuseums.com. I’m rather fond of the result—both the ad and the Web site!

Also in June, I began serving as group leader for the local Orlando Area Writers Group of the Florida Writers Association. That transition involved setting up a new e-mailing system with a WordPress blog and FeedBlitz, as well as the need for me to meet local writers and prospects for speakers. You may not think that sounds like too much work, but most of my clients and contacts are scattered elsewhere in the United States and around the globe! I haven’t ever concentrated on soliciting local jobs.

In early July, I was notified that the pictorial history of Orlando (for which I signed on as ghostwriter but ended up as author and local project manager) had finally been published. Orlando Then and Now was released by Thunder Bay Books at the end of July, resulting in a few book signing sessions and several e-mails from current and former residents—pretty good publicity. (Though I don’t get any royalties, so don’t rush out to buy it!)

Finally, for much of July and August, I’ve been working on opening a new division of the-freelance-editor as well as an entirely new company—which I’m not at liberty to announce yet.

So, you see, I haven’t just disappeared, even if this blog site did a convincing job of relaying that message. All I can say is that I’ll try to do better . . . at least by September.

I have never watched the new series Are you smarter than a 5th grader? but I understand it’s turned out to be quite a popular hit. For fun, the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, CA (east of San Francisco and Berkeley), recently asked two fifth-grade teachers to come up with a quiz for its readers. Their fifteen questions are not difficult, but—well, that was a few years ago! See for yourself, and take the quiz (don’t look at the answers accidentally—they are at the bottom of the page). The questions came from the regular curriculum, and the teachers revealed that a score of ten would earn a gold star. I’ll confess to earning only nine!

I’ve always liked silver better, anyway . . .

Just an aside, but this article in the Washington Post (Thursday, February 1, 2007; page A-1) alleges that few folks know about (or remember) the extension of Daylight Saving Time that was approved by Congress in August 2005. The article’s author, Charles Babington, includes some history and a little trivia about this “American institution” while introducting us to the headaches that are involved in making this simple act happen. Assuming that the world doesn’t end in a Y2K-ish stimy, the important thing to remember, is that we’ll now spring ahead on the second Sunday in March, and fall back on the first Sunday in November.

Well, the new year is only eighteen days old, so I guess I’m doing pretty good at meeting one of my resolutions: to start my editor’s blog for writers. In this blog, my goal is to help make viewers aware of some of the useful information I find in the variety of reading / writing / editing items that I try to read on a daily basis. For now, I’m spending a lot of time in “class” learning this program. I have great dreams and high expectations for anEditorsBlog, so tune back in occasionally. Thanks!