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To Enter or Not to Enter Writing Contests (writing contests) If you are a freelance writer, it is because you love to write. Why not put those abilities to use and enter a writing contest? You have nothing to loose and a lot to gain. You can find writing contests by simply searching the Internet. Writing groups and message boards may also have listing for these contests. No matter what you writing genre maybe poetry, fiction, non fiction, there is a contest out there for you. Read about them and choose which ones are right for you. It is not necessarily about winning or loosing but about the experience and knowledge that you gain to get there. Whether you win or not there are still valuable things that can be learned or gained by entering into contests. Entering writing contests will help you hone the skills that you have. Try something new, you may choose to write in a niche that you normally wouldn’t. You get constructive criticism from someone new. Someone that doesn’t have to worry about hurting your feelings and that is unbiased can be a wonderful asset to your career. The feedback you receive can be invaluable to you. It will get your name out there and give you a place to showcase your work. Depending on how good your story, if you make it to the next round your writings could be in front of editors and agents. This feedback and criticism is even more important than the first. Do not your eggs all in one basket. Enter a couple contests to get multiple feedback sources. Not every editor or agent is going to agree. By entering multiple contests and find common points about your writing that need perfecting you will be able to concentrate on a general consensus about your abilities. There are some downsides to entering writing contests, too. Chances are that a simple contest is not going to launch your career into star status. Do your research just as if you were going to write an article about contests. For many contests you give up your rights to your entry whether it wins or not. You need to decide whether or not you are willing to give up all rights to your story. If you win it is not a big deal, but if you loose your giving your work away. Are you willing to do this? Research the contest. You can search the Internet for reports or opinions on contests run by the company. You can find valuable information on if the contest is legitimate, if entering has had any effect of previous entrant’s careers, and if it is really worth it in the long run. The bigger and well-established companies will give credibility to your work if you win. But the bigger and more well know the companies are will also bring in tougher competition with well know authors. Some companies offer contests as a disguise. Yes they will give away prizes and declare winners but their main goal with the contest is advertising. It can be in the form of offering you to buy obscure book featuring your contest submission. Sometimes it is an editing company that offers a discount for its services or a company that will offer you discounts on writing classes. A writing contest is just a possible stepping stone. Whether it helps you or not is the unknown, but it definitely won’t hurt you. It may help you reach the next level of your career. You and only you will be able to make the decision on whether or not writing contests are a good move for your career.

The Road to Riches – Or at Least Success - In writing (how to become a published author) Getting published is the first step on the road to becoming a writer. It’s an exciting day when you receive your first paycheck for something you wrote. It’s a stamp of approval on your ability to write the meaning of the everyday for the general public. If you want to know how to become a published author, read on. It can be a difficult and frustrating road, but the destination is well worth the journey. Starting Small The first thing to remember when wondering how to become a published author is that beginning should look like a beginning. Don’t expect instant recognition or huge payment for your first efforts in the writing world. You will learn as you continue to write and get feedback. Don’t always expect feedback either. You will have to become your own critic to some extent. The following list includes great opportunities for publication as you improve your writing skills. Newsletters As you learn how to become a published author, your first lesson may be that you won’t always get paid. When you are first starting out, your best opportunities may be with free publications that only accept donated work. Many newsletters are created by non-profit organizations. They need donated time from several sources in order to keep the public informed about their work. You could start your practice there. You can also start the process towards name recognition. Newspapers Newspapers are also a good place to begin your publications. Reporting jobs are difficult to land and may not be worth the time and effort that they require, but you can start with letters to the editor for great practice. You’ll see your name in print if you can write a clear letter addressing relevant topics. That could lead you to a relationship with the editor so that you can move into a few freelance jobs. Magazines As you query magazines for possible publication opportunities, you will do well to include some of your already published work. Whether you’ve been compensated or not, your name in print along with some representative writing will help you get an interview with a magazine editor. Now we can talk about how to become a published author for money. Magazines start writers at low wages with the opportunity to increase. Online Publications Online publications work in much the same way. You will probably find job postings on job boards. If you can demonstrate that you have been published somewhere before your chances of landing a paid job will increase. Anthologies As your skills improve, you will be able to step into jobs with books. Anthologies are filled with skillfully written pieces along some subject line. You will need to use all of your capabilities you have learned so far as in writing for an audience and creating a tone acceptable to the publication. If you can do that, you will start to enter into the world of books. You may want to stop there, or you may want to take your work further. Books Writing your own book will take time and work. As you think about how to become a published author, remember that you do not necessarily have to become a book author. Writers work in all fields, and some are limited to one or two. If you have enough motivation and capability, book writing can be a lucrative field to enter into. If you’d rather stick to short term projects though, stick with the magazines and other similar publications. If you need more information about how to become a published author, check out specific information about any of the above genres. The internet is a great source, but you can also support other writers monetarily by visiting your local book store.

Web Hosting - Managing Disk Space Few things are less exciting than managing the disk space that always seems to be in too short a supply. But few things are more important to the health and well being of your site. The most obvious aspect of managing disk space is the need to have enough. If you have only a few dozen web pages, that's not an issue. But as the amount of information (web pages, database content and more) grows, the quantity of free space goes down. That's important for two reasons. All permanent information on a computer is stored on hard drives. Temporary information is often stored in memory only. The two components are completely separate, though they are sometimes confused with one another. As the amount of free space on the hard drive decreases several effects occur. Here's one way to picture them... Imagine you had a table with a certain area and you lay out playing cards on the table. At first, you lay them out in order, the 2 at the side of the 3, then 4, and so on. But then you pick up one or two cards from the middle and discard them. Then you add some more cards. Pretty soon things look pretty random. Now cover the cards with a big opaque sheet of paper. You want the cards to appear in order when displayed to someone. A special robot could be designed to always pick up the cards from underneath the sheet in order. Or, it could slide a hole in the sheet over the cards to display them in the correct order (2, 3, 4, ...), no matter what order they are really in. That's similar to how the operating system always shows you information in a sensible way, even though it's actually stored randomly. Why should you care? Real files are stored in pieces scattered around the drive wherever there is space for them. The more free space there is, the quicker the operating system can find a place to store a new piece. That means, if you delete the junk you no longer need (and free up more space) the system actually runs quicker. It helps create space you might need, and allows the operating system to store files for you faster. But there's a second effect. As you delete old files or change them, the pieces get more and more scattered. It takes the 'robot' longer and longer to fetch or display the 'cards' in order. Existing files are fetched and put together 'on the fly' (say, when you request a graphical page or a list of names). But, it takes longer to put together the web page when there are more scattered pieces. So, the other aspect of managing disk space is to keep the pieces of the files more or less in order. A utility that does that is called a 'de-fragger' or de-fragmentation program. You can request that a system administrator run it, or if you have the authority, you can run it yourself. That keeps the 'cards' in order and allows for quicker access to them. So, managing disk space involves chiefly three things: (1) keeping enough space to store what you need to store, and also (2) keeping enough free space to make new file storage quick and (3) making old file retrieval fast by keeping things orderly. When only a few files are involved the benefit isn't worth the effort. But as the number and size of the files grow, to thousands of files or several gigabytes of data, the effect becomes more noticeable. Keeping things organized then makes a significant difference in performance. Much of this can be automated using utilities. Some will delete files in a certain folder older than a certain date. A de-fragger can be set to run automatically during times of light usage, or quietly in the background at all times. Discuss the options with your system administrator and help him or her do the job better by keeping your house in order. You'll benefit by having a better performing web site.