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November 11, 2014

Some Neat Word Games for You!

I like word games such as Scrabble, Hangman, and crossword puzzles. I like them because they are fun to do and play!

It’s great, too, that word games help to increase your brain activity, which, in turn, leads to longevity and also staves off diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

My mother begins her day with coffee and a puzzle book, and she’s still sharp even though she’s in her late sixties!

Word games provide a win-win situation for everyone! YAY! 🙂

Of course, writing tools can be fun to use, too. 😉

The Many Things Dot Org Site

I found this site recently, which is geared toward ESL (English as a second language) students, that has a bunch of neat word games on it. Don’t let the fact that is for ESL students deter you; some of the games are really fun!!!

It’s called Many Things DOT Org and you can do a lot of different things on this site! The possibilities are endless!

It has games that make learning fun. The only drawback is that the site takes a long time to load (almost one minute) but it is worth the wait. I would suggest spending 20 minutes each day exploring and learning. It will help you learn English faster than a teacher can! 🙂

I’ve actually told a few people about this site and have seen an improvement in their language skills already. 🙂 YAY!

Fun for Everyone – Share Your Favorite Game

What sites do you like to use to play word games?

Leave a link to your favorite fun site in the comment section, or simply tell us what site you like the best!

Make a donation

Remember, I don’t just link to anything without checking them out myself. I’m committed to providing you with useful and great stuff here on Wording Well.

I don’t expect anything in return, but I have to mention that I will accept donations if you ever feel the need to thank me.

Of course, you could also thank me with a social share. Everything you do is appreciated! 🙂

Have a great day, and have some fun!

One more thing… Learn about Lorraine

Some of you are new readers, and so I’d like to invite you to read Who I Am + How I Became a Self-Published Author (and a question for you). This is a post I published on my other blog, Laying It Out There.

I hope you enjoy it, and respond to the question I have for you at the end! (Hint: it involves YOU.) 😉

Opening/featured image courtesy of Stuart Miles/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

November 4, 2014

“F.I.T.S.” SERIES: Featuring #freelancewriter Ali Luke

FITS Series Welcome Image

Ali Luke is the “Freelancer In The Spotlight” today, as part of the F.I.T.S. (Freelancer In The Spotlight) Series on Wording Well.

She’s been freelancing for years, has created many wonderful things for writers and bloggers (including a membership site and some e-books), and is my special guest this week.

We’re lucky to have her here, and I would love it if you’d take a moment right now to show her some appreciation for being here by Tweeting the following message.

Thanks for sharing your #freelancing knowledge with me, @aliventures!

Click to tweet

Now please welcome Ali Luke to center stage.

Take it away, Ali!

How Ali Got Involved in Freelance Writing

I started freelancing by accident. Six years in, I’m still going strong.

Back at the start of 2008, I’d launched a blog that – rather naïvely – I hoped would quickly gather hordes of readers and bring in loads of money.

Of course, the reality was a little different: it took me eleven months to get my first Google AdSense cheque from that blog.

But early on, I tried guest posting to get more traffic. The very first blog I wrote for happened to be looking for paid writers. I still remember how I felt when I got an email from the editor asking if I’d like to write a couple of posts a week for them, at $20 a post. I hadn’t even realized freelance blogging existed and – even though I charge a lot more these days – I was delighted by the money I could earn.

Of course, I was lucky. Freelancing jobs don’t normally appear in your inbox just like that (as I found over the next few months and years), but gradually, I built up my freelancing work, and was able to quit my day job about six months after getting that first paying gig.

Since then, I’ve added extra income streams, too – ones that don’t just get me paid per hour. I sell a series of Blogger’s Guide e-books and run a teaching/community site for writers, Writers’ Huddle. In the past, I’ve also worked one-on-one with writers as a coach, and run stand-alone e-courses. Read More

October 28, 2014

I’m Going Into Hiding (sort of) + I’m seeking Beta Readers, too!

Guess what? I have a few announcements to make today.

This post is kind of like a True Tales Tuesday post crossed with a social media status update, but I figured that I owed it to you to tell you about what’s going on in my life, and what I have been doing for the last month or so… because I’ve been a bit ill, tired, and neglectful of some of my blogger friends.

In keeping with my own suggestions of what to do when you’re a blogger who is sick, I wanted to be transparent with you and tell you what’s happening, what’s been happening, and what’s going to happen in the next little while in my life.

I’ll give you the bad news first, just to get it out of the way, then I’ll move onto the good stuff.

First of all, I’ve been tired lately. A lot. I’m so tired that I’m even thinking of going into hiding… and am… sort of.

In the last month or so, I’ve been helping with renovations to one of the bedrooms at my mom’s house, editing an ebook for Max Ivey (the blind guy whom I interviewed, who is also the man behind The Blind Blogger), writing a series for Dear Blogger (on how to put yourself out there on the internet and how to be seen as an authority), Wording Well, Laying It Out There, and… I’ve been under the weather with a cold that just won’t seem to go away.

But that’s not all.

Wording Well is becoming licensed!

I’ve also been trying to get things in order business-wise, as I’m going through the end-of-year review process with ODSP (the Ontario Disability Support Program), whom I have to report my earnings to (well, if I want them to continue helping me pay my rent and stuff, which I do). They’re great, and are helping me get set up in another program, for women entrepreneurs. I’ve been to three meetings/appointments already, and I have more to go to. On the upside, I am putting together a business plan and will soon be registered as a licensed business!

Yes, I’m getting exhausted! Running a business by yourself is hard. Most people have support, but I’m a one-woman show, folks, and I’m tired. It doesn’t help that my leg has been giving me problems, either, but I think it’s my fault — I shouldn’t have been painting and standing on it for so long. However, I’m happy I have my leg and didn’t lose it in my accident. Of course, attending all these meetings is not helping my leg much, either. 🙁

What also doesn’t help is having technical problems like testing out a new plugin and running into problems that aren’t even connected to the plugin. That added stress is something I surely could have done without!

I also am supposed to have a new book coming out in December, but I’m not even close to completion. Ugh. The good news is that my Media Kit for Risky Issues is pretty much finished.

I Am Seeking Beta Readers

What I’m going to do, in honour of November being National Novel Writing Month (#NaNoWriMo), is go into hiding, to work. That means I’m not going to be too active on social media, I’m going to be commenting less on others’ blogs, and I’m going to try to focus on finishing my book.

I’m going to be looking for a few beta readers for Letters to Julian, too.

If you want to be one, please let me know.

I’m not sure when it’ll be finished, or how long it’ll be. What it will be is a collection of letters I’ve written to my son over the years. I’m a single mom, and I’m not perfect. I’ve been a crappy mother to him on many occasions, and I carry a lot of guilt about that. Of course, there have been a lot of good times, too, and these days my son assures me he’s over the bad parts. I’ll give you more information as I progress with this project.

For now, I’m going to post some “fun” posts while I’m “gone” but will begin with an installment of the FITS series, next Tuesday. I am committed to continuing to serve my faithful readers, even though interactions online may be somewhat limited.

Knowing me, I’ll end up getting so into things that I’ll probably be active regardless, but if I’m not, I want you to know beforehand WHY I’m not around.

So there you have it. I’m going into hiding… to work.

I’m expanding my services, too!

Because I don’t think I do enough (yeah, that’s sarcasm!), I am also going to be expanding the services I offer. I’m going to be offering consulting services for struggling and/or newbie bloggers, as well as different purchase packages for blog posts. (I’m sure Greg will like that!)

I’m also going to be blogging more about my life on my other site, Lorraine Reguly: Laying It Out There, where True Tales Tuesdays and Featured Fridays are moving to (they used to be found on this site, and some are still found in the archives here), so if you like those kinds of posts, please follow that blog instead of this one — or in addition to this one! 😉

I also wanted to wish my American friends a Happy Thanksgiving (Canadians celebrated theirs earlier this month) and a Happy Halloween, to everyone. I am not too sure of what I should be saying to my readers from other parts of the world, as I don’t know a lot about your cultures, but you can educated me in the comments section, if you want.

I’m still going to be giving away some free editing to one lucky winner, so please don’t forget about the opportunity to win free editing!

I also wanted to mention that I need a hug. I do. I could probably use something else, too… but I had better not say what THAT is… LOL

I’ll leave it to your imaginations. 😉

See you on a limited basis in Novemeber, over here, but hopefully more on my other site, Laying It Out There.

Don’t forget to let me know (either in the comments or privately through my Contact page form) if you want to be a beta reader for Letters to Julian. Thanks!

October 22, 2014

Do You Know a Solution to this Gravatar Commenting Problem?

I thought I had found a glitch in the Anti-Spam plugin in my attempts to eliminate spam forever, but after investigating this problem further, I am finding that I don’t have a solution at all, and now I’m not sure where the problem is originating from.

So I need your help. I am not very technical, and so I don’t currently have the answer. Can you help me find a solution?

UPDATE: The solution was found.

Here’s the problem:

Whenever someone who does not have a gravatar leaves a comment on my blog, the image that is being used in place of the “Mystery Man” is that of Max Ivey, the wonderful guy who blogs at The Blind Blogger. (Max is going to freak out when he hears this, especially since he’s been so busy with creating his first ebook, which he has asked me to edit, by the way.)

So now I have a handful of comments left by various people that are showing the commenter as being Max. Here is one that Brian K. Morris left that shows Max’s picture with Brian’s name:

I thought this was resulting from the use of the Anti-Spam plugin, but now I’m not sure.

I even tried asking about this problem – this glitch – in a support forum (link to the developer), but have yet to receive a response.

I don’t know how to remove Max’s image from these comments! I want to keep the comments, so removing the whole comment is not a viable option.

I don’t know what to do, and I’m ticked off. I love the Anti-Spam plugin and am not even sure if it is this plugin that’s causing this problem to happen.

I also find it kind of ironic that, of all people to choose, it chose Max. Is it discriminating against Max because he can’t see what this plugin is doing? Why in the world would it do this to begin with? And how can I fix this?

UPDATE: The solution was found. I also was told to deactivate the NIX Gravatar Cache plugin I had installed and activated, so that I don’t have this problem again.

October 14, 2014

Help Me Determine if We Can Eliminate Spam Forever!

Are you sick of spam? I know I am, and want to eliminate it once and for all.

Akismet just isn’t cutting it, so I’ve switched to Anti-Spam. It might have to do with the current commenting system I’m using (as Connor Rickett points out in the last half of his video), but I’m just not sure.

Anyways, these are both FREE WordPress plugins, but one seems to be better than the other!

So far, Anti-Spam is doing the trick, and there is NO spam in my spam folder, but I’m not sure how it is going to affect people who want to comment on my posts, so I need your help!

My Commenting Plugin Experiment

I experimented with this in the past, but for only a few days. I wasn’t sure if I lost commenters. I know that Akismet sometimes classified a couple of my commenters as spam (a couple of times Adrienne Smith was considered spam, and I know for a fact that she is a real person), but, I’m tired of hunting for such commenters in my spam folder. Wading through spam comments is a time-waster, and my time is better spent elsewhere. I’m willing to bet yours is, too.

A New Commenting Problem

The problem that I’m facing now is wondering whether or not my commenters are going to make it through the filtering process. I’m afraid I’m going to lose commenters. I actually activated this plugin about 10 days ago, and so far have had no problems (that I know of) with peoples’ abilities to comment on my last post… so this post might be a waste of time on my part… but I don’t think it is.

At the very least, it will teach you about the Anti-Spam plugin!