tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20163482365476110752024-03-14T01:49:28.737-04:00Scanners Who WriteFrancesca Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16240118158098699822noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2016348236547611075.post-49136566837509921052013-06-22T18:10:00.002-04:002013-06-22T18:10:35.411-04:00What Medical and Health subjects do you want to know about?<br />
I have started writing some booklets on various health issues - mostly those which actually involve my family.<br />
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The first subject I have written about, happened because my son fell ill just this week, with an allergy reaction to a specific food additive.<br />
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I grew up having regular bad reactions to this same additive. But I had no idea what was causing them. It's only been in the last few years (since I changed countries and went online) that I have discovered that my episodes of illness were in response to this specific additive. It seems my son has inherited this same sensitivity. <br />
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I will be writing booklets about auto-immune diseases and chronic illnesses that have also been recorded in my family.<br />
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I am more than happy to write about other illnesses, chronic or otherwise, and allergies and medical problems that you wish to know more about.<br />
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I am not afraid to write about any controversial medical and health
issues as well. I already have had some experience of controversial
treatment. <br />
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You are welcome to leave a comment or a statement listing any illness or treatment you want to know more about. If you have any additional information or you have had any reaction or treatment or experience - whether good or bad - I would love to know about it. <br />
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<br />Francesca Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16240118158098699822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2016348236547611075.post-35956280901801658112013-06-15T06:00:00.000-04:002013-06-15T06:00:02.014-04:00Plain Language Guides...<br />I have always wanted to be a Technical Writer. A Technical Writer has to be able to rewrite the language of a technical manual into plain English so that everyone can understand it. <br />
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Whenever I try and teach people. I seem to have this knack for re-wording something in such a way that they understand it, so I am going to use this talent for writing my Booklets. <br />
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They shall now be called<br />
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<b>The Plain Language Guide to....</b><br />
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whichever medical issue I am writing about. <br />
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<br />Francesca Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16240118158098699822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2016348236547611075.post-20106507022397863252013-06-14T06:00:00.000-04:002013-06-14T06:12:29.685-04:00The Health and Medical Scanner. I remember reading once a long long time ago that we humans have souls and after we die, we get reincarnated and some of us get to come back to earth to live another life.<br />
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It is possible that we are being reincarnated over and over again until we learn all the lessons we have to learn. Every life we live, we have to learn something new.<br />
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I don't know if I believe in reincarnation, and I am not going to debate the issue on this blog or in this post. I was just pointing out where I read this information. <br />
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I have noticed one constant theme that is running through my entire life, and possibly may be the lesson I have to learn. Although quite what I am supposed to be learning, I don't yet know. <br />
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Anyway, the one constant theme running through the life of myself and my family (which includes my parents, siblings as well as my spouse and children) is that every few years we are slammed with a new health and medical issue. <br />
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They seem to be coming so fast, and I barely get up to speed on one issue, when the next one slams into me. <br />
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Anyway, I mention this, because I think this is going to be my niche for my Booklet business!!!<br />
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The Health and Medical fields are quite wide-ranging, but I have experience with lots of different medical issues, and I am more than willing to research and find out about others. <br />
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Since I am a scanner - interested in a wide range of subjects, I think I can call my new business - <b>The Health and Medical Scanner</b>.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lvwzlB-lMsM/UbqHIzBJVAI/AAAAAAAAB-Q/rm6DOqFbHMw/s1600/booklet_graphic_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lvwzlB-lMsM/UbqHIzBJVAI/AAAAAAAAB-Q/rm6DOqFbHMw/s320/booklet_graphic_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Also a scanner reminds me of Doctor McCoy on the TV show Star Trek. He used a lot of futuristic type technology to scan patients bodies and determine what was wrong and how to fix it. The above graphic is the BioBed readout - courtesy of Paramount Pictures. Francesca Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16240118158098699822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2016348236547611075.post-14255280365872807142013-06-13T12:19:00.000-04:002013-06-13T12:39:04.551-04:00My First Booklet<br />
I wrote my first Booklet today. <br />
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It's actually a small Tips booklet on Communication with a partially deaf or hard of hearing person - of which I am one.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9yyZq6VCp2A/Ubn1KWWNKxI/AAAAAAAAB-A/9mFi2J06Rrc/s1600/Deaf_international_symbol_wikipedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9yyZq6VCp2A/Ubn1KWWNKxI/AAAAAAAAB-A/9mFi2J06Rrc/s320/Deaf_international_symbol_wikipedia.jpg" width="312" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaf" target="_blank">This is the International Sign for the Deaf - borrowed from Wikipedia</a>. <br />
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Two years ago, I wrote a lens on Squidoo about what it was like growing up as a deaf person, and how isolated I felt. But included in that lens was a short section on the best ways for hearing people to communicate with me.<br />
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So I have expanded that short section and made a 4 page booklet. It is called 5 Tips on Comunicating with the Deaf. <br />
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Now I just need to find a place where I can store it online, so people can access it. Since it is so short, I dont think I will sell it. It can be one of my free give-aways...Francesca Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16240118158098699822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2016348236547611075.post-48317027304344307392013-06-11T14:57:00.003-04:002013-06-11T15:33:06.633-04:00Writing Booklets<br />
Just to catch you up to what has happened lately. <br />
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I am now out of Squidoo totally and completely. I sold my account to another lensmaster. It's been very nice having a break from Squidoo, and not having to write every day, but now I am itching to get back into writing.<br />
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One of the problems, I have with writing, is the thought that I have to write a long (at least 100 pages or more) book, in order to be considered a serious author. I know a little about a lot of things - but I am not confident that I know enough to write a long book. And we have constantly been told that self published books just wont sell. <br />
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But now things have changed. And just like a Scanner I have changed direction, yet again...<br />
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Today I was looking for new ways of writing and I discovered that it was perfectly OK to write and sell small Books that are called Booklets. These range in size from 15 to 50 pages.<br />
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I specifically was reading this website - <a href="http://www.bizymoms.com/ideas.html" target="_blank">Bizy Moms</a>.<br />
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Down the bottom of the page was a small box with a title that said - <br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dARWM1cekHA/Ubdwr0weQoI/AAAAAAAAB9w/4AtKQ_-ICCc/s1600/Bizy_mom_ideas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dARWM1cekHA/Ubdwr0weQoI/AAAAAAAAB9w/4AtKQ_-ICCc/s320/Bizy_mom_ideas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.bizymoms.com/writer/big-money-writing-little-booklets.html" target="_blank">Earn Big Money Writing Little Booklets</a><br />
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I clicked the link and I LOVED what I read.<br />
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I went looking for more details and have found a <a href="http://kimhillman.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Booklet writing Guru named Kim Hillman.</a> She has been writing and selling Booklets since 2007. Kim has just recently developed an email course on how to write booklets. She has also recently joined up with <a href="https://www.facebook.com/KimHillmanFans" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, but her <a href="http://kimhillman.wordpress.com/about-this-blog/" target="_blank">Easy Street Blog</a> about how to write Booklets, has been going for quite some time.<br />
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I have enrolled in Kim's Booklet writing e-mail course and am eager to start writing, booklets, and then publish them online, so I can sell them. First I have to find a place where I can sell them, but hopefully the course will tell me how to do that too.<br />
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<br />Francesca Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16240118158098699822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2016348236547611075.post-80918897006243545662013-03-01T10:30:00.001-05:002013-03-01T10:30:34.819-05:00Spun Content and Quotes - Squidoo<br />
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Yesterday Squidoo announced yet another knee jerk reaction and are now attacking any lens with what they call <a href="http://hq.squidoo.com/squid-news/spun-content-and-the-need-to-be-human/" target="_blank">Spun Content</a>. These are usually lenses that are filled with paragraphs that are stuffed full of keywords.<br />
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Right now I have a lens that is under a warning for "Duplicate Content" and all I put on it was one quote! <br />
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It really bugs me that when Squidoo talk about Spun Content - which is keyword stuffing - being wrong and against the Squidoo TOS, but they dont do anything about lenses that are stuffed full of nothing but quotes.<br />
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Quotes are spun content because the writer does not need to write anything original. They just copy and paste quotes (what other people have said) and then post that lens as a quote page. I call that spun content. Squidoo continues to ignore them.<br />
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Source - <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/funny-birthday-quotes" target="_blank">Funny Birthday Quotes for Women </a><br />
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I half do want to leave Squidoo - because they are not being consistent in their TOS - and I half dont want to leave - because it is such an excellent writing platform.<br />
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I have some idea that I need to start removing my lenses from Squidoo and start re-editing them into several E-books. Which I can then sell to make money. All my writing on Squidoo does not earn money. I know I write well - I now have 22 Purple stars which prove that. <br />
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My problem is that the cost of setting up a domain name and a host package is expensive and costly - especially when I dont have a credit card. <br />
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Oh well, now I have something to work towards - find a way to pay for a domain name and a hosting package. <br />
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Ciao for now. <br />
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<br />Francesca Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16240118158098699822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2016348236547611075.post-73018044877894763692012-12-20T11:34:00.000-05:002012-12-20T11:35:23.576-05:00Smashwords<br />
I have today signed up with <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/" target="_blank">Smashwords</a>.<br />
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This is a self publishing platform that allows someone to publish e-books, and then set the price that they wish to sell their book at. That price also has to be what the author thinks the market can accept. Prices of books range anywhere from Free to $9.99.<br />
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This is what Wikipedia has to say about <a href="http://smashwords./" target="_blank">Smashwords.</a> <br />
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I have an idea for a non-fiction book I can write - especially since there have been quite a number of changes in the last few years. <br />
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I will let you know what happens - once I have found my writing style. It will probably be chatty like my blogs. That seems to be the ONLY way I know how to write. <br />
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But for now, it's a start - finding a place where one can sell one's own e-books. Francesca Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16240118158098699822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2016348236547611075.post-1031540661928349592012-11-14T13:00:00.000-05:002012-11-17T22:42:44.154-05:00Travelling Thru LifeI found a new blog this week - written by a travel agent in Tennessee - called <a href="http://elainej.com/2010/04/10/everything-in-general/where-do-i-begin/" target="_blank">Travelling thru Life</a>.<br />
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Well it's not actually a new blog. Elaine started writing it back in 2010 after she discovered she was a Scanner - like me. She mentions the book Refuse to Choose.<br />
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Elaine also mentions a <a href="http://elainej.com/2010/06/15/everything-in-general/its-a-revalation-i-know-what-to-do/" target="_blank">Scanner Daybook</a> - which is means of writing down all the things you are interested in, and if you make a note of them, you can always come back to them later.<br />
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Kind of like Leonardo's Notebooks. And if you know me, you will know that I LOVE Leonardo's Notebooks. He is my Scanner role model. I even wrote a great <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/leonardos-notebooks" target="_blank">Squidoo lens about Leonard's notebooks. </a><br />
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Anyway, that's why I love <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/" target="_blank">Squidoo</a> so much. I can use it as my Daybook. I get to write a ton of stuff about whatever I am interested in, and when I am done with that subject, I am done. <br />
<br />Francesca Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16240118158098699822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2016348236547611075.post-82422774629382451892012-11-13T09:18:00.003-05:002012-11-13T09:27:05.211-05:00If Amanda Hocking can do it......Then so can I.<br />
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<a href="http://www.e-junkie.info/2012/01/amanda-hocking-bestselling-indie.html" target="_blank">Amanda Hocking, from Minnesota, is a best Selling Indie Writer who made Millions by Self Publishing Online</a>.<br />
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Amanda had always had the desire and the urge to write. In 2010, she had 12 unpublished novels sitting on her computer. She had sent them all to publishers and was getting rejection slip after rejection slip.<br />
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Then she read a notice about the Muppets coming to Chicago, and she decided that she really had to get there to see the Muppets. Chicago of course, being the nearest large city to her home in Minnesota. And she needed to find enough gas and hotel money to get there. <br />
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Amanda decided that it would not do any harm if she tried to publish a book online. If noone read them, well she would not be any worse off. So in April 2010, she published her first book on Amazon Kindle and was pleasantly surprised when she sold some books. She has now published 9 of her books on Kindle - it helps to have lots of writing material already available - to meet her readers demand. <br />
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Amanda has now sold over a million Kindle books online and has recently signed a contract with a (hard copy) publisher.<br />
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IF she can do it, then so can we, I mean so can I.<br />
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The only difference is that Amanda writes fiction. I don't - at least not yet....<br />
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<a href="http://worldofamandahocking.com/" target="_blank">World of Amanda Hocking</a> - official website<br />
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<a href="http://amandahocking.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">Amanda Hocking's Blog</a> - official blog<br />
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Francesca Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16240118158098699822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2016348236547611075.post-54676827523060144952012-11-11T22:37:00.001-05:002012-11-13T10:27:02.654-05:00I am a Scanner who WritesI am a Scanner.<br />
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I also want to be a writer.<br />
No wait - I am a writer. I write pages and pages of stuff.<br />
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I just don't get paid for my writing - yet. But this blog is going to document my writing and my hopes of being able to get paid for my writing.<br />
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Now, What is a Scanner you ask?<br />
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A Scanner personality is someone who knows a little about a lot of things. <br />
The opposite is a Diver who specialises in 1 or 2 specific areas.<br />
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I discovered that I was a Scanner while reading <i>I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was</i> by Barbara Sher. This book was an eye opener. It referred to the Scanner type personality.<br />
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Barbara later wrote a book about the Scanner type personality called <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/refuse-to-choose-by-barbara-sher" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: cyan;">Refuse to Choose</span></a></span>. So I got that book out of the library and sure enough I fit the classic Scanner type of personality. The most recent book by Barbara Sher I have read - is called <span style="background-color: cyan;"><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/wishcraft-by-barbara-sher" target="_blank">Wishcraft</a></span> - which is what has inspired this blog. <br />
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I finally knew why I have always had trouble settling down to just one career.<span style="background-color: magenta;"></span> In the last 30 years since I left High School, I have never been able to settle down in one job and stay happy in that job. Always, after a few years, I would get bored and I knew it was time for me to move on and find something else to do.<br />
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At the time I made this new discovery about myself, I was not working. There is a major recession on and jobs are hard to find - especially for someone with a spotty resume like I have. Anyway, I finally gave myself permission to relax about rushing out to find a job. I did find a new outlet for my writing though. That outlet is a platform called <span style="background-color: #f9cb9c;"><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/" target="_blank">Squidoo</a></span>.<br />
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On Squidoo, you can write about anything you like. You can even sell things too. Squidoo is mostly used as an Affiliate Sales platform. Each page you create is called a lens. I made 50 lenses in the first 2 months. In 2 years I have made over 200 lenses.<br />
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That is over 200 pages of writing. Most of my writing is about travel, books or history. But I do cover many other topics as well. Everyone on Squidoo gets paid a small amount of money based on the number of ad clicks. I dont get a lot of money - so far it is less than $20 per month. But then my pages are informational and not just sales product pages.<br />
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I get satisfaction and rewards from Squidoo when my pages are recognised by others as having excellent writing, and so I get a <span style="background-color: #ead1dc;"><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/all-my-purple-stars" target="_blank">Purple Star</a></span>. That is my reward for my writing. At this time of writing, I have 16 Purple Stars. <br />
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More recently Google have been tightening up their rules for which pages get indexed in their search engine, and thus we writers must also do the same. Google are now severely punishing those pages that have duplicate content. <br />
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This means that writing for a niche will become so much harder because you have to completely re-write any articles you want to re-use. I have always had trouble writing for a niche. I get bored of the topic rather fast. <br />
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Anyway, I have found some online sources for how to make money as an online writer. I am going to try them out and see what happens, and find out if I truely can make money as a writer. <br />
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Wish me luck!!!Francesca Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16240118158098699822noreply@blogger.com0