What is content marketing? Simply put, it's marketing your content....putting your content, the information you produce, out in the world for potential readers to see. You are marketing your content. This can be easier said than done. I briefly cover content marketing in my ebook, Writing for Publicaation , available here . In the ebook, I share that it's important to not only market your content, but brand yourself in your market. You are giving content to sell a brand....and that brand is you, but you're marketing your content, not yourself. Market your writing, not your personality. Use your personality as a marketing tool, but don't market it as the brand. People can get tired of you, but they will never tire of relevant, consistent information which helps them succeed. For more, be sure to read the ebook so you can be on your way to e-publishing success.  You can do this! Write often. Write well. Just write. ~Tricia

My newest ebook, The Poverty of Patriarchy , is now available on Amazon. Click here for your copy. The Poverty of Patriarchy is a brief look at the spiritual and emotional distortion of relationships through patriarchy, resulting in chaos and abuse in the lives of women. From realizing patriarchy promotes idol worship to breaking the cycle of women manipulating men, this book explores the underlying causes of these actions and offers real solutions that actually work. This book unequivocally encourages women - and men - to pursue Jesus first, in all relationships and in all facets of life, to learn to read the Bible without filters and not lean on human reasoning when it comes to Biblical interpretation. The main focus is women because abuse of women and children is rampant in churches and within para-church organizations, and patriarchy is the underlying cause of this tragedy.  The stories in this book are true and the people are real, although their names and other identi...

Today, I ran across an article depicting a photo series about waste and recycling. You can read the article and see the photos  here . The photographer was trying to make a point, but the point was lost on many people because the photography wasn't authentic. The photographer claimed he did not throw away any trash for 4 years and the containers which held his consumable products were evidence of this. Some clever readers did the math and commented on how this was staged...that even a family of five would not consume as much toilet paper as was represented here by empty rolls. They also observed that the stacks of newspapers contained still-bundled papers that a regular, household consumer would not buy. So, clearly, this was not simply 4 years of consumption for one person; this photo series was staged. The photographer did not give a disclaimer, however, and say the photos were staged with much more than was actually used. Some also noticed and commented that the game be...

In my e-book, Writing for Publication , I list my top five editing tips. If you have not read the book and you want to earn money writing, read the book today. It's available on Amazon, here , and on Fiverr, here . Editing is vital to writing success, but I do understand that not everyone can afford to hire an editor; some have to edit their own work. I never recommend this, but I know finances require it at times. Here are my top five editing tips: Get rid of "that" whenever you can Use both "very" and "really" in a very limited way. Really. Be careful of repetition. Don't repeat yourself repeatedly. Keep your tense consistent.  Don't start a sentence or paragraph in past tense,  then time travel to the present tense by the end. Do not write the same way you talk. These tips will help you a great deal. Memorize them and learn to mentally use them as you write or as you review your writing. I tend to e...

I used to think, as a freelancer, that I could not "afford" to turn jobs down, so I took everything that came my way. Lately, though, I've learned it's better to sometimes say a resounding, "No" to potential jobs. Fiverr has taught me this recently. I have turned down a good number of jobs on Fiverr and have no regrets. I wanted to show you a glimpse of the jobs I've turned down and tell you why I turned them down. I turned down a gig worth $120.00 because the client wanted me to edit a 12,000 word document in two days, over the weekend. Nope. I've had to nearly always put myself on "vacation" mode for weekends in order to spend time with my family. I was not going to compromise an entire weekend for one job, even if it did pay well. I turned down a job that paid $130.00 because the client was sarcastic, rude and didn't follow the rules laid out in the gig. They wanted exceptions at every turn. I'm very specific about...

I just finished reading Upstairs at the White House My Life with the First Ladies by J.B. West and I loved it! For snippets of history you won't get anywhere else, this book is a must-read. Find out what every day life is like for our presidents and their families. From Eleanor Roosevelt sending her staff home early on Sundays to spend time with their families and doing their work herself, to Jackie Kennedy's refusal to comb her hair, letting it all over her face when she was home, you will learn many intricate details of our first families' lives. J.B.West spent nearly 3 decades serving our first families, ultimately becoming Head Usher, which meant he literally ran the White House, had access to the president's most intimate living spaces and got to plan renovations, decorating, parties and even weddings with the first ladies. This is not a new book. I think it was first published in 1973, but it was new to me as I hadn't read it. I highly recommend this b...

I recently started a discussion about plagiarism on Fiverr's online forum. This discussion was very educational to me. The back story is simply that I've received a number of recent requests via Fiverr to rewrite existing information to make it look like another person's original work. I have declined each request because it looks like plagiarism to me. I even had to modify my gig descriptions to state that I do not work with plagiarized information, nor do I rewrite or, as some call it, "spin" articles. I started the discussion because I was shocked at the number of people requesting this and also shocked at their lack of shame at taking someone else's work and wanting to make it their own (or, rather, have me make it their own). Not one of them sent me work they said was their own; they all said it was work they'd taken off the internet and some even sent me links to the work instead of copying and pasting it into a document. Merriam-Webster de...

I recently sold an article to a new-to-me magazine, The Christian Standard. I had not written for them before, nor had I pitched to them before. This was my first pitch, my first query, and it paid off big time. Not only are they publishing this first article from me, they pay well and have invited me to write more for them. All this from one simple query. I am not an expert query letter writer. I have rarely written them over the years and never like this one - out of the blue, unsolicited. There's a back story. I have been a regular writer for one publication house for nearly 30 years and they recently recruited me to write on a specific topic. I gladly complied, signed the contract and wrote the article. However, even though they liked the article, before it could go to print, they changed their minds and decided not to print it. They said their needs had changed. The editor who had recruited me was no longer employed there. But, I really like the article and was going t...

I am a wife. I am a mom. I am a writer. I am a crafter. My favorite craft is paper crafting. My second favorite is drawing. Even that involves paper. As does my writing. When I craft, I think.  When I think, I write.  When I write, I get published.  When I get published, I earn money.  It nearly always starts with crafting for me.  As I've taught my writing students, thinking is a huge part of writing. I've spent weeks thinking about things I've written before I finally sat down and wrote them. Funny thing is, when I spend so much time thinking about writing, before I even write, when it's time to write those thoughts down, they are usually written within 20 minutes and these are the ones most purchased by a publisher. So, whenever I'm in my studio making pretty paper crafts, I'm actually working on a writing project. Write often. Write well. Just write. ~Tricia