Online Article Writing for Self-Promotion

I have been doing this online article writing thing for a number of years now. I make much more money doing it now than when I first started out. But I originally only did it for the purpose of online self-promotion. As a musician, web developer and entrepreneur, I would primarily use the articles to promote my music, my businesses and my websites. Since then, though, I have also begun to do 3D art and animation and have written several e-books. So I have even more to promote online now, through my articles.

My articles would always contain links to whatever it was I wanted to promote at the time. When I first started out, I had read many online articles and blogs about the very subject I am talking about here. In one that I read, it was stated that it can be helpful to you and your business if you were to establish yourself as some sort of expert in your field. Writing articles helps to create that impression. It also doesn't hurt if you have a few e-books or books in print under your belt.

Often, people will get a sense as to whether or not you know what you are talking about from reading your articles. Also, if the article is vague and contains little useful information and then hits you up to buy something, you generally know it is pretty much just some sort of scheme to relieve you of some of your excess money.

What I prefer to do is to try to provide useful information and then post something about my credentials at the end of the article. Usually those credentials have to do with an accomplishment of some sort. This may help lend credibility to you in the area of establishing yourself as some sort of expert. So allow me to give you some examples of the things I may mention in my articles to help create that impression.

As a web developer, I write about website content, website promotion and internet marketing. So I will mention things like I have a number of websites that I have created and I have over 4,000 pages on the Internet. That establishes me as someone who may know something about productivity as it would relate to a website. So I may do an article on how to maximize your productivity as a web developer. After all, 4,000 pages is a lot of pages, right?

As a musician, I may mention how I compose my own music, play a number of different instruments, have done recording using various music programs and I can read and write musical notation. I have also done live performance. I have made my CD available for sale on Amazon and my music available for sale online as MP3 downloads. I could write articles about any one of those things.

As a writer, I have written several e-books and written for a number of websites. I could give advice to others who wish to do the same. The same could be said regarding my 3D artwork and animation.

Okay, now allow me to clear things up. What I just wrote was not for the purpose of bragging. It was to illustrate a point. The point I am attempting to make is: whenever you want to use your articles to promote yourself, your business or your products, try to establish yourself as an expert and try to give some credibility to that assertion by stating your accomplishments that are related to the subject matter of the article.

The next thing to concern yourself with is your writing skills. If you yourself are not a skilled writer but know someone who is, see if that person will work with you. You basically write the article and have the other person edit it. Give the other person partial writing credits for all of the work you do together. If you are a skilled writer then you need not worry so much. The thing is that many will disregard what you have to say when they see numerous grammatical errors or try to read incoherent gibberish. That could hurt you more than help.

I hope I didn't bore you too much by speaking about myself at length. But if you are a skilled writer who has something to promote online, try out what I have suggested. Now, to further illustrate my point, at the end of this article I will include a snippet that I sometimes use at the end of some of my articles. That's the section where I usually promote myself. This is a little longer than usual but I want to fully illustrate the point. So here it goes:

Bob Craypoe, is a musician, web developer, writer, 3D artist and animator. Bob's most popular website is the Doctor Psychotic Humor Site, which contains over 3,000 pages. Bob's instrumental CD, To Infinity, is available on Amazon.com. Bob has also authored various e-books and his most recent release is called What Not To Do As A Musician, which is available for the kindle. Bob also has an Online Gallery of his 3D artwork where art prints of his work may be purchased. You can find out more about Bob by going to his website, Craypoe.net.

Now, what are your accomplishments and what do you want to promote? That should be included in the snippet at the end of your articles.

Photo Credit: Image create by Bob Craypoe, also known as R. L. Crepeau

Introduction to Animation in Daz Studio

I just completed work on a music video for one of my songs. The song is called "Intensity in F Minor" and it's off of my CD called To Infinity. 

I did the animation in Daz Studio. Daz Studio is better known for being used to create still shots. It is a program that is very similar to Poser (from SmithMicro). I have both Poser and Daz Studio. I tried out Daz Studio first and became so accustomed to the interface that I haven't really done much in Poser. Poser has some good features but the interface is so different from what I became accustomed to in Daz. I keep telling myself that eventually I will get around to learning Poser but have not done so yet. Each program has its own benefits, so it's probably not a bad idea to learn them both.

Another program I often use is iClone from Reallusion. I use that primarily for animation. iClone is probably the most user friendly of the three but the render quality is not as good as the other two. Daz Studio has more content available than iClone as well.

Like I stated above, Daz Studio is most often used for still shots like the image I have included with this post. I have done over 60 images so far that I have made available for sale as prints. The video I just completed is really only one of two videos that I have done at this point that utilized animations created in Daz Studio.

Daz Studio uses what are called aniblocks. They are preformatted animation blocks that can be applied to characters. They are basically a form of "mocap" (motion capture) files. These files can be purchased through the Daz content store. However, they aren't exactly cheap if you want to compile a lot of them. So you should wait until they are on sale in order to save money. I just bought a load of them dirt cheap with some recent specials and sales. I saved a boatload of money.

The aniblocks are really optimized to work with certain characters; primarily the 4th generation, genesis and Genesis 2 character bases. The goblins featured in this video aren't in any of those categories so animating them is a bit harder because certain corrections have to be made. there is a timeline feature that allows you to modify the aniblocks. I had to use it in order to fix certain things.

One problem that needed to be corrected is how the hands looked o the goblins. I had to modify the positions of the fingers because they were all bent backwards and crooked looking. So I made the corrections in order to make them look more natural.

There are some collections of aniblocks that you can purchase that will serve as great templates. There is one called the aniMate Walk Construction Kit for M4 (Michael 4). It serves as a great tool for developing basic walk cycles for characters.

One problem you may have is if a character is not shaped like some of the standard base characters like Michael 4. Maybe your character is a little on the heavy side. Well, a larger character may need to have his arms swing wider when he walks. Because sometimes, his hands or arms will pass through his legs as he walks. You will then need to make modifications in the timeline in order to correct that problem.

Animate 2 is the current version of the Animate software that is used as a plug-in in Daz Studio for animation. Daz Studio comes with Animate Lite (scaled down version) for free. Animate 2 is well worth the purchase because you are able to do much more with it. I got it when it was on sale of course. Animate 2 as well as animate Lite each have an online User's Guide.

You can even pan or move the camera to change focus while the animation is going on. I did that for a couple of scenes in the video. You have a lot of options with the lighting as well. The lighting can be tricky at times to get right, though.

So check out the video below to see what I am talking about. I edited it in CyberLink's PowerDirector, by the way.

Photo Credit: "Drunken Goblins" by Bob Craypoe, also known as R. L. Crepeau

Avoiding Internet Money Making Scams in 5 Quick Lessons

There are a lot of get rich quick, money making scams on the Internet. And, let's face it, a lot of people would just love to actually find a way to make easy money. Unfortunately, opportunities to make easy money are indeed a very rare find.

If some things seem to be too good to be true, then guess what. they probably are too good to be true. And if they want a lot of money up front in order for you to seize this great opportunity, then you really might want to proceed with extreme caution. You see, they will make money regardless as to whether you will or not. So if you go belly up, it really doesn't matter to them. Hey, they've already made their money. So, lesson number one is: if they want money up front be extra cautious.

Many scams will tell you how easy it will be to make their "system" work. the truth is that it is often difficult to make their system work and usually requires a lot more effort than they let on. There is really no such thing as easy money. now there is absolutely nothing wrong with hard work. I work hard on a number of things. But if that hard work is really not the kind of work you really want to be spending your time on, you will probably have a difficult time motivating yourself to do it. You will then have a very hard time trying to be successful and you probably won't put in the time necessary in order to succeed at it. Lesson number two is: if you can't see yourself having the motivation to do it, you probably won't be able to motivate yourself to do it.

One big thing on the Internet is Multi-Level Marketing, or MLM. this in a big one, let me tell you. MLM is highly dependent upon you getting people to go along with what you are doing. Let's say that you by the products. Well, the guy that got you to sign up will get a percentage of what you make and the guy that got him into it will get a percentage of what he makes. The key is to get a lot of people below you to sing on. If you are not really a social person capable of motivating people to sign on, you will fail. Some of these "programs" require a fee to get started. then you get a "starter kit" which basically consists of various things like a business card, brochures, a website created from templates (that look like everybody else's who signs up) and other things. Some may even allow you to have your own domain name to. Lesson number three is: MLM requires just as much time and effort as any other thing you try to be successful at and you need to be a salesman. If you don't have a salesman's personality, you will fail.

Some people will try to sell you an e-book with all of these wonderful ways to make money on the Internet. Some actually go for utterly ridiculous prices too. Some will give you resell rights that you can get a commission on. so the only way you really end up making money, in the end, is from reselling the e-book. I'm not saying you can't make money from the information given in the e-books but it usually is not as nearly as easy as they let on. Lesson number 4: many e-books contain valuable information that can help you in business but if the business itself relies mostly upon you selling that same e-book, you just might have yourself a scam here.

Another way they can get your money is setting you up for affiliate programs and creating a website for you to sell things from your own site. First of all, you can sign up for a lot of affiliate programs on your own, you don't need someone to do that for you. as far as having your own website, you can go to sites like GoDaddy and get an account with your own domain name and use some of their site building tools to create one yourself. You can save a lot of money. Also, just because you have a website, it does not mean that people will go there. So you still have to generate a load of traffic to really make money. They don't tell you about that part. Lesson number five is: if you can do it yourself to a competent level, don't pay someone else to do it for you.

Can money truly be made on the Internet by your average Joe? Yes it can. But Joe needs to do a little research and maybe even acquire some skills an expertise in certain things in order to be able to do it. if Joe has the time and the drive, Joe will do just fine. but Joe needs to be careful too and not fall for every so-called "opportunity" that comes along.

I have written an e-book on the subject of making money on the Internet. And, no, it does not require you to resell it in order to make money. Although, if you like it, I sure would appreciate it if you recommended it to people you know. The book is available on Amazon.com and is mainly about avoiding scams. It also gets into the number, the specifics and the truth about making money on the Net. It is called: All About the Numbers: The Truth About Making Money on the Internet [Kindle Edition]  The book sells for only 99 cents, so that pretty much tells you that the book itself is not a scam. the real scams will charge up to $30 for their books. anyway, if you don't buy the book, you at least have the five tips i have provided in this article. Good luck.

Photo Credit: Image created by Bob Craypoe, also known as R. L. Crepeau 

How to be Your Own Team

Hey, let's face it, there are just so many hours in a day. Things would be so much easier if you had a team of people working with you to achieve an objective or complete a project. Then maybe you would not have to spend so much time working and you might even be able to actually have a life. But what do you do if you don't have that team of people to help you out? I guess you would just have to be your own team.

Let's take an entire package created by a group of individuals like a band, a video editor, 3D artist, web developer and writer. Now let's assume that they are not really a group of people but, in reality, one person who does all of those things. Well, that would be me. Now allow me to elaborate:

I am a musician. A number of years ago, I put out a CD called To infinity. I wrote and arranged all of the music, played all of the instruments, recorded all of the music, mixed it, did the CD cover artwork and layout and did what had to be done to make it available for sale on Amazon.com. Then I re-designed my own website and included information regarding my CD and music. Those are a lot of functions for one person, right? Needless to say, it took me a long time to do all of those things but I basically did all of the functions of what could have been done by a team of people. 

I have also done some videos for the music. In the videos, I have included some of my 3D artwork and animation. So now you can add a 3D artist and animator and a video editor to the team. You could also add writer to the list of titles if you want to include the articles I have written about my various projects for the sake of promoting them. Obviously, if I had had a team of people assisting me in the various projects, the process would not have taken nearly as long to complete. Unfortunately, I was alone to fend for myself.

I am neither bragging nor complaining. I am not bragging about my abilities to do a number of things and I am not complaining about the fact that I had to do all of those things on my own. It just happened to be my situation and if you are in the same situation, maybe my advice can help. So here is the advice:

You absolutely must be goal oriented as well as task oriented. You must know how to prioritize and stick to a project or task until it is completed. If you can't do that, you can't be your own team. 

My first task was obviously to compose the music. So I set out to compose a CD's worth of material. Then I recorded the tracks for all of the songs. After that, I mixed and mastered it all. Upon the completion of that, I designed the CD cover and did the layout for the CD. Then I did what needed to be done to make it available for sale on Amazon.

After my CD was made available on Amazon, I decided to do things to promote it. First was a re-design of my website. Then I began to write some articles that were designed to promote my work as a musician. After that, I did some music videos.

I am still putting together an occasional video for my songs. I have included one with this article as an example. When I first started to play around with 3D artwork and animation, I decided that the first thing I would do with it would be to use it for a music video featuring my music. The example I have provided here is the first video project I did with the 3D software I was learning to use. I wanted to describe in this article just how much work over an extended period of time was put into the entire package.

So, to reiterate: be task and goal oriented. Try to finish one task at a time before moving on to the next. Prioritize your various tasks and try to determine what order would be the best order in pursuing your overall set of goals. Stick to it. If you find yourself losing focus, pause and analyze where you are and where you need to go. See where you may have deviated from your course and try to set yourself back on course. Believe me, when you have a lot of tasks you are trying to do, it is very easy to lose focus.

So, I hope this advice helps and here is the video I was referring to: 

Photo Credit: "The Pirate Gang" by Bob Craypoe, also known as R. L. Crepeau

Diversifying Your Income Potential

If you are an entrepreneur or someone who desires to be an entrepreneur or self employed individual, diversifying your income potential is one thing that may make the difference between success and failure. Diversification can be great as long as you don't spread yourself too thin or get into areas where you lack competence.

Throughout the years, I have found some ways to diversify my income potential as it would relate to my own entrepreneurial ventures or self employment. I will discuss just some of them here in this article.

I would guess that my first self employment venture was music. I played out in night clubs, bars and coffee houses. I made some pretty good money and was able to score other opportunities along the way as well. I was able to diversify my income potential with that alone by increasing my song list. The longer the song list, the more places I was able to play and get more gigs in the future. Also, if you have enough material, you can tailor it to the type of crowd that regularly attends an establishment. Then if the crowd is happy, the owner is happy and they will happily have you back.

After I started doing the music thing, my next venture was an attempt at a local arts magazine. The venture failed but I took much of the content from the magazine and created a website with it. After a while, I got quite good at web development. That allowed me to do web development in exchange for additional income and opportunities. So the failure of the magazine led to something that allowed me to make money even to this day. Now there were two decent skills I had that allowed me to generate income. They were music and web development.

When I tried the magazine thing, I started to do a bit of writing. I wrote some of the articles. Actually, I wrote almost all of them because, since I was just starting out, I had a very SMALL staff. So then I started to write online. That's why you are reading this now. I have written for a few websites and have made some money doing it. I have also written some e-books that have generated income. That's three things now. Them being music, web development and writing.

I have always done some sort of drawing from the time I was a kid into my adult life. I started to do some cartoons and things on the computer. I never really had a chance to use them until I did the magazine and then the websites. Just a couple of years ago, I stumbled upon some 3D software and decided to try it out. So I started to experiment with 3D art and animation. The image included with this post is one of my creations. I have sold some art prints of my work. Not many, at the time of this writing, but some. However, I have also used my images with my articles and websites. Regardless, it is another means of generating income.

So now you get the basic point here. I have found ways to diversify my income throughout the years. You may have also noticed that some of those things were things I just stumbled across. That is the key to the whole thing, in my opinion. You have to keep your eyes open for new opportunities and your mind open to new concepts and ideas. If you do that, you never know what you might stumble into. I was LUCKY. I will freely admit that. because I know that not everyone is fortunate enough to stumble into opportunities.

As lucky as I have been, though, I do like to think that I was at least creative in finding some opportunities or at least had the ability to recognize them when they sprung up. I think that it is something that you get better at as time goes by. At least that's how I think it was for me. So keep your eyes open for new opportunities, develop your various skills, do your homework and don't be afraid to try something new. That's how you will be able to diversify your income potential.

Photo Credit: "The Vision" by Bob Craypoe, also known as R. L. Crepeau

Sometimes the Barter System Works for Business and Sometimes it Doesn't

I have done a number of business and entrepreneurial related ventures in my life. Some things were very successful, some were miserable failures and there were some that were somewhere between the two extremes. Often, when dealing with people I wanted to do business with, I used the barter system. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't.

As an example, I am a web developer and I have offered my services as a web developer in exchange for certain things. One thing I did was design a website and maintain it for a local bar that I was playing in as a musician. I did monthly updates in exchange for a paid gig every month. So even though the work I did as a web developer was done for free, I still made money from playing out. I did a lot of gigs in that establishment. In that particular case, the barter system worked out very well for me and i made pretty good money.

Being a musician, I also met a lot of other musicians and bands along the way. So I would offer my web development services to them in exchange for other things. One thing was to get a chance to play at one of their gigs at a time when the owner or the person who did the bookings was there. That way I cold use it as an opportunity to do somewhat of an audition to try to get gigs in those establishments. Well, that panned out rather well for me. I was able to get a lot of gigs that way. Eventually, I ended up playing out regularly and making some pretty good money along the way, even though I initially did things for free like developing and maintaining websites.

However, sometimes there comes a point where you may continue to do your part but the other party stops doing his and it starts to become a one-sided relationship, where you do all of the giving and the other person does all of the taking. That's when the bartering relationship no longer works. You could have a lot of situations that work out in the beginning and after a while start to go sour. The main thing is that you either get the other party to start giving in return or terminate the bartering relationship.

Some bartering relationships will turn out bad right from the beginning. There is no point in sticking around if that is the case. The main thing is that the other party needs to follow through on his or her obligations and promises. if that does not happen, you need to terminate the bartering relationship. If you keep on getting into one bad bartering relationship after another, you will end up doing a lot of work for nothing. You will be the hardest working individual that ever ended up in the poorhouse.

When you have a lot of good bartering relationships, life can be good and your efforts can be quite rewarding. If you have a lot of bad bartering relationships, life can be hard. You will find yourself working very hard while achieving very little. I don't think that's where you want to be.

I have learned, after having done this whole bartering thing, that there are times when you are much better off just doing things for money. If someone I worked with in the past that I had a bad bartering relationship with approached me and asked me to do something for them, I would tell them that I would only do it for a fee. I will not set myself up to be taken advantage of once again by the same person. It's not just bad business, it's extremely bad business. Believe me, once one person takes advantage of you in a business sense, others will come along and try the same thing. At that point, you might as well have the word sucker printed on your forehead.

So, in conclusion, I say that there is nothing wrong with the bartering system if the situation is mutually beneficial. If not, it's a bad deal not worth making. I've been there and I know from my own experiences. Hopefully you can take some of the advice I have just provided and save yourself a few headaches along the way.

Photo Credit: "The Traders" by Bob Craypoe, also known as R. L. Crepeau

Tips for the Newbie Online Writer

So you want to be an online writer, hey? That's great! I have been doing it myself for a while now, so I could probably help you out a little bit with some words of advice regarding the subject.

First of all, you may have some doubts about your writing abilities. That's fine, it just means that you would have a preference towards being good at what you do. There are plenty of people out there that aren't willing to make the effort of bettering themselves as a writer. So my one tip regarding that is that the best way to improve as a writer is to just write. If you keep on writing, you will get better as a writer. This I know from my very own experience. 

Also, to improve as a writer, you might want to get a few books on grammar and things of that sort. The use of spell check would also be advisable. Oh, and if you aren't sure about how to use a certain word, either look it up or use a substitute word.

Another thing I would recommend is writing for more than one site. This will not only expose you to a variety of audiences but you can test things out like which sites will get you the most views or earn you the most money. It is best to try not to put all of your eggs in one basket too. You might even want to try to write about a variety of subjects to see which ones will generate more views. Some subjects will do better than others. If you have the ability to write about a number of different subjects, you should definitely try them all out to see how well each subject will do.

Each writing website will have its own rules regarding certain things like article length or subject matter. They each also have their own terms of service. Always make sure you read them and understand them. Some sites will terminate your account if you violate the terms of service and may do it without giving any warning. Then all of your posts will be gone in an instant.

Always try to make sure you keep copies of your work somewhere. Some writing sites will go out of business and if you don't have your articles backed up somewhere, all of your work will be gone. If a site shuts down, you can just take your backed up copies of your old articles and post them on a new site. You may even want to post them on another site if the earnings or article views aren't what you hope to generate.

One thing you might want to give additional thought to is the idea of writing articles on various subjects that you could eventually compile into a book or e-book. Then you would have a goal to shoot for and that sometimes provides extra motivation as well as an extra source of income.

Images can also be of great help in getting more views for your articles. Sometimes it will be the image that will catch a person's attention and then the person's curiosity may be piqued as a result, leading to them wanting to read the article. if you are a photographer or artist, include that with your articles. It could help.

Catchy titles or titles with questions in them will help to pull in more readers as well. Sometimes people will be more inclined to comment on the article simply because there is a question in the title. Take my word for it, it really does work.

If you intend to get into writing about controversial subjects, be prepared for a lot of criticism and also be prepared for some mean-spirited comments regarding your work. This is especially true regarding politics or religion. If you are not ready for that, you may want to write about other things instead. People can be especially cruel on the Internet, where they don't have to insult you face to face.

Once you are feeling confident about your writing, use social media to promote your work. Post your articles on your Facebook page or send it out in a tweet on Twitter. you may also want to try to build up your friends count or followers in order to have more people to market your articles too.

Don't allow yourself to get too discouraged if your online writing career does not take off as quickly as you would like. It can take some time to build an audience. Another thing too is that you can re-post old articles in the future once your audience has built up a bit because many of them will not have read your earlier work. You can sometimes get a lot of mileage out of old articles. You can also make more money from the old posts. I have taken old posts, re-posted them and actually made more money from them the second time around.

So here are a few tips for you anyway. Give them some thought and give it a try. You might surprise yourself in how well you do. Good luck.

Photo Credit: "The Dictator" by Bob Craypoe, also known as R. L. Crepeau

Hard Work Pays Off, Even if You Don't Get Paid Right Away

I have done a number of different things where I have put in a significant amount of effort throughout the years. Much of that work was done without me receiving immediate rewards. What I mean by that is that quite often I would do things without receiving any immediate monetary compensation.

You see, the way most people see things is that it is not worth it to put a lot of effort into things unless you receive those immediate rewards such as monetary compensation and other things. However, if you read the biographies of self-made millionaires who basically started with little or nothing, you will find that they had a different mindset.

As a musician, I wanted to be able to play out and make some extra money. So I had to make sure that I had enough material to be able to do that. So I set out to learn a lot of songs. I obviously was not getting paid to learn and practice those songs but I had to put in the effort in advance in order to position myself to be able to play out for extra money. So I developed a lengthy song list and eventually went out and made some pretty good money playing out as a musician throughout the years.

I am also a web developer. I put in a lot of time developing content, creating and uploading web pages for my various websites. I now have over 4,000 pages on the Internet. For years, I did not make much money from my websites but after a while, I was able to generate some income from it. When I was doing the sites and not making money from it, some people would look at me like I was crazy when I told them that I was doing all of that work and not making money. They would think "What the hell is the point of that?" Well, the point was to eventually make money from my websites, which actually happened.

As an internet writer, I was not making any money at it at first. I started out writing articles for my own websites and my websites were not really getting a lot of traffic in the beginning. So I was really only receiving a very limited amount of article views. That obviously meant I was not making a lot of money from my writing. But now I make a decent amount of extra income from writing on the Internet. I do it on a few different sites as well as doing my own blog like the one you are reading now.

I make extra income from writing on the other sites but I don't make much from doing my own blog. I am doing my own blog in the hopes that I will build a following and in the hopes that, over time, my blogs will show up in searches and I end up getting a lot of free search engine traffic.

I also started getting into 3D art and animation. I would create one image after another and now I have and online gallery of my work with made available for sale as art prints. I also use much of my work to accompany my online articles. So I use those images to help draw attention to my writing, which I make some money from. So even if I didn't sell a single art print, I would still be able to use them on my websites and articles and make money from them. It took a while to build up my gallery and I was not making money from it while doing it. My online gallery can be found at: http://robert-crepeau.artistwebsites.com/

Doing all of the different things that I do is a way of diversifying my income generating potential. However, most often, if you want to diversify your activities, you will have to learn new things. Learning new things takes a bit of effort and you have to put in the time. That will usually mean that you will have to put that time and effort into something that you are not earning money from right away. The money usually comes a little further down the road.

If you are interested in seeing one of my websites that I am referring to, you can go to: DrPsychotic.com. If you go there, you will see a lot of pages. That site itself is over 3,000 pages. It has made me a good amount of money for me over the years.

Again, I want to reiterate that you can read the biographies of many self-made millionaires and you will find that they often put in the time and effort for things that they did not receive immediate monetary compensation or rewards for. They looked at things from a long term point of view. They looked at the big picture. Maybe you should too.