Dec
23rd

Cloud Computing – What Is It

Posted in: Tech Tips, Technical Writing, writing - by Susan

by Susan Hilliard, Webmaster & Writer

Cloud computing very simply said is a way of delivering IT Services without the rigid boundaries of a normal IT infrastructure.

How is it done?

  • Through Cloud Storage

Cloud infrastructures can easily scale up the number of virtual instances, because they are all independent.

Cloud storage is basically an online storage area. Dropbox.com is an example of a cloud app at work, also Google apps such as docs, calendars, etc… that’s the cloud or SAAS (Software As A Service, (ie) off the desktop and accessible anywhere through the Internet).

Some other examples of cloud storage setups are Apples iCloud, Microsoft Private Cloud, Cloud Vextex, IBM Cloud Computing, HP Cloud, Rackspace Cloud computing, Symantec Cloud, Box.net or Amazon S3 (Amazon Simple Storage Service) . A lot of cloud storage setups use the Amazon cloud storage infrastructure as their backbone. It provides fully redundant data storage infrastructure that can be accessed at anytime from any location using their Internet connections. You can store and retrieve data from the cloud.

Once an Internet protocol connection is established among several computers, it is possible to share services with anyone in the cloud.

A typical IT infrastructure keeps all the servers, apps, and data storage backups in their local data center. When a company uses cloud computing all of their data and apps are stored within the cloud thus allowing more flexibility and allowing them to access their documents and apps from any location through the Internet. Multiple individuals can share and work on apps, documents together within the cloud.

Dec
11th

A Review of Masterwriter Software ~ Quite Nicely Done Software

Posted in: Authors, Copywriting, E-books, Poetry, Songwriters, Writer's Software - by Susan

by Susan Hilliard, webmaster and writer

 

Features listed by manufacturer:

  • A Rhyming Dictionary with over 100,000 entries
  • A Pop-Culture Dictionary with over 11,000 icons of American and World Culture
  • A Dictionary containing over 35,000 Phrases, Idioms, Cliches, Sayings and Word Combinations. Not just the old familiar ones but a vast array of that which is new and contemporary
  • A State-of-the-art database that allows you to keep track of all the Lyrics, Melodies and Information related to the songs you’ve written or are writing
  • Mac OS and Windows compatible

Anyone who is involved in writing such as;  authors, journalists, editors, songwriters, bloggers and and even students would benefit from having such an easy-to-use set of searchable dictionaries.  The will keep the creative juices flowing with inspiration is lacking or you find you have writer’s block.

I would suggest if you looking for a writing software tool, that you watch the demo here.

Download a fully-functional 10-DAY trial of MasterWriter free with no obligation.

I highly recommend MasterWriter to anyone that writes.

 

Dec
10th

Publishing – Can Anyone Do It?

Posted in: Authors, Books, Publishing, writing - by Susan

By Susan Hilliard,  Webmaster and Writer

Old Time Publishing, which by the way wasn’t that long ago included the following;

A writer submitting his/her manuscript to agents and publishing houses, and for the majority their work was rejected, possibly never read and the person (writer) wasn’t taken seriously.  Some publishing houses would not allow you to submit a manuscript unless you had an agent, and most agents would not take on new unknown writers.

You, as the writer, were caught in the endless circle of who, what, and where.  It was frustrating to say the less and caused many a good writer to just quit their passion and look for a real job.  How many brilliant writers did we lose because of that process?

Thus enters the present day of social media, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, E-books, and Self-Publishing your own book through companies like; Lulu, Amazon, Trafford, 48hrbooks, InstantPublisher, Diggypod, Createspace, Souskirspress, MoririsPublishing, WriteandPublishyourBook, CafePress, and the list goes on and on….

The truth is, if you go with a small self-publishing firm you retain all the publishing rights.  You pay to have the book published but in turn receive all the profit from sales of your book.  By keeping or obtaining your publishing rights for your book, this is where the true money is made.  Remember I said that and don’t just sign away your publishing rights to your book, your music, your poetry, or anything else you do.

How do I know this? My ex-husband of many years ago wrote a technical book and received 2% of the publishing proceeds from the book.  The publishing company on the other hand received 98% of the profit.  Yes, they incurred the cost of publishing the book and distribution of the book, but then the rest was all profit for the publishing house.

The power of social media has helped to push our words forward to others, through Twitter and other such social medias.  In this new day and age, anyone with a blog or the power to type, can become a writer of words.  If you have a message to be shared or should I say a message you want to write, blog it, and post a link to it  Twitter or Facebook and thousands will read your message, whether good or bad.

Article writing also used to be for only the studied journalism majors, who wrote for the nightly news, magazine, local newspapers and now anyone can write their own articles and stories in their blogs, such as my blog.

If you’ve written a book and you’ve been afraid to submit it to a publishing house for fear of those dreaded rejection letters, self-publish it if you believe your book has a positive message to share.  You never know, someone else might even think it is great and it will spread like wildfire through the world through this new platform of social media.  Start small with an e-book and when you write your full-length book don’t forget to offer it in Kindle form as well.

The most important thing in the life of your writing is NEVER give up.  There is nothing but fear itself keeping you from writing or completing your book.  I was told one time by an excellent writer, the best way to learn how to write, is to read, read, read…. pick up every book and just read.  It helps you to learn the style and flow a book should take and thus helps you evolve to an even better writer.

Keep writing and stay positive and know that your work is worthwhile and great. You are a great writer.  Don’t wait for an agent or publisher to tell you this, self-publish and let the readers tell you.  Readers are your best and true audience.  Think about releasing a chapter as an e-book for others to read and critique for you.

And most importantly, keep reading and keep writing……

Nov
11th

Does My Practice Need WordPress?

Posted in: Social Media, Tech Tips, Technical Writing - by Susan

 Article Posted in the Family Law Section Monthly Newsletter  
October – November  2011  Edition
by Susan Hilliard, Webmaster & Writer

WordPress (WP) can be used as a lightweight CMS – content management system. It would only need some well thought out website architecture design. The majority of WP users though use it as blog software.

WP is increasing in popularity for other things besides just blogs. Publishers are using WP software to design websites for; news, magazine, law, sports, social networks, corporate, construction, medical, schools, boating, churches, personal and much more.

The question is why??   

Main Reasons For Using WordPress:

1)      Free open source software
2)      Easiest and most friendly platforms
3)      NO HTML knowledge is required
4)      Easily customizable templates
5)      Easy to integrate social media
6)      Easy to plug-in SEO into the site
7)      Widget plug-in to translate into other languages
8)      Easy to add new content without a webmaster
9)      Easy to use administrative dashboard
10)  Cross-Blog communication tools (trackback and pinkback)
11)  Allows for multiple authors

WordPress includes a key feature which means maximum exposure for your website in search engines and that is Ping-O-Matic. Here’s how it works. At the point when a post is written and published the ping starts. Ping-O-Matic will ping all the search engines to let them know you have new content. The search engines in turn will come to the website to index the pages.

The next day you will see your RSS feed in Yahoo and Google. Ping-O-Matic is one of the best SEO tools to send traffic to your website.    

Still not convinced? Here is a list of a few of the “Big Guys” who publish on WordPress.com?  They are using WordPress, why not your firm? TechCrunch, TED, CNN, National Football League, Forbes, New York Times, Reuters, GM, UPS, EBay, Sony, and VW.

As a side note, here are some impressive stats from WordPress.org:

  • 64,169,976 WP Blogs in 2011 on Internet 
  • 310 Million People View WP Blogs Monthly 
  • 2.5 Billion Pages Viewed Monthly
  • 500,000 New Posts Daily
  • 400,000 Comments Daily
  • 100,000 WP Blogs Created Daily

Grab this Beginners Guide to Blogging and Content Strategy PDF

If you have questions for Susan you can email her.

Sep
25th

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-09-25

Posted in: writing - by Susan

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Sep
25th

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-09-25

Posted in: writing - by Susan

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Sep
22nd

Tech Tips: How Secure Are Your Client’s Files At Your Office?

Posted in: Tech Tips, Technical Writing, writing, Wrting Tips - by Susan
Article Posted in the Family Law Section Monthly Newsletter – September 2011 

by Susan Hilliard, Webmaster & Writer
 

At the moment your client hires your practice, they are putting their trust and confidential information into your protection.  The client’s private, sensitive files on your network need to be kept secured against intruders.   By far, one of the most essential components of your business practice today is your network infrastructure. It is equally important to have a secure backup system in place in case of unforeseen issues such as; hard drive failures, network file failures, viruses, and other problems.

Will Smith, an IT Network Engineer/Specialist with the IT Group, has agreed to an interview for this addition of the Family Law Section’s newsletter.  He will help identify improvements to your network and backup system for your office/practice.  If you have any further questions for Will, you can email him or phone him at 239-289-9140.

Susan: Do you specialize in support of networks for small and medium sized businesses in Southwest Florida and how long have you been in this business?

Will: Yes for eleven years.

Susan: Is it true that websites can host malicious code, which can infect computers and thus harm the network they are connected to? If so, what would you suggest to protect computers and networks against attacks?

Will: Yes, that’s true. The best protection is to keep your virus, spyware and malware software up-to-date along with routine updates and scheduled scans.

Read the rest of this entry »
Sep
18th

How to Write Non-Fiction For Today’s Children

Posted in: Books, Childrens Books, Writer's Notes, writing, Writing Thoughts, Wrting Tips - by Susan

Research is the key word when thinking of writing non-fiction for children.  It’s very important to your subject because children are smart enough to know when you are fudging the truth.  Make sure you have all your facts in place when ready to start writing.

Check facts with experts; for example if your subject is on Abraham Lincoln, you might consider talking with or visiting the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum.  The experts there could help you with the history on President Lincoln along with historical documents located there.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sep
14th

The Ultimate Guide To Writing Your Very Own E-Book In 5 Days Or Less

Posted in: E-books, writing, Wrting Tips - by Susan

This one’s gonna be short and sweet! If you’ve been trying to get an online business started, but just haven’t had any success yet, have you asked yourself why?

Have you looked around, done research on the people who ARE being successful in their online businesses? If you haven’t, you SHOULD!

Take a look at people like Allen Says, Paul Myers, Anthony Blake, Willie Crawford, Bryan Kumar, Cory Rudl, John Reese, and others and see if you can find the ONE thing they all have in common.

Let’s not waste a bunch of time on that…I’ll just tell you! They all have their own products. Sure, a lot of them are making some pretty good money telling their subscribers about other people’s products now and then, but the heart of their business was originally, and still is, built around their own products.

Does that tell you something?

Sure, there are plenty of very successful affiliate marketers out there. People who KNOW how to make that business work for them… AND…they make some GREAT money! They don’t have to put in the work to actually create a product, but believe me, the great affiliate marketers have to put in a LOT of work in order to make that great living!

Read the rest of this entry »

Sep
14th

Eudora Welty House, Jackson, Mississippi

Posted in: Women in History - by Susan

Eudora Welty House, Jackson, Mississippi

Information courtesy of National Park Service

Eudora Welty was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Welty lived in this house from 1925 until her death in 2001, and wrote all of her major works here, including the short stories that initially brought her critical acclaim and such award-winning novels as Delta Wedding, The Optimist’s Daughter and Losing Battles. The property includes a Tudor Revival-style house constructed by her father in 1925, a garage and the surrounding grounds and garden. The garden was created by Eudora’s mother, Chestina Welty, an avid amateur horticulturist who passed her love for flowers and ornamental plants onto her daughter.

Born in Jackson in 1909, Welty was influenced as a child by her parents’ love for books and learning. After graduating from Jackson’s Central High School in 1925, she spent two years at Mississippi State College for Women, in Columbus and the continued her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, from which she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1929. Welty was encourage by her father to pursue a career in advertising, and she began graduate studies in 1930 at the Columbia University School of Business in New York City, but quickly lost interest. She returned to Jackson the following year, and worked for a radio station and wrote society stories for the Memphis Commercial Appeal. In 1936 she became a Junior Publicity Agent for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a job that stimulated her interest in writing fiction as she traveled around Mississippi, writing newspaper articles, conducting interviews and taking photographs. Inspired by her firsthand exposure to everyday life in the Depression-era South, Welty turned her energies to writing fiction. In 1936 she published her first short story, “Death of a Traveling Salesman,” in the literary magazine Manuscript. The next five years marked the formative period in Welty’s development as a writer. Six of her stories were accepted by the Southern Review between 1937 and 1939, and her first book, a collection of stories entitled A Curtain of Green , was published in 1941 with critical acclaim. The stories in the book demonstrated Welty’s talent for earnest expressions of emotion, subtle recreations of regional speech and thought patterns, tragic portraits of blighted lives and droll descriptions of eccentric behavior. With the success enjoyed by A Curtain of Green, Welty began a decade-long period of extraordinary productivity that established her as a major figure in American literature.

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