100 Fun and Useful Search Engines for Writers

That's the title of another very useful article I came across online the other day.

100 Fun and Useful Search Engines for Writers lists search engines under a number of different category headings. They include image searches, blog searches, specialty searches, medical & technical searches, foreign-language searches, and meta-search engines (which aggregate results from several search engines).

As they say in the introduction to the article, 'Our list of 100 different search tools can help you manage your business, become a better biz tech or web writer, find primary sources, look up translations, and find the more authoritative information out there with minimal effort. Bookmark your favorites to take full advantage of everything they have to offer.'

I found some useful resources in this article that I hadn't known about before. They include the fast image search tool Picsearch and a range of non-traditional search engines such as Mooter, which presents your search results in mind-map-style clusters.

I can see myself using some of the sites listed in 100 Fun and Useful Search Engines for Writers quite regularly in future.

* Don't forget that readers of this blog can also obtain the premium research tool Research Wizard Pro for half price. See this blog post for more details.

Another Musical Interval

OK, it's time to chill out a bit after my last post.

Here's a beautiful song and video from composer/producer/chill-out artist Reuben Halsey and musician/author Miranda Dickinson, otherwise known as Wurdsmyth of Mywriterscircle.com. It's called The Meaning of Life...

As ever, if you are receiving this post by email, you will need to visit my blog to see the video.

In her recent blog post Miranda says that the song is being released at www.indiestore.com on 1st December 2008, just in time for Christmas!

Trouble With Paypal

I'm normally a fan of the online payment system Paypal, but recently they've taxed my patience quite a bit.

I should say first of all that I have a Paypal Premier account, which I use to receive payments from overseas publishers and some affiliate programs. I've had my account since 2003, but recently I've had a number of problems with them.

The latest episode took place this week, when I found out that, without any authorization from me, they had tried to debit a subscription payment of 10 UK pounds from my bank account and, when this failed, taken the money from my credit card instead. This is despite the fact that there was enough cash in my Paypal account to cover the subscription many times over. I assume I will also be charged a cash withdrawal fee by my credit card company now.

It doesn't end there, either. They then proceeded to remove the link to my bank account, which was there solely so that I could withdraw money to it (I have no need to fund my Paypal account in this way). And, for good measure, they closed two ongoing subscriptions, again without any instructions from me, so I now have to set these arrangements up again, possibly at a higher price as I 'unsubscribed'.

I phoned up Paypal's customer support line - an incredibly frustrating process in itself - and eventually got through to a young woman in a call centre in (I assume) India. After about half an hour, she finally informed me that they had debited my credit card because there was not enough money in my Sterling balance to pay for the amount in question - even though I had more than enough in my US dollar balance, and they have always transferred money automatically from the dollar balance in the past when required.

By this point I was losing the will to live, so I didn't bother asking why they had also cancelled two of my subscriptions and deleted the link to my bank account. I'm normally pretty even-tempered, but I'm afraid I made a rather sharp comment about Paypal being the Bank of Mickey Mouse, and hung up. Apologies to the young woman concerned, as I don't suppose it was her fault.

I still have my Paypal account, as I can't operate as an online writer without it. I've removed the link to my credit card, however, and in future will use the account to the minimum extent possible.

Anyway, I thought I'd share this sorry tale with you. I'm not saying don't use Paypal, but I do advise employing great caution with them. This is not the first time they have made changes to my account without my authorization, and getting redress from them - or even a simple explanation - seems almost impossible.

Bookmark Me!

In these posts recently I gave you the opportunity to Search Me and Contact Me.

Well, now I've added the opportunity to bookmark my blog or any particular post on it as well. If you look at the end of this - or any - post on the blog, you should see an Addthis widget similar to the one below.
If you're a regular web user, chances are you will have seen this before on blogs and websites. Basically, if you click on it, it will allow you to save the blog post (or blog/website) concerned to social bookmarking sites such as Delicious, Furl and StumbleUpon.

These sites allow you to save your favorite websites online, so you can access them from any computer. In most cases you can also review the sites concerned and share them with others. You do, of course, have to register at social bookmarking sites before you can use them.

I hope you will find this a useful extra feature. And obviously, from a personal point of view, I hope you will use it to bookmark your favorite posts on here, as this will help bring them to the attention of a wider public and boost their search engine ratings.

One small thing I've discovered, though. If you want to bookmark a particular post, it's best if you go first to the dedicated page for it (you can do this by clicking on the title of the post concerned). Otherwise, the address entered by the widget will be the 'bare' blog URL, i.e. www.mywritingblog.com. That will help boost my blog rankings, but may not be much good to you if rather than the whole blog it's a particular article you want to save/share.

Brain Evolution System Videos

My post about the launch of the new Brain Evolution System earlier this week has generated a lot of interest. In particular, several people have asked if I can explain how the system works in a bit more detail.

I'm clearly no expert on this, but by doing a little investigation using Research Wizard Pro I found two videos in which the main developer of the system, Michael Kelley, explains the science in more detail. Here's the first one...

And here's part 2...

As ever, if you are receiving this post by email, you will need to visit my blog to see the videos.

Another website that goes into the science behind the Brain Evolution System can be viewed by clicking on the link in this paragraph.

As previously mentioned, I am evaluating the system myself and will be posting a review here soon, but already I am excited by the results I have been getting. I am a regular user of WCCL's Writer's Block CD, which helps entrain your mind to a more creative state, but the Brain Evolution System takes this process much further and deeper.

Opportunity for a UK Scriptwriter

If you're a young, aspiring scriptwriter in the UK, or you happen to know one, you might be interested in this contest - launched today - to join the writing team for the E4 youth drama series Skins. And yes, the successful writer will get paid!

My contact at E4 says:

We are looking for some of the country's finest young talent to help us with a very special project.

E4 and Company pictures are about to go into production on an online mini episode of Skins that will coincide with the launch of Series 3 on E4. The episode will be produced by the Skins crew and will feature some of the main cast - but we've got four very important roles that still need to be filled. This role is part of a bigger team - it is just 1 of 4 roles available - with everything at e4.com

In order to produce this webisode we're looking for a writer to join the team. This role will be selected and mentored by Company pictures and the person will get to play a vital role in the production of the film.

We're looking for people aged 18 to 23 who have got the drive, ambition and most of all, talent to get involved with the UK's biggest youth show. Maybe they've got similar work experience, maybe they're studying something creative at college or uni, or maybe they just have a talent that's clamouring to get out - these are the kinds of people we are looking for!

To apply, you have to submit a short (max. 1600 words) comedy-drama script. Your script should NOT use any existing Skins characters. It should contain a minimum of three characters, and use a maximum of five locations. Here's a video from a Skins scriptwriter offering some advice for anyone thinking of entering...



And here's the current TV ad...



For further information on this opportunity, click here to visit the contest website. The opportunity is also being discussed on this topic on my forum. The deadline for entries is 6 pm on 9 December 2008, so don't delay too long!

P.S. There are also competitions to recruit a director, costume designer and production designer - see the Skins website for more details.

Save Money on Your Christmas Shopping!

With Christmas (and Thanksgiving in the US and Canada), this can be an expensive time of the year - all the more so in these credit-crunched times.

So I thought I'd mention a new type of website that has become very popular recently. These are cashback shopping sites, and they give you back some of your money every time you shop through them. They may also pay you just for using a free online service or signing up for a free trial.

The way cashback shopping sites work is that they sign up as affiliates with a range of online merchants. As you may know, many merchants pay affiliates a fee for any business they drive their way. Rather than keep all these fees, cashback sites return some or all of this money to the actual buyer.

There are various cashback shopping sites, but I thought I'd draw your attention to a particularly good one Jayne (my partner) showed me recently, which I just joined myself. It's called TopCashBack, and you can visit it by clicking through any of the links in this post or on the banner at the end.

TopCashBack returns ALL of the affiliate commission it earns when you shop via the links on its website. They even top this up themselves for active users, meaning you can earn up to 110% cashback, paid to you by Paypal.

You can get rebates from lots of well-known and lesser-known online merchants, including eBay, Marks & Spencer, Comet, Argos and National Express (though not Amazon, unfortunately). I made myself an easy 6.50 UKP by signing up for a month's free trial with the credit reference service Experian and then cancelling my subscription before the month was up.

Joining TopCashBack is, of course, free. And yes, they do have a sort of affiliate program. If you introduce a friend and they then earn over 5 UKP in cashback, you get a payment of 2.50 UKP for introducing them. Obviously you won't get rich from this, but it's a nice extra bonus.

Unfortunately TopCashBack is only available in the UK, but there are similar services in other countries. If you live in the US or Canada, for example, try www.mrrebates.com.

* And don't forget, if you have a blog or a website yourself, you can sign up as an affiliate with my publishers WCCL and earn yourself a generous commission any time someone makes a purchase after visiting via your link. See this blog post for more info!