The response I received to my complaint? “You don’t have RoboForm?! Get it today!”

So here I am sitting at my desk thinking about how terrified I am of things that claim to save your passwords. What if it gets hacked? What if I forget a password and the program I’m using stops working? What if - what if - what if?

This morning, though, I found myself staring (again) at my growing list of passwords. A quick visit to Roboform revealed a little download that looked easy to use. RoboForm will save your login ID and password to any website and also has a feature that allows you to pre-fill information to complete online forms.

Even better? RoboForm was on SALE! (Actually, the website says the sale was supposed to end 11/30, but I still got the discount today).

So what happens? I downloaded RoboForm and went through the install process. When you visit a website that has a password you will type in your information as usual. When you hit the “Login” button the RoboForm “AutoSave Login” box will appear. You’ll have the opportunity to “name” the login for your list, create folders, and organize your growing lists.

Logging in after that is simple. You don’t even have to visit the login site first. Simply go up to your toolbar, click the RoboForm login link, and find the site you need on the list. You’ll automatically be redirected to the login page, which will automatically fill in and - gasp - log you into the site in question.

How on earth did I live without this tool before? I have no idea, but as my list of blogs and projects grows I’ll be ever thankful for my new best friend!

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John Chow is holding a new contest to give away $6,000 in CASH! $5,000 would go to the charity of your choice and $1,000 will go to you to spend however you want. If I win, I would give the $5K to the American Cancer Society and I would put the $1,000 into the struggling wedding fund! Wouldn’t that be a great way to start out the new year?

The contest is being sponsored by XR.com. XR.com is a tiny url service that gives web users a way to shorten their URL links when posting them on services like Twitter, Facebook, etc - anywhere where a URL that runs a mile long would be both cumbersome and difficult to look at. The service is completely free and is incredibly easy to use. All you have to do is enter the URL of the page you wish to shorten and you’ll be given a simple “redirect” URL. When the URL you post is clicked, it will direct users back to your web page without a hitch. Sign up for an account and check it out! It’s free - and you have nothing to lose!

Think you can do it? I don’t know if I can, but I’m willing to give it another go. Feel free to join me - if you dare!

Simply visit www.nanowrimo.org for information on how to sign up. I recommend searching for your regional group so that you can attend a few events. You’ll have the chance to get out of the house and write with others - you’ll still be writing, but at least you won’t feel like such a recluse.

In preparation, I’m adding my 2008 NaNoWriMo widgets to my blog this week. You’ll get to track the number of words I’ve written and hold me accountable for my actions and words (hahah!)!

Hope to see some of you in the wonderful land of NaNoWriMo this year. Good luck to those of you who do join us!

Go Phillies!

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This morning I prepared to send an invoice to a regular client and decided that this month I’d send an extra follow-up email to check on the status of our project and make sure he didn’t want to see any changes. At the end of the email I reminded him that I am available for other projects now that I am on a full-time writing schedule and simply asked him to keep me in mind if he needed help with any of his other blogs (he has over 20 websites).

Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised to see that less than an hour later he was asking me for a rate on one of his other blogs. He also followed up with additional questions regarding the types of work I can do, and I expect we’ll be able to negotiate a bit more work in the near future.

The moral of this story? Just ASK. All I did was offer my services and ask him to keep me in mind in the future. If I hadn’t asked the question he might not have thought me capable or interested in taking on more work.

You, as a writer, are responsible for marketing yourself and letting others know you’re available to get the job done. You don’t have to be uber creative about the way you approach people, but I certainly recommend that you start with people you already know or have worked with before. Sometimes the concept of “repeat work” doesn’t dawn on people who aren’t used to working with freelancers.

Tell me about your success stories. Do you have a cool situation in which you simply asked someone about work or reminded them that you were available only to experience instant success? Share your stories in the comments.

What is this all about?

Mr Javo had improve his blog, adding new features including a Newsletter. This contest will help him to promote his enhanced Blog, as well as his eBook The Affiliate’s Start Guide

The Prizes

Right now he has over $1800 $2000 in prizes, which he will distribute among 10 lucky winners!

1st Place

• $200 filled into an advertiser account on Bidvertiser - Value $200
• A custom blog design courtesy of Canadian Web Design - Value $195
• One hour consultation with Mattaw of MoneyBites - Value $50
• One copy of OIOpublisher - Value $47
• One copy of the Traffic Rush Course, courtesy of Caroline MiddleBrook - Value $47
• One copy of the SEO eBook Don’t Get Banned by The Search Engines - Value $40 NEW!
• One year VIP membership on CreateBanner.com, courtesy of Xavier Media - Value $35
• One copy of the eBook Work Smart, Get Rich!, courtesy of The Net Fool - Value $15

2nd Place

• No Compromise Logo Design Package, courtesy of Logo Design Team - Value $229 NEW!
• A professional audio Intro / Outro for your Podcast or an Audio Introduction for your Blog by Mary-Lynn at Bigg Studio - Value $150
• A copy of the UBD Citrus Theme, by UniqueBlogDesigns - Value $79
• One hour consultation with Benjamin of Big Ben Patton’s Place - Value $50 NEW!
• One copy of OIOpublisher - Value $47
• One copy of the Traffic Rush Course, courtesy of Caroline MiddleBrook - Value $47
• One year VIP membership on CreateBanner.com, courtesy of Xavier Media - Value $35
• One copy of the eBook Work Smart, Get Rich!, courtesy of The Net Fool - Value $15

3th Place

• One Wordpress theme from PremiumThemesNow.com, courtesy of Daniel Scocco - Value $50
• One hour consultation with Benjamin of Big Ben Patton’s Place - Value $50 NEW!
• One copy of OIOpublisher - Value $47
• One copy of the Traffic Rush Course, courtesy of Caroline MiddleBrook - Value $47
• One year VIP membership on CreateBanner.com, courtesy of Xavier Media - Value $35
• One month of 468×60px advertising on Big Ben Patton’s Place - Value $20 NEW!
• One copy of the eBook Work Smart, Get Rich!, courtesy of The Net Fool - Value $15

4th Place

• One Wordpress theme from PremiumThemesNow.com, courtesy of Daniel Scocco - Value $50
• A blog review on Shanker Bakshi dot Com - Value $50 NEW!
  
• One copy of OIOpublisher - Value $47
• One copy of the Traffic Rush Course, courtesy of Caroline MiddleBrook - Value $47
• One year VIP membership on CreateBanner.com, courtesy of Xavier Media - Value $35
• One month of 125×125px advertising on Big Ben Patton’s Place - Value $20 NEW!
• One copy of the eBook Work Smart, Get Rich!, courtesy of The Net Fool - Value $15

5th Place

• A pre-made toon, which is a guy with a laptop “making money” while on the beach, courtesy of Vic Ocampo - Value ?$50
• One copy of OIOpublisher - Value $47
• One copy of the Traffic Rush Course, courtesy of Caroline MiddleBrook - Value $47
• One year VIP membership on CreateBanner.com, courtesy of Xavier Media - Value $35
• One blog review by Benjamin of Big Ben Patton’s Place - Value $30 NEW!
• One month of 125×125px advertising on iDesignStudios.com - Value $20 NEW!

6th Place

• A paid review on Balkhis, courtesy of Syed - Value $80
• Two months of 125×125px advertising on Direct Sales Web Marketing, courtesy by Dennis Edell - Value $50
• Thirty-minutes of blog consultations with Jim from The Net Fool - Value $30
• One blog review by Benjamin of Big Ben Patton’s Place - Value $30 NEW!
• One month of 125×125px advertising on WebTrafficROI.com - Value $20 NEW!
• A link after every post during one month on Piggy Bank Pie - Value $10

7th Place

• Thirty-minutes of blog consultations with Jim from The Net Fool - Value $30
• A blog review, a 125×125px advertising for a month and 1000 EC by Louis Liem - Value $30
• One month of 125×125px advertising on IndoContest, 2500 EC - Value $20
• One blog review on Niessuh.com - Value $20
• One month of text-link advertising on WebTrafficROI.com - Value $10 NEW!

8th Place

• A Blog review on SponsoReview.com - Value $30
• One month of 125×125px advertising On Revvenue.com - Value $10
• 1000 EC from Give Away City
• 1000 EC from Danandmash In Oz

9th Place

• One month of 125X125px advertising on Work From Home Business Blog - Value $10
• One month of 125X125px advertising on Blogging From Scratch - Value $3
• 1000 EC from KisahberuanG.com

10th Place

• 1000 EC from ThemeLib
• 1000 EC from Cash In Style

As you can see, if you are among the top 5 winners you will have everything to start a blog and make money online!

How To Participate

The winners will be chosen of a drawing using the service provided by Random.org. To take part in this drawing you need to sign up for Mr Javo’s newsletter.

By signing up and confirming your email , you will get 3 tickets!

You can also get TWO additional entries by writing about this contest in your blog, using the script provided here. Notice that you won’t get this 2 additional entries if you don’t sign up for the newsletter!

And if you don’t have a blog but you want to get additional entries, there is a solution for you. You can get ONE additional entry for subscribing to Mr Javo’s RSS feed by email. Notice that you won’t get this additional entry if you don’t sign up for his newsletter!

To claim the 1st prize you need to have an Advertiser’s account on Bidvertiser. Get your account now!

Deadline

This contest ends on Nov 16th at 22:00 GTM -4. Mr Javo will make a screencast of the drawing to guarantee the transparency of the process! So go back to his blog in a month and check if you are a winner!

PS: I recommend you to periodically check the contest’s page because could be more sponsored prizes for you!

Good Luck!

• “Buyers may report incomplete projects and providers may comment them.” A freelancer could view this as a negative if he has a picky client who decides that a disagreement means an incomplete assignment, but I like the fact that GAF is going to allow providers to defend themselves. Of course, this also gives freelances a place to “make excuses” and the buyer can’t leave counter-comments (as I once learned from experience.)

• “Select up to 10 winners on featured projects.” That’s nice - I really like this feature. Elance has something similar. I have found that buyers on GAF either take bidders outside of the system when they want more than one provider, which is technically against the rules; or end up making separate designated projects for the buyer they want, which is a ton of work.

• “We’ve improved the Buyer/Provider area to easier handle more projects.” I’m not 100% sure what that means, but I assume it has something to do with aesthetics. Of course, I think GAF could use a little face lift, so perhaps this will be a good thing as well.

• “It’s now possible to read old PMs on closed projects.” I assume this means you can read the PMs from non-winning bidders? Otherwise, I thought GetAFreelancer already had this feature. I regularly go back into old private messages to pull information from the bidder who won.

All in all, it looks like GetAFreelancer is making a few steps in the right direction. The system is a little more cumbersome than others, but still provides freelancers (especially new ones) with a place to find a few odd jobs here and there. I’m curious to see what type of impact these changes will have.

The More You Tell, The More You Sell was posted on Daily Writing Tips just yesterday. It’s a great article that talks about writers who either a) write too little, or b) write too much. But, is it really possible to write to much if you know how to spin your words correctly? Find out by reading…

Google Demystifies Duplicate Content - Kind a Sorta A was posted by John Cow earlier this week as well. You’ll really need to head on over to Google’s blog to read the actual post Demystifying the “duplicate content penalty,” as written by the Google webmasters themselves. It’s a little techy for me, but you’ll get the main points within the first few paragraphs. Thanks, Google, for the clarification.

Burn after Reading: The $22 Movie is another hilarious anecdote from JD at Get Rich Slowly, detailing a hiccup on his path to frugality. How a movie turns into a $22 outing isn’t too difficult to understand - but it still hurts a bit as you’re forking over the cash.

That’s it for today. Have a great Saturday!