CuteWriting

Have you started blogging yet? It starts with a basic set-up at Blogger or WordPress or even your own personal domain, and later, some search engine submissions, social media work, and getting the word out by means like emailing your friends. Now that your blog is ready, let’s have a look at what can go wrong in it—what can put your readers off! 1. Design & Speed There are a million coolest looking blogs in the Blogosphere. That means the readers are no longer looking for great website designs. They want information in a neatly arranged place that loads faster. The standard loading time for a blog should be less than 4 seconds, and make sure you have it. Otherwise, you know what it will be. 70 per cent of the readers get out of a site if it doesn’t load within the first 4 seconds. 2. Advertising Readers are smart now, and know well about Adsense or any other ad network you are using for monetization. They frown upon banners and suspiciously descriptive links that attract cl...

[A guest post by Nathalie Raben from NYC Midnight] Get those ball points ready to roll with NYC Midnight's 2009 Creative Writing Championships . This flash fiction contest invites writers from all regions to compete against one another in a World Cup-style writing race. For each challenge, writers are placed in different heats and assigned a specific genre and object. They then have a specific amount of time to pen their 1,000 word short stories, which will then go before a panel of esteemed judges in the professional writing world. Feedback will be provided for each story, and winners will be ranked challenge by challenge in a point system that mirrors the World Cup. All participants are competing for a chance to win up to $2,000 in cash and prizes. Devising creative contests in nothing new for NYC Midnight, an organization that derives its' name from the all nighters often associated with creative thinking. Registration for the Creative Writing Challenge closes on Wednes...

Both need and dare can be used as auxiliary verb and main verb. When used as auxiliary verb, it works just like other modal auxiliaries, such as 'can', 'may', 'will', 'shall', etc. When used as main verb, they are like any other verb, such as 'run', 'go', 'come', 'take', 'work', 'joke', etc. Examples: As auxiliary verb: They needn't walk home, they can catch a bus. How dare you disobey my orders? Need you really take that risk? She dare not make the first move at any cost. I need drive to Joe's immediately. As you have seen, dare and need don't agree with the subject or use 'to' when used as modal auxiliary. It's just like 'can' or 'may': such as, "I may drive to Joe's immediately", "Can you really take that risk?" Used as normal verb: I need to get the attestation before applying. She does dare to do a lot of things. Do you dare...

These are two often-mistaken words. Some people believe that there is only one word, forward , which means 'ahead', 'toward the front', etc. They believe the same word is used to denote 'the introductory note' of a poetry or anthology. Some other people believe the word for introductory note is foreward . No, there are two words, foreword and forward . Foreword comes from two words, 'fore' and 'word' (not 'for' and 'ward' or 'fore' and 'ward'), which hence means, a word that comes before other words, an introductory word or a collection of words that form the introduction. That's why the word, foreword means 'introductory note'. Forward has several meanings, but only one of them corresponds to a noun. It's always an adverb, adjective, or a verb, but not a noun (except in football (soccer for Americans)). Here are the meanings: Adjective: ahead, toward the future, at the front, lacking disc...

It's literally freezing in there. It's practically freezing in there. It's virtually freezing in there. You may have seen sentences similar to these used every now and then. The words, literally, practically , and virtually , are all used in these instances to convey emphasis to what's being said. For this need for emphasis, literally and virtually were originally used a lot, but somehow practically also found its way to this and is getting popular. But despite this common meaning, each of these words has its specific place in English; let's see it now. 1. Literally: Literally has actually held the meaning, "in a manner that accords with the literal sense of the words", as the American Heritage Guide tells. In that sense, we should not be using literally in the sentence above. But it went on to be used as a word for emphasis and stayed so. But actually, literally should not be used when a metaphor is present, as in the above sentence. A way to k...

Here are three videos from Google teaching you how to use Google Reader, the most popular online RSS reading system. 1. Getting Started: 2. Reading Feeds: 3. Sharing Feeds:

Artist, pronounced in the same way, can mean "creator or performer of any kind of art form". Another meaning the word is applied to is "a deceitful person". There is a separate word, 'artiste', in existence, which in popular belief is the feminine form of 'artist'. But it is not true. An artiste is either a professional performer or someone wanting to be recognized as having artistic talents. This word is pronounced, 'arteest'. According to Oxford, previously artist was not used for the meaning of 'performer of art'. But now that the word covers both meanings, artiste has almost gone out of use or finds use only in the most formal of occasions.