Orientation: Introduction to Internet Writing Markets

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Message from your Instructor

This message confirms that you have signed up for Introduction to Internet Writing Markets, a Fundamentals course that I will be teaching entirely online. I have prepared this document to help make your online educational experience as positive and enjoyable as possible. It contains contact information, a description of our course delivery system, course mechanics, and a course schedule.

How to get Started:

This course is conducted through an online classroom. You will need to go to this classroom to obtain your lessons, work through tutorials, take quizzes, complete assignments, participate in discussions with your fellow students, and ask questions of your instructor. As soon as the registration office verifies receipt of your payment, you will be able to participate. Here's how it works:

1. Wait until after 12:00 a.m. (Pacific Time) on the start date for this course.
2. After the course begins, go to https://www.ed2go.com/capecod/. The Online Classroom is open 24 hours a day and seven days a week, so please feel free to log in to your classroom at any time of day that is convenient for you.
3. Once on the website, click the Login link at the top right of the page.
4. Finally, log in with the username and password you provided us at the beginning of this orientation procedure. You should then be able to enter the online classroom and begin your studies.

Course Description

Ever wondered if it would be better to start a WordPress blog or a Twitter microblog? Whether it's legal to publish fanfiction or not? How you can make some extra money if you also take photos or make videos? This course will answer all your questions about publishing on the Internet.

The Internet provides unlimited opportunities if you're a writer, whether you just have a few hours a week to blog or want a full-time publishing career or just plan to promote your books or business on the web. There is no single way to become successful writing for the web, so this course shows you the hundreds of different choices you have, and helps you set your own goals. In fact, by the end of the course, you'll have your very own publishing plan, from the steps to take in developing your writer's platform or brand, to the markets that will help you accomplish your goals.

Course Requirements

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

• This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

• PC: Windows 8 or later.
• Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Course Mechanics

I will make two lessons available to you every week for six weeks. You do not have to be present when a lesson is released, but you'll need to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

Once all 12 lessons have been released, I will give you a two-week grace period to complete your studies and take the final exam. This means that you have a total of eight weeks to complete this course. If you're thinking of taking another course after this one, you can avoid overlap by starting that course exactly two months after this one begins.

Lessons are released by 12:00am (Pacific Time) on Wednesdays and Fridays. To access your lessons, simply visit the online classroom (as described in the "Getting Started" section), and then click the lesson title you wish to visit.

Once the class access ends, I won't be able to send you the lessons. If you would like to keep the lessons for future reference, I suggest using the print lesson feature in the classroom.

Each time you complete a lesson, you will also be asked to complete a brief multiple-choice quiz. I expect you to complete each quiz within two weeks from the date that the corresponding lesson was made available. I realize that you are busy, and don't want you to worry if you can't complete a few of the quizzes on time due to illness, vacation, or other commitments. Once I release a lesson and quiz, I will make sure it is available to you as long as the classroom is open.

The interactive multiple-choice quizzes are designed to test your comprehension of the course material. When you complete a quiz, you will receive an instant analysis of your work.

This analysis will include a brief explanation of any errors you may have made. If you are not satisfied with your performance, you are welcome to re-take the quiz until you feel that you have mastered the quiz objectives.

Note: If you ever want to see a progress report showing your performance on the quizzes over time, simply return to https://www.ed2go.com/capecod/ and click Login or Account at the top right of the page. Once logged in, click the Report tab under the course title.

Some of your lessons will also be accompanied by an assignment. The assignments are designed to help you expand your understanding of the material taught in this course. Assignments are typically more detailed and may take a bit more time to work through than quizzes.

I expect you to complete each assignment within two weeks from the date that the corresponding lesson was made available. Unlike the quizzes, your assignments will not be evaluated. Assignments are designed primarily for your enrichment. You have the sole responsibility for evaluating your performance on each assignment. If you have questions about an assignment, please feel free to use the Discussion Areas to discuss your assignments with your fellow students and me.

When you work through an assignment, you will be gaining practical first-hand experience with the new skills taught in this course. Your performance on the final exam will depend in no small part on your mastery of the assignments.

The course will conclude with a final exam, which will test your comprehension of the material covered in this class. You must complete the final exam within two weeks from your receipt of lesson 12. Please review your selections before submitting. You may only submit your final exam answers once. Your performance on the final exam is the only factor we will consider when determining your eligibility for a certificate of completion. Although your quiz and assignments will not count toward your eligibility for a certificate, I do recommend that you try to complete each quiz and assignment to the best of your abilities. Doing so will leave you better prepared to pass the final exam.

When you finish your studies, please note that our classroom log-out process is fully automated. We will log you out of the classroom automatically whenever you close your browser or shut down your computer.

Questions

This course can be highly interactive, but the level of that interactivity is controlled by you. Since I can't see that puzzled look on your face, it's going to be up to you to ask questions when you get stuck.

I expect to get many interesting questions from you and your fellow students. I want to make sure that you and your classmates benefit from these often illuminating queries.

Therefore, I would like to request that you avoid e-mailing your questions to me. Instead, I have created 12 Discussion Areas in the online classroom (one Discussion Area for each lesson). To reach these Discussion Areas, all you will need to do is wait for the course to begin, go to the online classroom, select the lesson you're working on, and click the Discussion Area tile.

Your Discussion Area questions will serve as a challenge for your fellow students. Someone is bound to have an answer for you. Likewise, you should be able to find questions in the Discussion Area that you can answer. The Discussion Area will be open to you and your classmates 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Please try to visit the Discussion Area at least every other day while the course is in session, and don't be afraid to participate!

I firmly believe that the best way to learn a new skill is to teach it to others. We will all benefit by helping one another understand this complex material.

Because I don't want to see any unanswered questions, I (or one of my very capable teaching assistants) will be monitoring the Discussion Area at least every other day (excluding weekends and holidays). If you ask a relevant question, but fail to get a correct answer (or any answer whatsoever) from your classmates, then we will try our hardest to answer the question for you.

Please understand that the Discussion Area is reserved for conversations about the material in your lessons. While it is perfectly acceptable for you to employ a bit of friendly banter as you converse with your fellow students and instructors, I must ask you to always remember to stay on topic.

It is not appropriate to use the Discussion Area to sell goods or services, complain about something, or talk about subjects that are not specific to the lesson at hand, for example. Such off-topic conversations waste people's time and detract from the learning experience for all involved. I reserve the right to immediately delete any message without comment if I feel that it does not pertain directly to the material I am trying to teach.

I will also delete any messages containing language that I feel is derogatory, controversial, insulting, or otherwise inappropriate for my classroom.

Syllabus

Note: This course will run for six weeks. Two lessons will be released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when each lesson is released. Instead, you can take up to two weeks to complete each lesson after it is released.

Important: In order to keep this material as up-to-date and informative as possible, I reserve the right to make changes to the course content, description, and syllabus at any time and without warning.

A new session of each course we offer starts on the second or third Wednesday of every month. You may enroll in more than one course at a time. If you are enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week 1

Web Publishing Overview

Wednesday

In this lesson, you'll start by taking a quick tour of the publishing opportunities on the web and the many ways to earn income with your writing. You'll find out which ones give you the most control over your content and which ones pay the best and then meet some writers who've used the web to become very successful! Each of these writers has done an amazing job of carving out a niche that suits their interests and skills. Whether you've been working in the traditional publishing world for a few decades, or are just taking your first steps toward becoming a working writer, you'll find lots of great information and inspiration in this course!

Get Established on the Web

Friday

Writers establish their reputations on the web by building a strong brand, or writer's platform. Not sure where to start? In this lesson, you'll learn about credentials and the important part they play in making a profit from your writing. Then you'll explore the different ways you can connect with readers or clients on the web with a website or blog and by getting involved in social media. This lesson will help you decide what will work best for your needs too!

Week 2

Finding Internet Writing Markets

Wednesday

You'll start this lesson by looking at the place where most things begin on the Internet—search engines. You'll look at some techniques that you can use to search for potential outlets for your writing. Because you want to reach as many readers as possible, no matter why you produce content, you'll view some resources that will help you pick the best sites for that content. Then you'll take a look at submission guidelines and publishing agreements. There's lots to consider before you send your work off to an editor, and this lesson will help you with those decisions.

Get Established in Publishing

Friday

Think you're ready to get published? You will be when you finish this lesson! You'll start by creating a writer's résumé that will highlight your credentials and target each subject area you're interested in. Then you'll find out how to pick the publishing credits that will get you the most attention from publishers. If you don't have any credits yet, you'll discover how to make nonpaying markets work for you. Finally, you'll go through the submission process so that you can get your writing into the hands of editors.

Week 3

Paying Markets

Wednesday

Publishing with paying markets can be a great way to boost your writing income. Are you interested in publishing in online magazines or e-journals? Maybe you wonder what publications are the best fit for your personal area of expertise? Or perhaps you dream of tapping into the corporate market and landing some high-paying gigs. If you're a whiz at coming up with witty slogans or writing amazing bios, you'll learn how you can sell those, too. This lesson is all about finding and connecting with paying markets.

Revenue-Sharing Markets

Friday

In this lesson, you'll learn about the most important secret on the web: passive income. What's that? Well, a way that your writing can keep earning money for years after it has been published. You may think that sounds too good to be true, but it really exists. All you have to do is add moneymaking options to the content you publish—here you'll get to look specifically at publishing with revenue-sharing markets, and you won't even need to learn any additional technical skills.

Week 4

Self-Publishing

Wednesday

Some of the most successful and popular sites on the web aren't owned by Fortune 500 companies. They're run by bloggers and content producers who started out just like you—people with a passion to write about something that interested them. In this lesson, you'll read about ways to use that passion to create a blog or content site to monetize your self-published content, no matter what you want to write about. You'll also look at copyright protections for your self-published content and discover ways to develop content on a business website to attract more surfers.

Book Publishing

Friday

Would you like to have your writing read by people from around the world? E-publishers can make that happen! Whether you want to publish novels or nonfiction or illustrated picture books, the technology is now available to make publishing and marketing your own e-books easy, too. Readers are choosing e-books at least as often as paperbacks or hardcovers, so you'll want to know about this important aspect of publishing. In this lesson, you'll explore your many options as an author. You'll receive a checklist that you can use to help you select the publishing path that suits your needs. Even if you've never considered writing a book, you'll see how e-books can be valuable tools in your content marketing and business branding.

Week 5

Creative Writing Markets

Wednesday

Do you enjoy making up stories? The Internet may not seem a likely place for creative writing—but it can be if you know where to find the markets. In this lesson, you'll start out by looking at fanfiction and at how copyright laws affect your ability to publish your own work using worlds that other writers have created. Writing a book can take a long time, so the lesson will also talk about publishing your work in serial form so you can earn as you write. You'll also look at ways you can put together a campaign to raise funds up front to write your book. Sound interesting? The lesson will discuss two examples of authors who've used crowdfunding to finance their projects. If you write short fiction and poetry, you'll find lots of nooks in cyberspace, both paying and nonpaying, where you can publish, too. Additionally, you'll see how to use these markets to build your brand and promote books you've already published!

Niche Nonfiction Markets

Friday

Would you like to be part of the biggest advancement in the history of humankind? In this lesson, you'll learn how! Until the twentieth century, knowledge doubled roughly each century. But by 2015, it doubled nearly every year. The reason, of course, is the Internet, and you and your fellow nonfiction writers are making it all happen. While you've already examined lots of ways to publish nonfiction, in this lesson you'll explore niche areas such as article directories, writing as a guide, sharing your opinion in various ways, and providing training. You won't stop at the written word either: You'll also look at how you can earn income with images and videos.

Week 6

Research

Wednesday

How many answers do you look for in a day? If you're like most writers, it may be dozens, from a synonym for a word to a statistic to support an argument. In fact, research is integral to the writing process these days, and while good search engine skills simplify things, sometimes you need other resources. From information compiled in databases to email interviews with experts, there are many ways to get the job done, and they'll all be covered in this lesson. Of course, once you've found some interesting facts, you need to be able to save them so you can find them again later. You'll discover some tools to do that in this lesson, too. Before you finish up, you'll also take a final look at copyright laws and how they relate to using research.

Your Publishing Plan

Friday

It's time to bring everything that's been covered in the course together. In this lesson, you'll do just that—with everything from exploring tools of the trade, to filling in a checklist of market options, to setting your publishing goals. Planning is the key to making your long-term vision for your career a reality, so be prepared to spend some time on this part of the process. As Woodrow Wilson said, "You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement."

Instructor

Linda Aksomitis

Linda Aksomitis has a master's degree in adult vocational/technical education, with a minor in English. She has published 25 books for readers of all ages (fiction and nonfiction), including numerous e-books, and she has a few thousand publications in newspapers, magazines, and on the Internet. She's been an acquisitions editor for an e-publisher, webmaster of half a dozen websites, managing editor and webmaster for an Internet magazine, and she maintains two active blogs. Linda traces all of her publishing success to the Internet and the contacts she's made in cyberspace.