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A Pilgrim’s Progress in WordPress Gutenberg (for WordPress Admins)

Posted on by Adrienne in WordPress Gutenberg

I hope I made you laugh at that title.

But this is serious.   Because I love WordPress.  So I want to try and tell you of my experiences as I go because they might be of some value to WP, on the note that I might be an average user – so, here is a story about that, for you.

I will never leave WordPress.  I think it is the greatest thing ever invented?

Believe me when I say that, as a writer.

Believe me when I say that as a human being!

So let me tell you a story of entering the web, propre, and how I did once upon a time in 2001, because gee, that is now, 17 years ago.  Hard to believe.  I entered the web for a short story I wrote that was a serial called “Man in the Moon.” – that story was published at a place called “Cleansheets.com” – which no longer exists?  I wrote it in serial form and it was beloved over there.  The published writers there were very fine and so that is why I chose it.  I entered as my nom de plume “Adrianna de la Rosa” – author of the story.  So I entered the Web, but not as ME, except it was me.  You can see the first three chapters of that story in a book that was published, and I was paid $50 for it.

I began to write more stories, for the above site.  I was published.  It was huge to me.  So. 2001 is the second time I became a published writer.  The first was Junior High.  It was through that site that I met a bunch of marvelous writers and poets who also wrote for this site and I began to write over here?  Same joy at being published almost on a monthly basis by them for my short stories, some of which are archived in what they call the Treasure Chest.

In 2005, I began to attend the Santa Barbara Writers Conference.

Those are many of my friends you see in that image.

So, 2007 was the first year I found WordPress and frankly WordPress is the only place I have ever recommended to any of the writers I have met.

But let me show you how important WordPress has been to me, especially now that it is becoming Gutenberg.  I had two of my short stories actually published in Books in the time that I have had my WordPress blog as Valentine Bonnaire.  I was paid $50 for each of those as well?  A one time payment.  So since 2007, my income has been $150.  Really.

These are the books!  My short story “A Little Irish Honey” is in this one.

My short story “Flowering” is in this one.

I never thought $50 was exactly enough but, oh well.  The Publishers make money on the anthologies, not the writer.  I was glad to be published.   So that is one part of the history of the Writer Adrienne D. Wilson.

Now for the WordPress part. ❤

WordPress has been my total constant since 2007.  I made my blog in case anyone who had ever read me wanted to leave a comment?  But WordPress has been home to my everything, since.  That is only one genre I have written in while I learned to become a writer?

I have written two novels while I had my WordPress blog, over in Nanowrimo.

I have written reams of Depth Psychology interventions, because I got my MA here in 1998.

So, right now I cannot tell you how very happy I am to have always had WordPress as my HOME.  It has been!

So let me show your admins a few pix of that.

I hope this is a testimonial to you, for you WordPress.  Just thank you.

You have been my “blank page” for years, that all writers need.  You have been like opening one of my journals and drawing and writing in it while I was thinking.  Only you are “in here” versus on my desk.

So I looked at my domains this morning and this is a screenshot of what I saw.

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I am going to be able to maybe sell my writing?

Can you even imagine how happy that makes me?

So here is what you have done, as “my home.”

This is Valentine Bonnaire:

My search from Google this morning!  “Documented.”

And her transition to her real self, thanks to WordPress, as in FOREVER.

Why do I think “Gutenberg” means everything?

After (and during the time I was a student) I graduated from UCSB in 1984 –  I worked HERE. For 20 years.

Right now the only two REALITY BASED places for me in the WEB are FB, because that is ME, and WordPress, because that is ME.

I have no idea what all of you are going through as companies with Twitter, but that is a story for another day.  WordPress you mean everything to me, as an American writer.  Just everything.

Bless all of you,

from Adrienne

and note to your Admins, this is “internal” for all of you, so not tagging except for you, as in a category I will make called “WordPress Gutenberg”

❤

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Advertorial vs Testimonial ads

Posted on by Adrienne in Uncategorized

Advertorial content

Test Advertorial for Paint, stores, PROMO #1 WordAds

$15.00

Working my way through the set up of my new blog, so this is from the advertising that was “print” at one time.  These are two different types of ads.

So yesterday I said I was going to try out a post to see what might happen using WordAds.  So, Branding and Demographics, these count.

Advertorial works in a different way to suggest buying a product than Testimonial does.  For instance, I love this new paint I have from Valspar, and I am going to be doing a large project that is a design project in a kitchen, except I am upcycling, so appeal is going to be to the upcycling crowd.  But where within that demographic?  This is where I would craft the appeal.  In Advertorial I would write about why I chose Valspar?  I could wax rhapsodic about the colors of the paint chips and I could use the art I made to talk about those.  blue:colors:art:chips

I loved the names of the paint.

Fresh paint changes things and gives huge uplift.   As an artist I love to get color chips and sometimes deciding on just the right one takes some time.  I am doing a blue and white look for this kitchen.  It’s a classic color combination that can go English or Scandinavian or even French Country, depending and I want a mix of those types of things – really clean look.

This isn’t an overnight project.  The design has taken me quite some time to work out starting with the finds.  I have rediscovered the joy of shopping at little hardware stores here in town, and so, I went to Ace Hardware for this paint.  I enjoy talking to the paint mixers in the paint department of the store.  I’m not in the Big Box store mood, nor do I want the Amazon experience of ordering because I like people, and shopping in stores.

So Advertorial goes a little like this.  I can show you links to the things I have spoken about here in WordPress.

What is different about Testimonial ads?

A Testimonial ad would be to show you pictures of before and after on a project.

For instance I could drive traffic to Ace Hardware and OSH which are the two places I shopped locally for the objects I needed on this project.  I could show you the little sander I bought?  With a link.  I could show you the sander in action?  I could talk about why I am using Primer.  Testimonials would be about actually using the products and showing before and after on all of that.  In a sense Advertorials and Testimonials are alike in the advertising world, it’s just that the content differs.

So, I am not sure yet about WordAds and taking it as I go?

If I were to tag the stores?

This drives traffic to them just as it would to the paint itself, and the fact that WordPress now translates “globally” – what I have just written functions as promotional for the companies.

Why did I like the blue ranges in Valspar?

My delphiniums!

delph3

I bought three little cans of blue paint that I loved from Valspar for the interiors of the cabinets.  I knew that I could get an effect that would be a surprise and a smile when I opened cabinet doors and saw different shades of blue, the beautiful blue, Delphinium blue, in all the ranges, inside a blue and white kitchen.

So in a Testimonial, it would go something like this, and in an Advertorial I would write something about why as an artist I wanted those colors.

*Note to WordPress – I just did this as a trial so you could see my thoughts on these things in terms of WordAds but I will not tag this other than to say things that stay here internally until I actually do this.  ❤

Mostly I am interested in selling my books!

I thought perhaps I might upgrade to business and I wasn’t sure if that was going to make a huge difference at first?

There is a local company here in town I had looked at yesterday after I saw a news piece.  I am loving Gutenberg so far.  It’s gorgeous.  It really is.  So I am reading this: https://wordpress.org/plugins/radcontrol/ about Ad Control to get a sense, and will let you know what I find…

Reading up on Jetpack and https://en.support.wordpress.com/monetize-your-site/

Reading about Simple Payments https://en.support.wordpress.com/simple-payments/

So I made a button, and listed a price but as you can see, if I were really writing copy or managing some advertorial – the prices are much higher. https://moz.com/ugc/where-does-the-advertorial-budget-go-now

Tomorrow I will write up a linked advertorial ad.   This has been a test as I go of the features on WordPress Premium.

This is an example of a simplistic advertorial from a Magazine I subscribe to: https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/decorate/looks/a22756712/yellow-paint-colours/

This is an example of how a headline in a tabloid can wreck a brand? https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6843442/b-and-q-paint-smell-ruin-couples-home-renovation/

In the latter case you would use testimonial as cure in extended style.

Using Google as a search engine this is the latest news, and so you can see what would happen with a headline like that one…

Advertorial and the Press

Posted on by Adrienne in Uncategorized

This memoir I am going to be writing in NaNoWriMo in November is dedicated to many of my old friends – in Facebook, because it is going to talk about what it was actually like at Newspapers in America before the gut, layoff and merger era.  Why this  is important now is because we no longer have a Free Press in the country.  So the era I am going to be writing about is 1981 – 2001.

So what was Advertorial?

In the days that I started working for a paper, while in college, there was no such thing.  This happened in the late 80’s in the Print business.

Advertorial was “canned” news – not written by local papers and not related to the Paper itself.  This was bought and inserted into local papers as a “pre-printed” thing.  So for instance, “Parade” magazine that many papers featured as an insert in all cities in the country.  That was a magazine?

Advertorial was a bit different.

The wall between Editorial and Advertising was a sacred thing at papers.

On that note, the concept of Monetization of a blog.

I’m actually very interested in what WordPress is doing on that.

Over the 20 years I spent working at a paper I did many, many different jobs – one of which was working in advertising and graphic design in the Art Department.  I used to write ad copy and design many of the special sections that we ran.

In WordPress I would like to monetize my blog using WordAds, but this will only be for things I actually know about, or really like?

So I am going to show you how I might do a thing like that in my next post using paint, in this case Valspar.   So this is a practice post as example.  This is an exquisite paint because of the color chips?  I just loved it.  I am going to do a redesign of a simple room with these paints and so this would be an example of how I would “write” about something I would choose to brand with?  In a sense that makes it “Advertorial” at the same time that if I were to tag it?  Traffic would go out across the world depending on my tags.

On that note, “liking a brand” – well, this is something that, if you love a brand, you will not mind writing about it – so this is a test today for WordPress Admins so they can see how I would do that.  ❤

I’m not going to run this through FB or tag it.   This is just an example.

❤

*note to WP admins.  I did tag this, but only for WP purposes because of Gutenberg.  A side note for you would be to go to Freepress.net and you could see what happened to papers?  In terms of who owns what, circa 2018.  Gutenberg = FREE PRESS.  Beloved that way, it will be.

 

Good morning to friends

Posted on by Adrienne in Uncategorized

Good morning to my friends around the world.  I am trying a test to see if you can translate this message into your languages around the world.  Your help means everything to me at this juncture, for it means that my books can be translated.  If I were to tell you how happy I am about that?

Thank you so very much for trying this.

All my best to you,

Adrienne

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For Ma.tt and WP admins re: Gutenberg/Censorship & Process & Progress new blog – thoughts

Posted on by Adrienne in Uncategorized

This is for all of you that run WP, and the one who invented it!

I ❤ WordPress like you cannot believe, and there are many reasons for that but let me just tell you I am tracking my progress as we go and also via the news and so your top tier will always be able to “hear me” on things.

It’s a very big transition for me to not be writing under my nom de plume Valentine Bonnaire and as my real self from now on.  Frankly the ability to write books is key from a place in America where publishing is basically dead?  It is.  So, Matt Mullenweg what I have to say to you is that you are much like T.M. Storke was – to me back in 1981 when I was just a kid and got my first real “long term” as in 20 year job, at an American newspaper.  Right now we are in a very strange era, like none I have ever seen and so you will be hearing me on this and many other things.  If I want to speak to Ma.tt, I will write like this.  I think AMP might have to do with that so I took a picture for you of what I saw.

I believe I had my WP way before I even knew about FB and Twitter or anything else.  I was published for short stories nearly monthly at a great place where many might see me as falling under the “banned books” category.  It’s been impossible to get a Literary Agent here in America and my disgust about this is unfathomable. However that is not the only thing I write.

I believed when I put my first little book into Amazon?  That I would get paid.  That wasn’t going to be “one cent” either.  So you have these ultra bazillionaires happening right now who have not been exactly fair.  Fine, jet off to space on the world’s dime.  Ma.tt, I don’t see you this way.  What WordPress is to me – on this Gutenberg thing.  Nothing could be more fine than what you have made.  Nothing.

Ray Bradbury – who I met at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference also had his books banned from time to time?  Well, I read him in the 1970’s in Junior High for a few of those.

I have degrees from very fine schools and you can see those over in FB.  Because if I really need to tell you something important, I am going to say that in a message to you in FB behind the scenes as I just did the other day.  My WordPress being in the SPAM folder?  This is not okay and that is my email out of COX here in America.  I have no idea why WP is not in my INBOX.  It should be.

I am loyal to WP because “CODE IS POETRY” – so while I have no idea how all of you do that?  I’m the poetry end.  So here is a review, Screen Shot 2018-08-16 at 12.05.24 PMfrom a Midwest guy on my book Gardenias that is sitting in Amazon.  Valentine Bonnaire has had a pretty big LITERARY presence as a writer.  The thing is, I also have some pretty big degrees, like my MA from Pacifica Graduate Institute – so notice my Twitter tag as you look down the page.

Ma.tt – why is WordPress so important to me as a writer?

I say more through my fingers than in any other place.

This is important as regards yesterday and a few things going on “in the world” also what I saw – I said that in Facebook right on my FB page.  You can always search me that way.  I’m pretty sure the “Happiness Engineers” keep tabs and I’m very glad of that.

I talked about the site you built Whitehouse.gov and why I am so glad WP made that.

So Twitter.  I want to talk to you about what happened in 2016 over there.  In this era?  I want to tell you what my experience of that place was, Depth Psychology interventions I made “IN TWITTER” and how I was censored BY TWITTER.  But not today.  I am really grateful to WordPress and I have been since 2007.  There is no other place in the web I could consider to be HOME, save WP.  I really mean that.

Consider this a note to WP itself, into the heart that is WP.

 

Thank you WordPress

Posted on by Adrienne in Uncategorized

I would be very lost without my WordPress.   Seeing my gravatar and being able to ask for help in Facebook meant everything to me over the last few days.  I am so loyal to WordPress this is hard to understand for most people who aren’t really writers.

My identity in the web started many years ago on a tiny Mac Performa computer when I was an intern therapist post my graduate degree at Pacifica Graduate Institute.  I was working and writing short stories became something I did as a creative person – these were published at a website that no longer exists – it was taken down.  You cannot imagine what it is like to lose a short story you can no longer access?

I have had short stories stolen.

I first wrote in the web under the nom de plume Adrianna de la Rosa at what was then a premiere site for fiction at Cleansheets.com – imagine what it is to go back over there looking for something and “poof” it’s gone,  when those were published works.  In fact, three chapters of the very first story I ever wrote?

That appears in this My first published short story – “Man in the Moon”

I wrote for some time at Cleansheets and then I joined, perhaps in 2003 or so – The Erotica Readers & Writers Association where I went on to meet fabulous poets and writers on a writer’s list and I really honed my craft as a short story writer.  By 2007 I had many words honed and by then had been published nearly monthly for everything I was writing.  I started my blog as a marker here at WordPress that year.

In that time, since that time, Valentine Bonnaire was my nom de plume.

WordPress is my HOME as a writer.  It has been since that time! ❤

I really have no idea how many things I have said since 2007, but my blog has run the gamut from limericks, recipes, investigative journalism, you name it.  WordPress is HOME more than any other place in the web for me.

One thing I wrote was a treatment plan (Depth Psychology) and many many investigative and diagnostic pieces for the problems I am seeing in the news stories that have to do with Depth or Ecopsychology – so…

Writing at WordPress is like silk.  Using this program is like silk and it has been as it evolved into tagging, categories, ways to link, art, I could go on.  WordPress is Illuminated Manuscript, not unlike they were when they were penned with the tools people had 1,000 years ago.  WordPress is Gutenberg in the era of the printed posters and the printing press itself.

In an era where there may be Censorship of the Press?

WordPress is now going to be a place to publish books.

So, here is the rose I leave behind from Valentine Bonnaire

 

 

Bless you, WordPress

Posted on by Adrienne in Uncategorized
peace - red rose
The rose art I used at my old WP blog https://valentinebonnaire.com/

For my first post as myself, this is how I am ranking what I trust in the web.  I could talk for a long time about that, as my blog originated in 2007.  But I was writing under a nom de plume, because I was published first in the web as that name for some short stories of mine.  That isn’t all I write.  This last June at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference I made the decision to only write as my real name.

The very fact that Ma.tt has made something called Gutenberg? ❤

  1.  Matt of WordPress –  FREE PRESS FIRST AMENDMENT