Wordsmith - the Internet Anagram Server

Wordsmith is a fun and useful site for people who love words and wordplay. If you like anagrams - a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase - you will want to check out the Internet Anagram Server.

Also, the site explains that anagrams aren't just for fun, there are practical uses of anagrams in your life.

FreelanceSwitch

FreelanceSwitch is a site for freelancers. The site provides lots of useful features, in particular, a job listings board. There is also a forum for information, support and advice plus helpful podcasts.

If you are interested in contributing to FreelanceSwitch, you can submit an article about freelancing and earn a $60 writers fee, if your article is published.

Authonomy

Authonomy is a new social networking site for aspiring writers:

Authonomy is an online literary community service provided by HarperCollins Publishers that allows you to share, review and promote your writing.

You must register but it costs nothing to create a profile, to upload your book (at least 10,000 words) or to read and recommend the books on offer. You can also take part in forum discussions.

authonomy Blog

Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers

If you like to write, you will want to check out the blog called Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers. The helpful blog is written by Martha Alderson, the author of Blockbuster Plots - Pure and Simple. In addition to the advice offered on her blog, you can sign up for "Plot Tips", a free monthly eZine.

Walking Places

If you enjoy walking, and you want on a place on the web to record your walks, Walking Places is the site for you.

Walking Places provides a FREE hosting service on the web to store and publish your walking journals, diaries and guides. The site also provides detailed information about walks in the UK, a forum and a comprehensive list of useful walking related links.

I Should Be Writing - a podcast for writers

I Should Be Writing is "The podcast for wanna-be fiction writers, by a wanna-be fiction writer who’s still learning. Writer Mur Lafferty discusses rejection, cover letters and getting the oomph to keep going."

Mur speaks with a friendly, conversatinal manner on her podcast which offers advice, and encouragement for aspiring writers.

The Murverse is the clever name of Mur Lafferty's home page.

Help a Reporter Out

Peter Shankman (an entrepreneur and the CEO of The Geek Factory, a PR and Marketing boutique firm) has started a very neat service called, Help a Reporter Out, to help all his reporter friends.

The premise is simple. Peter Shankman maintains an email list which is free to join if you are interested in helping out a reporter. You'll get about three emails a day from Peter Shankman, all with reporters looking for sources. The emails will all be labeled with [shankman.com] in the subject line, for easy filtering. If you see a query you can answer, you simply reply. (If you are a journalist, you can submit your query via this form on the site.)

I joined ten days ago and even though I haven't seen a query that I can answer yet, I enjoy getting the emails and reading about the different topics that reporters are looking for further information about. I figure that eventually there will be something I can help with or I will know someone who can.

It really is a fantastic idea. I think everyone wants to be able to help if they can and this site provides an opportunity to do just that.

LooseStitch: Free Online Outliner

LooseStitch is a free collaboration tool for writers. It's fun to use - although I found that it takes a bit of practice to figure out how it works. You can create outlines for all sorts of things and invite as many friends as you want.

I think students may find LooseStitch particulary useful. However, it's worth noting that "Pages being shared may be promoted and linked by crossroad solutions as example uses of the Service."

Visuwords

Visuwords is a very cool online graphical dictionary and thesaurus.

It's simple to use - just type a word into the search box at the top of the page and press 'enter' to see a network of words appear surrounding your chosen word in a fun visual presentation designed to look like a mind map.

Gomestic

The Gomestic website provides lots of informative articles about a variety of domestic topics including Family, Personal Finance, Cooking, Homemaking, Gardening plus lots more. Gomestic is a user powered website and welcomes reader participation and comments.

If you have interesting tips or ideas you would like to share, you can sign up to write something for Gomestic and earn royalties for your work by submitting your article to be published on the site.

Email etiquette

Emailreplies.com is a useful site because it explains how to send effective email replies and provides a list of 32 email etiquette rules.

What's Your Story?

Toni writes What's Your Story?, a blog offering lots of useful writing prompts and writing tips.

LitMatch - Literary Agent Directory

LitMatch is a fantastic new matchmaking website for writers.

The site offers a FREE source for literary agent information via an up-to-date directory of literary agents and agencies on the web and helps to match writers with agents. The site also makes it easy for writers to track their submissions online.

Linda Formichelli

Linda Formichelli is a successful magazine writer, author and teacher with an impressive website. If you are an aspiring writer, you will find a lot of useful resources for writers via Linda's website.

Also, don't miss The Renegade Writer Blog written by Linda Formichelli and Diana Burrell.

Business Writing

Lynn Gaertner-Johnston writes a blog called Business Writing with lots of practical advice and tips about business writing.

A blog about writing & grammar plus a knitting blog & a book blog

Deb writes Punctuality Rules! which is "A blog devoted to writing, grammar, good manners..." and offers a lot of useful information and interesting discussion about those subjects.

Deb also writes a blog about knitting called Chappy's Mom and a book blog called, Booking Through Thursday.

Write To Done - a blog about writing

Write To Done is a new blog created by Leo Babauta, about "the craft and the art of writing."

Leo Babauta is already well known in the blogosphere for writing the popular Zen Habits blog which I recommended on this post.

Daily Writing Tips - a blog

DailyWritingTips is "a blog where you will find simple yet effective tips to improve your writing."

DailyWritingTips offers information about specific writing needs, such as business writing or fiction writing and also provides vital grammar and punctuation tips.

I'm sure writers will find all of the site useful, particularly the list of popular articles.

LifeTips

LifeTips is a very useful site that offers nearly 100,000 tips to help "make your life better and more fun." but that's not all. If you create an account, you can compile your favorites in an eBook that you can download for free!

Writers can get paid assignments as a "Guru" at LifeTips if you are "a proven, published expert in a particular topic" and by submitting an application for approval.

Write to the Bone - "aspires to inspire the writer inside of everyone"

Write to the Bone is a very useful website for all aspiring writers.

The site is written by Andy Rector, a published author of short stories, articles and children's books. He has a blog too.

The Write to the Bone site offers a lot of information and tips - writing fiction, writing non-fiction, grammar, getting ideas, researching, revising,and getting published - so be sure and explore the entire site.