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Blogs = Parasites ?

SiteProNews asks a question which becomes even more important considering the declining fortunes of the MSM, or old media. Are Blogs parasites? Here's the news flash - yes, they are. But they don't have to be. How is that?'

By simply co-opting the parasite. It's called evolution. Blogs stealing your readership? Start a blog. After all, the key USP for blogs is being able to be ahead of the print media in terms of news cycles. Prez making a statement? It's on the blogs, commented on, analysed, ripped apart and post-mortem'd before the MSM can even weigh in on it. So what des a savvy MSM like Time do? turn their best stars into bloggers. Go visit the Time Swampland, and you'll see what I mean. Joe Klein has an ongoing fracas with bloggers of all shades, Ana Marie Cox is weighing in on Stephen Colbert and the Libby trial. Karen Tumulty is pontificating on the '08 races. All in real time. End result? I visit the Time blog everyday, and I'm sorely tempted to join in the discussion. Now tell me, where's the parasite?

However, not every print magazine is as as smart or as net-savvy as Time. They do their reporting the old fashioned way. Dig up the stories, talk to people and call in the experts. And then they print it. And then the blogs take the facts and the meat out of the article, post it in attractively designed blockquotes with a tiny link for attribution. End result? The blog readers get the story, the facts and the analysis without even kowing who did all the work in the first place. More importantly, the print mag spends all it's money and resources, and the blog gets the clicks and dollars. That, without any reserve, is parasitic behaviour.

What's to be done? Nothing. Again, it's called evolution. Either you adapt or you're toast. Of course, there remains one tiny problem. If the host dies, so does the parasite...

Freelance Jobs 3rd March

Here's the jobs:-

Online business discussion and analysis site needs a blogger.

Proof readers ( fact checkers ) wanted for a magazine.
Note: The editor likes to drown his sorrow inside a bottle, so you might be at the recieving end of more than a few crazed emails demanding total servitude - If you get the gig.

Greeting card writers wanted. I would really like a gig like this, if only it involved steady work, instead of submissions and rejections.

Speaking about rejections, I read a column a couple of days back about being able to write, but afraid to submit. I can't remember where I read the darn thing, so you'll have to trust me on this. If you catch the fish and can't sell them, does that make you a fisherman? If you don't know how to sell your writing, you're not a writer. Period. Let me try this another way - It's really a question of motivation, not talent. Do you really, badly, need to submit your articles or manuscript? If you do, you will. If you have the luxury of choice, you probably won't. It's as simple as that. If it's the only way you can pay your bills, you'll be submitting and begging editors and laughing at someone who says they're afraid to submit.

Anyway, back to the jobs:

Transcription gig. Need a pro transcriptionist, so if you're a wannabe, best to pass this one by.

$500 writing contest. All you gotta do is write one line. Speaking of writing contests, I need to do a post on writing contests - Which basically would involve a big list of contests for writers which are held periodically, and the do's and do not's. If I don't get any new gigs this week, I'll write up the contests post. So now would be a good time for anyone suffering through my blathering to start praying that I get the gigs...

If you're planning to go for a nose job, facelift or breat enhancing surgery, hold it right there. You can get paid for it, and might even end up with a profit from the whole deal, rather than having to pay through your nose for it. Get paid to blog about your cosmetic surgery.

Want to help create a full website? new web startup needs your copywriting skills.

Freelance bloggers who blab about education, home and family, and personal finance wanted.

Freelance Jobs 26th Feb

Here's the jobs:

Cellphone blogger wanted
Chinese bloggers wanted
Paid how-to guide writers needed
A small detour here. The guy who runs the show for this gig seems to be on the right track, but there's going to be some hiccups along the way, before he makes it ( if ever he makes it ). Doesn't mean I'm being pessimistic, just realistic. I've seen too many bright sparks fizzle out to be optimistic. But then, maybe that's why I'm still broke...

Trivia writer wanted
Another short detour...The guy wants a trivia writer, and he says contact him describing your qualifications, blah, blah, blah....So what I do is write out a couple of trivia questions, their answers and send it off to him, without a single word about myself, or what I do. Nothing except the trivia. And he replies back saying he wants to talk to me. Go Figure...Ultimately what matters is whether people think you can do the job or not, irrespective of all other criteria.

Here's one more - Need NBA trivia writers for NBA online trivia game.

And one more - Children's trivia writer needed.

Creative writers wanted
Compensation? 100k+...Be careful, huh?

Want to go through biker blogs and post links on said blogs? Blog posters wanted.

Christian ghost writer wanted.

Pet care writers and bloggers wanted.

Fashion blog writer wanted. Looks to me like someone who knows squat about the internet wants to get his or her hands on a piece of the online pie. If you should get this gig, be ready to break your head against an unbshakeable wall of ignorance and suspicion.

Copy writer
wanted. $50 for 225 words.

Editor wanted for a novel.

Political writers and bloggers wanted.

Philosophy and physiology writers wanted to help author write a book.
Note: This is a serious gig, and you'll have to undergo an interview, if the author decides he likes your resume, or your pitch. Furthermore, I'm not sure whether he's going to find a writer with this oddball combination of requirements. On my part, I told him staright out I didn't have a clue about physiology. He still replied back, and it's 'under consideration'. After all, $2000 is a lotta money...

Ghost writer wanted for broadcast executive's take.

Want to write about runaway brides and Britney's breakdown and the subway hero and stuff like that? In-the-news scandal kinda website wants writers.

More DC scandals. Wnat to be a political investigator, sniffing out Washington's closets and coming up with dirt? Somebody wants a DC dirt-digger.

And that's it for now. There's a short poem buzzing about inside my head, and I've been trying to spit it out, but the end just won't arrive, and the beginning won't leave me alone. Driving me nuts, if I wan't nuts to begin with....

America - Addicted To Elections

Ideas can be pesky things. Once they start buzzing around inside your head, they refuse to pipe down, unless and until you give them an outlet. And the only outlet I have is this poor little blog and you - The hapless victim of my assault. So here goes nothing...

Granted, the 2000 election was something of a nightmare, with recounts and lawyers and the Supreme Court and chads and what not. It generated an intense amount of emotion, and got involved a lot of people into politics, who were otherwise quite happy to go about their life, and think about politics only when it was time to vote. Also granted that President Bush stoked the partisan fires some more by starting the Iraq war, which got even more previously uninterested people involved. And since 2004 wasn't far behind, it was basically a referundum on the war. So, ok I'll grant you that too.

This is where the real problem pokes it's head out. Once we had the 2004 elections out of the way, people should have been able to get back to their normal lives. Instead what happens? The campaign for 2006 begins. We all know how it turned out. Barely have the tremors subsided, and now it's all about 2008. It's supposed to be an earth shattering event, and if don't give up everything we do and focus on electing the right person, the world could come to an end. I'm absolutely convinced that the day the 2008 elections are over, it'll be on to the next one, with similar expectations and required contributions.

Stop! Enough already. Elections are meant to elect politicians so they can do their job until the next elections. Not so they can begin running for the next round. Every issue, every debate, every decision is colored by the fact of impending elections and what position would go down the best among core constituencies. This is not the way it works. The way it works is, you elect someone, let them do their job, and if you don't like the end result, you throw them out - After they get a chance to do it their way.

What's happening now is that nothing gets done, because every politician is campaigning to get elected 365 days a year. Whatever pretense of work they do, is dictated by what will help them to get elected again. Question is, why is this happening? The culprit is the MSM. Got nothing to write about? No scandals, no human interest stories, no runway brides, nothing - So, let's start beating up on whoever happens to next in line to get elected - Even if said election is a couple of years away. What they managed to do, in effect, is get Americans addicted to elections, not politics - Which is a big difference. Addiction to politics and policy, while not entirely healthy, is still commendable. But addiction to elections? That is, simply put, bad - Bad for the people, bad for the country, bad for the politicians and good for the media. Go figure.

Writers and Aspiring Writers

Allen Pierleoni, writing for the Sacramento Bee, quotes a few figures about writers and aspiring writers. "Some 24 million American adults consider themselves creative writers, but less than 5 percent have ever been published. About 175,000 book titles were released in 2006, (yet) at any given time, there are between 5 million and 6 million manuscripts looking for a publishing home"

I guess you could say that's good news - If you're a publisher, or you provide a service for aspiring writers. You think people in this country are over-educated maybe? or just plain lazy? I mean, all a writer ( an aspiring one ) today does is sit on his rump and bang away at his keyboard. I'm pretty sure there would be plenty less writers if you took all the people who do nothing but blog, and shipped them off to Iraq. Take that, John Kerry. Now you can say that if you get a proper education, you risk being hauled out to participate in the Surge, rather than just rant about it. I suspect there would also be a lot less people left behind in San Francisco. The streets would be kind of empty if you took away all the bloggers.

From another point of view, think about the Iraqis. The poor chumps risk bearing the brunt of a second wave of invaders. San Francisco bloggers and aspiring writers! Something tells me they'd be happier with Saddam..

Blogging For....

Is there anyone who blogs just for fun? Purely and simply for the joy of blogging? To let your thoughts flow, without someone starting to roll their eyes and start looking for an exit door.... Do you blog because you love to blog? Or is it for money, to pimp some product, rightwing, leftwing, whatever...

What brought on this introspective streak was an article in the NYT about debt bloggers. It's pretty good, and inspects quite a few aspects about debt blogging and the motivation, real and imagined, for the bloggers.
"A decade after the Internet became a public stage for revelations from the bedroom, it is now peering into the really private stuff: personal finance."

Point is, there's precious little motivation to blog, for the sake of earning money from the blog. So there's got to be something else, that pushes people to blog. There's more than 60 million blogs, with the number set to cross a billion in a year.
What the heck are a billion people doing blogging, if they don't earn money from it? Hence the question, why do you blog?

As for why I blog, that would be to maintain an online presence, where I can send my prospective clients. The intention was to showcase my presumed talents, but needless to say, it's not working out exactly as planned. That, I guess, would be because I have a tendency to stray off-course and start blabbing about things above my pay-grade. Being a lowly freelance writer, I should stick to blogging about that. But somehow, Obama and Hillary and McCain keep popping in. But hey, like I said, that's what a blog is for. Where you can let rip, without being hauled off to rehab.

Freelance Jobs 18th Feb

Today I realized a couple of things. All you need to have is talent. Write good, write beautiful prose and burn the midnight oil. You'll get the rewards. Secondly, even on the big, bad internet, there is a thing called trust. And it works. Beautifully.

The reason for all this blather is that I just completed one hard week of writing. I wrote - To the best of my ability. Then I sent in the stuff. Response? A big, fat paypal, along with a compliment on a job well done. So what do I do? I re-read everything I wrote. And it really looks good. Now I don't know which one makes me happier. The paypal or my writing.

Here's today's jobs:

Article writers wanted. $15 per article.

Howto guide writers wanted. $10 per guide.

Freelance writers wanted. Focus on international students in the U.S.A.

Freelance tech. blogger wanted. Manufacturing, finance, biotech., etc.

Website copywriter wanted. Knowledge of flash banner ads is a plus.

Proofreader for a novel manuscript wanted. Author is a non-US citizen with ESL.

Humor blog writer wanted, with a focus on celeb dishing.

Art blog writers wanted. Focus on news, exhibitions, and artists.

Freelance urban writers wanted. $15-30 per article.

Transcriptionist needed. $10 per tape.

Stupid Googe

There's a storm in a teacup brewing over Google's use of a strawberry and missing L in Google. I've blogged before about Google's employees being wackos, but this is one time the nutjobs at Google need some defending, and maybe some appreciation. If that is, their massive egos can take the additional praise without blowing a few gaskets.

The whole kerfuffle is over this:

First impressions - Don't try to con yourself. Here's what I went through when I first saw it on Google:

1. A thrill at being the first to discover Google screwing up.
2. A closer look at WTF is that between the O and the E.
3. Realization that it's a strawberry.
4. Taking a good look at it again. The stalk does look like an L...
5. Dismay that no one is going to digg this....

What does Google have to say about it? "When you look at the logo, you may worry that we forgot our name overnight, skipped a letter, or have decided that 'Googe' has a better ring to it," Google's Webmaster and official doodler, Dennis Hwang wrote on a company blog in response to the blogosphere's blather. "None of the above. I just know that those with true romance and poetry in their soul will see the subtlety immediately. And if you're feeling grouchy today, may I suggest eating a strawberry." Via Time.com

Steps 1-5 took me about 30 seconds to go through. Does that mean I have true romance and poetry in my soul? I don't know, but one thing I do know. Google's doodler's need a holiday - Preferably a long one, without access to the internet. And if they have nervous breakdowns or or other internet addiction withdrawal symptoms, no worries - It's all for the greater googe...

Freelance Jobs 12th Feb

Here's today's freelance jobs:

Business plan writers needed ( work at home )

Foodie writer wanted to write newsletters ( online )

Web copywriter wanted to write product descriptions and reviews ( tech. ).

Staff writers who can show the middle finger...Uh..Not exactly, but...

Joke writers wanted. $100 per. In cash. No kidding.

Wanna push a website? Website promoter wanted. This usually entails sneaking into forums or message boards, crapping your signature all over, and then hitting the road before they lynch you.

Conduct research and writeup stuff about why dogs love food. Uh...Ok.

Student researcher wanted to act as a flunky for supposedly humourous biz book writer...

Are you good at powerpoint, publisher and writing? Click here.

Okie. That's it. Today's news? Foot-In-Mouth-Against-YoMama disease has gone viral, with Aussie Prime Minister John Howard having managed to acquire said disease from U.S. Senator Joe Biden.
I have nothing to say, except "Next!"

Black And White

Obamamania continues to crash the gates. First it was will he or won't he? Then it was 'Hillary will trash him and if she doesn't, the Repuclicans will'. Next it was 'Obama isn't black enough' - With Biden adding fuel to the fire. Now we're on to Stage II - Media's going hyper on Obama and Abe Lincoln.

Such is the power of symbolism. Obama makes a speech from Springfield, and writers are tripping over themselves writing about what 'Obama has to do to live upto Lincoln' and how 'Obama can't hold a candle to Abe'. What these writers don't realize is that every additional mention of Obama and Lincoln in the same breath takes the Obama camp even closer to their desired result, and solidifies the image association in the minds of their numerous readership.

Let's go back one stage. All the articles about Obama not being black enough? What effect did they have? Reminded the audience that Obama, is indeeed, not white. And if he ain't black, what the heck is he? Black and white. White as in what people look for in a white caucasian male President. Black as in the color of his skin. But this isn't about something skin-deep, or a question of percieved impressions.

Thing is, Lincoln fought for, and gambled everything on, a fight for liberty - On behalf of freedom. He's in the history books today because he won. So can we call Abe the 1st Black President, Bubba the 2nd one and Obama the 3rd? Because end of the day, Obama's blackness, and his Lincolnness, will be measured not against his oratory. It won't be measured against a big pile of bills which he pushes through Congress. It will be measured against what he does to fight for and win, whether it be against an external enemy or the rot inside America. Black and white is fine by me, but what I'd like, more than Obama becoming a President, is for Obama to enter the history books.

Somehow, I don't think that's going to happen. He is destiny's child. But he's got a vital flaw. He does not gamble. And I don't mean in Vegas. If you ever watched a Mika Hakkinen vs. Schumaker F1 race, you'll know what I mean. Hakkinen would gamble all his chips on a stroke of genius or daring, believing in himself, while Schumaker just concentrated, race after race, on the efficiency of his car and his crew. That edge that Hakkinen had over Schumaker, sad to say - But Obama does not have it. I don't know if you can acquire such an edge, but here's hoping that Obama goes from being Black and White to being a gambler....

Oh yes. One more question. Has anyone asked Obama what he plans to do if he ends up losing?

Freelance Workers - Exploited and Stupid

Question time. Do minimum wage laws apply to freelance gigs? Nope. Why not? Stupid question. It's free market enterprise at it's worst - And best. Worst because it screws everyone, white or black, male or female, out of anything resembling a decent wage. Best because the online freelance market makes no differentiation based on the color of your skin or sex or any of the other factors normally applicable in a job market.

So here's a suggestion for the powers-that-be on Craigslist and other online job markets. Implement a minimum wage structure before it's forced on you. Make it mandatory for employers to pay a minimum level of pay. And if you want to argue about free enterprise or fiddling with market forces, I refer you to the minimum wage bill, which, after having cruised through the House, is now scheduled for debate in the U.S. Senate.

Craigslist has always been a trailblazing center for online entrepreneurs. I would like to see them kick off something like a minimum wage model for online workers, which could then spread across the internet.

You can poke your head into a hole in the sand and pretend that nothing's happening, but nothing can stop an idea whose time has come. And the time to implement an online minimum wage model is now.

Words That Work, by Frank Luntz

Following up on yesterday's 'Old rules for new writers', today we have 'Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear', from Republican pollster Frank Luntz.

Interestingly, I bumped into this book right after I read Robert Novak's column about how the Republican leadership has ostracized Luntz for ringing warning bells before the 2006 elections. Uh...Make that warning bells for the past decade.
"When Luntz in October 2005 publicly warned of rejection by voters in 2006, he was forced to deliver an abject apology before he could speak at a retreat of House Republicans held at the Library of Congress. After seven straight years on the program, Luntz was kept off last week's 2007 session at Cambridge, Md., by Boehner."

What's all the intra-party politics got to do with writing, or writers? Uh...Nothing much, so let's get to the point. Point is, look at the friggin title of the book 'Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear'. Right. So what's inside the book? Putting it simply, it's a must read - For every active political conservative....Meaning that what Luntz says, and what his audience is hearing, are two different things. He says that his book is meant for both sides of the aisle, and will help people put their words more succintly. What people are hearing is some more gospel for the right wing.

One would think that, by now, Frank Luntz would have conducted a poll to find out that people are not hearing what he intended to say. Or maybe the book says exactly what he wanted, and people are hearing exactly what he intended to say. In which case he's a liar or a hypocrite. Either way, he's toast.

Old Rules For New Writers

Stephen Wilbers, writing for the Star Tribune, Minnesota, laments the loss of a proper education for would-be writers. And he's right. Being magnificiently illiterate, I have to marvel at the great article he's put together.
"There are four rhetorical sentence types: periodic, loose, balanced (or parallel) and antithetical. If you know those sentence types and when to use them, you are more likely to write with clarity, emphasis and style. If you don't know them, you might get lucky now and then, but you are less likely to create the desired effect dependably."

If you want to know more, go read the whole piece. Or you can click here. Or here. Or here. On the other hand, to learn why a happy scribbler should be blissfully unaware of sentence structures, click here.

According to the ContraCosta Times, "Freelance videographer and blogger Josh Wolf became a full-fledged media martyr Tuesday, surpassing the U.S. record for most time spent in jail by a journalist who refused to comply with a subpoena...".
I'm sure Judith Miller, formerly Miss Run-Amok at the NYT, now a freelance journalist, must be tearing her hair apart...

And Manufacturing Talk says that "More and more people are opting to live the life of a freelance worker as businesses choose to 'flex' their skills needs...self-employment at a 10-year high, at 13.1% of the working population - a total of 3.8 million people"
Maybe more and more people are simply not able to land a regular job, and so they end up as freelancers. It's better than starving, but not by much. Just a teeny-weeny difference...So maybe just before you fall asleep tonight, think about why you wanted to be a freelancer.

Freelance Jobs 5th Feb

Here's today's freelance jobs:

Resume writers wanted. ( $80 to $100 per project )

Mortgage writers who can do a bit of research wanted. $40 per.

Wanted one creative ghostwriter. Christian writer preferred. Preferably undernourished. ( Alright. Alright. I made that one up. )

Ever been to Paris? Want to write about it? And get paid? $50 per.

Uh...Are you a business writer? There's two banks duking it out, and someone wants to do a hit piece on both of them. $600 only.

Renaissance magazine wants freelance writers to write something like this - "Hollywood or Bust! A mini-guide to relocating to Hollywood on a budget,where to live, work, eat and hang."
Muahhhaa! Ack! Cough-Cough! Sorry. Let's move on to the next job....

Got any previous experience with writing online coursework? Someone needs a freelancer to give their course material a bit of polish.

Transcriptionist needed to transcripe audio to ms-Word using express scribe. This is the kind of gig I'm looking for, tell you the truth. Unfortunately, every poster seems to want someone who's 'been there, done that'....

Tech / Gadget blogger wanted. $200 per month. This is a great gig. If you can get it.

Women's mag looking for a columnist to bloviate on stuff like marriage, troubles with in-laws, cheating boyfriends, throwing the perfect party....

Web content writers wanted.

Pundit blogger wanted. They want someone to take down Washington politicians and blowhards. Where do I sign up?

A million writers wanted for a million penguins

This 'wiki' thing is going a bit too far. Granted, it's a brilliant piece of software, which maximises the output of a collaborative effort. But can it be applied to writing? I mean, people buy a Harry Potter book because it's written by J.K. Rowling. Would you buy the eighth Harry Potter book if it was written on a Potter fan site modelled after wikipedia? And how would it compare to the previous seven by Rowling? I have no friggin clue, but the Penguin publishing house is about to find out.

A million writers wanted for "A Million Penguins"
"'Wiki' software, the force behind online encyclopedia wikipedia.com, will allow budding writers to write pieces of fiction together from all around the world.
The publisher says the goal of the software is to see if strangers can create a piece of legitimate piece of fiction together."

Go figure!

Obamamania is in full swing. The Weekly Standard, has a magnificient book review or reviews ( since it's a tale of the rise and fall of Obama as a writer between his two books ), by Andrew Ferguson. I would, under normal circumstances, avoid linking to something which belongs to Bill Kristol. But this one is different. It's poignant. It's a naked plea. A plaintive call for Obama ( The writer ) not to be buried under the weight of Obama ( The politician ).

"Has there ever been a better display of the destructive effects--the miniaturizing effects--of professional politics? For the only thing that separates the writer of the one book from the writer of the other is ten years of life as a politician..."

Generally, when I read the first few lines of an article, I know exactly where it's heading. But somewhere mid-way through the 2nd page is where this book review grabs you by the scruff of your neck and gives you a powerful jolt of the electricity which is more commonly known as 'Obamamania'. To Washington, Obama is a politician. To Andrew Ferguson, he's a writer. Now you know what that this means. "People had a way of hearing what they wanted in Mr. Obama’s words..."

In other news, Darren Zenko, writing for The Star, CA, relates a tale of reality TV, where he meets his wife. "When the clock coughed up those final minutes, the manuscripts had been handed in, the champagne had been poured and our stretched-tight psyches snapped back and launched us back into the world, we dropped back to earth on the 200-count sheets of a double in the nearby Delta, falling impossibly in love."

Ack! Tell you the truth, half-way through the piece, I kind of lost the plot. I'm still trying to figure out what's reality, what's TV and what's the story. But never mind, so long as he's a writer who went to a reality show for writers, met his future wife there, ended up in bed with her and he's now happily married to her. And all's well that ends well.

A delightful take on writers writing by Andrea Doty, writing for the Kingston Reporter. "Their creative inner writers were bursting forth, while mine was shrinking further into oblivion, contemplating a plot dominated by me curling up in bed beneath layers of down duvets, sipping a hot toddy to the sounds of my rhythmically purring kitties..."

Read the full piece. Instant cure for writers block. Guaranteed.

Freelance Jobs 2nd Feb

This you need to read, if you came here looking for freelance jobs. "Use a little common sense when looking for writing work, and don't think you have to accept whatever posters are offering. Set your rate and stick to it. Emphasize that you offer quality work at a fair price. Clients who bargain don't necessarily have bad intentions; they just don't want to pay more than they have to, and you can't really blame them for that. If one writer throws out one quote and another specifies an amount that's three times higher, of course the client is going to focus on the numbers."

Without further ado, here's the jobs:

Let's start small. $2 for one article. If you want it...

This gig doesn't pay squat, but I'm still listing it, beacuse the words 'Al Gore' and 'Presidential Campaign' are written all over it. If you want to end up as a foot-soldier for Al Gore, this one's for you.

Political blogger? Got blog? Got visitors? Want $200 / week?

Ghostwriter for blog wanted. I did fire away an email, but nothing yet...

Designer handbag bloggers wanted. Whatever...So long as they don't ask you to go around hunting crocs in Florida...

TV addict? Here's the perfect gig for you.

Gossip reporters (paid). This gig is right up my alley. In fact, I just fired off an email. You know, what I really want to do is opposition research for political campaigns.....Sigh! Well, never hurts to dream, huh?

Freelance press release writer wanted.

Are you a ghostwriter? Seriously? Not just a wannabe? Then you need an agent...

I wanted to make a seperate post for discussing foot-in-mouth serial plagiarist Joe Biden's articulate comments. Unfortunately, this is not a political blog, and I don't have the time to maintain two blogs, so this brief comment will have to do. It started off with a ruckus over 'clean', but it's gradually shifting over to 'articulate'. I predict that this is not the end of the fall-out. Neither for Biden, nor for Obama. It's going to drag on and on until the MSM squeeze every last drop of life out of Biden's campaign.....

Telecommuting Meet Career Advancement

Brian Reid, a.k.a RebelDad, writing for the WashingtonPost about this survey, asks a couple of good questions. "So if this is an arrangement that could work for so many, why the conviction that telecommuting is a career-imperiling choice? Is this just a matter of changing attitudes, or is there some hidden truth to the anti-telecommuter argument?"

I guess it depends on your definition of what a career is. If you're a writer, or columnist, and you get to work from home, are you going to be able to go up the food chain and become an editor if you still stay at home? Publishers expect their editors to report to the office and make sure that everything's hunky-dory. Let's say that you and one of your co-writers, who continues to commute everyday, both apply for an editorial position. All other things being equal, who's the one with a better chance of being promoted?

Your job definition may be to perform a set of particular tasks, but there are some things which you necessarily have to prove you can do, before you get promoted. One of them being the ability to take care of stuff which falls above your pay grade. That is something which you can't do or generally won't do, if you're sitting in your mom's basement. I mean, a telecommuter's notion of a job is to complete assignments. You have no idea what's going on, or what problems who is facing in the office. How are you supposed to help out if you have no idea that something needs to be done, which is not being done, and which you can do.

End of the day, a telecommuter's future prospects are limited because you do not take the time to listen to your boss. Listening might involve being at the receiving end of a tantrum, offering support over personal problems or just offering to help out with something. This is something which a telecommuter is unlikely to do. So, if you're a writer, a writer you will remain. Unless you develop a close working relationship with your immediate boss and your co-workers, which enables you to tackle all the above mentioned points, in your pyjamas.

So now you what you need to be, in addition to being a telecommuter, if you expect to get that raise....An agony aunt.

Browser's Wrist

What happens when you spend too much time typing in front of your computer? Your wrist gives up on you. I'm typing with my left hand, and it' a pain in the ...wrist. So if you wandered in here looking for some freelance jobs that aren't stale and a week old, you can curse my wrist. I've been doing the same since yesterday. And I have a deadline for 4 articles by Sunday....

Anna Quindlen - Uber WAHM

Anna Quindlen's biography in brief:

1981-1994 - New York Times Columnist and Op-Ed writer.
1992 - Pulitzer Prize for commentary.
Author of 4 best selling novels Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black and Blue and Blessings.
Another book A Short Guide to A Happy Life has sold more than a million copies.

And she ain't done yet. She's still a prolific scribbler. But that's not why I zeroed in on her. Any one of the above listed achievements would be enough to make her a success story. I mean, how many work at home moms you know are columnists for the NYT or Newsweek? And how many of you have sold over a million copies of your book? And any talk about a Pulitzer would be a pipedream.

But is this enough for Anna Quindlen? Nope. She wants to deliver some more, and she's does it. In spades. Everyday, for the past two weeks, I've read at least 5 columns about the 2008 Presidential elections. What's McCain doing, what's Hillary not doing, what Obama should be doing, and what the heck is Biden doing?

Today I bumped into the first truly sensible column focusing on the wannabe Presidents. And the writer is one Anna Quindlen, writing for Newsweek.
"As winter turns to summer, Iowa to New Hampshire, candidates to nominees, many myths could be dispelled, or harden into the stuff of conventional wisdom....

Print and broadcast are full of pundits, most rooted deep in the Metroliner nexus of Washington and New York, who are asked to say what it all means."

What's impressive is that inspite of being trapped in the ivory tower amongst the NYT and Washington bloviators, in spite of being a best-selling author, she's prefectly attuned to reality. I'd like to see her debate Hillary....

Man Of Letters

Are you a script writer? Maybe a non-fiction writer? Novelist? Essay writer? Copywriter? Uh...Blogger? Why do you have to be any one of these? Can't you just be a writer?

This is British writer Jonathan Raban's main gripe against the new century, as told by Anna Mundow, writing for The Boston Globe.

He seems to take particular joy in being a 'man of letters'. Well, I looked it up a bit, and it seems that it's meant to refer to anyone who doesn't want to ( at the risk of sounding like John Kerry ) end up as a grunt in Iraq.

But I do get the point. Writing is not like building a furnace or assembling a microchip. There's no defined methodology. If anything, writers are rewarded for breaking the mold. So today you have the urge to respond to the latest thesis on middle east politics and neocon principles, put out by the Council on Foreign Relations. Tomorrow you may have the urge to write about spaceage ninja turtles. End of the day, you're still a writer.

Self Publishing - In Vain or Vanity?

Ambrose Musiyiwa, writing for BlogCritics, writes about the future and the realities of self-publishing. The grey line between POD and vanity publishers, readers' response to self-published books and comments from self-published writers. Makes for some great reading.

"Irving Karchmar says, "It can be done! It just takes work, like anything else in life."

Writers who are contemplating self-publishing need to investigate the industry thoroughly and make sure their work has been sufficiently edited and critiqued before they take it to the printers. They should also be prepared to market and promote their books aggressively."

See ' Print On demand - Free ' if you want some more information about POD publishers.

Suggested course of action:
1. Write book.
2. Post an ad on Craigslist that you need a pro editor to go through your book with a toothcomb.
3. POD
4. Promote

The dificult parts are 1 & 4. And I can't help you with either. Well, maybe a little bit with 4. Promoting a book is nowadays more of a science than an art. Just check if you're doing it all. Flooding book reviewers online with emails touting your book. Even a ratio of 1:10 will get you a huge number of reviews. Youtube video promos. Do it the old-fashioned way. Word-of-mouth.

End of the day, if your book is good, you have a good chance of hitting the mark. But it is true that with a crush of self-published books hitting the market, it will take time to weed out the trash from well,...your trash.

Freelance Jobs 27th Jan

The focus of the previous post was how people are making money off wikipedia. Well, here you go: Grant Writer needed for Wikipedia documentary.

Freelance copywriter wanted.

Web content writers wanted.

Looking for a ghostwriter.

Work at home, surf the web, google to your hearts content, do a teeny-weeny amount of research and get paid for it.

SEO article writers wanted.

Some more web content writers wanted.

Writers wanted.

Pay per post gig for bloggers. More like pay per article, but what the heck...

In other news, NYPost Page Six blacksheep Jared Paul Stern was told he would not be facing charges for supposedly demanding payment in return for favorable coverage. And journalists in China are supposedly on a blackmailing spree. The business, it seems, is so lucrative, that people are posing as journalists, just to be able to squeeze some money out of some hapless evil personality.

One, we can conclude that this is not a good time to be a high-profile white collar criminal. Second, a lot more people are going to want to become journalists. Before, the only reward was the joy of bringing the truth out into the open. Now, it seems, journalism is a really rewarding profession...

Have Cash - Will Pay For Wikipedia Writeup

If there's anything John Kerry and Microsoft have in common, other than bundles of cash lying around, it is a tendency to shove their own feet solidly into their own mouths. The latest online smackdown? Microsoft offers cash to a blogger, Rick Jelliffe, to edit wikipedia entries. End result? No edits, but a new entry in wikipedia, which says that Microsoft offered cash to Rick Jelliffe.

AP writer Brian Bergstein asks a stupid question "Should Wikipedia writers be paid?" Of course, they shouldn't be paid. Can you make money as a wikipedia writer? Another stupid question. Of course you can. Isn't there something wrong here? Stop being dense, huh? This is the real world.

If it's good, people start looking for ways to make money off it. It's called the support or service industry. Same as adwords consultants and ebay consultants, there's bound to be 'wikipedia' consultants. Debating if it's right or wrong is all fine, but just like with the US congress, reality is far ahead. Wikipedia is no longer an innocent virgin, but digital real-estate soiled by massive egos and a hint of over-reaching. Their arrogance is breath-taking. 'We can do no wrong because we are the voice of the people.'

Far as I'm concerned, wikipedia is a great help for getting all your information on one page, instead of googling it and looking up a hundred pages. But it's by no means indispensable. Dmoz is lying in ruins today. Tomorrow, someone else will come up with a brighter model, and wikipedia will be toast, not toast of the year.

Mini Freelance Jobs Post

Wanted to do some political steam venting, but just to stay on topic, before I start unloading, here's a few jobs:

A Non-American charity is looking for a writer who can pull at heart-strings ( and purse-strings ). In short, a grant writer for a con job.

Wanted blogger, who spends all his time behind a wheel, parenting. If you do that, and you still have time to search for, find, apply and work on a blogging gig, go for it.

Freelance writers wanted for entertainment industry mag. Most likely you'll have to be a paparazzi disguised as a freelance writer.

Data entry gig.

Non-US citizen living in the U.S.A.? This writing gig is for you.

Virtual assistant wanted to answer calls and schedule appointments.

Wnat to have people slam the phone down in your ear? Telecommuting, work from home, juicy, pay per call, uh....marketing position available.

Just one more. Hypnotherapist wants a telecommuting home based personal assistant to make and take calls. Should be fine, so long as he doesn't start practising on you....

That's it. I wanted to unload about the Iraq war, Army Lt. Gen. David H . Petraeus, Scooter Libby and scapegoats, but I guess you get the point, so I'll leave it at that.

Health Plans For Freelance Contractors

Time's Joe Klein says that he bought health insurance on his own. "Sorry, but I did, during two extended and pretty painful periods--as a free-lancer in the early 1980s and as a New Yorker staff writer--yes, the venerable old mag doesn't bestow health insurance on its writers--in the 1990s. It was ridiculously expensive, with limited coverage--group plans like Time-Warner's have a lot more benefits--and a mind-numbing, ultra-skeptical bureaucracy."

So is there a special health plan for 'freelancers'? I mean, there should be. There's a health plan tailor made to con just about everything and everyone. Here you go:

1. Flexible health freelance - What is it?
2. Health insurance coverage options for contractors
3. The necessity of health insurance for freelancers and the self-employed
4. Health insurance for freelancers

And here's what Medicaid has to say about freelancers in the media:

"Representative of the news media means a person actively gathering information for an entity organized and operated to publish or broadcast news to the public. News media entities include television and radio broadcasters. publishers of periodicals who distribute their products to the general public or who make their products available for purchase or subscription by the general public, and entities that may disseminate news through other media (e.g.. electronic dissemination of text). We will treat freelance journalists as representatives of a new media entity if they can show a likelihood of publication through such an entity. A publication contract is such a basis, and the requester's past publication record may show such a basis..."

So....Let's say you want to be treated as a journalist rather than a freelancer. You know what to do, right? Cough up a couple of past contract agreements, get letters from a few prospective publishers and you're no longer an outcast freelancer. You're a new-media journalist.

Leszek Kolakowski

It takes great courage to write what you truly believe. It takes an extraordinary writer to inspire others to believe. Leszek Kolakowski, polish writer, carrying the torch of freedom, has been gifted with both courage and inspiring prose.

"Kolakowski's copious works include The Priest and the Jester (1959), a collection of essays that criticize all orthodoxy and dogmatism, and Towards a Marxist Humanism (1970), in which he stresses human freedom of thought and choice as essential to life." - The Jerusalem Post

Leszek Kolakowski ( born 23 October 1927 in Radom, Poland ) is a Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. Kolakowski on religion and the meaning of life, "A hypothetical world from which the sacred had been swept away would admit of only two possibilities: vain fantasy that recognizes itself as such, or immediate satisfaction which exhausts itself. It would leave only the choice proposed by Baudelaire, between lovers of prostitutes and lovers of clouds: those who know only the satisfactions of the moment and are therefore contemptible, and those who lose themselves in otiose imaginings, and are therefore contemptible. Everything is then contemptible, and there is no more to be said" - Wikipedia

Tells you that he's more of a philosopher than a writer or social activist. That is what lies at the core of his strength and character. He's got his sticky fingers on one hand dipping deep into the abstract, from which flow his conviction, his faith and his love of the individual and freedom. And all this while the fingers on his other hand are busy noting down the flow of history and the surrounding reality.

The result is a writer whose work is a fine blend of real-world problems, with a bedrock of unshakable faith and respect for the individual. Which is why Leszek Kolakowski was awarded The Jerusalem Prize. He is also the winner of the first John W. Kluge Prize from The Library of Congress for 'Lifetime Achievement in the Human Sciences'.

Freelance Jobs 21st Jan

A recent ad asking for a writer in Craigslist said "Even if you're not published, you need to have passion". How do you inject passion into a 'howto' for reducing credit debt? Because that's the kind of article requests I get.

Well, you could take inspiration from the mystery visitor who leaves "a half-empty bottle of cognac and three red roses at the grave on Poe's birthday".

Anyway, here's today's freelance jobs:

If you're unpublished, but the passion's bubbling out of your nose, this gig is for you.

Got delusions of grandeur? Well, here's your one and only chance to get paid for it, unless you happen to be a member of the US senate.

SEO guys who blog wanted. Or Bloggers who can do SEO. I think.

Someone wants you to litter the internet with traces of their product. Forum and message board poster wanted.

Some more buzz marketers wanted. Well, I prefer that to ' swarm of locusts', which is what I heard one bunch of forum posters referred to as, by the regulars of the forum.

Wanted a humor writer for sketches.

Get paid to blog. $5 per post.

Web content writer wanted. Small pay, bulk work.

65+ writers wanted. Yeah, that's what I thought too. Unfortunately ( depends on which side of the hill you are ), he's looking for writers over 65....

Writers who know a thing or two about international students can get hold of a writing gig here.

Want to earn $100 per week for sending emails from home? No, this ain't a scam. It's a real CSR job. You have to respond to customers' emails. Catch is that you need to know a lot about New York.

Essay writer wanted. Make sure he flunks if you do get the gig.

Another copy writer wanted to con international students.

Audio transcriptionist wanted. $200 gig.

Writers needed. ASAP. And that's all the ad says. Nothing else.

More delusions of grandeur. They want hacks who can see the big picture.

Freelance writers wanted for women's lifestyle mag.

Hillary Clinton jumps into the ring. Going to be a really, really great year for political columnists. I don't really care who's going to be the next President, but the media is going to make a lot of hay while Hill and WhosYourMama duke it out.

Literary Fingerprint

No one is safe. Shakespeare has been caught red-handed, ink-stained fingers and all. "A team of researchers that includes scholars from the University of Massachusetts Amherst is using computerized analysis of the writing of William Shakespeare to dispel lingering doubts about his authorship of many works and to trace the outlines of his total body of compositions... The Shakespeare 'fingerprint' also provides strong evidence that he, and not other authors, wrote the works generally believed to be his..." - Physorg.com

So now we know that Shakespeare is the perp responsible for 'Arden of Faversham'. I think there should a national 'literary fingerprint' database. So any writer who refuses to acknowledge his crappy novel can be held to account.

Margaret Boyes writes about wannabe author Skip Hollingsworth's quest to get published. 42 rejection notices and counting...

And in other news, medical transcription work outsourced to consultants in India has landed King's College Hospital into a steaming tub of hot water.

A Big Pile Of Rubbish

Who's the biggest slob, living in the middle of a massive pile of rubbish? That would be 'you', as in Time's Person Of The Year. The internet has become a big pile of rubbish. Nobody reads anything except news and geek stuff. And yet, we all navigate and gingerly step over the billions of pages of rubbish, and leave it to someone else to clean up the mess.

Well, Hello - There is no one else. It's you that made the mess, and it's you that needs to clean it up. According to a survey of technorati results, 50% of blogs for 'E-Consultancy' were spam blogs or splogs. A quick google search for 'work at home' gave me the following first 100 results:

Number of scam alerts and government advisory results: 13
Number of services asking for money to get you a work at home job : 22
Outdated news : 3

That makes for 38 results, out of a total of 100, which are absolutely unnecessary, in the sense that if there were no scam sites asking for money, there would be no advisory listing to avoid scams, thus eliminating 35% of unwanted rubbish, leaving space for 35% more genuine and informative sites.

Let me ask you something. If you had 10 keys which looked the same, at first glance, in your pocket, and you had to try each one everytime you wanted to open the door, what would you do?

What we need to do here is clean up the internet. Why does wikipedia rank so well in google? Simply because there is no page on wikipedia which is not what it is meant to be. And who is it policed by? You. Unless the internet, as a whole, follows this principle, it's not going to be in business much longer.

There are over 1 billion internet users in the world, and that number is going up rapidly. The U.S.A. has exported many dirty habits, including gas guzzlers and junk food, to various parts of the world, and we're just beginning to understand the implications. Let's not make the same mistake with something as magnificient as the internet.

Telecommuter? You're toast!

According to a new survey by Korn / Ferry International, "So-called 'telecommuters' are less likely to advance than peers who work in traditional office settings, according to 61 percent of the 1,300 global executives surveyed."
Aargh! I give up my tiny office cubicle for a perch in my mom's spacious basement, and now they tell me I'm a deadbeat without a career.

Arthur Black, writing for the Parksville Qualicum News, asks a good question. "So you want to be a writer?....Being a writer isn’t like being a structural engineer or a biophysicist — or even a long-distance truck driver or a TV repairman. You have to go to school to get those jobs. You have to take examinations and pass rigorous tests. On the other hand, anyone can be a writer. All you have to do is … write. Right?"
Riiiiight, and it helps if you ran away from your own wedding or if you're Britney's ex-husband or if you're an un-convicted murderer or a candidate for President.

Speaking of Presidential candidates, Obama-Take-That-Mama just made it official. It's going to be a heckuva ride. Bring out the popcorn.

Freelance Jobs 17th Jan

Paid forum posters wanted.

Freelance writers needed to do ghost writing.

Writer wanted to write-up descriptions for real-estate website.

Garden writers wanted to write up short paragraphs.

Real estate copy writer wanted.

Transcription gig. Data entry into word from audio interviews.

Freelance translators wanted. Continuous jobs.

Freelance writers needed. Upto $100 per article.

Reality TV show review writers wanted.

Got blog? Get paid.

NYC Publication looking for a freelance writer.

Snarky non-fiction writer wanted.

First person essays about garden & hearth wanted.

Laptop Correspondents

The MSM is doomed. It's the dawn of a new age of citizen journalism, where politicians are blogging and every blogger is a local correspondent. With a camera in every mobile phone, wireless internet and laptops, everything from Saddam Hussein's execution to Britney Spears' new boyfriend is being reported live by 'laptop correspondents'.

As of now, it goes straight to youtube, and spreads virally. There's not much pay involved. Just fame. But that's about to change. Where the audience goes, so do the ad dollars. And where the ad dollars go, the jobs follow. Just as blogging and google news pulled away ad dollars from print magazines, laptop journalism is peeling away jobs from MSM magazines to local writers.

Time, Inc. is about to cut a 150 jobs across it's array of publications. All these 150 jobs are about to land in the hands of local correspondents working from home with a laptop and a mobile camera. No office expenses, no heathcare, no retirement benefits. Only a fat check per story, pictures and videos blogged in.

My point with all this bloviating? Get up off your butt, get a mobile phone with a camera, if you don't have one already. Go wireless. And start writing and submitting stories, pictures and videos from in and around your neighbourhood to various print magazines. It's the in-thing. And you'll be the latest recruit to the army of laptop correspondents, working from home for Time, USA Today, US weekly and of course, your own tiny blog.

So just who is hiring laptop correspondents? Click here and here to find out more.

Dear Limey Writers

No, I didn't make a mistake. This is about English writers who managed to stuff their own feet solidly and completely into their own crevices.

"Visit an American university, bump into random students in the corridor and loudly call each one ‘asshole’. Then measure their reactions. This is what a team of psychologists did in a controlled experiment at the University of Michigan". Paul Robinson, starts off with inside the frying pan, and quickly jumnps into the fire.

Comments to his above post:

"This is complete and unadulterated Bovine manure. I'm from the North and if I was accousted and sworn at by a stranger I would feel compelled to give some instruction in manners, and I would do it with my boot."

"Hmm, another conclusion to the study could be that Northerners 1) accept that they are assholes or 2) they are too wimpy to stand up for themselves."

And in yet another case of the Brits landing in hot water, just before the 2004 elections, The Guardian organized something called Operation Clark County, trying to get their readers to send letters to voters in Ohio and convince them to vote Democratic. Here's a few choice responses to the letters:

Dear Limey assholes

"...Each email someone gets from some arrogant Brit telling us why to NOT vote for George Bush is going to backfire, you stupid, yellow-toothed pansies ... I don't give a rat's ass if our election is going to have an effect on your worthless little life. I really don't. If you want to have a meaningful election in your crappy little island full of shitty food and yellow teeth, then maybe you should try not to sell your sovereignty out to Brussels and Berlin, dipshit. Oh, yeah - and brush your goddamned teeth, you filthy animals..."

Consider this: stay out of American electoral politics. Unless you would like a company of US Navy Seals - Republican to a man - to descend upon the offices of the Guardian, bag the lot of you, and transport you to Guantanamo Bay, where you can share quarters with some lonely Taliban shepherd boys.

To read all the replies to the letters, visit The Guardian.

First Chapters

So how's the epic novel about the inter-galactic warrior and his trusted space turtle probe coming along? Finished? Sent it off to your favourite publisher? Your publisher forwarded it to Jay Leno's writers? Well, now's your chance to get your work of art published. By means of the 'First Chapters' contest for wannabe writers, being promoted by Touchstone / Simon & Schuster and Gather.com.

The New York Times has a conspiracy theory that the First Chapters contest is a publicity stunt by struggling publishers, struggling writers and struggling book stores to try and revive their fortunes online.

C'mon. As 'American Idol' proves, it's a good learning process, both for participants and the audience, in this case, the readers. Chapter by chapter, when you fight to be one better than the other writers, it crystallizes your thinking, shows you what you did wrong at each stage. So you correct your mistake at that stage, and try again in another contest. You go one stage up.

End of the day, or maybe a couple of years, your writing will have improved beyond recognition. You get expert advice from publishers and acclaimed writers, you pit and hone your skills against your peers and, in the process, get your own 2 minutes in the limelight. So what's not to like about it? Course, it would be great if you were to win the darn contest....

Visit Gather.com to learn more about the 'First Chapters' contest for new writers.

Freelancer, By Choice

Why are you a freelancer? Maybe because you want or have to stay at home. Maybe because you want to explore your creativity. Maybe because you feel your boss is not paying you as much as you would get freelancing. Or maybe because you can't get hold of a salaried job in your chosen profession.

Whatever the reason, fact is, you're a freelancer. Now you have to live up to your hopes and justify your decision to quit the rat race. What's in store for you? Here's a few previews which offer some insight.

Surviving (and thriving) on $12,000 a year by Donna Freedman
"Make no mistake: I'm poor by choice, because I needed to change my life....Last year I survived on a number of here-and-there gigs: freelance writing, work-study, baby-sitting, mystery shopping, resident manager (read: janitor and handyma'am) of my apartment building, paid medical research and writing for the community-college newspaper. (I was the oldest living cub reporter.).....

Time and again I have found that when I need something I should "put it out in the universe," which is also known as "prayer." "

Please, please, read the full article. It's better than anything I can ever say to you. This is not something which a writer has written. This is Donna Freedman's heart and soul, poured into paper. And here's a prediction for you. She's a winner and she's going to strike gold, sonner or later.

Searching For Balance by J. Scott Wilson
"....we simply had to get our credit cards and other debt paid off so that we could begin moving forward with our other life plans. She picked up some extra work and I hung out my freelance-writing shingle in a big way....In the process, much of the rest of my life went in the toilet. The yard fell into disrepair, my household projects collected dust, and I went to the gym twice in four months...."

Again, please read the full article. If you're writing freelance for clients on the web and you don't know what day of the week it is, you probably need to read this article.

Freelance Nation by Alice Main
"For some electronic journalists, freelancing is a temporary fix. For others, it's a choice....Yet many who take those freelancing positions expecting to slide into full-time work find it's not always easy to make the transition. Others who freelance because they like the freedom and variety must weather the lean times without much of a security net."

Classic case of the confusion freelancers face when they give up the coziness and comfort of an office cubicle. The freelance world is a big place with lot's of oppurtunities, but it's also very competitive, where the wrong approach can set you back years.

Ultimately, what it comes down to is this. Regardless of why on earth you want to be a freelancer, you will have to struggle. Period. End of the day, you'll be successful if you work a lot, sacrifice a lot and most important, you win only if you really want to win. Like Donna Freedman and J. Scott Wilson and Alice Main.

Freelance Jobs 10th Jan

Here's today's freelance jobs:

Associated Content is now offering a fixed price of $8 per article ( for some topics ). Click here for more details.
Transcription gig. Audio to word. Click here.
Copy writers for movie poster wanted. Click here.
Ghost writer wanted to write part of a book. Click here.
Another ghost writing gig. Civilian contractor in Iraq wants to dish. LOL. Halliburton must be quaking in their boots. Click here.
Movie reviewers wanted. Click here.
Black writers wanted. Hmm...Politically incorrect title. Well, click here.
Writing intern wanted. Work from home. Click here. Note of warning: It says 'Paid postition available. Must earn it.' That's a red flag. I may be wrong. If so, I'll update this post. Let's see.

Ok. That's it for now. Where's that book you were supposed to be writing? Uhh..It was recently involved in a tug-of-war with reality. Reality won.

Someone shoud tell MSM writers suffering from the block that you don't to go around, hat in hand, searching for a topic to writer about. The writing, and the inspiration, is inside you. And it can be really beautiful when you pour your heart out. Here's a great example. The piece is about nothing. It means nothing. It talks about well, nothing. And yet, it's way better than anything I've read in the past 24 hours.

Freelancers - Follow The Money

With the internet in phase II of online commerce, and google driving the boom, it's time to stop learning and start earning. Enough probing and testing the waters. Grab hold of what you have and start hammering until it starts dripping gold.

I have been through three rounds of making money on the internet and hitting it big. So trust me when I say that it's time now. First round, 1999-2000. Dmoz was just starting and begging for editors. No one had 'links' pages back then. And I made a lot of money, doing exactly what I'm doing now. Writing pages and finding links. Needless to say, I blew all the money I made.

Then I started again. This time, focusing on niche industries and vertical portals, or as we say, vortals. This was before blogs and youtube. When linkbacks were still the in-thing with SEO's. I used my previous experience and helped a lot of online companies make it big. I still can't belive how big some of them have become. Needless to say, again, I didn't save a penny.

We are now in phase three involving local search, web 2.0 and other forms of bringing the internet closer to real business. The web is about to undergo one more round of changing clothes before the curtain rises. You have about 6-8 months, before the whole revenue model of online commerce goes into a tailspin.

Now would be a good time to step back, take a look at what's making you money, and follow it. Drop everything else. Devote all your time to building the successful model. And if this sounds too generic, here's an example. You're making money from a site where you have links to products from sponsors. Start looking into how you can implement local product search and web 2.0 into your web site. Meaning a visitor can click on a product and find the best combination of a store close to him and with the best price. Ask the visitor to enter his location to get directions from his location straight to the store. Ask him if he would like a virtual tour of the store. Ask him if he would like someone from the store to call him right now, while he's online. Zap a visitor with this technology while it's still in it's infancy, and before the big guys make it common-place. Do it properly, and you could end up as one of the big guys.

News Roundup

The Cleveland Plain Dealer says "The Sobol Award, a controversial new literary contest that offered agentless writers a $100,000 first prize and a contract with Simon & Schuster for the top three winners, has been canceled." Why? Lack of entries....

"One of the world's iciest literary feuds, sealed with a punch-up in a cinema 30 years ago, is thawing as Colombian Nobel prize winner Gabriel García Marquez and Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa prepare to publish together", says Giles Tremlett, writing for The Guardian.

There's a course on how to write a flawless non-fiction book. Interesting copy. "Are you a writer? Yeah, so is everyone else in this city." Ok. Fine. So why should you join the course? There must a million other sites with the same kind of stuff. Here's one reason why? The hot one in the pic is your instructor. That's why. Click here to umm...see more.

Things You Didn't Know About MSM Writers - And Their Wives

In the course of the last few days, I was asked by a client to do research on the personal lives of several big media writers, syndicated columnists and sundry internet pundits. Not only was the assignment highly challenging, but I now have the added advantage of giving my blog readers a sampling of all the dirt I managed to dig up. So bring out the popcorn, sit back and enjoy.

I could write a small booklet, if I focused on all the aspects of my research. But since this is a tiny blog, I would like to put the spotlight on one recurring theme which I found in writer after writer - Their wives. Most, if not all, political correspondents and opinion columnists, have wives who are, or were, working in the Administration at some point of time. Before I pontificate on the physcology behind this, I'll list a few sample cases.

Exhibit A : George Frederick Will ( Political Columnist - Washington Post )
Was married to one Madeline C. Marion, whom he divorced in 1991. Just before the divorce, he purchased a new house a few blocks away from his home. And his belongings were found dumped on the street in a pile, with the sign "Take it somewhere else, buster!" Link.
After a rumoured affair with Lally Weymouth, he then married Mari Maseng, a lobbyist for the 'Japan Automobile Manufacturers' Association, Inc.'. Mari Maseng Will, it seems, was a Reagan speech writer and communications director for the Dole campaign. She operates a lobbying firm called Maseng Communications. I'd dearly love to share more, but that would be crossing the line...

Exhibit B : Ronald Brownstein ( Political correspondent - LA Times )
On May 7th 2005, he married Eileen Nicole McMenamin, who is now a communications director for Senator McCain. Which means that if McCain becomes President....

Exhibit C : Jonah Jacob Goldberg ( Syndicated Columnist )
This is one MSM writer who's not only surfing on his wife's achievements, but the sad fact is that the only reason he's a columnist today is because he hung on to his Mom and took a free ride to celebrity based on her own stardom. The facts? His Mom - Lucianne Goldberg - One of the players in the Clinton-Lewinsly scandal. His wife? Jessica Lynn Gavora, a Washington, D.C. writer. And senior speechwriter for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. And chief speechwriter for former Attorney General John Ashcroft. And senior policy advisor at the Department of Justice....

I could go on and on and fill a couple of pages of exhibits like this. But my point, which I think I've made, is that I find this marriage of media and politics fascinating from a couple of angles. First, is the fact that it seems to be a symbol of the writers' arrival among the MSM stars, to be able to marry one of these administration speech writers or communication directors - A sort of trophy wife. Second, it goes without saying that the careers of both partners goes into an upward arc after the marriage. Despite any protestations of innocence, the fact remains that politicians and editors will be handling both husband and wife with kid gloves, in order not to annoy the other partner. The combined power of an MSM column and a staff position in the Administration or Congress can never be underestimated. Even the implied and unstated power.

The Little Book of Plagiarism

The title, the author and the subject are all intermingled and have hopelessly tangled threads which make it difficult to sort out the whole thing. If you're baffled, don't worry. So am I. And if you think I'm batty, don't worry. I am.

Title of the book? "The little book of plagiarism". Author? Richard A. Posner. To be released on? Jan 16th 2007. Fair enough. Posner is a judge. He churns out books and papers by the bucketload ( 47, to be accurate ).

Problem? Introducing the 'Little Book of Plagarism' by Marie Stinson
21 October 2003. Uhhh...Co-incidence? Maybe....Two or more people can and do come up with the same title. True. But I'd say that when you're writing a book on plagiarism and you're a judge and an expert on intellectual property rights, you take extra care to avoid even the perception of impropriety. All Posner, one of his assistants, or someone at his publishers' had to do was google up the title. Was that done? You tell me.

Here's a line from Amazon's Editorial review of the book. "Posner focuses a lot on student plagiarism and seems to think all students should be considered suspect; schools that don't subscribe to detection software like Turnitin, he says, are 'naïve.' "

He's talking about software to detect literary theft. He's an expert on intellectual property theft. Maybe he thinks using the same title as an existing e-book to sell his own book isn't plagiarism. Considering he's the expert and I'm infamous for stealing peoples' titles for my own posts, this does sound rather hypocritical of me. But then, there's different standards for a judge, professor and a published author, as compared to a lowly freelance writer.

Freelance Jobs 7th Jan

Here's today's freelance jobs:

Uhh...We have a chef who wants to dish on his clients. Needs a ghost writer. Click here.
Copy writers for internet startup wanted. Click here.

Wanted a grant writer who knows beach soccer. Click here. You know, this is exactly what I was talking about in the previous post about grant writers. These are probably a bunch of kids who want to skip school and frolic on the beach, and they need someone to help finance the party. One of their bright sparks probably came up with the idea of posting an ad on craigslist, looking for grants. I suggest you apply for the gig, get their names and contact their parents. These kids need a thumpin.

Persuasive writer needed for grants. Click here.
Data entry gig. Work from home. Click here.
Freelance PR writer wanted. Click here.
Got blog? Get paid $7 per post. Click here.
Freelance writers wanted to write-up educational material. Click here.
Excel data entry gig. Click here.
Web content writer wanted. Click here.
Creative writing submissions for online mag. Click here.
Book reviewers wanted. Click here.

Part-time customer service role. Work at home job. Click here. Note: If they end up asking you for money, do not pay a dime! I'm not sure I want to post this job, but there's a good chance it may be legit....

Writer and web marketing pro looking for a sidekick. Click here.
Freelance writers wanted for writing short articles and radio scripts. Click here.

Progressive ( as in loony lefty ) researcher and / or writer wanted to help write the umpteenth book on the success story of the Democratic party. Funny how all of them are crawling out of the woodwork to stake a claim to their piece of the pie. At this moment, the realization strikes me that there's very little difference between right-wing and left-wing pundits. I miss the old days ( that's before Nov 2006 ), when only true believers in progressive ideology were brave enough to be proud of liberals and liberalism. Ok. Rant over. Back to the jobs....Click here.

Part time, work from home job. I'm not sure what they're looking for. I'm not even sure they know what they're looking for. Still, click here.

That's it for today. Let me know if there's something you want, but don't see here. I'm kind of overloaded, which makes it hard to include all kinds of freelance jobs.

Non Profit Grant Writing

This is a guide, with links to, non profit grant writing and writers. In short, a howto for finding and conning various charitable and government organisations into throwing you a few scraps out of their vast pools of funds. 'You' being a non-profit&able...uhh...not-for-profit organisation yourself. Or an impoverished writer.

And as such, putting my time and formidable googling talents where my mouth is, I'm offering my services, free of charge. I'll do your research and point your nose in the right direction towards the easiest suckers you can find. You get someone else to write for you. Believe me, you don't want me to write your grant proposals.

Listed below are some great resources for grants and grant writing. For both non-profits looking for help and writers.

NPGuides - Non-profit guides are nationally-recognized free sample grants and grant-writing help for non-profit organizations.
712Educators About.com - Learn all about how to write effective and powerful grant proposals. Also, find out what grants are available.
DrCharity - Grant writing resources for nonprofits including government grants and foundations.

Grant listings and grant writing resources for writers

FundsforWriters - Sources of grants, fellowships, contests, awards, markets and nonprofit partners.
Poetry and Writers Magazine - A highly selective listing of grants, awards and prizes in poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction.
Writers Services - Many of the bursaries listed are relevant to UK residents but some are available worldwide - Please check eligibility.
PlacesForWriters - Resources for funding, awards, and prizes for writers.
International Writers Grants - How to get grants, how to write grant proposals, and most importantly lists of grants that are available to writers and photographers.

If you feel your non-profit&able organisation deserves a link on this page, either post your link in the comments or send me a mail and I'll add your link to the list above. Just a thought, though. Ayn Rand did say that the biggest sin was working without an intent to earn money. But then, Mother Teresa would disagree with that. And given a choice between these two ladies, I'll take the mother.

This post is useless without a list of grant writing jobs for grant writers. So here you go:

Monster job search - Grant writers
Indeed.com - Grant writer jobs
Jobster - Grant writing jobs.
And the motherlode of grant writing jobs from Craigslist.

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