For the sake of no hard feelings, I will call this person Ms. Magoo. She posted an ad in the Writing Gigs section that mentioned she had ongoing writing assignments available and that new writers were welcome. Being a newbie, I emailed a brief letter of interest as well as my Associated Content link. She responded the same day saying that she liked my writing and the job she had in mind for me was going to pay me a whole $10 for just a total of 500 words. The catch was that this was a copyrighting assignment that was due in 24 hours. The client was a fairly large player in the candy business and for those who are not familiar with the industry like I was at the time, copywriters make $25-plus an hour. What I would learn later on is that sometimes they take on too many projects and end up passing it on to others who can help them meet deadlines.
Like a good workout, I appreciated the experience but in less than two days I knew that Ms. Magoo was not going to be a part of my writing future. For one, I was robbed of my 24 hours to finish the assignment with her constant emails about how I was doing and when did I think the job would be finished. After the job was completed and approved by her, I did not receive the entire amount promised via PayPal. There was a delay and it was short by $0.73. She said in her email that there was a problem being worked on but in the meantime she had more work for me. I took it in good faith and after reading the guidelines, replied (in less than 15 minutes) that this was not possible. Immediately, I got a stern message from her saying that my word was bond. I explained calmly that I knew nothing about the product (post-Atari 7200 gaming systems) and even if I did research I could not make the next day deadline. She replied with many compliments and other soothing words but no $0.73 so I thanked her and went on my way from there. Pimps are everywhere and must be avoided at all costs.
Self-Publishing
In the past several years, women's magazines that have stood for more than food, fashion or gossip have had a hard time staying afloat. Even with subscriptions, two feminist magazines betrayed me a while back by giving my information to a reproductive-rights group (my guess is that they pay the magazine's bills at the end of the day). So in creating my business, I followed advice that was given to me about marketing - use a tool to create an image or story behind the product.
Blogging, is the new way to place our words out there for the world to see. With the right blogging software, you can choose a pre-designed template (if your HTML skills are little or none) of your choice have it up and running within minutes for little or no cost. As we all know, some use as a sounding boards to get matters off their chests, promote goods or services or even celebrity gossip. Writers can also use a blog to promote their published work. Just create hyperlinks to all sites that have published your best work on one page that anyone can access with one click. If you are looking to make a little extra change from your blog, then look into affiliate programs that may be compatible with what you are trying to convey. I stress that because some programs use adult-themed ads that may be a conflict of interest. Same goes for blog directories.
If you just registered your blog with a directory that is not a familiar name like Technorati or Blogarama, be cautious for the reason that sometimes your personal information may be used in a way that you may not agree with or worse, your computer can be infected with a virus (it happened to me). Should the latter occur, remove all applications related to site you registered with. Their purpose is to bring more traffic to your site and nothing else.
For my "zine, I use basic (inexpensive) desktop-publishing software and while my "zine/blog is not strong on visual effects, it is image as well as reader-friendly. My priorities are information, humor and though I'm sure there are better illustrators (I mix my work with copyright-free images) out there or feminists periodicals with a more cerebral point of view, I feel there is room for everybody to have a voice. I have two columnists that get a small fee as well as room to plug their product. New writers are invited to come on board and everyone retains ownership of their work and receives a byline.
Payment comes from Google ads, ad space purchased and participation in other affiliate programs. I've also joined a few blog registries and am currently working to get into "zine distros (short for distributors or independent book stores) as well as develop relationships with like-minded business. The process can be arduous, especially when people are telling you to get some rest, worry more about your 9-5 or just go out on a date.
Staying Ahead
Stay aware of technology changes (This includes software as I recently wasted $10 on a PDF publishing program only to find I already had it when I added a toolbar to my word processing application). Read others" work. Keep notes on subjects you may want to research in the near future. Lastly, keep your deadlines -whether they are self-imposed or directives from someone else.
Last Words
I will wind down by saying that if you're looking to get rich in 2 years, you might as well get into real estate or play the stock market. If you like to read as I do and do not mind taking in occasional criticism and developing your writing talent while adding to your income, then writing online is a good way to get into bigger and better things. Whether you desire business writing, fiction, screen writing, self-publishing, or running a web blog - the opportunities are there!
