Moronacity Freelance

I made a change to my Links list, to the right, and I think you might be interested in knowing why.

Removed Links

I don’t want to promote web publishers that pay very little and are not worth a writer’s time, unless that writer is a hobbyist.

• Associated Content: It is nearly impossible to make a decent residual income with Associated Content, these days. Upfront fees are very little, as well.
• Examiner: I am going to resign from my Examiner position. I simply am not making that money. Unless a writer has a popular topic, such as Twilight, there simply are not going to be enough hits to make a difference. Since the new search changes with Google, page views have been down for many, and generated income is barely worth the work put into writing a title.
• Helium: This is a web site that many writers don’t want to be associated with. In order to do well with Helium, one must not write well and must spend all of his or her time rating other articles and posting in the forum. There are some potential upfront fee articles that pay well, but the winner of a rating’s contest is the one who gets the prize. No, thank you.

New Link

I just added a link for Elance. While I haven’t gotten any jobs, yet, I have only made five contacts. I will put forth more effort and see what I can do. In the meantime, I believe Elance is worth a try.

One of the most popular topics of discussion at the Suite101 forum is the time it takes to produce an article.  The following is a response I wrote to one of those questions.  I never his the “Submit” button because I realized that it would make a great article for this blog.

It probably takes me about 75 minutes from start to finish to complete a Suite article.  Like everyone else, I have a system.  There are some guidelines I use for myself:

• Write what you know. I write health and biology-related articles because that is what I have experience with, both academically and professionally.
• If you can’t start freewriting within 15 minutes, walk away from the computer.  It shouldn’t be that hard to start writing something.  Another idea I use for finding a topic is to read other author’s articles related to my area of expertise.  Sometimes, I find some sort of misinformation that spurs me to write a rebuttal that turns into an article.  It’s almost magic!
• Once a topic is chosen, write down a working title in Word (I use Microsoft Word, so that will be my example).
• Write four or five subtitles; this is essentially writing an outline beneath the title.
• Write paragraphs using a freewriting method.  I may write things that aren’t exactly accurate.  That’s okay.  This is a first draft.
• Verify questionable information with sources.  I look up the points I’m a little fuzzy on.  If I find that I’m wrong, or I find more information to add, then I just found a source that I can add to the article.
• Copy and paste the whole article into Google AdWords and figure out which keywords are best to sprinkle into the article and to use in the title and subtitles.
• Find a photo.
• Proofread.
• Post.

This sounds like a lot, but it really goes quite smoothly and really can be done in 75 minutes after you get into a routine.  It took me a couple of hours to write each of  my first 10 or so articles.  I just had to figure out what worked for me and I had to learn to recognize which battles I should give up on for the sake of keeping my hourly pay up.

Someone in the Suite forum recently told me to use my long-researched efforts to produce several articles.  My mind is slowly returning from the land of mush that was created by the flu, so I am going to start practicing this so I can learn new things, keep it interesting, and easily publish unique articles on multiple web sites.

Tags: Articles, Writing Process

With my short-term success at Suite101 ($5 day after a little over a month and 42 articles) and my goal of securing a Featured Writer position with Suite101, I decided it was time to update my look.  It was time to replace my Red Jacket Cycling Team photo with a more professional photo for my writer biographies with the different sites I write with.

I started with a shower, gelled my hair, and tried on a couple of nice shirts and some jewelry.  I did my make-up – moreso than usual.  I usually don’t wear really thick foundation, eyeshadow, and mascara, but I did the whole shebang to get a nice look.  I even forewent the lip balm for lipstick.  My face was literally a work of art when I finished with it.

I tried photographing myself in a few different rooms.  I finally decided that the bathroom was the best place because the lighting was perfect.  I draped a bed sheet over the mirror behind me and proceeded to photograph.  While obtaining the right facial expression wasn’t necessarily difficult, getting a photo with the hair looking good was more difficult.  I photographed myself wearing two different shirts and the following are my favorite photographs:

I’ve decided to use the first photo for fun stuff, like Facebook. The second photo is my new professional photo.

Tags: Photo, Writer Bio