Thanks to everyone who voted in the most recent poll. It’s clear. You’d like us to share more about the other content mills, where to get paid to write, and tools to better accomplish the goal of writing online. Thank you for not demanding more blogging or less advertisements, because those are probably not going to change much. Maybe old Patty will send us a missive from the beach. But first things first. The Gigya Toolbar is gone. I’m not even sure why it was there in the first place, and it sure was easy to remove.
Your interests are also where we see the direction of the site here headed. I think the next poll may be on a new name for the establishment. Longer term, you will see a section in the forums devoted to each of the freelance writing sites where you can get paid. If anyone has ever been to Howard Forums for telephone-related discussions, they have an excellent model. I’d like to even develop a ranking board of some sort that dynamically ranks the ‘Top Ten Freelance Writer Sites’ based on a set of established criteria (pay rate & frequency being at the top). As a writer, I am personally interested in tips, tools and workflows to address my own needs. There are a few browser plugins that certainly ease the pain of writing online, and GreaseMonkey is an awesome extension to develop custom scripts. We’ll do more to address this in the coming months.
How to Be Patrick in Spain
Patrick’s been soaking up the sol and sangrias in Spain. He left me to mind the store. You can see how effective I have really been. There may be a few more hiccups as I complete migrating the site to a new host. Trying to juggle too many commitments, and dropping the ball at most of them. I am attempting to write regularly for 3-5 different paying content sites. Plus this blog, and another significant project that I’ve completely neglected. I’m starting to come around to Patrick’s way of thinking. The process at Demand Studios is so formulaic and cookie cutter for a writer, that it’s possible to grind through articles faster than anywhere else, and they pay better and more frequently. If only they got their CE process streamlined.
Along with neglecting my duties at DSS, I’ve been neglecting my writing duties at DS. I picked a good week to punt over there, based on all molasses their IT department dumped on things. I will gladly take the two extra days on articles that I was looking at another release-and-catch maneuver. I did that once this week when the DSS back-end was excruciatingly slow. I’ve learned that there’s no guarantee you’ll get your articles back if you do that. It’s more hit and miss than I’d like. That whole process of article extensions deserves it’s own blog post.
I’ve been focused this week on Break Studios. Have written about them previously, and will share more in the near future. Also, DMS has released the first amendment to their IPO filing. Still no ticker symbol set, so we’re not that close to an offering. They’ve probably just seriously hit the road with their roadshow. I would like to write a series of articles breaking down their IPO in further detail, and hope to trickle those out over the coming weeks.
