Bright Hub Shuts Down
Today, I received and email from the folks at Bright Hub. Sadly, Bright Hub is shutting down. Officially, Bright Hub and brighthub.com remain in business and the website will stay up along with all of the content they commissioned from writers over the years. However, revenue sharing payments will cease on December 15th and any new articles will be written internally or by a small group of writers who are contracted with on an “ad-hoc basis.” In other words, Bright Hub, as it pertains to freelance writers, is closed. The writer forums were also unlinked or deleted. I was able [...]
Entrepreneurs and Mobile Phones – Custom Cell Phones for Small Business
Unfortunately, this seems like an odd juncture for cell phones and mobile phone companies. Now that I can get current cell phone releases on the best cell phone plan for business owners, it would seem that all I need do is pick one that would be the best cell phone for a freelance writer. Too bad it isn’t that easy. The latest and greatest cell phones like the HTC EVO 4G and the Samsung Epic 4G are, not surprisingly, 4G phones and thus come with an unacceptable $10 per month premium. (That’s $120 per year extra per line, or $240 [...]
Best Cell Phone Plan For Entrepreneurs and Freelancers
Further complicating things in my search for the best cell phone for freelance writers is the fact that a few years ago I managed to snag a really great deal on a mobile phone plan. Sprint had an offer called SERO, which I think stands for Sprint Employee Referral Offer, or something similar. The original deal had a couple of options, one of which was 500 anytime minutes plus unlimited data and unlimited text, all for $30 per month. They adjusted it later to something less generous and then started doing something else altogether, but if you already have it, [...]
Cell Phone For Freelance Writer
With all of the hoopla surrounding the iPhone and all of the breathless worship of Android, a lot of entrepreneurs and their small businesses have been left shrugging their shoulders. As a professional freelance writer and owner of a small business, I don’t need to be able to play “Angry Birds” nor do I need any “fart apps” (??????) on my cell phone. What I do need is a way to check my email from anywhere, and when necessary, fire off a quick reply, usually something along the lines of “I’ll get back to you this afternoon.” I also need [...]
WordPress 3.0 Released
Those of you who are building your own freelance writing portfolio or producing a freelance writing blog to help increase your web presence may be interested to know that WordPress has released a new version. This update moves WordPress out of the 2.9.x realm that it has bee occupying for the last six months or so and brings with it numerous new features. As is standard operating procedure here, we’ll wait for a little while and see if there is any outpouring of angst before upgrading to version 3.0. If you want to make the move to upgrade WordPress 3.0 [...]
Webhosting Service Unbiased Comparison
Finding useful webhosting information is next to impossible. Most of the big, brand-name webhost companies out there offer very sizable pay to affiliates who refer people to their service. That means that almost every single comment on the entire Internet about which web hosting services are good and which web hosts are bad is tainted by a giant conflict of interest. I’ll try and spare you the details of how I know this, or why my freelance writing business and I are innocent (but, really I am.) If you happen to see any webhosting advertisements while you are reading this [...]
Thanks for the WiFi Starbucks
Years ago Starbucks put publicly accessible wireless Internet access in every store nationwide. It was overpriced, but that effort led to the proliferation of free WiFi in coffee shops around the country. For that, I raise a class of dark triple-shot low-fat grande mocha.
Private Browsing, Incognito Mode, and Privacy Mode Usage Respect
When Google released its Google Chrome web browser, it included a private browsing mode called Incognito Mode. When Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 it included a Privacy mode. When Mozilla released Firefox 3.0 it came with a Private Browsing mode. In all cases, these integrated browser privacy modes were met with almost universal derision. Most commentators called them Porn Mode, suggesting that the only potential use of private web surfing features was to hide the tracks of those who view pornography online. At the time, I suggest that people dissing privacy modes were small minded and that, perhaps, if they [...]
Do Frequent Updates Doom Writings to Obsolescence?
Today’s post comes courtesy of the guy/gal/folks who run PoeWar.com. If you do enough online reading about writing and freelancing you will eventually come across the PoeWar site. I remember it from my early days, and sure enough, it’s bookmark resides within my oldest links. Yet, I never really seem to end up at PoeWar on a regular basis, and it doesn’t have a spot in my recently reconfigured Speed Dial under "Business", "Writing", or "Freelance". That seemed odd, because it is a great resource with a lot of useful information. However, as I was getting ready to leave a [...]
Professional Freelance Writers Only
When we started the Arctic Llama professional freelance writing blog our missions was clear, to help inform, educate, recommend, and inspire both those who hire freelance writers and those who are, or wish to become freelance writers. Over the last several months, our little blog has drifted off course with all manner of posts regarding topics not related to either the craft of freelance writing, or the business of hiring and working with freelance writers. Usually, these posts were made under the auspices that they were about things that freelance writers or business owners might be interested in, even if [...]
