AOL Seed Still In Business?
The guys over at Business Insider have posted an article speculating on the current status of AOL’s Seed freelance writing platform. The article notes a “commenter” on another article has said that there are no articles to claim and that he thinks that Seed is defunct, to use BI’s words. There is even a note in the article about how the writer has reached out to the AOL spokesperson to get some comment. Of course, they could save themselves some work and innuendo by just checking the home page of Seed.com, which states under “Current Assignments” that: We are in [...]
Writing and Hubris
The mere act of writing involves a certain amount of hubris.Writing something, and particularly publishing something, assumes that what you have written is worthy of being preserved and subsequently read. In other words, your thoughts are valuable enough for others to read about them. It is not arrogance or folly, per se. After all, writing invokes no more requirement that others take in your thoughts than speaking them aloud does. However, there is something to be said for how one assumes it is worth taking both the additional time and effort to commit ones thoughts to a more permanent form. [...]
Being Too Helpful?
From time to time I find new resources for writers online. After several years of being a professional freelance writer and having a full-time writing business for a few years now, it is actually rather uncommon for me to find a new writing resource that brings something to the table that I’m not getting from somewhere else. Today, I found this writing blog via a tweet from the former owner of the Freelance Writing Gigs blog. I think I have come across this woman before, but not this particular resource. Anyway, I decided I’d like to follow along for a [...]
Writing Jobs Search Websites – CareerBuilder
One of the toughest things for any professional writer, whether an experienced freelance writer or someone just starting a new freelance writing business, is to find new writing jobs. Even freelancers with a full project pipeline need to keep an eye on the future in order to ensure a steady stream of income from writing lest they find themselves evicted from the comfy work at home office and back into the faux-leather chairs of corporate America’s cubicles. There are many ways to find freelance writing jobs ranging from using job boards and writing forums dedicated to freelance gigs and writing [...]
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 [...]
Freelance Writing Gigs Website Sold
I’m not going to get all emotional or anything, but something a little bit sad happened today that happens to hit home on a personal level for me as a successful freelance writer. When I first started my freelance writing business a few years ago, I did not really know how to go about finding freelance writing gigs without cold-calling businesses or waiting for someone who knew I was a good writer to ask me to write something for them. Obviously, this is a good way to both starve to death (waiting) and to crush your soul (cold-calling). For months [...]
Like My Posts? I do. Facebook Button Update
Have you added the Facebook LIKE button to your website or blog yet? Multiple big name websites, respected media outlets, magazine websites, and more have added the Facebook code snippet that publishes a "Like" button on your stories or websites. I even added them here on the freelance writing blog, although I did not add them on the ArcticLlama freelance writing business website. Having like buttons all over a professional business website just didn’t seem the way to go. I also added the new LIKE button, which can also be set to display RECOMMEND instead, to some of my other [...]
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 [...]
Get More Search Engine Traffic By Changing Your Writing … for the Worse!
To get more search engine traffic there are a lot of things you can do. You can read all about search engine optimization until you go blind. You could even hire an SEO consultant if you have money to burn. You could comment on a thousand blogs a day with a link back to your website. You could research keywords with Google’s keyword tool, the AdSense keyword tool, and the AdWords keyword tool. And, don’t forget about the Google keyword research tool. What the–? Has Arctic Llama lost his mind? Aren’t all of those tools listed up there the same [...]
Copyright Law Understanding Is Not Easy
Understanding copyright law is not easy. It certainly is not as easy as some people make it sound. The context, situation, and even media type all factor into how copyright applies, or does not apply.
