Bright Hub Cutting Back Too
Recently, I have noted that Seed.com has shutdown. Then, it seems that Demand Studios has shut down for all intents and purposes. Now, Bright Hub, one of the first online publishing sites I ever wrote for, is cutting so far back that many writers are no longer able to claim any article writing opportunities and those that can have few choices to pick from. Bright Hub is the latest of the online content publishers to essentially admit defeat in the wake of the Google Panda update. I mentioned earlier this year when I wrote about whether writing for Bright Hub [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Is Examiner.com Worth It For Writers?
Although it was not my intention when I started writing a blog for freelance writers and businesses who hire freelance writers, a lot of the new readers here at the ArcticLlama freelance writing business blog come from people searching for advice on where to write online for money. In particular, people search to find out whether or not it is worth it to write for Demand Studios and if Guru.com is worth it, and lately, whether or not writing gigs on Elance.com are worth it. (I have a review of a how to make money on Elance ebook coming up [...]
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 [...]
Demand Studios Increases Pay For Writers
As long time readers of this blog know, I’m a big fan of writing for Demand Studios for certain things. While I don’t think that it is worth it to write for Demand Studios as your sole source of income, or for even a big part of your freelance writing business revenue, Demand Studios assignments offer a unique combination of flexible scheduling, fast pay, and ease of projects that is tough to find elsewhere. That makes Demand Studios good to write for when you get those 2:00 am can’t sleep nights. If you can’t sleep, you might as well make [...]
Yahoo Styleguide for Web Writing
Over at Freelance Switch, there is an interesting article about Yahoo’s new stylebook being published in an effort to help establish writing standards for online content. As the article correctly points out, most sites currently follow the journalistic rules and suggestions found within the Associated Press Stylebook, or AP Stylebook. The conventions laid out within the book are collectively known as AP Style, although they do not formulate an entire style and layout like MLA style does. Unlike MLA Style or other academic styles, AP Style is not so much a structure to be followed or grammatical rules to live [...]
Guru.com Discontinues Freelancer Rank Will Now Sort By Earnings
Post by Brian E Nelson – In an email notice to freelance members of Guru.com (also here), the company announced that it was ending it Freelancer Rank system. The notice says that “upon closer examination,” that Rank is flawed and out of date. Further, it states that there is no legitimate way to rank the wide variations in skills sets that individual professionals bring to Guru when the bid for freelance projects. As most of you are aware, I have never put too much effort in to Guru. After considering is Guru.com worth it, I came to the conclusion that [...]
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 [...]
