The Ultimate Non-Paying Writing Gig

As a freelance writer, I have seen alot of writing scams but I think I have seen the lowest of the low today. Whilst I was researching exercises that will help sciatica (been suffering lately with it), I was directed to a website for women`s fitness. As usual when I have stumbled across a new website, I checked their article submission guidelines. The article submission guidelines tried to entice the writer by stating that their submission will  "reach out to potential customers and change their life for better. You can now reach out to millions of women all over the world and help them make better choices through our paid article submission service."

Fair enough, some individuals have a passion and want to share it with others however, when I got to the bottom of the submission form, I noticed the payment button. This website wanted the writer to 'pay' to submit their article on their site. It was a nominal charge but still this is absolutely ridiculous! This goes back to my previous blog that explains when a writer provides free content to a site that will generate revenue from that said article, the writer is enabling the website owner to prosper and the writer gains very little other than some exposure if the article is linked back to the writer's personal website and the website visitor actually clicks on it.

On another note, I submitted an article query to a prospective market and I got excited when I received a quick response. The editor informed me that he had visited my website and blog and admitted that his publication did not pay contributors. He expressed interest in my article but could only offer me a bio and a link to my website. He acknowledged that I probably would not be interested in this type of compensation. Although he was correct in his assumption, I was thankfully that he was upfront with his compensation policies and let him know that if he changed his policies to contact me. Although his payment policies didn't match my expectations at the present time, things can change. No point in burning bridges when you may cross the same bridge at another time.

Until next time...happy writing.

Find Jobs on Twitter

The other day, I read an article about finding writing jobs via Twitter. The article stated that there were job opportunities for writers on the twitter network; jobs posted by other twitter subscribers. Personally, I do not have a twitter account nor am I too familiar with it so I cannot say whether the claims were true or not. Truthfully, I have been known to call it tweeter not twitter until I was politely corrected by my two teenaged sons.

I did some research and discovered how to look for jobs on twitter so I guess it is a start if you have been trying to access job postings on twitter. To view job postings, go to twitter.com, in the search box enter one of the following :

@Microjobs
#tweetmyjobs
#job
#jobs
#hotjobs

A list of job tweets will appear. You can also use a variety of key words to search such as freelance writing jobs, writing jobs, etc. This will produce a whole slew of results which will direct you to other twitter postings.

While I was researching job hunting on twitter, I came across a few articles that I found somewhat informative:

The Beginner's Guide to a Job with Twitter
http://jobmob.co.il/blog/beginners-guide-find-a-job-with-twitter/

12 Tips to Finding a Job On Twitter
http://www.penn-olson.com/2009/09/14/12-tips-to-finding-a-job-on-twitter/#

If you have a twitter account, and have mastered finding writing jobs, please drop me a line and let the rest of us in the secret to searching for writing jobs (or any kind of jobs) on twitter.

Until next time....keep writing