Moving to a New Website

I've finally decided to go ahead and purchase a domain name for this blog, and to move it on over to my hosting service. The new address is www.contentwriterslife.com. I hope you will update your bookmarks and join me there :)

Another Freelancing Source

I recently found out about another site that is fairly similar to Constant Content. This site is GhostBlogger.net.  I just joined the site, so I cannot report how good or bad it is, but I will be submitting my first article later today.

The pay structure is 3.50 for every 100 words, which is nice. You also have the option to set your own price for each article that you submit. The site puts their 30% cut on top of your price, so when the article is purchased, you get the amount that you set. There is no set payday...you can cash out when you want to, as long as there is at least $25 in your account.

You have the option of writing for requests for buyers, or on any topic that you choose, just like Constant Content, but there is no way to see what the buyers are buying, or what they are searching for. It doesn't have as many features as Constant Content, but one feature that it has that CC does not have is the ability to write the article directly on site - in fact, you have to either write it on site, or copy and paste your article into the box.

When I have a chance to see how it all goes, I'll write a fresh review of GhostBlogger.net. In the meantime, I've got work to do!

My First Book in Progress, Indecision on Back Burner

So, today, I am starting work on my very first, full length book. My book - not a book that I am ghostwriting. A full length book - not just a short report or mini book. I won't mention the title or the subject at this time. I wanted to start this project some time ago, but one thing was stopping me from moving forward. The details.

I was getting far too wrapped up in the details, and those details had more to do with what I would need to do after the book was finished than it did with the actual work of writing the thing. For instance, I have no idea whether I should sell it as a Kindle eBook, or go a different route. Should I sell it only as an eBook, but not a Kindle eBook, or should I go with print? Should I sell it as a Kindle eBook and in print?

I finally woke up and realized two things.

1. I can't sell something that I don't yet have, so there is no point in determining how it will be sold at this time.

2. I could wrestle with these decisions from now until the day that I die and never reach a final decision. I am a Libra after all, and we are notorious for being indecisive.

So, with a much clearer perspective, I've put all of those thoughts and decisions on the back burner and I'm moving forward. I'm going to write, and I'll work out the details later, when the book is finished.

There is Writing and then there is Writing

Not everyone who thinks that they can write can write well enough to truly call themselves a professional writer. Sadly, those who think they can write, but really can't, insist on calling themselves professional writers anyway. It's even more unfortunate that this fact actually has a negative effect on those of us who actually are professional web content writers.

How does this affect us? You may think that this means that there is less competition if another person cannot write well, but that isn't true at all. You see, if they are willing to get all of the facts written down on any given topic, regardless of spelling and grammar errors, and offer that to content buyers at a very low, cut throat rate, the buyer will buy it - especially since it is sold as a full rights license piece.

When a buyer has full rights, he or she can do whatever they want with the written work. Because the work is factual, but shoddy in terms of grammar, spelling, or sentence structure, the buyer is going to do one of two things with it. The first option is to load it up into MS Word, and run the grammar and spell check on it, simply clicking the mouse to make corrections, and ending up with a decent article that they can use. The second option that they may choose, or even incorporate with the first option, is to go over to any number of freelance sites and hire another writer, or so-called writer - to rewrite the original article, or the corrected article.

Fresh or original articles always cost more than rewritten articles. The research is done, and there are countless writers who will happily rewrite articles all day long for bottom of the barrel rates. So, in the end, the buyer not only gets a half decent article, but overall, he or she probably only paid five or ten bucks total for that article...if that much.

This is how it affects us. Those low rates and the content buyers willingness, patience and ability to make something out of complete garbage in order to get even lower rates. Unfortunately, the only thing that good writers can do about this is to continue to write quality content, with the knowledge that there are still content buyers out there who care about the content that they are using on their sites. Sadly, those particular content buyers are a dying breed.