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Freelance writers seeking for paying markets have an opportunity in Bright Hub. What is the company about? What are the offers for writers and what responsibilities does the publish expect writers to perform? These and more are the focus of this paying market opportunity for writers.

About Bright Hub

Bright Hub is a technology based paying market for writers looking for talented writers to contribute to this fast growing online community. Writers are needed to offer their guidance to help people understand how technology affects their lives, work, finance, leisure, play etc. Subject areas cover more than 30 technology channels. If you would like to write articles that are approximately 300-750 words through online guides that will walk you through the process, then this opportunity is perfect for you. $10 is paid per accepted article. Other revenue generating opportunities are also available.

Writers Responsibilities

‘For articles commissioned by Bright Hub and requested by a Managing Editor or Contributing Editor, the writer will:

- Write articles based on the planning and analysis provided by the Managing Editor and the writing request and various creation and performance plans created by the Contributing Editor

- Work with the Contributing Editor on changes to articles in order to meet Bright Hub’s quality standards

- Promote and grow the popularity of articles through leveraging recommended search keywords and phrases and obtaining quality backlinks to written articles

- Update articles as requested by the Contributing or Managing Editor. Failure to maintain articles according to the article maintenance plan will result in the replacement of the consultant for that article with a different writer and a diversion of future revenues for that article to such new writer.’

How Payment Is Made

Compensation report is sent to qualified writers at the beginning of each month. Once a minimum of $20 is attained, payment will be sent through Paypal or check. Payment is only made if the minimum payout is achieved.

Faced with a mountain of content to create, you know you need help–but where are you going to get it? Expert writing support comes in three flavors: employee, freelance writer, and agency. Let’s look at the advantages and drawbacks of each, and give you a framework for making this important decision.

The benefits of hiring a freelance writer

Freelance writers are fantastically economical for quick-turn-around, one-off work. They are often guns for hire–rifles that can take aim at a particular copy project and nail it for you almost overnight. Most freelance writers work from home and have set hourly rates. (Some do charge by project.) Here’s a checklist of the kinds of projects that tend to be “best fit” for a copywriter.

Hire a freelancer if:

Your project is small–a brochure, an annual report, a couple of sales letters, a monthly newsletter, or a few pages of web copy. Your industry is well understood (the freelancer won’t need a lot of ramp up time). You have samples of previous writing to guide the writer. Your budget is limited. You do not have a recurring variety of work. You do not need marketing strategy–you know exactly what you want.

For the best fit, hire the freelance writer who shows you exact samples of the type of writing you’re looking for. That way, your project is taken care of in a timely and practiced manner by an expert, and you experience the best the freelance writing industry has to offer.

The benefits of hiring a writer

On the other side of the spectrum, sometimes you actually need to hire a writer on staff.

Hire a writer on staff when:

Your industry is complex and it will take weeks or months for one person to learn. You do not have a variety of work, but you do have a huge volume of the same kind of work, such as a lot of white papers or case studies, a lot of process documentation, tons of legal briefs, etc. You can guide the business writing strategy at a high level, but need the writer to execute judgment, too You have a budget of at least $70,000 (a starting salary of $50,000 for an inexperienced but credentialed writer, plus taxes and federal employer contributions of at least $20,000). You have tight deadlines–less than 24 hours.

Writers are like other professional service providers–although they may have a broad understanding of their industry, they tend to focus on sub-specialties. Hire a writer with a background that proves their mettle with the kind of work you need.

What’s more important than a full portfolio, however, is the right attitude and an understanding of your business. An effective business writer has the knack of empathizing with the reader, not their manager–that’s a key trait to hire for from direct marketing talents to technical writers.

The benefits of hiring a writing agency

Somewhere in the middle, is the option of hiring a business writing agency. Writing agencies hire a variety of expert freelancer writers and editors, train them in the agency’s standard process, manage them on client projects, and provide them with a steady stream of projects that suit their skills.

The agency environment allows writers to hone their abilities in a peer environmental benefit that hones the agency writer, and one that the lone freelance writer or employee has to make do without. Writers with agencies also tend to have access to education, software, and research databases that are less available to (or affordable for) freelance writers.

Clients of a writing agency are exploiting the bulk purchase advantage or economies of scale–a company that needs four white papers a year can’t afford to hire an expert white paper writer to sit on the bench the rest of the year, but through a writing agency, even a company that creates only one white paper a year can have a writer that specializes in effective white papers.

Hire a writing agency if:

You need a senior professional writer, but don’t find it cost effective to employee one of these professionals (who often command six figure salaries). You’ve got more work than one person can do, but not so much work that you want to hire three or four types of writers (i.e.,direct marketing writer, a public relations writer, a technical writer). You have a significant number of content development and copywriting projects. You don’t want to manage the writer directly–you’d prefer a level of consultation and project management to ensure excellent work from your writing team. You want to empower a “brand voice” across all types of content for your company You don’t want to train the writer–you want an established professional. You want the advantages of a long-term, recurring relationship, a group of writers that can grow with you. You don’t want the overhead, expense, training, and hassle of hiring more creative staff.

Hiring an agency in these situations makes sense because you’ll enjoy the benefits of:

A dedicated team composed of writers that meet your particular needs. A project manager who educates and enforces your brand with the copywriters on your team. A long-term relationship with a professional services firm that caters to you, and sees to your needs despite any turnover in your writing team. Cost effective rates that come from “consolidating” writing specialties. Tactical as well as strategic support for your business writing efforts (i.e., if you need to get a particular message out, a writing agency can often advise you on how and what makes most sense in addition to doing the copywriting).

I do not participate in writer’s block. Correct. I just do not participate. If there is a time when I sit down to write and nothing comes to mind, I begin right there. I write down that I have nothing to write about. And then I think, except. Ye s and it is that exception that I begin writing about. It does not matter whether that exception is an interesting topic or not. It is that exception that gets my creative energies buzzing and it is that exception that gets me writing again in a time when I thought that I had absolutely nothing to write about.

What do you do when you have writer’s block? Do you get up from your chair and go away from the desk? Do you just give up? Or do you insist on writing even when there is nothing? From experience I will tell you that BOTH of those solutions are quite acceptable but one of them is the true writer’s solution. If you have the blood of a writer, you can write a novel about a doorknob and then write three more stories about what it is like to be a doorknob, where to find the best doorknobs and what a doorknob’s job is in other countries. DO you see what I mean? Out of nowhere comes the idea for a story, for a an article or who knows, even for an entire book.

And all you have to do is to keep on writing. AND if you are a true writer, you write as you breathe not as you get ideas. You just write. Now, there you go. You have just read an entire article that I just wrote when I had a temporary writer’s block. And now I will put this article up for publication at the Ezine site. And prove to you that you CAN write even when you have nothing to write about. PLUS, not only that but someone will read what you wrote. You are reading it, are you not? So, go ahead, write when you have nothing to write about. Just write about writing and that will get you started and on the way to writing about other subjects. Trust me on this one. This works.

Just write!

There are literally hundreds of reasons for becoming an author. You can gain expert status in your field, expand your career opportunities, use the specialized information as a calling card for your business, and even pass down a legacy of knowledge to future generations.

Here are three compelling reasons to become a writer:

1. Become A Writer To Create Passive Income

I have enjoyed passive income since I was a 12 year old kid. I was the business kid in the neighborhood that instead of delivering papers myself I had several paper routes and sub contracted them to other kids in the neighborhood. I would collect the money from my subs each Friday and split the profits with them and never deliver a paper.

If you have passive income, you are basically earning money without having to put forth any significant action. Yes, you must write the book. But this same book that took you a month to write could earn you money for a lifetime. Aside from future sales and royalties, a book has the ability to produce a steady cash flow for your business through the sale of information products or services.

Your book can sell at anytime, day or night, weekdays, weekends and even holidays. If your title is listed with online bookstores, you can even earn money while you asleep. If you use your book as a marketing tool, your business can earn customers and sales without you having to continually advertise your company. Why? Because your book is a powerful marketing tool on its own. You can literally write yourself rich in information marketing.

2. Become A Writer Because People Need To Hear Your Unique Message

Most people don’t realize this truth but we all have a unique message to give to the world. We all have a different way of seeing and doing things and they are all important to share with each other.

What do you have to offer the world? You obviously have an idea for a book floating around in your mind or perhaps you have a manuscript that you wrote years ago sitting around collecting dust. Why? People need to hear what you have to say and, if your book can help them, you need to publish it.

Think about all of the books that are out there and what they have to say. Is every one helpful? No. Can yours be helpful in some way? If the answer is yes, do yourself and the public a favor by showing what you have to offer. Educating your readers with your own unique message will give both you and them satisfaction.

3. Become A Writer Because A Book Gives You Something Great To Anticipate

When you write a book, there is a lot of anticipation in how it will turn out. What will the cover look like? How will it feel to hold your book in your hands? What will it be like to see your name in newspapers and magazines as a newly published author? These are all exciting times for an author and you will soon come to know these experiences firsthand.

Beyond the actual publishing process, you will anticipate the opportunities that may arise as a result of your book. What type of career choices will become available? Who will you meet? What does the future hold? Will you be able to live anywhere you want without having to punch the time clock every day at work?

We all enjoy having something to look forward to and, if you are like most, anticipating the future with promise is a wonderful experience. Anticipation, alone, is something to look forward to. Don’t you think? Writing a book will create miracles in your life.

There are of course, hundreds of reasons to write a book. You’ll make money, have a richer more full life, you’ll achieve your dreams of writing and publishing a book, you’ll earn respect the list goes on and on. What’s keeping you from following your dreams?

Catchy Business Names are a sure fired way to get your Business noticed in a world brimming with competition. You need to use every trick up your sleeve to be the one that stands out in your chosen field.

Making the decision on what to name your business can be extremely frustrating. You could pay a sum of money for someone to come up with a name for you, but I feel your business name represents you as a person, just like your business does, and it should be something that you choose and feel right about!

Step 1. This is the most important step. You will need to decide if your business is going to stay with the product / service that you are currently providing or if you may, at a later date expand / add or change that range.

The reason I say this is because you will not want to change your name further down the road because the name you chose initially no longer reflects the business you have built and expanded on.

Example: You start selling designer socks and you choose a catchy business name around socks. You then decide to expand and sell other underwear ranges, your business name will not reflect the other products you sell, and this will confuse your market.

Step 2. Write down all the names you can think of that describes your business.

Example: Use different words like underwear / lingerie etc.

Step 3. This is where your business names ideas start forming. Go to Google and type in keyword selector tool. This will take you to a site where you can enter the keywords on your generated list and it will give you a list of related terms to your keyword.

The list also tells you how many people are searching for that term. This is a great indicator of the popularity of that term.

Step 4. Take a term that you like the sound of and put a spin on it. Catchy business names can be funny, unusual, weird, funky or just ‘different’ to the norm. Write down all the ideas you have and jumble them around. Use misspells. People always remember those! Miss letters out, e.g. ‘R’ instead of ‘are’.
Be inventive and step outside your comfort zone.

Step 5. Run the list you have finalised by a number of family and friends. Get a census together of the most popular names. You will probably find they will come up with some great ideas to add to your list.

Finally, when thinking up catchy business names, remember the effect of that annoying tune that you heard and can’t get out of your head. It keeps popping up and you can’t seem to stop singing it. Well apply that principle to finding your business names ideas and you won’t go far wrong!

What’s the first step to becoming a writer? You’d think it would be “write”, but it’s not. In speaking to other writers and from what I know of my own journey to becoming a writer, I’ve come to realize that the biggest obstacle for new writers is that they don’t think of themselves as writers. They have trouble developing the belief that they are writers and yet it’s something you have to do. When you haven’t developed that belief, that conviction, it becomes a source of sabotage–you don’t value your work enough to give it the time and the space it needs. How do you come to think of yourself as a writer, especially when you’re not earning a paycheck as a writer? Here are a few tips:

What Happens When You Write?

If you want to be a writer, I’m assuming you feel you have something to say and a strong desire to say it. You may not know how you’re going to say it or in what form (poetry, novel, essay, etc.) but you know something is there. Okay, you pick up your pencil or pen or you sit down to your computer or typewriter. Write something. Whatever you write, just make sure your heart is in it. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t have to be neat. It does have to be expressive.

Next, as painful as it may be, you have to show this writing to someone. It can be a friend, it can be a family member. Then, pay attention to what happens. Did the person reading your work cry, laugh or get angry? If so, you did that! It means you can have an effect with your writing. It’s worth something. You have to keep going!

A teenager recently wrote to me concerned because she’s writing fiction and she’s worried her mother will read it and get upset because she thinks it’s stuff the teenager really did. On the one hand, that is a bummer to have to explain yourself to your mother, but on the other hand–wow, that means the young lady’s work is believeable and effective. That kind of feedback is hard to ignore. It’s powerful motivation to keep you going–if you take the time to notice and honor that it’s happening. I once had a writer say to me, “I don’t know if my stuff is any good. I just know that when people read it, they cry.” I told her you can’t get a message any clearer than that kind of response. Now she just has to listen to it.

Cultivate Silence

If you’re having trouble thinking about what it is you have to say, it may help you to spend some time each day in silence. Some writers pray. Some meditate. The idea is to get used to clearing your brain space and tuning in to your inner voice. You’ll also be more aware of those little scraps of possibility floating around in your head that can later grow into big ideas.

What Do You Want to Write? Experiment!

It’s okay if you don’t know what you want to write about. It may take a long time journaling for you to see what keeps coming up for you. And it may take longer to find the form that fits you best. I went from poetry to essays to long-form letter writing before I settled on fiction. It took me years to do that. It doesn’t mean I won’t do anything else in those genres, but what I’m doing right now just fits. I encourage you to experiment until you find the form that suits your writing best.

Continually Remind Yourself You Are a Writer

As you develop your belief that you’re a writer, it’s helpful to set up reminders that will jog you back to that brain space that you need to be in to write. When you sit down to write it’s easy to get distracted and starting thinking about doing laundry or what’s for dinner. You’ll want to have something either on your desk or on the wall in front of you that reminds you to get back to work and that you are a writer.

It might be your list of values that remind you that writing is a part of who you are. It may be simple words such as CREATE or INSPIRE. Isabel Allende, who writes beautiful, historical novels will sit in her office with photos around her, old photos of people who essentially represent her characters so she’s surrounded by them. That puts her back into the brain space of her book because she is sitting in their world; these people are all around her.

What world do you need to be in? The journey you take to get there will be one of many you’ll take as a writer. I hope these ideas will help you take those first steps. What you write–and where you go from here–is entirely up to you. Bon Voyage.

Man has harnessed the FREE power of the wind for thousands of years via sails on a sailing ship, and for now the wind is still free therefore why are we not harnessing the power of the wind more?

We have giant coal fired power stations spewing great quantities of carbon into the atmosphere and nuclear power plants that have the potential to spew who knows what into the atmosphere, and yet we as a society go along with this. The general public can see the folly in this, but still allow big corporations and the politicians that receive campaign donations from these large corporations to continue to operate these monsters.

Why not harness the power of the wind to generate power, after all the wind has been around since the beginning of time and will continue until the end of time. That is more than can be said for the non-renewable energy sources that we are now using up at an alarming rate.

The problem up until recent times has been that renewable energy has been expensive to produce, but with the rising cost of fuel oil and gas, renewable energy is becoming a viable alternative now. Also more research is being done to help reduce the cost of renewable energy.

What most people don’t realize is that a wind powered generator can be produced very cheaply by a person that possesses a few home handyman skills. So if a person can generate power from a windmill cheaply and the energy to drive it is free, gee even a politician should be able to understand the benefit that provides to society. I am sure there will be a committee set up to determine how government can tax the people for wind power.

A single wind turbine is probably not going allow you to disconnect from the power grid, but if you generate part of the power that you use for free, then you are not only helping the environment but also your finances. There is always the option of building more than one turbine or maybe a bigger turbine to generate most if not all of the power that you need.

I am sure that you are like me and worry that during the last 100 years (which is such a small part of history) we have decided to use all this non renewable energy, with not much thought for the next 100, 200, 500 years, yet most of us have literally on our doorstep a renewable source of energy - lets use it.

Freelance writer jobs are made for those of you that have ideas in your mind that continually tumble around, simply waiting for a fresh piece of paper to be written on. If you are the kind of person that loves a good story, and you happen to have many of them in your head or on paper already, then this type of job is for you.

One version of the freelance writer jobs is writing stories for books. These book producers offer freelance writer jobs for people to send in their stories, either long or short, for publication as a whole. The jobs for the most part, of this kind, pay by the each job contracted. Sometimes some publishing companies are searching for ghost writers, and they offer freelance writer jobs in the hopes of finding a good writer to do a biography or other kind of book or novel. These ghost writers doing the freelance writer jobs are still their own bosses, and work their own hours the same as any other freelance jobs. There are also jobs for article writers and content producers for magazines and websites, which will require more non-fiction and informative work.

Freelance writer jobs can include any kind of material, from fiction to nature, and sports to pets. The number of companies offering these types of jobs is almost unbelievable; however the freelance writer jobs are not always clear on the content desired. If you are searching for good freelance writer jobs, and find some that look promising or fit a certain guideline for you, try to check into the background of the company offering the jobs. There will be some information if you look in the right places. With the scam artists and dishonest people online today, sometimes trying to find freelance writer jobs can lead to a negative ending if you happen to come into contact with a fake or disreputable company. The better way to find freelance writer jobs online is to bid for them at a freelancing website where you bid by contract. Some providers have long-time jobs available.

Those freelance writer jobs that are genuine are ones that you have no trouble contacting the company, and they are very up front about their intended amount of compensation, and the terms surrounding the freelance writer jobs they are offering. There are also web sites online that offer assistance for checking into companies that are offering freelance writer jobs and other ones as well. These web sites aid the consumer or prospective employee in finding the company’s background, and whether or not there are trustworthy.

Finding a freelance writer job may seem like a daunting task, but it is really quite simple to do. Visit a freelancing information page, like Telecommuting101.com for example, and follow their instructions to ensure that you don’t get burned by a non-paying buyer. Most freelancing websites will allow for safe and secure escrow payments as well, which will help you out immensely when choosing a job. Not everyone is talented to be an artist, but if you can make money doing something you love, then freelance writer jobs are just the right mix for you.

It’s finally done. You’ve finished your first novel after many years of painstaking work. You’re sure it could be an international best seller. Your friends, family, work colleagues and just about everyone you know are very enthusiastic. Yet before long, your manuscript has been returned by at least ten publishers, complete with a form letter giving you no clues as to why they didn’t like it. The process can be extremely frustrating and at times like these, its tough to know where to turn.

A professional manuscript evaluator will often provide you with a detailed written assessment of the content of your work, which may include comments on characterization, the setting of the story, your use of dialogue, the believability of the general premise, the structure and plot, the language employed and the research undertaken. The evaluator will give a summary of the strengths and weaknesses, if any, of your writing, along with comments on your writing technique, format, technical ability and the market potential of your story. They can offer advice on how to develop your manuscript further and may even be happy to provide responses to specific questions that you may have about your manuscript, its marketability to publishing houses and the potential readership.

Writing is by nature a solitary occupation and can be a lonely business, without the benefit of cheering fans on the sidelines. A professional manuscript evaluator is someone with whom you can consult, ask questions, send your work to and receive constructive feedback, a guide to help you with your writing as you try to build your career as a professional writer. Having your work independently evaluated gives you with an unbiased opinion, helping you to tighten your manuscript and fix problems you may have overlooked.

Writer’s block is commonly regarded as the main reason why creative writers don’t write as often, as deeply and as abundantly as they’re truly capable of.

It’s a phrase that for writers is greeted with the same dread as a 9 year old boy feels when told “Your Great Aunt Mabel’s coming to stay this weekend, and you know she’ll want to give you a big kiss and a cuddle.”

But whilst young Jimmy has to pretty much grin and bear that wet smacker from his Aunty, there’s plenty we can do as creative writers to avoid and severely reduce the effects of writer’s block.

The biggest step in this - and the most powerful reason why we have writer’s block in the first place - is all about what we believe.

The way our minds work is to give energy and importance to what we focus on, what’s most in our thoughts.

If you’re anxious before an exam, an interview, or a visit to the doctor, and some well meaning friend says: “Whatever you do, don’t worry…”, what effect does this have?

Yep, it causes you to worry MORE. Our mind can’t really focus on the “don’t”, all it hears is the key word in the sentence - “worry”. So that’s what it focuses on.

Much like if I say to you now: “Try not to think of blue dog on a bicycle”, what is it your mind will immediately focus on? That’s right, Fido the blue two wheeled wonder dog…

So naturally this exact same principle applies to your creative writing and your attitude towards writer’s block.

If you’re always thinking “I’m not going to get writer’s block, I’m not going to find it difficult to write, I’m not going to struggle to have ideas…” then the message getting through is: “writer’s block… difficult to write… struggle to have ideas…”

So what’s the solution? How can you NOT think of suffering writer’s block, without thinking of suffering from writer’s block?

The answer is to REPLACE the negative words with more positive and helpful alternatives. So instead of thinking “I’ll run out of creative ideas”, as soon as you notice this thought appear, replace it with something like “I find it easy to have all the creative ideas I ever need.”

When you catch yourself thinking “I’m determined not to get writer’s block”, instead turn it around to “I write freely and easily”…

Try this from today, stick to it, and within a week you’ll notice the difference in your attitude to creative writing and (I’ll whisper so you don’t hear this and start thinking about it again) writer’s block…