Work From Home Couple

When I first started writing for magazines and newspapers, I couldn’t rely on Google to led me to a quick answer. The Internet wasn’t even a thought in the minds of most of the general public. When I needed an answer, I had two choices: Go to the library or call someone. I usually picked up the phone and made a call.

Today, though, I run into a growing number of writers — well, I run into them online, at writing groups and on message boards — who seem terrified of the phone. In fact, I’ve found several freelancers who only take on stories that they can do entirely by scouring Google.

This makes me a bit nervous. First of all, it leads to too much recycled and superficial stories spreading across the Internet. Secondly, it’s lazy. A reporter’s job is to call people. You can’t call yourself a real freelance writer if you never take on stories that require you to call anyone. If you’re not interviewing people, you miss out on the fun anecdotes, the wonderfully witty quotes or the telling examples that make up real journalism. If you’re only writing stories that you can glean from a 15-minute Google search, you’re not a journalist, you’re a hack.

I recently read an exchange on a freelance-writing message board from a “journalist” who couldn’t quite understand part of an assignment letter she’d received from her editor. The journalist had send the editor an e-mail, but hadn’t heard back. Someone suggested she simply pick up the phone and call. She explained that she’d rather not; She preferred to interview people and talk with people by e-mail.

Again, this is terrible! When you interview people by e-mail, the results are usually wooden replies. When you talk to someone by phone, you get so much more. You get their tone of voice. You can tell if a question ticks them off or if it makes them nervous. By giving an interview subject time to think over an answer for hours, you get the safest, dullest possible response. Of course, interviewing someone in person is even better. But that’s a subject for another post.

Don’t be afraid to pick up that phone. It’s good for the reporting industry and good for you, too, as a writer.

I remember the predictions: The Internet is going to be a boon for freelance writers. Just look, everyone said, at all the new markets for writers it will bring.

Well, the Internet has been around for some time now, and I certainly don’t see too many writers — a few, maybe, but not many — getting rich from it. Instead, I see a lot of writers pumping out a whole lot of online content for not nearly enough dollars.

That’s been the problem with writing for most Web sites. Sure, they need writers, but they’re not willing to pay much, if anything, to them.

I was reminded of this when I stumbled across two online job postings, one for HubPages and another for Helium. Both were looking for writers. And both promised payment.

For writers unfamiliar with the sites, both are filled with short, blog-like stories written by freelancers. Problem is, the payment — at least the vast, vast majority of it — comes from things such as page views, ad clicks, etc.., In other words, writers will earn pennies from their stories.

One writer who posts on HubPages mentioned that she made $210 so far for the 120 stories she’s written. She seemed excited by it, and thought it proved that the site generated income for writers. Well, $210 for 120 stories is pretty awful pay. Unless this writer was able to pound those stories out in half a day, and if she could do that, I’d hate to read those stories, then she’s getting ripped off.

If you’re trying to break into freelance writing, avoid sites like Associated Content, HubPages, Helium or Constant Content. Never agree to write for payments based on Adsense clicks or page views. Most times, you’ll get nearly nothing for your efforts. Better to approach your local paper. At least then you’ll get paid something. It won’t be much, but it won’t be pennies per story, either.

It’s funny to watch the commercials for the upcoming season of American Idol. The part that makes me chuckle is when the announcer says that American Idol is the show that brings America together?

Really? American Idol does that? I had no idea.

I admit it; I do watch American Idol. I understand it’s not particularly good viewing. I understand, too, that lately the American Idol winners haven’t exactly been setting the music world on fire. And, finally, I understand that the show isn’t exactly good for music in general; Manufactured stars are never a good thing.

But there is something addictive about the show. And you do start rooting for people, despite yourself.

To claim, though, that a talent competition brings America together is amazingly egotistical. I’m making a big deal out of nothing, again, I understand. But this sort of untruth has become so common we don’t even bother to think about it. Maybe it’s the editor in me, but I prefer even my hyperbole to be a bit on the accurate side.

Sometimes something just strikes you as particularly strange. So it was last night at a local pizza place. My wife and our two kids were just getting ready to order when my wife asked the waitress the obvious question: “Do you have any specials tonight?”

The waitress gritted her teeth and replied: “Everything’s special here, every day.”

I was a bit stunned. The answer wasn’t rude. It was actually kind of clever. But it was obvious that our waitress didn’t really want to say it. She had that look on her face, the one that says: “I’d rather rip out my own eyes then say this corporate-mandated slogan one more time.”

I’m sure the waitress wanted to say: “Sorry, our owners are too cheap to ever offer any specials.”

This isn’t a big deal, of course. But it struck me as funny. When you think about it, there are very few times when people really say what they mean. Look at the presidential campaign that ended last year. Weren’t you rooting for Barack Obama to say, just once, “John, why in the world did you pick Sara Palin to be your running mate? Don’t you want to be president?” Or maybe you longed to hear McCain say something like, “Barack, I’d like to punch you in your smug face, you know that?”

No, instead we get sound bites. Or advertising slogans.

I suppose it could be worse. Our waitress could have said: “No specials tonight. Everything’s pretty lousy. As usual.”

In my last post, right below this one, I wrote about the tough 2008 I had on the freelance-writing beat. I wrote more stories than ever, but still made less money than I did in 2007 or 2006. The reason? More of my assignments paid lower rates. The big payers were few and far between, thanks, I guess, to the rough economy and general upheaval in the publishing business.

Despite that, though, I still believe that nothing beats both working from home and working for yourself. I do both, and I know I’d hate any alternative.

Here’s why. One of my freelance jobs involves editing a commercial real estate trade magazine in Chicago. I go into the office once every two weeks or so. The job is a big one, and comes complete with health insurance. But going into the office is one big drag.

That’s always been the case. But it’s worse now. Now I have to listen to all the salesmen, who are struggling desperately to sell ad space in the magazine, sit in their cubicles and sigh. And if they aren’t sighing, they’re reading aloud dismal statistics from the Wall Street Journal or CNN. It’s enough to make you want to hang yourself by your necktie. (Good thing I’m one of the few male employees there without a necktie!)

If that’s not bad enough, I often receive visits from an assistant publisher who’s especially despondent. I can’t blame him, though. He’s the one in charge of firing people if sales don’t pick up. The last time I went to the office, late last week, he stopped by my cubicle twice to shake his head and tell me which rival magazine or industry publication decided to shut its doors.

I know it’s bad out there. Believe me. My wife and I were considering refinancing our mortgage loan. Turns out, though, that our home is no longer worth what we paid for it three years ago. There go those potential savings!

But as a work-from-homer, and as a freelancer responsible for my own well-being, I think I’m in better shape to survive the downturn. I can always work harder and more creatively. I can change my strategy if things aren’t working: Instead of searching for higher-paying jobs, I can change up and take on as many lower-paying, but easy to complete, writing assignments as possible. I’m learning that you can’t force the writing industry to change. You have to instead anticipate those changes and react to them.

It’s not a perfect system, that’s for sure. But it does beat the alternative. I wouldn’t trust any full-time employer these days.

Most of my income comes from the freelance writing I do for magazines, newspapers and Web sites. I was hoping that 2009 would be a better year than 2008 turned out to be. In 2008, I wrote like crazy but made less money than I did in either 2007 or 2006.

That really wasn’t in my plans.

So my hope in 2009 was to target higher-paying pubs, like the one I’m working on a story for right now. That story will pay me more than $2,500, the most I’ve received for a single non-fiction story.

Problem is, that very publisher sent an e-mail to its freelance writers yesterday with the subject line “tough times.” With a subject line like that, you know you’re in trouble.

Sure enough, the message said that from now on, thanks to the nation’s terrible economy, the magazine would not be assigning as many freelance stories and would not pay as much for the stories they do assign.

So, unfortunately enough, 2009 is starting out much the way 2008 went: My clients are struggling. That means I’ll struggle, too.

I’m still writing enough to pay the bills, but it seems to be getting tougher by the month. I’m fortunate in that I also have a full-time editing position that pays insurance for me and my family, so I don’t have to worry about that, at least for now.

I’m not giving up on my dream of writing less and making more in 2009. It just looks like it might not be either that less or that more.

Illinois government has been a laughingstock since before Christmas. That’s when our sleazy governor with the bouffant hair do was arrested for, among other things, trying to sell the open Senate seat vacated by incoming president Barack Obama.

Everyone wants the governor to resign. But that isn’t going to happen. Blagojevich, who’s been an embarrassment ever since taking office two — yes, Illinois voters voted him back in! — terms ago, is maintaining his innocence, despite overwhelming evidence that indicates he was using his governorship to make him and his wife rich.

Showing his defiance, Blagojevich recently appointed longtime political hack Roland Burris to Obama’s former seat. This was a shrewd move on Blagojevich’s part: Burris is black. He immediately picked up support because of this. Critics are also a bit muted partly because Chicago has such a long history of racial unrest. There’s still, unfortunately, a big divide between blacks and whites in the city. Chicago remains perhaps the most segregated city in the country.

So the news today is that Burris will probably get his Senate seat. This is disgusting. Burris should first of all be ashamed of himself for even accepting a nomination from such a tainted official as Blagojevich. Burris knows exactly why Blagojevich appointed him. The governor is using Burris to stick it to everyone who wants to see him locked up as soon as possible.

The news is disappointing, too, because it shows that despite Obama’s election, the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois is nowhere near solving its racial problems. I guess it was naive to think otherwise.

I’m thinking of smashing my TV. I accidentally (yeah, I know, I could have changed the channel, but …) watched an episode of VH1’s “Real Chance of Love.” After washing my eyes out with acid, I still can’t get the images out of my mind.

If you’re not familiar with this show, well, you’re lucky. It concerns two brothers, Chance and Real, who are looking for, yes, love. And they’re doing it by inviting several idiot women to their home to “try out” to become their real-life girlfriends. Or at least I think thats what was supposed to be happening.

I had trouble getting past the two “stars,” Chance and Real. For one thing, the two mush-mouthed brothers can barely string three sentences together. For another, they gave nicknames to all the female competitors, names like Cornfed and Lusty and Meatball. Yes, Meatball. Is Meatball Italian? That was my first question. Sadly, I did get an answer to this question from the show itself.

I’m always amazed at the absolute crap that VH1 puts on the air. But this show was something else completely. I’d declare any woman on the show the winner if she would shoot just one of the brothers. If she managed to shoot both? I’d declare her the winner of the next edition of “Survivor,” too.

Now, this blog post may not seem to have a lot to do with working at home. But because I do work from home, I’ll often sneak a peek at afternoon TV when I need a break. And that is where I fell into the “Real Chance of Love” trap. I’m thinking of swallowing the batteries of my remote control so that this never happens again.

Ah, yes, the first Monday after the end of the holiday season and everyone’s on suicide watch.

At least it seems that way. One of my freelance jobs is to serve as the managing editor of a commercial real estate magazine. Now, everyone agrees that 2009 is going to be one lousy year when it comes to real estate in general. So no one at the magazine is looking forward to that. But the folks here are especially cranky this morning.

I’ve already been accused, basically, of screwing the company because I didn’t have room to run a column in the magazine’s December issue. The column is running in the January issue, but that, apparently, isn’t good enough. If you look up one day and hear that Chicago is on fire, perhaps it’s because I didn’t run this precious legal column in December… or at least that’s what my salesman — who these days can’t sell an ad to save his life — would have you believe.

At the same time, another salesman has called to complain that I haven’t yet run the results of a riveting interview about a commercial broker expanding its office. Whew! That’s some exciting news, an office expansion. I think this particular salesman would like us to reserve the entire issue for this news.

Maybe I’m the crank today. I’m letting the magazine’s ineffective sales staff get on my nerves more than usual. It’s probably a case of the getting-back-to-work-full-time blues kicking in. And I’m sure I’m not alone in this funk.

Ah, well, tomorrow’s Tuesday. We’ll all be used to working again by then, right?

Last year was a tough one as far as freelance writing goes. I took on more assignments than I have in any other year. Yet I still made less money last year than I did in either 2007 or 2006, my two best freelance-writing years.

That stinks. I don’t like working all that much as it is. To do so without making enough money? That’s truly lousy.

So what will 2009 bring? I don’t know about you, but I plan on taking a new approach this year. Instead of writing like mad, my goal is to seek out higher-paying jobs throughout the year.

In 2008, I dabbled a lot in blogging. But blogs don’t pay all that well. That’s fine if it’s a blog that requires little research, but some of the blogs I ran in 2008 required me to actually speak to sources. That’s a lot of work for what, generally, is not a lot of pay.

Finding the higher-paying publications and Web sites is no easy task. And I don’t really have much advice on how to do it. So far, I’ve found one client that pays terrific, a regional city magazine in the Southwest. The magazine is paying me more than $2,500 for one story. It’s a dream assignment, too.

I want more of those. That way, I won’t have to juggle deadlines all year long. I won’t have to sneak in blogging late in the evening all the time. And I won’t have to argue with an editor over a story that pays a measly $75.

Will I be successful? In this economy, who knows? But I’ll try. And that’s all anyone can do.