Writers Looking for Markets?

Read this article from the Wall Street Journal Business Section
America’s Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire by Mark Bell with E. Kinney Zalesne

The Information Age has spawned many new professions, but blogging could well be the one with the most profound effect on our culture. If journalists were the Fourth Estate, bloggers are becoming the Fifth Estate.

bloggers who do it for a living successfully are 2% of bloggers overall. It takes about 100,000 unique visitors a month to generate an income of $75,000 a year. Bloggers can get $75 to $200 for a good post, and some even serve as “spokesbloggers” — paid by advertisers to blog about products. As a job with zero commuting, blogging could be one of the most environmentally friendly jobs around — but it can also be quite profitable. For sites at the top, the returns can be substantial. At some point the value of the Huffington Post will no doubt pass the value of the Washington Post.

Whether you are looking for extra income or a whole new writing gig -
blogging has to be explored. Already blogging? Stay tuned for a series
of extra income tips for writers coming soon on this blog.

Again- America’s Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire

May the muses be kind
But let me remind
It’s still up to you
Twitter’ll help too
And,
I’ll see what I can do.

- Val Spangler, Mister Senior Blogger
@SeniorTweet on Twitter.com
Senior Writer Blog
Senior Tweet Blog
Twitter Search Tools
Business Twitter Uses

I just watched a video of Jon Stewart interviewing Jeff Bezos about Kindle 2Kindle 2.
My refer came from reading, Book Lovers: Stop Whining about the Wonderful “Feel of Paper” written by Chris Dannon for the Fast Company Blog.

Please wait to read that until after you finish reading this post, you’ll be glad you waited.

Book lovers how do you feel about Kindle 2, the digital book device from Amazon?

Before we go on, as a lifelong bibliophile, I have a confession to make. I haven’t read a
paper based non-fiction book in over a year. Mea culpa, mea culpa!

Come on give a guy a break. I’m computerized and IM’d. Where I used to feel guilty
reading a book when I thought I should be doing something else, now, I feel guilty
because I’m not reading books. No excuses. I live in Mountain View, CA, a city with
an outstanding library and it’s not far from my home.

However, I stray ..how are YOU doing on the book reading front? Better than me I hope. My wife, who was raised in a book starved home environment, now reads
several times as many books as I. Mysteries mostly - good- hard cover books -
not paperbacks, but hard cover ones out of the library.

Kindle 2? Not for her. Not likely for me. For different reasons we are not likely to pay
for a device that enables you to have access to thousands of books (at $9.95 each)
after paying the $395.00 for the Kindle 2. She’s not a techy and we both like to hold
books to read.

I may be an “early adopter” for some business things but not for pleasure, if you can
callreading a book off a Kindle - pleasure. The convenience I can see and appreciate.
However, I would miss moving all of my hundreds of books one more time. Being a
mobile pack rat bibliophile is a curse with its own punishment.

For those of you who have your own Kindle, what do you miss, if anything, using
the device and what particularly do you like about it ?

For those of you who have not had your Kindle fire lit, what, besides the price, is
keeping you from digitizing a bigger slice of your world?

Have you written about these digital developments affecting the publishing world?
Should you write about them? Can you afford to ignore them? If you are well
established perhaps not. Otherwise,…??

Let’s hear your views - comment or let us know where you have written on this
subject. At least get your feelings out and deal with them by writing.

Me? I’m going to reminisce about doing research in the special collections of the
top floors of the U. of Michigan libraries and remember vividly the smell, that
special smell, of old books. I may even get out a couple history books that were
first published in the 1860’s or 1870’s on the life Sen. James G. Blaine (Who?) I’ll
show Bezos and Kindle2.

Well, by now, I am sure you have a strong sense of my feelings about Kindle 1 or 2.
And, even more so, about the continuing loss of independent booksellers in the face
of the chains, the internet and Kindle. I hereby solemnly swear that I shall never
purchase a Kindle. And, if given one, I shall donate it to the library because I know
it has voice delivery as one of its features and those who are sight challenged may
enjoy its use.

This turned out kind of ranty didn’t it? There I go again with cause for another
“mea culpa”.

Now, I hope you turn off your computer and go read a book.

Me? I’ve got a couple of more posts to write ..

- Val Spangler, Mister Senior Blogger
@SeniorTweet on Twitter.com
Senior Writer Blog (you are here)
Comics Cartoons and Creativity
Business Twitter Uses(coming March 1st)

Tweet! It may be good for your writing.

Whether Twitter will improve your writing or not - it’s up to you.. I think it may have an effect. However, I can be sure that you will make new friends and renew acquaintences from around the country and around the world - some you’d never meet otherwise - expand your universe - it’s great fun! One caution: keep the discipline to manage your time to write. Let Twitter add to your writing - not detract from it.