No free lunches; no free time

I’m just going to go ahead and put my main point right out there:

Quality writers: copywriters, bloggers, feature writers, web content providers, etc.–they don’t write for free.

 

I’m talking, of course, about writing for someone else’s financial benefit or gain. The reason? That’s easy. We don’t have time. 

 

If we’ve got something to say, and no market for it, it goes on a personal blog or website, or perhaps as a comment on someone else’s work as part of the inter-linking and community-building that bloggers are becoming known for. 

 

I was recently approached through Twitter by a somewhat-well-known gaming website that expressed in an interest in contracting for some content similar to what I do on a couple of other sites. I’m always open to new gaming projects; that’s one of my passions.  I sent a DM back to person asking her to contact me via email so we could discuss the site’s needs.

 

The email I received in return was a generic form letter directing me to a “Write for ****!” page on their site. If the details listed there weren’t troubling enough, the site users’ accumulated comments definitely were. Not only does this site offer strictly traffic-based pay for submissions, but they do not provide any means for writers to monitor that traffic. That’s basically just throwing money out an open window and hoping that a wind gust will drive it back in. 

 

In the comments, long-time site users expressed outright disgust with the quality of content found on this site. They claimed that the site’s feature and opinion writers knew very little about the industry, or even the specific games they were commenting on. After reading through some of these articles, I have to agree. Much of the published content I found fell into one of two categories:

a) It was full of spelling, grammar and syntax errors, often with no real point.

b) It was written with the intention of fueling arguments, which in turn would generate more traffic to the site. 

 

If there’s any one thing all gamers know how to do, it’s prove someone else wrong on the Internet. Seriously, we take classes in it. I personally hold several titles (and one excruciating defeat which we won’t talk about). 

 

So I replied to the email with a polite, “thank you, but I do not work without a contract specifying my fee,” and I couldn’t stop myself from suggesting a change in policy. This site would have to do one of two things in order to dig itself out of the hole it’s currently in. It could either begin contracting for and paying professional writers for its content, or it could open up as a purely “fan-submission” site. The latter would require acknowledgement that none of the content was produced by a professional writer, which might help beat back some of the more energetic pitchfork wielders. The former, however, is probably the only way to salvage the site’s reputation. I bet they don’t do either. 

 

i m a sensere person

i do my work with in given time.

Seriously. I was browsing Elance this morning, since they so kindly sent me an email to tell me that they’ve seen a 40% increase in projects posted over the last month or so. Work has been kind of slow through other channels, and I’m done with my BrightHub projects for the month, so I’m like, why not, right? Well, I’m scrolling through the projects posted under the “Writing and Translation” tab, and I see some poor soul who has mistakenly posted an offer TO WORK as a project that is up for bid. You get a LOT of non-native English speakers, residing in any one of a number of other countries, bidding a penny per word on big projects. They’re content mills, pure and simple, and I feel very sorry for anyone looking for professional copywriting or web content work who thinks they can get it for a penny per word. That’s just silly. Anyway, the confused soul posted this as a job up for bid:

Hi

I have an excellent writing and vocabulary skills. Writing is my passion and I love to express myself in writing. I can do a storyline article, poetry, and transition.

He also attached a resume. And if that wasn’t tragic enough, he’s got two people bidding on his non-existent project right now. The first of these, and I shit you not, is the title of this post.

USER NAME REDACTED

Pakistan  |  

Sponsored Proposal

i m a sensere persons. i do my work with in given time.

Yeah, I know, right? Well, here’s the second one:

USER NAME REDACTED

Pakistan  |  

I think some one’s writing tells what kind of a man He/She is, and I think every one knows himself how better he is.

Well, I definitely know MYSELF how better I am. I mean, duh.

So anyway, that’s my competition out there today. I just have to keep reminding myself that I don’t want to work with anyone who would fall for those types of bids, or who would accept the quality that one cent per word provides.

 

Typical day

So I’m having one of those days I dreamed of having, back when freelancing and working from home–making my own hours, pitching article ideas to publishers, writing some short fiction, taking on a web content project or two, all between sweeping the upstairs floors, doing laundry, cuddling my cat and squeezing in an hour or so of Darksiders–and it occurred to me, that yeah, this is the life. It’s not perfect, of course, nothing ever is, but this is sure rubbing shoulders with perfect.

It’s taken quite some time to get her, although not as much time as someone who would’ve started earlier, I suppose. And, there have been some real surprises. For instance,

• I haven’t punched a time clock since I left Lifestyle Lift in April 2009. That having been said, I am now WAY more conscious of how much time I spend working, writing, researching, pitching, applying, publicizing and emailing those prospective clients.
• I have to do my housework FIRST THING when I get up, or it has a tendency to grow tentacles and swarm me by lunch time. Why? Because if I don’t do it FIRST THING, then I’ll be easily distracted during a project with “I’ll just go make a cup of coffee–oh, I should unload the dishwasher since I’m getting a cup out of it–Whoops, looks like I got a little crazy with the CheezWhiz last night, there’s chili on the floor–Since I’m mopping the kitchen floor, might as well do the whole downstairs–Can’t mop the downstairs bath floor until I scrub the toilet, since I always slop water when–” And now my rate per word and earned per hour numbers are in that dirty first-floor toilet and my day is blown. Somehow, I can do that whole scenario above and get it done quickly if done FIRST THING, but try it in the middle of the day and it takes forever.
• No matter how busy I am, how much work I’ve gotten done that day, or what else I’ve accomplished, I ALWAYS manage to be playing something (Xbox, WoW, RIFT, Entanglement) when the Hub comes home unexpectedly for lunch or while on an errand. And it always makes me feel a bit like a slacker.
• Even though I often think I’ll spend the afternoon blogging or writing in a coffee shop, I’ve only actually done it twice. And that’s because we were still in the house in Novi where we had Comcast and our cable was out. Now that I’m one of those real A2 artsy people, you can’t even tell, because you can’t see into my house.

So anyway, other than salivating all over my Emich.edu email account waiting for a response to my grad school (and assistantship) app, I’m pretty much focused when I’m on the Internet nowadays. And even when I AM on Facebook or Twitter, I can justify it with a little linking and publicizing content. Or at least, so I tell myself.

 

Things I never would have known without the Internet

1. Catherine the Great did not, in fact, die while having sex with a horse.

2. It is, however, possible for a woman to do so.

3. Vomit and regurgitation mean two different things.

4. What vegans feed their pet dogs and cats (at least, those who will have a carnivorous pet) varies wildly, depending on who you ask.

5. Yoga is not just a form of gentle, no-impact exercise.

6. There are grocery stores who will deliver to your home.

7. There is never any need whatsoever to buy the strategy guide for any video game. Someone else has already played it, solved every question, and documented their efforts.

8. Most people are just dying to tell you their deepest, darkest secret. If they can do it anonymously, they will.

9. Barbie dolls are worth a LOT more if you leave them in the box and hold on to them for several years.

10. Hairspray will take ink stains out of fabric.

 

How to piss off a subscriber, for MMOs

1. Make me grind, and lots of it. I don’t mind so bad when I just need a few specialized drops, say for crafting and what not. But if I run out of quests and have no other way to level, I’m going to stagnate.

2. Make those hard-won crafting materials evaporate when my attempt to fashion a piece of armor fails. *coughaioncough*

3. Make me dependent on being able to find others to play with at every other turn. Public Quests and battlegrounds are tons of fun – empty PQs and BG queues up to an hour are not.

4. Make me wear stupid hats or clownish outfits, with no ability to dye, costume, or hide the worst bits.

5. Leave no breadcrumbs from one questing hub to the next. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, Game Developer, but there are MONSTERS out there that want to kill me. I’m not about to go investing off the beaten path, especially not when I’m so young and fragile.

6. Give me no easy way to manage my inventory. Aion had a “vend all grays” button, and you could easily make a macro in WoW to do the same. Best case scenario is an auto-sort, filtering all of the useful items into the first few bags, ordered by potions, gear, crafting mats, and what not.

7. Hide my trainers from me. This new trend of allowing search terms to be applied to maps and mini-maps is awesome. Especially when you’ve chosen to have the Rogue Trainer positioned in a bush behind the tent where all other trainers hang out. Yes, he’s sneaky – I get it. But if he wants me to get better at stabbing things, he needs to be a bit more accessible.

8. Backtracking. Yes, I know, there’s always going to be some of it. But for the love of all that’s unholy, let’s keep it to a minimum, unless you’re giving me a way to fast-travel between hubs.

9. Call yourself FTP and then make the game nigh impossible without the purchase of items from online stores, using REAL currency. I’d rather have a monthly subscription fee, personally. At least that you can budget for.

10. Make it impossible for me to catch up. WoW has been going strong for what, just over 6 years now, but there are still new players. How, you might ask? Well, they continually streamline the leveling process, reduce the amount of XP it takes to get into the most recent content, and make all previous end-game content irrelevant. That may suck for the players who always wanted to spend months in Molten Core, or bang their heads against the wall that is Magtheridon’s Lair, but those who just want to get to the current raiding, it rocks. Those of us who could give a crap about raiding at all don’t care, either.

 

 

What I’m reading, watching, playing

I’ve had a bit of break between projects and the new house, and I’ve managed to squeeze quite a bit of entertainment in.

Lost: The Complete Sixth and Final Season

So, I don’t know about the character’s, but I’M definitely lost. I mean, that’s a serious WTF? If you, like me, managed to avoid all the hype and spoilers while this was going on, then you’ve got to watch this series. Was it always awesome? No, of course not, but I never saw a season finale that didn’t leave me wanting to know what happened next.

SPOILERS: (highlight below text)

So what the hell, they’re all dead, right, but WHEN did they die? Couldn’t have been in the crash, because the elder Shepherd told Jack that his time with those people was the most important. And were they in two (or several) different realities? I dunno.

So as I’ve mentioned earlier, I got a couple of new XBox 360 games for Christmas, and I just put the second of those to bed last night – go, me!

Fable III

I had way more fun with this one than I did with Fable II, which, by the way, I never finished. Maybe I should go back to that one? Eh, well, maybe someday. For now, I’m happy knowing that I RULE ALBION!! MUAHahahahahahaha.

No spoilers here, all I’ll say is that I had a romping good time. Magic was much simplified from the previous two iterations in the series; by the end I could still only have one spell equipped per hand, although some of the mix-and-match combinations of elemental magic were awesome.

The weapons had a nice selection and I loved the ability to upgrade them through specific types of combat. My spouses were also much less demanding than in previous games, leaving me plenty of time for adventuring without the fear they’d abscond with the silver should I stay gone too long. Having the perks, upgrades, and abilities you can purchase with your points along the Road to Rule was a great addition to the game. My only real complaint was with the way the ending sort of sneaks up on you. Without spoiling anything, here’s my advice: just because the game is telling you have days and days left, STAY LIQUID. If you, like me, have all your assets tied up in real estate, you’re going to be a relatively unhappy bunny with the finale. Make sure you’ve got the required amount deposited into your treasury as early as possible for the best ending.

World of Warcraft: Arthas: Rise of the Lich King

This is the fourth in the Warcraft series that I’ve been reading since Christmas; at least, chronologically. It deals with the time following the 2nd War, with Mal’ganis’s release of the plague that caused the Scourge, Arthas’s fall into madness and succumbing to the pull of the rune-blade, Frostmourne, and Sylvanas’s death and transformation from High Elf to Banshee to the leader of the Forsaken.

Reading this, I felt no sympathy whatsoever for Arthas. I’m not sure if that’s from 5 years of being “for the Horde,” or if the author failed, but throughout it all I was never on his side. Seeing what Sylvanas was put through at his hands made me more loyal than ever to “my people.” Funny thing is, after Cataclysm launched I started a Worgen and played through that starting zone, just after taking an Undead Warlock through the opposing side in Silverpine Forest. I had the absolute toughest time getting into Lupretia’s (I know, right?) psyche, and I was barely even able to like her. The conflict with Sylvanas was just too close to my heart. So as cool as Gilneas was, I abandoned poor Lupretia in Darkshore.

Anyway, getting back to the books, seems to me that they’ve been written by someone far more emotionally invested in the Alliance’s viewpoint. That, or I’ve been wrong all these years and the Horde is not just “misunderstood.” Whatever, sometimes it’s way better to be evil.

 

 

Low fat cheese doesn’t melt

How do I know this? Because D and I have both been gearing up to start dropping some of our extraneous US’s, if at all possible. And the first step is always getting the kitchen ready. Out with the garbage, in with the low fat garbage. Blargh.

Anyway, what I really wanted to talk about today is RIFT: Planes of Telara. I got in on the Beta event this past week and spent a bit of time on a Mage. The cool thing about RIFT is their class system. You start out by choosing your faction, either Defiant or Champion. From what I’ve seen thus far, both factions have the same ultimate goal, saving their world from Regulus. However, the Champions are relying on their relationship with the gods, while the Defiants believe in the power of technology. Then you choose a “calling,” one of the four typical RPG archetypes: Mage, Cleric, Warrior, Rogue. Following that, you’ll have several different specializations from which you can choose three; these specs are called Souls. For instance, my Mage has a Necromancer, Warlock, and Dominator Soul all equipped.

As you level up you gain Soul Points, which are applied in each Soul’s tree. As you spend points in a tree, you gain access to that Soul’s abilities. It’s a pretty cool system, all in all. However, I think that might just be about the only thing new in the game; otherwise, it feels very Aion , but with more of WoW’s crafting.

Now, I know what you’re thinking–yes, we have been through this on more than one prior occasion. But each time I’ve delved into a new MMO, and by new I mean not WoW, I have been initially enchanted. Before I realize it, however, I’ve drifted right back due to some short-coming of the new title. WAR focused far too much on PvP (RvR, it’s called there). Aion let me down in the crafting and the lack of quests in the 20s. Cool that I can gain XP by using my professions, but totally sucky that I can actually fail in crafting and lose my hard-earned mats. LotRO had the most amazing community thus far; I really think I could have hung out there for a long, long time. But it lacked any sense of urgency. With no opposing faction, there really didn’t seem to be any kind of a rush to accomplish objectives. One may not simply walk into Mordor, but one doesn’t have to really RUN there, either. More of a leisurely sort of stroll into Mordor. My point is that an incomplete MMO feels like low fat cheese. It looks like it’d be satisfying, and sure, it’s pretty good in the beginning. Then you realize you’re choking down solid clumps of unmelted plastic-y cheese, and you think, what’s the point?

So is RIFT going to let me down, too? I dunno. I hope not. But then again, as D was saying the other day, it’s unlikely that any game will ever have the same pull over me that WoW did. And that’s actually a pretty relieving thought. After all, then I’d never have time to play of the other games I love, not to mention time to work, write, and go to grad school.

 

New policies and procedures

So we’re all moved in to the house. The old condo is empty and clean (except I’m pretty sure I forgot to empty out the cheese drawer of the fridge… should really get back over there and do that) and all of our stuff is now in some state of package within the new house. I’m managed to unpack and organize quite a bit so far: my half of the office, all of our clothes (in season AND out – getcha some), the entire kitchen (with the exception of dishtowels, for which I lack a space, and the aforementioned cheese), and the gaming systems.

I can’t remember if I’ve already mentioned this, but one of our “buying a new house and saving some money” type resolution-thingies was to give up cable TV in 2011. The Hub felt that he was losing great chunks of time due to his habit of sitting down to click click click through channels, and I agreed that yes, I would also be willing to make the sacrifice. Of course, that’s silly – I pretty much hate TV and always have; my television has functioned largely as just a monitor for my PS2 or 360. But anyway, when we moved in to the new house I told AT&T to gimme Internet, but hold the television programming, thank you very much. They think I am insane there, anyway, so whatever.

Anyway, we’d not missed it at all in 24 hours since we began sleeping here. THEN – the fraughter dropped by Saturday night and happened to mention that in lieu of cable, she and her froosinmate had opted to join Netflix. She streams instant content through her Wii. She also happened to mention that the Xbox 360 was capable of doing the same thing, it’s about a tenth of the price of cable, AND one can obtain the last season of Lost.

We’ve been on the Ann Arbor Library waiting list for Lost: Season Six for about 4 months now.

We-hell-ell. So I signed us up for Netflix and OMFG why didn’t we do this YEARS ago? You can get damn-near anything! We watched a Louis CK standup last night before bed, one of the Hub’s new finds, and I laughed my ass off. Only partially because of how funny he was, and yeah, he was hysterical. I was actually laughing  because UVerse can now suck it. Needless to say, our “No TV” policy has been amended to “we’re not going to pay $80 per month when we can watch seven full seasons of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” for $8.” The Hub was right when he said that this is a much more conscious thing, though – and he probably will benefit from not being able to click click click anymore. The one purchase I DID have to make was a Wireless Network Adapter for the Xbox. Because we don’t have the UVerse box near the TV, there was no convenient place to run an ethernet cable, but now that they’re making a NEW adapter for N Networks, this one is totally reasonable (only about $50). By the way, in case they lied to you, too, you totally CAN connect your 360 to your UVerse TV box via ethernet cable and have Internet access on it. I asked the installer way back in Novi when we first switched to UVerse and she told me, “No, it doesn’t work.” But it DOES.

The next policy, and this one I am personally instituting, is that we’re going to be a “no leaving dishes in the sink” kind of family. Now, this one is a reach for me – I grew up the second-youngest of six, in a family of kids that were alternately his, hers, theirs together, and somebody else’s (foster). My dad was a farmer who also frequently worked through a union as a heavy machinery operator (on road crews, he was the guy on the huge digging-thingy) and my mom worked as a secretary when she wasn’t going back to college for one degree or another. Our house was pretty much a disaster, 24/7, and not only were there usually dishes in the sink, but they were usually “soaking” in gross, room-temp, gray water with bits of food floating in it. Yeah, I KNOW, right? Anyway, I REFUSE to do that kind of thing in my own home, but I have always been a “throw the dinner dishes in the sink and load the dishwasher the next morning” kind of person. Then, we live out of the clean dishwasher until the sink is full again, empty the remaining clean dishes, refill the dishwasher, and repeat.

Not anymore. By god I am totally keeping my sink empty of dishes. I have rinsed and loaded every single dish we’ve used since we’ve lived here and I run the dishwasher every night and I empty it every morning in preparation for a new day of empty-sink living. Yeah, it’s only been 48 hours, but still. It’s happening. The Hub is not quite on board yet, but I’m going to break this one to him slowly. So far, I’ve been picking up his dishes, rinsing, and loading them myself. But eventually, he’ll be doing it.

The last new policy we have concerns the dog and her bathing habits. Lucy is going to be getting a bath every other week, and instead of in the upstairs bath where I like to enjoy a nice, long soak, it’ll be in the downstairs handicap-accessible shower. There’s a detachable shower head / hose thingy that’s perfect for washing a dog, and I’m really excited about this one. If the Hub resists, I’ll bathe her myself. I’ve done it before, and I’m sure I can easily do it this new way. Of course, she hates to be bathed so I’m going to have to figure out how to tether her in place so she doesn’t just run out of the shower area. Wish me luck on this one.

 

Resolutions and what not

Happy New Year, y’all. I’m not going out tonight – I haven’t in more years than I care to remember, but that’s just fine with me. There’s nothing out there I need right now.

The coming year looks pretty bright from where I’m sitting. Freelancing beats the hell out of 9-5 work, and I’ve got some great leads on new work coming in. I’m thinking about honing my HTML / CSS skills and trying to pick up some web design projects, as well. What I’d like to accomplish for 2011 is so far-reaching, I’m not even sure where to start. So, in no particular order, here’s what I’d like to have happen.

1. Get back into bellydancing. I’ve had so much fun with my new DVD (Totally Turkish – Belly Dance) and I’d really love to be doing it again. I’d especially love to FINALLY be able to master my zills, but hey, I’m not pushing it.

2. Have people over. For game nights, for dinner, just to hang out. I’m so excited about the new house, and having lots of space to do those kinds of things. I’m normally pretty much a hermit, but lately, I’ve been feeling a little bit like socializing.

3. Put a real dent in my to-play pile of games. ‘Specially since I got several new ones for Xmas. Still Life 1 & 2, Post-Mortem, Fable III
(currently about 16 hours into this one) and Fallout: New Vegas. And that’s not even counting the fact that I never finished Divinity 2 or even Dead Space. I’d also like to try Bioshock 2, but before that, I’ve got several low-rent Silent Hill games here on the pile. And what do I need to be doing while I’m playing these games? Writing reviews and strategy guides for them, of course! Partially because I have a hard time finding review for the type of games I love, written from the standpoint of someone who likes the same things about them. For instance, anyone who gave Deadly Premonition a crap review due to the graphics should be poked repeatedly with his own pencil. You don’t play Deadly Premonition for the graphics. See my own review for Deadly here.

4. This one ties in with #1, but I’d love to drop some weight. Quitting smoking, hysterectomy, hormone replacement therapy, etc., and I’ve gotten a bit too 3D for my tastes.

5. As mentioned in the opening, I’d like to get into the web design function of online freelancing. But before I can really start on that, I’ve GOT to finally get the professional blog moved over to her own domain. I’ve been putting that off.

6. NaNoWriMo. I’ve looked at this with real envy the last 2 years, but alas, I’ve always been ass-deep in a time-sink. (Got a visual on that one? You’re welcome. So this coming year I’m going to make a real effort at it. Speakin’ a’ which, 2009 Xmas, my MIL got me The No Plot? No Problem! Novel-Writing Kit
She thought it was funny, so she picked it up–but honestly, this baby actually has some good stuff in it! What I especially love is the stack of coupons; you give them out to people as promises for what you’ll do if you fail your mission. Just a little extra incentive, don’tcha know.

I think that’s enough for now. Not really resolutions, per se, but some things I’d like to work on as goals. And we all need goals, right? I mean goals a little bigger than leveling my Shadow Priest to 80.

 

Christmas = Over

and not a minute too soon, in my humble opinion. With all the shopping, wrapping, cooking, baking, entertaining, organizing, sofa-made-into-a-bed-ing, and general chaos, I’m so ready for some downtime. More of that downtime is going to be spent in the Warcraft universe of Azeroth than I originally intended: not because I’ll be gaming, but because Santa brought me a number of the novels for Christmas. Yay! The lore-nerd in me (after pushing aside red-shirt guy) is jumping up and down and squealing.

Other gifts: I’d be hard pressed to say what my favorite is, but I’m loving my new Shark steam mop, especially with a houseful of wood floors to clean. I’m also pretty jazzed about the additions to my reference library: The Renegade Writer, Grammatically Correct, and Complete French Grammar. Those are not affiliate links, by the way, mainly because I’ve never gotten around to setting myself up as an Amazon affiliate. You know, I should really do that.

ANYWAY, I’ve also got a pile of other new video games to delve into. I’ve played a couple of hours of Fable 3, and I’ve created my character in Fallout: New Vegas. I’ve also got some great point-n-click PC horror games to try out: Still Life 1 & 2, Post-Mortem, and Amnesia (from Steam). Yeah, I’m going to be busy! But on top of all that, I’m back in my freelancing saddle, creating web content for clients. I’m putting a great deal of what I’ve taken from the EMU writing program into it, more than I really expected to. With the move coming up, I’m pretty much got my hands full.

Speaking of the move… Appliances are being delivered today, in just a few hours, so I’m off to go work at the Gott house while I wait. The Hub will be knocking down the dummy wall in the master bedroom in order to turn that space into additional closet (woot) and then dropping a couple of new outlets in the upstairs room. Wish us luck!!