3 Services Writers Can Offer Clients to Make More Money by Yuwanda Black

One of the easiest ways to land freelance writing jobs is to be a one-stop, freelance writing shop. Following are three services freelance writers can offer their clients that will make it easier for them to use you over and over again. Some are brought on by the new media economy; others are mere conveniences that clients wish they had someone to handle.

3 Services Freelance Writers Can Offer to Gain Long-Term Clients

Social Media Marketing: Manage a Twitter Account. Do you use the social networking site Twitter? If not, you should as a freelance writer. Why? Because it's quick and easy to set up, and you can offer to set up and manage the account for clients.

When freelance writing jobs slow down, offering a peripheral service like social media marketing can take up the slack. Clients like it because most of them know that they should be involved in social media marketing, but they have no idea how to go about it.

Twitter is the perfect social networking site to offer to set up and monitor because you "Tweet" in 140 characters (not words, characters) or less, which takes seconds, not minutes.

Clients will be ever so grateful, and you will have added another income stream to your freelance writing efforts.

Blogging: Set Up a Wordpress Blog. One of the biggest types of freelance writing jobs to come down the pike in recent years is blogging. Most freelance writers blog. And, many of them do it in Wordpress. However, many clients still slave away with HTML sites. But a Wordpress blog is easy to set up and learn how to maneuver in.

And, if you don't know how to set it up, you can still offer the service to clients. How? By outsourcing it -- usually for less than $100 - much less. Simply place an ad on a major site like Craigslist. Many web designers troll this site looking for assignments like setting up Wordpress blogs.

If you charged the client $150 to set up their Wordpress blog and you outsource it a freelance web designer for $50 or less, that's a $100 or more profit.

Online Marketing: Article Writing and Submission. Article marketing is one of the best, free online advertising methods you can use to get the word out about a product/service, drive organic traffic for years to come, build subscriber lists and convert tirekickers into buyers. And it's a great service to offer that will get you even more freelance writing jobs.

By explaining how article marketing works - ie, laying out the above benefits mentioned above - you can offer the service to clients. In addition to writing the articles, you can offer to set up accounts for them at article directories and manually submit articles for them -for an additional fee. It's hands-off marketing for them that pays big dividends.

There's no need to ever worry about landing freelance writing jobs - if you become an all-inclusive freelance writing shop. Offering services like these put you on this road.

Yuwanda Black is a successful freelance writer who heads New Media Words, an SEO writing and internet marketing outsource firm. She has publised 13 ebooks to date. To learn everything you need about how to start a lucrative freelance writing career, log on to Work-from-Home-Writing-jobs.com for first-hand information.

Largest Author Focused Online Directory Provides Innovative Marketing Platform for All Authors

FiledBy, Inc. today announced the Beta launch of filedbyauthor at http://www.filedby.com/. The site is the first large-scale author-centric promotional platform to provide every author that has been published in the U.S. or Canada a free, hosted, ecommerce enabled web page ready to be claimed and enhanced. With more than 1.8 million pre-assembled author web pages and over 7 million book titles, filedbyauthor is the most complete site for finding and engaging with authors and their work.

"All authors, regardless of publishing category are encouraged to visit the site, claim their page, make corrections, and enrich them in a variety of ways," says Founder, President & C.E.O. Peter Clifton.

Any published author or co-author can easily and immediately update their author page which is linked to individual work pages. In addition to the free level, FiledBy announced two new membership levels designed to make additional web marketing tools available at low cost. These additional levels include blog tools, additional linking and media postings, event listings, online press kits and banner customization.

And, any reader can join the filedbyauthor community and start connecting with authors. Readers can fill in their own pages, collect favorite authors and books, write reviews, rate works and authors, and comment through wall postings.

Pulp Fiction Fantasy Plots Still Going Strong on Today's Silver Screen

It's been 70 years and the fantasy plots from the Golden Age of Fantasy fiction are still going strong. Then, as now, there were headlines of record unemployment, foreclosures, and the threat of war. Then, as now, America turned to stories like those found in the first issue of Unknown magazine published in March, 1939.

The reading and listening public are enjoying pulp stories as evidenced by some of the most popular and successful film and television plot lines today as well as the continuing success of Galaxy Press' latest pulp fiction series, Stories from the Golden Age, by a leading contributor to Unknown, author L. Ron Hubbard. (http://www.goldenagestories.com/)

"We're paying tribute to the 70th anniversary of 'Unknown' as one of the great pulp magazines of its day by keeping the pulp tradition alive," said John Goodwin, Galaxy president. Galaxy Press is releasing its next 4 of the 80 novels--9 released in total--by L. Ron Hubbard in full print and theatrical audiobook form complete with original cover artwork. Each story has been produced as full cast recordings with sound effects.

"It's obvious that people still need escapist fiction," Goodwin said. "'Unknown' published some of the truly great names in pulps--including Sprague de Camp, Anthony Boucher, Robert Heinlein, and L. Ron Hubbard--as the premier fantasy magazine of the day."

Many of Hollywood's blockbusters from Star Wars to Spiderman and Indiana Jones find their origins in the pulp pages of the 1930s and 40s. Some of the classic fantasies are set in very real settings instead of make-believe. A displaced family in war-torn Europe became the focus for C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, a scientist tests his new theory of inter-dimension travel on a down-and-out victim of a depression-era foreclosure in Hubbard's' The Ultimate Adventure, or a young man from a distant planet grows up on a small farm in Smallville and later moves to the big city to save the world (Superman).

Unknown magazine's four-year publishing run (March 1939 to October 1943) ended like that of other pulp magazines because of a paper shortage caused by World War II. Hubbard wrote 14 full-length short novels and short stories for the magazine. Fortunately, these stories are now being republished by Galaxy Press in the Stories from the Golden Age series (http://www.goldenagestories.com/).

Winning Freelance Writing Assignments by Shane Dayton

One of the hardest parts of starting out as a beginning freelance writer is tracking down and winning those freelance writing assignments. It is a little easier to find writing gigs online since there are a large number of websites that pay writers to write, but often times these sites pay less than the print markets, which are more competitive.

Landing even just a few good freelance writing assignments can be the difference between a starving artist income or that of a successful online entrepreneur. Getting the online writing career going isn't all that difficult, if you know where to look for work and how to land those jobs. Finding these writing gigs really isn't that difficult, especially with the resources that are available nowadays on the Internet.

Finding work for yourself can go one of several ways. One option, and this one is especially good for true beginners, is to join an auction based freelance writing site like Elance, Guru, or oDesk. Most of these sites have member fees, but these are easy places where a beginning freelance writer can go to bid on hundreds of writing jobs. This definitely takes the leg work out of finding writing assignments.

Another route is to send out query letters and to attempt to break into the print market. If you are going to look for freelance writing assignments by doing this, then you will need to research the individual magazines and markets that you're looking at. Many of these markets are most friendly to new writers who are willing to write the short 50-300 word blurb for the short front of the magazine articles, or the back of the magazine short articles. This is harder, but it is possible. The other option is to look at smaller magazines and trade journals where it's easier to break in as a new writer.

If getting writing assignments still remains difficult, work on your skills. Polish up the resume and your writing history, craft the best sample articles you're capable of producing, and also consider making your own work. There are other websites online that accept articles you write for up front payment. This allows you to write what you want and get paid for it.

There are many ways to find freelance writing work on and off line. By keeping steady, looking for work, and producing good quality content you will not only be able to find all the writing assignments you want, but you'll end up making a pretty good living, too.

If you would like to learn more about landing freelance writing assignments, or if you want to learn more about freelance writing, visit my blog for more great free information. Thanks for reading!

Free, Author Driven, Online Creative Writing Community

Forums are all the rage, with a multitude of subjects and facilities available. Writers now have their own creative writing forum all to themselves. This innovative forum is offering writers the opportunity to speak to others in an informal manner, that forum is http://www.legendfire.com/.

LegendFire is a free, author driven, online creative writing community which allows its users to converse with a whole multitude of people, whose common interest is writing, on a whole host of writing related subjects and resources. Members are offered a variety of resources including competitions, exchanges and the opportunity to chat to other writers, the plethora of choices has endeared this website to its numerous members. Unlike many writing forums , its purpose is simple, to provide a place where authors can go to exchange feedback, make friends, and have fun, and it achieves its aims admirably.

The popularity of this website has blossomed, which has resulted in a surge in interest in http://www.legendfire.com/. Meeting new people can sometimes be daunting, and the beauty of this community forum is that the user can chat with people in the comfort of their own homes. In a world that seems to be shrinking, through the medium of the internet, www.legendfire.com offers writers a chance to voice opinions and discuss issues.

Freelance Writing Ezine Reveals Great New Opportunities for Writers

Angela Booth is a top copywriter and writing teacher who has been teaching freelance writers to make money online years, primarily via her many blogs, and also via her free weekly ezine for writers: Fab Freelance Writing Ezine at http://www.freelancewritingezine.com/. The ezine is published in PDF format each week, offering 15 to 20 pages of practical writing tips showing writers great new opportunities available to them.

Angela believes that there's never been a better time to be a writer. She says: "Freelance writers have unlimited opportunities in 2009 despite the economic downturn. In fact the economic downturn can help writers to build their careers."

The ezine has become very popular with writers, many of whom credit it with giving them a sense of how a writing career actually works, as well as great ideas for writing opportunities of which they were completely unaware. Topics covered in the ezine include blogging, ebook writing, writing web articles, and writing web content.

Each week the ezine contains a theme. A recent theme was business models for writers. Angela believes that writing is a business, and once writers start looking at their career as a real business, their income will improve. In that issue she covered several business models, for both new and established writers.

The ezine goes out to several thousand subscribers each week. As a result Angela's email inbox is filled with questions. She says she enjoys this. She loves knowing what's happening with writers and when she finds a common thread in questions asked, she adds it to a list of upcoming ezine themes.

"Subscribers like to stay in touch," Angela says. "I'm happy to help them as much as I can. The basic challenge for writers, both new and experienced, is that the world of publishing is changing fast. As publications change, writers need to change too. Advertising is moving online, so publications are moving online too, and there are many opportunities for writers. Entire new fields of writing are opening up. Many of these fields, like blogging, and social media marketing, have never existed before. Writers have to learn these new forms of communicating."

Angela says her primary aim with Fab freelance Writing Ezine is to make writers aware of the many opportunities which are available to them, and to give them the courage to use their creativity.

Angela has made a free report available for new subscribers to the ezine. You can download the report, Freelance Writing for Beginners: Great Opportunity to Make Money Today at http://www.freelancewritingezine.com/.

PR News Releases the Top 100 Case Studies in PR

From digital PR campaigns to measurement strategies and budget breakdowns, PR and marketing professionals will learn the strategies employed by corporations, nonprofits and agencies in the just-published volume 4 edition of the PR News Top 100 Case Studies in PR. The guidebook features one-of-a-kind case studies, how-to articles, viewpoints and practical advice for improving all types of online and print communications efforts and bottom-line goals.

The PR News Top 100 Case Studies in PR Guidebook is available at www.prnewsonline.com/store/28.html.

From the publishers of PR News, The Top 100 Case Studies in PR Guidebook is packed with useful, specific, "how they did it" case studies - a team resource for years to come. The 200+ page guidebook includes profiles of and insights from companies of all sizes and across a wide range of industries that have demonstrated some facet of ingenuity, innovation or integrated thinking, illuminating communications as a function that has matured with poise and established its indispensability to business practices.

SCG Legal PR Network Connects Journalists and Attorneys

The Sun Communication Group, which specializes in law firm public relations for small and mid-sized law firms, today launched SCG Legal PR Network, a web-based network of journalists and attorneys that allows journalists to submit queries for legal-expert comments for stories.

SCG Legal PR Network invites all journalists--international, national and local media--to submit queries for legal sources. These queries, along with the journalists’ contact information, are distributed to our database of legal experts.

Another feature of the SCG Legal PR Network is that journalists will be able to search a list of select attorneys and legal experts for high-priority stories.

Attorney members of the network receive journalists’ queries for legal sources on a weekly or daily basis, depending on the urgency of journalists’ deadlines.

All legal experts are welcome to join, including attorneys, associates, partners, solo practitioners, legal consultants, general counsel, law professors and judges. The service is open to all legal professionals to obtain press exposure and gain credibility easily and affordably. The network also features additional benefits for attorneys to advance their practices such as monthly forums with journalists and editors.

Website: http://www.suncommunicationsgroup.com/

Workplace Experts Ask: Are You Fit for Freelance?

With thousands of workers getting the pink slip over recent months and an uncertain economic outlook, recruiting agencies have seen a surge in applications from candidates considering freelance positions as alternatives to full-time employment. While switching from full-time to freelance or temp-to-perm works an appealing option for many, recruiters at 24 Seven, a leading global recruiting agency in the fashion, retail, marketing, advertising, creative services and entertainment industries, say applicants should take a personal inventory before making the move.

To assist candidates evaluate their capacity for freelance employment and navigate through the job hunt, 24 Seven has launched a free online resource, called Confessions of a Recruiter, offering insider tips on personal characteristics that match the freelance lifestyle and what it takes to land a job. The step-by-step job hunt guide is available to view online at www.24SevenTalent.com/confessions.

For many, freelance work is a great alternative to full-time employment during tough economic times, allowing workers to collect a paycheck, keep skills fresh and network with others in their field. According to Lauren Bostwick, Vice President at 24 Seven's Orange County office and contributor to Confessions of a Recruiter, if freelance fits a candidate's work style and skills, projects are available. But, she says, competition is fierce.

"Clients are really particular these days because they're hiring in an environment flooded with highly qualified applicants," says Bostwick. "Many people realize they need more than a resume update. With technology moving so quickly, people who keep working are the ones who are adapting with the same momentum."

Confessions of a Recruiter helps candidates review skills, personal and creative flexibility, work style and financial issues when considering a leap from full-time to the freelance world. The online resource also guides readers through the process of interviewing and landing a freelance position in today's competitive marketplace.

In addition to the online guide, 24 Seven Talent offers career enhancement services such as specialized training, educational seminars, industry news and events and discounts for career and personal services. "Even experienced candidates need to grease the wheels a little to get back on their game, and freelance is a great way to get there," says Bostwick. For a listing of candidate services and events, visit www.24SevenTalent.com/events.

Journalists Need to Embrace Reporting as a Process

Journalists need to abandon their "voice of God" tone and embrace reporting as a process, not a product, NPR correspondent Adam Davidson told the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard.

In an interview posted on the Lab's web site, niemanlab.org, Davidson said his perspective on reporting was shifted by his work on "The Giant Pool of Money," an hour-long program about the financial crisis that aired last May. It was a joint production with the public-radio program This American Life and shared that program's approach: favoring natural storytelling over structured formality, taking the time to explain complex issues, and telling the story through the lives of real people.

The resulting program -- and several followups -- have been widely acclaimed as one of the most effective ways to explain the complicated nature of the financial crisis. "I think it's a more trustworthy journalism if the journalist reveals their process of discovery," he said.

The full interview can be found here.

The Nieman Journalism Lab is a project at Harvard University to figure out the future of quality journalism online. Its site is http://www.niemanlab.org/.

8% Of Adults Bought E-book In Past 12 Months

Simba Information, the market research firm specializing in publishing and media, estimates that only about 8% of U.S. adults bought at least one e-book in the last 12 months and 15% read one, according to a new report, "Trade E-Book Publishing 2009," which was released today.

"Because too much information about the format has been created with hype and maintained through misunderstanding, we took e-book questions straight to consumers for this analysis," said Michael Norris, senior analyst of Simba Information, commenting on the report. "As it turns out, the e-book market is larger than publishers think, smaller than techies think, and riskier and less sexy than either realize."

"Trade E-Book Publishing 2009" drew much of its analysis from a Simba Information survey of 2,600 U.S. adults administered in February 2009, as well as a six-month analysis of bestsellers from the e-bookstores of Sony and Amazon's Kindle. The report compares the top categories of each bookstore to one another and to national print bestseller lists to determine what kinds of e-books consumers are demanding, and contains an analysis of pricing strategies.

The report also provides demographic intelligence about the e-book consumer -- including gender, age, household income, education level and more -- and names the devices e-book consumers favor the most. Additionally, it outlines the current and future impact of dedicated reading devices like the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader, the iPhone and cell phones, as well as other platforms.

Simba has also studied the average number of e-books read by consumers of the format and compared it to what is known about the consumption of print titles, determining what extent an "iPod of books" could really succeed in the general marketplace.

"Trade E-Book Publishing 2009" also features the trends and pitfalls in the marketplace, key publisher and retailer initiatives, and a discussion of the risks/rewards of free e-books that can be found with a simple Google search.

Norris said the e-book market, in spite of recent advances, still has a lot of growing up to do and should be "cautiously" pursued as long as that pursuit does not undermine the value proposition of a publisher's content, interfere with other initiatives to encourage engaged reading, or provide too much power to one e-book retailer. Additional information can be found at http://www.simbainformation.com/

Journalist Social Network Launches

Journalist Social Network, a dedicated social network bringing together journalists from all over the world, has been launched. The website has already gotten off to an impressive start with over 600 members joining within the first weeks. The website provides an active way to connect with editors, feature writers, freelancers and publishers together in one place.

Journalist Network (http://www.journalist-network.com/) was designed to create an online community for journalists to meet others from the field, and share ideas, tips and learn from those in the know. The website allows members to upload news and press releases, write their own personal blogs, chat on the forums, and upload useful videos and images to the gallery sections.

Ross Hutchings, Online Editor of Journalist Network says "the website has been warmly received so far. A dedicated social network like this hasn't been developed before, so we are excited to see it grow and progress into a must-see website for journalists everywhere."

The website has been launched in its initial version, but further features are being added to advance the user experience. Journalist Network is associated with PR Network, (http://www.pr-network.net/) a dedicated social network for PR professionals.

Unemployed CFO Turns to Writing Children's TV Shows

Marin resident, Richard Neumann has been in finance in the Silicon Valley for over 25 years. He has held the title of Chief Financial Officer for numerous start-ups, including co-founding Ravix, a CFO consulting firm and as chief financial officer of a half-billion corporation in Petaluma. Richard has seen the boom and bust of the dot come industry and managed to survive the many dips in the economy. This down turn has left him, like many, struggling to make ends meet.

After hours of searching the web for jobs and pouring more hours into gigs that promise to pay and never do, Richard sought an outlet that would clear his mind, writing. Or, more precisely "story telling" as he makes a clear distinction between, authors, writers and storytellers. In his spare time, Richard has published four books and numerous stage and screen plays. When the opportunity came to write for The Magic Paint Box, he took on the challenge.

The Magic Paint Box is the brain child of Margie Rex, a San Francisco Bay Area artist and producer. She has pulled together an amazing cast of talented puppeteers and industry gurus. Her team includes, Adrian Baker (formerly with the Beach Boys) who wrote the music and lyrics for the show and Ron Fields, the grandson of the late WC Fields. Also on the team are director Charles Rudnick of Bars & Tone in San Francisco and Marty Collins of the Digital Media Factory in Santa Cruz. Rumor has it they are in negotiations with a top named signer to be the voice of one of the main characters. The only piece missing was a great script.

On a long shot, Richard met with Margie and was surprised when she offered him the task of writing the pilot and four PSA's (Public Service Announcements). "Except for my children's book Charlie's Treasures, I've never written anything for children and never anything as demanding as a pilot for a TV show! Margie took a leap of faith with me and I was determined to give her the best story I could possibly write." Richard discussed how his goal was to create a story that was more than as he calls it a "Barney knock-off." He grew up watching the works of Jay Ward and Hanna Barbara and wanted to create a show that was educational without preaching, entertaining and yet thought provoking. In the end, the goal of every episode will be to show how children can solve problems with thought, imagination and using the arts.

On April 5th at the Bars & Tone studios in San Francisco the cast and crew got their first look at the finished script. The result was fantastic! From the opening lines by Madeline Squirrel reciting her list of favorite nuts (almost to the tune of Tom Leher's Elements song) to the closing lines, the cast laughed at all of the right places, loved the use of Shakespearian quotes and even got the inside Monty Python, Haruo Nakajima, Russel Braddon and Harvey jokes. "I wanted to write a piece that was more than just a noisy kid's show. I wanted, truth be told, to create something John Lassiter would be proud of - enough flash for the kids and yet enough fun for adults. I think, no, I know it worked. Whew! The cast and crew and most importantly the Executive Producer loved it."

The four PSA's will be filmed on April 19th at the Digital Media Factory in Santa Cruz. The pilot episode will be filmed there in June from the 10th to the 14th.

So far there's no money in it. All of the actors and crew have pitched in hundreds of hours of their own time. But, as Richard put it, "It may never pay, but this has been the best and most rewarding job of my life!"

Stephen King and Jerry B. Jenkins Reveal Unlikely Friendship in Writer's Digest Cover Story

It's an unlikely friendship between the King of Horror Stephen King and the King of Inspirational Fiction Jerry B. Jenkins, best known for the "Left Behind Series." But it was a mutual friend in need that brought these two powerhouses of fiction together more than five years ago. "Writer's Digest" profiles Jenkins and King and their camaraderie in a cover story for the May/June 2009 issue -- hitting newsstands on April 14.

"Several years ago my assistant buzzed me and said, 'Stephen King on the line for you.'" writes Jenkins in his blog, http://jerryjenkins.blogspot.com/. "I have any number of friends who would pull such a prank, but I fought the urge to say, 'John Grisham here.'"

It turns out the call really was from King, who like Jenkins, was trying to help their mutual friend and audio reader Frank Muller following a devastating motorcycle accident. The two came together to raise funds for Muller's care and visited the award-winning audio reader in rehab in 2004. During the initial phone conversation, Jenkins told King that he would probably be surprised to discover that Jenkins was one of his readers -- mostly his short stories and "The Green Mile." King reciprocated that he was a reader of Jenkins' "Left Behind Series."

This unique pair has kept the friendship alive via e-mail. "Writer's Digest's" conversation with the two yields parallels and polarity -- and candid insights as well as mutual respect. King and Jenkins address the hard work of writing believable fiction, the fascination with good vs. evil, and how their writing has evolved.

The discussion hits on the inclusion of spiritual themes in their fiction. Jenkins, an evangelical Christian, is forthright with his beliefs in his writing but works to not let the message overwhelm the story. King, who doesn't share Jenkins' Christian beliefs, does feel there is more to this world.
"To me, every ant, cloud and star seems to proclaim that there is more to existence than we know... I suppose this sounds like naturism or pantheism, and to some degree it is, but I also believe in a power greater than myself," King tells "Writers Digest."

The "Writer's Digest" article "Stephen King & Jerry B. Jenkins: An Epic Conversation on Writing" is in the May/June issue, available on newsstands beginning April 14. 2009.

New Online Magazine Scores Danielle Steel Interview

Danielle Steel rarely grants interviews. So Bob Grant and Editor William Elliott Hazelgrove were glad to have the interview appear in their new online magazine. "We now have almost a hundred writers and when Kingsley Kobo came to us with the interview, we were more than happy to put it in the magazine."

Bob Grant started the online magazine in reaction to the pundits on television who always talk over each other. "It just drove me crazy," Mr. Grant said from his office. "I wanted a place where people could debate the topics of the day and be free to interact." The idea seems to have caught on quicly with the advent of a hundred writers and online traffic that keeps growing at an accelerated pace. The demise of major newspapers is not lost on Mr. Hazelgrove who sees SWI as an alternative for people who want to go to one place for their news. "We have a little something for everyone, from wirting to opinio to gardening to photography. Our platform is one of adding writers who can comment on their area of expertise."

With many companies scrambling to fiind their new footing in the cyberworld, the novelist sees a big increase on traffic in the next year. "Lets face it, people are going to come looking for their news somewhere and I think SWI is uniquely positioned to pick up a lot of that traffic." On perusing the various topics of the magazine, one does find somethng for everyone, from writing a novel to a rant about AIG to well, an inteview with Danielle Steel. The Kinglsly Kobo interview is fascinating in that earnest questions on art and craft are addressed by Mrs. Steel without the snicker of cultural elitism one might expect from an edgy online magazine.

"I think Kingsely did a great job, asking very insightful questions and Mrs. Steel answered them honestly," Hazelgrove continued. "We hope to have more interviews of this sort. Maybe people feel like here they can have their say and no one will sneer at them." With the pundrity on televison becoming more polarizing, let's hope so.

Website: http://www.speakwithoutinterruption.com/, http://www.billhazelgrove.com/

Journalists and Media Professionals Face Job Uncertainty and Longer Hours

Tighter budgets, staff cuts and a continuing shift from print to online reporting responsibilities are requiring media professionals to work longer hours and forcing many to consider a career outside of journalism. This, and other findings uncovered in the "2009 PRWeek/PR Newswire Media Survey," indicate that the media profession remains turbulent, but that the changing landscape has created more opportunities for reporters to have their work published and for public relations professionals to generate interest in their clients' news.

The survey, sponsored by PR Newswire and PRWeek, polled a total of 2,174 traditional and non-traditional media, including newspaper and magazine journalists, television, radio and online reporters, and bloggers. Its objective was to assess the attitudes and ideas of traditional journalists and bloggers, specifically regarding their duties, workload, interaction with PR professionals, and opinions of the future of media industry. Editorial coverage of the survey appears in the April 6 issue of PRWeek. To access the article, click here.

"It is very apparent that journalists feel the need to break more stories on a variety of mediums than ever before, said Keith O'Brien, editor-in-chief at PRWeek. "There is a great opportunity for PR professionals to utilize these multiplying avenues to increase coverage of their clients. But this also means it's even more imperative for PR pros to carefully consider the needs and schedules of the reporters and bloggers that they plan to pitch. The competition for content makes seasoned PR professionals a valuable asset."

"The results of the 2009 survey continue trends that we witnessed in last year's inaugural Media Survey. It is quite evident that reporters are feeling incredible pressure due to the combination of fiscal constraints and increased competition among peer publications and 'new media' platforms," stated Sarah Skerik, vice president, Distribution Services, PR Newswire. "For media professionals, the uncertainty -- both in terms of job security and reporting responsibilities -- has created a very challenging working environment, leaving more than half to reconsider journalism as their profession of choice. However, the continued shift to 'new media' has also opened more avenues for reporters to be seen and heard, while presenting PR professional an additional means to present story ideas and serve as an asset to the reporter."

Key Findings:

Work Environment and Career Stability
The demise of print stalwarts, such as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the San Francisco Chronicle and the continued drumbeat of staff reductions has cast a cloud over the media industry, with 62% of newspaper journalists anticipating "declines in print circulation and increased focus on the web" over the next three years. This number is consistent with findings from 2008. In line with this sentiment, 42% of print reporters expect to see "reductions in staff" as compared to 26% expressing the same concern last year.

Given the uncertainty throughout the industry, 50% of media professionals are now considering a career outside of journalism.

Hours and Responsibilities
Continuing a trend from last year's survey, 20% of media professionals report increased responsibilities outside of their official duties, with 70% of respondents indicating a heavier workload this year than last. The primary cause of the increased workload is the need to contribute to online reporting. Of those surveyed 68% are now tasked with writing for online news sections, compared to 38% in 2008. Further, 28% of media respondents are blogging for their traditional publication, a 6% increase from 2008.

Relationship between Editorial and Advertising
With commercial pressure increasing throughout the industry, the survey found that the wall between editorial and advertising is not as clear as it once was. Fifty six percent of print magazine professionals suggested that there is a "slight to heavy" influence of advertising on editorial content while 43% of TV professionals indicated a similar pressure.

Blogs & Reporting
While more reporters in this year's survey maintain a blog presence as compared to last year (43% versus 36%, the percentage of journalists who use blogs for research remains relatively low. According to the 2009 survey, 61% of media professionals rarely or never use blogs for research. This compares to 55% from 2008.

Also noteworthy, approximately half of all bloggers surveyed worked for traditional media companies in the past. However, only 37% believe themselves to be journalists in their present occupation.

Reporters & Social Media
Reporters' use of social media sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, increased significantly from 2008 to 2009. Of those surveyed, 58% are on Facebook and 51% have a LinkedIn profile, compared with 29% and 32% last year. Twenty-two percent of journalists are also on Twitter. The number of journalists not participating in social media is now a clear minority, with 23% saying they do not have a social network profile. In 2008, the number was 46%.

Relationship to PR Professionals
The majority of journalists responding prefer PR professionals to pitch them by e-mail with 80% listing it as their favored method. This is consistent with last year's findings. Also consistent with the 2008 survey, is the contention among reporters that a low percentage of pitches lead to a story due to the belief that most pitches are unrelated to the media professional's area of interest.

Despite the low success rate, only 7% of respondents said they would prefer not to be contacted by PR pros at all, indicating that public relations is a necessary component of journalism. Related to the rise in social networking, 31% of media professionals have been pitched via a social network, such as Facebook or Twitter.

Freelance Writing - A Change of Career by Stan Ward

Writing occupations, scarcely a few decades ago, fell into three categories that were marketing copy writing, report or book writing. Nowadays, in addition to these the domain of the freelancer has truly expanded and has now become a booming industry with no signs of a slowdown. More and more people are getting interested in freelance writing nowadays.

In fact, the kind of work that freelancers undertake nowadays is so varied that it defies interpretation and the arrival of the online world has opened up new types of freelance writing jobs. Although it isn't a glamorous career path, and will not result in a million dollar income many people see freelance writing as a job opportunity that anyone with a basic knowledge of grammar can do.

Freelance writing is a profession that many desire and is a career that can be practised from anywhere where there is a laptop and Internet connection. It is one of the most straightforward and reliable ways to earn instant cash, as many times as you want and although it appears to be best chosen by those who have talent for writing the authorship skill does not have to be of the highest grade. And remember writing is a skill that can be learned.

If you have a talent and enjoy writing then it may be the new career path for you, but before you get started there are a few things to take into consideration so as to avoid disappointment. Primarily you should have an enjoyment for writing otherwise it will become a chore and the initial motivation will end.

Make sure you are writing on a topic for which there is strong demand. Writing an article and then searching for someone to publish it is the least successful way to get published. A little research first will provide a good idea of what kind of jobs are out there, where to find the good jobs and what sort of fees you can charge and the income you can realistically expect to receive.

One thing should be remembered that if you want to start career in freelance writing job, you must be a person who is ready to work and that you have to work if you are going to find online freelance writing job. Many fail at freelance writing even though writing jobs are many and comfortable. They are unable to maintain their work rates sufficiently enough to earn enough money.

If you want to be a freelance writer it is up to you how successful you want to be. The opportunities are there, you just have to go out and grab them.

If you have ever considered being a Freelance Writer or just want to learn more about becoming a writer go to http://thewriterschool.com/ and keep up to date with the latest writing news, free resources, articles and more.

Stanford Professor Asks, "Can Poetry Save the Earth?"

The nexus between poetry and the environment is not self-evident to most. That's why Stanford English professor John Felstiner wrote Can Poetry Save the Earth? A Field Guide to Nature Poems (Yale University Press) in time for Earth Day, April 22.

As we hover on the environmental point of no return, Felstiner argues that poetry may have a singular capacity to return our attention to our environment before it's too late.

Blending the pleasure of poetry with biography, history, geography, and current environmental concerns, he reveals the tension between a human-centered viewpoint and nature at large. This tension drives both environmental poetry and politics.

There are environmental poetry anthologies and scholarly studies; this book gets the best of both without the limitations. Renowned and lesser-known poets come alive in clear, vigorous language enhanced by a unique collection of images: landscapes, portraits, manuscripts.

Can Poetry Save the Earth? traces a long arc of awareness about our predicament on earth ranging from joyous to desperate. In forty brief and jargon-free chapters, John Felstiner finds fresh ways to activate familiar poems along with surprising ones, bringing them home to readers of every kind.

Each chapter focuses on a poet who has written about the natural world, from the Psalmist to the modern poet. One by one it calls up voices from Blake, Whitman, Dickinson, Hardy, Hopkins, Yeats and Frost to Millay, Neruda, Kunitz, Levertov, Walcott and Gary Snyder. To round out this experience, full-color and black-and-white images, many of them discovered and published for the first time, show sources of environmental imagination.

In the last decade, Felstiner has become a passionate advocate for the environment and for the poetry that celebrates it. Noted for his award-winning translations of Paul Célan's poetry, he was working on a project about creative resistance during the Holocaust about ten years ago, when he began to wonder how he could use poetry about nature to help tune people in to their environment. He thought that he could use "the pleasure of poetry to reach their consciousness, and their consciousness to reach their conscience."

Felstiner wrote the book over a nine-year period during most of which he was also teaching an Introduction to the Humanities course titled Literature into Life at Stanford.

The need for a human, humanistic sense of our environmental crisis is getting more urgent week by week. Rachel Carson believed that poetry and science had kindred aims. E. O Wilson would say the same.

Relevant URLs:

John Felstiner bio
https://humanexperience.stanford.edu/felstiner

John Felstiner essay on poetry, environment
https://humanexperience.stanford.edu/environment-felstiner

Yale University Press
http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300137507

Check Out Free Poetry Sites for National Poetry Month

Poet T. S. Eliot may have called April "the cruelest month," but for today's poets, it's National Poetry Month in the US. Bookstores seem to be doing well in this economic crisis, and poetry thrives online. So readers should be able to find all of the poetry they want--and they can, for free, online, including free poetry e-books, like Michael Dickel's The World Behind It, Chaos.

Books and publishing are doing well in these hard economic times. Poetry is doing well online. And free poetry, widely available through online literary journals and e-book publishers, offers a way to help those who want to, or perhaps have to, shave their book budgets.

Eric Pfanner, writing for the International Herald Tribune, examines how bookstores and the publishing industry have continued doing well, despite the world-wide recession (http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/15/business/books16.php). Apparently, this is especially true for Continental Europe's bookstores, but also true for bookstores in the US. People still want to read--whether for pleasure and escape or for better understanding of what's happening with the economy. So, they turn to books.

What about poetry? While the death knell for poetry has been rung many times, especially recently, poetry in particular also thrives today, despite the economy. The blossoming of online publishing, documented by the online site Poetry Archive, amongst others (see Stephen Adams, writing for the Daily Telegraph. Literally hundreds of thousands of unique viewers look at poetry. According to Adams, they look at more than a million pages of poetry per month just at the Poetry Archive site (http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do).

And that's just the Brits and Europeans. In the U.S., The Poetry Foundation has a similar site that allows viewers access to well-known and well-respected poets and poems.

And Web-based literary magazines know no geo-political boundaries. New ones spring up regularly (for example, see West Goes South). Some are offered as Adobe PDF downloads, such as Poetry Midwest (http://www.poetrymidwest.org/). Some online journals periodically print the best from their sites, as does Abramelin: The Journal of Poetry and Magick (http://e-n-v.org/abramelin/). Zeek offers another model growing in popularity, an online accompaniment to a print journal (http://www.jewcy.com/zeek). Many other print journals, including long-established journals, now also offer free online samples of from the print issue or, especially for the online journal, poetry.

While many companies, such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon, are trying to capitalize on e-books through sales of e-book readers and licensed books, other publishers are choosing a route more reminiscent of the indie music labels: they provide free publication to promote the poetry and poets. why vandalism? (no capitals) is a literary and arts journal that also publishes e-books (http://www.whyvandalism.com/). The journal and the books are both free for the viewing. Currently, why vandalism?, which has been publishing for only two years, offers five e-books. Its sixth book, The World Behind It, Chaos, by Michael Dickel, is due by the end of March, which just happens to be Small Press Month.

Dickel's book demonstrates another principle of electronic publishing related to economics. His book contains photographs and digital art, most of it in full-color, the cost of publishing which would have driven the book's price out of reach for consumers. This way, his artwork will be seen, his poetry will be read, and an audience will grow to know his work. Dickel says that he'd "like to make money, I don't expect to do so as a poet. If people become familiar with my work, perhaps then they will also buy books from publishers--and be willing to pay the higher price to include art with the poetry."

All you have to do is search on the word "poetry" in Google or Yahoo to see that, indeed, poetry is alive and well on the internet. And, largely, available for free. Poetry not only thrives in the online community, it thrives in ways that are affordable to any who have access to a computer and the internet.

Is the Freelance Lifestyle Right For You? by Daniel L Miller

As the pace of life becomes more and more hectic, it's nothing new to find business people of all ages and genders trying to work for them selves as a freelance business or marketing consultant. To many people the thought of going to an office everyday in a suit in tie for many years of their lives is just not appealing at all so they are searching for alternative professional job routes.

If the above profile sounds like something you are interested in and you have lots of specialized business, advertising, internet, or marketing experience then maybe you should look at getting into the world of freelance business consulting.

Before you get all giddy and think that this is your chosen path you need to consider a bunch of different factors to see if consulting is a good fit for you. First off ask yourself what kind of specialized knowledge do you have that would be valuable to a business if they hire you? Sit down with a cup of coffee and just brainstorm a list of all the skills you are capable of doing well. You would be surprised how many skills you'll be able to list if you have been working in any business field for even just a few years.

After you come up with that list start to define it a bit more and go into more details with it. From this process you'll be able to come up with what we call your "consulting skill set" or "profile". This is how you will sell your skills to future clients. You should really take some time and make sure that your list of skills is in demand in the current global work force. I can tell you from experience that any specialized knowledge related to the internet, technology, or graphic design will really be advantageous to you.

There is another thing to consider before deciding to get into freelance consulting. You need to be the kind of person that does not panic when you have a month where your salary is not as high. Remember with freelancing there are no salary guarantees. Especially at the beginning you'll have some months that are busy and some months that are slow. If you can fight through those tough times financially then freelancing may be a good fit for you. If on the other hand you have a large family, lots of debt, and like to feel "safe" then maybe consulting as a freelancer is not for you.

Those are just a few of the points that you should take into careful consideration before getting involved in the exciting world of freelance business consulting. Remember it is not for everyone but many business professionals have found a great balance of work life and income by getting into this area of business.

Daniel spends his time preparing consultant proposals for his clients and also spends time working as an internet consultant on various website projects.