Well if you’re Irish or have any hint of green in you today is your day and I’m off to London to join in some Guinness style celebrations.

That does not mean I have spent the day drinking green liquid with a shamrock on the head as I have been hard at work on a new project that has just come in.  I have not used GAF for some time so I thought pitch for some of the larger projects on there.  It is sod’s law that I pitched for three and won two so now I have made a heavy rod for my back and not to mention my fingers!

It looks like I’ll have to burn the midnight oil this week to get both the assignments in but this is one of those occasions when it is warranted.  Both projects need to be complete by the end of the week and both pay in excess of $1,500 so this week I’m going to be making over £2,000 in total. 

That is what I call a result and only goes to demonstrate what is available out there.

Both of these projects required “experience” with the subject matter.  One is for an IT services provider supplying VOIP solutions (internet telephony) and one of my old jobs was in IT sales so though I don’t understand the technical detail I know some of the jargon.  That was enough to clinch the job.  Never forget to leverage what you have done in your past life to get writing assignments and it does not matter how old your experience is either - all that matters is how you present yourself and delivering the job.

I have to get the projects completed this week aside from the client imposed deadlines as I have another big project that will take a month kicking off next week anyway. 

As I have worked the weekend, I am taking tonight off and fully intend to look like a shamrock in the morning.

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I was flicking through some listings and came across one which immediately caught my eye as I have been following Karl Bushby’s around the world trek in unbroken footsteps - his expedition is called The Goliath Expedition and is 36,000 miles on foot.

The job I saw was for two writers to accompany an expedition to navigate the Kolyama River in Siberia starting in October for six months - in comparison this is a walk in the park.  I thought that it would be a bloody cold assignment and keybashing with frostbite an occupational hazard … and I was right.

The ad states that temperatures will be in the range of -30 degrees C - in other words if you took a pee outside it would be frozen before it hit the ground.  Still being of an adventurous bent I considered sending in my resume and writing to see what transpired.  I’m fit and active, ex Para with Arctic experience and a Russian speaker so why not?

Last night I had a dream and a sudden realisation of a time 25 years ago while sleeping rough on an exercise in Norway - I woke up with an icicle formed on the end of my nose from dripping snot, and it was so cold we had to double up in the sleeping bags to share bodily warmth.  My erstwhile sleeping partner decided to perform his ablutions in the middle of this, only to return with a dirty bum that left an indelible mark …. on me!

Halcyon days have long gone I suspect and in the refreshingly warm light of day, I have decided that if I am going to spend six months away on an assignment it is going to involve tropical seas, warm climate, hot and cold running water and girls, with an endlessly stocked mini bar and room service.

For the young turks amongst you who are interested in six months in Siberia you can find the job information here - it will be a once in a lifetime experience I can assure you

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I’ve been fielding emails and telephone calls this week from the client that has appointed me onto their writers panel (see my posts on The Big Deal).

If negotiations go to plan in Boston, where my principal currently is pitching the project, I have my first writing assignment which will result in being published offline in the heady world of the “printed word”. 

Part of me is thinking, “Bloody hell, it would have to be an insurance directory!”

Part of me is thinking, “Bloody hell, is that what they are going to pay me ”

Yet another  is thinking, “Bloody hell, I’ll be published - a real writer!”

When someone asks me where I’ve been published I won’t have to feel sheepish about giving them a website address to go and see my work but I do expect I’ll have to scan the published work so it can be emailed to them!

The paperless office!!

I’m smirking as I think about this as as a “writer”, I’ve aspired to getting myself onto paper rather than a computer screen.  Am I alone in feeling that I’m not a “real” writer until published on paper? 

Writing kudos revolves around being published; is being published a mark of popularity, commercial viability or simply tenacity?

Probably a mixture of all three.

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I had a pleasant surprise this morning when I checked my email.  I received a payment from Squidoo, a social media website that I have covered previously when looking at these sites.

I had forgotten completely about the financial side of Squidoo which shares advertising revenues with those who publish “lenses” on the site.  I use Squidoo primarily as a means to gain search engine popularity or “juice” as some SEO geeks call it, and from my experience it really works.  The site is the brainchild of Seth Godin who is a mega wealthy internet guru, and the site has generated a lot of traffic for my online presence and that of my clients.

If like me, you are using the web to gain exposure for your work, this should act as a salutary lesson that producing your written piece is only a part of the equation in being able to make money out of it.  Getting readers and marketing your work is probably more important than actually researching and writing if you, like me, rely on writing income to pay the bills.

Having a $500 Paypal payment notification dropping in has put a smile on my day and I shall invest the proceeds wisely as my daughter, Dizzy, has a birthday around the corner and is looking to see if Mum and Dad can ice skate as well as she can.  Perhaps losing my weight may not have been such a good idea if I’m going to be in need of padding on my bum!

It’s not a lot of money but then, as my ex wife says, it’s better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick. This is the first such payment I have received and I had completely forgotten all about the revenue aspect of Squidoo; to put it into some form of perspective I have been posting up on there for the last six months so you can see that it is not “a big earner”. 

Nonetheless, as ASDA marketing keeps telling us - “Every little helps” - or is that Tesco?

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iSnare

When you are producing articles, getting them as widely distributed is a key element to gaining exposure for the piece and for yourself.

Submitting articles to directories, forums, bulletin boards and other media outlets all helps but this can be time consuming and ineffective.

A more effective means of getting your article and work out to a wider potential audience is to use article submission portals and ISnare is one that I use frequently.

By submitting your piece to ISnare, the directory will automatically submit it to around thousands of other sites and though there is always an element of redundancy and irrelevance in using automated methods, this is a very effective means of throwing mud against a wall without risking the spammer label.

Registration and submission is free with ISnare, however to get the prompt levels of service i.e. review, approval and distribution within a week, you need to take out a subscription (personally I have never bothered).  If you do wish to part with your hard earned beer tokens, the rate is $2 to submit to approximately 40,000 publishers and several thousand sites.

The site, in common with other article submission portals, splits articles up into categories and you are not restricted to simply providing topical information - you can also submit poems, scripts and other literary pieces so this technique comes in handy for any writer seeking wider exposure.

Simple to use and very effective in terms of cost and benefits provided; article distribution portals will gain you exposure without the time consuming process of physical submission to a handful of sites that you or I can manage on our own.

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