Writing for Online Marketing Companies
Published March 24th, 2009 | 
I write every day — or at least make a valiant attempt on a daily basis. Mostly I consider myself a creative writer (poetry, fiction, and literary journalism) but creative writing doesn’t pay the bills. However these days, there’s plenty of work writing copy for websites. Whether it’s through a service like Elance, or some other outfit, there are plenty of companies engaging in business Internet marketing in an effort to promote their product, service, or just trying to drive traffic to leverage keywords to get those big ad dollars. What that means for freelancers is that their are more and more opportunities to make a few bucks doing short, web-friendly articles and blog posts. An enterprising writing can write several articles a day for many different companies and do okay. Some are able to do it on a full-time basis and others are able to supplement income derived from their regular job. So, more and more of my daily output is dedicated to this activity. It’s not as cool and as sexy or as much fun as the creative stuff, but it’s easy as hell. A child could do it and I’m sure there probably are children who do it. So if you’re a writer trying to support your poetry habit or just trying to afford supplies, paper, envelopes, etc., stop whining and realize their are ways to put your talents to use on the Internet.
Saturdaze
Published March 21st, 2009 | I had planned to write a blog post today — one that I was going to write the other day, but didn’t. Anyway, I made two failed attempts this morning. The first time, I got about 150-something words into it and realized I was completely full of shit. It’s okay to be full of shit. Most of us are full of shit a lot of the time, especially bloggers. However, when you are so full of shit that you realize in the middle of the process of being completely full of shit that you are, in fact, completely full of shit, you have a problem. If you can’t even convince yourself that you are on the level, how can you hope to convince another human being? So, I took a break, ate some Raisin Bran for breakfast, took a couple of deep breaths and went to the library, in the hopes of regaining my sense of purpose. My second attempt also met with failure. I was just too distracted. Too many other things started creeping to the forefront. The usual stuff: money, my doctor’s appointment next week, the old mattress I sleep on that’s killing my back (I swear, if I could afford it, I’d get a sleep number bed) what to eat for dinner, money, the Battlestar Galactica series finale last night and whether or not I liked it, and so forth. The truth is, I didn’t really want to write a blog post, but I felt obligated. If you don’t give the peanut gallery something to read on a regular basis, they stop coming back. So, I took another deep breath and moseyed on over to view last night’s episode of Dollhouse hoping Eliza Dushku would inspire me. Eliza’s a cute young woman and a helluva an actress, but no muse as it turned out.
So instead of a legitimate blog post, I offer you a post about why I’m not posting a legitimate post, which is better than nothing, I suppose.
Why DirecTV Should Continue to Support Friday Night Lights
Published March 19th, 2009 | This is not the post I’d planned to write today, but I feel a rant coming on. I’m having a bit of a frustrating day (my printer’s not working properly, my current health plan requires that I get a referral from my PCP every time I have to see my oncologists and ENT, but every time I request one, the office seems to forget I’m a patient which is insulting in addition to being inconvenient seeing as I spent the morning playing phone tag — not to mention that it’s suddenly looking like it might rain and I hate rain). To top that off, I just read this blog by some wanker over a TV Squad about one of my favorite shows, Friday Night Lights.
Apparently, despite being a “fan” of the show, this guy doesn’t think Direct TV should co-finance another season of FNL. His reasoning is that he thinks the show will automatically suck next year if it’s renewed for another season. That’s not necessarily the case. Not all shows go down hill after a few seasons (look at South Park). Some shows can go for five or six or more before they start to deteriorate. If networks based their programming decisions on quality rather than ratings, a lot of shows would’ve stayed on the air and a lot of the garbage they keep on the air would be gone. Explain Jim Belushi’s show and Donald Trump’s various incarnations of his reality show? Shows like FNL, Battlestar Galactica (a show that had a couple of more seasons left in it at least), Deadwood, Rome, etc. never last. And the suits wonder why people are abandoning television?
Which brings me to why Direct Satellite TV should continue to help finance Friday Night Lights and invest in other programming. From a business standpoint, they can’t compete with other providers by simply giving their consumers the same options as Comcast or FIOS — they have to provide better service and more programming options. They should be willing to give life to the kinds of shows that aren’t being fairly supported by commericial television. From the consumers point of view, why should I or anyone else, jump ship for discount DirecTV if DirecTV offers the same channels with the same programming no one wants to watch on basic and cable television? I, for one, am tired of seeing a show I like get cancelled before it’s time. If satellite can pick-up new customers by offering solid orginal programs that commerial television either can’t or won’t support on it’s own, that’s a win-win for everyone.
