One the way home from the mall today, I was listening to the radio, and the DJ started talking about current events. He talked a lot about the current situation in North Korea, and about how it’s amazing that more people aren’t talking about it and don’t even know much about the topic. And he’s right - as Americans, we should know and understand current events that effect our country, at least on a basic level.

Image: Newscom

If you’re a freelance writer, you should take even more care to understand current events. Clients like to hire people who understand what’s going on in the world, and sometimes, you’ll even be asked to write analysis pieces regarding certain events that fall into your niche.

This website’s homepage (www.bizzia.com) is a great place to start for business and political news. Here are some other tips for staying up to date with current events:

• Be careful of your sources. Read the same story from multiple places, since most news sources are at least a little biased.
• Stay updated. What you read today could have corrections tomorrow. News is evolving!
• Dig a little. Sometimes the best quotes to go with a story are found on tiny blogs that most people don’t read.

Do you write about current events? Do you know what’s going on in the world around you?

I am thrilled that one of the articles I wrote for Bankling, on the world’s richest pets, was mentioned by the Wall Street Journal Blogs. I’m thrilled. We bloggers do like recognition on occasion, and it is precisely why we tell everyone about it when it happens ;)

A lovely surprise for a Sunday.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your day, and that you are ready for a new week — and a new month!

Every few days, there’s a news story that the entire country seems to be simultaneously be googling. Usually the story has to do with a celebrity, a scandal, or a tragedy (and sometimes all three). If you’re a blogger, you can really capitalize on almost any kind of news story out there - if you’re smart about it. And it isn’t always about beating the clock.

Image: www.sxc.hu

Let’s face it. Unless you’re the TOP website for you niche, re-posting a news story isn’t likely going to bring you much traffic…and really, even if you are one of the few websites who writes about your specific subject, most people will go to a website like the Times or Washington Post before they go to a blog. Unless you’re the very first to break an important piece of news, the amount of traffic you’ll drive is limited.

So what’s a blogger to do? Get creative! Here are some ways to capitalize on a news story and really increase your pageviews:

• Include your opinion.

If you have a strong opinion about a topic, especially if your view goes against the norm, post it on your blog. For example, I write for a video game website, and one of the major stories this past week was about a new gaming addiction study. Most websites either reported a re-hashing of this news story or talked about how wrong the study was. My opinion was very different and fresh, so even though I posted my story and opinion a few days after everyone else, it still drove traffic.

I do want to caution you, though - don’t take a viewpoint for the sake of driving traffic. Yes, pissing people off does mean that you’ll get some pageviews for a few days, but people can smell a phoney a mile away. Plus, when you can’t back up your opinion (and face it, it’s hard to back yourself up if you don’t truly feel that way), people won’t respect you or your site - and they won’t be back ever again.

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Google CEO Eric Schmidt may not seem like the most likely candidate to speak at a newspaper convention, but sources announced that he’ll be giving the keynote address at the Newspaper Association of America’s annual convention. Right now, most print news publishers are seeing a dramatic loss of sales, and many blame online news aggregation services like Google.

Eric Schmidt, Image: Newscom

Analysts estimate that Google is responsible for 20% to 30% of all traffic sent to newspaper websites. In the past, Schmidt has urged newspapers to jump on board with better technology, allowing them to increase their revenue from online readership. Many, however, question the integrity and legality of Google’s News Search and Web Search services. Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and other news services, thinks that it is unfair that Google aggregates content without permission from the news sites themselves.

“Should we be allowing Google to steal all our copyrights? If you have a brand like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, you don’t have to. You can say thanks but no thanks.”

Google says they are well within copyright laws because they only use a few lead words and a link back to the original source. Not everyone has an issue with the links themselves though - just the way they are done. Some say that Google needs to more clearly define news sources. Right now, professional news is linked on lists that also include opinion and commentary from non-professional blog sources.

The Associated Press has plans for a news aggregation service for its members that won’t support Google’s aggregation tools. It will also have a tracking system to ensure that the content isn’t being used illegally elsewhere on the Internet. Many bloggers copy and past entire AP articles, and this would put an end to those practices.

As I was looking for freelance writing and editing and etc. jobs I came across one called, I kid you not: News Designer

If you follow the link you’ll find the listing ABC posted on MediaBistro… apparently they want someone to design the kinds graphics that show up on TV news these days.

But the headline! It confirmed my worst fears about what passes as news on so many of our public airways these days. That’s right, we the public, do, at least in theory, own the airways.

It could be that in the news business, the term, news designer, is recognized jargon, but if I were a news director anywhere I wouldn’t use that term. I’d probably headline the ad something like: Design News Graphics

The lesson, of course, is to remember you may be talking to more than an in-group. Make sure whatever terms you’re using are likely to be understood by everyone.

Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.

Image from http://www.sxc.hu

BuzzNetworker, another b5media blog, has a post today called: Citizen Journalism. It highlights the Center for Citizen Media, which is new to me, then goes on to talk about the fact that the San Jose Mercury News has called for neighborhood bloggers.

In one sense citizen journalism isn’t new at all. When you stop and think about it, Thomas Payne was a citizen first, so was Ben Franklin and countless others who broke news and changed worlds. In fact, professional journalism is really the new kid on the block, developing, according to some, in the early 20th century.

What’s different, of course, is the internet which has literally connected us world around. No longer do I have to wait for my daily newspaper or, in smaller towns, my weekly newspaper. I don’t have to wait for the evening news on either radio or TV, and I don’t have to wait until a “professional” news reporter gets it together to tell me what’s going on. It comes constantly, in my email and, if I choose, through blog feeds.

It’s the if I choose that concerns me a bit. There’s no denying that I tend to subscribe to blogs (and listen to radio shows - no TV here) that reinforce my own view of the world. And that means I have less exposure to opposing view points. Now, I do go out and seek those, but how many do?

Are we in danger of simply preaching to our own choirs at the expense of the exchange of ideas?

Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.

Image from http://www.sxc.hu

This is taking chances month at the b5media.com business channel. We’ve been challenged to do something slightly differently. Hence my call for guest bloggers the other day. (And you’re still welcome to submit one, or two, or… )

I’ve also changed the tag line - no, not the one under the logo on top (more about that in another blog) but over on the right, above my name. The new tag is: Making good money as a freelance writer.

What do you think? Is that a better description of this blog? Do you have a better idea? Let us know.

Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.

Image from http://www.sxc.hu

I heard something on the news this morning about movement in the writer’s strike, but I was looking up jobs or making coffee or something and didn’t hear the whole clip. Once the jobs were finished, the newsletter sent and the job entry made, I used Google News to try to catch up. What I got was more confusion. Here are the headlines at the moment:

LA story: $1.5 billion lost due to the strike - MSNBC I’d label this one almost a fear piece about the economic impact of the strike, because of the way it’s framed. The subhead is ‘People are scared and angry — and some will be losing their houses soon’ which, while it may be true, is only one side of the story.

Hopes of movement in writers’ strike Guardian Unlimited - Sounds good, but read on.

Directors pact could pave the way for writers National Post - I don’t know the National Post, but this also sounds optimistic.

Directors undercut writers’ strike Socialist Worker Online - okay, it’s not a main-stream paper, but it’s pro-labor and so am I.

So what’s true here? How can I tell? How can you tell? Even if we work through all 834 news articles I don’t know that I’d know anything more clearly. Like you, I pick the sources that resonate most closely with what I already believe!

Of course, I make an effort to at least consider both sides of most issues, and I suspect you do to. But how many other people do that? How many take time to read or listen or watch news and views that represents a different way of thinking?

How could we, as writers, encourage more people to be willing and find the time to hear more than one side of any issue?

Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.

StumbleUpon.com is both a tremendous time sink and an interesting resource. I’m cooking up some bacon for both breakfast and a spinach salad and between flipping rashers, I clicked my StumbleUpon toolbar thingie a few times… and got this:

Newseum.org which has at least the front page from over 500 newspapers in 54 countries! You can sort by country or by region. You get the front page and, if available, a link to the paper’s website. There’s also an analysis section that can be interesting.

Turns out this will turn into a physical museum in Washington DC sometime this year, which would be fun… but the site works now in cyber space.

Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.

Want some good news to write about? Or just to offset some of the gloom and doom we’re all exposed to every day?

Kathy Hawkins, a writer, poet and editor from Maine, and a member of our forum, pointed to Gimundo.com. Founded by Chris Case and Keith Cohn, Chris say’s on the site’s About page:

We talked about the fact that there are a lot of good things happening in the world and a lot to be thankful for. We see it in our kids. We see in our friends and families. We strongly believe that people want to be inspired. So we decided to create a newsletter where we celebrate positive events and human achievement.

It’s an interesting and sometimes inspiriting site, with good news in lots of categories plus a newsletter that promises to deliver good news to your email box.

Write well and often,

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