Joe's Off on Another of His Crazy Quests
As I have said countless times: all my life people have told me I write well, that I should do more with it. I'm sure when they say this they don't have copy writing in mind; writing short little pieces to sell a product or service. Yeah, I didn't exactly think that either. I would rather spend time writing opinion pieces in my own blog, or something along those lines. But right now I would just like to get paid for writing something, anything. That would be a start.
There are always times when an artist (and right now I wouldn't even come close to calling myself an artist) has to do things for money that he or she probably wouldn't want to do, or at least wouldn't put at the top of their priority list. There are many musicians who write short, silly, little songs that become jingles for various products. Other times a musician will hire his or herself out as a studio musician; they come in to play on one song, or even sometimes for just a solo. Eddie Van Halen got paid big time for doing a short (what was it 30 seconds maybe?) solo on Micheal Jackson's "Beat It." Afterward Eddie said it was the easiest money he ever made.
So a few weeks ago a friend of mine, one of the many people who've told me I should try to do more with writing, sent me a link to site that sends out daily emails listing all kinds of writing jobs. Most of them are copy writing jobs, or some kind of marketing. Some are offering $200 for poems. Yeah, well, I've never been able to write poetry and I don't think I ever will. The idea of writing poetry is way too daunting for me; I'll stay away from that one, don't want to embarrass myself in that way. Writing sales pitches, or calls to action, never really occurred to me, but I'm kind of having fun learning about this.
I would like to get out of cab driving, but I know I can always come back to it, so I don't feel under any pressure that I have to make this work. I think it would be very nice to be able to get paid for writing short articles, or...well...I almost hate to say it, sales pitches, from the comfort of my own home. Wherever home might be. I have ideas for two blogs I'd like to start, one involves going back to Cambodia and teaching orphans again. I would much rather work on something like that but it looks to me like if I ever make any money from that it would take a long time. So that's why I'm willing to sell out a little bit and see if I can actually get paid for copy writing, or advertising.
So far I've applied to three companies and have been rejected by two of them. Still waiting to hear from the third. Apparently I do have to brush up on my grammar a bit, but I didn't think this was going to be easy. So I've decided to take a little bit of a gamble.
Do you remember that site I wrote about in one of my last journal entries? The one where they tell you about all the money you can make by being a copy writer and all you have to do is purchase their course for $149? Well, I didn't spend the $149. I waited and, as I thought would happen, they sent me another offer. The offer is that I can try their copy writing course for one month for $17, and if I don't like it I can cancel and get my $17 back. Now, being the dupe that I am, I have tried a number of these offers that you see online and I've always found them to be good on their word when they tell you they will refund your money if you don't like their product or service. So even if I think the course is junk, totally worthless, I'm pretty sure I'll get my money back, if I want it. If I like the course and want to keep it more than 30 days they will deduct the balance for the rest of the course from my debit card.
So far I've not been disappointed, nor have I been blown away. I am learning to polish up my grammar, and I'm learning how to make my words more dynamic, more appealing, and I'm also learning how to do more research. I think these are good things, even if I never get one of these writing gigs.
Part of me feels like I'm selling my soul. Part of me doesn't even want to write about it here, to share it with my friends. But I just want to see if I can get someone to pay me to write something. And you know, they always say that writing is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets. So I don't think it will be totally bad. I'm finding that when I'm not going through the writing course I'm doing a lot more writing about other things. Like right here, right now, for example.
So we'll see what happens. Is this just another of Joe's wild fantasies? Will I start this, like I have so many other things, and then put it down when I get bored?
Maybe, it certainly is possible.
But I do know this: I want to get out of cab driving. And after having spent so many years behind the wheel, where I don't have a boss looking over my shoulder, where I have so much freedom, where I can work when I choose, I know I can't get a nine to five job working in an office or, more likely for me, behind a grill, or something. I don't want a soul sucking shit job where I have to be on someone else's schedule. So yeah, I'm going to keep my nose to the grindstone a little longer. In just a few weeks I'm moving to Maui and I've got enough money saved up so that I don't have to worry about finding work for a while. So I'm hoping that will give me more time to work on this writing thing, even if it's not exactly the kind of writing I want to be doing. But that can come later. Right now I just want to see if I can convince someone to pay me to write.
There are always times when an artist (and right now I wouldn't even come close to calling myself an artist) has to do things for money that he or she probably wouldn't want to do, or at least wouldn't put at the top of their priority list. There are many musicians who write short, silly, little songs that become jingles for various products. Other times a musician will hire his or herself out as a studio musician; they come in to play on one song, or even sometimes for just a solo. Eddie Van Halen got paid big time for doing a short (what was it 30 seconds maybe?) solo on Micheal Jackson's "Beat It." Afterward Eddie said it was the easiest money he ever made.
So a few weeks ago a friend of mine, one of the many people who've told me I should try to do more with writing, sent me a link to site that sends out daily emails listing all kinds of writing jobs. Most of them are copy writing jobs, or some kind of marketing. Some are offering $200 for poems. Yeah, well, I've never been able to write poetry and I don't think I ever will. The idea of writing poetry is way too daunting for me; I'll stay away from that one, don't want to embarrass myself in that way. Writing sales pitches, or calls to action, never really occurred to me, but I'm kind of having fun learning about this.
I would like to get out of cab driving, but I know I can always come back to it, so I don't feel under any pressure that I have to make this work. I think it would be very nice to be able to get paid for writing short articles, or...well...I almost hate to say it, sales pitches, from the comfort of my own home. Wherever home might be. I have ideas for two blogs I'd like to start, one involves going back to Cambodia and teaching orphans again. I would much rather work on something like that but it looks to me like if I ever make any money from that it would take a long time. So that's why I'm willing to sell out a little bit and see if I can actually get paid for copy writing, or advertising.
So far I've applied to three companies and have been rejected by two of them. Still waiting to hear from the third. Apparently I do have to brush up on my grammar a bit, but I didn't think this was going to be easy. So I've decided to take a little bit of a gamble.
Do you remember that site I wrote about in one of my last journal entries? The one where they tell you about all the money you can make by being a copy writer and all you have to do is purchase their course for $149? Well, I didn't spend the $149. I waited and, as I thought would happen, they sent me another offer. The offer is that I can try their copy writing course for one month for $17, and if I don't like it I can cancel and get my $17 back. Now, being the dupe that I am, I have tried a number of these offers that you see online and I've always found them to be good on their word when they tell you they will refund your money if you don't like their product or service. So even if I think the course is junk, totally worthless, I'm pretty sure I'll get my money back, if I want it. If I like the course and want to keep it more than 30 days they will deduct the balance for the rest of the course from my debit card.
So far I've not been disappointed, nor have I been blown away. I am learning to polish up my grammar, and I'm learning how to make my words more dynamic, more appealing, and I'm also learning how to do more research. I think these are good things, even if I never get one of these writing gigs.
Part of me feels like I'm selling my soul. Part of me doesn't even want to write about it here, to share it with my friends. But I just want to see if I can get someone to pay me to write something. And you know, they always say that writing is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets. So I don't think it will be totally bad. I'm finding that when I'm not going through the writing course I'm doing a lot more writing about other things. Like right here, right now, for example.
So we'll see what happens. Is this just another of Joe's wild fantasies? Will I start this, like I have so many other things, and then put it down when I get bored?
Maybe, it certainly is possible.
But I do know this: I want to get out of cab driving. And after having spent so many years behind the wheel, where I don't have a boss looking over my shoulder, where I have so much freedom, where I can work when I choose, I know I can't get a nine to five job working in an office or, more likely for me, behind a grill, or something. I don't want a soul sucking shit job where I have to be on someone else's schedule. So yeah, I'm going to keep my nose to the grindstone a little longer. In just a few weeks I'm moving to Maui and I've got enough money saved up so that I don't have to worry about finding work for a while. So I'm hoping that will give me more time to work on this writing thing, even if it's not exactly the kind of writing I want to be doing. But that can come later. Right now I just want to see if I can convince someone to pay me to write.