Sunday, February 24, 2008

New Direction

I'm often been told by friends and co-workers that I can find anything. It started when I was a kid and could find anything as in literally find things--e.g. misplaced objects. There have only been a handful of times in my entire life when I've not been able to find something I or someone else has misplaced, and it kills me when it happens.

Since the advent of the internet--or my use of it--I have parlayed my instincts for finding things into the ability to research a myriad of topics and come up with information that others apparently don't know how to--or don't want to take the time to--find. I hardly think of it as a unique talent--anyone can presumably Google just as well as I can--but for whatever reason when I research things I am often met with "you should write a book" or at least "you should have a website." I have to say that my head is a repository of such a vast amount of random knowledge that it's sort of a shame to have it go, for the most part, unused.

At any rate, this new blog is my attempt to see if I can turn that random jumble of knowledge into some freelance commercial writing opportunities. Commercial writing, by the way, as defined by Peter Bowman, author of "The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Freelance Writer in Six Months or Less," is writing for corporations or other business entities, as opposed to writing for magazines or other publications.

On Motherwhatnowredux, my personal blog, I frequently write about my belief that it's to become rich and successful as a writer through as little effort as possible. Miss Information is my first step towards making it happen. It occurred to me that if I'm going to spend a decent amount of time writing on almost a daily basis, whether it be on Motherwhatnowredux or guest blogs for OnBalance--both purely for pleasure rather than profit--I may as well try to put all the random information in my head to some use.

I anticipate writing about a variety of topics, both business and personal. One subject I do a significant amount of research on is web development, marketing and usability, so I figure I'll be writing about that a fair amount. I haven't thought much beyond that at this point so I guess I'll be starting with that. Topics I plan to cover, given that I already have the information readily available, include nonprofit-related web issues such as online fundraising, search engine optimization (SEO), social media trends, and many other topics I explore for my real job as web communications coordinator for a non-profit.

So stay tuned--or don't. I'm sure if and when any actual business opportunities arise as a result of stuff I write here I'll be writing about it on Motherwhatnowredux.

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