Thursday, May 26, 2011

Opportunity knocks

Well, today I was approached by one of the editors at Yahoo! Contributor Network and asked if I had interest in a project that may end up on the front page of Yahoo.com. Of course, I am. The assignments, however, require me to locate and interview certain people whom it may be hard to reach. The good news is that they have given me four assignments on the same topic for four separate interviews. I guess that means that all four have the potential to make the front page if I can manage to get in touch with the right interviewees.

For those not familiar with Y!CN, writers receive part of their compensation based on the number of page views that an article gets. High profile placement, such as the front page of Yahoo.com, can translate into many, many page views and many, many dollars. I know of two Y!CN writers who had featured articles earn several thousand dollars in a few days, for example. There may be others of whom I am unaware.

Generally, front page placement is kind of hit or miss. If the folks at Yahoo! see an article which catches their eye, they may feature it. Anyway, I consider this assignment a good opportunity to earn some good money while gaining some good exposure for my work. Additionally, coming through with good interviews on this type of request certainly doesn't hurt my future opportunities for similar assignments in the future.

Now, I just have to figure out who I can get for these interviews that will make them front page worthy. My first thought is to visit an area museum and have a chat with the museum director, both as a potential candidate and to network additional contacts in the field in question, but I need to think about it overnight and work out a plan of attack.

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