6 Writing Techniques to Start a Travel Article by Brian Scott

Strong travel writing should hook a reader from the very first sentence. Here are six top techniques for opening an accomplished piece of travel writing.

Technique #1: The Anecdote
A tried and tested method of opening your travel essay is the anecdote. A short, pithy story that illuminates some of the greater themes or topics in your larger piece, the anecdote is an excellent way to instantly engage the audience. For example, in a piece about bullfighting in Pamplona, instead of a belabored history of the event, an accomplished writer might begin with a brief story of climbing the steps to their viewing balcony and being so anxious to see the running crowd and the angry bulls that they spill wine all over their white shirts. This anecdote foreshadows the bloody festivities to come and highlights the excitement and raucous nature of the event.

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7 Crowdsourcing Job Sites to Find Freelance Writing Work

I have updated and moved this article to my other blog. Read my article, "The Best Crowdsourcing Job Sites Used by Professional Freelance Writers in 2017."

The Internet has made finding freelance writing work much easier. You can visit a job site in one or two clicks of the mouse, and then review current jobs that need writers immediately. In this special post, I will reveal the best, most-referred "crowdsourcing" sites that supply new writing jobs each day.

Because each job site can attract 50-100 new writing jobs each day, I recommend you stick to just one. It makes no sense to register at multiple sites. The reality is you can only handle one or two (maybe three) projects at any given time—unless you have superhero powers or you are a freak of nature! :)

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Freelance Crowdsourcing Sites Offer Part-Timers a Way to Supplement Their Income

During the Global Recession (2007-2011), a time during which many countries faced near economic collapse, an untold number of workers lost their jobs or were transitioned from full-time to part-time work without benefits. In 2009 the U.S. unemployment rate peaked at 10%, a 16-year high. More than 2.5 million U.S. workers had lost their jobs. What may seem all negative also had positive outcomes, one of which affected the outsourcing industry. Laid-off, unhappy, frustrated and displaced workers turned to the Internet for freelance work.

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Will Print Magazine Closures Reduce Freelance Writing Jobs and Rates?

In today's Digital Age tech-savvy readers prefer to get their information in digital form, not paperback or print form. Their reading habits continue to disrupt the traditional publishing model of print media. It's becoming a glaring fact that the number of print magazine titles may eventually decline to a point where publishing companies begin to shut down their print operations and go entirely digital, or simply go out of business.

Thanks (or no thanks) to mobile devices, Internet availability, and immediate access to "packaged" and "pushed" content with transparent transactions, readers are becoming more accustomed to reading their magazines online.

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Amazon.com's MTurk Freelance Jobs Marketplace: What the Hell Is It?

Up until last year, I never knew Amazon.com had its own marketplace where freelancers could find work. Called Mechanical Turk (MTurk), it is Amazon's own custom platform to help businesses outsource their work virtually from anywhere in the world. When I say "work," I mean very small assignments or tasks that don't pay competitive rates; these include:

• writing content, 
• researching facts, 
• evaluating and rating websites, 
• proofreading, 
• translating, 
• categorizing products, 
• and other types of administrative and virtual assistant-type jobs.  

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Internships: Lawful, Unlawful, or a Labor of Love?

With more than 11 million people unemployed in the U.S. and the unemployment rate at 7.5%, more college students are looking at unpaid internships as a last resort to gain hands-on experience and real-world references for their resumes. A decade ago the job market was more promising for college students: the unemployment rate was around 4%. Driven by a more stable economy, companies were willing to pay interns a salary or an honorarium back then. Today, it is more difficult for college students to find paid internships. Since 2008, the growth of unpaid internships has grown from 10% to 80% because more companies are finding other ways to cut costs. One such way is hiring interns—without pay—to work full-time hours and do back-breaking work for college credit and experience.

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