I don’t know what happened but this year starting in January, I was bombarded with email news releases that had absolutely nothing to do with topics that I would even consider writing about.
I was very busy in the fall writing for Get Creative/USA Today Gannett and I was not reading spam emails or deleting emails. My inbox was getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
My inbox had a total of 10,362 emails in it. When I decided to clean up the mess I saw some interesting trends. Continue reading
Freelance Writer Now has the word “now” in the title because many people don’t realize they need a writer until the last-minute and then they want one “NOW!” It takes a talent, planning, skill and professionalism to deliver great writing on time. I am proud that I was asked to meet what I thought were impossible deadlines and create articles that withstand the test of time. Continue reading
A few weeks ago, I received an email from a major media publishing company, asking if I would write branded content native advertising. The first thing I did was to look up a definition of branded content and native advertising online. There is mention of BuzzFeed starting this phenomena and then the major publishers such as the New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today. In these cases the advertiser and the publication work together to create content about the advertiser.
I understand why this happened, I have been a publisher since 2007 and have over two decades of experience writing. The trend has been for people to increasingly read content on devices in which you cannot see the advertisements and it is difficult to click on the ads. On top of that, there is a trend for search engines like Google to not even send searchers to content that has too much advertising on it. Ad blocking software can remove ads from the web reading audience completely. Continue reading
Malcolm Gladwell noted that you need 10,000 hours to be a phenom or freakishly awesome. He wrote about elitee performers (violinists) who each totaled ten thousand hours of practice. I noticed that after my first 10,000 hours of writing, my writing improved exponentally. Hiring someone with that level of experience is the best way to get writing done. Continue reading
A recent article, I wrote for GearBrain about ways to track employees and teens, show how advanced and accessible tracking of vehicles has gotten. Not only has telematics gotten better but also much cheaper. When these systems are cheaper, we see greater usage. Continue reading
The past few weeks, I wrote answers to “The Question of the Day” for Yahoo Autos, where questions from the Internet and beyond are answered by experts.
I like to interview at least three experts for every topic without letting them know what the others said. This is a technique I used when I wrote for Investor’s Business Daily. No one knows everything but when you jog the minds of those who really know what’s going on, you get original articles with breaking information. Continue reading
At the gym, I was got into a heated discussion with a man who was furious with automakers.
When I told him I write about connected cars he said, “You can’t have an electric car, unless you own a home, are rich or have another car!”
He had a limited view of the connected car space. He was talking about electric cars. Yes, it is nearly impossible even in large cities to drive an electric car without access to an electric outlet either in your own garage or nearby. His statements also made me realize that I live in the ideal place with the best of accoutrements for writing about connected cars and new car technology. Continue reading
I guess I’m a born journalist, I have a photographic memory for facts that just don’t go away. This ability along with my alternative form of transportation put me smack in the middle of a local political scandal. Continue reading
A few months ago, I read about DSRC being used to warn bicyclists and cars of the potential danger of them crashing into each other. I watched an interesting video on YouTube from Honda. I pitched an article on DSRC to a publication which accepted the idea.
It took a week of emails and phone calls to Honda PR and finally they informed me that they would not give an interview. I don’t know if the PR department put a stop on the interview or if the publication was not big enough for them. Continue reading
I have always liked writing about technology because it changes all the time and helps improve people’s lives. When technology is creative, it is genius and divine. The connected car space at this point in time on the planet is at the genesis of new ways to transport people and communicate. It’s exciting, to me to see how we define the connected car space and seeing what connected cars can do. Continue reading