Freelancers and the internet by : JACKIE SHERMAN

Have you noticed how many features in some magazines and local papers are written by the same people? It's disappointing, isn't it, when the author of the theatre review page also covers his or her latest restaurant meal and gives you financial advice several pages further on. It makes you think the publication is being run on a shoe-string, and that you'd rather get advice on these things from an expert.Well, websites are just the same; they need fresh blood and new angles for their pages. When someone gets an idea for a new site, a key question is going to be: who is going to write the content of all those thousands of pages? Which is why it can be quite easy to get freelance work on a new magazine-style website, as long as you know your subject well enough, are willing to write new copy regularly and don't expect to be paid! Yes, sadly, making money from writing for lifestyle websites doesn't seem to be easy in the first few years, but without a presence on the web these sites haven't a hope of becoming financially self-supporting in the longer term. It's a real Catch 22 - without a viable, well-visited site, no advertiser is going to put an ad on the page, and without ads on the page, no website can survive, develop and get the money to pay the contributors. So you need to view writing for the Internet as a long-term investment which will hopefully pay off some time in the future.However, a presence on the web can offer quite unforeseen if non-pecuniary advantages. For a start, your name and work are on show. If you want to, and especially if you haven't got around to creating a personal website, you can put the web address of your page on business cards, headed notepaper or at the end of any other contributions you make. No one will then be able to doubt your ability and you can save time explaining your special approach, if enquirers are directed to your articles on the Internet.Secondly, if more permanent or full-time work dries up for a while having a regular column or even occasional piece on-line will give you the appearance of being "in work" when you try applying for another job. Freelancers have always had the luxury of being able to avoid that dreaded "provide a reference from your current employer", but if your field of expertise enables you to put work on the web, then you are clearly keeping up-to-date and (they may believe) being paid for your skills.A third advantage of an Internet presence is that it allows you to test yourself in a new area. In my case, I started writing for an over 50s website some years ago purely by coincidence, as I was more concerned with the content (advice about using computers) than the age group of my readers. However, when I applied to a magazine covering the same target audience, being involved in a similar enterprise on the Internet gave the appearance of my having an expertise with older people, as well as in my specialist field and I ended up with a regular column. This gave me the idea of specialising further and so when a new website aimed at the retired population appeared on the web, I wrote straight away suggesting a similar column which I have now written for three years. Even more exciting, this lead to my writing a book on my subject aimed at older people and published by Age Concern, as it filled a gap in the market that no-one else seemed to have spotted.The fourth reason to write for the web is that it will force you to learn skills that everyone is going to need in the future. If your accompanying pictures are too large, or in the wrong format, for example, you will be told - or will have to find out - how to convert them to a file type known as a JPEG. You can no longer write long, text-based articles but will need to think about hyperlinks, graphics and animated GIFs, and all the other technological razzmatazz that comes with the Internet. Who knows, it could lead to a whole new career e.g. in teaching others what you have learned, writing books on working on the Internet or web authoring etc that you might otherwise never have considered.A fifth reason to work for (almost) free on the Internet is that you can link your pieces to a personal website and any services or products that you want to offer. If you contribute to a prestigious site - company-based or popular with a wide audience - it is likely to have thousands of visitors a week. Most websites will include links for their contributors to personal websites so that any of your items could lead to people clicking a link to your page. This is where you can display the rest of your work and even conduct a business. Having only a personal website, visitors will be very few and far between because, let's face it, who are you? So now we've established that it can be a very good idea to contribute to magazine-style websites, you need to know how to get started. The key question is - what is your specialist area? If it is anything that would appeal to a wide audience of surfers, then there are probably one or more slots you could fill. The best way to approach getting a job is to write to your chosen webmaster offering your idea for a feature or regular column and provide them with a sample of your work. Here are a few different ideas for a contribution, bearing in mind that you need to stick to the same length and style of current contributions as far as possible:Questions and Answers - either real or imaginary queries about your area of expertise can be answered in a short, snappy, jargon-free way. Many websites have features that take this form, so you need to visit a range of similar sites and make up a few questions that you feel would be of interest to the target audience. It is likely that you would be required to write new questions once every month or so, as this will keep the website fresh and worth re-visiting.Personal accounts - if the style of the site allows for anecdotal pages, then your background or job knowledge might form the basis of a few good features. Clearly, you need to study the style of current accounts before contributing a piece, so they can see that it would fit in.Factual articles - the How To column is often a vital part of any website, so that any topic that has not yet been covered but would fit in well with the potential audience could be tackled. Some websites have their articles set out as a series of numbered steps, or they might prefer to publish a chatty item that covers the basic skills in a more general way. In-depth information - you may feel that your knowledge of an area of the world (work, leisure or education etc) might be of real interest, and if it hadn't come up before on the site, would certainly not duplicate anything already covered. On the other hand, you may find a previous article mentioning something you know about that could justify being covered again in more depth. In both cases, it is possible that this type of item could be repeated over the months e.g. looking at different roles in an organisation, looking at varied markets for work or following up different types of training course or qualifications. Entertainment - if the site is light-hearted, you may be able to contribute jokes, cartoons, photos etc that would fit in well and fill a gap.Audience-related - you may feel that you have something to offer teenagers, women, older people, lone parents, ethnic minorities etc and can find a relevant website that would welcome your contributions. Each website is competing for an audience and someone interested in your field may visit a site which seems to speak to them in their situation, or at their age, more personally than one that is content-based.You may have other ideas for contributions, so whichever route you take, I hope that you manage to find a niche. With perseverance, you should be able to get on the web and eventually, you may even make a living working in this way