One way to boost income is to do filler work when you're not busy doing "real" work. That's how my line of ebooks started: I wrote one to my own specs, and then sold the result through the eBooks.onLine Web page. (One has grown to 50, creating this problem: the ebooks became so popular that I find I now HAVE to update them to meet the demand, and I am no longer just dabbling in them on my spare time.)
If you are underemployed right now, here is a possibility for earning a little income from your knowledge as a CAD user. Demand Media Studios buys brief articles ($15 each) and video clips ($20) that answer questions. They also hire copy editors and headline checkers (for far less). The drawbacks: the pay is low, and you write for assignments generated by an algorithm. OTOH, if you are sharing your knowledge for free through your blog, here's one way to perhaps turn that hobby into some cash.
To learn more about the pros and the plenty of cons of working for this site, read Daniel Roth's insightful article "The Answer Factory" at www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/all/1
If you are underemployed right now, here is a possibility for earning a little income from your knowledge as a CAD user. Demand Media Studios buys brief articles ($15 each) and video clips ($20) that answer questions. They also hire copy editors and headline checkers (for far less). The drawbacks: the pay is low, and you write for assignments generated by an algorithm. OTOH, if you are sharing your knowledge for free through your blog, here's one way to perhaps turn that hobby into some cash.
To learn more about the pros and the plenty of cons of working for this site, read Daniel Roth's insightful article "The Answer Factory" at www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/all/1
Ralph,
I share your pain. As I recall, we started the ebook thing about the same time. I wrote four just on AutoCAD Architecture and because the product kept changing, first with subscription bonuses and then the annual updates, I found it would be a near full-time job just to keep up (GUI changes alone can be daunting). I admire you and other writers who can keep going but I had to change my focus to content creation. This quarter I released, for free, the entire Development eGuide for Architectural Desktop. It was written in .html and filled with hyperlinks. I was looking into adding videos and reader comments (like a wiki) and just-in-time printing. Maybe user guides of the future will be dynamic like that.
My hats off to you Ralph!
Posted by: Odin | Oct 21, 2009 at 11:29 AM