Local Writing Job Ads

Real Estate Writer
- Just wanted to know if anybody is able and interested to write real estate articles for a PR company? Email me resume and sample works to nina.chua@yahoo. com.


Full-time Writer/ Reporter
- The Development Executive Group, Inc.

Join one of the most innovative and fastest-growing companies in international development – The Development Executive Group (www.devex.com) . Serving more than 100,000 international development professionals from around the world, The Development Executive Group is a social enterprise founded at Harvard University in the year 2000 with a mission to bring efficiency to international development and humanitarian relief. Today, we are a 60-person company with offices in Washington, DC, Manila, Tokyo, and Barcelona. For entrepreneurial, motivated, and energetic professionals, we offer tremendous opportunity for personal and professional growth.

Full-Time Staff Writer
(National Capital Reg - Pasig City)

Devex is in urgent need of a Full-time Staff Writer for its office in Manila, Philippines. The successful candidate will perform the following:

• Produce daily news digests on international development, global health and humanitarian emergencies
Interview officials in international organizations such as the World Bank, the ADB, USAID, and the European Commission
• Write articles and special reports for publication on our website, which has over 190,000 active users worldwide

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Political Science, Economics, Journalism, Development Communication, and other relevant social science courses
• At least one-year professional or freelance writing experience
• Strong writing, editing and interviewing skills
• Excellent computer and online research skills
• Deadline- and output-oriented
• A fast learner

Preferred Qualifications:

• Substantial work experience in journalism and reporting
• Strong knowledge of international development, global health, and humanitarian relief
• Experience writing for an international audience
• A portfolio of articles published in major publications

Application Instructions:

In order to be considered in our short listing and interview processes, please follow the following instructions.

1) Register and Logon at
http://www.developm entex.com/ spring/registrat ion/register_ individual. jsp
(it’s FREE!)
2) Click on »Register as Individual
3) Once logged on, apply for the position by following this link.

Our diverse global team includes professionals with experience in business, media, and international development. Our team members are dedicated and enthusiastic about our mission, have excellent academic and professional credentials, and possess foreign language skills. If this describes you, we encourage you to submit your application. We are building a team of the world’s best-and-brightest professionals to lead this exciting social enterprise to its next level of growth.

Online Editor
- Philstar.com, the website of the Philippine Star is still looking for an
online editor. If any of you are interested, please forward me your resume
to alexavillano@ philstar. com and will forward it to my bosses.

What Do I Know about SEO?

Seriously, not much. I've written articles about it and while I can understand the logic behind them, it does not mean that I can easily carry the steps out.
I can write keyword articles, of course. That's mostly what I've been doing for the past two years. That should be something I could do for my blogs, right? It just never occurs to me to do so. If I mention WAHM several times in one of my posts, that's just pure coincidence. And the thing is, keyWORD usually does not work. It has to be an actual phrase. For instance, I should write a post with "WAHM opportunities" several times - at least once in the introductory paragraph and once in the conclusion and then scatter it some more every fifty words or so.
Then there's link exchange. I've done it some with my other blog, but it's more out of friendship than an actual calculated SEO move.
I can count on the fingers of one hand the forums I participate in, although I do take advantage of the siggy line, so, uh, you can pat me on the head and go "good girl" on that one.
I do not give away freebies because I've been meaning to ship a couple of things to several people for some time now and I haven't gotten around to doing it. That spells trouble for my Freebie Friday idea.
Um, I'm scared to submit to directories. It's blogging inferiority complex. I don't think mine are worthy, lol.
The other things like social networking, bookmarking, emailing - um, kinda lots of work and too much of a commitment, so ...
So, in effect, it all boils down to lack of commitment and laziness?
But, you know, if it gets to be a tighter squeeze around here financially, I can easily fall into serious blogging mode. I have been know to rise the occasion.
Whatever.
I think this may just be an aimless little post. Break up the survey streak.

Citizen Bane

Oh the banes of citizenship, lol. What do you think of offering the thing up for sale?

Are You the Alternative Type?

Honestly, this fuel thing has always been a great concern for me and I would really love to hook my home and car up with an alternative energy source.

Firsts

The first may not always be the best, but it is often equally important. What are your firsts?

Twice Bitten

Thrice shy? That lends an old adage useless, hee! The thing is, thus far, I haven't been technically scammed yet considering that there are thousands of online con artists out there. Of course, there had been an instance when a client failed to deliver on the agreed compensation. This client was local and very easy to hunt down, but since the agreed upon fee was minimal and I did get a byline, I let it pass and simply did not bother writing for him again. There was also another client who had to be repeatedly emailed to follow up on the invoices I had sent. He always paid up, but not before giving you a few tense days of wondering. Perhaps we can put it down to lack of organization, but it doesn't make the setup less unfair. I was always mindful of my deadlines and I expected him to be just as prompt with his payment. The delayed payment was getting routine with him and while I was willing to put up with the lateness if given a good reason, I didn't appreciate the lack of communication regarding this (this from the same person who nagged at you every hour to check your progress) or my having to behave like a bill collector because while bill collecting is perfectly decent, I was brought up to properly disguise any form of occupation with money (money, it is philistine! harhar!). While I knew the world to be imperfect, I also had more conscientious clients, so I severed association with that one. My most recent experience involved somebody I perceived to be ethical (no warning bells at all) and organized. My expectation was that it would be a good and lasting working relationship. However, around the time I had sent my first invoice, she ceased sending her team updates. I sent several follow-up emails, but never heard from her. The very day I said I was pulling out my articles and publishing them elsewhere, an email from her alleged colleague appeared in my inbox, explaining that she had been in an accident. I really thought it was something like that and since I can afford to wait for payment (I don't like it, but it does not compromise me or seriously inconvenience me, so I can be tolerant up to a point), I replied telling the colleague to ignore my previous email about sending my stuff elsewhere. I resent my payment request as he had instructed and haven't heard anything since. It's possible that there is a perfectly good explanation again, but being in a state of wondering is pretty stressful.

Is Your PC Susceptible to Bugs?

Mine is! Husband should definitely do something about this. Paging Husband.

Loyalty to a Brand?

Whatever for? Perhaps loyalty to a seller instead. Going with the smart choice is not loyalty. If a smarter option comes along, then have no qualms about switching over, right? What do you think?

Hardcore WAHM

My confession is that I have almost been lured away from the fold. A couple of weeks ago, an ex-colleague of mine called me up to tell me about a Spanish teacher post at the school she is currently affiliated with. The position was supposed to be part-time and because, let's face it, times are hard, I considered it. I even went as far as to go to an interview. However, as I was spewing the usual job interview banalities, my mind already made the decision that I wasn't going to do it. I had quit a much better job than the one I was supposedly applying for to be a SAHM to my daughter. My time and my efforts meant for mothering are not to be compromised. I'm doing fine as a WAHM. Of course, the money isn't anywhere near to what I was earning as a full-time teacher, but consider the perks: I get to take care of my daughter myself; I'm always there for her; I am her primary influence; There is no room for regret or remorse later on - as much as I love the song "Cats in the Cradle", it won't apply to us. Marguerite and I are having a good time now and will continue to do so.

Gas Stations Are Hip, Happening Places

:)

Who's Got a Hybrid to Hand Me Down

You think I'll find one on Freecycle?

For Sale: Toyota Corolla GL '90mdl

Husband is selling another car.

Description:
- All stock
- New paint
- New bridgestone tires
- Strong AC
- New seat cover
- Stock 1.6 16valve engine
- Manual Transmission
- Smooth ride
- Ending Plate 6
- Clean papers
- 110k negotiable upon viewing the car

Pictures and more details are available here. If interested email me at spinninglovelydays[at]gmail[dot]com.

Are Your Pants on Fire?

Is your nose as long as a telephone wire? What say you about lying?

This Conversation Interests Me

because I've been thinking about putting a weight loss ticker somewhere on Spinning Lovely Days to shame myself into losing those extra pounds, which clearly can no longer be blamed on my pregnancy two years ago.

Battle of the (Computer) Brands

I don't know much about it, but take it for granted that I won't go for the exclusivist/elitist choice...

The Democrats Seem to Have Made Their Pick

Things certainly seem to be looking good for Barack Obama, but many feel that Hillary Clinton should still remain in the picture. How do you feel about this? Do you think that together they have a winning ticket?

Call to UP Students and Alumni with a Good UP Story to Tell

In line with the centennial of the University of the Philippines, here’s a call for submissions to "100 Kwentong Peyups." As part of UP’s 100th year celebration , we are putting together "100 Kwentong Peyups," a series of columns that will appear in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Philippine Star throughout the year. We invite all past students of any of the UP units to submit their stories.

Submissions must have a maximum of 1,000 words and be based on a personal experience. Written in the first person, they should be emotionally engaging (whether funny, sad, or scary, etc.) and make a connection between the story and a life lesson that serves the author today.

Entries should also include an old photo or scanned memento, the sender’s name, college or unit and course, admission year to UP or student number, and e-mail address.

Send articles to 100kwentongpeyups@campaignsandgrey.net.

Authors whose stories are selected for publication will be notified by e-mail.

The Key in Article Writing

My résumé claims that I'm a freelance writer and it must be true enough; I consistently get writing gigs from Craig's List and other job ad sites. I like to do creative writing, but the current demand is for SEO-oriented writing or keyword articles. The law of supply and demand is a hard one to break, so I've delivered accordingly. Between the parenting articles I write for a certain daily, the articles and stories I submit to different publications, and my regular daydream about writing my own book, there is a steady stream of ads for keyword articles I respond to. It's a real hoot. You get to write about a variety of topics you really have no business writing about, but thanks to the internet, you can easily affect expertise if you know how to research.
Basically, the job is like accomplishing a writing assignment for school. You are given the requirements and you meet them. Anybody who has a pretty good command of the English language can do it. Usually, you have the number of articles to write, a list of keywords, a deadline, and minimum number of words. It's up to you how you'll go about churning out the articles. You can spend as much time as you want writing the entire set, but since you've been given a rate per article, it's wise to make the entire process cost effective. Make sure that your article is grammatically sound. As for the actual content, some clients require that it be informative while some are more concerned about the placement of the keywords (every hundred words at most, but the rule of thumb here is: the more, the better, but keep it from sounding ridiculous) as the desired end is a boost in search engine rankings (search engines do not read messages, they merely perceive the frequency of the appearance of key phrases, so they're all about quantity, not quality when it comes to keywords - let's not go into search engine algorithms as it would be a case of the blind leading the blind).
I don't involve myself in posting, so the HTML layout and the question of whether meta tags are acknowledged or not are not my concern. I do have to come up with the title and it's all about phrasing once again: keyword and title formula, basically.
Two parting messages:
- Plagiarism is not only illegal, it also doesn't get you paid, so steer clear of copy-and-pasting. :)
- Don't sell your time and effort (let's not even mention talent) cheap. Job ads offering $3 per 500-word article is a blatant insult.

Personal Blog Is Inundated with WAHM Posts

hence the birth of another blog with its focus on WAHMing. Spinninglovelydays will still feature paid posts or wahm posts as I call them, but the majority would end up here. I'm quite excited about this. There are many financial ventures that I want to publicize somehow, but I feel that they would take away from the desired feel of the blog. In this case, I think the separation of my SAHM identity from my WAHM one will work well. For one thing, the discussion of money troubles does not a lovely day make and as the other blog is mostly about "rainbows and bunnies",financial woes definitely have always had a hard time fitting in well.
Besides monetizing this blog, I also intend to post job ads, referral links, WAHM tips, business ideas, and perhaps some personal content related to my experiences as a work-at-home mother. If you are interested in these things (you need not be a WAHM yourself), drop by often and feel free to share thoughts, advice, ideas, etc. They will all be much appreciated. Let's help each other beat the financial crisis befalling most single income families.