This blog post was originally published on the MoneyGeek.ca blog by Jin Choi. The website no longer exists, but Jin has graciously allowed us to re-publish his research for the benefit of future investors forever.
You can receive $80 for each article about investing. Interested? Read on.
As an entrepreneur, my job involves finding ways to fire myself. I'll explain.
Currently, I wear a lot of different hats. I create the algorithms, take care of administrative tasks, and of course, I write each blog post on this site.
This last activity consumes more time than any other. Just to give you an idea, it takes me something like 5 hours to write each blog post. While I don't know how long it takes other bloggers, I'm convinced that I'm slower than average. It doesn't help that I'm not naturally a verbal person - I received my worst grades in language related subjects in school.
While I'm happy to keep putting my thoughts into words, I feel that it distracts me from offering more of what's unique to MoneyGeek: offering tools to help the average person invest their savings themselves. The real estate number cruncher is one such tool. I've also started to work on a tax optimizing algorithm that will optimally allocate investments between RRSP, TFSA and non-registered accounts. Unfortunately, I haven't put as much time into this as I'd like.
On the other hand, according my recent survey, the number one thing that readers want is more blog posts. However, that's not something I feel I can deliver on my own. I just don't have the time.
To solve this dilemma, I've decided to partially fire myself. I've decided that I would ideally like to write about once a week, and have another contributer or two write once or twice per week as well.
Description
Starting today, I'm looking for a freelance writer (or two) to contribute to this blog. Each writer will ideally write around 1 or 2 articles per week. Each article must be around 700 to 1,000 words a piece. I'm willing to pay $80 per article to start, with potentially higher rates in the future depending on how things go.
I'm only interested in articles that relate to investing. That means I'm not interested articles about budgeting, credit cards, etc. On the other hand, topics like individual stocks, the Canadian economy, and regulation are all fair game.
Qualifications
First and foremost, I'm looking for writers who have a passion for investing. Not only do I believe passionate people write better articles, but I believe passionate people are more knowledgeable about investments as well. While I'm willing to teach the writer on more advanced concepts, I don't want to start from the very basics.
I'm also looking for someone who shares my value investing philosophy. If you think everybody should own lots of gold, or should invest in stocks primarily based on their dividend track records, I respect your views but this may not be the right fit for you. However, you can disagree with me about whether IBM is a good investment for example, and still write for this blog.
Passion and knowledge aren't enough, though. You should also be able to write. While you don't have to be the next Ernest Hemingway, you must be able to explain financial concepts in plain language. You must also commit to improving your writing ability over time.
In terms of writing style, while I understand the temptation to write sensational articles, I'm looking for a more down to earth attitude. I don't want articles that say XYZ stock could gain 300% in 3 months. I want articles that seek to inform the reader instead - e.g. How low natural gas prices help North American manufacturers.
Formal qualifications (e.g. CFA, CFP, etc) are not necessary, and it doesn't matter where you live or how old you are. I will strictly judge your suitability by the quality of your writing.
Process
If you're interested in becoming a contributor, here's the process to follow:
First, come up with a topic you want to write about and email me the headline and a brief summary at info@moneygeek.ca. If you're not sure what to write about, email me and I can suggest a few, but I prefer to leave that to you.
If I like the topic, I will give you the go ahead to write the full article. Once you give me the full article and if I like it, I will publish it on my blog.
For the first 3 articles, I will only pay you if I publish the full article. After the third time, I will pay for a full article whether it gets published or not.
To put $80 into perspective, if it takes you 4 hours to write, that translates into $20 an hour. As I've said, if all goes well, we can discuss increasing the rates in the future too.
If you're interested, or if you have any questions, let me know atinfo@moneygeek.ca. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please do share this announcement with the person as well.
This blog post was originally published on the MoneyGeek.ca blog by Jin Choi. The website no longer exists, but Jin has graciously allowed us to re-publish his research for the benefit of future investors forever.
