Could You Be a Guide?

Recently I've been updating my Quick Cash Writing course, and I happened to notice that the giant About.com website has a lot of vacancies for Guides right now.

About.com Guides take responsibility for a particular content area. Guides are expected to build up 'their' sites by sourcing (and writing) articles, adding links, hosting web-based discussions, and so on.

Payment is based on the advertising revenue generated by your site, but as long as you fulfil the company's requirements there are certain minimum guarantees. Maximum earnings are unlimited, based on a percentage of advertising turnover. The average time commitment is 10 to 20 hours per week. Good writing skills are required, along with knowledge of your chosen subject area, but training in the necessary technical skills is provided. Here is just a selection of topics for which About.com is currently looking for Guides:

Alzheimer's Disease
All-terrain Vehicles
Animal Rights
Arrhythmias
Astrology
Bicycling
Biotech/Biomedical
Bladder Cancer
Bowling
Buddhism
Charlotte, NC
Chicago
China Online
Classic Movies
Contraception
Customizing Cars

And that's just the A to C's!

Anyone can apply to be a Guide. Qualified applicants with proven expertise in a topic are accepted into Prep, which is a 17 day-long self-guided online training program. During Prep, prospective Guides become familiar with About.com's tools and demonstrate their knowledge by building sample sites. Experienced editors evaluate these sample sites and choose the most qualified applicant for the topic concerned.

If I was just starting out as a freelance writer, I would definitely want to look in to the About.com opportunity. It's a good chance to earn a steady income from researching and writing about a subject that interests you. In addition you'll immediately get a high profile in that subject on the web, and you'll learn some useful technical skills too. For full details, visit http://beaguide.about.com.