April 12, 2009

Hello, VentureBeat.

Posted by Ed Oswald under Uncategorized | Tags: , , , |
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For many of you, it was Easter Sunday, a day of rest. But as any freelancer knows, there is no such thing as a holiday. You don’t work, you don’t make money… thus my newest opportunity.

I reached out to VentureBeat last week after noticing they had a link to contact about freelancing. Matt Marshall was kind enough to respond, and today we finally touched base.

Well, it’s nothing *official* per se, but I contributed my first post to VentureBeat this afternoon. It’s an exciting new opportunity. Why? The site is different in a way from the work I do at Technologizer.

Whereas Technologizer focuses more on the consumer, VB looks to more the business side of things. I’ve always thought of the site as TechCrunch minus the arrogance. The style is also different from what I’m used to.

In other words, I’m moving out of my comfort zone. It’s a good move in my opinion. Between VB and Technologizer, I am now writing for an audience that is likely several times bigger than I ever did before.

While I am grateful for those past opportunities, it was time to move on. Nothing’s guaranteed, and VB may not work out. But at least I’m trying to expand my horizons, which as a writer you should always do.

Shocker moment? Getting called by an editor to check facts and make sure we have the story right, not just editing it and not saying anything! I know that’s supposed to be commonplace, but hey with some previous employers that never happened.

Nice to have some professionalism!

It’s going to be an interesting couple of weeks getting used to a new way of doing things. But I’m up to the challenge.

What’s with me lately and taking risks? :)

 

January 16, 2009

Technologizer’s Impressive Growth

Posted by Ed Oswald under Uncategorized | Tags: , , |
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With each day, and especially with this economy, I become increasingly impressed with how fast Technologizer (my main freelance gig) has grown. This site was virtually unknown to anyone just only 6 months ago. Now, entering into only really its half year anniversary, we have pulled an impressive 800,000+ pageviews for the month — and are well on the way to break the 1,000,000 pageview mark for the first time ever.

Lets put it into perspective: this would mean in January alone we would have gotten the same amount of pageviews from the July through late September in less than a month. That’s exponential growth.

What makes it even more impressive is the journalistic, and economic climate. Tech journalism is awash with so many news sources and blogs that its very easy to get lost in the mix, and VERY hard to break into it either. Add to the fact the economy isn’t doing too well, and it makes it all the harder to produce enough content to keep people coming back.

TG has been able to do both of this, and in very short order. Perhaps we’re helped along by having Harry McCracken at the helm, who already has a very established name in tech news, but I think its the work we do.

Unlike my previous employer, where there was too much top-end control of what should be written and how it should be (which I will argue caused it to completely miss the boat and probably cost it a great deal of growth), TG seems to give its writers much more freedom. What results is a good variety of styles. It’s an enjoyable read. You have writing styles that range from just the facts to sharply opinionated.

That’s what makes a good publication. Not trying to force people to write like you want them to. Guidance is always good, mandating is not. And that’s why people are coming back day after day in my opinion.

It’s going to be an exciting 2009 to see where this goes. While i was admittedly nervous in September about this, I have to say at this point taking on this position was probably one of my better career moves so far.

As they say, when life brings you lemons, make lemonade…

 

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