Web 2.0 and Serious Pay

PNN is out.  So is blogging, twittering, web 2.0, and technical writing.  In the world of writing groups, the pinnacle of success is publishing a novel that wins a Pulitzer Prize, or any other prize.  Blogging is just writing crap to them.

The writing group to which I belong literally and completely discounts blogging with sneers. Most have no idea what web 2.0 is.  Many have no idea what networking involves.  Several of them hire typists.  One types everything on a typewriter. No matter what we tell them, they have no idea how easy a computer is.  

I try to tell them of the Sisterhood that PNN offers. They have no response.  Nothing.  I tell them it improves my skills.  They don't care. Publishing that all important novel is the key.

Memoirs have risen to the surface as the most important genre of the group.  While the depth of that style of writing is indeed compelling, other types of writing is also important.

First, let me say that this writing group is excellent.  There are skilled editors, a wonderful poet, and a college professor, an accomplished sculptor turned writer.  The list goes on and on.  But nothing I say can convince them that blogging is like training, a hobby, and a joy.

Writers ignore web 2.0 to their peril.  And now the head of the writing group is hearing it in other arenas.  Recently she attended a conference where many people talked about the importance of blogging, twittering, networking and all things web 2.0.

And think about some of the high profile blogging jobs that are being offered!  Recenly a blog job was offered in Wine Country.  Pay: $100,000 plus a wonderful house.  This morning, on Odesk, a job offer for a blog poster of $50,000 - $100,000.  Then there's the tourism job offered near the Land Down Under.  Live in a house on the beach, swim and blog every day about the world around you.  Pay: $100,000.   Thousands of people applied.

Who knows how long these kinds of jobs will last.  Either they will go the way of the dinosaur or they will be here to stay with people like the PNNers being frontline for blogging work.  Either way, web 2.0 is an exciting time for writers, even if it's not the pinnacle of writing achievement.