Using Images from Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons is one place you can get free images that you can legally use along with your articles, blog posts, and wherever you like. This can be very helpful, as articles and blogs with images often seem more dynamic and interesting to the visitor.
 

New Orleans is my favorite city in the World. It is so full of art, music, and culture that if you visit there you'll never run out of interesting things to do.


The photo above is a historical sign that tells a little bit about the history of the Crescent City.

It's also an example of a photo I found on Wiki Media Commons, to use as an example. The photo was taken by Justin Watt and can be found on Wikimedia if you do a search for New Orleans. It can also be seen along with some other great photos here: Spring Break in New Orleans.

It's important when using images from Wikimedia to scroll down and read what kind of permissions are granted. This one is free to use without any stipulations, but I mentioned the photographer above because it's generally considered proper etiquette to mention the source if you use artwork, photography, or writing that came from someone else. It's more friendly, whether or not it's required. Wikimedia is free to use, and if you sign up you can also share your own work if you like. Your spring break photo's may help another writer, artist, or teacher somewhere down the line.

In my case, I have another blog that happens to be about New Orleans. When I get into playing with that one, this is a good example of a photo I might use, particularly if I was making a post about the history of the city. If you'd like to see that blog, you can find it here: Keys to New Orleans . It could also be useful, if I was writing an article for Associated Content, or one of the other places I write.

In any case, check out Wikimedia when you get a chance, if you don't already use it as a resource.

A Day in the Life

How do I find freelance writing gigs that actually pay? The answer is that I'm constantly doing research and writing. To be able to make money online as a freelance writer, you have to do a lot more than just write in your free time.

You have to know where to submit your articles, and what kind of payment arrangements each online publisher offers. You should probably be writing in more than one place, and link those different places together through a blog or a website that serves as an online portfolio. Or several. This helps to market your work, which you are primarily responsible for when you try doing this kind of work.

Can you make a living at it? Yes. Is it easy? Not so much. Let me take you on my journey today, at least what I remember from it.

I checked my account at Associated Content, which I usually do after I get up. Still "author clout 4", but closer to "author clout 5" because I had a few more readers last night. My article on "How to Sell Books Online" went up, and was even given a small up front payment. (Woo-hoo! Hippies makin' money, who would have thought it possible?)

I had also sent a note to one of the community admins, asking for help editing a mistake in another article. I was extraordinarily happy that they fixed the errors in my "World Steam Punk Expo" piece. I had a lot of fun checking that convention out, and apparently a lot of other people are interested because it's gotten a lot of views. I didn't want to promote that article much until the errors were fixed, basically because I was embarrassed and didn't think it would look professional. ( The first paragraph made it into the published copy twice, with spacing and spelling errors in the first version viewable! Aaack! ) It happens, even to great writers.

I also noticed that my fun little articles about the Sims 3 game and the New Orleans Blues Musician Coco Robicheaux are getting more views, too. That's important if you write for Associated Content. Part of how they pay you is based on how popular your article becomes. I've only been with them for about a month, but have about 20 articles up already. I'm noticing that every time I publish a new one, it helps reader find the things I've already written and my page views go up.

That was all just in the first hour. Then I did a bunch of research on other online writing opportunities. It's Tuesday, and every week an online a newsletter called "Morning Coffee" is posted on freelance writing.com . The newsletter lists current freelance writing opportunities. I followed one of the links to the problogger job board , where I reread a notice about Experts123 looking for people to write articles.

Initially it hadn't really seemed like my thing, but I decided to take another look. It looks like they may offer better pay than a number of places I'm experimenting with, so I did my application and am waiting for approval. I'll update in the future about how that goes.

See what I mean? We're only at hour two, and I've already done a lot of things. I feel like I have to start a new post, because I want to showcase some other great sites I found, and don't want them to be lost on short-attention-span theater. :-)