arquin
06 Jul 2009, 03:14 PM
A rough write up of what I want from my partner, bare with me:
I've invested a heap of money into a new laptop/camera/video camera for my journalism and intend to make a travel journalism site. Instead of just having destinations and profiles, I'd like to center the site around the adventures and experiences to be had at said destination. I don't want it to be like most other travel sites that have great hotels and contiki tours. Summaries that lump an entire population/nation into a few sentences along side a star rating out of 5 and a cheesy "describe this country in 1 word" bit. Most of my travel will be in the cheapest hostels I can find, and the food I eat will be ramen noodles/road side shops unless I'm actually writing about the food.
I've got the flights all paid for, I've got the resources to get the stories, but I lack the ability to publish them in a format I'm happy with. I can make a blog on a site like blogger, but it doesn't look or feel right to me. The adds (which are necessary to make money) are placed badly/awkwardly and detract from the enjoyability of the site. People will come back if the content is good. But if there are so many adds you can't ****ing see the content, well, no dice.
You have nothing to lose except a small portion of your time, I'll pay for everything: Hosting, marketing/advertising, the money that goes into getting the actual stories, EVERYTHING. Nothing needs to come out your pocket. What I will do is write up content on a pretty frequent basis which I will then email to you and expect you to publish it in a 'neat' and 'trendy' manner. Basically I just want my **** to look professional. I'll include the photos and videos, you just get them on the net. That's it.
For this, depending on your ability, you'd receive a portion of all money the website makes. The percentage you earn will be between 15-30% depending mostly on your ability and examples of work. Rate of pay is negotiable. The reason you earn a % and not a set amount is because the better the site goes, the more you earn. It's a simple way to motivate the designer as their effort is directly mirrored by the rewards they reap.
The amount of money I'd be willing to invest in advertising will be quite low at the start, with around $30- $60 per month or my cut of the earnings (depending on what's greater). On top of this I will do other types of marketing.
After 3-6 months of one pay rate, we'd negotiate a new one depending on how much work you're doing and how well the site is going. We can also discuss if you'd like to continue with the project, if you feel it's not for you, what ever.
When I send you an article, I'd expect it up and published with in a week. This has the potential to be stressful as I could send you two articles a week. So you'd need to publish them both before the next week. I never want the site to be more than a week behind.
Examples of things I'll be doing are: Skydiving (10 jumps), bungee jumping (3 jumps), heliboarding (3 runs), jet boating, snowboarding in general, para gliding over Kathmandu valley, hiking to a enormous marijuana field in the Terrai region of Nepal, living in a Buddhist monastery, teaching orphans English, climbing a 6,500 meter mountain, white water rafting, snorkeling/diving in Thailand, full moon parties, how to score drugs in weird cultures, partying, etc
These are all things that would make for interesting travel articles. On top of that, there will be a lot of cultural stuff.
I have skype/msn/facebook, so that's how we'd communicate.
I'm leaving in 27 days, the trip will take around 2 years, there's no obligation (obviously) for you to get on board this long, but the longer the better as with most websites, initial earnings are quite low and they grow overtime, often reaching very respectable amounts.
This is serious, I'd write up contracts and we'd both sign them. You need to be trustworthy and easy to work with. The technical demands I have will be quite low, but the ability to make things look very neat and professional are important. Time is the only thing you're investing, and the only thing that can happen is that you can make not as MUCH money as you thought, but there is no way you can LOSE money.
I've invested a heap of money into a new laptop/camera/video camera for my journalism and intend to make a travel journalism site. Instead of just having destinations and profiles, I'd like to center the site around the adventures and experiences to be had at said destination. I don't want it to be like most other travel sites that have great hotels and contiki tours. Summaries that lump an entire population/nation into a few sentences along side a star rating out of 5 and a cheesy "describe this country in 1 word" bit. Most of my travel will be in the cheapest hostels I can find, and the food I eat will be ramen noodles/road side shops unless I'm actually writing about the food.
I've got the flights all paid for, I've got the resources to get the stories, but I lack the ability to publish them in a format I'm happy with. I can make a blog on a site like blogger, but it doesn't look or feel right to me. The adds (which are necessary to make money) are placed badly/awkwardly and detract from the enjoyability of the site. People will come back if the content is good. But if there are so many adds you can't ****ing see the content, well, no dice.
You have nothing to lose except a small portion of your time, I'll pay for everything: Hosting, marketing/advertising, the money that goes into getting the actual stories, EVERYTHING. Nothing needs to come out your pocket. What I will do is write up content on a pretty frequent basis which I will then email to you and expect you to publish it in a 'neat' and 'trendy' manner. Basically I just want my **** to look professional. I'll include the photos and videos, you just get them on the net. That's it.
For this, depending on your ability, you'd receive a portion of all money the website makes. The percentage you earn will be between 15-30% depending mostly on your ability and examples of work. Rate of pay is negotiable. The reason you earn a % and not a set amount is because the better the site goes, the more you earn. It's a simple way to motivate the designer as their effort is directly mirrored by the rewards they reap.
The amount of money I'd be willing to invest in advertising will be quite low at the start, with around $30- $60 per month or my cut of the earnings (depending on what's greater). On top of this I will do other types of marketing.
After 3-6 months of one pay rate, we'd negotiate a new one depending on how much work you're doing and how well the site is going. We can also discuss if you'd like to continue with the project, if you feel it's not for you, what ever.
When I send you an article, I'd expect it up and published with in a week. This has the potential to be stressful as I could send you two articles a week. So you'd need to publish them both before the next week. I never want the site to be more than a week behind.
Examples of things I'll be doing are: Skydiving (10 jumps), bungee jumping (3 jumps), heliboarding (3 runs), jet boating, snowboarding in general, para gliding over Kathmandu valley, hiking to a enormous marijuana field in the Terrai region of Nepal, living in a Buddhist monastery, teaching orphans English, climbing a 6,500 meter mountain, white water rafting, snorkeling/diving in Thailand, full moon parties, how to score drugs in weird cultures, partying, etc
These are all things that would make for interesting travel articles. On top of that, there will be a lot of cultural stuff.
I have skype/msn/facebook, so that's how we'd communicate.
I'm leaving in 27 days, the trip will take around 2 years, there's no obligation (obviously) for you to get on board this long, but the longer the better as with most websites, initial earnings are quite low and they grow overtime, often reaching very respectable amounts.
This is serious, I'd write up contracts and we'd both sign them. You need to be trustworthy and easy to work with. The technical demands I have will be quite low, but the ability to make things look very neat and professional are important. Time is the only thing you're investing, and the only thing that can happen is that you can make not as MUCH money as you thought, but there is no way you can LOSE money.