Amateurs No More
Created | Updated Sep 25, 2011
You know what Noohootoo means, don't you? It means we are…
Amateurs No More
Back when I was in school, a teacher advised me, 'When choosing a career, try to choose something you would want to do even if you weren't being paid for it.' I'll bet you had one of those teachers, too. I haven't always been able to follow that advice – I've been everything from a lounge lizard to an online wizard – but I've tried to take an intelligent interest, even when all I was doing was cataloguing Judaica for a database. There's something interesting in there, every time. Just ask the German canteen cook I worked for one week. You might be peeling spuds, but you can still pick up a good yarn about the olden days.
Now all of us h2g2ers are going to get a chance to put this teacherly advice into practice: h2g2 is going professional, even if we can't quit our day jobs yet. We're cutting loose, folks. We're into the big time, dot-com-land. Somehow, we've got to pay the bills. Robbie's got the answer. (He tends to do that.) And the answer is…
No, not 42. It's 2012.
Huh?
2012 is next year, people. To get more people to read our content (and see ads, etc), we gotta have lots of eye-catching content. Something relevant. Something people want to read. Something the punters will really go for. Something like…
No, not stuff about the ancient Mayan calendar. Will you pay attention? We want to interest them, not scare them to death. Besides, if the world ends, we won't have to pay the electric bill. We'll all be working for Zarniwoop, now, won't we? So listen. What we need to do is write lots and lots of content about something people want to know about. So turn your thoughts, pixels, and general creativity in the direction of…
The 2012 Summer Olympics
Whew. There. I thought I'd never get it out. Now, Don't Panic. This isn't as hard as we thought. Oh, sure, at first my thoughts went something like this:
I am hopeless at sports. I could not possibly remember all those factoids. I probably won't even watch the Olympics unless they bring back synchronised swimming. It's a big yawn. Besides, it's in London. I haven't set foot in the place since 1978. I'm sure they've moved Trafalgar Square since then. What could I possibly contribute?
I thought all this. Then I sent in a guide entry about John B Kelly. John B Kelly was a Philadelphia personality who also happened to be an Olympic rowing champion. His story's pretty interesting.
You can do this, guys. Just think about what you can contribute:
- An entry on any Olympic sport you're interested in.
- An entry on any Olympic team/personality, past or present, you can think of. (Somebody PLEASE do the Jamaican bobsled team. I loved that movie.)
- An entry on past Olympic games.
- A personal account of your Olympic experiences/near-Olympic experiences/totally un-Olympic experiences.
- Fiction based on the Olympics. (I've got dibs on the Goth Olympics.)
- Entries about: London, pubs in London, streets in London, London history, eating spam in London, London sightseeing, London personalities, London oddities, London transportation, London accents, London customs, cinemas in London, 10 things to do when you're tired of the Olympics in London…etc.
- Art. Journal entries. Post submissions. All about London, the Olympics, the history of the Olympics, why you aren't going to the Olympics, etc, etc, etc.
If I left anything out, plunk it down on the bottom of this page.
The main thing is, if you're a pro, you have to think ahead. If you write greeting-card verses (no, we don't do that in the AWW, and whoever said that should be ashamed), you have to write your Christmas verses at Easter, and vice versa. It's called 'turn-around time'. If we want to be ready for 2012, we need content now.
Lots and lots of content. No fair expecting the usual suspects to write it all. h2g2 needs YOU.
So what are you waiting for? Time's a-wastin'. Start googling!
See you in PR!
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