rufusjones

You can flag my comments all you want, but it doesn't change the facts. There isn't ANY link to evidence that this thing works.

The Valley turned a con artist named Elizabeth Holmes-Madoff into a paper billionaire by not checking to see whether her woo actually worked. Before we turn this kid into Wile E. Coyote, SuperGenius, maybe someone would like to present a shred of due diligence?

In high school, I had a poster that said "EAT SHIT-- Five Billion Flies Can't Be Wrong!!!"

Your approach reminds me of that. You upvote things you don't read, because you figure they're probably pretty good?

How about we mitigate this by forcing you to attend Donald Trump rallies until your brain melts?

There's a scene in COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER where the producer halts the recording session after Loretta Lynn starts singing and says "We need to get some more pickers."

"What do you mean more?" her husband says. "I can't afford more."

"I mean more better," the producer replies.

The problem isn't so much WHAT Mayer did, but how badly she did it. She wanted to boost Yahoo's video division, for example, so she (a) paid Katie Couric (someone my Mom really liked) more money than God, (b) licensed the streaming rights to SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (which needs to be put out of its misery) and (c) decided to fund a season of COMMUNITY (which nobody ever watched). Now THERE'S a compelling product offering. WhoTF would watch that?

She redesigned the site to make it mobile-friendly-- which made it almost unreadable for desktop users. Apparently no one told her that browsers send information about what type of device is reading the site. I liked the tech news, but it became so painful that I just gave up.

(She also killed a lot of the personalization features, which is what had attracted people.)

She bought a lot of tiny companies, most of which made products that were never integrated-- and whose employees left as soon as their employment agreements expired.

She bought Tumblr... then had absolutely no idea what to do with it, and ended up not doing anything. Shut down their sales force to integrate it with the Yahoo sales force (which didn't want to sell Tumblr)-- and then realized they'd have to restart the Tumblr sales force to monetize at all.

She inherited an email system that was a hot mess and made it a different type of hot mess-- with enough glitches that people couldn't rely on it for their email.

A lot of the ideas were reasonable, but the execution was so horrific that there was never any value-add.

Where is the video teaching basic spelling? (Peronsal)

Elance and Odesk merged to become Upwork.

What you heard about those sites is incorrect-- or, more precisely, incomplete. It's like my saying "A lot of the people on GitHub couldn't build a program to display 'Hello World!'"

Many of the writers on Upwork who bid on jobs are worthless-- people who have trouble writing a coherent sentence. Others are fronts for offshore content mills.

You will also find (1) copywriters who got thrown out of work when their ad/PR agency folded, (2) reporters who have been laid off as their papers shrunk, (3) staff writers for magazines who quit to have kids (or, if they're men) raise a child, (4) retirees who need cash, (5) people with disabilities who need to work from home or (6) someone working 40 hours, but looking to moonlight to make extra cash.

Unlike (say) database administration, where you can't judge competence from a resume, you can evaluate a writer's ability in 30 seconds-- ask for a writing submission and read what they write.

The $300-500 places price for one job-- that assumes they do it, you go away and they never see you again. Part of the cost is the research time they need to become knowledgeable. For people who can provide a steady income stream, they charge a lot less.

I think it's simpler to find one of the many people who need work-- and would kill for a chance to make $100-$300 a piece-- but it's up to you.

1. What part of the phrase "might or might not" wasn't clear to you?

2. Where in "introverts who lock themselves away and aren't great at self-promotion" do you see any assertion about talent?

What you're saying is a word salad, primed by not reading what I wrote carefully.

You have to be kidding. And I mean full John McEnroe "You cannot be serious."

First of all $150 for a 750-word article would be a good payment. Assuming you aren't asking for more words than that ("blog post" suggests no), you can have your pick of people.

Second, evaluating writers is the simplest damned task in the world. Read their frigging code.

Third, average reading speed is 200 words a minute, so you could read an entire submission in less than five minutes. Practically speaking, you would probably need less.

Elance and Odesk merged and are now called Upwork. If you posted the job (number of articles, average length) and asked them to send you sample pieces and an online portfolio, you would be overwhelmed.

Even if you insisted that they have a verified business address within 50 miles of Manhattan, you'd still have a fire hose to drink from.

I wouldn't entirely recommend Craigslist, but you can find a lot of people there-- some of whom are very good and still struggling to make ends meet-- if you don't mind swatting away the 8-balls who will apply (CL gives you a custom email for replies, so you won't deal with them forever.)

Writers tend not to hang out there, but Behance or Dribble do have some.

Let me close by restating my opening. Some questions that get posted here are difficult to answer; others have expectations are ridiculous. But the thing every freelance writer wants most is a steady stream of assignments that lets them make a pretty good income per sale.

Four posts a week at $150 would be $600, which is $15 an hour-- enough to pay bills.

Your request is comparable to posting "I'm a supermodel who really enjoys having sex with men with small penises and no social skills. Can anyone on HN help me?" Your big problem would be people thinking you must be a scam, because your request sounds too good to be true.

UPDATE: There are, by and large, two broad types of writers: extroverts who promote themselves capably, but might or might not have equally good skills, and introverts who lock themselves away and aren't great at self-promotion.

The first group is pretty easy to find, but often not worth the price. The second group takes some hunting but can give you better results for less.

Use it to serve PHP pages. That oughta do 'er.

And you are peanut butter.

Making false statements with conviction doesn't mean they become correct.

If Boober were a lead generation company, it would charge a flat fee for leads and the people who accepted the leads would be free to conduct their business as they wish.

Boober is a transportation company that hires drivers-- but would like to pretend otherwise to duck costs and legal responsibilities.

No, you aren't "good enough to do consulting."

Skills are important, but attitude matters. If you charge $200 an hour, you have to BELIEVE that you can add $400,000 in value if they keep you around for a year.

Note that "Attitude" <> "Arrogance". You don't go in thinking "I rule and you suck; I know better than all of you." People skills are EXTREMELY important. Clients have to give you the information and the guidance you need to do a job well-- if they dislike you, they'll sabotage you in 100 small ways.

But if you don't believe, deep down, "I can walk in the door of anyone who hires me and contribute to the company on some level", then don't consult.

Neither-- it's pronounced "Gif".

So customers know why they should buy you, as opposed to the 14 other companies offering the same thing.

Unless you are building life-size replicas of people out of tuna salad and Swedish Fish, other companies will do what you do. What makes your product or service better than anyone else?

ANYTHING can be the difference-- price, components, features, performance, service-- as long as you can prove to an investor that IT is the reason people are giving your money, as opposed to competitors.

I have a friend who opened a comic book store that he staffed with women who are lingerie models who can also (they have been trained) speak knowledgeably about comics. That's his differentiator (Hooters of comics).

If your sales are growing, there must be something you are doing right (or better)-- that people are picking coming to you for. Figure out what it is and tell your investors that.

You send letters to your brother Theo, cut off your ear and hope to be recognized as a genius someday.

You say "you're not the managerial type so leadership positions... requiring people management are a far stretch for my natural abilities" and you say you are "ready for something great for the long haul, primarily doing Product management."

Product management requires an enormous amount of work with people, so this makes me question your assessment. You don't explain what it is you actually do, but you're sure you're 500% better than any salary anyone can pay you.

If you're really that gifted, a consulting company should want you... but that requires being able to work with people too.

Guess you're destined to go down as a misunderstood genius. Unless of course you're not as brilliant as you believe.